Review of Soulistry (Artistry of the Soul) by June Mack Maffin (Circle Books, publication date not yet set), pp. 113.

Some months ago, I visited a nutritionist physician to get help with my diet. Part of aging, I suppose. Among the many things I learned, besides that my favorite foods are verboten, of course, is that writing down everything you eat is the most effective way to control your diet. Twice as many people who journal their food intake succeed at permanent weight loss than those who do not journal.

Journaling is good for the soul as well. “Soulistry” is a name coined from “soul” and “artistry” used by June Maffin to describe what she intends to help us do: discover in creative ways the deep mysteries that are hidden in our souls. It’s about “spirituality,” in other words, but in a very nuanced and developed way that avoids the usual vague platitudes. While the author is a Christian priest, anyone of good will who desires to learn more about his or her true self will find this book very useful.

Soulistry (Artistry of the Soul) is first of all how to reveal to yourself what is happening with your soul. Or in less exalted language, to help you answer the question, “Who am I — really?” at least to yourself. But you do not have to write a journal to get a great deal out of Soulistry. Maffin has collected over many years a series of what she calls “prompts”, which are quotations to help focus on some specific area of your life, as you then ask yourself some questions. So for instance, she quotes Desmond Tutu for a “prompt”: “There is nothing you can do that will make God love you more. There is nothing you can do that will make God love you less.” Then she follows with eight questions, three of which are:

•Do you believe that God (Creator, Holy Other, Higher Power, Spirit, Holy One) loves you?

•If so, is that love conditional (if so, on what is it conditional?) or unconditional?

•Can you recall instances when you tried to do something to make God love you more? (see page 12)

It is a simple, powerful technique to get you to think. But the “prompts” and questions also elicit an emotional response, as well as intellectual, which can lead you to ask more intimate questions of yourself and ponder personal stories and experiences. With the passage of time, your answers will change and develop, As the author says, this is a technique to get yourself out of ordinary time (chronos), into moments of self-revelation (kairos).

Furthermore, you can use this book over and over. Maffin has provided a very useful cross-index so that the user easily can find a theme, a quote, or a short biography of the wise person quoted, to mull over a first time or a hundredth. Here is my favorite prompt (at this point in chronos):

A Cherokee elder sitting with his grandchildren told them this story. “In everyone’s life, there is a terrible daily fight—a fight between two wolves. One wolf is evil - this one is negativity, fear, anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, frustration, boredom and deceit. The other wolf is good - this one is joy, serenity, self-control, humility, goodness, confidence, generosity, truth, kindness, gentleness, love, patience and compassion.” A child asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins the fight?” The elder looked him in the eye. “The one you feed.”(Page 52)

If you haven’t guessed, I am not by nature a journal-maker, however, my recent work with my diet doctor has changed that (she reads my food diary). Soulistry may not get me to make another journal (although Maffin helpfully includes a suggested way to make your own), but I will use it regularly for my own spiritual health. This book gives an excellent series of signposts to your interior life, a way of discovering your true self as you are now, and finding creative ways to re-shaping that self in a healthier direction. In other words, deeper. Everyone will find something useful, whoever they are. For Soulistry is about life and death and new life, those things which are the stuff of human being that we all share, and yet that each of us experiences in a unique way.

Find out for your self.