Some structures strike you immediately as a ‘model of life’.

It’s not that they are exact, or even comprehensive, but somehow they reflect an important aspect of life.

When I took this shot, of the interior of the Bentall Centre in Kingston-on-Thames, it reminded me of a J.C. Escher drawing; several of them, in fact.

Escher is famous for his multiple ‘stairways’, many of which appear to contradict the ‘laws of connection’. When I looked, again, at the photo I’d taken in Kingston, I saw the Escher in it, but there was a sense of much more order, and my mind began working on the parallels.

The floors brought to mind the idea of ‘levels of consciousness’, from the molecular stage of the materials, through the organic level of the body to the attainment of stable higher levels achieved in such practices as meditation.

The levels also reminded me of the constant ‘vertical’ movement of mood – something whose instability and unpredictability we dislike and fight to contain in interior structures that do not allow negative energy to flow.

The moving stairways I see as both will and inspiration. We can’t always use self-discipline to get us ‘up a level’ but a combination of that and inspiration might well.

The roof/ceiling of the Bentall Centre is a soft and beautiful contrast to the complexity beneath. It speaks of the grand curves of the skies and heaven, and of the ordering of the causal levels of being and consciousness.

©Stephen Tanham 2024

All photos taken and processed on an iPhone 12

ProMax or created using NightCafe Studio Al.

Stephen Tanham is a writer-photographer and mystical teacher. He is the founding Director of the Silent Eye, which offers a monthly Zoom-based gathering of companions, each one on their own, unique journey to deeper states of self-realisation.