Two kinds of deep affinity are essential for a close, destined, balanced and healthy love relationship. The first is the Heart Connection. That is the quality of the pure, open experience, being to being. The feeling of desire and unspoken closeness that we feel most vividly when we are falling in love. A reliable indication of a heart connection is the sense of warmth, nourishment and fullness that we feel in our Beloved's presence.

A heart connection is possible in many types of love relationships, and is a universal kind of love experience. We can feel this with a close friend, a child, our parents and siblings, or with anyone we feel open to, even a passing stranger. This feeling does not explain the special attraction we feel toward certain people with whom we feel a sense of deep, unexplained resonance. The feeling that we want to be with them all the time, to live with them, to know them, to love them and become an intrinsic part of their lives, and they ours. The unnamable feeling, draw, and pulling of a Beloved Mate. This is the sign of another type of affinity commonly called recognizing yourSoul Mate.

When two destined souls connect, there is a vibration between two people who see each other's essential beauty, behind their outer personality, and then choose to connect with that True Self on a deeper level. This is a kind of mutual recognition, almost as if you both had been together and known each other before, perhaps in a past life. It feels like destiny brought you together which produces a catalyst effect and is extremely powerful. Many songs, books and poems have been written explaining this phenomena since the time of recorded writing. This is a sacred alliance which the poet Rumi wrote about fifteen hundred years ago. It is a part of a timeless human experience where both partners can discover and realize their deepest, latent potentials simply by having the other co-partner as a part of their life.

While a Heart Connection allows us to appreciate those we love just as they are, unconditionally, a Soul Mate connection opens us up to a further dimension. As the bond comes together, each sees the other as they could be , using their fullest potential, and also for who we could become under the other's influence. This means recognizing and accepting that each plays an important part in helping the other become more fully who they are, through the Power of Love.

Someone who loves us on a soul level can often see our Soul's potential more clearly than we can ourselves. When this occurs, it creates a catalytic effect; it invites and encourages dormant parts of us to come forward and find expression. We feel an unfoldment of inner fulfillment and gratitude. We are most often attracted to lovers who we sense, rather than just making us feel good, will make us live and die most intensely. Soul Mates recognize each other immediately, and create an unspoken bonding to the depth of the other's being. A Soul Mate connection not only inspires us to expand ourselves, but also forces us to confront our demons, or whatever stands in the way of that expansion. Our blocks fall away and we embrace life and each other.

The Soul Mate, the awaited lifetime match of souls in unified love, creates a unique, individual way that our Higher Self manifests within us, through us, and becomes us. The Soul is a way of speaking about a human element in us. That living sensitivity flow of life deep within, often felt as a fluid yet a definite sense of being oneself. A profound sense of inwardness, completion, and depth. It is the feeling of joy when happiness comes, of tears at an injustice, and an ever expanding, growing consciousness.

Whenever we see ourselves in terms of some fixed identity such as "I am a happy person, a sad person, a spiritual seeker," we experience ourselves indirectly, through our self image. This is the false self, a mental construction image of self, based on past experiences. But in moments when we are in touch with our Soul, as in meditation, we experience ourselves fresh, and alive without restrictions. This is the Being who is alive in this moment. It is our true individuality, our special way of being, which allows us to connect with another person's inner vibration in a special way. When our heart is open, we can love another equally. When our Soul is co-joined in this experience, we feel Love for this person in a way which enables us to fully love, as we have never loved another. When two lovers meet on this level, their false identities fade away and they become energized in the present, as I and Thou. They realize they become a full unit together, with greater potential and fulfillment. A completion that would not occur if they had not met and united. They become greater together than if they were to live life apart.

The experience of our Soul always contains a double yearning. The individual and the universal, the embodied realms of personal experience and the formless presence of pure essence, or pure spirit. We want to feel the meaning and beauty of our individual life, and to connect with the larger universal currents of life flowing through us. As Yogananda said, "I am a bubble, make me the sea. As a bubble, I become a part of the sea. Therefore, the sea is me, and I Am!" As the Soul describes itself, it could perhaps state, "How beautiful to be the ocean hidden within an infinite bubble." The key to expansion is within the consciousness of the infinite connection to all things.

Our greatest challenge as human beings is to live fully in both of these worlds. We are not just the body and mind, but also a being with awareness presence much greater than our particular shape or form. Also, we are not just this greater, formless being, but incarnate as this individual living in the present. Soul work is the most important part of a lifetime. It involves breaking open the walls of our conditioned personalities that trap our seed potential. It allows us to plough the fields of the soil of our deepest humanness so the seeds can blossom and bear fruit. This kind of cultivation takes time, patience, dedication, and perseverance.

As youngsters, our Soul Richness shines forth in a simple, spontaneous way. Babies simply are what they are. As we grow and identify with our False Self, we cut ourselves off from our Higher Self, that vast place of power and potentiality that is our birthright. Our soul stops developing and we experience the painful consequence of that loss; loneliness, alienation, separation, disempowerment, meaninglessness, and the inability to trust and love deeply. Our Soul suffers this loss and also finds the inner strength to see us through and spur us on, in search of our lost birthright. Our Soul calls out to and recognizes those who can help us along in our search.

The more we bring forth and manifest our deepest potentials, the richer our Soul becomes, and our responsiveness to our own experiences, to others, and to life becomes fulfilling. Although a whole range of larger human capacities is potentially available to everyone, each of us has special qualities as well as unique aptitudes to combining and expressing them. Every Soul has its own individual, jewel-like character, its own "richness." We each have our unique path of Soul work. Our personal direction of how we need to develop in order to manifest our deepest potential and life purpose. Two lovers with a Soul Mate connection recognize that they can help each other move forward along this path.

Elizabeth Joyce will cast your Astrology Relationship Chart to determine if you are with your Soul Mate, or when you could possibly meet. For any questions on relationships, please contact her atVisions of Reality

To order your Soulmate Chart - Click on Guestbook and request your order. Please give your name, birhtdate, hour of birth, you Soulmate's first name and birthdate. The results will be E-Maied back to you, or put on a cassette tape and mailed to you for an extra $10/fee. (Price: $50.00)