What Plato Knew About Soulmates
Have you ever wondered why we humans seek a soulmate?
What is it about us that craves this deep connection to another?
Are we genetically designed to be mated?
One fascinating and possible answer comes from Aristophanes, a philosopher of ancient Athens. He offers a wild tale, that he shared at Plato’s Symposium, about how the deep desire for Oneness came about.
Long, long ago in primal times people had doubled bodies, four arms, four legs, two heads and they were big and round…. These roly-poly creatures wheeled around earth like clowns doing cartwheels & were very powerful.
There were three sexes: the all male, the all female, and the “androgynous,” who were half male, half female.
The males were said to have descended from the sun, the females from the earth and the androgynous couples from the moon.
The creatures tried to scale the heights of heaven and planned to set upon the gods. Zeus thought about blasting them to death with thunderbolts, but did not want to deprive himself of their devotions and offerings, so he decided to cripple them instead by chopping them in half with his sword, thus, in effect separating the two bodies. . The severed halves were then scattered in opposite directions…
Aristophanes claimed that when two people who were torn apart from each other find each other, they never again want to be separated again from their soulmate.
When a half finally does meets its other half, they become deliriously happy and overjoyed with the promise of new love and delight. They believe that they are complete now that they are reunited with their other half, thus obtaining “wholeness.”
When Jean Houston first shared this story with me, I felt the “rightnesss” of it.
Of course we are meant to share our lives with someone!
If you feel that way too, and you are ready to discover some new ways to be pro-active to making it happen, please join my good friend, licensed psychotherapist and bestselling author Katherine Woodward Thomas, MA, MFT, for a free online seminar designed to support you in the process of uncovering and then releasing your hidden inner-barriers to love, so you can at last “call in” the committed, nurturing partnership of your dreams!
Wishing you love, laughter and magical kisses,
Arielle
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!