Change Your Soul
Perhaps it’s not surprising that I’ve been returning to thinking about the soul. I’ve been immersing myself, trying to, in soul work.
If you’ve read my novel Rumi and the Red Handbag, then you know that the book is preoccupied with questions of the soul.
I’m most interested with what the poets have to say about the soul and thought I’d share some of the work I’ve been using to think things through. Words that have been accompanying me, keeping me company.
Let’s start with the words of Attar (which bring to mind Rilke’s, of course, you must change your life).
"Keep quiet and secret with soul-work."
"Be more deeply courageous.
Change your soul."
– Attar
(The first rule of soul-work club, is to keep quiet about soul-work). (Not really :) )
When I think of the soul, the words that first come to mind are from the Andalusian poet, Adi al-Riga which I draw from the introduction of the Coleman Barks translation of Rumi. In fact, when I took the photos in this post in Rome in 2018, this poem was in my mind, my throat.
I was sleeping, and being comforted
by a cool breeze, when suddenly a gray dove
from a thicket sang and sobbed with longing,
and reminded me of my own passion.
I had been away from my own soul so long,
so late-sleeping, but that dove’s crying
woke me and made me cry. Praise
to all early-waking grievers!
Immediately after the words by Ali al-Riga, or perhaps simultaneously, are the words that live between my ribs by Clarice Lispector:
“For anything can happen and damage the most intimate life of a person. What will have been done to my soul next year? Will that soul have grown? and grown peacefully or through the pain of doubt?
And these days, whose soul is growing peacefully? The soul grows through pain and through experiencing the immensity of the contradictions that we exist in these days. (Rilke: “Whoever grasps the thousand contradictions of his life, / pulls them together into a single image, that man, joyful / and thankful, drives the rioters out of the palace, / becomes celebratory in a different way…”). And to be clear…I really am not that man grasping the thousand contradictions…but merely trying to have some glimmer of understanding….
I love the poem by Adam Zagajewski on the soul, because I think that a lot of people feel weird talking about the soul. In intro to creative writing courses, the poets have often been told to leave that one alone, amiright?
The Soul
by Adam Zagajewski
We know we’re not allowed to use your name.
We know you’re inexpressible,
anemic, frail, and suspect
for mysterious offences as a child.
We know that you are not allowed to live now
in music or in trees at sunset.
We know — or a least we’ve been told —
that you do not exist at all, anywhere.
And yet we still keep hearing your weary voice
— in an echo, a complaint, in the letters we receive
from Antigone in the Greek desert.
In a post from a couple of years ago, I quoted from both Leonard Cohen and Thomas Moore from his book Care of the Soul, and I find that I go back to both frequently these days.
What even is the soul? “Soul is not a thing, but a quality or a dimension of experiencing life and ourselves. It has to do with depth, value, relatedness, heart, and personal substance.”
Moore says, “So, the first point to make about the care of the soul is that it is not primarily a method of problem solving. Its goal is not to make life problem-free, but to give ordinary life the depth and value that come with soulfulness. In a way it is much more of a challenge than psychotherapy because it has to do with cultivating a richly expressive and meaningful life at home and in society. It is also a challenge because it requires imagination from each of us.”
And, “Let us imagine care of the soul, then, as an application of poetics to everyday life.”
Let me repeat that for myself: caring for the soul might look like an application of poetics to everyday life.
And then, another way to think about the soul is provided in a commencement address by Maria Popova. She sees the soul, “simply as shorthand for the seismic core of personhood from which our beliefs, our values, and our actions radiate.”
And so of course our souls are weary right now, along with our bodies. Because our (at least mine, but I imagine also yours if you’re reading this) core beliefs and values are being rocked so hard.
But maybe your soul is currently in not bad shape. This is good. I treasure this for you. If you see someone else who is suffering, you might like these words from Parker Palmer:
"Here’s the deal. The human soul doesn’t want to be advised or fixed or saved. It simply wants to be witnessed — to be seen, heard and companioned exactly as it is. When we make that kind of deep bow to the soul of a suffering person, our respect reinforces the soul’s healing resources, the only resources that can help the sufferer make it through."
It might seem frivolous, but I hope you can take whatever time you need to regain your soul, if you feel you have lost it, or to be pre-emptive if it feels as though your soul is slipping from you. Try to put yourself in the position, as William Stafford does in the following poem, where “suddenly anything could happen to you.” Let your soul pull you.
How to Regain Your Soul
by William Stafford
Come down Canyon Creek trail on a summer afternoon
that one place where the valley floor opens out. You will see
the white butterflies. Because of the way shadows
come off those vertical rocks in the west, there are
shafts of sunlight hitting the river and a deep
long purple gorge straight ahead. Put down your pack.
Above, air sighs the pines. It was this way
when Rome was clanging, when Troy was being built,
when campfires lighted caves. The white butterflies dance
by the thousands in the still sunshine. Suddenly, anything
could happen to you. Your soul pulls toward the canyon
and then shines back through the white wings to be you
again.
A few more thoughts by Thomas Moore.
He says, “taking an interest in the soul is a way of loving it.” He says that “…love expressed in patient and careful attention, draws the soul in from its dispersion in problems and fascinations. It has often been noted that more, if not all, problems brought to therapists are issues of love. It makes sense then that the cure is also love.” And let’s remember that, “love of the soul asks for some appreciation for its complexity.” And damn yes the soul is complex.
But let’s end with the poets.
Wislawa Szymborska:
A soul is something we have every now and then.
Nobody has one all the time
or forever.
Day after day,
year after year,
can go by without one.
Contemplating the soul leaves us with more questions than answers, so let’s end on Mary Oliver from her book House of Light:
Some Questions You Might Ask
Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth in the beak of an owl?
Who has it, and who doesn't?
I keep looking around me.
The face of the moose is as sad
as the face of Jesus.
The swan opens her white wings slowly.
In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.
One question leads to another.
Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg?
Like the eye of a hummingbird?
Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?
Why should I have it, and not the anteater
who loves her children?
Why should I have it, and not the camel?
Come to think of it, what about maple trees?
What about the blue iris?
What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the grass?
July 6, 2022