Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Soulmate, Myself:
The Wedding Song
Prologue
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In “Prometheus” I stated, just as “love changes everything,” so, too, does the scientific evidence for the afterlife – its reality changes everything.
On my Word Gems website you’ll find some of the best examples of afterlife evidence. You’ll want to familiarize yourself with this information, ideally, even before proceeding here as it will serve as veridical basis for what you’ll be learning about The Wedding Song, channeled instruction sent to us from the Spirit World.
How This Book Is Formatted
This book is presented as a commentary on the four verses, 189 words, of The Wedding Song. You’ll find explanatory discourse featuring a particular line, phrase, or word of the song.
Also, sprinkled within the commentary you'll find “dialogue boxes” of Kairissi and Elenchus, introduced in the "Prometheus” book. Their discussions will begin and end with a yin-yang symbol, like this:
Channeled Testimony on Twin Soul Love and Marriage
I’ve already encouraged you to seek out the scientific evidence for the afterlife. It will help you even in the next paragraphs, forming an undergirding of authenticity to what you are about to read.
As prologue to our study of The Wedding Song, I’d like to offer you various testimonies on the subject of Twin Soul romance. I've search for, and gathered, these reports during the last 30 years. I love this collection.
Some of the sources herein are famous and well investigated; others are relatively unknown; but all speak in unison of the sacred destiny of Twin Soul lovers -- the future, of each one of us.
Spirit-Guide Silver Birch, 3000 years on the other side, communicating from the afterlife:
“There is a great power in the universe... it is so real that it transcends all other forces ... that love is deathless because it is part of the Great Spirit, the creative spirit of all life, part of the power which has fashioned life; it is indeed the very breath and the very essence of life. And wherever love exists, sooner or later those who are united by its willing bonds will find one another again [implying, the two had been temporarily lost to each other] despite all the handicaps and obstacles and impediments that may be in the way... there is the love, the undeniable love, between man and woman who are complementary to one another; that is, they are two in form, but one in purpose -- they harmonise, they are, indeed, as your poet has expressed it, ‘two hearts that beat as one.’ Now, where that love has found itself, there is never any separation. Those whom the natural law has joined by love can never be sundered, in your world or in mine. Where there is that love - and here I am afraid I am going to be controversial - it is always reciprocated... the real love, that only comes once to each man or woman, whether on Earth or in the world of spirit, is always reciprocal... the two halves instinctively, because they are two halves, must recognise one another. That does not happen in your world always because your vision, regarding things of the spirit, is often blind... Physical things [circumstances in this world of suffering] could stop it [temporarily stop the destined two from coming together] ... but the real love is so magnetic, so overwhelming in its attraction, that it must find itself and claim itself, when once you have got rid of the imperfections of the Earth which were the deterrents to recognition.”
“What is meant by twin souls?” Without a pause, Silver Birch replied: “Twin souls are … affinities, which are the two halves of the perfect whole, come together. There are affinities for every soul in the universe... Where there are souls, complementary to one another, who have earned the right to meet the other half of its being … there, you truly achieve heaven on earth. Twin(s) … are at the same stage of growth and evolution and thus will go forward together…”
A circle member commented, “I presume twin souls could meet
for a few years and [then] lose the other.” “Only physically,” said
the Guide, “but, at least for the time they are together, they are
experiencing all the radiance that comes when unity is achieved on all planes of being …”
“If there are twin souls who have the same stage of evolution, what is the purpose of some being apart [now, and suffering this loss] …” “You mean they have come together and parted physically. That can only be temporary. If they are affinities [i.e., Twins], the whole urging of their souls will bring them together with the strongest pull that is possible… the magnetic attraction will draw them together because, although two, spiritually they are one.”
“It could be part of a twin soul’s development for them to be apart [now],” [stated another]. [The Guide replied] "the essential factor is that if they are two halves of one soul, all other physical [hindrances in this life] cannot affect the fundamental process that brings them together. Don’t confuse physical happenings with spiritual realities. What is of the spirit must endure.”
Professor Frederic W. H. Myers, from the afterlife:
“[True] marriage is the uniting of twin souls. This is the only spiritual marriage and the only marriage that survives bodily death.
“This is a broad statement, but it will be substantiated by truth...
Love is spiritual, and in its truest embodiment brings into life,
heaven, which it creates. This is the marriage which survives bodily death.
“They shall be one flesh, one spirit, one mind. The multiple-mind transcends the material existence. The two souls blend into one soul.
“There shall be no marriage [ceremony] in Heaven - because Nature [itself] is the [officiating marriage] minister of the human family, uniting souls destined to be one [as] each soul has its twin soul. [A natural, magnetic force of soul] cohesion attracts and unites them, as the dawn blends into the day.”
Frederic W. H. Myers, in the afterlife, transmitted to Juliet S. Goodenow, Vanishing Night: “You [shall] find whatever you search after. In all the category of experience, you gain what you are searching after — in literature, in art, knowledge, science, invention, love-attainment, in culture, wisdom, riches or treasure… All is accorded you. The spiritual embodiment of your life work is your treasure in Heaven, those laid up by yourself [that is, what you have made of yourself, reflecting your particular talents], your treasures, your mansion, your reward for all you have done on the Earth Plane is laid up by yourself, for yourself, when at last you attain your reward for deeds done in the body. No arbitrary avenging angel awaits you. Creation afforded you in the beginning the implements of industrious labor to satisfy the craving of hunger of the body, and for the satisfaction of the soul. Within your complex organism the Creator placed a guide [that is, your particular desire and sentiment, which reveal destiny] — your passport through the world and through eternity.”
Rose Carson, Two Years In Heaven, channeled from the afterlife:
“One subject that interested me greatly was the law of union between the sexes and family life. I always believed there was no marrying or giving in marriage on the other side of life. [I was wrong; indeed, in heaven] I found there was a higher expression of the law of union.
“Every soul in that [next] life [eventually] found his soul-companion and together they would go on throughout all eternity, progressing higher through ages of time. The soul-companionship was beautiful and inspiring and intense in its spirituality...
“I have attended many grand soul-unions [wedding festivities, not ceremonies, as such, because Twins are already united at the soul level] where [loving and wise Spirit Guides] presided [over the official coming-together].”
Spirit-Guide Margaret, from the afterlife:
“Have no fear,” added Margaret reassuringly; “there are no fetters [of a bad marriage] here to bind the soul. The bonds to which we submit are only those of mutual affection and mutual adaptation. An earthly law bound you together, but you are free here, for death is the great divorcer.”
“Are there, then, no husbands and wives, no marriages in this
world?” I asked earnestly.
“In heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels,” was the reply, given with a bright smile. “But I see you entirely misapprehend my answer. Let me explain. Here among us there are no marriage bonds which bind the soul to the corpse of a dead affection, but there is love fuller and more perfect than the Earth knows anything about.
“You [as a new-comer to Summerland] are still tinged with the Earthly ideas, and the whole teaching of Earth is to degrade sexual affection, and sink it to the lowest depths. Men and women who hesitate to take in vain the name of a purely imaginary deity [i.e., superstitious views of God promoted by religion], will not scruple every day of their lives to profane by light word or unhallowed deed the most sacred part of their natures [i.e., the capacity to love romantically in the truest sense].
"Truly, perverted [romantic] love is a terrible demon. It is the embodiment and personification of selfishness. It tears, it defiles, it destroys, and it exults in its destruction. It sends more victims to the lower [dark] spheres than any other single cause.
“You must look there in these spheres of lost spirits, if you would know to what depths a man and a woman will sink who blaspheme against the holy spirit of love which should find a pure temple in every heart.
“But search out the possibilities of your own soul, and then tell me if love - real [romantic] love - is the impure impulse, the degrading impulse, the subject for jest, which it is so almost universally regarded. Is not pure [romantic] love the very essence of unselfishness? Does it not ennoble the soul and purify the heart? Does it not arouse higher impulses and bring the dawn of a spiritual vision [i.e., a higher level of consciousness] to which one can never attain without it? Is there any earthly happiness which brings mortals nearer to heaven than this sentiment of the soul, which by even good people is underrated and despised, and which by the ignorant and evil is turned into a curse?
“I tell you this, a man and a woman who truly love one another on earth are already in heaven, and when you open the door of the Spiritworld to admit them, would you shut it in the face of their [romantic] love? No; let it enter in all its fullness, and glorify their lives here as there.”
“But” -
“Yes; [I know what you are thinking.] I mean all [facets of their romance, including physical, sexual love]. Do not the flowers bloom, and bloom immortally here? Every opening blossom is a manifestation of love, a sexual union. Would you deny immortality to the flower of life [romantic love], to that which even as we find it, good, bad and indifferent, is, after all, all that makes life tolerable? It is at the source of all action. It is, when unperverted, the deepest and purest impulse of every heart.
Editor's note: "all that makes life tolerable" - see the discussion on the Word Gems homepage concerning "what we stay alive for."
A heaven in a gaze,
A heaven of heavens, the privilege
Of one another’s eyes. Emily Dickinson
“It is the constant theme of your novelists, the perpetual inspiration of your poets. It has incited to the grandest and most heroic deeds, and the noblest self-sacrifice. There is no other emotion [as romantic love] which has such power over the human heart, and which has so controlled the destiny of nations and of mankind in general. Yes, I know you have been used to a cant [i.e., the same old song] about [sterile] spiritual love [as the basis for marriage or the highest motivator], which you have not yet forgotten, even with your present experience in the Spirit-world. You have entertained a dim shadowy idea [from past Earth teachings] that spirits stand stationary like spiritual suns, sending out [cold] beams of love, thus enveloping one another; if that is not your precise idea, it is something quite as unspiritual and illusive. But you did not leave your heart behind you with your earthly body. You have the capacity for loving intensified; and, not only that, you have arms with which to embrace.
“Would you have been satisfied if, when [upon arriving in Summerland] you first beheld your long lost children, you had stood at a distance and regarded them with your imaginary spiritual affection? No; you instinctively stretched out your arms to them, and took them to your heart, and your kisses were on their lips, their brows, their cheeks. Is the conjugal affection less than the maternal? No; my children, we shall all someday, if we may not now, clasp to our hearts someone whom we love, and who will love us with equal ardor in return; but not until we have entirely divested ourselves of the degrading earthly ideas concerning the purest, most sacred, most spiritual sentiment of the human heart [that is, perfected romantic love]!”
“But I thought you said there were no marriages here,” we both
remarked.
“Nor are there [i.e., no oppressive Earthly marriages]. There are no mismated couples; no degrading selfishness [i.e., the male] on one side, no misery and unrecognized self-sacrifice [i.e., the female] on the other. They are as the angels [that is, living in perfect harmony and complete joy, neither party using the other as a means to some other end].
you have not come to the arctic regions
“Earthly bonds are perpetuated only as the heart has sanctioned them. But [perfected romantic] love is the atmosphere of this life. You have not come to the arctic regions, but to the region where love is a pervading influence, warming all hearts. No spirit can find its most perfect development who misses from his life the experience which [romantic] love can give him. If he has lived a loveless life on Earth, the possibility is still reserved for him here. The certainty will come to him in the future. His being cannot be perfected without it.”
Editor's note: What a remarkable series of comments by Spirit-Guide Margaret! She goes so far as to say that the true romance "is the atmosphere of this life" in Summerland and that we cannot be perfected without it. And notice how she decidedly relegates to second place the "spiritual love," like a cold sun sending out cold beams, so glamorized by the empty godtalk of Materialistic Religion! But there are "neighborhoods" in Summerland which know nothing of, or refuse to acknowledge, this supreme elation. See a full discussion of dysfunctional ones over there, living in their egoic illusions, their empty-shell "hot water-bottle worlds," in the "500 tape-recorded afterlife testimonies" article.
Carlyle Petersilea, “Letters From The Spirit World,” offers channeled information from a lady refusing to give her name, identifying herself as 'Madam':
“Now you ask me: Is there, then, love between the sexes? and I answer most emphatically, yes! What ennobles a man or woman more than deep and constant love - eternal love… Love is the creator of all things - sexual love, not platonic. How else could justice ever come to those who die young or in infancy? Are they never to know the joys of love? Out! - upon such nonsense! Are the unmarried and lonely never to know love and companionship of husband and wife? Are those who are most miserably mated to vicious, debauched … husbands, … are they never to know the joys of true love and companionship of a good, true husband or wife? … Why, you ought to see some of the glorious weddings we have here. The act of a priest saying a few words over them does not marry them here...”
The following channeled information is from Flashes of Light from the Spirit-land, through the mediumship of Mrs. J. H. Conant, by Allen Putnam, Frances Ann Conant, 1872.
“Q. Do male and female spirits mate in marriage, as on Earth, or analogous to it?
“A. There is [an evolved form of marriage in heaven] which is, in itself, so divine and so perfect, that two souls are merged into one, and the harmony is complete... The positive and negative form the whole. The one man and the one woman form the whole, the rounded being. One is imperfect without the other.
“The time is coming, but ... in the distance, when you will understand that marriage which is not of the soul is no marriage at all; that which is brought about by external conditions [that is, by purely bio-impulse, instinctual, or domestic concerns] is altogether unlawful. That which God has joined together [at the soul level] none can put asunder [as it is not possible to separate Twins], but that which is joined together by the conditions of [ordinary Earthly] human life, almost anyone can put asunder; and it is lawful that they should [be separated], because the parties are unlawfully bound together."
Andrew Jackson Davis, nineteenth century mystic-seer of the other side:
“[The true, spiritual] marriage is the blending, the entrance, of two souls, each into the other, thus making of two, one perfect being. Every individual is born married; that is, every male and female, affinity with affinity, has a true and eternal [darling] companion. Each, [effectively] will become a messiah and salvation to the other; each is designed to work for the spiritual development of the other [and this mutual helping toward spiritual growth and evolvement is the purpose of true marriage and true romance].”
Spirit-Guide Abu (“Teacher”), 3500 years on the other side, communicating via direct-voice medium, Rick Ricards, circa. 1955 (see the Abu Trust recordings; James Webster, trustee); the following is an extract and condensation of a lengthy discourse:
"[In the true marriage] there is a blending in spirit of the masculine and feminine aspects of humanity. In spirit, it is not possible to put on a false face, [to put one’s “best foot forward” in dating and “role play,” as is done on Earth], and so when there shall be the spark of true love between two persons, it cannot be mistaken for anything other than what it is, and neither can anything else be mistaken for it. It is more real, more satisfying, than the unions which occur upon Earth.
"If one should be so unfortunate as to pass through an Earthly life without experiencing this specialized love, [which, sadly, is the norm], then he or she may find it in spirit, but it is not always immediately to be found [even in Summerland], and as I have said in the case of Alfred [an individual in Summerland], and of others, I am firmly of the opinion, that there may be quite a lengthy trial-period, as it were, during which [more advanced Troubadour Spirit Guides who offer advice, to those willing to receive it, concerning the coming together of Twin Souls], by influence, might guide us and will decide, and come to the conclusion that the one in question [a potential mate] has [finally] reached a [sufficiently mature] stage, such that [now] there will be no error, there will be no mistaking true love for external glamour or mere physical attraction, and then the union [in an official sense] will be brought about [by the Spirit-Guides, as there are no mistakes in marriage, the true marriage, in Summerland].
"I would say that unless a marriage is 'made in heaven,' it is no marriage at all. For unless the spiritual component be there, it is merely a form of marriage, a marriage of convenience, [a marriage of merely bio-instinctual response,] and that is no true marriage. It may be of use and of temporary value upon the Earth for your social usage, but it is no true marriage of the spirit [and it will not survive transition to the spirit world]. True marriage, in my view, is necessarily and always accompanied by the spiritual union.
"In the case of Alfred and his dear one, there is a blending of the mind, and, as two who are spiritually one, they will travel together through the spheres of upward progression, with this blending becoming more and more perfect, until the two will merge as one – not one spirit [to the excluding of individuality], but a joint spirit. For they will think together, [their thoughts will become more and more similar], they will be as one, since they have chosen to associate so closely, and this will be a wish-fulfillment for them, and so this closeness of association will result in their becoming more and more nearly one [a greater and greater joyful intimacy].
"Two persons, always two persons, two individuals, [with never a loss of individuality,] but one insofar as the aspiration of the spirit is concerned; one, insofar as their [goals of] education and proclivities are concerned, because of this association of love between them.
Abu continues: "In spirit they are close parties, each to the other’s mind [not as on the Earth where two people often mentally hide from each other and put on a false face in marriage], but it is as if the two had one mind, [one joyful mind,] shared mutually between them, and therefore the heavenly marriage can be a greater, a closer, finer union than the Earthly marriage."
Editor’s note: Abu is very good on a number of issues, but I believe he’s wrong in the area of superintending Guides making a final decision as to whether two come together. I believe there is no “marriage police” in Summerland, not among the sane. I think we should be “going within” to decide these things, not submitting to a new pope or guru for an infallible word. In his later lectures, Abu reveals that he doesn’t see marriage as necessarily permanent but, at some far distant point, will dissolve in favor of merging with a great-all, or some such. This is wrong and is not what the soul whispers to us concerning the true love, and it’s not what other mystics, like Jackson Davis and many others, see. See the writing “500 tape-recorded messages from the other side” for a discussion concerning these alternate views over there.
Emanuel Swedenborg, one of the most famous men of the 18th century: statesman, physicist, musician, inventor, engineer (with an estimated IQ of 200 or more), and mystic-seer of Summerland, whose visions and writings would influence intelligentsia for the next hundred years:
“[Romantic-spiritual] love is peculiar to man because only he [of
the animal kingdom] can become spiritual, of elevating his intellect above his natural loves … no other animal can do this … in the heavens [we find people] associated according to the affinities and relationships of love …
“There is provided in heaven a marriage with one whose soul inclines to mutual union with the soul of another, so that they no longer wish to be two lives, but One … the delights of [romantic spiritual] love are superior to all other delights in heaven and in the world …
“Each married partner becomes continually a more interior spiritual person; for that love opens the interiors of their minds [i.e., to new levels of consciousness]; and as these are opened, a man becomes more a man, a woman becomes more a woman [as they find their true selves in mutual, sacred intimacy.]"
Editor's note: A constant theme of Swedenborg is that both the spiritual eternal marriage and, indeed, all of God’s creation represent a manifestation, a union, of Love and Wisdom: heart and mind, feelings and intellect, goodness and truth, right-brain and left-brain, kind intention and strategic plan. During his out-of-body travels to Summerland, Swedenborg reports that he was taught by Spirit Guides that God created the universe as an outgrowth of altruism, divine Love, tempered by Wisdom, skilful design. The spiritual eternal marriage is meant to mirror God’s workings in the cosmos, with the sacred couple, female and male, expressing Love and Wisdom, their heartfelt service toward the disadvantaged led by a keen sense of what works. This is the essence of "made in the image", with Love and Wisdom making the complete person, the celestial One Person, which is becoming more and more like Mother-Father God. Much could be said on this important topic, and Swedenborg devoted whole volumes to the discussion. The Swedenborg Foundation, referenced on the “Other Sites” page, is a good source of information concerning these issues.
Lillian Walbrook, psychic, channeled testimony from the other side:
Q. If a man or woman has not found true sympathy in Earth-love, is it found in the next sphere?
A. Decidedly, and there are many who have gone unloved on Earth who find, when here, mates whose [essential soul] vibrations are in perfect accord with theirs. These entities become mated in a spiritual sense and … dwell together in harmony.
Q. If married people have been unsuited here, do they meet together in the next plane?
A. They may meet [though many do not], but certainly are not fated to be constantly with one another, and, more likely than not, each will find [another] congenial spirit with whom to dwell…
Charlotte Dresser, psychic, channeled testimony from the other side:
“You say you have no disappointments?”
“We have no disappointments that grieve. If either of you were to turn away from us, we would be deeply grieved, our love would have a shock. Yet we would know that it would pass and that you would return to us. Love here is not disappointed. Those who are meant for each other always come into loving companionship.” …
[A testimony from a person in Summerland:] “We are two who loved, sorrowed, and were separated in our Earth life, one of us preceding by a long time the other into the spirit world… I, who came first, sadly wondering, and filled with false theories and spurious wisdom, could find no immediate joy. At last she came, [however,] and all sorrow disappeared in the complete happiness and companionship of this life.”
Robert James Lees was a famous London psychic-medium of the latter 1800s. He was involved in solving the Jack The Ripper case and claimed to know the identity of the sought-for criminal. Lees wrote a trilogy, the first of which, “Through The Mists” (1898), offers excellent information concerning Summerland. I praise him because, unlike so many reporters who are part of a dysfunctional group over there (see “the 500 tape-recorded messages from the other side” writing), Lees gets it right on virtually all major points of natural law. I offer the following as credential of credibility regarding an excerpt from his book. A Spirit Guide is speaking:
“You must now learn to draw a distinction between relationships of the body and those of the spirit; the latter being the only ties we recognise here.”
a spirit-guide's vision of the distant future, a restructuring of society
“What the future holds I know not, but, develop as it may, I can see only the possibility of forming groups of twin souls in the one great family of heaven... Such kindred souls are by no means unusual, and, in their influence act, and re-act, upon each other and so are drawn together in a communion of which the Earth friendship [ordinary romance] can form but a very faint conception.
There [on Earth], relationships are rightly termed blood-relationships, but flesh and blood cannot enter this life, and therefore kinship has to be lifted into another and more spiritual bond… God, who is Spirit, gives birth to such relationships, and whatsoever God hath joined together [at the spirit/soul level] no man can put asunder.”
From “The Vital Message” (1919) by the great afterlife researcher, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of "Sherlock" fame:
“Now let me epitomise what these assertions [of the next world] are. They say that they are exceedingly happy, and that they do not wish to return. They are among the friends whom they had loved and lost, who meet them when they die and continue their careers together. They are very busy on all forms of congenial work. The world in which they find themselves is very much like that which they have quitted, but everything keyed to a higher octave... [and] Every man or woman finds a soul mate, sooner or later."
Caroline Larsen, testimony from the other side: She had been there only for a short time and meets two advanced, radiant spirit-entities, Twin Souls, probably many thousands of years in the next world, now having achieved the appearance of gods:
“The mere sight of these majestic spirits, even from afar, was enough to convince the beholder that they were the rulers and controllers of the whole universe, of matter and of spirit.
staring and stupified
"The overpowering dominance of their personalities subdued my spirit so that, staring and stupefied, I trembled and shrank at their presence.
"Two in particular, a man and a woman spirit, burned with the light of two flaming suns dimming all others near them with the intense lustre of their white radiance…
dazzled and cowering, with involuntary tribute
"Dazzled, I cowered, raising my hand to my forehead in an involuntary tribute of humility and awe. It is impossible to say how far I was from them since space does not limit the astral body. But, near or far, I could clearly distinguish every expression of their countenances. They were dressed in magnificent robes of pure white.
"The dress of the female spirit was a long flowing robe, rippling from her form in loose and graceful lines, as she floated in a perpendicular position, inclined with knees slightly bent.
"The dress of the male spirit was a close-fitting toga that reached to his feet. He moved in a similar posture, but his head was thrown further back. His eyes, following the direction of his outstretched hand, were focused upon some great distant star. As he expounded to his companion some great mysterious truth, he seemed the embodiment of authority and wisdom. But on his features played the soft light of spiritual love which tempered his austerity with its ethereal glow.
all-powerful, fitted to command instant obedience
"To me he seemed all-powerful, fitted to command instant obedience from any forces, material or spirit.
"His companion, though possessed of much of his spiritual power and authority, displayed these same qualities but they were subdued by a feminine grace and loveliness which rendered her face sublime in its serene nobility.
appeared to be as gods
"They appeared to be gods rather than perfect spirits, yet I was informed that they had once dwelt in human form, somewhere. Whether their union began then or later I did not know, but now they were bound for eternity by the ties of spiritual attraction and love. By spiritual development ["traveling on," as "the Wedding Song" uses the phrase] they had risen to the highest power, and, as my guide explained, they were now a part of that Supreme Power that rules and guides both the material and spirit universe.
frozen in awe, gazing after their disappearing glory
"The host of spirits gazed intently after them with respectful admiration and awe. It was a glorious moment for me when I beheld these marvelous beings, and knew the happiness of their close presence. For a time I stood motionless [frozen in awe] and gazed after the disappearing glory, which lessened as these two beings passed from sight, till my eyes beheld in the distance only the white light that enfolded them.”
Editor's note: Is this not the most amazing report of the future of Twins? In Caroline's description, right here, we see the awesome destiny of Twin lovers, entering the ranks of those who control and rule the universe!! Is there anything more stupendous than what we see here? See the article on the "super-powers" of the Guides.
The following is channeled, via automatic writing, from the other side, published in “Claude’s Second Book,” by L. Kelway-Bamber:
“… when the ‘drop’ of God-force that makes the spirit of man separates from God and comes to the [Earth] world, it divides into halves and goes to two separate mothers, and thus a boy and girl are always born from each ‘drop.’ In fact, on the Earth plane things are generally constituted with a ‘counterpart,’ an opposite; they are male and female, positive and negative. The union of these creates the proper balance and produces something. The ‘bit of God’ in man is ‘im-’, or rather, ‘un’-personal; it is sent to become personal, and to so develop... It is a ‘bit of [God-]life’ [which comes to the Earth] but has no individuality — that it has to grow and develop here.”
Carlyle Petersilea, too, in his “Letters From The Spirit World,” offers channeled information from the other side confirming the above assertion of the “germ” of Twin souls dividing and being born to separate mothers and fathers.
Editor’s note: The process by which Twin Souls are created is shrouded in mystery. It seems to be orchestrated on a much higher level of "management" than enjoyed or known of by message-givers in Summerland. Different reports explain it variously, but often with the common theme of a single “God-cell” dividing into the female and male Twins. We are led to wonder if the Earth-world cell division relating to physical organisms might serve as metaphor of the grand celestial coming-into-being of Twins.
‘my sister, my spouse’
Song Of Solomon, 4:10: “How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse; how much better is thy love than wine, and the smell of thine ointments than all spices.” (KJV)
As I produced the above comments, I was suddenly taken by the memory of a scripture not reviewed for many years. The writer of the Song refers to his beloved as “my sister, my spouse.” He may have had his own reasons for such nomenclature but, strangely, if Twin Souls derive from a single “cell” of God, then, on a cosmic level, they constitute, to each other, a kind of brother and sister. I believe that when we finally gain the full truth of these matters, we shall be more than a little astounded concerning how things truly work in the universe.
André Luiz, communicating from the other side:
“The [marital] home is the sacred summit, the converging point
where man and woman meet to bring about an essential understanding. It is the temple where creatures should reach for a spiritual communion, rather than bodily union…
“Most Earthly couples pass these sacred hours together in an environment of indifference and cruel selfishness… In their social contacts, both wear masks, but in the privacy of their home they strip them off, sadly exposing their lack of mutual understanding.
“If we only knew all this while still on Earth!”
“A mere question of experience, my friend,” she replied, “suffering and tribulations will slowly teach mankind these unavoidable lessons. At present, few realize that the home is a divine institution, within which one must live with all one’s heart and soul. It’s often said that all creatures are beautiful when truly in love. Indeed, this is true. During the enchanting period of betrothal, [i.e., they ‘put their best foot forward’] plain creatures display their most charming traits. Any subject seems enchanting even in the most frivolous conversation. Man and woman meet, radiating the full measure of their sublime forces.
"But when they enter wedlock [of the Earth], many rend the veil of desire [the mask comes away] and fall back under the influence of the old monsters [of the ego] that tyrannize weak hearts. Gone is all tolerance, and sometimes even brotherly cooperation. The luminous beauty of love gradually dies out, and the couple begins to drift apart, avoiding each other’s company, losing the joy of friendly conversation. Henceforth, the well educated ones [of John and Mary] respect each other, while the ill-bred ones outwardly manifest their mutual animosity. They don’t try to come to a conciliatory understanding; questions and answers are formulated in dry phrases.
"Physical intercourse may still be carried on, but the minds are already divorced and following opposite directions.”
“How true your words are!” I cried out with feeling.
“But what can we do, my friend?” my kind hostess continued, “In the present phase of the planet’s evolution, unions between twin souls are rare, and marriages of kindred or even sympathetic souls are tremendously outweighed by a remarkable percentage of ‘probation ties’. Most human couples are made up, so to speak, of handcuffed prisoners.” …
“How are marriages made here [in Summerland]?” I asked, availing myself of a pause.
“Through [soul] vibratory combination,” Tobias explained kindly, “or to make it clearer, by perfect attunement.” …
“When I married Tobias, a widower, I should have known that our union would probably be [merely] fraternal [and not last]. Yet it cost me much suffering to understand that. In fact, it is only logical to conclude that when a couple suffers from restlessness, incomprehension, and sadness, their marriage is only a physical union, not a spiritual bond… keeping in mind that true marriage, a union of souls, can never be broken."
Life In Two Spheres, or Scenes in the Summerland, by Hudson Tuttle, channeled testimony from the other side. The speaker of the following is known as "the ancient Sage," a resident of Summerland for nearly 3000 years:
'for a reason', the perfect resume
A newcomer to Summerland, one who had been miserable in marriage on Earth, recounts to “the Sage” how he had chosen a mate “for a reason”:
"She loved me, or so pretended; and, when I was near, to all appearances, was an angel in goodness and love… She made herself the ideal I sought [in the "sweet deception"]. I loved that ideal, for it was the offspring of my childish dreams of my youthful heart...
“I will not say I loved her, but I did love the attributes I supposed she possessed - her apparent beauty, goodness, and gentle affectionate spirit. How fancy flew then! What would I not have done to gain her applause?”
Editor's note: See the article on "ego-images" for more discussion. The fellow's reference to loving an "ideal," to "apparent beauty," "fancy," and "attributes" well describes the beguiling images created by the ego.
The Sage: “You are only one in millions who have suffered in a similar manner. In fact, you have given a perfect description of earthly marriage, where each deceives the other into a belief that they are what they are not; and after union, the two unhappy beings find each other not the ones they loved, but strangers, who, by some [wizardry], have slipped into the places of the lovers."
The fellow is advised by the Sage to teach others of his painful lesson.
“What shall I teach?"
The Sage: "That marriage is more than the means of gratification of animal instincts; an eternal relation of two immortals, fraught with vast and far reaching consequences, which even death cannot annul, remaining strengthened and purified from every impulsive instinct."
"But how, O Sage, am I to teach such lofty doctrines? I shall be scoffed by those who would be reproved."
The Sage: "The truth is superior to all conventionalities. Go to some [psychic-medium] mortal and write [that your teaching might be channeled to the Earth]. Your thoughts may be ridiculed to-day, but to-morrow will be treasured, and future generations become your earthly monument."
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Joudry and Pressman, afterlife-researchers; Twin Souls:
“For 30 years I lived intimately with the twin-soul principle, meditating on it, studying it inwardly, seeking other sources … it had become a part of me from my deep conviction of its truth. … I met Dr. Maurie Pressman, psychoanalyst and man of the spirit. … As we pursued the subject together, the book that had eluded me all those years finally took shape. … As you read you will have insights of your own. Trust them. They will be the voices of your intuition. In Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, the Inquisitor challenges Joan with: ‘Your voices are only in your imagination.’ She replies: ‘Of course. How else does God speak to us?’
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. He is more myself than I am! … I am Heathcliff.
“This pure twin-soul utterance was made by Cathy in Wuthering Heights, a classic love story written by a lonely spinster with no apparent experience of love. Emily Bronte’s inspiration came from her soul. This same soul-knowledge has inspired all the great love stories of literature and opera. Such works endure because their central truth touches the deeply buried truth in all of us: we are incomplete and there exists somewhere a completing other who will make us whole, as we were whole in the beginning.
“The spiritual philosophies of the East, contained in the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu Vedas, [the Genesis account, discussed below,] and other writings of the ancient masters, teach us that the soul was created containing both masculine and feminine in one, reflecting the dual nature of the Creator.
“The idea of the soul’s division into two genders has come down to us through the ages … the nineteenth-century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer described it this way:
Polarity or the sundering of a force into its equal and opposite halves is a fundamental type of all the phenomena of Nature, from the crystal and the magnet to man himself.
“The twin-soul image was graphically portrayed by Plato 25 centuries ago … In the Symposium Aristophanes speaks [of] … how Zeus struck the soul into two opposite halves, each to wander the earth in search of the other:
And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, the pair are lost in amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other’s sight even for a moment. These are the people who pass their whole lives together, yet they could not explain what they desire of one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards the other does not appear to be the desire of lover’s intercourse, but of something else which the soul of either evidently desires and cannot tell, and of which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment.
If Hephaestus, son of Zeus, were to ask the pair: ‘Do you desire to be wholly one, always day and night to be in one another’s company? For if this is what you desire, I am ready to melt you into one and let you grow together, so that being two you shall become one, and after your death in the world beyond you will still be one departed soul instead of two – I ask whether this is what you lovingly desire?’ – and there is not a man or woman, when they heard the proposal, would not acknowledge that this melting into one another, this becoming one instead of two, was the very expression of their ancient need. And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love.
“Myth exists as a means of conveying truths too mysterious and complex for ordinary language. The Plato legend depicts a spiritual reality of deep significance to all men and women, one that holds the key to their fulfillment. The twin-soul concept illumines the true nature of love and indeed perhaps the purpose of the soul on earth.
“The soul craves completion and return to its creative source. It is our belief that the way of return is first through the spiritual development of the individual, as far as is possible in the divided state, then the union of the soul with its missing half, its twin, and then a reuniting with the group souls from which it separated long before… Seemingly alone in the universe, filled with longing for the soul families from which they have been cut adrift, these entities must suffer yet another loss. There is a last, fateful division: each is struck in two, their masculine and feminine forces gathering into equal halves. Yet each retains the seed of the other, creating the polarity that will bring about the ultimate reunion.
“This final severance completes the descent, whereafter the law of attraction begins the reassembling of the whole. The soul at last has a clear direction: toward the lost half of the self. The divided soul must now evolve … male and female seek each other ceaselessly…
“When sufficiently evolved as human beings we will be ready for the twin meeting. At that stage we will come into contact with some of our group souls. The group souls, or soul mates, are encountered before and after the twin reunion. There is a general in-gathering as response to the call from above...
“The following comes from the sacred literature of Sufism [of] the eighth century:
Out of the original unity of being there is a fragmentation and dispersal of beings, the last stage being the splitting of the one soul into two. And consequently love is the search by each half for the other half on earth or in heaven, a search that can become desperate …
As twin souls are so alike to start with, it seems necessary for them to go their different ways before they can complete each other. Identity and complementarity are the two driving forces and axes of love. … For the complete being there must be a blending of the two.
“This is to say that an individual must be strong in identity before being able to complement the twin. When the twins meet, their complementarities are not entirely fulfilled but open to further advance. The two have achieved sufficient security within themselves that they are not dependent on another for a sense of self. Then they are ready to recognize the other, to stand with the other, and to surmount the inevitable conflicts that arise in the course of human relationships.
“Twin souls have been described … by ... Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov [in his book] Love And Sexuality…
Every human being has a twin-soul. When man leapt like a spark from the bosom of his Creator he was two in one, and these two parts complemented each other perfectly, each was the other’s twin. These two halves became separated … took different directions … evolved separately. [When] they come to recognize each other, it is because each carries the image of the other in the depth of his being … The image may be blurred but it is there. For this reason, everyone … has a vague hope that he will meet … a soul who will be everything he needs, and that with this soul he will find indescribable harmony and perfect fusion. Twin-souls complete each other; no other person in the world can so complete them... Two souls whom God created together are absolutely made for one another, and nothing can separate them; they have no fear of being separated. In a [merely physically-bonded] married couple, when one or the other is afraid that someone may rob him of his partner ... it is because that partner was not really the beloved, not the true beloved, the twin-soul. [In our world] a woman loves a man, he leaves her for another; a man loves a woman, she abandons him ... but twin-souls, on the contrary, recognize each other with absolute certainty and can never leave one another [and would never want to].
“When such glory awaits every one of us, we might wonder why the principle of twin-soulship is so little known. We can only deduce that we have not been [spiritually] ready for it. … The twin may be very near, awaiting the last steps of growth, which both must take to be ready for reunion. Readiness is everything. The meeting can take place only after … arrival has been achieved within ourselves…
“The paradox of twin-soulship is that two become as one, and yet, in so doing, increase their individuality. In twin-soul unity we never become bored but are held in the fascination of perpetual growth… The eyes of the soul holds the vision of the perfected being. Each twin, in gazing at its opposite, can glimpse that perfection, and through the power of love, help to manifest it…
“It could almost be said that the twin appears … when least needed, when each half-soul has reached its highest point of independence in the divided state. This is also the pinnacle of aloneness. Every man and woman must climb the mountain alone, able to stand firm against the high winds that buffet the elevated soul. It is then, out of the mist, that the twin appears, not in response to emotional need but to fulfill the deepest need of the soul. … [It is] the end of loneliness forever.
“This is not like the [ordinary, Earthly] fall into love. Falling in love generally means that one person becomes lost in the other, abdicating self and entrusting it to the heart of the beloved. The twin-soul reunion is a descent into the depths of the true self, the dwelling place of the soul…
“On the way [to reunion,] there is bound to be suffering. The [best teachers] affirm that we evolve through suffering [only] until we [finally] learn to evolve through joy.
"It may be that [twins'] evolution is being forced. Perhaps they have been resistant to growth. By cosmic law we evolve willingly or by force ... If we are unwilling, our evolution is forced upon us and brings the sorrow and tragedy that will wake us up [i.e., help us to enter a higher level of consciousness]... We awaken through love. Without love we would sleepwalk forever...
"Co-author Dr. Maurie Pressman tells of a woman being treated by him for depression. She had been married for many years and borne three children. All this time her husband [it was clear to her, had not truly wanted her, as she endured a loveless marriage.] The woman reported [emotional abuse] but showed no anger ... [but, strangely, despite the husband's detachment, she praised her putative mate as an ideal]. It became clear that the patient was [repressing] hostility toward [her husband]. By making him perfect, she had [given herself] no cause for anger and could continue in the illusion that she was happily married. In so doing, she was delaying her progress in life, and [her husband's,] as well -- and also that of her twin soul, who is affected in absentia...
"By whatever means, the soul will have its way. If intolerable restrictions are present, it will [find a way to] break through... It cannot be stopped by any force but its own. [The entire universe, and destiny, is on its side; assuredly, it will have its way, and he will find her, and find a way to reach her mind.]"
The following channeled information is from Flashes of Light from the Spirit-land, through the mediumship of Mrs. J. H. Conant, by Allen Putnam, Frances Ann Conant, 1872.
Q. Are sex and affections recognized in the spirit-land? If so, to what extent?
A. Yes, to be sure. There is there the male and female distinctly defined ; and since affection does not belong to the body, but to the soul, of course the soul carries it with it after it leaves the body.
[Reported by Michael Tymn in his blog:] On October 18, 1929, Sir Oliver Lodge, a distinguished British physicist and pioneering psychical researcher, delivered the first Frederic W.H. Myers Memorial Lecture to the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in London. Myers, one of the founders of the SPR, had died in January 1901. He and Lodge had become good friends. The following is … from that talk, as set forth in the November 1929 issue of “Psychic Research,” published by The American Society for Psychical Research. Lodge’s wife, Mary, had communicated this from the other side:
“There is one thing I wanted to explain to you. When people belong to each other through long association through love, [or even] through freshly [or recent] relationship, there is no difficulty in contact between those people, either from one plane to the other, or between them when they have both reached the same plane. The links exist.”
The Universal Spiritual Brother&Sisterhood and their principle book Spiritual Light: Universal Teachings
“Twin souls is a term used for the two halves of one soul - using soul in the sense of a human being; a person...
"For some purpose or purposes unknown to us, all souls were at one time divided into two, to go their separate ways for varying spans of time before eventually reaching the stage where they can reunite for good…
"For while we may attract or be attracted to many, we have only one affinity - our twin soul, whom few of us meet on earth. People often say they have, or feel, an affinity with someone, when it is actually just an attraction to someone - a vastly different thing. The Law of Affinity is definite: one has an affinity to one - and only one.
"It is not unusual for twin souls to accept different pathways for literally ages. They may not meet even if they both live on earth. And unless at least one of the pair is aware of its eternal tie to another, and thus naturally longs and reaches out for the other, they may not meet even if both live in the spirit world…
"The love between twin souls of profound spirituality is truly the great love, the romance magnificent, the passion sublime - dwarfing all other loves, beautiful and wonderful though some of those other loves are.
"Can there be a greater incentive to evolving as rapidly as we can, than the knowledge of an affinity and the matchless love that only twin souls of high spiritual stature can experience?"
Channeled testimony via the mediumship of William W. Aber; presented in the book “The Dawn Of Another Life” by William Denton:
A lady on the other side speaks of her sorrowful experience of having lost her Twin mate when she was a young girl:
“Each soul must in Earth or Heaven have a mate, and when that mate is [spiritually] centered and attracted no power can prevent it from finding its other half. There never was a soul that was complete in itself … but finding its other self, it reaches at last, a whole within itself. Then the two selves, or twin souls, are ready to progress together…
“He is still on Earth … and that is why I linger here, waiting always, waiting for him…
"[She explained that] in the flush of their young girlhood and boyhood life, how [at times] very happy they had been [but that] a shadow [of separation] passed between them and gradually grew and stretched into a gulf so wide and deep that neither of them in Earth life could ever cross it, and so in dreary bitterness they had parted …
Editor’s note: This “shadow of separation,” this "dreary bitterness," occurred at a rather tender age, the “flush” of youth, likely before the traditional time for dating. This means that this proto-Twin couple set themselves up for what Kairissi and Elenchus called “the ludicrous proposition.”
He went away thousands of miles … Slowly but how surely her grief had claimed her, until on hearing of his marriage, she died suddenly and awakened to sorrow in the first experience of her spirit life…
“He will come to me and then we will be happy together. He feels already that he will come to me, but he knows not how or where. He is not happy in life, but very miserable and often he cries to his Maker to let him die, and be done with all! … How little he knows of the life he will meet here...”
Andrew Jackson Davis: speaking of the ideal marriage:
“Each individual needs this all-supporting, ever-watchful, beauty-giving, nuptial unity. Joy, enthusiasm, inspiration come with true marriage. Like a sweet aroma from a garden of immortal flowers cometh the love of the nuptial partner of our present and future progression. Each unto the other is the whole world — shall I say, God manifested in the flesh? The words of true love are words of God.”
Channeled testimony via psychic-medium, presented in the book GLIMPSES OF THE NEXT STATE: the education of an agnostic, by British Vice-Admiral W. Usborne Moore.
Admiral Moore, a conscientious afterlife investigator, offered these prefatory remarks:
“There is a great deal of fraud in the practice of spiritism – fraud intentional and conscious, and unconscious fraud [on the part of psychic-mediums]. There is no doubt that the trickery imposed here and in America had deterred thousands of people from investigation of the subject. Some instances will be given in the body of this book. In the following pages I shall make an attempt to contribute my share to the general stock of information on the subject of spiritist phenomena by recording those of my experiences which I have every reason to believe are genuine manifestations of power exercised by discarnate beings who once lived on this earth plane.”
Q. “Are people living in pairs of male and female in spirit life?”
A. “… The congenial flock together. Yes, they do.”
Q. “You misunderstand me. I mean, supposing two people are joined here, can they live in close union there?"
A. “By all means, if the soul is twin. Two people may be joined by a mummer [“actor”] in a church, and be as wide apart as the antipodes.”
Q. “But many worthy people here imagine that, in a future life, the high ideal should be universal, equal affection all round?”
A. “…I know what you mean; you dislike the ideal of spiritual universal love - it would rob love of its value” by making it a mass-production event and separating love from the element of individuality.
Q. “Supposing two souls on Earth strongly united, but on widely different planes as regards spiritual development. Do they not live together when both have passed over to the next state?”
A. “… I have this to say. Man who loves singly and with an isolated devotion will gravitate toward her, just the same as he would buy a railroad ticket to the house of his affinity. Church nor Churchmen do not make marriage lawful, only in the human sight. The marriage that is based upon baser instincts and for ulterior purposes are soiling their souls; by this method the lives of human marriages are prostituted. The Divine marriage is the soul knowledge of each other ... [But, concerning your question as to different levels of development, that is only temporary, although, in worst-case scenarios, true lovers can find themselves separated for a long time before finding their way back to each other.] You go from one phase to another [because they've been out of phase with each other]. There are twin souls that have been separated centuries [before] finally [being] reunited. The separation was caused in the first instance by a crime against that love union … Infidelities are punished in this manner. There are many unfaithful soulmates, separated, seeking through space and the infinite distance for each other - groping in the dark,” so to speak, trying to get back to each other.
Editor’s note: Notice that, from a cosmic standpoint, Twins who inauthentically marry others are deemed to be "unfaithful soulmates," having engaged in "infidelity." Note, too, the phrase “crime against that love union” reminds us of Spirit Guide Margaret’s words, “sin against holy romance.” Twin Souls, in this “sin” or “crime,” violate not only each other’s right to each other but commit affront to their “One Person” status, that is, their sacred destiny, that for which Mother-Father God created them. That destiny will not let them go, as it will torment them, even for "centuries," until they've had enough suffering, decide to forgive each other, and make their way back to each other.
Channeled testimony via the mediumship of William W. Aber; presented in the book “The Dawn Of Another Life” by William Denton:
From teachers on the other side:
“There never was, nor yet ever will be, a complete feminine soul without the masculine counterpart; nor vice versa. The feminine represents tenderness, pity, shyness, truth and love; while the masculine is truly composed of boldness, undaunted courage, strength, firmness and stubbornness of purpose, and the very fact of all these very fine elements so mingling and inter-blending as to make a complete whole, introduces to you the philosophy of soul-mating.
“Therefore no soul stands alone as a whole, for somewhere in the finitude is the other half, the twin soul. The counterpart of each other, and these two-in-one must each be so constituted as to possess qualifications that exactly fit each other, and when that great immutable law can do its work without a single line of cross-vibration, then these two half souls find each other, and form a whole soul…
“If there is such a law as the law of soul-mating, why does Nature allow so many to unite upon earth [as "John and Mary"] who are not truly mated, and hence, all the trouble and sorrow that now exists be left to continuously happen at will?”
“We answer, in the great laboratory of Nature are especial workmen, who only perform her wonders and mysteries upon certain existing laws that she possesses. But before any law of Nature can be enacted upon, there must certain conditions arising that are perfectly and properly conducive to the consummation of such ends and until these conditions are ripened and ready there can be no complete action of these truly wonderful laws. There is no undertaking of spirit or mortal, but what rests on a certain vibration of conditions to perform its accomplishment.
"Now within the laws of attraction and repulsion there are ... certain forces that attract, and certain ones that repel…
“The law of repulsion oftentimes works so strongly in the elementary conditions of mortals [i.e. the early years of youth] that much of their success in life is denied them until they ascend to advancing years. The action of this same law is responsible for holding apart soul mates upon the earth plane. While the law of repulsion is sometimes a great trouble to [lovers] in taking away from us what we most desire, yet without it the great law of attraction would be almost powerless, for the objects which are repulsed very often, and at last come into a vibration with the law of attraction, this law becomes, under such circumstances, very much stimulated, and taking up these adverse vibrations feeds upon them, and becomes mighty, and traveling with the velocity of lightning brings together the objects desired…
Editor’s note: Let us pause to consider what these Guides are saying. Not all Twins meet in this world, but, if they do, and if they had contact from an early age, it probably didn’t go well for them. They probably didn’t like each other so much right off. But, the Guides insist, this very “repulsion,” as they put it, creates a mental and spiritual capacity for wanting each other in the future. We smile at this proposition to consider what we thought to be a too-predictable plot in the old movies: If a girl and boy were fighting as the story began and ensued, well then, you just knew they’d be crazy about each other and wild to be married by movie’s end.
“When soul mates [finally] meet [again, they] unite the lost aspirations, aims, and desires, which each have given up as dead, are enlivened and awakened to full life…
Editor’s note: We are jarred by “given up as dead.” When Twins go their separate ways, having “repulsed” each other in the early years, then, more often than not, they will send themselves on a very long journey, likely, marrying others and entangling themselves in all manner of domestic duties. In the midst of this emotional chaos and suffering, the lost Twin will not be forgotten; even so, it all happened so long ago that "what good is any of it now?" - that lost one is “given up as dead.” All this forms the matrix of abject despair issuing as the “ludicrous proposition.”
"... awakened to full life, and they, in each other, become perfected in ideals, which could never have been dreamed of on any other condition or plane of existence.
Notice: their sense of harmony, found "in each other," is so overwhelming, they "never could have dreamed" of finding this kind of agreement, this unity of goals and outlook, of wanting the same thing from life, this "having become perfected in ideals." They now see things with the same vision, which was not possible during the headstrong early years of egoism.
“The law of soul-mating is a permanent living law - always has been, is, and always will be, and because great numbers of earth and heaven yet are unaware of its existence is never any proof that such a law is not [in existence].
“We of the higher spheres have attended many profound lectures on the subject of ‘The Philosophy of Soul-Mating,’ and we are making a valiant effort to give our knowledge to the world of mortals as soon as they are able to receive it.”
twin-soul love and marriage is largely unknown, not only here on the earth but, in summerland, too
Editor's note: These teachers, espousing sacred exclusive love, remind us of the Troubadours who also address audiences well dismissive of any notion of enduring romance. And notice, too, that even in (the lower levels of) heaven a "great" many are unaware of the reality of Twin-Soul eternal marriage! This statement conforms perfectly with the "500 tape-recorded messages from the other side." It cannot be stressed enough that the lofty status of Twin Soul love is not only unknown in our world, but the vast majority in Summerland, as well, have not heard of it, or know very little about it (most Twins come together in worlds beyond Summerland).
In “The Wedding Song” we found the Troubadours, and other teachers, speaking of a one-woman, one-man version of eternal romance. But those of “the insane 500,” and a like-minded chorus, believe this to be a too-harsh precept; instead, they subscribe to a loose, one-size-fits-all, any-pretty-face concept of marriage. They would tell you that, if two get along well enough, if they’re happy enough, then, over a period of time, their souls will more-or-less blend, and that this mixing will constitute the spiritual marriage. This is gross error, with their assertions effectively denoting little more than, “We have never even glimpsed the real love, we have no idea what it's like, it seems too hard to attain, how could there be just one woman for one man? - and so we reject it for something easier.”
But who is correct in this substantial division of opinion? – and how can we know? We can know by the only truth-detector available to us, presently and a million years from now. We must “go within.” We must commune with our own “made in the image” deeper selves, the part of us linked to God. And when we do, as we learn how to do this, over a period of time, we will be given the answer.
As a hint, reality here is embedded in the very term “Twin Soul”; each mate is “one half” of the other’s being. Further, this mutual mirroring of core self could never happen merely by spending years together. The eternal soul - deriving from God's own essence - cannot be moved, shaped, lured, touched, sculpted, or prodded by any activity at the surface of personality.
The hapless lives of John and Mary stand ready to confirm all this. Those who believe in the “many fish in the sea” notion of romance, that any pretty face will do, would take the future of marriage to a cosmic John-and-Mary level; larger stage, greater unsatisfactoriness.
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Emma Hardinge Britten (1823-1899) began to exhibit mediumistic abilities as a young girl. Later, as a writer and public speaker, she would become an advocate for the Spiritualist movement. In 1864 Abraham Lincoln’s re-election campaign asked her to speak on behalf of the President; she did so; and also provided a eulogy at his death. The following item, from one of her books, is a treatise on the various bases of marriage. After establishing that many marital unions of this world center about the transitory physical attraction and also mere friendship, the discussion turns toward authentic, enduring romance:
"It is soul affinity … the realization that man and woman have no actual existence apart from each other; that they are, in fact, counterparts, without which their separate lives are imperfect and unformed. Life is dual … and love, true soul-love, is the bond of union which reunites the severed parts. It exists independent of personal charms or mental acquirements; subsists through sickness or in health, through good or evil report, lives on for the one beloved … and realizes heaven only in the union which death may interrupt but can never sever [or "be sundered" as Jesus used the phrase]. Divine spiritual affinity survives death and the grave, unites the two halves of the one soul, and in eternity perfects the dual nature of man and woman into one angel."
exist only contradistinctionally
Editor's note: Yes, of course -- what a brilliant comment by Emma: "man and woman have no actual existence apart from each other"; for, can hot have any meaning without cold? does in offer import bereft of out? or, up apart from down, yin devoid of yang? All polar opposites exist only contradistinctionally, at the antithetical pleasure of a counterpartal other. And the greatest of dialecticisms is female and male, woman and man. These have no actual existence without each other.
the odd half of a pair of scissors
Benjamin Franklin, in a letter, advising a young man regarding love and marriage:
"It is the Man and Woman united that makes the complete Being. Separate she wants his force of Body and Strength of Reason; he her Softness, Sensibility and acute Discernment. Together they are most likely to succeed in the World. A single Man has not nearly the Value he would have in that State of Union. He is an incomplete Animal. He resembles the odd Half of a Pair of Scissors."
Half of a pair of scissors could be used as a paper-weight, a door-stop, or possibly for stirring paint. But it will never know its primary purpose without its other half.
Emma Hardinge Britten, channeling wisdom of Spirit Guides, said the same for man and woman. While they can find a measure of usefulness for their lives living alone, in another sense, they “have no actual existence apart from each other.”
Made, designed, as “two halves of the one soul,” they cannot enter a complete sense of destiny and fulfillment until “eternity perfects [their] dual nature ... into one angel,” that is, a new, more evolved creation, the sacred One Person status.
Some time ago (see on the “God” page), I came across a Jewish rabbi who insightfully instructed that the concept of God as Father has no meaning without a corresponding God as Mother. How can you have a father without a mother? Yes, of course, and how unwise of us to create a God as “one half of a pair of scissors.”
Editor’s note: Emma, here, really gets it right. See in the "waves" article how lovers create a dual-energied entity which stands before God as something new in the universe.
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not for a reason
reprinted from the page devoted to the sonnets of Elizabeth Browning
Editor’s note: In the Brownings' love letters (as opposed to her sonnets), as featured several times on the WG site, Elizabeth sees and discerns one of the very most important precepts of true love; that, it must be built on a foundation of “not for a reason.” And now, here too, in sonnet 14, she returns to this vital understanding: “If thou must love me, let it be for nought.” We stand amazed, for many reasons, concerning Elizabeth’s perspicacious wisdom. In the first thirteen sonnets, she presents herself as emotionally erratic, alternating, sometimes quickly, between sublime ecstasy and depths of despair. And yet, despite this nightmare world of malaise, or maybe because of it, Elizabeth, as very few others, clearly perceives one of the unshakeable pillars of eternal romantic love: love, not for a reason, love for nought.
sonnet 14
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
"I love her for her smile—her look—her way
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"—
For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.
Editor’s expanded paraphrase:
Robert, many times now you have said that you love me. And nearly as often, attempting to protect you, I have tried to dissuade you. However, if you insist that you are to love me, I must also insist on something: you must love me for nought, you must love me without a reason. Is this foolish talk? I think not. If you must love me, then let it be for love's sake only. Allow me to explain. Do not say, “oh, I love your smile so much” or “it’s that fine-featured beauty of your face” or “I’m just so taken by your soft melodious voice.” No, Dearest, this will never do. Now, maybe you do like my smile, my face, my voice, and that’s well and good, but none of this can serve as bedrock foundation for our love. These gossamer butterflies of surface attraction are here today, gone tomorrow, are just a pleasant trick of Nature to seduce the unwary for purposes of propagating the species. The world is filled with millions and millions of couples thus insubstantially conjoined, and look at their misery soon stalking their homes! Oh, no, Beloved, if you insist on loving me, then let it be for nought, let it be not for a reason – let it be for love’s sake alone. Here’s the real problem with the smile, the face, the voice – what happens when we grow older and these change, when a small measure of beauty flees from us? We know the answer too well. If the reasons for love change, then this kind of love will also change. That wild butterfly zooms out the window as if it never existed. And even if the beauty of the body could somehow remain unchanged, the desires of people can and do change. The husband meets some new dream and now what he thought to be the ultimate smile, face, voice of his wife no longer enchants him. This is the story of the hapless couples of the world. If love is built or created on this basis, then it can also be unbuilt and uncreated – and it’s just a matter of time before two experience this perdition of the heart. Now, some men of better character, more stalwart, might say, “I am kindly affectioned toward this woman, we are friends, I pity her in her grieving aloneness, and I will strive to help and be a good companion for her.” This is noble, but marriage, in its truest form, is more than friendship and more than agape charity to a fellow human being. This is not true marital love, but, well intentioned as it might be, it is the love we are to show to all human beings - but we are not to marry all human beings due to a desire for friendship or service. A marriage built upon feelings of pity will yet devolve to a consuming misery of feeling burned out, of hopeless despair of never finding happiness for oneself. No, Beloved, the true marriage is much more than this. It is the invisible union of spirits, and this oneness cannot be created by choice or will-power, nor, if it does exist, can it be diminished. If you must love me, then let it be for nought, not for a reason. This means that you will love me for some undefined reason of “just because”, a mysterious reason rising from the depths of our souls. Let it be for love’s sake alone, let it be simply because I am who I am, let it be for your soul falling in love with me, not any surface attraction. And if a couple is thus bound, well then, there they stand, unmovable, unshakable, stationary suns, two spiritually harmonized souls ever unsundered, permanent as God’s spirit, for all eternity, together, in sweetest mutual delight.
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the most important concept on the Word Gems site
One of my favorite essays is “What we stay alive for.” This is the crux of the matter. We need to come alive, which is primary importance, but, once alive, we need a reason to stay alive. In the writing “500 tape-recorded messages from the other side” we learn of a vast class of people over there who have not yet found their reason to live; as such, they drift into various levels of insanity.
On this “Prologue” page of “The Wedding Song” we are reviewing various testimonies speaking to the reality of Twin Souls. The mystic Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, however, better than others, intuitively grasped the sense of importance to be accorded Twin love as vital component of the spiritual mind of wisdom.
“The soul ... is itself only one-half of a complete being. For each of us there is a counterpartal [person] of the opposite polarity. And our pilgrimage towards emancipation [from illusion] consists in drawing ever nearer to this balancing factor ... so that, in the end, [while retaining sacred individuality,] we become [effectively One Person,] a male-female being in whom the positive and negative forces are in perfect equilibrium, reflecting the nature of the Male-Female Creator. Only through the perfect union of two souls of the opposite sex can that blending of forces be achieved which brings freedom from illusion and the full experience of Reality.”
Aivanhov gets it exactly right. It’s only through the union of destined Twins that a complete “freedom from illusion and full experience of Reality” might be achieved. Notice the emphasis. We might have expected to hear of "a complete happiness" but instead "a complete freedom from illusion" is presented as central concept.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words; but, this one, right here, might be worth the entire Word Gems site - as a bride’s loving and joyous demeanor encapsulates, and well expresses, human destiny, purpose and meaning, freedom from illusion, sacred personhood, full humanity, and ultimate reality.
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Why is Twin Soul love the doorway to ultimate wisdom, evolvement, and spiritual vision? - because it reflects the highest expression of ultimate reality, the subsuming influence and dominion of Mother-Father God.
The concept of “highest reality” brings to mind once again “the 500 tape-recordings from the other side.” Among these one finds the occasional testimony from those who were famous during their Earth sojourn; accomplished individuals – scientists, statesmen, and the like – they continue some of their work in Summerland.
However, concerning their personal lives, many of these did not live moralistically, and as they spoke one discerned that this attitude of using others for one’s private pleasure had not yet been expunged from their spirits. There was a certain “hollowness” and “brittleness” to their viewpoint.
Despite great accomplishments, one is left with an impression that they had not yet met “ultimate reality”, were still quite materialistic in their thinking. And this is what Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov is getting at when he says that true love is the doorway to freedom from illusion, an illusion of materialistic perspective; instead, authentic romance becomes portal to full experience of highest wisdom.
It would have to be this way as true love is not only part of the divine mind but reflects the highest domain of "what is" - the dual female-male energies - a closer attunement with, the hegemonic and "singular pervasive" reality that is, Mother-Father God. There is reason why ancient Spirit Guides refer to divinity in this manner.
See a 3-part writing on "Freedom From Illusion."
'you have not come to the arctic regions, you cannot be perfected without it'
Troubadour Spirit-Guide Margaret: “[Twin Soul] love is the atmosphere of this life [in Summerland]. You have not come to the arctic regions, but to the region where [romantic] love is a pervading influence, warming all hearts. No spirit can find its most perfect development who misses from his life the experience which [romantic] love can give him. If he has lived a loveless life on Earth, the possibility is still reserved for him here. The certainty will come to him in the future. His being cannot be perfected without it.”
The quest to experience true love is no optional side-trip. Without success in this area, eventually, we will suffer "existential crisis," and fail to properly engage the "terrors of living forever." Some time ago, I wrote several paragraphs on the subject of "no one there to fill your desire." They're included as a kind of footnote to the "What We Stay Alive For" essay, but allow me to offer this writing here in closing:
"no one there can fill your desire"
We were meant to live in community. We yearn for the company of friends and neighbors, supporting each other in life. So strong is this wish for brotherhood and sisterhood that, at times, as Father Chardin mused, it reaches almost to the level of “sensual longing.” Even so, affable association and cordial friend - none of this pleasant conviviality - can fill one’s desire.
Neither avuncular favor nor maternal warmth, not even a large kindred gathering, an immersion into familial goodwill and amity, can fill one's desire. Even in that affectionate crowd of doting loved ones, a plenary session of fervent smiles, well-wishes, and hugs all around, you will still find yourself - if only subliminally, that vague uneasy sense of - missing someone.
O thou soul of my soul
Mourning the loss of his Elizabeth, Robert Browning in Prospice [“to look forward”] soars in high-flight, addressing her, O thou soul of my soul. Many in the history of literature have spoken of woman as the life of man, but never so poignantly and felicitously. And if one’s soul could shelter a soul of its own, what would this signify? - nothing less than epicenter of meaning, purpose, and “what we stay alive for.” And so, with O thou soul of my soul, we glimpse a remedy for "no one there can fill your desire."
unlawful savior and covenant
John and Mary cannot fill each other’s desire; "besotting infatuation” with illegitimate savior, the “ill-fitting covenant,” the settled-for second or third choice, albeit sprinkled with ecclesiastical blessing, cannot fill one's desire.
Their problem is spiritual in nature, with biological impulse and instinctual response unable to offer solution. Only two souls in love, two created for each other, can fill the unremitting existential void, two spirits longing for authentic union.
the great harmonia
There are three bases for marriage: biological, psychological, spiritual. Andrew Jackson Davis offered analysis in his seminal work “The Great Harmonia.” The vast majority wed for the wrong reasons and, in so doing, counterfeit and debase what was meant to be, what Spirit Guide Margaret called, the holiest of human endeavors; even the Pope decried this merchandizing of human flesh.
super stimuli
Biological attractors animate the majority, licensing Niko Tinbergen’s “super stimuli,” mere temporary fever, a boiling of animal inclination. Psychological drivers, too, incite to riot not a few: here we find marriage as antidote to fears of never finding happiness, apprehensions of disgrace and not being chosen, terrors of facing old age alone.
All this defines what passes for marriage in our world, but none of it is honored in the “better neighborhoods” of Summerland. It is only the spiritual marriage, the coming together of Twin Souls, which is recognized in the courts of heaven.
true love: of the soul, not body
“The Wedding Song” speaks of a “calling of the heart.” It is a desperate cry of the hidden person, a cry in the night - the long dark night of the soul; a cry to be answered only by a “union of spirits," the authentic accord of mind touching mind. In this "knowing as one knows oneself," the secret desolation within begins to recede.
True love is rooted in the soul, not the body, and therefore only things of the eternal soul will endure; things of the flesh begin dying at the moment of birth. And unless one's affections represent an extension of the soul's purposes, there will be no enduring romantic relationship. This rule stands unmoved and inviolable.
existential beauty, consummate mystical experience, freedom from illusion, full experience of reality
The once “blind poet,” with her “lumbering, ponderous, helpless knowledge of books,” when true love came knocking, suddenly grasped the total field of what it means to be human. It is “not to eat and drink," Elizabeth exclaimed, "but to feel the life in you, down all the fibres of being, passionately and joyfully.”
Yes, "to feel the life in you"; as such, this life, this “truth, is a living thing,” and when it becomes energized with the advent of the sacred beloved -- the "existential beauty," a "consonance with the whole," the consummate mystical experience -- it will not only pulsate with warming vitality at the core of being but brings “freedom from illusion” and offers “the full experience of reality.”
more than one dared wish for
There is but one particular girl to fill his desire; he offers her the same exclusive gift. They find each other in the Dazzling Darkness. Together then, as darling companions, adventuring through eternal life sharing all experiences, they enter a sense of wholeness and completeness attained, of meaning and purpose actualized; of sacred destiny realized, of soul-pledges deliciously satisfied.
They inhabit perceptions of "coming home," of the utterly familiar, of "you are more than I dared wish for," of extreme delight, of "you are just like me," of "soulmate, myself." All this, indeed, issues as final answer to the "calling of the heart," an emergence from the abyss of aloneness, as it fills, to the top, the pleadings of unexpressed yearning, the indictments of unquieted passions.
ready communion and unbroken fellowship, minds in ecstatic union
With greater maturity, we perceive identities revealed - who’s who and for whom. And in that day of sightedness, minds created for each other will live in rapturous and euphoric union; an emulation of the joyous spirit of the Divine Parent(s).
This ecstasy of ready communion and unbroken fellowship, of sharing all things as darling companions, of "the great relief of having you to talk to," of love "not for a reason," removes the terror of eternal life, provides impetus to unfold the soul's hidden potential, finally satisfies and fills beseeching human desire, and becomes ultimate reason to stay alive for.
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Emanuel Swedenborg, one of the most famous men of the 18th century: statesman, physicist, musician, inventor, engineer (with an estimated IQ of 200 or more), and mystic-seer of Summerland, whose visions and writings would influence intelligentsia for the next hundred years:
Swedenborg reports of witnessing a conversation between Spirit Guides and three young men, newly arrived in Summerland.
The young men are anxious to learn if heaven allows the pleasures of female companionship. The Guides answer positively, but in a manner suggesting that the love is of a higher grade. The young listeners found this answer disappointing.
The two newcomers said: “This means there’s no love between the sexes in heaven. Chaste love between the sexes is nothing but a love emptied of its vital essence. Isn’t this kind of companionship between young men and young women dried-up joy? We aren’t stones and sticks, we’re living feelings and impulses.”
When they heard this, the [Guides] answered indignantly, “You have no idea whatever of what chaste love between the sexes is because you aren’t chaste yet. That love is the essence of delight for the mind and therefore for the heart… A genuine love of marriage is a chaste love that has nothing in common with [earthly] unchaste love. It is a love experienced only with one member of the opposite sex apart from all others. It is a love of the spirit and then of the body, not a love of the body and then of the spirit. That is, it is not a love that attacks the spirit.”
[The Guides summarized] “It is not a love for the opposite sex in general [not for any pretty face] but a love for one member of the opposite sex. It arises only when a young man sees the young woman [God] has provided and the young woman sees the young man. Both feel the kindling of marital feelings in their hearts. He senses that she is his and she that he is hers. Love comes out to meet love and makes itself known, uniting their souls immediately”…
The three newcomers asked, “Is there the same kind of [sexual] love between married partners in the heavens as there is on earth?”
“Exactly the same,” the two [Guides] answered.
Jesus’ discourse on marriage in Matthew 19
Editor’s note: I would encourage you to study my commentary, Parts I and II, on Jesus’ teaching concerning marriage. As one surveys his entire presentation, it becomes clear that Jesus is not focusing on the Earthly, bio-instinctual, domestic-contract version of marriage but has eternal Twin Soul love in mind. READ MORE
Life In Two Spheres, or Scenes in the Summerland, by Hudson Tuttle, channeled testimony from the other side. The speaker of the following is known as "the ancient Sage," a resident of Summerland for nearly 3000 years:
A newcomer to Summerland confesses that he had foolishly lost his true love when they were teens. He speaks to the Sage concerning how, during his Earth-life, he never recovered from his profound grief of losing her:
The Sage: "You are guilty?"
"Guilty! yes, a vile, guilty wretch! … I suffered so much, [but] recognized [the] punishment as just … [because] I loved a maiden, and she loved me. We played and sang together in our childhood, and in our youth our lot was always cast together. She was confiding, unaffected... She was always what she appeared.”
Editor’s note: The girl of his youth interacted authentically with him, wasn't trying to get anything but wanted only him; she confided, shared secrets of her life, spoke unaffectedly, never flirted or played a role, but “was always what she appeared.” However, the boy, not knowing his own mind well enough at the time, was led away by infatuations, a false “ideal.”
“At length I saw [another girl, or girls, whom I foolishly believed to be] the ideal of my dreams. She made me forget my first love…” Very quickly, however, these mere passions of biology deserted him, so-called “love vanished, and I was miserable.” The girl of his youth, his true love, in her grief of losing him, made bad decisions for her life, and died prematurely.
“Oh, to think of this! To remember the pleasant days we passed together [in our youths] – that I, in whom she had placed her confidence, should cause her death, intensifies my suffering."
The Sage: "Human affection is more precious than diamonds; and he who crushes [it] is severely punished [in a natural way, by resultant suffering].”
"I was ignorant of the injury I was inflicting; I knew not [that] unanswered affections recoiled with such force. I supposed love [to be] but a transient passion, soon and easily subdued."
Editor's note: Imagine the emotional train-wreck for a young girl who had trusted, had emptied her secret heart to, a young boy, only to see him cavalierly wander away, and toss her away, in pursuit of some pretty face.
when the mountains are crushed to vapor, the holy and authentic romantic love will still exist
The Sage: "Cause and effect will eternally operate; and punishment must necessarily follow crime [against holy, destined romance]… [True] love is not [just] a passion, neither is it transitory, but it is the uniting of two souls into one; and unions founded on [this enduring] basis will exist, growing stronger and more intricate, [even] when [a] mountain shall have changed to vapor and passed away. This is [the] true marriage - an eternal union of soul, thought, and being. Passion is secondary, and will perish with the conditions on which it depends, but spiritual love is as lasting as time, and develops more and more in the Spirit-world. It seeks one object…
Editor’s note: The male, truly in love, “seeks one object” for his desire. Not just one woman in the sense of “any woman” to whom exclusive fealty might be offered, but “one particular woman.” See Dr. Campbell’s comments.
The Sage: “It seeks one object, and clings to it, through life and death, and puts forth its immortal bloom a thousand ages hence [that is, he will still feel the same though a thousand summers might pass]."
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The following was reported in "Mary Anne Carew,” channeled information via the mediumship of Carlyle Petersilea (1844-1903). The author, an accomplished American concert pianist, developed psychic abilities later in life. Mary, Carlyle's mother, offers her testimony from the other side:
The new-arrival Mary comments: “I never thought that marriage existed after the death of the body, but that all heavenly beings were like brothers and sisters."
"Well," replied Annie [her sister], with a smile, "all the answer I can give is, that a man remains a man forever, and a woman a woman; that the man and the woman, when rightfully mated, constitute one perfect soul, and when separate are but the sundered halves of a rounded or perfect thing.”
until love and wisdom are united, truth cannot be apprehended in a full and balanced way
“Every soul in existence has a mate, or counterpart; the actual other half of itself; and until they are reunited as a whole or perfect being, they can never be really happy, or make much progress in wisdom. Until love and wisdom are united, truth cannot come to light, and error and darkness reign." The Discovered Country, Carlyle Petersilea
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'she is your reward'
The following is channeled information, via the mediumship of A. Farnese, recorded in the book “A Wanderer In Spirit Lands.”
An Italian man, Franchezzo, had died young after seducing and using many women. However, before he died he met the love of his eternal life. In the Dark Realms he embarked upon dangerous restitutionary charitable works in order, not only to recover himself but, to later be with his true love in Summerland. His supervising Guide emphasizes the importance of her love in his journey back to spiritual health:
“I leave you again, my son, to follow still your pilgrimage which will soon, however, draw to its close, and I bid you be of good cheer since your reward shall come from her whom you love, and who loves you, and sends ever her most tender thoughts to you."
Throughout his extremely difficult missionary work in the dark spheres, Franchezzo was ever keenly aware that her mystical presence constituted his primary impetus to grow and change. In this we find dramatic example of what Spirit Guides teach, that God has given Twins to each other for their mutual aid in reaching higher levels of maturity; without which encouragement, male and female would likely perceive little reason to evolve as they were meant to. See Francezzo's story featured on the Dark Realms page.
The following testimony from Summerland, a tape-recorded account, was facilitated by the direct-voice mediumship of Leslie Flint. His work was featured in the article “500 tape-recorded messages from the other side.”
The story of British soldier George Wilmot, and the girl he lost during WWI, was briefly featured in “the 500” writing; however, here is a transcript of the event in George’s own words:
[Arriving in Summerland, Wilmot finds himself walking on a country lane.] “We went along. We went through what seemed to be a side turning and then we beared to the right, past a lot of poplar trees, they remind me of something, I can't think what, you know. And then all of a sudden it came to me! Of course I remember. It was exactly the same as a road in France when I was there in the 1914-18 war. These lovely big tall trees at the side. And I knew without - before I even reached there - that at the far end of this would be a very old house, and it would be full of people that I'd known. People that were so nice to me when I was in France, when I was billeted.
waving like mad at me
“It was. There was this [French] mother and daughter there, and the father. They came and stood at the end of the road, at the edge of the gate, looking over, waving like mad at me.
“I thought to meself, Well, I don't know. These people, I believe they must have been killed, because I'd heard a little later that this place had been absolutely bombed, you know, during the war, and I couldn't get it out of my mind. I thought well - I'd got a feeling they were dead. And I thought, well, I'm dead and I'm supposed to be in a dead man's world, so these people must be dead.
“All this was going on in my mind. Then I looked at them hard, you know, and I could see that the [parents] husband and wife looked young. They were the same people but they looked younger. Then my mind went to a picture, two pictures they used to have over a sideboard. One was of her and one was of him when they were young. I suppose they would have been in their twenties, and they looked exactly like they looked in those two portraits. And the daughter, she looked as young as the mother - about the same age.
“This daughter and I were very drawn and attached to, and actually if things had gone right, I would - well, given the opportunity I would have proposed to her. Of course, I wasn't married then you see. And I always think - of course, I know now - but I always used to think when I was on Earth - that's perhaps one of the reasons why my two [later] marriages didn't work out - I always carried this girl's memory in my heart, you know.
despite a very brief meeting, he knew she was 'the one', and he remembered her all of his life
I always thought what a nice little thing she was, sweet and kind, and I always thought she was the right one for me though we could hardly speak a word of each other's lingo.”
She had waited about 50 years for him.
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The following testimony from Summerland, a tape-recorded account, was facilitated by the direct-voice mediumship of Leslie Flint. His work was featured in the article “500 tape-recorded messages from the other side.”
he had gone wrong when he lost her
[Reports Betty Greene, assistant to Leslie Flint:] An equally happy surprise awaited Harry Tucker, one time highwayman, who in 1968 described his rescue from an earthbound pub crawl [meaning, Tucker had not gone to the light and was hanging around bars].
a girl came forward and took him by the hand
“I looked at her for the first time. It was a face that I'd never forgotten. It was the face of a girl that in my early years I was very fond of, very attached to. And as I looked at her and she looked at me, I realized that if my life could have taken a different path and I could have married her, I'm sure that I would have been a different person. I wouldn't have got into bad company and taken up the road and all that. I knew that if she hadn't died as she did when she was a young woman, we could probably have married, and I'd probably have been a different person. I'd have probably worked on the farm, or done something in the local way that would have got me enough to support us. But she died, and that's what really turned me against everything and everybody.
As she took my hand she said: “Now you can start all over again with me. I'm to help you, and I'm to guide you and show you the way.”
the sense of coming home
“I walked with her out of this … place, and we came, so it seemed, to a small place. It was on the verge of a - town I suppose you'd call it. A small cottage as you'd call it, with a roof that was thatched, and a little low wall around it. And there was a beautiful feeling as if I'd come home, and yet I'd never known this place before on earth.
“As we entered, she looked different, and yet she was the same. But her clothes changed and instead of this beautiful elaborate dress, she'd got a very simple cotton. I suppose it was cotton. But she still looked the same to me. She's been waiting for me all this time, been watching over me constantly, thinking about me, trying to get me on to the right path all those years. And now we're together."
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The following testimony from Summerland, a tape-recorded account, was facilitated by the direct-voice mediumship of Leslie Flint. His work was featured in the article “500 tape-recorded messages from the other side.”
no need for ceremonies, 'we don't have marriage laws here'
[Comments Betty Greene, assistant to Leslie Flint: There is no] prospect of a life-everlasting tied to a spouse or relation you detest. Not to worry, say the [Flint] voices, those you love will be with you; those you dislike will never bother you again.
“Over here,” said Rose the [once-illiterate] flower-seller [in London], “people get together who are really mutually attracted, who have a great affection and love for each other ... A husband and wife on your side who hate one another, just aren't meant for one another, they wouldn't be together over here...
Greene: “I understand there is no marriage?”
Rose: “Well, what's marriage? Marriage is only man-made law. It doesn't mean a damned thing... Well, what I'm trying to say is, when two people really love each other, and they are quite suited to each other, and they're sort of naturally happy with each other, it doesn't need a man-made law, or a ceremony, to make them man and wife ... We don't have marriage laws here.”
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The following was reported in “OCEANIDES, A Psychical Novel” (1892), by Carlyle Petersilea (1844-1903). The author, an accomplished American concert pianist, developed psychic abilities later in life. Some of his books offer directly channeled information from known entities on the other side; However, “Oceanides” is billed as a novel, a fictional narrative; even so it seems clear that Petersilea employed the novel-format to present information concerning Twin Soul love which he had gathered via his mediumistic abilities.
The protagonist encounters a Twin Soul couple in the spirit realms: “She seemed to issue from his personality as though there had been two beings blended together which now divided, something as a rainbow divides itself... The lady was an exact counterpart of the man… ‘We are an angel; one angel,’ said the male Twin, ‘and not two; she is myself, I am herself. She is the half of an angel, I am the other half, and two halves make one whole; we blend so completely together that at first you did not perceive we bore two forms, and we can appear in two forms, or as one. We are male and female; one angel'.
Editor’s note: Petersilea’s vision of Twin Souls as so completely blended that, at times, to an observer, they might appear to be one person. This extraordinary expression of intimacy and unity was, I believe, also given to me in a dream. I recounted this realization in the Introduction to “Prometheus”: "About twenty years ago, in the middle of the night, I suddenly found myself jarred from sleep, catapulted into an upright position. An unfamiliar phrase, two words, immediately accosted my spirit: SOULMATE, MYSELF."
"His form showed strength and power, hers showed love and grace; where her features reflected love, his reflected wisdom… [the male-Twin advises] ‘Obey me implicitly in one thing. Do not marry for any consideration [of wealth, comfort, status, or physical beauty]; if you do, bitter woe will be your portion, and a lifelong misery on earth; every morning you will desire death, and every night your pillow will be wet with tears… wait for the counterpart of your own soul… If every man and woman on earth would listen [to this advice from] their [own] inner being, there would be no wretched, unhappy marriages.’”
'a sense of home and complete rest had filled my soul'
The narrator reviews his own life: “I had nearly come to the conclusion to ask someone among [the many women he knew] to be my wife; but an indefinable something always restrained me, and I well knew that if one were to be my wife, still I should be alone. There had been engraven upon my soul, from my earliest manhood, the ideal picture of one whom I could love and worship, and I had cherished a secret hope that someday the ideal picture would be actualized… [Later, catching a glimpse of his ideal female image] It was the first time in my life that a sense of home and complete rest had filled my soul.”
Editor’s note: The "restraint" of which he speaks will issue as a deadening feeling of profound emptiness at the thought of being with the wrong person: there is the aloneness of being with oneself but, far worse, is the aloneness though with another person. Concerning the “engraven ideal image,” in my own writings I refer to such encounter accompanied by “sparks in the head.” And the author's “sense of home and complete rest” I have alluded to as the great “coming home,” the “utter familiarity,” the perception of “you are just like me,” and, of course, “soulmate, myself.”
The following testimony from Summerland, a tape-recorded account, was facilitated by the direct-voice mediumship of Leslie Flint. His work was featured in the article “500 tape-recorded messages from the other side.”
[Reports Betty Greene, assistant to Leslie Flint:] The most romantic of all heavenly love stories, as consoling as any fictional story in the make-believe world of women's magazines, was yet to come. On 20 January 1969, the silence in Flint's flat was broken by a female voice with a Scottish accent who announced:
“My name is Mary Ann Ross.”
“And what happened Mary,” asked Betty Greene, “when you passed over? When you died?”
“It's a long time ago now,” she replied. “I was sitting in the kitchen doing a bit of sewing with the lamp.”
“Yes, go on.”
“And I don't remember getting up out of the chair.”
“What happened then Mary?”
“It's very odd. It was as if the whole room was full of light [as she died], and I could see all sorts of people around. There was my mother, and my father, and my brother who died many years before. And Nelly - she was a friend, one of my few friends, that had died only a few weeks [before].
“They were all in the room and I thought I was having a dream about my people, and it was Nelly that came and put her arms around me and kissed me on the face, and it was warm and real. And my mother came, she kissed me too. They took my hands, and the next thing I know it's as if I was floating through the window. And then everything went black.
“I didn't remember a thing until I woke up, and I was in a bed in a very nice room with rafters and beams and things, like an old house. It was cozy and friendly, and the sun, as I thought, was shining through the window. And there was my mother, but she did not look the same as when I saw her in my dream as I thought. She looked young as I'd seen her in a picture that used to hang in my bedroom, when she was married many years before. And I thought, this is just a dream.
“No, it's not a dream,” she said. “It's real. You're alive now. You're not to worry about anything. Soon, when you've recovered, we'll go out and meet all sorts of people that you used to know when you were a wee bairn [little child].”
“I could not realize that I was dead. It was still like a beautiful dream. Then there was a dog that jumped on my bed, and this really gave me a fright. I was always fond of dogs, but this was a dog that we'd had many years ago that my father adored and that was killed by a cart. We called it Nipper, and to see Nipper jump on the bed startled me. I just couldn't realize this, and my mother said: “Of course they're animals here too.”
“I just couldn't take to this at all. I couldn't believe - when you've been brought up as I was to a religious way of life, you did not automatically begin to think of animals being in Heaven. I thought this was too natural to be Heaven. I thought it would be quite different, and that it would be more like one sees in pictures and religious books, you know, angels and wings. This didn't seem right.
“The next thing I must have dozed off. At least I thought that's what I did, but it wasn't really quite dozing off. The next thing I knew was that I was walking down what appeared to be a lane, with trees either side, and beautiful fields, and I could see cattle. I remember walking and walking on this road, and somehow no feeling of tiredness. I came to the end and there was a beautiful white house, and yet it wasn't painted white. It had sort of lustre about it like mother-of-pearl.
“As I came to this house, a man came out of the door, and my heart gave a jump - that's if I had a heart. But, I felt just as if – oh! I couldn't believe this! It was a young man that I was very fond of who I'd turned down.
“It wasn't because I didn't love him. It was because I realized that I could not marry him because it meant that I had to give up my parents who were getting old and in need of care and attention, and I didn't feel it was right to put a burden on a man of someone else's parents, no matter how fond he was of me. I turned him down and he never got married. He moved away from the district soon afterwards and I lost touch with him for many years.
“He came out of the house, and he looked just as he'd looked oh, many years before in his thirties, tall and dark. Though in those days he had a moustache - it's silly how things strike one - but he had not got a moustache any more.
for the first time, I felt what it was like to have someone want me
“He came rushing down the garden path and met me. And he put his arms round me. And I felt as if for the first time that I was wanted. I suppose in a way I should not say that, because I was very much wanted by my parents, and I was very fond of my parents, but it was a different feeling.”
''At last you have come back to me,” he said. “This time you'll not turn me down.”
giant flowers of love
“And I did not know what to say to him. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed as if in the garden all the flowers began to blossom. I don't know how to explain this without sounding silly, but all the flowers suddenly seemed to grow and it was as if the garden came alive. There were all kinds of flowers there, flowers that I remember from the earth, and flowers that I'd never seen before. And there was one clump of huge, tall orange flowers, like poppies, but they seemed to go on and on.
giant flowers of love, taller than a house
“And I thought, if they don't stop growing they're going to be taller than the house. I thought how stupid this is, I'm so happy here with Rossi - Rossiter, you know - and yet all the time in spite of my happiness and meeting him, and feeling at ease and feeling happy, I could see this group of poppies as I called them, growing taller and taller until they became like huge trees.
“Then, all of a sudden, the petals began to open and they began to - like droop. When I say that I don't mean to say that they were dying, but it's as if they opened up and the petals folded down and made a kind of umbrella. And there were all these beautiful orange flowers like umbrellas. And we went and stood underneath, and it was as if through the petals of these enormous orange flowers there was a beautiful light, and it seemed to have warmth and seemed to have a glow. And he was smiling about this because I said: ‘I've never seen such big flowers.’"
'now we can be free'
''Ah,” he said, “until you came, although I had planted many seeds in my thoughts, it wasn't until you came that I knew that I'd have a garden which I can be proud of. These poppies as you call them are my love that has been growing all these years I've been watching over you. And now we can be free. Come into the house.”
“I can't say if I walked, or if I floated, but it was as if my feet never touched the ground. And I remember going into the house, and it was just as I'd always wished and dreamed. It was not a big house, but it was bigger than anything I'd been used to and everything seemed to be perfect, just as I would always wanted to have had myself. And the furniture and everything was solid and real.
''Now,” he said, “we're together, and now we can make up for lost time.”
“'I have never felt so happy'. Then I thought about my mamma and father.”
''That's all right,” he said. “You've finished. Now you have your own life to be shared with me. But we can keep in touch [with your parents], and we can go and see them whenever we wish, and they can come and see us. You have so much to learn.''
Mary's last words were: “Whatever it is that makes it possible for me to talk to you [at this Leslie Flint sitting] is not so strong. The power or whatever they call it [makes it difficult for me to communicate]. But I am happy to have been here, and, may I say, I hope to come soon again.”
She never did [commented Betty Greene]. Is it because she is too busy living happily ever after?
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- "The scientists [of your Earth] have not yet discovered that electricity and magnetism are the male and female elements in the Universe." - channeled "voice" via the mediumistic agency of Emily French (circa. 1900)
The following is channeled information via the mediumship of William W. Aber, the Psychic Research Society, as reported in “The Rending Of The Veil” (1898), compiled by J.H. Nixon. Testimonies were offered by numerous spirit-persons by means of full-form visible materialization. A question was asked of visiting spirit-visitor, former Spiritualist minister, Ebenezer Vespasian Wilson (1818-1880):
"What relation does woman bear to man in the spirit world?"
"The relation woman bears to man in the spirit world is the law of affinity, and through this law you are brought together in love and harmony with each other. We endeavor to bring together those who are best adapted to each other, not only on earth, but in the spirit world… There is but one true marriage; and, when once formed, is never sundered. It is a natural and harmonious union: I want to say here that we have no 'free love'—that is, no promiscuity; promiscuous sensuality in the higher life is not advocated here, and belongs only to a low and sensual plane."
Editor’s note: Wilson is compelled to directly deny “free love” because he and his fellow Spiritualist ministers were accused of promoting such, a threat to traditional marriage, it was said, by advocating rights of oppressed women in abusive and loveless unions. See on the Andrew Jackson Davis page a report of a conference promoting rights of women which the materialistic press pejoratively labeled as the “free lovers.”
Dr. Joseph Campbell's lecture on 'the troubadours' and the true marriage
from the book, “The Power Of Myth,”
a discussion with Dr. Joseph Campbell
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the troubadours invented the modern concept of heart-to-heart, individualistic, soul-based, romantic love, without concern for church dogma, societal expectations, or property interests
It is not by accident that "The Wedding Song" makes reference to the troubadours.
The troubadours were the first in the West who thought of love the way we do now, as a person-to-person relationship. Amor is something personal that the troubadours recognized, but Eros and Agape are impersonal loves. (Agape loves all, the just and the unjust; and Eros is not so particular regarding with whom it sleeps.)
The true marriage is based upon a personal love, that which springs from the soul's recognition of identity in the other. It is the love for one woman, one particular woman -- not romantic love in general. The greatest tragedy of the inauthentic marriage revolves about accepting or seeking for a mate who is not one's soul affinity.
MOYERS: Love is such a vast subject that – well, if I came to you and said, “Let’s talk about love,” where would you begin?
CAMPBELL: I’d begin with the troubadours in the twelfth century.
MOYERS: And who were they?
CAMPBELL: The troubadours were the nobility of Provence [a region of SE France] and then later of other parts of France and Europe. In Germany they’re known as the Minnesingers, the singers of love – Minne is the medieval German word for love.
MOYERS: Were they the poets of their age?
CAMPBELL: They were poets of a certain character, yes. The period for the troubadours is the twelfth century. The whole troubadour tradition was extinguished in Provence in the so-called Albigensian Crusade of 1209, which was launched by Pope Innocent III, and which is regarded as one of the most monstrous crusades in the history of Europe. The troubadours became associated with the Manichean heresy of the Albigensians that was rampant at that time – though the Albigensian movement was really a protest against the corruption of the medieval clergy. So the troubadours and their transformation of love got mixed up with religious life in a very complicated way.
Editor’s note: Innocent III was threatened by the rising popularity of a religious group called the Cathers. His mafia-solution was to exterminate them, by which sordid process the first Inquisition was initiated, along with the order of the Dominicans, defenders of the Catholic faith against heresy. It seems that the troubadours were “extinguished” as collateral damage of Innocent III’s brutal quest to eradicate something else.
MOYERS: The transformation of love? What do you mean?
CAMPBELL: The troubadours were very much interested in the psychology of love. And they’re the first ones in the West who really thought of love the way we do now – as a person-to-person relationship.
MOYERS: What had it been before that?
CAMPBELL: Before that, love was simply Eros, the god who excites to sexual desire. This is not the experience of falling in love as the troubadours understood it. Eros is much more impersonal than falling in love. You see, people didn’t know about Amor. Amor is something personal that the troubadours recognized. Eros and Agape are impersonal loves.
Editor's note: The question will be asked, why is it that romantic love, in terms of the personal element, was unrecognized before this point in world history? True romance represents a higher order of consciousness and soul-development. It seems that by the twelfth century collective humankind had advanced enough to be able to perceive, in a beginning way, this elevated and spiritual view of romance.
MOYERS: Explain.
CAMPBELL: Eros is a biological urge. It’s the zeal of the organs for each other. The personal factor doesn’t matter.
MOYERS: And Agape?
CAMPBELL: Agape is love thy neighbor as thyself – spiritual love. It doesn’t matter who the neighbor is.
MOYERS: Now this is not passion as Eros mandates it, this [Agape] is compassion, I would think.
CAMPBELL: Yes, it is compassion. It is a heart opening [an expansion of consciousness]. But it is not individuated as Amor is.
MOYERS: Agape is a religious [that is, spiritual, not legalistic] impulse.
the highest spiritual experience
CAMPBELL: Yes, but Amor could become a religious [spiritual] impulse, too. The troubadours recognized Amor as the highest spiritual experience. You see, the experience of Eros is a kind of [glandular, merely animalistic] seizure. In India, the god of love is a big, vigorous youth with a bow and quiver of arrows. The names of the arrows are “Death-bringing Agony” and “Open Up” and so forth. Really, he just drives this thing into you so that it’s a total physiological, psychological explosion. Then the love, Agape, is a love of the neighbor as thyself. Again, it doesn’t matter who the person is. It is your neighbor, and you must have that kind of love. But with Amor we have a purely personal ideal. The kind of seizure that comes from the meeting of the eyes, as they say in the troubadour tradition, is a person-to-person experience.
MOYERS: There’s a poem in one of your books about this meeting of the eyes: “So through the eyes love attains the heart…”
A heaven in a gaze,
A heaven of heavens, the privilege
Of one another’s eyes. Emily Dickinson
CAMPBELL: That’s completely contrary to everything the Church stood for. It’s a personal, individual experience, and I think it’s the essential thing that’s great about the West and that makes it different from all other traditions I know.
Editor’s note: The Church, one of the collective-Ego institutions of the world, attempted to stamp out, minimize, or demonize, anything that it could not control. Churchmen sought to regulate marriage as it offers much power and control over the masses. People are never more free, never more likely to follow their own hearts, never more persuaded to spurn despotic government and dogma, than when they're in love; therefore, the Church, sensing this potential nest of rebellion, sought to legalistically define morality in terms favorable to its power-grasping ways. It is the individualism, the humanistic flight of the spirit, that all Dear Leaders truly hate and fear; because, How shall we keep them from wandering off the plantation once they realize who they really are?
MOYERS: So the courage to love became the courage to affirm one’s own experience against tradition – the tradition of the Church. Why was that important in the evolution of the West?
CAMPBELL: It was important in that it gave the West this accent on the individual, that one should have faith in his experience and not simply mouth terms handed down to him by others. It stresses the validity of the individual’s experience of what humanity is, what life is, what values are, against the monolithic system. The monolithic system is a machine system: every machine works like every other machine that’s come out of the same shop.
MOYERS: What did you mean when you wrote that the beginning of romantic love in the West was “libido over credo”?
CAMPBELL: Well, the credo says “I believe,” and I believe not only in the laws, but I believe that these laws were instituted by God, and there’s no arguing with God. These laws are a heavy weight on me, and disobeying these is sin and has to do with my eternal character.
MOYERS: That’s the credo?
CAMPBELL: That’s the credo. You believe, and then you go to confession, and you run down through the list of sins, and count yourself against those, and instead of going into the priest and saying, “Bless me, father, for I have been great this week,” you meditate on the sins, and in meditating on the sins, then you really become a sinner in your life. It’s a [self-]condemnation, actually, of the will to life, that’s what the credo is.
MOYERS: And libido?
CAMPBELL: The [enlightened] libido is the impulse to life. It comes from the heart.
MOYERS: And the heart is -
CAMPBELL: The heart is the organ of opening up to somebody else. That’s the human quality as opposed to the animal qualities, which have to do with self-interest.
MOYERS: So you’re talking about romantic love as opposed to lust, or passion, or a general religious sentiment?
CAMPBELL: Yes. You know, the usual marriage in traditional cultures was arranged by the families. It wasn’t a person-to-person decision at all… In the Middle Ages, that was the kind of marriage that was sanctified by the Church. And so the troubadour idea of real person-to-person Amor was very dangerous.
MOYERS: Because it was heresy?
CAMPBELL: Not only heresy, it was adultery, what might be called spiritual adultery. Since the marriages were all arranged by society, the love that came from the meeting of the eyes was of a higher spiritual value. For example, in the Tristan romance, Isolde is engaged to marry King Mark. They have never seen each other… [But Tristan and Isolde are] overtaken with love. But they had already been in love, they just didn’t know it… The problem from the troubadour point of view is that King Mark and Isolde, who are to be married, are not really qualified for love. They have never seen each other. The true marriage is the marriage that springs from the recognition of identity in the other, and the physical union is simply the [venue] in which that is confirmed. It doesn’t start the other way around [sexual contact first, then spiritual recognition]… It starts from the spiritual impact of love – Amor.
MOYERS: Christ spoke of “the adulterer at heart,” the violation of the union that takes place spiritually, in the mind and heart.
CAMPBELL: And every marriage was such a violation when it was arranged by the society and not by the heart. That’s the sense of courtly love in the Middle Ages. It is in direct contradiction to the way of the Church [which was] justifying marriages that were simply political and social in their character. And so came this movement validating individual choice, what I call “following your bliss” … [Tristan is told that he will die for interfering with the marriage of King Mark] Tristan says, “If by my death, you mean this agony of love, that is my life. If by my death, you mean the punishment that we are to suffer if discovered, I accept that. And if by my death, you mean eternal punishment in the fires of hell, I accept that, too.” Now, that’s big stuff.
MOYERS: Especially, for medieval Catholics, who believed in a literal hell. So what’s the significance of what Tristan was saying?
CAMPBELL: What he is saying is that his love is bigger even than death and pain, than anything. This is the affirmation of the pain of life in a big way.
MOYERS: And he would choose this pain of love now even though it might mean everlasting pain and damnation in hell.
CAMPBELL: Any life career that you choose in following your bliss should be chosen with that sense – that nobody can frighten me off from this thing. And no matter what happens, this is the validation of my life and action.
MOYERS: And in choosing love, too?
CAMPBELL: In choosing love, too… [Romantic] love is the meaning of life – it is the high point of life.
MOYERS: Is that what Wagner meant in his great opera on Tristan and Isolde, when he said, “In this world let me have my world, to be damned with it or to be saved”?
CAMPBELL: Yes, that’s exactly what Tristan said.
MOYERS: Meaning, I want my love, I want my life.
CAMPBELL: This is my life, yes. And I’m willing to take any kind of pain for it.
MOYERS: And this took a courage, didn’t it?
CAMPBELL: Doesn’t it? even to think of it.
MOYERS: “Doesn’t it” – you put it in the present tense.
CAMPBELL: Yes.
MOYERS: Even now?
CAMPBELL: Yes.
MOYERS: You have said that the point of all these pioneers in love is that they decided to be the author and means of their own self-fulfillment, that the realization of love is to be nature’s noblest work, and that they were going to take their wisdom from their own experience and not from dogma, politics, or any current concepts of social good. And is this the beginning of the romantic idea of the Western individual taking matters into his or her own hands?
CAMPBELL: Absolutely. You can see examples in Oriental stories of this kind of thing, but it did not become a social system. It has now become the ideal of love in the Western world.
MOYERS: Love from one’s own experience, taking one’s own experience as the source of wisdom?
CAMPBELL: Yes, that’s the individual. The best part of the Western tradition has included a recognition of and respect for the individual as a living entity. The function of the society is to cultivate the individual. It is not the function of the individual to support society.
MOYERS: But what happens to institutions – to universities, to corporations, to churches, to the political institutions of our society – if we all just run off and follow our love? Isn’t there a tension in this? Individual versus society? There has to be some legitimate point beyond which individual intuition, the individual libido, the individual desire, the individual love, the individual impulse to do what you want to do must be restrained – otherwise, you’d have tumult and anarchy, and no institution could survive.
Editor's note: At this point in the interview, Campbell asserts that some institutions -- meaning, the Great Despotic Church -- would serve us better if they did not survive: "There are some societies," he said, "that should not exist, you know."
MOYERS: Are you really saying that we should follow our bliss, follow our love, where it leads? ... The troubadours weren’t aiming, were they, to dissolve marriages or the world, nor was their aim carnal intercourse, lust, or even the quenching of the soul of God. You write, “Rather, they celebrated life directly in the experience of love as a refining, sublimating force, opening the heart to the sad bitter-sweet melody of being, through love, one’s own anguish and one’s own joy.” They weren’t trying to destroy things, were they?
CAMPBELL: No, you see, motive of power [which was the motive of the Church] was not what was in them. It was the motive of personal experience and sublimation… The idea was to sublimate life into a spiritual plane of experiences.
MOYERS: Love is right in front of me. Amor is the path directly before me, the eyes –
CAMPBELL: - the meeting of the eyes, that idea. So through the eyes, love attains the heart: For the eyes are scouts of the heart.
MOYERS: What was it that the troubadours learned about the psyche? We’ve heard about the psyche – Eros loved Psyche…
Editor’s note: “Psyche” is the Greek word for soul. In this Greek myth we are offered the hint of advancing human consciousness which elevated romantic love from mere Eros to that of loving another’s soul, one’s true person.
CAMPBELL: What they discovered was a certain individual aspect of it that cannot be talked about in purely general terms. The individual experience, the individual commitment to experience, the individual believing in his experience and living it – that is the main point here.
MOYERS: So love is not love in general, it is love for that woman?
CAMPBELL: For that one woman. That’s right…
CAMPBELL: Marriage is recognition of a spiritual identity. If we live a proper life, if our minds are on the right qualities regarding the person of the opposite sex, we will find our proper male or female counterpart. But if we are distracted by certain sensuous interests, we'll marry the wrong person. By marrying the right person, we reconstruct the image of ... [Mother-Father] God, and that's what marriage is... I've been amazed at the number of my friends who in their forties or fifties go apart. They have had a perfectly decent life together with the child, but they interpreted their union in terms of their relationship through the child [not] their own personal relationship to each other. Marriage is a relationship. When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you're sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship... You're no longer one alone; your identity is in a relationship. Marriage is not a simple love affair, it's an ordeal, and the ordeal is the sacrifice of ego to a relationship in which two have become one."
the image of God is the joy shared by one particular woman for and with one particular man
Editor's note: As Dr. Campbell used the phrase, "that one woman." This is the radical message of the troubadours – to love one woman only, one particular woman.
Editor’s note: (reprinted from above) Notice that, from a cosmic standpoint, Twins who inauthentically marry others are deemed to be "unfaithful soulmates," having engaged in "infidelity." Note, too, the phrase “crime against that love union” reminds us of Spirit Guide Margaret’s words, “sin against holy romance.” Twin Souls, in this “sin” or “crime,” violate not only each other’s right to each other but commit affront to their “One Person” status, that is, their sacred destiny, that for which Mother-Father God created them. That destiny will not let them go, as it will torment them, even for "centuries," until they've had enough suffering, decide to forgive each other, and make their way back to each other.
Twin Soul lovers and "public policy"
Editor’s note: What is this talk of “crime”? Are there police officers in the sky who regulate such matters? And why this concern about violation, or affront, or infidelity? We thought a wedding day was supposed to settle all that red-tape, and now you tell me about legal complications? And hasn’t it often been said that, in Summerland, the regulations are so slight and subtle that one is hardly aware of any governance at all? Aren’t we totally free in Summerland? Between consenting adults, can’t we do what we want, as long as no one is harmed? But now we’re given the “third degree” with this heavy talk about crime and violation and infidelity.
Words like "crime" could make us feel nervous; usually, punishment is in view. But there is no punishment in the afterlife, only education. This acknowledged, some of this education, if one is recalcitrant, could be quite unpleasant; but only if we insist on "cutting class" and refusing to "hand in our homework." When the Spirit Guides talk about "crimes against holy romance," they mean to say, "It's too bad, you could have had joy, but now your happiness will be delayed, and it won't be good times for you."
A long time ago in law school, a certain phrase could be heard in lectures: “against public policy.” In the article “Constructive Assent” we’re reminded of an elemental feature of contract law, that of, a “meeting of the minds.” This is what makes a contract, not a signing of papers, as such; the signed papers merely constitute evidence that, subsuming it all, there exists a meeting of the minds. But what about certain agreed-upon activities that harm society; for example, drug dealing, prostitution, or sex-slave trade? Transactions in these areas might be underwritten by consent, by a meeting of the minds, but any contracts issuing here have no standing in court, are not enforceable. Why? – because these are illegal contracts. And why are they illegal, despite a “meeting of the minds”? They’re illegal because these contracts are “against public policy,” against the greater societal good. And it doesn’t matter what people agree to here, it’s all deemed to be criminal activity.
Why did Mother-Father God create Twin Souls? In the Word Gems writings we find several answers. But one of these supports “public policy,” the greater societal good. In an afterlife testimony featured on this page (above), Robert James Lees states that Twin couples will eventually form "groups" of Twins, a kind of societal latticework of Twins, creating a basis of community in the next worlds. Many say something similar here in our world with families as the “nucleus” of civilization. This means that Twin couples become integral part of a divine plan, eventually, to unite all of creation in a spirit of harmony and oneness.
Terms such as “crime” and “sin” and “infidelity” and the like imply a hidden standard, one that’s been violated. But where shall we learn of these rules and laws meant to direct one’s conduct? We’ve already established that in Summerland there are no policemen, no law courts, no official constitution or flag to pledge allegiance to. Then what? How are we to know? And how can we be held accountable for “crimes” and violations of which we’ve been given no notice? If we’ve entered into contracts, even in this world, concerning which we offered a “meeting of the minds,” how were we to know that God and the Guides frowned upon certain agreements?
It called natural law. And even the Romans knew of this. Natural law runs everything – at least, in the “good neighborhoods” – in Summerland. This is the domain spoken of by the apostle Paul, his “law written upon your hearts,” the “life in the Spirit.”
Natural law, the “law written upon the heart,” is no push-over. It is far more strict and unyielding than any written law of our world; as we use the phrase, it’s being “hard wired” to do, or not do, something. With natural law, we pay every penny's worth of infraction, with no mercy. If we’re on the right side of natural law, an easy sense of peace and joy suffuses one’s spirit; but, if we step over the line into egocentrism, and do it long enough, a certain cloud of insanity will enshroud one’s sensibilities; ask anyone on the lower levels of the “rat cellar” or even among the “insane 500.”
On this page, you have seen many testimonies from the other side concerning Twin love. And when the Spirit Guides speak of “crimes” or “sins” or “infidelities” relative to holy romance, it does no good to decry, “the clergyman at church said it was ok, and we signed the papers to seal our agreement.” But, as we’ve seen, illegal contracts, "against public policy,” are not only unenforceable, but are void on their face. This means that, even if two willing parties agree to something "against public policy,” they’re still doing something illegal. But, we already hear the further clamoring din of protest: “But everyone in this world is doing it!” And the answer is, “And everyone who does it is suffering.” Natural law is unconcerned about geography and operates unfailingly within the human spirit, no matter its current zip code.
We -- the higher self, the sacred soul -- will judge ourselves on the basis of what in tort law is called "the reasonable man rule." It is a principle declaring that we become liable for what the reasonable man ought to have known, should have known, even if, in fact, he did not...
Willful blindness resulting in ignorance will not save us. The Dark Realms house millions who play the victim and say they "didn't know" or were deceived by rogue institutions. And they may not have known, but the reasonable man could have known and ought to have known, and one's own higher self, unpersuaded as it views the gross negligence, strictly judges oneself on this basis. Read Jesus' discourse on "paying the last penny".
And when it comes to the worldly marriage, many of its participants well know that they are marrying not for true love, not to create a family of love, but only to get and to take something, a private and one-sided agenda of "make me happy" - all of which constitutes, as the Guides say, "criminal" activity of using and exploiting a fellow human being. The sacred higher-self will absolutely not allow this to remain unaddressed.
And it doesn't matter if two think they agree or the Nice Young Man at Church smiles and offers so-called blessing, the contract in view is against public policy and therefore void on its face. There is a reason why Spirit Guide Margaret (above), the prosecuting attorney for true love, states that this kind of Machiavellianism causes more people to end up in "dark detention" than any other reason.
As we've seen on this page, ancient Spirit Guides, winning no points for politically-correct language, call this charade "legalized prostitution," and teach that the reasonable man, if he weren't blinded by his own foolish short-term perspective, ought to have known better. We were "made in the image", the spiritual law is written on one's heart, and the whispering voice of God leads those who, as Jesus said, "have ears to hear." Read more about the ideal marriage and Jesus' teaching on the "divorce" page.
Each of us was created to be with one particular person; that one person with whom we share a soul bond. In our moments of unguarded introspection, we sense this truth. Only in this authentic "union of spirits," this higher-level "meeting of the minds," can heaven-sanctioned marriage exist. Yes, we know, we were too young and stupid to know any better at age 23; so we say – but that didn’t mean we wouldn’t suffer. And we’ll continue to suffer, as the Spirit Guides say, for our “crimes” and “sins” – against divine “public policy,” against the law written upon our spirits -- until we rearrange our lives to reflect natural law, and not the base cravings of the “little me” ego.
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waiting for the right dance partner
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Steve: You don't like music?
Peggy: I do, actually.
Steve: I might even, when this is all over...
Peggy: ...go dancing.
Bucky: Then what are we waiting for!?
Peggy: The right dance partner... pay attention, Captain.
Steve: Yes, ma'am. I'll be there.
Bucky: I'm invisible. I'm turning into you. It's a horrible dream.
Steve: Don't take it so hard. Maybe she's got a friend.
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