May 2023 is fast approaching, and that realisation puts urgency into the need to create the ‘physical’ part of the landscape workshop ‘Water, Circle, Cross’, the Silent Eye’s spring event for 2023.

Lake Windermere is cold and icy now, but two months on, a band of explorers will be disembarking from a boat at Waterhead in the early mildness of May.

Walking, we will cross the short distance to a place of great beauty – possibly via a lakeshore coffee…

With deep thoughts and expectations as to what the day ahead holds, we will walk a little further to reach a symbol of what was once ancient might…

But that’s how it looked… long ago. Today there is only archeological evidence of its presence. But what remains is impressive.

The words of Shelley’s great poem, Ozymandias, (Rameses the great) come to mind:

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away

Percy Shelley: Ozymandias

Even the mighty stone figure of Rameses the Great lay in the desert for thousands of years, his hubris unable to halt the flow of time and dust. We can ride the changes… or surrender to the sand. There is much emotion in a sentiment like this, and it encourages us to ask questions of our own lives… and possibly share the answers.

What part do emotions play in my world as it is now? Do I still have a hunger to know and experience more about my life, about my Self? Can the mystical quest be said to reside within me, and if so…where?

The answers are personal. Sometimes it takes the group deeper to share aspects of them, but there is no pressure to do so. The shared experience is sufficient… that and the inner voice of the higher self.

Here, we will be close to the town, but first an interesting outcrop of rocks holds a fascination….and beckons us.

The day before – for this is Day 2 – high above the lake, we began the creation of a simple group ceremony; an act of movement and sharing.

Here on the natural stage, we deepen it.

The mighty ring of hills known as Fairfield is to the north of us, and bears witness to our efforts.

We’ve already begun to bring the event into ‘existence’… Those familiar with mystical thought will know the value of holding the clear emotional picture of such a creation; it forms a pre-structure, something that will become a living blueprint for what follows.

And this is doubly relevant since ‘emotion’ is the core theme for the May weekend.

Events like this need to be journeys of both the outer and the inner. We are blessed in that the Lakes provides more mystical landscapes than we could use in a lifetime.

No inner journey succeeds without emotion to empower it. The bringing alive is the opening of a personal gate to a level of our-selves whose life is vivid compared to our routine daily existence. Workshops can do this… largely due to an often-unseen force: the power of a group working together to a noble goal.

Emotions empower and motivate. They also help focus – in the sense not creating ‘events’ in the right part of the landscape to carry forward a thread of adventure and self-discovery.

This is the first in a series of posts to give an insight as to what we will experience in the weekend of 19-21 May, 2023.

The photographs here were taken in early March, 2023 with the cold winter still in full force. The month of May is beautiful in the Lakes – busting with green and life; and the presence of so large and beautiful a lake as Windermere is the perfect ‘vehicle’ and backdrop to such a weekend.

Water, Circle, Cross. The Silent Eye’s spring workshop for 2023.

For more information on the Water, Circle, Cross weekend, contact us on Rivingtide@gmail.com.

©Stephen Tanham 2023

Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye, a journey through the forest of personality to the dawn of Being.

http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk and http://www.suningemini.blog