About the
Author

Michael Timothy Murray is an Architect based in San Francisco. A graduate with honors from the University of Southern California, he has practiced Architecture since 1980 and has been a licensed Architect since 1994. His thesis at USC explored how symbolism and the intentional use of archetypes could transmute architecture into an allegorical experience, using a language we instinctively recognize to allow shared meaning to emerge. An inquiry that evolved into a career centered on translating psychology and philosophy into place. In TEMPERED, he brings that same narrative approach from architecture to his life.

Over four decades, Murray has traveled to fifty-nine countries across five continents, drawn by his insatiable curiosity about places, cultures, beliefs, and different ways of life. His journeys have included travel behind the Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union and East Germany during the Cold War, Hebron in the West Bank, as well as pilgrimages, sacred sites, and immersive experiences in some of the world's most remote landscapes.

TEMPERED: A Reliquarian Life, his first book, represents the convergence of a lifetime spent exploring architecture, travel, psychology, and the world's contemplative traditions.

After leaving his hometown of Hermosa Beach in Southern California, Murray spent four months and 31,223 miles crisscrossing the United States before making San Francisco his home in 1999. He continues to practice Architecture and write there while looking forward to his next journey, wherever it may lead.