Soul Friendship in the Celtic Tradition

<p class=ql-align-center><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Soul friendship joins friends together</em></p><p class=ql-align-center><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>in a common dwelling that neither time nor space</em></p><p class=ql-align-center><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>nor death itself can separate.</em></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>-Edward Sellner</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The special friend who accompanies a person through life's journey is more precious than gold. The early Christian Celts had a heartwarming name for this person: the Anamchara. (</span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Anam </em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>is the Gaelic word for soul; </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>chara</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is the word for friend-friend of the soul.) This special friend was someone with whom a person could talk through practical matters reveal hidden intimacies and break through the barriers of convention and egotism to an eternal unity of soul.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Ray Simpson brings this ancient concept into the twenty-first century drawing practical applications from the long history of soul friendship. He describes a spiritual bond that lasts beyond this life into eternity for it flows directly from God who is the pattern of all friendship the center and source of all human relationships.</span></p>