A contemplative treasure

This is a book that will make you confront your soul to learn what it wants most. Happiness comes from caring for your soul and doing what it wants.

Thomas Moore has been a psychotherapist for 15 years. He was a monk in a Catholic religious order for 12 years. He wrote "Care of the Soul" as a program for bringing soul back into life. This is an old idea that goes back to the writings of Plato, the experiments of Renaissance theologians, in the letters and literature of the Romantic poets and also in Freud, who told us of a psychic underworld full of memory, fantasy and emotion.

First you need to know your soul, it's wants and needs, then you need to learn to love your soul so you can care for it correctly. There are many analogies to mythology in knowing the soul. Learning these analogies will help you in knowing your soul.

Also, you need shadow in your life to appreciate the fullness of the light. Nothing teaches you more how to cherish what you have than to lose something you love.

There also is a need for myth, ritual and a spiritual life in caring for the soul. Soulfulness makes sacred many acts and everyday rituals that bring peace and calm to our lives.

There is beauty in things. Things in nature, as well as "made" things, have soul. We can become attached to them and caring for these things can be therapeutic. "If you don't love thing in particular, you cannot love the world, because the world doesn't exist except in individual things." Anima Mundi refers to the soul in each thing.

Art is sacred to the soul. Care of the soul requires craft, skill, attention and art. To live with a high degree of artfulness means to attend to the small things that keep the soul engaged in whatever we are doing and it is the very heart of soul-making. Art is not only found in artist's studios and museums, it has it's place at work, in business and at home. It needs a place in ordinary life and should not be elevated and set apart from life.

There is art in performing everyday activities like doing dishes, hanging out laundry, arranging flowers, cooking, and making repairs. Also, buying nice things for our homes is living artfully. Good linens, a special rug or a simple teapot can add artfulness and soul to our lives. Loving art can make us see the art in everyday events, like recognizing the similarity of a Cézanne painting in a momentary glance at your dinner table.

"By caring for the soul faithfully, every day, we step out of the way and let our full genius emerge."