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The primeval man was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four hands and four feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite ways, set on a round neck and precisely alike. He could walk upright as men now do, backwards or forwards as he pleased.
Now the sexes were three, and such as I have described them; because the sun, moon, and earth are three; and the man was originally the child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the man-woman of the moon, which is made up of sun and earth.
Terrible was their might and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they made an attack upon the gods.
Doubt reigned in the celestial councils. Should they kill them and annihilate the race with thunderbolts, as they had done the giants, then there would be an end of the sacrifices and worship which men offered to them; but, on the other hand, the gods could not suffer their insolence to be unrestrained.
At last, after a good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered a way. He said: 'Methinks I have a plan which will humble their pride and improve their manners; men shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in two and then they will be diminished in strength and increased in numbers; this will have the advantage of making them more profitable to us.
They shall walk upright on two legs, and if they continue insolent and will not be quiet, I will split them again and they shall hop about on a single leg.' He spoke and cut men in two, like a sorb-apple which is halved for pickling, or as you might divide an egg with a hair; and as he cut them one after another, he bade Apollo give the face and the half of the neck a turn in order that the man might contemplate the section of himself: he would thus learn a lesson of humility.
Apollo was also bidden to heal their wounds and compose their forms. So he gave a turn to the face and pulled the skin from the sides all over that which in our language is called the belly, like the purses which draw in, and he made one mouth at the centre, which he fastened in a knot (the same which is called the navel).
On this particular day, all those years ago the children of the sun wandered alone through the gardens, that they had come to love. They enjoyed the peace and quiet here. Enjoyed the company of themselves with no talks of the impending war with the Gods. They were not fussed as to whether their fellow beings overthrew the men who watched over them from the clouds, not like the others were.
The rest of the world's children were plotting and scheming. The children of the sun, earth and moon did not wish to be ruled over any longer, they were tired of being told what to do and how to act. They wished to revolt and they knew they were strong enough to do so.
This singular being (they had named themselves DP), was not a creature of revolution, but one of peace. They wished to read and learn and live their life as one, unfazed by the wrath of the Gods and as long as they had each other, that was enough.
One half of DP had begun to read aloud while the other walked them through the garden, this was a routine for them, a daily stroll to forget about their hectic life for just a few moments.
The left half stopped reading as a drop of rain hit his book. He closed it quickly, being sure not to get the pages wet.
The rain began to pour and thunder rumbled. The pair ran back to their town.
Perhaps, they should have stayed in the garden.
DP watch as lightning strikes the ground in front of them. It is not normal lighting, it’s lightning from Zeus himself.
They hear a scream and then another and another. A child of the earth runs past them, she is struck by the lighting. They watch as one half of her falls to the floor, pushing her hands out to brace herself. Her other half stands, horrified for a moment before pulling up the other half of herself.
DP watch as more and more of the Gods children are struck by bolts and split in half.
They don’t stand around for long.
They begin to run for shelter, they assume they cannot be hit indoors. They don’t make it to a building, though, not before a bright light flashes before them and a sharp pain is felt down their center. The right half closes his eyes tight, he feels the left being torn from him.
He cries out in pain, he opens his eyes, all he sees is blood. He’s on the floor. He turns to his side to see the left, lying lifeless on the ground. He screams for his other half. There’s no response.
He feels darkness creep upon him.
When he wakes up, he’s alone.
He doesn’t understand where he is… who he is. All he knows is a part of him is missing. A part he must find in order to become whole again.
So ancient is the desire of one another which is implanted in us, reuniting our original nature, making one of two, and healing the state of man. Each of us when separated, having one side only, like a flat fish, is but the indenture of a man.
And he is always looking for his other half.
*
He has a name now, he has many names. It’s different every time. The soul knows it’s been many but the body believes this is it’s first.
The body calls itself, Dan.
Dan is lonely, the soul knows this. He has few friends.
People would rather call him names and beat him up, than even attempt to be friendly with him.
The body has a girlfriend. He thinks he is a child of the moon. Of course he doesn’t know what that means but the soul does. It means he thinks he was once half man and half women.
He knows this woman is not his other half, she can’t be for Dan is a child of the sun and not of the moon, but he tries desperately to pretend.
The soul has been confused ever since it found itself on this earth. Where it is from, the idea of men loving men and women loving women is normal, but here, in this time it is considered wrong. The soul does not know why.
It wishes it knew why.
*
Dan likes watching youtube.
One day he stumbles across an account called Amazingphil. Dan watches in wonder and the soul begins to scream. There’s something about the body on the computer screen, something that makes the soul… happy… it makes the body happy too.
There’s something that just feels right. The soul reckons that’s him, that’s his other half.
He wishes he could tell the body, but the body has to find the other half. The soul cannot.
The soul’s existence has been waiting for this moment for longer than any human could comprehend.
At first he had not been sure why every time the body died, he had been given another, but he’d come to learn his presence on this earth has been solely to find the missing half of him that he’d lost. He’s not sure what happens when he is reunited with the left half but all he knows is he has to meet him in this lifetime or he will spend another searching for him.
If this Amazingphil is his left half, then he must find him before he finds himself back at square one.
*
Dan watches every video Phil makes, he comments on them all and he spends hours on twitter interacting with him.
The soul watches as a conversation about Muse turns into more, and the pair realise they have a lot in common. Interactions on Twitter turn into Skype calls and things become more and more real.
Dan realises he might be gay, and the soul is happy that he’s finally caught up to what it’s known all along.
Things seem promising when it turns out Phil is gay too.
They start to flirt, after that and the soul feels itself being drawn in more and more, it’s like a magnet is pulling them together and really it is, it’s his other half drawing him in, he knows the left must have felt the connection too.
*
Dan is meeting Phil. The soul has never felt like this before. Well, it has many moons ago. When it was whole.
The train journey to Manchester is long and the anticipation grows the closer they get. The soul wonders if it’s other half remembers who they were before. It’s been so long and the soul is constantly reminding itself of all the times they wandered through the garden as one, it didn’t want to forget, it couldn’t forget.
The train pulls in to Manchester Piccadilly and the soul has never seen Dan move so fast. He knows Dan feels everything he feels, sometimes it’s easy to forget the influence he has on the bodies emotions, but he wonders if Dan actually knows why he’s feeling like this? Does he know he might be about to meet his other half, his soulmate as humans call it, or does he just think he’s meeting his crush?
The soul knows the answer, Dan has expressed so many times that he doesn’t believe in the notion of soulmates, so of course he just thinks he’s excited to meet his crush. He doesn’t understand the complexity of what is about to happen. Truth be told, neither does the soul.
He’s unaware of what actually happens when you meet your soulmate, this is his first time, and he can’t talk to other souls to find out their experiences.
Dan sees Phil in the station and he runs. Phil runs too. They crash into each other and wrap their arms into a tight hug.
The soul feels it. A uniting force, the pull of 2 souls meeting each other again. It feels like home, it feels like the garden they used to walk through.
He knows Dan feels something too, he can feel butterflies in his stomach, a blush creeping across his cheeks.
Dan feels like he’s home too.
*
And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together; yet they could not explain what they desire of one another.
The soul wonders what will happen next.
He watches as Dan kisses Phil on the Manchester eye.
He watches as they film Phil is not on fire.
He watches them call each other boyfriends, Skype call every night, spend the week before Christmas together.
He watches them fall in love.
He watches Dan cry when he misses being next to Phil. The soul cries too, every time they part it’s reminded of the time the souls were forcefully separated by the Gods, it hurts.
Things look up though.
He watches as Dan gets into Manchester University, He and Phil live 20 minutes apart now.
Dan practically moves into Phil’s apartment that first year. His flatmates at uni don’t even bother asking why he’s not there.
He studies law and he hates it. The soul hates it too.
He makes videos and gains more popularity
He moves in with Phil, they pretend they sleep in separate rooms.
He drops out of University.
They get a radio show, they spend every day next to each other. Side by side, soul by soul.
They move to London, they still pretend they sleep in separate rooms.
They get outed and play it off as a joke. The soul worries they might break up... They don’t.
They go on tour. Twice.
They move to another apartment, they still pretend they have seperate room.
Dan disappears from Youtube for a year.
He makes a coming out video.
He lets everyone know that he’s a child of the sun and not of the moon.
Phil is by his side through it all, and he is by Phil’s when he also comes out.
They’re not pretending they sleep in separate rooms anymore.
Dan finally believes in soulmates.
They adopt a fish.
They celebrate their 10 year anniversary.
They keep making youtube videos.
They buy a house.
They get a dog.
Eventually they move on to other things, Phil makes movies and Dan makes whatever he wants.
They still stick by each other's side.
They get married and suddenly the soul feels something new. It’s the other soul.
They talk to each other for the first time since they were split apart.
They live a long life together and even when the spotlight fades and youtube becomes nothing more than a distant memory they continue to create together. They create a beautiful home, a family with their children and their dogs.
They grow old together.
Phil dies first, he’s 96. Dan dies a few months later.
The soul couldn’t bare to be away from the other half, so it separated itself from the body.
The world remembers the legacy Dan and Phil left behind. The body had an amazing life, but it was time to part.
The soul felt free from the confines of its host but now it was also feeling lost. It was without it’s other half again.
The light is white as the soul ascends, it’s seen this thousands of times, it happens every time a body dies.
He wonders if he’ll end up in another body and if he’ll have to search for the other half again.
No… Something’s different this time. He doesn’t wake up in another body.
He wakes up in the Garden.
He turns his head to the side, a pair of eyes stare back at him. It’s his other half.
“I missed you” The left says.
“I missed you too” says the right.
They link their hands together and suddenly they feel a pull. They watch as their bodies slowly merge together.
They become whole once again, and for the first time in a long time, the soul feels complete, and truly happy.
we must praise the god Love, who is our greatest benefactor, both leading us in this life back to our own nature, and giving us high hopes for the future, for he promises that if we are pious, he will restore us to our original state, and heal us and make us happy and blessed.