Love and the Soul: Creating a Future for Earth [Paperback]

Robert Sardello (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1996

Expanding on the ideas in Thomas Moore's "Care of the Soul," his longtime colleague and the author of" Facing the World with Soul" discusses the relationship of the individual to the soul of the world and how awareness of this relationship helps ensure our future.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Whatever Sardello touches breaks open with startling new meaning. Now he enters the great arena of our cultural disorders so that we can suddenly see them afresh. I have thieved privately from his mind for fifteen years. At last his work is out, available to anyone recognizing the need to reimagine the soul’s plight in a world astray.”—James Hillman, founder of archetypal psychology and author of The New York Times best seller The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

Expanding on ideas in Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul, his longtime colleague and the author of Facing the World with Soul discusses the relationship of the individual to the soul of the world and how awareness of this relationship helps ensure our future. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060926988
• ISBN-13: 978-0060926984
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,047,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy 100 and read each one!, December 10, 2002

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Roo Ruf Neck - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Love and the Soul: Creating a Future for Earth (Paperback)

well, maybe not, but without a doubt "Love and the World" is an immensely significant work in the field of depth psychology. Originally titled "Love and the Soul", Sardello's book takes an experiential look at the connection between the individual and the world. By staying within the realm of experience, Sardello allows the reader to begin the process of psychological research for him or herself. Sardello honors the original direction which Freud and then Jung trailblazed but points to the danger inherent in any exploration of soul which leaves out the world. Yet Sardello's experience of 'World' and his methodology which leads to it is what is truly groundbreaking about this work.

In "Love and the World" the world is not maintained to exist 'out there' independent of the individual, and yet, Sardello avoids any hints of suggesting the relativistic/constructivst conception which denies the possibility of talking objectively about realms such as Truth, Beauty and Goodness. Sardello maintains that to truly speak objectively about soul and the world, we must enter into the creative processes which they are. It is in the creative process that we can find, through sensing the creating activity of our own 'I', the link between ourself and the world. Sardello shows how spiritual psychology demands a distinction between the ego and the 'I'. This distinction has never been articulated in depth psychology and it is for this reason that the world has always been left out. And so after we identify the 'I' as distinct, not separate, from the ego, we can then experience the 'I' as the creative, non personal, yet completely individual, activity through which the world individuates itself and from which fully conscious, world oriented love is born.

How refreshing to read a sophisticated work in the field of psychology that earns that distinction by leaving theories, abstractions and in-bred language systems at the door. Like any truly improvisational art, Sardello is not content to present a system of finished concepts that can be repeated and systemized, but rather, he enters the active images of experience and from there performs language which can deepen the readers own explorations and questions. This is reflected in the poetic style which imbues each sentence of "Love and the World".

So much more could be said. And that's the point. This book does not attempt to finish anything. It's sole objective is to begin creating a new foundation for psychology which is based in active practice and which leads towards capacities for experiencing the creative, soul-filled and spiritual activities which are the world.

ps...my only frustration comes from what was left out of the new edition. In general not much is changed and in fact, some things are tightened up in a helpful manner. However the "Getting Started" section has been rewritten and while the new pages are a wonderful and, I believe, needed introduction to the book, the original "Getting Started" was a masterpiece. In the four or five pages of the original, Sardello wove together in a creativly condensed form all the images which live in the book as a whole. The orignial "Getting Started" also contains a few brilliant paragraphs on 'soul logic' which desribe the necessity for a new methodological approach to psychology. For these reason I would urge anyone who is still hungry after reading "Love and the World" to order the out of print original "Love and the Soul" from bibliofind.com. I hope that someday both pieces can work together in this most outstanding and potentially life changing book. Perhaps, Sardello will post the original words on his websight.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be anazed, June 14, 2009

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Ger Agrey-thatcher - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love and the Soul: Creating a Future for Earth (Hardcover)

Robert Sardello is never who you expect. This parent of LOVE AND THE WORLD is no exception. He prefers ecstasy to analysis, the imaginal and magic to logic. So if you would enjoy a conversation between Rudolf Steiner and Carl Jung, you will love this book. Shine.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sardello just gets better. Buy 200 and give them away., May 27, 2009

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J. Brunner (Spain) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love and the Soul: Creating a Future for Earth (Paperback)

More chapters have been added from this book`s previous incarnation as "Love and the World". If you enjoyed Love and the World you need to read this book.

The new chapters (six or seven) offer some of the most astonishing spiritual science/alchemy prose ever put to paper.

This book goes hand in hand with Silence by the same author.

UPDATE. Thank God this book is out on the Kindle. The only thing I didn`t like about Silence and Love and the Soul was the formatting and type setting which could never do justice to the contents. Hopefully that is not an issue on the Kindle.