Terminology gets complicated quickly and you’ll find a lot of people are using the same terms to mean entirely different things. Usually not intentionally, but our modern world has given us a short attention span, and our default has become to vocalize an opinion on social media and avoid any scary, complicated words longer than two syllables.
This is not directed at you or anyone here, just my disdain for modern society and social media leaking through into my reply.
Okay, so what it really should mean is surrender. Some people don’t like the term because it has connotations of giving up, but it really just means doing your inner work and working on yourself. Which is great. Entirely what union requires and even if you don’t reach union in this lifetime (for whatever reason) you’re still in a better position because you’ve taken a healthy approach to bettering yourself.
So inner union. Becoming one with yourself, becoming whole or the best version of yourself you can be - whatever term you want to use. Great. All for it.
But that isn’t what a lot of people mean when they use the phrase.
The trend I keep seeing is that nobody wants to do the difficult work. I get that, it’s hard, and realistically, most people are not going to do it. But they also don’t like the idea that other people might have something they don’t have.
So we get some warped new version of gatekeeping where people go around saying things like “there is no other person, just you, so you only need union with yourself.” If you take any spiritual practice and twin flames out of it, it’s just a new variation of "I’m single, so you should be too".
Misery loves company. The rise of the twin flame trend has been great and problematic, but when you combine the already warped idea with the fact that most people are single or in a relationship they’re not happy with, we’re starting to see it get even worse. At least in some communities.
Don’t sweat terminology.
Don’t take advice from people who want to bring you down to their level rather than lift you up.
Do focus on being the absolute best version of yourself that you can possibly be and absolutely do enjoy the union that comes along with that.