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What is a Soul Mate?
by
Ann Merivale
In
his article
relating to his newly published Encyclopedia
of Angels1,
(Llewellyn
Journal, 01-19-2009),
Richard Webster recounts a recent visit he made with his wife to the
Lac d’Annecy in the French Alps. His reason for going there
was that he had heard of a delightful legend concerning the origins of
this lake: that it (and a second one) had been formed by the copious
tears wept by an angel who had been called back to Heaven and could not
bear the thought of leaving that part of France. I like
Webster’s Spirit
Guides and Angel Guardians2
very much, and so I shall now buy his new Encyclopedia
of Angels;
I just slightly regret the fact that I did not have access to his
writing when I
fell in love with the Lac d’Annecy at the age of sixteen,
because I would have appreciated the angel legend just as much then as
I do now!
At the time I had been invited by my half-French godfather, who was my
mother’s cousin, to spend the summer vacation with his French
wife and their family in their holiday home, right on the edge of that
beautiful lake. I was due on my return to England to embark upon my
studies of French and Spanish for what we call in the UK
“Advanced Level.” These are the examinations on
which university entrance is mainly decided, and the French Romantic
poets formed an important part of the syllabus. I swam in the lake
daily, and while I was lying in my cousins’ garden drying off
in the sun, I learnt by heart (among other things)
Lamartine’s poem “Le Lac,” which moved me
to so many tears that I am now wondering, Richard, whether I might not
almost have formed another lake! This poem is autobiographical, and in
it the bereaved poet is mourning the loss of his beloved and wishing
that he could make time stand still for ever on the days that they had
spent in bliss rowing a boat together on the lake. (The lake to which
Lamartine was referring was in fact not that of Annecy, but the nearby
Lac du Bourget, so I wonder whether that is the other lake formed by
the angel’s tears?)
Looking back now, I suppose that my interest in “true
love” dates from that summer. Nowadays most sixteen-year-old
girls will probably have already been dating boys for a while, and many
of them will no longer be virgins, but things in upper-middle class
England were different in 1956. Besides, I was painfully shy,
over-protected by my Catholic mother and all girls’ school,
and almost the only boys I knew were my three younger brothers. Music
has always been of enormous importance to me, and I was passionately in
love, not with “the boy next door,” a pop idol or a
movie star, but with the great English composer Edward Elgar. I read
books about Elgar, felt jealous of his wife Alice (partially for whom
my husband and I later named our daughter) and—for some
reason I no longer
remember—I felt even more jealous of Dorabella of the Enigma
Variations, whose book gave me the impression that she had also been in
love with him. I listened to Elgar’s music whenever I could,
and bemoaned the fact that my French cousins had never heard of him
(which meant that in France I had to content myself with gramophone
records of Beethoven quartets—a love that has never left me
either). And I thought I would never get over the fact that Elgar had
died six years before I was born. I did eventually get over it, of
course (and nowadays I have the good fortune of living not very far
from the charming cottage where he was born and am able to walk the
lovely hills that inspired much of his music), but it took rather
longer to deal with my conviction that the ever-elusive, one-and-only,
“Mr. Right” would never appear since I was so
unattractive that “HE” would fail to recognize me.
The
interesting thing is that I never for
a single moment doubted “HIS” existence. Was this
the fruit
of a young, over-fertile imagination, or was it the stirrings of a
“knowing” that lay deep in my subconscious? Is
there really
such a thing as a “one-and-only, true soul-mate,”
or are
soul mates simply people who come into our lives at different stages
for our learning? Or are both of these true? And if there does exist a
“one-and-only,” does meeting him/her always entail
“living happily ever after,” or are such meetings
more
often than not unbelievably painful and frustrating? I have explored
these questions—and more—in my forthcoming book, Souls
United: The Power of Divine Connection3.
As a Woolger-trained Deep Memory Process (or past-life regression)
therapist, many of the people who have come to me for help have been
suffering from problems caused by love—either the lack of it,
the
loss of it, or frustrations in an ongoing relationship. After all,
sexuality is a vital part of the human condition; without it we would
cease to procreate! One might wonder how being regressed to a previous
life could help in such circumstances, but I personally never cease to
be amazed at the revelations that are so often forthcoming in these
therapy sessions. Frequently over our many lives we become trapped in
repeated patterns, and becoming aware of these patterns can help us to
escape from them. Very often, when the therapist takes a client into
the “Bardo” (the in-between life state following a
death),
characters from his or her present life are identified, and the past
life events that have just been re-lived shed light on their present
behavior. Equally often, in the “Bardo” state, a
spirit
guide or other wise being gives clarification and useful advice. The
possibilities are endless, and I am endlessly grateful both for my own
learning that has come from practicing this therapy, and for the
transformations that I have seen take place among some of my previously
very troubled clients.
Click here
to
read
the full article.
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An
Interview
with
Ann Merivale, Author of Sun Signs
& Soul Mates
by
Llewellyn
1.
Judging by your article, “What
Is a Soul Mate?” you
obviously have a great admiration for Richard
Webster, one of our most
long-standing and prolific authors. Webster has also written a book on
the subject of soul mates (Soul
Mates: Understanding Relationships Across Time).
How would you compare your book with his?
Yes,
I think Richard Webster is a very good writer, and he’s a
mine of interesting historical information. I have to confess that I
didn’t actually read Soul
Mates
until I’d nearly finished writing Souls
United,
but when I did, I had no fears about there being too much overlap.
Although Webster’s also a regression therapist, our two books
have a very different aim. His is aimed principally at advising people
on how to find a soul
mate, whereas mine specializes
in twin soul relationships—not looking for them but
describing them. Twinsoulship is the closest kind of relationship that
can exist between two human beings and the one that is least well
understood, I think, these days.
2.
Are there any other significant people who have also influenced your
views on spiritual matters?
Oh
yes, there were a lot of people who were very influential for me long
before I read anything of Webster’s. I was brought up
strongly Catholic and always believed firmly in God but, because of my
difficult childhood, I found it impossible to feel
God’s love. The first person to give me any proper counseling
and help me believe that I was no less lovable than anyone else was a
wonderful priest called Michael Hollings. He’s been dead for
several years now, but when I knew him he was the Catholic Chaplain to
Oxford University, where I was working at the time, and he regularly
invited me for meals at the Chaplaincy, which in his day was always an
open house to everyone from hobos to professors. Michael and I kept up
a sporadic correspondence until not so long before his death, and he
expressed great interest when I told him about my conversion to belief
in reincarnation
and the book I was writing at the time. I have his picture on the wall
of my study and chat to him when I remember. I found out many years
after the last time we met—on my Woolger Introductory weekend
in fact—that Michael and I had been friends and colleagues as
Dominicans in the Middle Ages, which explained why he’d
always treated me as an equal when I’d felt so very far from
being that.
Then there were other spiritual Catholics I admired, but I suppose the
next most important people in my life were Mark, my homeopath/osteopath,
and Phil, who used to treat me with acupuncture in Hull and who is a
Buddhist. It was Mark who first suggested that I write a book, and both
of them encouraged me to study the subject of reincarnation. It took me
a while to come round to believing in that because of my Catholicism,
but then in 1991 I heard a lecture about the great American seer Edgar
Cayce, who succeeded in reconciling the concept of reincarnation with
his Christianity. I’ve written about Cayce in Souls
United
because his family story is so relevant to my topic.
3.
You are now a Woolger-trained Deep Memory Process therapist as well as
a past-life regression therapist. What is the difference?
The
main difference is the use of hypnotherapy.
I obtained my first diploma from the London College of Past Life
Regression Therapy, and Dr. Keith Hearne, who ran that, is (like many
other regression therapists) a hypnotherapist. Hypnotherapy is a
wonderful thing of course, but Woolger doesn’t use it for
past life work because he feels that it dissociates the client from the
memories that surface. He likes people to be completely
“in” the past life they are recalling because
reliving it vividly facilitates the letting go, and he teaches
different techniques to use according to the presenting problem.
However, he tends to work very much from the body because that is where
we store the scars of physical trauma. Focusing on and mentally
exaggerating some pain or discomfort in one’s body can, for
instance, trigger one into a traumatic death, and re-experiencing that
and realizing that it doesn’t belong to the present can bring
profound and permanent healing.
Another point about Deep Memory Process is that “past
life” doesn’t always have to mean
“previous life.” By that I mean that sometimes a
client can be helped by going back to a problem that dates from his or
her present life. Most, if not all, difficulties do have their roots in
previous lives, but it can happen that a person needs to clear some
childhood stuff that they’d suppressed before they can be
ready to go back any further.
4.
Was it your practice of DMP that led you to write this book?
Click here
to read
the full interview.
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Revitalizing Your Tarot
Practice, Part I: Decks
by Barbara Moore
"Tarot
Reader Burnout" happens to most tarotists at some time or another. Just
as anything can become dull and stagnant, so too can your reading
practice or study. Tarot expert Barbara Moore offers a myriad tips and
tricks to reinvigorate your tarot practice.
Read
More
Becoming Your Own Wise One
by
Dr. Stewart Bitkoff
In
more traditional cultures, the "wise one" is a central figure, advising
all who seek answers. Today, this diverse role has been spread across a
team of specialists: lawyers, doctors, public officials. This may not
be the best model, however; Dr. Stewart Bitkoff, author of A
Commuter's Guide to Enlightenment,
explains how we can recapture our independence and spirituality by
becoming our own wise one.
Read
More
The Secret
of Success Without Stress
by
Guy Finley
Have you ever wondered why success and stress seem to be inseparable
companions in our world today? Does it have
to be that way? Guy Finley, best-selling author of Seeker's
Guide to Self-Freedom, The
Secret of Letting Go,
and the newly-released Letting
Go: A Little Bit at a Time,
details how you can truly have success--without stress.
Read More
Earth
Connection: The Grounding Cord Exercise and 8 Other ways to Ground and
Center
by
Katalin Koda
As we develop along the path as healers and magical practitioners, we
find that certain tools enhance our practice immeasurably.
One of the most important aspects of good healing and magical work is
to ground and center. Katalin Koda, author of The
Sacred Path of Reiki,
illustrates the Grounding Cord Exercise, as well as 8 other ways ground
and center.
Read More
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Llewellyn
Titles Receive 2009
Coalition of Visionary Resources Awards
by
Llewellyn
Three
Titles Among COVR Award Winners, Three Others Nominated
Three Llewellyn titles have been awarded prestigious awards from the
Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR). The award-winning titles for
2009 are:
Other
Llewellyn COVR Award finalists include:
COVR
is an organization formed by a unique group of businesses that deal in
"Visionary Resources," and who work with and support each other as
independent retailers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and
publishers of visionary books, music, and merchandise.
For
the twelfth consecutive year, COVR's Visionary Awards were presented at
the International New Age Trade Show (INATS) banquet, this year held on
June 27th, 2009 in Denver, Colorado. The Visionary Awards are judged by
retailers and seasoned professionals, who evaluate each title based
upon content, presentation, and their own knowledge of the industry.
More
information about the COVR Awards and award-winning titles can be found
at www.covr.net.
About
The COVR Awards
The Coalition
of Visionary Resources (COVR) is an organization formed
by a unique group of businesses that deal in "Visionary Resources," and
who work with and support each other as independent retailers,
manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and publishers of visionary
books, music, and merchandise. For the twelfth consecutive year, COVR's
Visionary Awards were presented at the International New Age Trade Show
(INATS) banquet, this year held on June 27th, 2009 in Denver, Colorado.
The Visionary Awards are judged by retailers and seasoned
professionals, who evaluate each title based upon content,
presentation, and their own knowledge of the industry.
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to Top
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