An essence twin is a soul we team up with for an entire grand cycle to reflect ourselves back to us; it is the most intense relationship we can have. It is synonymous with the terms twin flame and twin soul, but not necessarily with soul mate.

I once attended a workshop at which we were instructed at one point to choose a partner for some exercises. We shared some intense processes with that partner, and then came back to the whole group and continued on. This was repeated throughout the workshop with the same partner. Although the majority of the workshop was not spent working with the partner, the time that was spent in process with him was crucial, and usually, a strong bond developed between the partners. An essence twin relationship is rather like that.

Essence twins classically have opposite male/female energy ratios, and the same casting (positions within their cadence and greater cadence). However, this is not always the case. Choice rather than mathematics makes two souls twins, although mathematical correlations can support the relationship. As mentioned earlier, cadres made up of essences with a relatively high number of previous cycles tend to be more experimental, and don’t necessarily stick to “classic Michael” in their design. Essence twins who plan to meet each other often choose opposite body types, although there is no “rule” requiring this.

I know my essence twin, although not very well—we have never lived in the same city. We have some major things in common, and she has said things that helped validate for me my channeling that she is my essence twin (I also double-checked with another channel). On a personality level, our connection is friendly but not particularly close or compelling, although the essence twin relationship often is. (This illustrates that close soul connections do not always translate into close personality connections, and the people most important in our lives are not necessarily that close to us on an essence level.) My essence twin has been said to look like she could be my sister. Her body type is neither similar nor opposite to mine, so the resemblance is not due to body type. Our casting is not the same, either, and our male/female energy ratios are not quite opposite. However, a psychic who saw her picture said that the higher frequencies of our auras are very similar in color and shape. (I do not know any of my task companions in the flesh, but Yarbro said that, even more than essence twins, task companions are often thought to look or talk alike.)

Our essence twin is typically in a different entity than our own but in the same cadre. We may find that entity’s vibration to be particularly complementary to our own because our essence twin is in it, or we might have chosen to have an essence twin in that entity because we found it complementary in the first place. Our essence twin is usually someone we have known in previous grand cycles .

In More Messages from Michael Michael said that essence twins are “never in the same entity.” However, in Messages from Michael, the wording was “are not often part of the same entity, but are part of different entities that were cast at the same time.” This illustrates how through even the same channel or group of channels, at least slightly differing information can come through. There is no unequivocal way of proving whether the “never” is correct. I channeled that one couple, both kings, are essence twins in the same entity, but that could have been an error. However, the words never and always send up red flags for me. The universe does have order and design, and it is possible that some nevers are correct—I don’t wish to say that a never can never be correct! But I’m more comfortable with the wording in Messages from Michael, not often, in light of Michael’s teaching that “all is choice.” The universe’s order and design relate to its male energy, which gives structure and shape; female energy relates to “creative chaos,” the fact that there are unlimited possibilities.

I presume that “different entities that were cast at the same time” refers to entities in the same cadre, since cadres were defined that way elsewhere in Yarbro. In Chapter Ten, “Cadres and Entities,” I discussed essence twin connections outside the cadre with other cadres in the cadre group. I suppose that they could also be seen as having been “cast at the same time.”

More than any other relationship, the essence twin relationship is the “glue” that holds the whole together. The reuniting of a cadre‘s seven entities on higher planes is, in part, the reunification of the essence twins within that cadre. The later reunification of a cadre group’s twelve cadres is also, in part, the reunification of those essence twins who are in different cadres.

On my Michael Reading charts, I channel the essence twin and task companion(s) as being either discarnate or incarnate (male or female). If the soul is incarnate and the chart’s subject knows him, he could be a friend, acquaintance, or relative. If he doesn’t know him, there could either be plans to meet in a certain number of years, or no plans to meet in this lifetime.

When Michael says through me that the essence twin (or task companion) is a friend, they mean that they are picking up a substantial amount of connection personality-to-personality, as opposed to essence connection. They do not necessarily mean that the essence twin is currently in the person’s life; he could have been a childhood friend. When Michael says that someone is an acquaintance, they mean that there is less personality connection, but at least, it appears to Michael that the chart’s subject has met him in the flesh. A friend or acquaintance who is also a relative will be channeled as being a relative.

When the subject has met his essence twin, Michael says whether the essence twin is younger or older than the chart’s subject, or is about the same age, but sometimes they add a question mark. Michael doesn’t get this particular information from the akashic records; they read it psychically. They aren’t always certain if the essence twin is actually younger, for instance, or just looks that way. Michael is trying to help the “chartee” identify his essence twin (and channeling names unknown to the channel is very difficult). However, looking in the akashic records for the essence twin’s day of birth, in terms of our calendar, or for other highly temporal information, would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, and not worth the energy it would require. On the other hand, most Michael Reading chart information, such as the goal, is easier to get from the records: it is a core and ongoing factor in life. Also, Michael does look up in the records whether the essence twin is incarnate, and, if so, the gender, as well as whether they have agreed to meet.

When the essence twin is a friend, acquaintance, or relative, sometimes it can be difficult to figure out just who it is. I have my clients send me photographs of people who seem to fit the description, and check them with Michael. Eventually, we usually (but not always) find out who it is. It is especially hard when the person is merely an acquaintance, who might be consciously forgotten, although it is subliminally comforting to have met in the flesh those souls closest to us, even if they are not overtly involved in our lives.

When we are deeply involved with our essence twin on the physical plane, that relationship can be so compelling as to distract us from our life task or other things we wish to accomplish. That is why we don’t necessarily get together often with our essence twin on the physical plane. On the other hand, the very intensity of it can bring up important issues.

We mirror our essence twin not only because of our mathematical correlations, if any, but because of having had so many experiences together, both on and off the physical plane. It is like a couple who have been together for fifty years. They tend to pick up one another’s mannerisms and idiosyncrasies, and communicate almost telepathically. They may start to look like their partner’s other half, but they are still individuals.

When our essence twin is not incarnate, it is almost as if that soul is living within us—in our vest pocket, so to speak. The bleed-through is noticeably stronger than when our essence twin is incarnate. For example, an artisan with a king essence twin looks much more kingly when his essence twin is not incarnate. If your essence twin dies while you are alive, the bleed-through immediately increases.

As with most entities, the members of the Michael entity have essence twins of all roles, but besides twinning with fellow warriors and kings, Michael has a particularly high number of sage and artisan essence twins. On the higher planes, the essence twin bleed-through is even more pronounced than it is on the physical plane, since much more unity is experienced. The sage energy bleeding through helps Michael communicate more articulately, and the artisan energy aids their creativity in choosing words and their ability to work with the complex structures inherent in their teachings.

In Chapter Twenty-Five, “Reincarnation,” I will discuss how an essence can have more than one incarnation in the same time frame. Our essence twin may be channeled as being discarnate even though its essence has one or more incarnations in this time frame—our essence twin has a reincarnational self but we are not bonded to it. The way it works is that every time we incarnate, we bond with our essence twin in a particular way. We either bond directly with his essence, or with a reincarnational personality that is going to be in the same time frame. We either agree to know that personality or not. The influence of our essence twin is weakest when we are bonded to a reincarnational personality we have no plans to meet. It is strongest when we are bonded directly to his discarnate essence.

In Messages from Michael, it was stated that six times out of seven, our essence twin is of the same role. In the experience of several other channels, including me, the reverse seems to be true. My channeling indicates that neither view is actually wrong. Those with fewer previous grand cycles usually like to have a relatively “pure” experience of an essence role. Being a scholar with a scholar essence twin, for instance, gives us concentrated scholar energy to work with. Since the average human being has had about four previous cycles, it is probably true on the whole that six out of seven times, a person’s essence twin has the same role as he does. However, once we have done a planetary cycle as a scholar with a scholar essence twin, we might like to try being a scholar with a king essence twin, to vary the energy. The channels who find that roughly six out of seven people seem to have essence twins of different roles may be working with those from cadres consisting of essences with a higher average number of previous cycles. These cadres are not necessarily constructed in typical patterns.

About five percent of us have no essence twin. A lesson of a cycle without an essence twin may be self-sufficiency, finding balance and completeness within, experiencing our reflection within ourselves rather than externally. We might choose a fairly balanced male/female energy ratio to facilitate this. People with no essence twin sometimes tell me, when they learn of it, that they aren’t surprised; they always had a sense of doing this planet “solo.” They may need to be especially deliberate about drawing in support from others. Sometimes they team up with someone who functions like an essence twin for a lifetime or a series of lifetimes. I refer to them as “surrogate essence twins.”

Those who have an essence twin also occasionally adopt a surrogate when the original is not incarnate or is busy elsewhere. He usually has the same role as the original, and otherwise resembles him in various ways.

Incidentally, we can be attracted to someone who reminds us of our essence twin, even if we do not have an agreement to work together in an essence-twin-like way.