Care of the Souls by Thomas Moore -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The great malady of the twentieth century, implicated in all of our troubles and affecting us individually and socially, is “loss of soul.”

— Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life by Thomas Moore.

I first read Care of the Soul back in the ‘90s, shortly after it was published and shortly after I had gone through a divorce. It had a great impact on me then. I am curious to see how it will strike me when I reread it now, much older and well into a very happy second marriage. I suspect it still has a lot to offer, even if what I take from it this time is different.

Have you read this one or any of Moore's books? If you aren't familiar with his books, Care of the Soul is not about your Christian soul, or soul in a religious sense. He is talking about "soul" in terms of Jungian or post-Jungian archetypal psychology. He draws on the wisdom of world religions, but writes in terms of "spirituality," not about religion per se. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Care of the Soul:

Jung explains that when we meet something of the shadow in another, we often feel repulsed, but that is because we are confronting something in ourselves that we find objectionable, something with which we ourselves struggle, and something that contains qualities valuable to the soul. The negative image we have of narcissism may indicate that self-preoccupation contains something we need so badly that it is surrounded with negative connotations.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

[Care of the Soul] provides a path-breaking lifestyle handbook that shows how to add spirituality, depth, and meaning to modern-day life by nurturing the soul. Readers are presented with a revolutionary approach to thinking about daily life—everyday activities, events, problems and creative opportunities—and a therapeutic lifestyle is proposed that focuses on looking more deeply into emotional problems and learning how to sense sacredness in even ordinary things. 

Basing his writing on the ancient model of "care of the soul"—which provided a religious context for viewing the everyday events of life—Moore brings "care of the soul" into the 21st century. Promising to deepen and broaden the reader's perspective on his or her own life experiences, Moore draws on his own life as a therapist practicing "care of the soul," as well as his studies of the world's religions and his work in music and art, to create this inspirational guide that examines the connections between spirituality and the problems of individuals and society.