Soul Census

Does anyone believe in reincarnation?

Not going to lie, i've toyed with the thought of my soul, upon the death of my body, coming back to Earth in a different form.

I'm reading a story at the moment that has a brilliant perception of reincarnation. 

A couple, naturally they'd be soulmates, who have found each other hundreds of times on Earth (and in the spirit world) finally find themselves losing one another - because all good things must come to an end, that is literally what one of the spirit guides said. 

The woman is completely distraught by the separation because she finds herself unable to connect with her soulmate. I suppose that would be quite alarming. The thought of spending hundreds of lifetimes with someone only to be forced to separate is quite harsh. 

The man kicks up a stink and finds an explanation as to why they can't connect with each other any longer and he is given a beautiful lesson demonstrated by a deer being eaten by a leopard. 

His soul is developing, and he is being put on some sort of course where he needs to learn something important: if he passes the course then he will be reunited with his soulmate but if he fails then he will experience the heartache all over again. It's a pretty twisted way to force someone to learn something, isn't it?

I'm only up to chapter 2 out of 20 of the story and i'm insanely hooked on the readers perception of how souls work, develop, and move on. I feel as though by the end of this story I will be a firm believer in reincarnation.

Footnote: The opening of chapter three was about what happens to broken souls and that just terrified me; and the end of the chapter where the elders are telling him that he is chained by weakness and that weakness is love - how dare they? I understand that change is necessary to progress in life but to cut out love is too much of a change to ask anyone to do. If I was being made to let go of love, i'd want a better explanation than that.

The Mirror Has Two Faces

As I stood at the altar beside my sister and her husband-to-be, it struck me that this “ritual” called a wedding ceremony is really just the final scene of a fairytale.

Nobody ever tells you what happens after the ritual though.

Nobody ever tells you that Cinderella drove Prince Philip crazy with her obsessive need to clean the castle (because she missed her day job, right?).

Nobody ever tells you what happens after because...there is no after.

The be-all and end-all of romantic love was/is marriage. Marriage, that's right.

But it wasn't always like that...

Around the 12th century there was a notion called courtly love where love had nothing to do with marriage and nothing to do with sex. In most cases it was defined as a passionate relationship between a knight and a lady of the court who was already married; and so they could never consummate their love. They would have to rise above your ordinary (you know, going to the bathroom in front of each other kind of love) and find something more divine. They took sex out of the equation and what was left was a union of souls.

Now think of this: sex was always the fatal love potion.

Look at the literature: 'Lancelot and Guinevere', 'Tristan and Isolde' (for examples) - all consummation could lead to was madness, despair, or death!

Clinical experts, scholars, and my Aunt Esther are united in the belief that true love has spiritual dimensions while romantic love is nothing but a lie...an illusion...modern myth...a soulless manipulation.

Speaking of manipulation...

It's like going to the movies to see a romance film, when we see the lovers on screen kiss, the music swells, and we like it, right? So that makes you think when my date takes you home and kisses you goodnight, if I don't hear the philharmonic in my head, you dump him!

Now the question is: why do we buy it?

We buy it because whether it's a myth or a manipulation, let's face it: we all want to fall in love.

Why?

Because that experience makes us feel completely alive! Where every sense is heightened, every emotion magnified, where our everyday reality is shattered and flung into the heavens!

It may only last a moment, an hour, or an afternoon...but it doesn't diminish its value because we're left with memories that we treasure for the rest of our lives.

I read an article a while ago that says when we fall in love we hear Puccini in our heads. I love that. I think it's because his music fully expresses our longing for passion in our lives and romantic love. And while we listen to La Boheme or read 'Wuthering Heights' or watch 'Casa Blanca'...a little bit of that love lives in us too.

So the final question is: why do people want to fall in love when it can have such short shelf life and be devastatingly painful?

It leads to the propagation of the species? Psychologically, we need to connect to somebody? Because we're culturally pre-conditioned? Good answers but much too intellectual for me.

I think it's because, as some of you already may know, while you have it...it feels fucking great!

Maybe this world is another planet's hell?

I've been thinking a lot lately about heaven and hell.

We think of hell as some fiery dark place filled with hate and people who are horrible but isn't that what our world is? People constantly hating on each other, hating them selves, hating the things people do, hating the world around them... So, why wouldn't this be the hell of another planet? Because there’s sure as hell enough hate to go around.

On a less serious note, perhaps this could be heaven compared to somewhere else?

Happy Diwali

There's an Indian mother and daughter family who live a couple of doors down from my flat and I was walking passed them this morning as they were spray painting some patterns onto the floor outside of their door.

The mother smiled at me and said "happy diwali".

I learned that Diwali is the "festival of lights", and that it's a five day festival in India that celebrates the victory of good over evil. Today and for the next five days, Indians all over the world will be lighting candles all over their houses, letting off fireworks and firecrackers, sharing sweets, and worshipping the goddess of wealth - Lakshmi.

They invited me into their home to show me all of their home-made candles and decorations, and hanging on the wall above the fireplace was a large picture of this:

This is how India looks from outer space on Diwali night.