Anam Cara means Soul Friend

In the Celtic tradition, there is a beautiful understanding of love and friendship. One of the fascinating ideas here is the idea of soul love; “Anam Cara” may sound like some new French perfume, but it actually refers to the Celtic spiritual belief of souls connecting and bonding.

In Celtic Spiritual tradition, it is believed that the soul radiates all about the physical body what some refer to as an aura. When you connect with another person and become completely open and trusting with that individual, your two souls begin to flow together.

Should such a deep bond be formed, it is said you have found your “Anam Cara” or soul friend.

Your “Anam Cara” always accepts you as you truly are, holding you in beauty and light. In order to appreciate this relationship, you must first recognize your own inner light and beauty.

This is not always easy to do. The Celts believed that forming an “Anam Cara” friendship would help you to awaken your awareness of your own nature and experience the joys of others.

The “Anam Cara” was originally someone to whom you confessed, revealing the hidden intimacies of your life. With the “Anam Cara”, you could share your innermost self, your mind and your heart. This friendship was an act of recognition and belonging. When you had an “Anam Cara”, your friendship cut across all convention, morality and category. You were joined in an ancient and eternal way with the “friend of your soul”. The Celtic understanding did not set limitations of space or time on the soul. There is no cage for the soul. The soul is a divine light that flows into you and into your Other.

This art of belonging awakened and fostered a deep and special companionship. When you love, you open your life to an Other. All your barriers are down. Your protective distances collapse. This person is given absolute permission to come into the deepest temple of your spirit. Your presence and life can become their ground. It takes great courage to let someone so close. Where a friendship recognizes itself as a gift, it will remain open to its own ground of blessing….. When you are blessed with an “Anam Cara”, the Irish believe, you have arrived at that most sacred place: home. This bond between friends is indissoluble: “This, I say, is what is broken by no chances, what no interval of time or space can sever or destroy, and what even death itself cannot part”.

~ from “Anam Cara…Wisdom from the Celtic World“, by John O’Donohue

Heralding New Groups

Using Second Life groups can make property management a nightmare or a dream.

Getting a group is fairly easy, per the SL wiki. All you really need is $100L and an open group slot. You can make as many groups as you like - all you need is open slots and cash.

The hardest permanent step is choosing a name. To do a first rate job at this, brainstorm a lot of group names. Appealing and useful names for large groups, like store groups and club members will want simplicity, emotion, positioning, maybe some humor or slang in them. You want to pick a group name and role titles that your members will want to keep a long time. Last, and most important, ask friends and acquaintances which names they like or not.

Group names are unique, like web addresses. After you have a handful of good candidates, search SL Groups to see if your top choices are already used. You can't buy a group name that already exists, but you can make one that is off by as little as one symbol: if "Heralds" is taken, "*Heralds*", " Heralds" (with a leading space), "heralds" and "HERALDS!" might still be available.

When you have a top choice name, try to buy it for $100L thru your groups menu. (Typo experts, triple check your spelling before you click "apply".) You will find out if your name is not available now. Hidden groups can't be found in search. If that happens, choose another name, (take your time on this if you want) and try again.

When you are successful, you are the new owner of a group of one. Now, quick, invite another avatar to join (wiki here) to six your group, because a group that has one or no members for two days gets deleted. Invite them as members. You can always upgrade them later when you refine your group.

And you want to keep this new group, right?

Yours, Arth.

P.S.
Buying and renting land is a little harder. The hardest part is finding a good deal on a property you like. Count on spending some time on this, and there are lots of sites, blogs and advice on this out there. Not being a property owner, I'm not the best to herald this.

Making your group work for you land is even harder. This I can herald soon.