Enchantment provides a renewable energy for life

Today Thomas Moore writes a new blog entry, "Enchanted Lives" on his site. He discusses his background associations with re-enchantment and our continuing need to "wake up the imagination and make life worth living because of the world’s beauty and its power to excite us."

Moore considers the work of Teilhard de Chardin, Marsilio Ficino and William Morris as contributions to this re-visioning. He concludes:

"Notice how often I use 're-.' It means to look again with fresh eyes at something that has lost its vitality. I want to 're-' everything, especially those things that deaden us and keep our imaginations numb and take away the wonder and thrill of being in this animated and spirited world." 

Perhaps re-ligion has a re-activating role as well in this re-vitalization.

Moore describes Marsilio Ficino's natural magic

Today Thomas Moore writes about "Marsilio Ficino, an astrologer, philosopher, musician, translator, priest and magus of 15th century Italy" in his post "Natural Magic":

"I interpret him saying that we can make a more spiritual and more soulful world if we appreciate the power of ordinary things to affect our emotions and sense of meaning. The colors we use, the sounds that surround us, the timing of our projects, the images that we allow to impact us — the objects in our lives are not there just for their utility or their beauty but for their power to affect us profoundly.

This magical philosophy puts a different slant on the arts especially. For Ficino, an art piece is not just an aesthetic object of pleasure but a talisman, an object that has a degree of power for our lives. It’s important what colors we choose for the home and the workplace. Architecture, he said, is the most important of the arts because it affects how we live and accomplish anything. Advertisers know about these things and are always looking for the magic that will sell products. But imagine a natural, everyday magic that would make us healthier and happier, that would support our personal relationships and our work."

Moore describes his natural magic talismans at home that support and inspire him.