SOUL MATES

stumbled across an article that matches my views quite nicely

Soul Mates

In the beginning there was energy. All energy, of course, has potential. The energy began to reach out, to see what more it could become. The energy began to rotate a sparkling, swirling spiral of dancing energy. One half pursued the other, trying to touch what it did not have.

One half is known as the Lord, the other is the Lady. One was strong in body, the other strong in mind. One was beautiful in body, the other beautiful in soul. Of course, this was the other’s view. They are both. They become each other’s compliment, each other’s soul mate, becoming whole in their love.

And when they fell in love with each other, they consummated it by making love. This made swirls in the spiral dance of energy like ripples in a pond. These became the suns, the stars, the moons, and the planets. The Goddess grew pregnant with love, with energy, energy created by the force of their love. She gave birth, raining bright spirit down upon the worlds. Some took the form of the Lord, some took the form of the Lady, When they came of age, and they began to search for their counterpart, their soul mate, regardless of the sex they'd been born in. Then more life was created. So came the universe and so came forth life, out of love.
- From the Jedi-Wiccan Book of Shadows

At one time or another we all have a dream of finding the perfect mate, the perfect person to match us, to spend our lives with. Its not an impossible dream. The other half, our soul mate, is out there somewhere. When spirits were sent from the Source, The One, they were neither one sex or the other, they were both. Over time, they divided and chose to become one or the other, to experience emotions etc. Each time they are reborn, they are one or the either, not always the same one, but there is an emptiness that cannot be filled, a longing for something intangible, a feeling of never being satisfied, a searching for something that you can't quite name. You are feeling the loss of the other half of your spirit. You are feeling the pull towards it, wherever it may be, to make you complete, whole again. How do I know if the one I love is my soul mate, you might ask? There are many different types of love, but the feeling that you get when you are finally joined with your soul mate has no comparison. It is a feeling that you have come home, finally. It is a feeling that you are one spirit in two bodies, thoughts of one are thoughts of the other. There is a feeling of only being half there when you are apart.

Your soul mate is your other half. The part of your spirit that went off to experience things eons ago. And you are theirs. Together you are one. There is no feeling like it on this earth. Sometimes you will not find your soul mate, but this doesn't mean that you can't have a loving relationship with someone else. As I mentioned previously, your soul mate might not be incarnated this time around, but this doesn't mean that you cannot love another. It will simply be different. It will not be the oceans roaring, volcanoes erupting type of thing, it will be more like a gentle breeze that is soothing and comfortable, but longlasting nonetheless. And there will maybe come a time when you are in this type of relationship and you meet up with your soul mate.
What do you do? This is something that only you can decide. There will be a pulling to the soul mate that you'll find it very hard to deny. Ultimately the choice will be yours. You will have to decide whether you want to leave a partner who you may have been with for years, happily.

You will have to examine the impact that your choice will have upon those other loved ones around you, also, your friends, your family. It is a hard choice to make. Remember, whatever you decide to do, that you will always find your soul mate, over and over again. You will be drawn, one to the other, lifetime after lifetime, after lifetime. The one you are with now may only be there, this one time around.

Soul mates are spiritual partners whose love is tied to a universal response or pure form of love. The very core of your soul carries with it the memory of all soul mate encounters since the time that you first descended upon the Earth plane. Most of you understand the soul mate relationship to be the highest potential of an intimate loving relationship. Such a relationship is possible only to the extent the lovers are expressing their highest potential as individuals. The souls have reached a level of balance that allows them to experience the splendor that has been promised since creation. A soul mate relationship is the expression of your innermost dream of intimate love and union with another. In the depth of your conciousness, you and your soul mate have already joined forces. If this is an incarnation where you will be together in body and spirit, you and your soul mate are most likely on the causal plane (the upper area of the mental plane where the soul designs the blueprints for current or future incarnations). Even if your primary soul mate is not on the planet, this soul serves as a guide in your life, so you are never alone. The major purpose of the soul mate connection is to help each other ascend, whether or not both of you are in body in any given lifetime. God does not look at soul mates as seperate entities.

Soul Mate Types
The concept of soul mate usually gives us a picture of happy, embracing partners in a love relationship. As you will see later in this article, other facets of the soul mate relationship unfold based on the criteria you choose for coming back on the Earth plane in a given lifetime - in other words, what did you come back here to do? Although not all astrologers study soul mate phenomena or support it, clients of the majority of relationship astrologers express an interest in finding their mate and linking up with the perfect partner. In my practice, probably eight out of ten clients explore this topic in depth at some time. When I present soul mate workshops, the lecture room fills quickly with interested men and women seeking insight into the search and discovery of their higher selves through the sacred partnership of the soul mate. Anyone who wants love must first internalize a life wish - it is the magnet for drawing the age-old reunion in this incarnation.

If you are researching information about soul mates, you will find a variety of definitions from experts and authors. You'll discover there are different types of soul mates.

Secondary soul mates are individuals who may be either the opposite sex or of the same sex. These individuals may be part of your soul cluster (group of souls who incarnate together over various lifetimes and come from the same soul). You often marry secondary soul mates and they make very suitable partners when the aspects are right; they may also be souls with whom you have karma to complete; they may be blood relatives, friends, or spiritual teachers, or combinations of these descriptions.

Twin flames, also known as twin souls or primary soul mates, can be the spiritual and often physical partner who knows the very essence of your soul. When you are first incarnated on the Earth plane, you came from the same atom and are able to recognize one another, on some level, across time. Although your goal is to grow spiritually, you and your twin flame do make karma with each other in various embodiments, and that karma has to be balanced when you find each other again. Sometimes couples who seem to bicker, battle, and squabble more than most planetary pairs are twin flames in search of balance. If you recognize yourself as one of these, your search for spirit must become the end result.

What About Age Differences?
Although their souls are the same age, sometimes soul mates have a significant age difference in body that may affect their relationship in a given lifetime. You don't necessarily link up physically with your soul mate, especially primary, in each incarnation, yet you are always in touch. You and your primary soul mate may decide not to marry or pair as lovers. Here are some of the reasons soul mates may not reincarnate in the primary soul mate role: One of the partners has chosen other issues to work on in this particular incarnation.

One partner is working on necessary karma with others before reuniting with the twin flame, who may be significantly more advanced spiritually.

One of the twin flames chooses the parent, child, friend, or relative relationship to help the other twin progress spiritually.

Circumstances prohibit a marriage between the two because one of the flames is significantly younger or older than the other.

The twin flame may be the soul's teacher and the purpose of meeting in this particular lifetime is to fill the other partner with spiritual learning. One of the partners may have chosen a less evolved path for several lifetimes. The errant twin flame chooses what the teacher flame has to offer and both of them advance in their spiritual ascension through the infusion of transformational love.

When Soul Mates Connect
Several scenarios describe the circumstances which soul mates connect in love relationships in a given lifetime. Remember, they have chosen the road taken.

Here are a few examples.
Twin flames make detours in other relationships before eventually finding each other. The souls may have made other commitments with destiny before their Moon's powerful love links matured to the level of recognition. Individuals may know their soul mates for years without recognizing them in that role. All of a sudden the realtionship turns romantic and the partners discover the bliss of transformational love, delighted to find that someone they already know is the love of their life. This situation may also occur with married couples who have mixed feelings about the strength of the union until spiritual awakenings take the partners to new levels of understanding

https://www.angelfire.com/realm2/amethystbt/soulmates.html