A Religion of One's Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World

A timeless GUIDE so desperately needed for our times. With eloquence, wit, thoughtfulness and confidence, Thomas Moore offers us the tools to take on our own personal search for a meaningful everyday existence that connects each of us to all of life and to each other. I see the need for this book in my everyday work as a psychologist for the past 30 years who has listened to the challenges that people are faced with today --the search for meaning and true selves and connectedness. I recommend this book wholeheartedly to them and everyone. Moore's willingness to openly share his journey brings clarity as to how one can go about taking immeasurable wisdom passed down for thousands of years into one's own journey of discovering, living and embracing a religion of one's own. I highly recommend taking a look --it will speak to your soul and engage you in new irresistible ways. I believe you will discover like I did, that this is one of those books you will want to keep close by --for your own reading over and over again -- and one that you will, too, feel compelled to strongly encourage others to read.

In this timely and beautifully written book Thomas Moore shares insights from his many years of study, contemplation, and experience as a psychotherapist. And in his compassionate and poetic voice, he blends imagery, memoir, story, and example on finding the numinous quality in every day life, and on being nurtured by all the great spiritual traditions of the world. Actually, research has shown that when students study world religions, their respect for religious liberty increases. So I believe this book is valuable on many levels. Written for this complex time and this pluralistic society in which we live, the author respects the individual’s ability to make his or her own decisions based on personal values. He encourages us, no matter what our tradition may be, to make life itself our teacher, to open our hearts to it, to respond to it, to find our own insights, to make a contribution, and to respect one another's unique ways of being. What I loved about A Religion of One’s Own was being reminded of the idea of interweaving the secular and the sacred, following the guidance of our inner muse, and connecting with the beauty and mystery that is all around us.

Perhaps you are one of an increasing number of people who feel drawn to that something Other - but how does one respond to this `aching' within when the secular world is not satisfying and the world of formalised religion has become vapid, unhelpful, fanatical or just plain dangerous (p. 252). The purpose of this book is to provide guidance to those who seek such a path - a path that for Moore involves a return to a sacred environment and a sacred self of self. Moore might refer to us as seekers (13) - people who are wakening up to and finding portals to wonder and transcendence (12). Central to Moore's argument is the need to explore within oneself what it is that awakens your soul? Where in life do you find your spirit? And much of the book is then taken up with exploring ways in which one connects, in small steps and then in larger ones, with becoming sensitised to that which awakens you, the ways in which you find and meld into the Other, what one may have once called God. I am reminded of this scene from that Mozart film (Amadeus) when his rival composer Salieri reflects on Mozart's use of oboe and clarinet (Mozart Serenade No 10 In B Flat Major K 361 III Adagio) in such a manner that the former composer immediately finds himself thrust into deep, personal, mystical union with God. So this is an introductory book for people who want to go deep (24), providing as it does, the basic materials from which you might `build your own religion' even if that experience is a re-invigorated one within an existing tradition albeit beyond being coerced or being obliged . It is about getting in touch with that which is real (40) but not necessarily extra-ordinary - hence being sensitized to that which is already around you. It involves developing a philosophy for life, having values and mining what is gold, from the traditions available to you, to form a spiritual life (30-31). He provides some sensible guidelines for managing this process as to be alert to the frauds and pitfalls that are `out there' (37ff)! Importantly he notes that opening to a new spirituality may arise from epiphinal life changing moments or events. Similarly that developing an integrated spirituality requires psychological work on the self and an integrated sexuality (parts 2 and 3 of the book). After this he moves on to more nuanced experiences of the spiritual, making room for angels and guides and being open to their guidance and help in everyday life (part 5) before concluding with an informative section on living spirituality in a secular world. Central to the reviews around this book have been the question of the utility of the advice on offer here. And it is with these issues that I now engage. For Moore, without a religious or spiritual orientation, most of us will go nuts to some extent, manifest, as he suggests in how we manage thru life with pills and substances (altho I would make some space for those for whom pills make up for what genetics overlooked). So keep in mind the entry level nature of this book - its for someone looking for ideas as to how to develop their own approach to spirituality and who may be looking for some validation for the way they may be going about it. His first points here that the sacred is in fact all around us and that in the first instance it is about being open to and beginning to sensitise oneself to it, be it that one finds the Spirit in differing ways (in nature, art, music and so on) and getting one's act together. But note that this is a journey and increasing one's sensitivity and growing as a person takes time. It would have been helpful if his section on sexuality had taken in Mantak Chia's work on the mirco-cosmic orbit. This process is essential for balancing emotional and also managing and transforming sexual energy (and I agree that it takes a little to adapt to Chia's language and style). While these exercises help integrate the self generally, it is also an essential piece of training and skill development for anyone seriously considering embracing celibacy. I find however, some gaps in the structure of his book. Most of us don't go from Mozart or estatic experiences of nature to a deep communion with angels, guides and Gods. He could have done here with a chapter on `taking the chair' as Jack Cornfield observed. How to not just meditate but to go beyond this to contemplation, to being absorbed in the Spirit. While he wrote about listening for angels and guides, looking for intuition thru tarot and the like, I feel he missed the essential step of having first waited upon and invited angels and guides, not so much into one's life, but certainly into awareness - and this takes time. As a therapist I would often pray for the capacity to `read hearts' and this would occur at times when I needed it; typically in the form of a coherent insight into the person I am sitting with, accompanied with a sense of deep stillness and peace. But such messaging doesn't run like a garden tap. In the last part of his book, he really heads home to `his own patch' - developing essentially his home cloister/monastery, or at least parts within it. A place for prayer, incense, symbols and silence that lift one higher. I asked myself was this real? And then of course I realised that this is exactly what I had done in my home. And this is where Moore's major idea is restated - his aim being not to weaken our reliance on the world's religious and spiritual traditions, but to intensify such experiences, but without much of the garbage that such traditions have developed over time. It is not so much cherry picking religion, but sorting the wheat from the chaff.

I so much appreciated Care of the Soul, Dark Nights of the Soul, and Ageless Soul by Thomas Moore. This one is written without inspiration. It is un-inspirational, and the former modesty he displayed in his books - where has it gone?

an amazing book that explains psyche, dreams and relationships. Enjoying my read..will re-read for sure.

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I haven't finished the book yet, but what I have read so far has exceeded my expectations. Thomas Moore has something genuinely important to say in this book, and he says it engagingly and well, drawing on his personal experience to show how he has arrived at his view. He re-frames what many of us mean by 'religion', and states that even if someone is following a particular religious path, that person still has to make it 'their own.' I would recommend this book to anyone on, or seeking to be on, a spiritual path, whether within one particular tradition or not. As I have read a lot of religious or spiritual books, both academic and popular (I have an MTheol degree), I rarely find a genuinely new take in a book I pick up these days. But here, I feel I have done so.

Thomas Moore writes clearly and in a relatable way. This book is a beautiful guide to creating what works for you and finding a spiritual path that’s free of dogma.