script type='text/javascript' src='http://track2.mybloglog.com/js/jsserv.php?mblID=2006083115370773'>

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Sex and religion need to be intimate bed partners

Psychological Perspectives publishes Rob Henderson's interview, “We Are Sexual Every Minute of Our Lives: An Interview with Thomas Moore" in Volume 58, Issue 2, 2015 titled The Environment: Inner and Outer. Unfortunately the full text is not available for free viewing. This interview may be purchased for $US 40. Read a preview of the first page and the Abstract that states:
"Thomas Moore is a proponent of bringing more soul into our sexual connections and our lives in general. In this interview, he speaks of the relationship between moralism as a defense against morality, the repression of sexuality, and the futility of trying to control it. An important topic discussed is shame and its association with sexuality, as well as different ways to look at masturbation. He explores Jesus's apparent view of sexuality as amplified from Biblical stories, and how the church and religion deal with sexuality. It is Moore's belief that one of our modern day tasks is to reconcile sexuality and spirituality and he gives some ideas about how this reconciliation can be achieved on a personal level." 
Psychological Perspectives: A Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thought is published by the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles.

“We Are Sexual Every Minute of Our Lives”:
An Interview with Thomas Moore
by Rob Henderson
Psychological Perspectives
Vol. 58, Iss. 2, 2015
Pages 172-188
Published online: 5 June 2015

Monday, July 06, 2015

Celebrate Athena's weaving of our cities' souls

Pythia Peay provides an excerpt from "Reflections on the Soul of Washington, DC: An Interview With Thomas Moore" on Huffington Post for the U.S. celebration of Independence Day. This excerpt is from her new book, America on the Couch: Psychological Perspectives on American Politics and Culture published by Lantern Books. She writes that Moore "reveals the deeper symbolism contained within our American myths and symbols of freedom and independence, especially as they are reflected in the monuments and memorials of the nation's capital — a place Moore describes as 'sacred.'"

When Peay admits "sometimes the city feels more like a tourist destination than one of our nation's sacred treasures," Moore responds:
"I wouldn't call those visitors 'tourists.' They're clearly pilgrims. People are not going to D.C. as tourists the way they would visit another city. [But] what these tourists are doing as they tour the monuments and the city is an aspect of civil religion: it's honest to goodness deep, deep, soul religion. That's different even from the spiritual dimension of religion." 
 Peay then asks, "So how would this apply to Washington, D.C., and what would a "soul" and a "spirit" approach to the nation's capital feel like?" Moore answers:
"The spirit part is to make everything function well, and to be efficient. . . With spirit, there's a tendency to be educational and to explain everything, rather than letting people have the simple experience of the images and the memories they evoke.

A soul approach would be to visit an old building, for example, and go into a room where an old document was signed, without having to listen to someone give a lecture about it... So when someone is standing in front of a monument, or is in some historic room or building, they need to allow their imagination time and quiet." 
Peay continues, "D.C. is so rich with statues and images carved into its buildings. Is there a particular figure that to you embodies something of the soul of the city?" Moore replies:
 "The art of weaving things together is a very traditional image of soul. The Goddess Athena, who was the patroness of Athens, and who is the patroness of all cities, was a weaver: I see Athena in all of the buildings, and particularly in the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol. Being able to weave together cultures and personalities and all sorts of peoples and religions – that is the work of Athena, and that is the work of the city and of the government. So she is the patroness of the soul of the city: not the running of it, but the weaving."