Twin Flames – The Ancient Greek Story of One Soul Split into Two

 

 

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”

Aristotle – Ancient Greek philosopher

Thanks to the internet and social media, more and more people are becoming aware of the twin flame theory but where did it originate?

In these days of New Age spiritualism, a set of religious practices and beliefs, a form of Western esotericism which emerged in the early 1970s, we may be forgiven for thinking the twin flame theory is something new.

Nothing could be further from the truth, the twin flame (maybe under another name), is mentioned in The Bible, in Greek and Hindu mythology but most of all, in ancient Greek philosophy, specifically, in one of Plato’s more well-known works; “ Symposium” and was most likely the problem in the saddest love stories of Greek mythology.

 

Symposium by Greek philosopher Plato c. 385–370 BC

 

 

Plato’s “Symposium” is a collection of speeches given by the cream of the crop of Athenian philosophers of the day, showing off their rhetorical skills whist attending a symposium, a drawn out, after-banquet, wine-drinking extravaganza, probably held in Plato’s Academy (the world’s first university), an idyllic retreat, located in Athens..

The guests included father of Western philosophy, Socrates, the prominent Athenian statesman, Alcibiades and the king of comedy, playwright Aristophanes.

The subject of the day was eros, meaning not only erotic love but also spiritual, with desire, love making, gender and human instincts all being taken into account.

Other Greek words for love are storge (affection), philia, (brotherly love) and agape (the highest form of love, unconditional or the love of God for man and of man for God).

Eros (Cupid), in Greek mythology, is none other than the god of love and desire!

 

What is a Twin Flame?

 

 

“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.”

Plato – Symposium

Don’t make the common mistake of confusing a soul mate with a twin flame, they are two different things.

Throughout your life you can have many soul mates but only one twin flame.

Twin flames are said to be one soul split into two, soul mates are two distinctly separate souls which have an incredible connection.

Whereas soul mates are perfectly suited to each other, a partner for life or a close friend who lead harmonious relationships, twin flames have mirror image relationships which may reflect each other’s bad habits and imbalances.

When they are apart, they often become dysfunctional, even to the point of losing all self-worth.

Usually, in a twin flame connection there is a” runner” and a “chaser”, it may be rather an on off affair, with no foundation or stability, this is unlikely to happen with a soul mate connection.

 

 

Twin flames relationships are mostly spiritual; however, it’s believed you can feel the connection to your twin even if you have not met them physically.

 This is no ordinary love, feelings run deep and are extremely strong, twin flames often have the feeling they have met and known each other before, it’s even said your twin flame, is someone with whom you have been with in past lives.

Twin flames may know what the other person is thinking; have similar interests, like the same food, they will have no inhabitations with other and feel comfortable speaking their minds without needing to hold back.

To become whole, the two separated souls embark on their twin flame journey in a quest to find each other; the union, when they will once again become one.

 

Origins of the Twin Flame

 

 

In Plato’s “Symposium”, Aristophanes, the comic playwright, explains the” origins of love” by telling a story, the myth of why humans had been split in two by Zeus, king of all ancient Greek gods.

There were three genders of humans, so Aristophanes told his audience; male, female, and androgynous, each with four hands, four legs, two heads.

Males originated from the sun, females from the earth and those who were androgynous originated from the moon.

They were completely round in shape, walked upright with the ability to move in any direction.

 

 

They were exceptionally powerful beings, which rather worried the gods of Olympus, who were rather wary of them.

The last straw was when these multi-limbed beings had the audacity to attempt to scale Mount Olympus, ground on which only a god was allowed to set foot.

 Zeus had had enough of them and decided to halve their power by splitting them in two.

 

The Separation

 

 

As Zeus sliced each human in half, he ordered Apollo, god of light, to turn their heads towards their wounds, in order for them to see and remember their punishment, as a deterrent in case they should entertain thoughts of again rising above their station.

Apollo finished by drawing the skin tight from all sides, across the stomach and fastening it tightly in the middle, this is now called the navel.

The humans, who had now become slaves to the gods, Aristophanes told his listeners, were terribly unhappy, the ordeal of their separation had taken away their will to live; they ceased eating and one by one began to die.

Zeus took pity on them and moved their genitals to the front, which before the separation had been outside and they cast their seed and produced children, not in each other but in the ground.

Now, when they embraced each other, they had the satisfaction of intimacy and would be able to return to their work.

Each would then have one set of genitalia and would forever desire to reunite with their other half.

“This then, is our source of desire to love each other”, explains Aristophanes, as he finishes his story.

 

Twin Flame Journey

 

 

“Love is the name that we give to our desire for wholeness, to be restored to our original nature”

 Aristophanes

Aristophanes then asks “is love a cure for our ‘wound’ of having been doomed to live divided, of not, seemingly, being ‘complete’?

 “Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.”

 “Each of us, then, is a ‘matching half’ of a human whole and each of us is always seeking the half that matches him.”

Plato – Symposium

Aristophanes clarifies by pointing out that those who are drawn to members of the opposite gender are halves of previously androgynous people, whereas men drawn to men and women who prefer women are halves of what were previously complete males and females.

This then is the origin of our instinctive, constant desire for connections with other human beings, our other halves.

Twin flames are deemed to search, even if it takes forever, to find their one true love, their other half.

 

The Union

 

 

“and when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other’s sight, as I may say, even for a moment”

Plato – Symposium

 

 

Once we find our other half, we just know this is the one, we feel we already know them, have so much in common, we feel we can’t live without them.

The sensation of love and affection for that person is so intense; it’s beyond words, it cannot be described, only felt.

The road may be a rocky one, a roller coaster, a series of ups and downs, separations and new beginnings, love and hate, however, you know they are your twin flame.

The Twin Flame connection is ultimate intimacy.

 

In Literature

 

 

Once you understand the meaning of twin flame, you begin to notice allusions to twin flame connections and journeys in many well-known love stories.

Take Shakespeare’s star crossed lovers for instance, Romeo and Juliet, or Sir Thomas Malory’s tales of King Arthur, where Elaine, Lady of Escalot (Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott), dies of her unrequited love for Sir Lancelot and floats down the river to Camelot in a boat.

 

 

And to end on a Greek note, how about:

The greatest love story of Greek mythology, Eros and psyche!

The myth of Eros (Cupid), from whom derives the word erotic, son of Aphrodite (Venus) goddess of love and Psyche, a princess, a story of a loss of trust and betrayal, one of the best-loved and the greatest love story of Greek mythology.