I’m participating in the “Love is Love” LGBT Valentine’s Day Blog Hop this week which has an AMAZING Rafflecopter Giveaway of a Kindle filled with 43 truly epic ebooks.

And as usual, my inner geek is making an appearance for the blog hop, so sit back while I tell you about the origin of soul mates.

In Plato’s Symposium, Aristophanes’s Speech outlines the Greek idea of soul mates. Apparently early man looked a little freaky and there were three original genders birthed via the sun, the earth, and the moon.

The first gender, the child of the sun, looked like two men, fused at the backbone, four arms, four legs, two sets of genitalia, and most horrific of all, two faces, both facing in opposite directions. This was the male gender.

Earth gave birth to the second gender, female, and as you might have guessed, she looked like two women fused down the back with eight limbs and two faces and genitalia again.

The third gender from the moon, was the androgyne. These beings were extra weird. These looked like men on one side and women on the other side.

I think what I like most about Aristophanes’s description is that these people could walk backwards and forwards, whichever they pleased, since they had feet facing in both directions. LOL! And apparently, they didn’t have sex, just dropped their “seed” upon the ground and new beings sprang up.

Unfortunately, these creatures (oh mankind, you have ever been thus) were warlike and decided they would make war upon the gods. Zeus, not wanting to annihilate all his followers instead hit upon a plan to instead create more followers–he’d just split them in two. Then they could all walk around on two legs instead of four. And he even threatened that if they continued to give him guff he’d split them again and let them hop around on one leg.

So Zeus cut them all in half and had Apollo sew everyone up again, gathering the skin tight right about where your belly button resides.

But these creatures didn’t want to be apart. The two halves of a man each clung to one another, as did the doubled woman, and the androgynes. They didn’t want to go anywhere, do anything, or even eat because they missed being part of a whole being.

Zeus then took pity on them and had Apollo sew their genitalia in more accessible spots so that when they met each other, they might take comfort in one another and for at least a little while continue to be one. And they were no longer allowed to drop their seed, but the androgynes would instead breed a new people.

Aristophanes believed that this is why we continually seek the one we love. Whether it be man to man, woman to woman, or man to woman–we’re looking for that lost part of us, the one cut off from us, that person that we want to be one with again. Love is then the search for healing and companionship regardless of gender and regardless of who you love.

Love is Love.