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Beautiful exploration of the soul, intimacy with yourself and others...

I received this book over 20 years ago as a gift from a friend. I was afraid I would have trouble understanding what the author was trying to get across so I kept putting it off. There were parts that I had to read a couple times in order to really get some of the concepts but it wasn't too bad. I learned some things and now I can say I finally read it. Not my favorite book but it was okay.

This book really turned my whole view of soulmates around. It gave me an understanding of soul as separate from spirit. Very thought-provoking! It challenged me to consider how I've preferred spirit over soul.

« We learn through pain and loss that the creativity we exercice over our lives is finite »

« Apparently there is something in every relationship that is eternal, that goes on forever, that wants to be exempted from the life decision to cut ties »

I loved this book. Beautiful perspective on soul and human connections.

I was comforted by the intelligence and spiritual nature of the author in this presentation that lead me to purchase his other books, Care of the Soul, and The Education of the Heart.

This book is not a "how to" for finding or keeping a soul mate; this is a book about the mystery of love and how to live according to the movements of soul and fate. The love we feel for those in our lives is part of a deeper love, and this is one of the few books I've found that talks about this. The books that do talk about divine love often seem to take the spirit path, in contrast to the soul path, which means severing the bonds of human attachment. Moore gives hints at how to deepen love in both spheres, which the path I choose.

Usually i don't read books about relationships. But this is an area I have been struggling with and shying away from for as long as I can remember. If I have to learn about it, I would in fact choose Thomas Moore above whoever else.

The ideas in this book are expressed well but sometimes I felt like I was reading things and they felt too shortly expressed. The smaller passages were the items I felt I needed more help on and they didn't seemed elaborated on too well from a solutions approach perspective. I remember how a man was sitting in Moore's therapy and he was expressing a very split hot/cold demeanor due to cold parental love (which i struggle with immensely). Moore's therapy suggested molding the two but...If only it were that easy. Then that was it.

Some ideas definitely were brought back from Care for the Soul, but felt more just reiterated rather than expanded. None the less this book is still a decent read. It still has the classical Greek influence you enjoy from prior Moore books.

Dori recommended.

Starting off, I didn't really like the book because quite frankly I just didn’t agree with the author's philosophy about relationships, but I was willing to keep going.

But then I *really* didn't like how he romanticized the Greek myth where a god Apollo chased a naked virgin nymph through the woods because Apollo was "in love" with her, until she turned herself into a tree permanently to get away. The author seemed to be on the god's side….. Wtf? I thought the story sounded rapey asf but I kept reading.

But then the author continues referring back to this story periodically, not just once, but countless times. I was thinking, 'Rape culture ?????? WTFFFF How can you possibly be on the guys side??????'

So I just casually googled it to see if anyone else  thought it was rapey & and found that in the story Apollo was ACTUALLY TRYING TO RAPE HER. The author definitely tried skirting over that part in the book.

This is an earmarked copy. just needed to know its ok not to be conventional in my thoughts on love...i can re-read it a million times.