Terminology in the twin flame community is so often argued about. Far too much sometimes.
But sometimes, I think this terminology matters. You might hear twin flame and soulmate be used interchangeably, but often this is by people who are not actually on the twin flame journey.
There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s an incredibly rare experience and not one you really can understand unless you’ve experienced it.
But for twin flames, understanding the difference can be important. Misunderstanding can even hold us back from union.
Disclaimer: Even within the twin flame community, people disagree on the nitty-gritty details. This is perfectly fine, and I’ll never try and tell someone what to believe. But understanding the broad strokes can help you understand your own journey. Getting this confused can slow things down.
What’s the Difference?
While they can all have a romantic (or at least a… physically romantic) element to it, they are wildly different things.
For the textbook(ish) definition:
- A twin flame is the other half of your soul. Not just someone you have a crush on or you get on with. This connection will blow your world open. Incredibly rare and the details of what a twin flame actually is, is a whole topic to itself.
- A soulmate is a term most cultures casually throw around. Romantic movies use it to describe basically anyone who happens to speak for five minutes, but it’s still an incredibly positive and high vibrational connection on the higher levels. These connections do not have to be romantic, and you can have multiple. They are incredibly positive, and you can both push each other forward in every area of your life.
- A karmic (or false twin flame) is further away from you energetically. They can become romantic relationships but not always. They are sent into your life to help you learn something that you need to learn. Often, these relationships sour or can be toxic but the experience is there to prepare you for something bigger.
They are all intense spiritual connections.
A twin flame (if you have one) is absolutely going to be the most impactful in your life. The reason that there’s so much confusion between the three is that they all stand out making your ‘normal’ connections seem like background noise.
Are Karmics (False Twin Flames) or Soulmates Evil?
God no.
We need to tackle this because you could be someone else’s soulmate or even karmic.
These terms are useful to understand someone’s role in your path, but they’re often completely misused as some evil person or entity working against your union.
You don’t want to spend too long in these connections purely because they’re a distraction from your path to a true union. But they’re in your life for a reason. They’re here to help you.
And it’s very likely you’re a part of their life to help them learn something too.
How Do You Tell the Difference?
Well, that’s the million-dollar question. There are hundreds of lists on ‘The top 50 false twin flame signs’ or ‘this ultimate twin flame sign’.
In reality, it’s going to be a little harder than that.
These are all spiritual connections and they’re all going to stand out compared to your average connection with another person.
When you boil it right down you are the only one who really knows if this is your twin flame. This can be really infuriating because when you haven’t met your twin flame – a soulmate or karmic will stand out as an important connection compared to anyone else.
So that doesn’t always seem like a useful answer.
Rather than leave you hanging, I’d tell you to work your butt off trying to figure it out. It’s going to take some brutal honesty, some time and examining your connection in a way that we often shy away from as humans.
We have a habit of painting stories for ourselves. This is especially true with a karmic who might be going out of their way to convince us they’re the real deal.
So, here’s what I would do. In fact, here’s what I did do when I was trying to understand my connection.
Journal (Hear Me Out)
Every single day. We have a whole newsletter about journaling for twin flames because of how incredibly useful it can be. Focus on your connection with them and be brutally honest with your feelings and energy levels.
I know a lot of people shrug this off as being too simple. But there’s power in that simplicity.
Over time (sometimes a fairly short time) you’ll start to see the truth in your own writing. If you see yourself growing, progressing and moving forward then it’s a positive connection. At least a soulmate.
If you see yourself moving backward or (more importantly) your own writing doesn’t resonate when you read it back, you know you’re deceiving yourself and dealing with a karmic.
The Tarot (Sort of)
I know this might seem biased since we use the Tarot every week (and you can see our collective readings in the Twin Flame Collective newsletter), but I do think the Tarot is a powerful tool here.
Maybe just not necessarily as you might think. A lot of people want to ask the Tarot for complete confirmation. A simple yes or no.
Beliefs here will vary. Some believe the cards can do this. Others don’t. I won’t tell you what to believe – but I will say that even if they can’t give you a definitive answer, they can certainly help you understand your own subconscious thoughts.
And trust me, on the higher levels, you already know whether this is your real twin flame. The Tarot can help you dig a little deeper into this intuition and see how you really feel.
Learn to Hear Your Intuition
Our intuition always sees the truth of things before we consciously catch up. This can be especially true for twin flames.
Your intuition will already know if this is the real thing or not. The problem is that this voice gets drowned out by all of our constant distractions and it can be hard to tell our real intuition apart from our wishful thinking or limerance.
So when we say ‘trust your intuition’ really, we mean learn to truly hear your intuition. Tune out everything else and hear this little voice. There are many spiritual practices that can help you achieve this but if you’re starting from scratch, the most accessible is starting a mindful meditation practice.