For wisdom, revelation, purpose — stay empty

Thomas Moore teaches at Copper Beech Institute in West Hartford, Connecticut during the weekend of 11 November to 13 November 2016: Tapping Into the Soul’s Depths: Finding Personal Strength, Inner Guidance and Purpose Through Soulful Living. This program is open to all levels including beginners.

For the Institute’s Mindfulness Blog, Moore writes "A Faith Beyond Belief", an insightful introduction to his topic, to his own Zen Catholicism and to one of the strengths of his recent books, A Religion of One’s Own. Moore’s description of sunyata as "spiritual emptiness — not the literal idea of nothingness as understood in a negative way but a valuable kind of lack that serves the spirit" depicts his own experience — "this letting go intensifies my faith and makes me more religious."

Moore at James Hillman symposium this weekend

James Hillman is honoured this weekend at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture 5th annual symposium that explores alchemical psychology.

"James Hillman's contributions to culture were many and profound, none more remarkable than his formulation of Archetypal Psychology, which he named in 1970 and focused his work upon until his death in 2011. To honor and continue to learn from Hillman, the Institute initiated in 2012 this annual program aimed at exploring the rich depths of his lifelong study of, in his own words, a 'psychology deliberately affiliated with the arts, culture, and the history of ideas, arising as they do from the imagination.'"

This year's program features Thomas Moore on Saturday 29 October, 11:15-12:30. Moore is a Fellow of the Institute.

Register now.
Members $75
Nonmembers $95
Member Teachers $35
Students $25
All tickets include Friday dinner, Saturday continental breakfast, lunch, and closing reception.

Snippets from last year's gathering

Come to hear Moore this Wednesday in Seattle

Meet Thomas Moore in Seattle this Wednesday, October 26 at the Center for Spiritual Living where he presents Care of the Soul in the 21st century from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

"Mr. Moore will share his insights, and answer your questions, about soul and spirit in everyday life, and about the importance of developing one's own spiritual practices in this time of radical diversity and change. This evening offers a profound opportunity to explore the role of our individual spirituality in caring for one's soul, and the need for soul in the secular world."

Tickets are available online: $35.00

Barque coverage
7 Sept 2016 "Learn how to contribute to a more humane world"

Consider the vessels that offer you soulful passage

“Love alone is not enough. Without imagination, love stales into sentiment, duty, boredom. Relationships fail not because we have stopped loving but because we first stopped imagining.” ― James Hillman

Talk of soul mates often veers to descriptions of lovers, partners or spouses yet Thomas Moore describes soul mates beyond this sphere of intimate sexuality by emphasizing the alchemy of friendship. He describes potential soul in various relationships: "The soul in relationships".

In his piece specifically about soul mates, "What is a soul mate?", Moore stresses:

“All of our relationships may be soulful to various degrees,” Moore said. “So you may have a friend that is very close to you, and you could call them a soul mate, even though they’re not a lover.” In his extensive study on the history of the soul, including what it is and how it’s been written about, Moore found that “when you look at Western history, in almost all the books, every spokesperson for soul has written about friendship as being the best model for a soulful relationship. So even if you’re lovers or spouses, the friendship dimension is probably the most soulful aspect.”

Your soul mate may be on the friend ship.

"An emotional complex of the American psyche"?

Thomas Moore writes "Trump" before the third U.S. presidential debate. In this Soul & Spirit post at Patheos he includes:

"At first, I thought he was an expression of racism, misogyny and all around ignorance and immaturity that afflicts many who are not used to thinking deeply and going beyond their own self-interest. I wondered if he were a symptom of our failed educational system that now concerns itself so much with STEM instead of with personal maturity and culture. With the support Trump has found I wondered how so many Americans would be susceptible to this dark infatuation that, for all the differences, does clarify how Hitler came into power.

The depth psychologist in me sees the society suddenly in the throes of an anxiety disorder. “Trump” seems to symptomize an emotional complex of the American psyche. Deep resentments, anger and frustration have been churning for a long time. Consciousness, awareness and achieving important equalities have a cost.  Through them we become more civilized and more civil, but the pain in becoming better people doesn’t go away. As Jung and Freud both intimated, becoming more civilized creates a shadow force that likes being dumb and self-centered."

Moore recommends ways for America to face this shadow and its accompanying voter rage.