Is there a difference between a ‘soul mate,’ ‘friend,’ or ‘acquaintance’? Certainly, I am in no way degreed or trained to say so with any force of credibility. But I would submit that even those who are, individuals who’ve spent years of their professional (even personal) lives in almost ascetic study of the human condition, would be hard pressed to affix a definitive “yes” or “no” to the question. It is chiefly a matter of individual instinct, more a sense of innate connection than physical definition—an essence of faith versus an easily digestible answer.
The question is undeniably intriguing; the answers as numerous as a star-filled night sky.
Dorothy Thomspn, and a host of contributors, make no attempt to compromise upon any one definition; they display a rational yet emotional antithesis to the one-size-fits-all school of pop culture. Romancing The Soul is a tour de force of very personal storytelling in the truest sense. Most of the accounts related could easily be construed as fodder for a movie script, yet their power comes from their firm roots in real life experience.
The stories speak not only of the individuals who experienced them, but also to the greater cosmogony of paired soul theory. Allusion is made to creation theory as it pertains to the soul, that through the passing of spiritual time all souls evolved in intimate union until eventually becoming one entity, which then divided and the two halves seek one another—”each half having not only its own gender, but a portion of the contra-gender.” This breaking up of a primal unity is echoed in the creation myths of many peoples the world over.
But Thompson and her contributors don’t delve into any theoretical forensics in search of universal answers. Doing so may have provided an intriguing framework from which to view the stories in, but would have tossed the empirical into the necessarily emotional, perhaps a bit like watching someone who has jogged in circles while touching their forehead to a baseball bat—they come away awfully dizzy and disoriented. Appealing to our better angels gives the book presence and an impressive personal jolt.
Two words spring to mind regarding this book: evocative and affecting. Even from a male perspective I can clearly perceive the emotional tug some of these stories contain. To list even a few examples here would only serve as distraction from the whole, but I can best convey the sum feeling with a movie-type analogy:
Think of any movie you’ve watched where two characters seem hell bent on remaining apart, whether through circumstance or willful control. Imagine the feeling you’ve had sitting and watching these people attempt to bond with others when you instinctively know that these two characters are meant to be together. Now try to recall the anxiety you may have felt each time one or the other is reluctant or outright dismissive—now recall the feeling you had at the end when they finally came together and how enitrely fitting it was for both of them . . .and you.
Many of these stories—more properly termed personal events, I suppose—engender that same slap in the face and tug upon the heart. If ever you have had doubts about the concept of a soul mate these episodes can only serve to squelch such dubiety and plant the seed of wonder.
But to approach this book in an effort to learn in some academic fashion would be to miss the point entirely, to succumb to primitive or “prelogical” thinking. Ms. Thompson’s goal is neither to validate one theory or another, nor is it to dismiss as trite any nuance of thoughtful assumption. During an e-mail exchange about the book she offered this insight: ” . . . it isn’t all about love and romance . . . it’s about” an ascension upon “your own personal ladder, of knowing who you are, what you are, why you are on this earth.”
The overtones should not be mistaken for being dogmatic or religious. Quite the contrary, actually. The intense experiences shared rise upon one common foundation: spirituality. If you can’t separate the two concepts—spirituality and religion—then you likely won’t properly understand the more ephemeral yet unmistakable truths the book contains.
Those possessing a more logical bent will undoubtedly hew toward the rationalization of soul mates as contrived personal mythology. But again, you must open mindedly approach the theme of souls as a matter of inherent emotion, not logic. A myth can only be a myth if you don’t believe it, that is, if you stand outside it in some manner. If you stand inside a myth it embodies something different—it becomes divine truth. Somewhere in-between those liminal stages is the emotional singularity we refer to as our soul.
Romancing The Soul is an invitation to explore, via flesh-and-blood testament of others, perhaps the most profound intrigue of enlightened man—a puzzle which only the individual can truly answer: Is there a kindred spirit for me, a duality of contra-gender invisibly fused into the profound purity of Oneness?
The answer is never handed to us on a silver platter; we must attentively seek it if we truly desire such wisdom. Ms. Thompson, et al., summon those who pursue such knowledge of transcendence and ask only for them to read with an open mind . . . and an open heart. Plato proposed the idea that humans are of two minds: one for thinking and reasoning, and the other for emotion and passion. Arguably the evidence presented in Romancing The Soul leans heavily in favor of the latter, yet is wrapped firmly in tensile strength of deeper intuition — the ‘you just know’ factor.
Ready to read it? You can find
Romancing the Soul at:
•
Amazon
•
Zumaya Publications
• In eBook form from
FictionsWise
A review copy of Romancing the Soul was kindly provided by the author, Dorothy Thompson. My thanks to her and Zumaya Publishing for the opportunity to participate in the virtual tour.
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