Anam Cara. Soul Friend.

Anam Cara.

Anam Cara means Soul-friend.  However, what is an Anam Cara?

In the Celtic spiritual tradition we believe that each person has an aura that radiates from them. Sometimes when you meet another person a connection is made and you become so trusting and open with that person your two souls/auras flow together and this is when you have found your Anam Cara.

An Anam Cara is a friend, a loved one, who will awaken within you the freedom and possibilities that will enable you to experience life in all its beauty. They will listen to you without feeling the need to interrupt, advice you if you ask. Be understanding yet non judgemental.

You feel as if you can share you innermost self, your thoughts, doubts, fears, hopes and aspirations. Everyone needs an Anam Cara in their life, someone who you can be truly yourself with but unfortunately not all of us are lucky enough to find them in this lifetime and we may have to wait for rebirth.

 Some may be extremely fortunate and they will find their Anam Cara and it may even be their life partner/spouse. An Anam Cara understands you and where you are coming from and with this understanding comes a feeling of warmth and comfort.  A sense of home.

 Each one of us at one time or another has felt lonely or misunderstood, as if we are looking though a misty window at the party going on, never feeling part of it or longing to be invited.  Even in a crowded room you can be lonely. Your Anam Cara will help to ease that feeling of isolation and unhappiness for they will remind you that you are never truly alone.  They will shelter you from the cold of loneliness and light a candle in the dark.

 As I’ve said you may meet your Anam Cara later in life, they may become your spouse or partner fulfilling the role of best friend and confidant.  They may appear in your childhood and become a lifelong friend who will be at your side throughout the years.  They may appear to accompany you on your journey along the path of life for just a short time, like ships that pass in the night.  However long they remain with you. Be thankful for you have been truly blessed for they have been a gift from God and just as you have been blessed so also have they for your Anam Cara is like a mirror reflecting back at you all that is good within each of you.

 An Anam Cara can always make you smile, they share your hopes and dreams, and they make you whole. Folklore claims that when a soul descends to earth it splits in two, each half of the soul inhabiting a separate body. These two people are forever after 'soul friends'.  As we get older we begin to appreciate our friends more and more and realise how few friends stay friends through our lives, even though you promise to be best friends for life.

 If you are fortunate you may have one or two who fit the description ’lifelong friend’. It will not matter how far apart you are or how many miles separate you, it won’t matter how long it has been since you last spoke to each other, as soon as you get together, it will be as though you never parted.  You can take up a conversation more or less where you were last time you spoke and within a couple of minutes you will be laughing and joking with each other but no one else will see the joke.

 I have noticed that today some people describe an Anam Cara as a spiritual advisor but an Anam Cara is so much more than that.  An Anam Cara is like an oasis in a desert, a shoulder to cry on, someone who acts as a harmonising calm within.  An Anam Cara will counsel you when you need counselling, guide you when you need guidance, listen when all you need is someone to listen and hug you when you desperately need a hug. If you have found your Anam Cara then you are both blessed and like me you will give thanks each and every day.