Starting from the premise that we can no longer afford to live in a disenchanted world, Moore shows that a profound, enchanted engagement with life is not a childish thing to be put away with adulthood, but a necessity for one's personal and collective survival. With his lens focused on specific aspects of daily life such as clothing, food, furniture, architecture, ecology, language, and politics, Moore describes the renaissance these can undergo when there is a genuine engagement with beauty, craft, nature, and art in both private and public life. Millions of readers who found comfort and substance in Moore's previous bestsellers will discover in this book ways to restore the heart and soul of work, home, and creative endeavors through a radical, fresh return to ancient ways of living the soulful life.

From Publishers Weekly

Where better to care for the soul than in the details of our daily lives? And so this profound yet practical sequel to Moore's massive bestseller, Care of the Soul, explores how we may nurture our souls while eating, dressing, traveling and so on. The soul, according to Moore, is a kind of sea of intelligence and responsiveness to life; it animates, yet exceeds, the individual. The soul can never be fully known or possessed, only glimpsed. Yet when we learn to open to it, it can pull us into the beautiful mystery of our lives. "In a condition of enchantment, we stop doing and the soul acts," writes Moore of a possible soul-based therapy. "We stop interpreting and the soul is revealed." The soul's power of enchantment can be engaged not just by listening in the therapist's office, but by living surrounded by?and in harmony with?the textures, tastes and images that inspire the imagination. Some of Moore's reflections are simplistic, even dogmatic (for instance, that concern over the healthiness of our food will diminish its resonance) or too romantic. But this important book will dare many to believe that life really is full of enchantment, if only we can go beyond our habitual literal-mindedness and narcissism to experiment with that broader state of attunement that Moore calls soul. $250,000 ad/promo; BOMC and QPB dual main selections; simultaneous audio from HarperAudio; author tour; U.K., translation, first serial, dramatic rights: Michael Katz.

Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

As he has done in his previous books, former monk and best-selling writer Moore (Meditations, LJ 1/95) continues to explore the ways in which soulful living invests ordinary experiences with magic and enchantment. This collection of parables and anecdotes about contemporary life traces the effects of soulful living on everyday practices as wide-ranging as sex and sports. Moore casts simple and often simplistic reflections in an elegant prose that will appeal to fans of the work of Matthew Fox and M. Scott Peck. Most libraries will want to purchase Moore's book for his numerous readers.

-?Henry Carrigan Jr., Westerville P.L., Ohio

Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Moore is most enchanting in his musing on the composition of our lives: we are made of music, of poetry, and of play. Our lives are not so much stories as "loose-leaf novels," which defy encapsulation in narrative. There is no grand unifying theory here, though the spirit of Jungian theory--especially as developed by James Hillman--breathes in every page of the book. There is something closer to music, played with ordinary things--heard, seen, and felt as enchantment. There are jarring moments--as in Moore's suggestion that we need "ear police" and his reading of graffiti largely in terms of debris. But even in those moments, Moore allows a word from John Cage that will help readers hear music and poetry in spite of policing that has more to do with control than enchantment, and he allows that graffiti may be an assault, not so much on our senses, as on our disenchantment. Readers familiar with Moore's previous work will not be disappointed. Those who encounter him here for the first time are sure to find him enchanting. Steve Schroeder --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Bestselling spiritual writer Moore (Soul Mates, 1994) offers sage guidance on how to develop a sense of wonder in a jaded world. With Care of the Soul (1992, not reviewed) Moore almost created his own genre: religious but nonsectarian; more mystical and traditional than M. Scott Peck; inspiring, yet more psychologically and intellectually grounded than most current ``inspirational'' writing. Here he expands on the theme of soul to address the problem of the merely functional, cynical way in which we view the world around us. Enchantment for Moore has at its roots a sense of the lyrical, with strong connotations of magic, ritual, and charm. In ten chapters, each with four sections, he discusses nature spirits, gardens, traveling, sexuality, politics, books, music, holy places, and astrology. Moore lets us see magic in the emotions and rituals of sport. He reminds us that museums are dwellings of the muses. He challenges us to think about what pilgrimage sites are characteristic of contemporary Americans. He can even see seeds of wonder in such unlikely sites as the world of business, or in pornographic graffiti. Moore is still very much indebted to Jung's notions of religion and mystery and to the writings of James Hillman. He reaches out to Greek religion, to the Buddhists and the Koran, to Plato, to Rennaissance magus Marsilio Ficino, to Emily Dickinson and many others, not to mention his own Irish ancestry and his (at times) idiosyncratic Catholic faith. Such rich fare makes for very stimulating reading, especially as Moore has a deep sensitivity to the etymologies and resonances of words, but it is not always clear where he is going in his desire to be inclusive, e.g., in his call for a ``theology'' that finally seems so eclectic as to be amorphous. (Book-of-the-Month Club dual/main selection; $250,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

[A] worthy sequel to Care of the Soul and Soul Mates." -- -- New Age Journal

Product Description

Starting from the premise that we can no longer afford to live in a disenchanted world, Moore shows that a profound, enchanted engagement with life is not a childish thing to be put away with adulthood, but a necessity for one's personal and collective survival.

With his lens focused on specific aspects of daily life such as clothing, food, furniture, architecture, ecology, language, and politics, Moore describes the renaissance these can undergo when there is a genuine engagement with beauty, craft, nature, and art in both private and public life.

Millions of readers who found comfort and substance in Moore's previous bestsellers will discover in this book ways to restore the heart and soul of work, home, and creative endeavors through a radical, fresh return to ancient ways of living the soulful life.

From the Publisher

Care of the Soul and Soul Mates, the first two books by Thomas Moore, were both huge national bestsellers, appearing on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list for more than eight months each and selling more than two million copies. In this important sequel, Thomas Moore takes readers to a new level and teaches them how to relate to the world and nature in a more meaningful way.

Introducing the idea that soul is an essential ingredient of life, Care of the Soul together with Soul Mates changed the way millions of readers thought about psychology and spirituality. Now, with The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, Moore takes another radical step, applying care of the soul to our surroundings and the concrete particulars of how we live. Starting from the premise that we can no longer afford to live in a disenchanted world, Moore shows that a profound, enchanted engagement with life is not a childish thing to be put away with adulthood, but a necessity for our personal and collective survival.

With his lens focused on such specific aspects of daily life as clothing, food, furniture, architecture, ecology, language and politics, Moore describes the renaissance these can undergo when there is a genuine engagement with beauty, craft, nature and art in both private and public life. When all is said and done, what makes life worth living? Not electronics, entertainments or rapid information retrieval, but a spiritual and soulful vision that arises from enchanted nature, a fantasy-filled childhood, intimate neighborhoods and homes and a public life dedicated to the needs of the heart.

The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life opens up the care of the soul and the search for intimate life to the ordinary world in which we live every day. Millions of readers who found comfort and substance in Moore's previous bestsellers will discover in this new book ways to restore the heart and soul of work, home and creative endeavors through a radical, fresh return to ancient ways of living the soulful life. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.