“When will you begin
That long journey into yourself?” – Rumi
These are trying times. Astrologically, we continue to navigate a rare conjunction between Saturn and Neptune, which is severely testing our faith that all will be well. If you’d appreciate a positive reframe, something I know I need, consider this.
If Saturn = hardships that build character, and Neptune = life as a spiritual journey, is this year an opportunity for what the poet Keats called the making (or building) of soul?
What does it mean to make soul?
Soul is a way of describing your inner life. Soul making therefore is the process of growing character through self-reflection. We make soul when we look inside, face our feelings, and make meaningful connections not experienced before.
We don’t do this when life is easy, but sometimes do when we are hurting, or struggling, or feeling pain. And right now, there’s a lot of that about.
Soul making through a rite of passage to a new era
In July, all the outer planets come into an exact flowing alignment for the first time in an aeon. Astrologically, this is a unicorn moment. The first blush of dawn of a new era. Lives will begin to transform in irresistible ways.
By making soul in response to our life’s travails are we rising to the challenge of some rite of passage that is purpose fit for what lies ahead?
In that spirit, I offer this guide to making soul in your life.
John Keats and Soul Making
Let’s begin with the Romantic poet John Keats and his idea of soul-making.
Keats believed that life experiences carry an inner meaning, and that their purpose is to shape our character. Put simply, Keats saw a life lesson in the things that happen.
For him, life in this world, with all its “pains and troubles,” is perfect and necessary for helping the heart to “feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways”, and it is these experiences, the ones that are full of feeling and meaning, that shape our spirits into mature souls.
We nourish soul just like this, each time we heed an urge to go within and make sense of ourselves and our experiences. In turn, this connection with depth and feeling makes our lives more meaningful.
For Keats, the very purpose of being alive is to make soul, as it is the purpose of the world to be a “vale of soul-making”.
Thomas Moore on growing soul qualities
Many are those who have been inspired by Keats, including writer, teacher and therapist Thomas Moore. Moore has written many books about deepening soul and cultivating a mature spiritual life, e.g. Care of the Soul, and Dark Nights of the Soul.
For Moore, soul making is a natural way to grow into our highest potential. We begin to:
- Care more
- Relate better to the reality of others
- Grow wiser
- Become more sincere and genuine
- Feel more alive
- See more beauty
- Be more able to express feelings
- Live with imagination
- Have a keener sense of what matters
Moore also values our big life events for their potential to build soul. He describes them as rites of passage that are necessary to beginning a new phase of life.
“- a big move, a new job, marriage or divorce, the birth of a child, graduation, sickness, big mistakes, special achievements. It’s a journey of soul-making, to use a good phrase from the poet John Keats.” – Thomas Moore
Life as a soul journey
When we connect the dots between what happens in our lives, and our inner reality, we are living life as a ‘soul journey’.
The soul journey is not concerned with the need to get somewhere. The only direction it travels is deeper, into yourself and into life. With an inward gaze, and by opening the door to imagination and feelings, you start to make sense of who you are and what you experience.
“All that is outside, also is inside.” J.W. Goethe
The Edge
Sometimes on the soul journey we arrive at a place that I call ‘the edge’. The edge is where the part of you now pushing to grow, comes into conflict with the part that resists change.
When at the edge of what is familiar, we face the unknown. Which can be scary and uncomfortable. It takes time to work through this kind of inner conflict.
The gap between an ending and a beginning is a kind of limbo, that Thomas Moore understands to be painful yet necessary for personal growth.
“If there is a soul . . .. it is created here, throughout a whole life. And living is nothing but that long and painful bringing forth.” Albert Camus, writer and philosopher
Guidance on the journey
Thomas Moore is a world expert on soul-making, but many therapists and counsellors do the work of making soul, including Heart’s Plan. After all, the ancient Greek word for soul is ‘psyche’ from which our word ‘psychology’ (study of the soul) comes.
Professional guidance can assist you to important realisations and meaningful connections and take you a big step further on your personal journey of growth.
Heart’s Plan’s specialty is helping you connect with the archetypes of your inner world (which I call your ‘heart’s plan’). Your heart’s plan is unique. Incomparably special. Together, we explore these patterns in your birth chart to better understand your personality, your life story, and your potential. Insight into these patterns can be especially helpful in a time of transition.
The big picture story of 2026
With Saturn/Neptune still strongly in play, and heroic solutions hard to come by, now is the time for building soul.
In this crucial phase of human history, with so many at ‘the edge’ and in spiritual crisis, soul making is key to finding our way through a rite of passage between the old and the new.
We are at the beginning of the beginning, with massive energy for change now building in the cosmos.
What better way to navigate this turning point than with a deep connection to soul and wise guidance from your inner world.
“This universe is not outside of you.
Look inside yourself;
everything that you want,
you are already that.” – Rumi
Copyright © Deborah Muffet 2026
