Anam Cara

I have to admit that I really had a hard time to choose a title for my blog.
There were two possibilities, and both of them went perfectly well with me.
One option was Château Gaillard, after the castle that Richard I of England dreamed, designed and built. And as this shall be about the things I love - mainly history, spirituality and my art - this could have been my very personal Château Gaillard.
Well, obviously I chose Anam Cara as the title. A term I can relate to, because I consider myself a Celtic Christian and pagan and (early) Christian beliefs mix in my faith. I feel strongly connected to the early Celtic saints (especially Cainneach of Aghaboe, Columcille, Comgall of Bangor, Oswin of Deira and Aidan of Lindisfarne)and their faith and conception of the world.

An Anam Cara is literally a soul friend. John O'Donohue puts it that way: "The anam cara was a person to whom you could reveal the hidden intimacies of your life. This friendship was an act of recognition and belonging. When you had an anam cara, your friendship cut across all convention and category. You were joined in an ancient and eternal way with the friend of your soul."
An Anam Cara is someone you can completely open to and in who you can trust beyond boundaries. It is a deeply spiritual connection; not only a "human" friendship, but a friendship of the souls. In my opinion we are likely to know our Anam Cara - should we be lucky and have one - from many past lives, and probably from where our soul originates.
You do not have to hide behind a mask from your Anam Cara, because he knows and loves the real you. The relationship is characterized by a deep mutual understanding and spiritual mentorship.
Columcille and Cainneach of Aghaboe were Anam Caras for example. Comgall of Bangor shows vividly how very important the Anam Cara was for the early Celtic Christian. When his beloved friend died, he said: "My soul-friend has died and I am headless […] for a man without a soul-friend is like a body without a head."
Much later, even Aelred of Rievaulx describes the relationship to his Anam Cara Simon: "I deemed my heart in a fashion his, and his mine…We had but one mind and one soul…" (This quote always reminds me of Thomas Becket and Henry II.)
"The only one who would not be astonished to see Aelred living without Simon would be someone who did not know how pleasant it was for us to spend our life on earth together; how great a joy it would have been for us to journey to heaven in each other's company...Weep then, not because Simon has been taken up to heaven, but because Aelred has been left on earth, alone."

Well, and I am lucky because I'm no headless body.