Will the Red Thread Legend Lead You to Your Soulmate?

Is the love of your life predestined? It could make sense.

My phone pings with a text. I stop working and glance down at it. It’s a TikTok video from my friend. I smile when I receive it. I know what she’s doing.

She wants to give me hope.

I might see the guy I’m missing again one day.

The video tells the story of The Red Thread Legend. It’s a tale rooted in East Asian culture. It’s about love and destiny. It’s a narrative made for girls like us.

Girls who believe in true love and fairy tales.

In sugar and spice and all things nice.

I once wrote How a Broken Heart Killed the Romantic in Me. A terrible divorce crashed my fairy tale party. It knocked the rose-colored glasses out of this princesses’ hands a long time ago.

But it’s hard not to fall prey…

To a good legend of love.

The red string of fate embodies the myth that we are undeniably connected to one true love by an invisible red string. It’s a thread that is tied around the pinky fingers of two people that are destined for one another…soulmates.

The red string cannot be broken.

It can be tangled and twisted and tested.

But never snapped.

These lovers are preordained to find one another…regardless of place, time, geography or any obstacle. This means no matter what you will meet your one true love.

Or be re-united with your one true love.

Eventually, you will be together.

It’s said that the gods tie this mystical string on the pinky fingers of each love destined for one another. In the Chinese myth, it’s the lunar matchmaker god, Yue Lao.

The tale varies as to which part of the body was originally tied to the red string. Some versions say it began tied to the ankle at birth, while others say it was a man’s thumb connected to a woman’s pinky finger.

Somewhere over time, it’s settled into symbolizing two pinky fingers.

This may be because of the artery that connects the heart to the pinky.

There are multiple versions of this fable.

However, there is a commonality to all of the Chinese stories. They describe a younger boy or girl encountering the god, Yue Lao. The god informs them of the person they are destined to love.

In each account, the young person scoffs.

They reject the idea of that person being their predetermined soulmate.

But time proves Yue Lao right.

In each tale, they discover they have married the person that they crossed paths with earlier. Despite trying to avoid this outcome. Despite the passage of time and other events.

The man and woman realize the god was correct.

They have found their one true love.

On a broader spectrum, this theory is said to be true about all that we are connected by and meant to meet in life. In a spiritual universe our paths are meant to be.

We will find those who are meant for us.

In every aspect of our lives.

When you look at it that way, the red string soulmate myth is potentially believable. After all, many of us believe things happen for a reason and they were meant to be.

The individual that connects us to a friend, a job, or other things.

We were meant to meet them.

It makes this once broken-hearted girl optimistic. It places the rose-colored glasses back in this princesses’ view. It’s game on for this girl’s failed fairy tale party.

At the very least, it’s great folklore.

And red is the trademark…

Of love.