Care of the Soul

"Mythology, for example, often presents a cosmology, a description of how the world came to be and how it is governed. It is important to be oriented, to have some imagination of the physical universe in which we live. That is why many mythologists have noted that even modern science, for all its factual validity, also gives us a cosmology, a mythology in a true sense of the word."

"Myth has the connotation of falsehood, as when we judge that an assumption about the way things are is "only" a myth. Myth may seem to be a flight of fancy because its imagery is often fantastic, with many gods and devils o=r impossible acts and unreal settings. But the fantastic elements in mythology are essential to the genre; they take us away from the realistic particulars of life to invisible factors that are nonetheless real."

Moore, writing about how stories -- specifically myths -- enrich and support our lives and our spirits. This comes both in religious and secular forms. We love church and we love movies, too.

Thomas Moore - Care Of The Soul - Posting Group

Thomas Moore - Care Of The Soul - Posting Group



I am so impressed that I am finally reading this book and I want to share it with people.

I will post essays and excerpts as I go through the reading. I have been carrying the book around in my head and heart for almost twenty years. A good friend gifted me it soon after publication in '94.

What has me now is Moore's embrace of depression. Saturn's child is one phrase. And he is well worth following down this path. How much have we gained in trying to "fix" depression?

Maybe it is there for a good reason. From page 141: 

When, as counselors and friends, we are observers of depression

and are challenged to find a way to deal with it in others,

we could abandon the monotheistic notion that life always has to be cheerful,

and be instructed by melancholy. We could learn from its qualities and follow 

its lead,

becoming more patient in its presence, 

lowering our excited expectations, 

taking a watchful attitude as this soul deals with its fate

in utter seriousness and heaviness. 

In our friendship, we could offer it a place of acceptance

and containment.

Sometimes, of course, depression, like any emotion, can go beyond ordinary 

limits, becoming a completely debilitating illness. But in extreme cases, too, even in the midst 

of strong treatments, we can still look for Saturn at the core of depression and find ways

to befriend it.

Whadaya think?

3/4/13

Thomas Moore - Care Of The Soul - Posting Group