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       Soul Mate Case Histories

      For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

      Kahlil Gibran

      The Prophet

      Just as is suggested by the old adage “when the student is ready, the teacher presents him- or herself,” individuals are drawn together in the right timing, for a purposeful reason, sometimes almost in spite of themselves. In one contemporary example, a thirty-six-year-old Japanese male named Toby had sworn off marriage after having been through a very difficult first marriage and divorce. Instead of pursuing any permanent relationship, he found contentment in his work as a translator. Intelligent, dedicated to his company, and committed to the work he was doing, Toby’s long work hours and changing schedule did not leave time for many social engagements, let alone dating.

      At the same time, Asako, a female songwriter and novelist, had almost given up any hope of finding a mate. Although she was very successful, at thirty-five Asako had never married nor had she found any likely prospects. To many in Japanese society, she was fast becoming an old maid. As “chance” would have it, mutual friends toward year-end arranged a meeting of the two at a party.

      It was one of the few parties that Toby had attended that year. The meeting between the two went well enough. He found Asako attractive, charming, and intelligent. However, when friends informed him of the level of her success, Toby put any ideas of a relationship out of his head. He considered himself poor by comparison. He had also sworn off relationships and had promised himself that he would not remarry, so the whole idea was an “impossible match,” not to mention the fact that he felt “she was beyond my reach.” For her own part, Asako felt that he was a pleasant enough person but did not see much beyond Toby “being a friend of mine.” Apparently, each of their souls had something quite different in mind.

      On January 1 of the New Year, both Toby and Asako were awakened in their own homes by a dream that seemed important. Each thought the dream was meaningful because in Japan the first dream of a New Year is considered to be very significant. Since Toby’s dream seemed to concern Asako, he called her to tell her what he had seen. To his amazement, he found that she had just awakened from an almost identical experience. At the very least, the two were convinced that they shared some type of “strong spiritual connection.” According to Toby:

      In the dream, I took her to my parents’ home in Japan. In real life, the house is a small, typical Japanese-style house, but in the dream it appeared to be a mansion. At first I showed her the bathroom, then the laundry room, and finally several guest rooms. To my surprise, she had a nearly identical dream. In her dream, some unknown man took her to a Japanese-style mansion. At first she was shown the bathroom, and then the washing machine, and finally she was taken to a large guest room.

      Because of the dream and in spite of their initial thoughts to the contrary, the two decided to continue seeing each other. Within a few months they were married, and within two years of their meeting, they had a baby daughter. According to Toby, although their marriage occurred relatively soon following their meeting, after each had overcome their reluctance to come together, it felt “as if we had known each other a very long time.” And, according to Asako, it was the strangest and most unexpected feeling as if “he might be the other half of my soul.”

      In an example from the Edgar Cayce material, a young man named Hans was ready to commit to a marriage relationship almost immediately, whereas Katherine, the young woman he was pursuing, appeared to be much more hesitant.

      Hans worked for a very large Danish international trading company. Born in Denmark in 1914, he had transferred to the United States in 1936 and had become branch manager of the Seattle office in 1943. As Danish consul, he met Katherine in May 1943 and, in his own words, “a spark caught fire.”

      Katherine was born in Massachusetts in 1917. After graduating from interior decorating school in New York, she and her aunt (who raised her) were visiting friends in Seattle. During their visit, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the two were “stuck” in Seattle. Gas was immediately rationed and there was no way to acquire the necessary fuel to drive back east. Katherine and her aunt began making new lives for themselves in Seattle.

      Katherine became president of a young adult group at the Congregational Church and invited Hans to come speak. As Danish consul, he was willing to come to any group and discuss “Denmark under the Nazi heel.” All arrangements were handled by phone. She met him at the door to the church, where the meeting was to be held. As soon as Hans reached out and touched her hand, he noticed, “something happened within me and I knew that I would have to see her again.” He pursued her from that moment on. At the time, he was twenty-nine; she was twenty-six.

      Katherine, however, was not interested in a relationship with Hans beyond friendship. She was seeing Richard, another young man who shared many of her interests, but she didn’t feel drawn to the idea of a permanent relationship with him either. She liked having friends, but marriage seemed another matter. Katherine’s Aunt Betty had obtained a life reading for her niece previously in which the two women were told that because of past experiences, Katherine was innately torn between a desire to be loved and her desire to remain free.

      In her most recent lifetime, Katherine, in terms of her personal talents, apparently had been skilled with weaving, design, and needlework. In Rome, she had been involved with directing activities for various groups of people. From that, she had developed a great love for the outdoors, games, and sports. In Persia, she had also exercised an influence upon many people and representatives of various nations. At the same time, she had also worked with weaving, brocades, and silk. In ancient Egypt, she had worked in the temples, assisting individuals in discovering their purpose in life. Most of her past lives, however, seemed to involve something to do with decorating and design. It was information that fascinated Katherine because she had specialized in textile design and decorating in the present and had won a scholarship to decorating school—information with which Cayce was not familiar at the time of the reading.

      Aunt Betty became a good personal friend of Edgar Cayce. In 1943 she wrote to tell him of the two men who seemed interested in her niece and of Katherine’s reluctance to commit to a relationship. Betty told him, “The two boys are thoughtful, spiritually minded, lovers of nature, etc., very much alike in SO many ways—both will be ideal husbands to whomever they may marry.” In referring to Hans, she added:

      I thought he was NOT serious—but that is not the case. He is very much in love with Katherine—in fact, he proposed to her and she refused him. In hurting him, her own EMOTIONS have been aroused (for the first time) and Hans has decided that he spoke too quickly and he is willing to wait—with the hope that he can change her mind. He is being transferred to San Francisco . . . and he’s hoping that Katherine will follow him by the New Year.

      Katherine has written Richard about Hans—of their outings together—riding, swimming, etc., and suddenly, in his letters, you begin to feel that he is getting worried. But he does not express his own feelings for Katherine and she feels that he has only a deep feeling of friendship for her.

      In terms of Katherine’s feelings for Hans, she saw their relationship as just a natural friendship. Although she enjoyed being with him—hiking, horseback riding, or simply having a conversation—she was not interested in marriage. Hans would have to be content with a friendship that shared a love of the outdoors, a similar philosophical outlook on life, and a joint interest in spirituality. In January 1944, Aunt Betty’s letter to the Cayces provided an update:

      Hans has been transferred . . . He is such a fine boy, and so in love with Katherine. There must be some reason why she doesn’t respond—for as far as I can see, he would bring great happiness to her. Perhaps she is unaware of what “Love” really is. Poor Richard . . . he is so despondent—we wish that he would consent to a reading, but in his present