Wisdom Hunter recently caught up with Thomas Moore, author of Dark Nights of the Soul and other works. Here's what he revealed about writing for the ages and his desire to collaborate with Bono!
ABOUT HIS BOOKS
WH: How would you describe the common theme that runs through your books?
TM: The common theme in my books is the soul, the mysterious and deep source of our life and vitality, complete with brilliant potential and dark and dangerous tendencies.
WH: How would you describe your "mission" or "purpose" in writing?
TM: I have no mission in my writing, and certainly no message. I think that if I thought I had a message, my writing would suffer. I’d become a moralist and a preacher. I have those tendencies in me, so I try to avoid them. As a therapist, I know that avoiding something makes you blind to it; so I can only give you my impressions.
WH: What type of person would benefit most from reading your books?
TM: Anyone can read my books and get something. I try to write for the ages and not for passing problems and situations. I try to write well. I especially appreciate positive comments on my writing. So I hope I speak to readers who love language as well as those looking for help in their lives.
WH: When you were researching and preparing your books, what sorts of things did you learn that surprised you?
TM: I study hard as I write my books. I’ve created a personal library that suits my interests and needs and I spend time reading old texts and even some in Latin and Greek. I like being an independent scholar, though I’m a little surprised that a university has never asked me to join them. I think I’m seen as a self-help writer. I don’t see myself that way, but it’s true that I try to bridge the intellectual life and the ordinary life. Almost every day I’m delighted and surprised by what I find in the books around me.
WH: What is the most memorable thing a reader has told you about how your work affected him or her?
TM: People tell me all the time how my books help them get through tough periods. That response is very satisfying. I like hearing from people who disagree with me but are open to me. I try to engage people who have a very different take on life, compared to mine. It’s difficult, but it sometimes works. Probably the most memorable thing I heard from a reader was many years ago when a woman told me that as her husband lay dying, on his request, she read to him from one of my books.
ABOUT THE GENRE
WH: Are there any new ideas in personal development and spirituality that are evolving your views or that you especially like?
TM: I feel that I’m in a small school of thinkers, in the tradition of William Blake, Wordsworth, Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson, and Emerson and Thoreau. I don’t feel much at home with contemporary writers, outside the realm of fiction. I don’t find many useful ideas on modern spirituality but always find new things in the medieval and early Renaissance realm and in India and Japan. My imagination keeps me settled in the Florence area in the 1480’s. I am very much indebted to a relatively unknown writer who was born in 1402, Nicolas of Cusa. He is the most brilliant spiritual writer I know of. For the soul stuff, I rely on Ficino, Jung, and Hillman. I am not a Jungian. I don’t much like the system and the dogma that has developed from Jung, but I truly appreciate Jung himself.
WH: Are there any books, other than your own, that you have referred other people to time and time again?
TM: I often refer people to the Tao Te Ching, the writings of C. G. Jung and James Hillman, and the poetry of Anne Sexton.
WH: Which other authors do you tend to be in synch with?
TM: I’m in synch with William Blake, Marsilio Ficino, Samuel Beckett, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Shunryu Suzuki, Robert Sardello, Patricia Berry, Frances Yates, and many others.
WH: What other writers or experts have you collaborated with or would you most like to collaborate with?
TM: I have collaborated with James Hillman, Marion Woodman, Robert Sardello, David Whyte, Satish Kumar, Hari Kirin (Joan Hanley), Marianne Williamson, and Johnny Cunningham. I’d like to work with Bono, Bill Clinton, and Nicole Kidman, all of whom I admire.
WH: What is the biggest mistake most people make when it comes to personal development and spirituality – and how should we approach things differently?
TM: The question about mistakes people make is too huge to even begin to cover. I can only mention: moralizing instead of advocating and ethical life, taking all spiritual ideas too literally and missing the mystery, treating spirituality and psychotherapy narcissistically, not seeing the spirituality in the sensual world in which we live, anthropomorphizing the notion of God, and on and on.
WH: Aside from reading books like yours, what activities or practices would benefit your readers most?
TM: My readers would benefit most from being more engaged with the arts, reading only the best of literature and not pop psychology or pop spirituality, finding ethical and rewarding work, being engaged in some kind of service activity, staying close to nature, cultivating the ordinary joys and pleasures of life, keeping friends and family close, and loving their children no matter what.
ABOUT HIMSELF
WH: What would you define as a turning point in your life?
TM: I have had several turning points. Leaving home at thirteen to enter a Catholic religious order. Leaving that order. Studying religion at Syracuse University. Meeting and becoming a friend of James Hillman. Being denied tenure. Marrying Joan Hanley. Having my daughter Siobhán. Almost having a heart attack.
WH: Who or what has influenced you most?
TM: I have been most influenced by my parents, who brought me up in a very happy home and a warm extended family. I was surrounded by wonderful men, who were excellent models. I also had extraordinary mentors throughout my life: Gregory O’Brien (high school), Rene Dosogne (music), Thomas McGreevy (Ireland), James Hillman.
WH: What stresses you out and how do you relax?
TM: Many things make me feel stress, chiefly the state of the world. I was a mess in the first days following 9/11, until I got some perspective on what was happening. Politics and government insanities stress me. Driving is too stressful. Not having time enough to do all the creative projects I envision (I give away too much of my time). I relax by walking, playing the piano, giving massages to my wife and daughter daily, watching bad old movies, focusing on my breathing, having dinner with family and friends, visiting my friends in Ireland.
WH: What global issues are you most passionate about?
TM: I feel most passionate about the state of the children in the world. I wish we could stop turning to the military for solutions to conflict. I hate to see families not having what they need to live happy and creative lives. I worry that we’re killing our planet and ourselves through unnecessary stresses on nature.
WH: Are you involved in any charitable groups or causes – and why did you get involved?
TM: I spend a lot of time working with Hospice staffs and volunteers, encouraging them and helping them cope with their difficult work. I also speak when I can to physicians and other health care workers about humanizing their jobs and taking care of themselves. Occasionally I speak to peace activists and environmentalists for the same reasons. Usually I don’t get paid for this work. I do a lot of pro bono work for these causes. My most effective strengths in this area are my writing and my public speaking, so I try to combine my work and service.
WH: As a child, what did you think you'd be doing as an adult? How close is it to what you are doing today?
TM: As a child I thought I’d be a priest. Today a lot of church people think I’m their enemy because I writing favorably about pagan religions and Eastern religions. But I’m doing the work I thought I’d do, only not in the specific form I envisioned in my youth. I couldn’t be happier with my calling.
