Thomas Moore: Soul Mates
Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship
Harper Collins, 1994
Front Flap:
A companion volume to the national bestseller
Care of the Soul, this new book from Thomas Moore explores how relationships of all kinds – with all their difficulties – deepen our lives and help fulfill the needs of the soul.
As Thomas Moore pointed out in Care of the Soul, the soul thrives under certain conditions, especially intimacy, attachment, and involvement. Unlike many books that are concerned with making relationships work better, Moore’s new book, Soul Mates, finds meaning in endings, separations, jealousy, sexual conflicts, and other obstacles we may encounter in the pursuit of intimacy. The book emphasizes that if we are willing to live through these difficulties, life is enriched and the soul thrives. Moore describes how “soul-intimacy” can be cultivated in simple ways that are often overlooked – writing thoughtful letters and engaging in heartfelt conversation, for instance. On another level, he investigates ways to create soulful community and a profound sense of conviviality in society and among nations. For insight he appeals to a wide range of literature and mythology – Emily Dickinson, Sufi poetry, Native American folktales, and classical mythology. In all of these sources Moore finds intimacy depicted as a matter of soul rather than interpersonal dynamics.
Everyone whose heart, mind, and soul were touched by Care of the Soul will find in Soul Mates the same kind of empathy, caring, and wisdom as Thomas Moore expands on his ideas about life and explores all human relationships.
Reviews:
“In richly textured and shaded prose, he evokes mythology, poetry and sacred and philosophical traditions to speak not to our agendas but to our souls.” San Francisco Chronicle
“I devoured Soul Mates like some comfort food for the spirit…Moore moves love off the fast track and into the realm of mystery and imagination where it belongs.” New Woman
“An eloquent, passionate, often mystical exploration of how we mere mortals might better understand ourselves and others in a late-20thcentury society in which so much emphasis is placed on interpersonal dynamics and so little on introspection, care, grace, gratitude and honor.” Detroit News
“[Moore] delights in plainness, things imperfect, ragged edges, loose ends, failures, flops, incompletions, annoyances, dissatisfactions. The comfort he offers is that in such shortfalls from ultimacy and salvation, we may find our richest reality. The soul’s fertility is slow and organic.” New Orleans Times Picayune