{"id":19,"date":"2013-11-25T00:33:18","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T00:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesoulspectrum.com\/?page_id=19"},"modified":"2014-01-10T09:11:02","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T09:11:02","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thesoulspectrum.com\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to The Soul Spectrum<\/em>, an online space dedicated to documenting the presence of “soul” in the full spectrum of our everyday lives. It’s headed by me, Jessica Raschke<\/a>. I\u2019m utterly obsessive about the notion of \u201csoul\u201d and what it means to each person. Because it seems to mean very different things to each person, and it\u2019s expressed so specifically<\/em> by each person. Some feel more comfortable with \u201cspirit\u201d or \u201cspirituality\u201d, others prefer to work with the notion of \u201cself\u201d. I\u2019ve chosen \u201csoul\u201d as it resonates most rightly with me. The very word itself stirs me up, it just feels so beautiful and transcendental all at once.<\/p>\n

So it’s not surprising that I often find myself having long, dark nights of the soul. At least, that\u2019s where I think I\u2019ve been, somewhere in the soul, or just somewhere close if not actually in it<\/i>. Yet the notion of the soul itself is ever elusive. What is it, exactly? Sometimes I know<\/i> I\u2019m there, deep in some kind of soul-space, but most of the time my rational self steps in and interrupts any chance of really feeling <\/i>it. I doubt it. I forget it. I challenge it. Sometimes I ignore it. This poor treatment of the soul-space must be why I keep returning to a quote by that wondrous poet and mystic, Rumi:<\/p>\n

My soul is from elsewhere, I\u2019m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.<\/i><\/p>\n

To me, the soul is inextricably linked with a strong sense of spirituality, and I keep pushing myself to reach a place within myself where I completely feel soulful. Yet I hardly ever reach it. Perhaps I\u2019m already there, perhaps I\u2019m always there and I have just taken it for granted. But something within me says, \u201cYou should just know<\/em> it.\u201d<\/p>\n

No, the truth is that I envy others who can confidently claim that they are living a soulful life. I\u2019m fascinated by this kind of person. I\u2019m in deep admiration of this kind of person. Well, actually, I\u2019m intensely envious of this kind of person. They have reached a place that I can only struggle to arrive at. And I might not ever get there. Although – as the line from Rumi suggests – I have every intention of getting there. I certainly have every hope that I\u2019ll get there.<\/p>\n

But, just in case I don\u2019t, I want to learn from the many people out there who are living soulful lives wholeheartedly. I want to hear their stories and ask them how they came to believe and feel what they do, and what their soulful beliefs look like in their everyday lives. I\u2019m particularly curious about those who walk comfortably in their soulful selves in a contemporary and secular sense.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what brought me here, to The Soul Spectrum, <\/em>which features long-form conversations with people living soulful lives. I hope you enjoy reading the interviews and that you find them as inspiring as I did (and still do).<\/p>\n

All the best to you,<\/p>\n

Jess x<\/p>\n

PS: The photo here features me in conversation with Kate Pell. You can read it here. Thanks go to Hamish Ta-m\u00e9<\/a> for so generously offering to take photographs for this website and to Mik Efford<\/a> for coming up with such a beautiful website design.<\/p>\n

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Welcome to The Soul Spectrum, an online space dedicated to documenting the presence of “soul” in the full spectrum of our everyday lives. It’s headed by me, Jessica Raschke. I\u2019m utterly obsessive about the notion of \u201csoul\u201d and what it means to each person. Because it seems to mean very different things to each person, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoulspectrum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoulspectrum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoulspectrum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoulspectrum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoulspectrum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thesoulspectrum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456,"href":"https:\/\/thesoulspectrum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions\/456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoulspectrum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoulspectrum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}