Lecture: Enchantment is the condition of being entranced, caught in rapture, spirited away, spellbound, and living more from deep imagination than from practicality. The soul has an unforgiving need for this kind of enchantment, and yet the modern world does everything it can to break the spell. Enchantment offers a reason for being, as basis for ecological responsibility, and a means for nourishing the soul. Yet, the modern preference is for understanding and control, information and manipulation.
This lecture by Thomas Moore represents a further development of his work with the soul, but here the emphasis is on the world in which we live-the rivers, roads, buildings, houses, gardens, silence, music, ruins, stories, art, language, shrines, sports, graffiti, and food. It argues in favor of “natural religion,” piety rooted in nature as the basis of all religious and psychological values. It attempts to restore magic to its proper place in the dynamics of a soul-centered life, and recommends a radical alternative to the rationalistic and mechanistic philosophies of our age.
Thomas Moore, Ph.D., is the author of the bestselling books, Care of the Soul and Soul Mates. He edited Blue Fire, an anthology of the writing of James Hillman, and has written The Planets Within; Rituals of the Imagination; Dark Eros; and Meditations: On the Monk who Dwells in Daily Life. His newest book is The Re-Enchantment if Everyday Life. He holds a Ph.D in religious studies from Syracuse University and an M.A. in musicology from the University of Michigan. For twelve years he lived as a monk in a Catholic religious order, and now resides in Massachusetts where he enjoys woodworking and music composition.