1 : the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life
2 : the spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational and spiritual beings, or the universe
3 : a person’s total self
4 a: an active or essential part
b: a moving spirit
5 a: the moral and emotional nature of human beings
b: the quality that arouses emotion and sentiment
c: spiritual or moral force
In my novel, The Gossamer Thread the character Feather embodies the world ‘soul’ – serving as an ‘immaterial essence,’ a ‘spiritual principle’, a ‘moving spirit.’
Called downward from a rabbi in Auschwitz onto the planet earth, there is no mention of whether or not Feather falls from a Jewish, Christian, Catholic or Muslim Angel. Impartial to religion, she answers a call from below, detaching herself from her mother’s wings and falling into a prison camp below.
Feather embodies the parts of our psyches and bodies that travel away from another dimension, detaching ourselves from this unnamed space, loosening ourselves from our mother’s wing (womb) and materializing on earth as a physical being.
A moving spirit, Feather speaks to us in our night dreams, connecting us to otherworldly places, which we only vaguely remember. She connects to us through nature – those wondrous moments where rainbows appear, snowflakes dance and kittens purr. In her half-angel, half-animal state, she reminds us that we are both divine creatures as well as earthly beings. We experience her presence when we feel love for another soul, when we inch closer to death and when we feel sadness and intense pain.
Feather is our soul.
How do you define the word soul? What does it mean to you? Is it a religious word, a spiritual word, a personal or emotional word? If you could create a symbol for soul – what would it be?