Customer Reviews

Soul Mates: Honoring the Mystery of Love and Relationship

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Only rarely can I claim to have been touched by a tale, a text, a book, even words so hauntingly beautiful and enduring as those of Thomas Moore as expressed in Soul Mates. Moore's writing ensnares you almost as unpredictably as love itself with a literary insight and philosophical exhiliration that is the ultimate journey with an author. You owe it to your spirit, your heart and your intrinsic self to become a cherished and enlightened part of this psychological nourishment. Moore turns everything you wondered, dreamt and felt about the real experience of human relationships into something as clear and precious as air itself. Gently, yet perceptively, he guides you back to the core and the unique and individual thoughts of your very existence. Moore's Soul Mates may even be the closest you can get to the simple truth of taking a single moment in this life for confronting and embracing yourself and everyone around you. Certainly, this is a book that is the perfect expression of the deep, spiritual force working in and out of our lives, making anything at all-even self-love still possible-again and again. Without pretense, heroics or high-minded words on paper, Soul Mates offers us the non-intrusive space to no longer hide our hearts, our souls and emotional performances beneath the glaring lights of a fast-paced, technologically driven world. Soul Mates may be considered by some to be one of the great texts of our time, but most importantly, it remains true to the sense of what it is to be human and humankind in all its guises and manifestations. Touch this book with both hands and let go only when you want to!.

Annabel Temple (B.A. DPH (Cred)) Christchurch, New Zealand

IÕm glad that I had grabbed Soul Mates off the shelf along with about four other self-help books that I purchased at the same time.

S/M has helped me understand (or given a new perspective on) all relationships -- from spousal to neighbors to co-workers to friendships and family. Thomas Moore says that we should appreciate the complexities and mysteries that come with all relationships.

S/M doesnÕt offer any concrete step-by-step advice for solving relationship problems. Instead, Mr. Moore explains that every relationship is different and that everyday problems on the surface may have a deeper hidden meaning. And with this in mind, by not immediately relieving ourselves from what it is that is bothering us at the moment we may be able to understand what it is that is really troubling us if we give ourselves the time.

S/M is a great book if you are looking to better yourself, improve existing relationships, and gain insight on all relationships and life in general. I reccomend it and I believe it can help everyone understand themselves and others. --Douglas

Moore's writings once again prove to be one of the most effective contemporary antidotes to the blinding literalism, mind-numbing religious ideology, cheap moralisms, New Age silliness and Icarian spirituality that pervade so much of American society. His musings hold the tension between the traditionalist and iconoclast, an alchemy that only a true majus can achieve. Like all his works, Soul Mates is a welcome respite from the overly efficient, productive, mechanical and therapeutic language that finally stifles rich imagination and extinguishes the life of the soul. In much of the book, his own self-confessed Artemisian nature lies deftly hidden amongst the undercurrents of his reflections.

Moore's essential theme is that change takes place not through consious effort but by subtle shifts in the imagination. You will certainly feel your imagination stretched through the many Greek myths, stories, poetry, Renaissance philosophy and his own "outrageous failures and follies."

For people who finds themselves as "pursued" or as the "pursuer", Moore's insights into the Daphne myth will provide for much rumination and fantasy. And if it's the "magic" that has been lost, the Native American Cochiti story is pure soul food. Learn of the erotic idea of love as a "menage a trois", and of Moore's surprising and hilarious 'threesome' at an art exhibition.

Moore's genius is being able to take the raw material of life and sift, separate, turn, and mash it until it becomes pure alchemical gold. It might just strike a vein in your own soul!

Finally a book on love and relationship that doesn't pretend to have all the answers. Instead of beating the reader over the head with step-by-step programs or offering pat answers to the mysteries of relationship (like so many have done before him), Moore gently weaves a web of possibilities, hope, self-empowerment, and acceptance of the paradoxical. Deep at times; read it and savor it over and over again.

The first time you read this work, chances are you'll miss most of what's fantastic about it. This is because Moore speaks so clearly about ideas which we think we know or understand, but in truth, we do not. Thomas Moore is a brilliant man, one of the few authors who I feel a kinship of minds with, someone who voices truths we innately know, but our culture fails to celebrate. If you read his words slowly and attentively, you'll find it reads like poetry - fluid, open, Moore writing in such a way that mirrors his themes. Moore's ideas about love, family, community - they are true gems. I can't say enough about how highly I regard his wisdom, as well as his craft. I dare you to attempt to truly hear him.

Dr. Moore is an artist when it comes to these things, a master artist. A person will probably learn things they will take with them their whole lives. I highly reccomend this book for learning about relationships of all kinds, i.e. writing letters, marriage, friendship.

Excellent insight and reflection into the mystery of soul. Insights gleaned by Moore lead you on your own personal journey and reflection of your soul and its relationships. Frees you from the to-do-lists of self helpism and let your imagination and creativity lead you to a natural healing. A must read for people bound by conventional relationships and yet yearning for soulful connections.

This book is like poetry for the soul. It is a very sensitive book about relationships and why people fall in and out of them.
I recommend this book for anyone who is questioning marriage or other relationships. It is not a "How To" book, but articulate words from a caring soul.

Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown Eyed Boy"

Dr. Moore has a way of soothing your soul and making you feel as if you are sitting across from a therapist who is constantly reassuring you and making you feel good about yourself as you should. I found his writing style at times to be difficult but eventually the book is a reawakening of deeply held emotions and beliefs that will help you in this great journey called life. While his first book "Care of the Soul" is more written to help you develop your own soul, this book is geared towards that great leap towards a scared bond of a relationship with someone else.

The heart has its reasons. We try to explain emotions inadequately. The heart is a mystery. Relationship, emotion, passion can be grasped by the tools of poetry and religion. Soul does not make love a project. In general our thinking has become too mechanized.

The ways of soul are filled with paradox. Jung said the soul is the archetype of life. Emerson said the soul does not advance in a straight line. The soul appears regressive. Soul is attachment, spirit is detachment. Rilke thought each person should protect the solitude of the other. The soul is always complicated. We all have skeletons in out closets and monsters in out hearts. None of us may want to know who we really are. Reading psychology books may be a distraction of attending to the soul!

Every marriage has exterior and interior dimensions. Marriage is a profound stirring of souls. When we idealize the family, we also demonize it. Our secular ideal of family may become excessively personal. A family is a form of community. Families complcate life.

It may be wise to cultivate friendship in an indirect manner. We could deal with our paranoia by placing more value on intuition. True conversation is an interpenetration of worlds. A conversation grows at its own tempo. Some people do not have the patience to get to know each other over time. The soul of relationships is not goal-minded.

The book is pleasant and useful. Discussions of symbolism and mythology run through the chapters.