Still Thinking – Soul

Over the last few years I have been involved in a “Circle of Trust” which is a contemplative group developed by Quaker writer and scholar Parker Palmer.  Those who have read Parker’s writings will know that there is a great deal of emphasis on what he calls the soul.  The word soul has been used in many different ways throughout history.  Stretching back to Plato and Aristotle philosophers and theologians have attempted to understand and explain what the soul is.  In Parker’s writings the soul is the heart; the true self; the inner life; the centre of our being.  But most of all it is a metaphor that names a way of being and a way of life. It is not an object that you can find or discover by searching rather it is something we experience in times of struggle or in solitude. It is the real you.

May Sarton in one of her poems expresses it this way:

Now I become myself. It has

Taken many years and places

I have been dissolved and shaken

Worn other people’s faces.

That becoming myself has something to do with the soul and our soul is the gift God gives to us.  It is in fact me or my life.  Throughout the centuries theologians have suggested that the Imago Dei, the Image of God which in Genesis is the imprint of God on humankind, maybe marred, suppressed, distorted or neglected but it can never be obliterated. The centre, the inner life, the soul, the God-self in us is permanent, resilient and tenacious. 

Parker in his book A Hidden Wholeness says that the soul is like a wild animal and I want to add to that that this wild animal he calls soul is the mark of God in our lives, the Imago Dei. We often interpret wild animal to mean vicious or frightening, but look at how Parker uses this metaphor:

Like a wild animal, the soul is tough, resilient...and knows how to survive in hard places. I have learned these qualities during my bouts of depression.  In that deadly darkness, the faculties I had always relied on collapsed...But from time, to time deep in the thickets of my inner wilderness, I could sense the presence of something that knew how to stay alive...

For me that is the Image of God imprinted on my life.  It is where I find courage to match fear; hope to match despair; wonder to match busyness; and peace to match confusion.  It is the centre of my being, and while I may image it as a strong wild animal, like all wild things that are undomesticated, it is shy and will only appear when it is safe.  My soul, the centre of my being survives by being aware of the dangers around me and seeks solace in safe communities where I can both be myself and grow toward wholeness.  May TUC be such a place where the soul in each of us is nurtured, nourished and cherished.

Christopher