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Soul Talk

3/13/2013

 

Soul Talk

Dear old and new friends,

    When you’re about to tell some secret, you are often admonished, “Now don’t tell a soul about this!” This folk phrase raises some intriguing questions. Do you talk to others’ souls or even to your own? Your ideas about the soul likely will be tainted by early Christian spiritual writers influenced by Greek philosophy that viewed the “psyche”—soul—as a separate spiritual entity from the body. The body was only an earthy, tainted container for the psyche until death freed the spirit. This Grecian dualism results in a perpetual conflict between the spiritual and material. Christian belief flows out of the Jewish “nepes”—or spiritual principle of life—where body and soul are intimately one with the spirit being created at the same time as the body.

    These days before Saint Patrick’s Day on Sunday are festooned with green decorations and shamrocks encouraging us to reflect on the Celtic Irish ideas of the soul. In the spirituality of the Emerald Isle the soul contains the body, not the other way around. Your eyes are the portals of your soul and your face is its reflection outward to the world. The soul loves poetry, music and lyrical verse, and since it is intimately one with the body, your feelings and emotions are soul-bound and soul-fed. These animated old Irish ideas of the soul reflect those of the Hebrew Psalmist whose psalm-poems speak of one’s soul being pierced with pain, consumed with longing, gladdened with joy and downcast in sorrow.

    Today the soul is commonly considered to be the totality of the self as a living conscious subject. But what are your thoughts about the soul? Do you believe you have a soul? Do you believe since your conception it has been seamlessly united with your body to remain so after you die? Or is it only an ancient term for life and human consciousness? Whatever your thoughts, can you imagine talking to your soul?

    One thing for sure, talking about or to your soul would make you more conscious of its invisible mysterious existence. If you care to experiment, the following examples can be a beginning of your own Soul Language Lexicon.

     *Coming home tired: “Oh, my poor weary soul, I’m dead on my feet.”
     *During a long sermon: “My sorry soul aches for him to stop preaching.”
     *Upon winning anything: “O my soul, dance with joy—I’ve won!”
     *Finding place to park: “Look, my soul, an empty parking space. God is good!”
     *Awakening at dawn: “O my soul—I’m alive! I’ve been gifted with another day.”
Dan Sanley
3/15/2013 05:05:59 am

Dear Ed,

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to someone who shares the green blood: Your holiday artwork and explanation are priceless as well as educational. Well done! For those who have not yet checked it out, it is highly recommended.

I am happy to see you mentioned the Tuatha Dé Danann, because there are a couple of additional facts everyone should know. This group of people is the one the newly arriving Celts defeated on what we now know as Ireland. As part of the negotiations for resolving the conflict (invasion), the Tuatha Dé Danann asked that they split possession of the land 50/50. The clever negotiator for the Celts, Amergin, agreed. However that agreement ended up with the Amergin giving the Celts everything above ground and the Tuatha everything below. One other part of the negotiations was that the Celts name the land after their three goddesses: Eriu, Banda, and Fodla. The Celts graciously honored this request, and since the land had been known by any one of these three names. We are more familiar with the Eriu (Eire Or Eire Land).

Comment on Souls to follow.
- Dan

Dan Sanley
3/16/2013 12:53:25 pm

Dear Ed,

I not only can imagine talking to my soul but also doing so by using the language of angels, contemplation. Contemplation is nothing more than having a mystical awareness of God and keeping the true goal in sight. This actual act of prayer helps give meaning to every practical act of life and develops our individual souls.

While the word, contemplation, comes from a Latin source, the Greek equivalent is theoria. And theosis is the process of changing from a sinful man into a child of God. Our English word, theory, comes from this same Greek base of theoria, which means to see or understand.

The more we understand the I AM the more alike becomes our own soul, the “I am, too”.

- Dan

Tom Skorupa
3/17/2013 02:29:47 pm

Great reflection to read on the day of Patrick's feast itself! I love the idea of conversation with the soul. In fact, a main part of my practices during the second half of Lent has involved soul dialogues: dialogues between me and my soul (which, as you implied is like saying a dialogue between me and me--or between the larger "me" and the part that distinguishes itself form the rest reality and between the soul and God. When I journal those dialogues I never know what's going to come out, but it always brings out new insight. Almost like it give free reign for the Leprechauns to play! Probably have hung out with to many Irish friends...but today is a perfect day to be express some gratitude for those friends and the life-green spirit they exude!

Dan Sanley
3/21/2013 05:12:24 am

Dear Ed,

As usual your documented thoughts give rise to my own, resulting in education not only from your vast store of knowledge, but from self imposed research inspired by your shared thoughts.

You asked a series of questions regarding the soul, and before I took as stab at answering your concluding question, “Whatever your thoughts, can you imagine talking to your soul?” I first had to define soul.

The process of defining soul was no easy task. Through the ages many have struggled to define just what a soul might be. Yes, the Celts had their ideas, as did others long before them. The most carefully worked out theories came from Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus and the Stoics. These thoughts were developed even further by Plotinus as well as the Church Fathers. From the time of Homer the word “soul” underwent further development and by the end of the fifth century there was a remarkable expansion of usage. Essentially the soul was given credit for being part of all living things, and also made responsible for emotional states, for desires, for planning, and for reasoning. The soul was also given credit for being the bearer of virtues and morality. The soul was also given credit for being responsible for all the vital functions of a living thing, therefore belonging to more than just mankind. It is this last thinking where the philosophers become split and definition of a soul gets further complicated. And then again when some defined soul as including the body, while others said the soul is distinct from the body.

I decided to make it simple for myself, so I began at the Beginning, with the Divine Soul, the “I AM”. Since each of us were made in His likeness, each of our souls then are an “I am, too”.

While all living things have an essence, humans are more complex because each human is given a free will, and so our essence was abstracted by adding intellect. We humans are allowed to further define our essence, while the other living things have theirs set, established and fixed by God. Human essence is more than just “what” we are, but also “who” we are; the “I am, too”, the human soul.

And, yes, our soul is distinct from our body, but the two will once again be reunited. I would like to think of the eternal soul as something all other souls will eventually be able to fully sense, meaning everything about you will not only be known, but seen, felt, heard, and even tasted and smelled as well!

The answer to your question then has to be, “yes”, as our being, our existence, feeds our essence. This would involve talking to our soul, and much more, for it has more than just ears. Like a baby it needs not only life or experience, but must to be nurtured and loved. Our soul’s hidden desire is to become ONE with God. We cannot do this without our faith in the salvation history that was laid out before us.

We must not only talk to your soul, but pray with it, and praying is more than talking, as it includes all manner of sharing in life and love.
- Dan


Comments are closed.


    Edward Hays


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