Synopses & Reviews
Every human life is made up of the light and the dark, the happy and the sad, the vital and the deadening. How you think about this rhythm of moods makes all the difference.
Our lives are filled with emotional tunnels: the loss of a loved one or end of a relationship, aging and illness, career disappointments or just an ongoing sense of dissatisfaction with life. Society tends to view these dark nights in clinical terms as obstacles to be overcome as quickly as possible. But Moore shows how honoring these periods of fragility as periods of incubation and positive opportunities to delve the souls deepest needs can provide healing and a new understanding of lifes meaning. Dark Nights of the Soul presents these metaphoric dark nights not as the enemy, but as times of transition, occasions to restore yourself, and transforming rites of passage, revealing an uplifting and inspiring new outlook on such topics as:
- The healing power of melancholy
- The sexual dark night and the mysteries of matrimony
- Finding solace during illness and in aging
- Anxiety, anger, and temporary Insanities
- Linking creativity, spirituality, and emotional struggles
- Finding meaning and beauty in the darkness
Praise:
"All of us go through troubled times, when we lie awake at night unable to sleep, wishing we had a comforting book to read. Now you do. DARK NIGHTS brings solace to the aching heart."
--Marianne Williamson, author of Everyday Grace and A Return to Love
In these reductive and fundamentalist times, Thomas Moore asks us to acknowledge the dark moon within us all, to question the workings of a sun-bright culture which demands our happy, healthy productivity at perhaps the cost of our very souls. This is a wise and timely book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
--Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog
Thomas Moore is one of the profound spiritual writers of our time. In Dark Nights of the Soul, he delves into the mystery of human suffering. This book really tells it like it is. Weve all been discouraged by neat, tidy self-help dogmatism and Moore refuses to succumb to the commercialism of simplistic, superficial, and subjective solutions.
John Bradshaw, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child, Creating Love, and Healing the Shame that Binds You
"Thomas Moore is the master of conveying the insight that the dark times in our lives are not threats but friends and teachers."
--Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Review
"[
A Religion of Ones Own] offers a new vision of how seekers can fashion their own connection to the sacred out of the materials of ancient faiths and everyday life."
—Psychology Today
"Practical suggestions for crafting ones own religion."
—Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
"[Moore's] counsel is consistently sensible and affirming. This book should appeal to many of the unchurched, as well as the faithful across traditions."
—Library Journal
"When [Moore] is read closely, his depth is apparent…he stands to make some new converts to the noninstitutional ranks of spirituality."
—Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
The bestselling author of Care of the Soul writes the consoling and prescriptive follow-up to his pivotal work, which helps readers to confront periods of sadness, pain, loss and ignorance cautiously, but deliberately and offers practical ways to deepen ways of thinking about our problems.
Synopsis
Every human life is made up of the light and the dark, the happy and the sad, the vital and the deadening. How you think about this rhythm of moods makes all the difference.
Our lives are filled with emotional tunnels: the loss of a loved one or end of a relationship, aging and illness, career disappointments or just an ongoing sense of dissatisfaction with life. Society tends to view these dark nights” in clinical terms as obstacles to be overcome as quickly as possible. But Moore shows how honoring these periods of fragility as periods of incubation and positive opportunities to delve the souls deepest needs can provide healing and a new understanding of lifes meaning. Dark Nights of the Soul presents these metaphoric dark nights not as the enemy, but as times of transition, occasions to restore yourself, and transforming rites of passage, revealing an uplifting and inspiring new outlook on such topics as:
The healing power of melancholy
The sexual dark night and the mysteries of matrimony
Finding solace during illness and in aging
Anxiety, anger, and temporary Insanities
Linking creativity, spirituality, and emotional struggles
Finding meaning and beauty in the darkness
Synopsis
The New York Times bestselling author and trusted spiritual adviser offers a follow-up to his classic Care of the Soul.
Something essential is missing from modern life. Many whove turned away from religious institutionsand others who have lived wholly without religionhunger for more than what contemporary secular life has to offer but are reluctant to follow organized religions strict and often inflexible path to spirituality. In A Religion of Ones Own, bestselling author and former monk Thomas Moore explores the myriad possibilities of creating a personal spiritual style, either inside or outside formal religion.
Two decades ago, Moores Care of the Soul touched a chord with millions of readers yearning to integrate spirituality into their everyday lives. In A Religion of Ones Own, Moore expands on the topics he first explored shortly after leaving the monastery. He recounts the benefits of contemplative living that he learned during his twelve years as a monk but also the more original and imaginative spirituality that he later developed and embraced in his secular life. Here, he shares stories of others who are creating their own path: a former football player now on a spiritual quest with the Pueblo Indians, a friend who makes a meditative practice of floral arrangements, and a well-known classical pianist whose audiences sometimes describe having a mystical experience while listening to her performances. Moore weaves their experiences with the wisdom of philosophers, writers, and artists who have rejected materialism and infused their secular lives with transcendence.
At a time when so many feel disillusioned with or detached from organized religion yet long for a way to move beyond an exclusively materialistic, rational lifestyle, A Religion of Ones Own points the way to creating an amplified inner life and a world of greater purpose, meaning, and reflection.
About the Author
Thomas Moore was a monk for twelve years, a musician, a university professor, and a psychotherapist. He writes regularly for
Psychology Today,
The Huffington Post,
Spirituality and Health, and
Resurgence Magazine. He lectures widely on holistic medicine, spirituality, psychotherapy, and the arts. Moore has been awarded numerous honors, including the Humanitarian Award from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and an honorary doctorate from Lesley University. Thomas is the author of eighteen previous books, including
Care of the Soul,
Soul Mates, and
Dark Nights of the Soul. He lives in New Hampshire.