First Dates and Wooing

Midir and Etain

One of Scott’s favorite films was 52 First Dates starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. The setting is in Hawaii, a place I love, a home where my grandparents immigrated to from Spain. I have visited many times and feel the land and sea in my bones, in my blood.

So watching this film for the first time with Scott was off to a good start. 

It’s a soulmate film.

After Scott’s death, for many years, I searched for a connection to why Scott wanted me to watch this film with him over and over again. Why did my nieces pick this film to watch with me after Scott’s death when they had hundreds of films to choose from. 

Almost six years after Scott’s death I’m finding the answers.

For us, it’s about remembering. In the movie 52 First Dates, Drew Barrymore suffers memory loss and through the film Adam Sandler is searching for ways to bring her back to him, to remember their soulmate connection.

Recently, I traveled with Scott, on what I call a Cosmic Journey. Guided by a meditation prepared for me by my dream teacher, I met Scott in a liminal space. In this space, we encountered Spirit Animals, Cupid, the ancient Roman god of desire, erotic love, affection, and attraction. Further into the journey and research with my AI, we came upon the Celtic Myth of Etain and Midir.

In the story “The Wooing of Etain”, a story of soulmates.

Midir woos his beloved across the boundaries of the Otherworld through persistence, memory, and transcendent signs.

His love Etain is in the mortal world and has forgotten her divine love with Midir.

Midir sings to her soul “otherworldly” songs to remind her of their love and their shared eternity. In one of the most famous parts of the myth, Midir and Etain are eventually reunited when he returns to claim her, they transform into swans, linked by a golden chain, they rise together and fly back to the “otherworld”.

In Celtic Mythology, the “otherworld” is not distant or unreachable. It is a parallel realm existing right alongside our own, time operates differently, a single day can be a hundred years in the mortal world, and the boundary from the “otherworld” to our world is porous. 

The “otherworld” intersects with our physical worlds as well. We can step in through a grove of ancient trees, ride across the vast ocean and enter through the mists, or we may accidentally slip through or be invited in.

This is what Shamanic Journeying or what I like to call Cosmic Journeys invites me to do. These dreams and visionary states bring me to Scott and deepen our marriage in wonderful and mystical ways.

In 52 First Dates and “The Wooing of Etain”, I remember our eternal bond is unbreakable. Even if I fall asleep to our spiritual marriage by forgetting, falling into despair, or inviting fear and separation.

Scott will “woo” me back to him.

He will never let me go.