Ancient Landscapes – Sun in Gemini

March 16, 2023 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, Egyptian Myth, English Lake District, esoteric psychology, Lake District, mystical travel, Silent Eye Workshops, Travel and Photography

Thickening the Plot

by Steve Tanham

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 … Read More Thickening the Plot

March 14, 2023 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Consciousness, English Lake District, Photography, Places and Prose

Bench March

by Steve Tanham

There’s something about March that is difficult to define… It’s a classically liminal month. Not quite the end of winter; not quite the start of the spring. You can be knee deep in mud yet standing next to a clump of glorious crocuses. When you get a good photograph, it’s to be celebrated … as they can be few and far between. This shot … Read More Bench March

March 12, 2023 + #Humour, #Poetry, #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Lake District

Let’s go walking

by Steve Tanham

March 9, 2023 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Consciousness, English Lake District, esoteric psychology, Photography

The Unburnt…

by Steve Tanham

We have a favourite local walk that follows the elevated line of the old Preston-Kendal canal… It was closed as a waterway in the late 1940s and drained in the 1950s, but its structure is still visible along parts of the old route. From the level of the canal, our path descends through a farmer’s land and emerges out on the wide plain by … Read More The Unburnt…

March 7, 2023 + #Silent Eye, #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, Lake District, Photographic techniques, Photography, Places and Prose

The Swift and Windermere

by Steve Tanham

Just had to take this shot. Didn’t even know it was there until I stepped into the cafe next to the boarding pier for a quick cup of tea during one of our dog walks around Bowness-upon-Windermere. It was a grey Tuesday with poor light, and I hadn’t expected to find much to photograph, I collected my tea from the counter and turned to … Read More The Swift and Windermere

February 7, 2023 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Consciousness, Lake District, landscapes, nature, Photographic techniques, Photography, Places and Prose

Stories of Winter Fire

by Steve Tanham

Here in the Lake District, colour can be hard to find in the Jan-March depths of winter. So I thought it might be fun to explore the replacement of faded colours – like those found in last year’s grasses and ferns – with a colour treatment that was blatantly artificial, yet suggested hidden fire and life… The grasses above are a good example of … Read More Stories of Winter Fire

January 24, 2023 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Biology and mysticism, Consciousness

Mountains beneath the Sea

by Steve Tanham

I was talking with a friend about life – not a generalised view of life, such as we might do in an introductory talk to mysticism, but in the sense of what life actually is… The topic of life led us to consider health… and how we might picture health and it’s inevitable effect on the final stages of our lives. And then I … Read More Mountains beneath the Sea

January 3, 2023 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, landscapes, Photographic techniques, Photography, Places and Prose

The Seventh Day of Christmas

by Steve Tanham

New Years’ Day and we traveled from Kendal to Ilkley to have lunch with my son and his family. They live in Leeds and we often use Ilkley as a half-way meeting point to have a walk on the moor and then come down to the Hermit pub/restaurant that looks down on Burley-in-Wharfedale. The River Wharfe is a beautiful river originating within the Yorkshire … Read More The Seventh Day of Christmas

December 18, 2022 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Consciousness, landscapes, Photographic techniques, Photography, Places and Prose

Frozen Shore; ten below…

by Steve Tanham

I don’t think I ever remember the temperature, here, being minus ten, before. But that’s what it was, according to the gauge in the car on the way to Bolton-le-Sands, where – in the course of walking Tess the collie – I took this shot. Few people graced the frozen landscape, which gave it a ghostly isolation. The one dark figure walking slowly along … Read More Frozen Shore; ten below…

December 15, 2022 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Mystery Schools

The Eight with Two Dots

by Steve Tanham

I remember being a child and considering the Yin-Yang figure for the first time. It fascinated me. I felt like I couldn’t ‘see it’ properly – as though something about it was hidden… For several days after spying it on a street poster, I tried to draw it, but without success. The best I could do was render it as ‘an eight with two … Read More The Eight with Two Dots

November 27, 2022 + #Silent Eye, #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Consciousness, English Lake District, landscapes, Photographic techniques, Photography

Pale sun, November river…

by Steve Tanham

That moment when you look up and realise that the sun is as high as it’s going to get … and, yes, it’s the end of November. On our ‘town and castle’ walk, the Collie and I pass over this old stone bridge and gaze down at the silver-gold of the river Kent. And reflect… ©Stephen Tanham 2022 Stephen Tanham is a Director of … Read More Pale sun, November river…

November 13, 2022 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, English Lake District, Photographic techniques, Photography

The shifting beach…

by Steve Tanham

What I love about the beaches around Morecambe Bay is the way you can go back a day later and find them completely changed. Heysham Beach, near Morecambe, is a wonderful example. In autumn, the tides get stronger, and the landscape upon which you walk – often a liminal zone between rock and sand – changes with each tide. Which is good news for … Read More The shifting beach…