Navigating the River of Soul and Friendship

My Anam Cara -- My Soul Friend

My teacher, my mentor, my soul…
The doors you open my soul friend
My Anam Cara,  I can not close

The hidden secret comes to expression  

the face in the mirror of the mind
Somehow in the dark with only the faintest edge 

 Image from the Canadian touring company The Phantom of the Opera

Of light illuminating my face
Landing in harrowed space around me held

Hovering in some strange abyss
I do not like the way it makes me feel
The image in the mirror
The haunted misery
My breathing strangling tightness in my chest
Loosed in this image in the mirror
A dizzying rush swirling feeling in my stomach
Standing in the center of it all
Struggling with a relentless urge
To relieve a vague but unbearable  

Sense of incompleteness to fill a void

Within me that demands fullness –

The urge becomes compelling
Feeling of incompleteness is relieved 

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And the dark void filled at least in the moment

A lone woman asks to be let in
Her ugliness attributes to her arresting dramatic entrance
When all the quests are seated -  sit and feast on your life
She rebuffs a challenge in her 

Surreal hideousness apparent meaningless of her existence

In the silence the profundity of stillness
Standing at the edge of a greater presence 

Who invites us toward new heights of passion and creativity
Whilst Adam and Eve caress each other

As Satan looks on and caresses his snake watching –
Waiting to snare your soul

Standing at the threshold held by my own self imposed exile
While my soul has spun a cocoon and has completely died to this world-
Festooned with quilt, fear, loneliness and despair,
My senses are a temenos that separates me
From the fire of passion
from the kiss and 
breathe of the divine 

That alone can remove the dust 
from the mirror of my heart

So once again–I can sit and dine at the table of the divine.
My fragile transient existence living on borrowed time
You find me my Anam Cara my Dear One,

We were brought together through divine providence
You peel my image from the mirror – 
glimpse the beautified reflection 

As each muscle and sinew give way
Through deep truth and trust
The taut hold lets loose on the thin reality of life –

 Image from the Canadian touring company The Phantom of the Opera

Then in a twinkling of an eye a thousand sheets of glass
Cascading, splitting and shattering down
Mixing our life blood pooling at our feet –
That once shielded my eyes from the beauty that hides inside,

My Anam Cara – two friends, two bodies, one soul
An awaking  between us –

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Of the eternal nature of the mysterious
Illuminating the one soul divine.

Fin

 Anam Cara - A Celtic term meaning "friend of my soul" not to be confused with "soul mate" modern meaning "ideal or one and only person" in someone's life. There is a beautiful book titled Anam Cara by John O'Donohue in his book he explains that Anam Cara refers to the Celtic spiritual belief of souls connecting and bonding. In Celtic Spiritual tradition, it is believed then when you connect with another person and become completely open and trusting with that individual, your two souls begin to flow together. Should such a deep bond be formed, it is said you have found your Anam Cara or soul friend.

 The Anam Cara is a person to whom you can reveal the hidden intimacies of your life. This friendship is an act of recognition. When you have an anam cara, your friendship cut across all convention and category. You are joined in an ancient and eternal way with the friend of your soul. Central here is the recognition and awakening of the ancient belong-ing between two friends. Since the human heart is never completely born, love is the continuous birth of creativity within and between us.

 The Anam Cara experience opens a friendship that is not wounded or limited by separation or distance. Such friendship can remain alive even when the friends live far away from each other. Because they have broken through the barriers of persona and egoism to the soul level, the unity of their souls is not easily severed. When the soul is awakened, physical space is transfigured. Even across the distance two friends can stay attuned to each other and continue to sense the flow of each other's lives. With your anam cara you awaken the eternal. In this soul-space there is no distance.  (Extract from Anam Cara ISBN 978-1-848-27048-0 John o'Donohue)