Brida

‘But how will I know who my Soulmate is?’ Brida felt that this was one of the most important questions she had ever asked in her life.

Wicca laughed. She had already asked herself that question and with the same eager anxiety as the young woman opposite her. You could tell your Soulmate by the light in their eyes, and since time began, that has been how people have recognized their true love.

‘By taking risks’, she said to Brida. ‘By risking failure, disappointment, disillusion, but never ceasing in your search for Love. As long as you keep looking, you will triumph in the end.’

Wicca started picking up the cards from the table, and Brida sensed that her time was nearly up. Yet there was one other question to ask.

‘Is it possible to meet more than one Soulmate in each life?’

‘Yes,’ thought Wicca with a certain bitterness. And when that happens, the heart is divided, and the result is pain and suffering. Yes, we can meet three or four Soulmates, because we are many and we are scattered. The young woman was asking the right questions, but she had to avoid answering them.

‘The essence of creation is one and one alone,’ she said. ‘And that essence is called Love. Love is the force that brings back together, in order to condense the experience dispersed in many lives and many parts of the world.’

‘We are responsible for the whole earth because we do not know where they might be, those Soulmates we were from the beginning of time. If they are well, then we, too will be happy. If they are not well, we will suffer, however unconsciously, a portion of their pain, Above all, though, we are responsible for re-encountering, at least once in every incarnation, the Soulmate who is sure to cross our path. Even if it is only for a matter of moments, because those moments bring with them a Love so intense that it justifies the rest of our days.’

The dog barked in the kitchen. Wicca finished picking up the cards and looked again at Brida.

‘We can also allow our Soulmate to pass us by, without accepting him or her, or even noticing. Then we will need another incarnation in order to find that Soulmate. And because of our selfishness, we will be condemned to the worst torture humankind ever invented for itself: loneliness.’