Thomas Moore in his book Care of the Soul, takes care to
distinguish the religious belief of an immortal soul and “the quality or
dimension of experiencing life and ourselves…When we say that someone or
something has soul, we know what we mean, but it is difficult to specify
exactly what that meaning is…It has to do with depth, value, relatedness, heart,
and personal substance…Just as the mind digests ideas and produces
intelligence, the soul feeds on life and digests it, creating wisdom and
character out of the fodder of experience.”
And I like to think of our soul as comparable to our developed character
and the person we become when we’re alone, stripped of all pretenses and personalities
exhibited to the outer world. The human
job description is to develop our character.
Moore writes “The soul is partly in time and partly in eternity. We might remember the part that resides in
eternity when we feel despair over the part that is in life.” I like to think of the spiritual soul residing
within our body like God resides in the universe.
Just what is it when we find ourselves saying that an
individual has soul? Perhaps its that
elusive something also called charisma, meaning divine favor and gift. We really can’t say what has caught our imagination,
but it’s there nonetheless. President
John F. Kennedy comes to mind as charismatic and Billie Holiday was one of the
most soulful singers that ever performed.
And life partners that have developed a special connection are seen as
soulmates.
Withdrawal or retreat from the world and the merry-go-round
of hectic everyday life can be a soulful exercise. I’ve happened upon a number of locations
around the world that presented themselves to me as soulful. Interestingly, many of them have a common denominator
of calm, still waters and morning light.
Three that readily come to mind are summer hiking back into Maroon Bells
National Park outside Aspen, Colorado, standing at the autumn shore of Price
Lake off the North Carolina Blue Ridge Parkway and drifting on the mirrored
waters of the Sea of Galilee in Israel.
These experiences were outside the limits of ordinary life.
Many of the hiking trails in the mountains involved
beautiful vistas and others were more treacherous paths along a rocky ledge. Moore writes that “This is the goal of the
soul path—to feel existence; not to overcome life’s struggles and anxieties,
but to know life first hand, to exist fully in context. Spiritual practice is sometimes described as
walking in the footsteps of another: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.”
We observe things of this world that seem to “speak to our
soul.” I’ve had this feeling on many
occasions looking through the lens of a camera.
I’ve especially been touched by the sight of weathered old barns and
wooden windmills standing steadfast against a storm on the central plains. Renaissance paintings by long deceased
artists still speak to me such as Van Gogh’s paintings of a vibrant olive
orchard and black crows hovering over a waving wheat field. His tortured mental state cries out through
the canvas. And songs from the musical
Les Misérables like Empty Chairs at Empty Tables pierce the soul of those touched
by the images of the young patriots that sacrificed their life for a just
cause.
Thomas Moore observes that “The Renaissance magus understood
that our soul, the mystery we glimpse when we look deeply into ourselves, is
part of a larger soul, the soul of the world, anima mundi. There is certainly a sense that this
existence is part of one greater spiritual consciousness.
