A Home for the Soul: A Guide for Dwelling with Spirit and Imagination

Anthony Lawlor is known as the architect who brings soul to design.

His acclaimed book The Temple in the House showed how to and the sacred in architecture. Now, in A Home for the Soul, he reveals how our houses and apartments can become havens of inspiration and renewal.

“From the moment we’re born, we seek to find home.” Lawlor says, “Yet, despite this primal longing, our dwelling places often disappoint us.” In A Home for the Soul , we discover that the depth and meaning we seek is right in front of us if we but have the eyes to see. Lawlor teaches us how to develop a consciousness about the spiritual possibilities inherent in our interior surroundings; he shows how to recognise the sacred in material form. “Each time we bathe,” says Lawlor, “we not only cleanse the body, we refresh the spirit. Each time we open our front door, we enter a universe of connection and significance.”

Lawlor leads us on a journey through each room of the house, opening our vision to hidden possibilities. We discover, for example, how a stove expresses the transforming power of nature, how clothes closets reveal our inner personalities, and how home offices display our talents. Lawlor shows us the mythological and archetypal meanings within the common objects of daily life–such as a bed, a bathtub, a pair of shoes, or a loaf or bread.

The author also offers practical suggestions for arranging or building soulful homes. He explains how to use wood, tile, brick, and stone to express qualities of the spirit and how to use furniture and personal objects as allies in creating meaning.

Finally, Lawlor shows us how to construct a Mandala of the Soul–a wood cabinet with compartments for housing the symbols of home that have particular personal meanings for each reader.

In these pages, we come to understand how all the rooms we live in can form a sacred place of wholeness, a home that cares for and uplifts the totality of mind, body, and soul.