SteveTanham – writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends

Category: Ancient Landscapes

May 5, 2022 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, English Lake District, humour, mystical travel, myths and spirituality, Photography, Places and Prose

Orderly and Aligned?

by Steve Tanham

There’s an old aphorism in the field of teaching mysticism: that if you endeavour to do something of significance; something that requires careful planning and even more careful resourcing, then you will be surprised how ‘testing’ the ‘final approach to the event will be. Moreover, the difficulties thrown at one may- humorously – be taken as a reflection of the event’s importance. The word’s … Read More Orderly and Aligned?

April 7, 2022 + #Silent Eye, #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, Esoteric Meaning of Myth, Lake District, landscapes, myths and spirituality, Photographic techniques, Photography, Silent Eye Workshops

The preparation of Magical Landscapes (2)

by Steve Tanham

You begin with an idea; in this case an entire workshop held outdoors, in the vivid landscape of the English Lake District. It’s vast and wild… and you have no control over the weather, not even in May. The goal is for those attending to experience themselves in a new way. In these dramatic surroundings, and in the midst of warm companionship, we can … Read More The preparation of Magical Landscapes (2)

April 3, 2022 + #Silent Eye, #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, Esoteric Meaning of Myth, Lake District, landscapes, myths and spirituality, Photographic techniques, Photography, Silent Eye Workshops

The preparation of Magical Landscapes (1)

by Steve Tanham

There’s no ‘But what is it’, today. The series will continue for a few weeks, restarting next Sunday. Three of us have been busy doing a ‘dry run’ of the plans for our ‘Journey of the Hero’ workshop 6-8 May, centred in Keswick. We’ve been crossing lakes, walking up hills and following rivers to mysterious stone structures… Oh, and a quick visit to a … Read More The preparation of Magical Landscapes (1)

January 20, 2022 + #Collie dogs, #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Photographic techniques, Photography, Silent Eye School

The hill with two stations

by Steve Tanham

Our small village, Sedgwick, near Kendal, has a landscape shaped in the classic terminal topography of ancient glaciers. This area of gentle, rounded hills is typical of the final stages of the glacier’s course. The English Lake District, where we live, has them in abundance. ‘Basket of Eggs’ is another term you may remember from those geography text books at school. They are also … Read More The hill with two stations

January 9, 2022 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Consciousness, Lake District, landscapes, Photography, Places and Prose, Seasons of the year, Silent Eye School, Travel and Photography

That early January feeling…

by Steve Tanham

It was the Christmas tree outside the Booths supermarket that triggered the thoughts… Now pale against the bright January sun and the crisp cold, its icy beauty was somehow less than the real thing, a warming image of a Christmas now gone and packed up into the storage boxes under the eaves. Ahead of me, the Kendal district of Fellside climbed up in the … Read More That early January feeling…

December 19, 2021 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Lake District, landscapes, Photographic techniques, Photography

December Sun

by Steve Tanham

When we think of December, images of cloudy skies and short days come to mind. There are blazes of intense colours, but they are brief and often forgotten in the general grey of winter. All the more reason to highlight and celebrate them when you can capture their glory… ©Stephen Tanham 2021 Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye, a journey through … Read More December Sun

November 11, 2021 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Consciousness, landscapes

A Lighthouse of Man

by Steve Tanham

We have friends who live on the Isle of Man, a once-Viking stronghold which lies in the Irish Sea between England and Northern Ireland. Once or twice a year we exchange visits. I’ve always been fascinated by the presence and the symbolic importance of lighthouses, and this trip offered the opportunity to discover a new one, in a wild and wonderful setting. Our friends … Read More A Lighthouse of Man

September 9, 2021 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Consciousness, Lake District, English Lake Distric, landscapes

Season Changing: Levens Park

by Steve Tanham

Season Changing: Levens Park http://thesilenteye.co.uk/2021/09/09/season-changing-levens-park/ — Read on thesilenteye.co.uk/2021/09/09/season-changing-levens-park/

June 3, 2021 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, Christianity and modern mysticism, Consciousness

The Mysterious Road to Tain (4): a simple man

by Steve Tanham

The young missionary – a peregrini, meaning one on a life-pilgrimage – wore two crosses; but not around his neck nor on his simple, woven robe. The Celtic designs were tattooed onto his eyelids so that, when he slept, the original Cross of Christ was projected from both his sleeping eyes into the world… Truth never sleeps. A Christ that he had reached out … Read More The Mysterious Road to Tain (4): a simple man

May 27, 2021 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, Christianity and modern mysticism, Consciousness

The Mysterious Road to Tain (3): the protectors

by Steve Tanham

“Saints don’t just disappear!” Bernie was getting a little exasperated with my poor attempt at stringing together a viable theory to account for the cultural disappearance of St Duthac. “There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation… we just have to find it.” I’d already found it, But I wasn’t letting on. It’s not that I’m cleverer than she is, but one of the sources I’d been … Read More The Mysterious Road to Tain (3): the protectors

May 20, 2021 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, Christianity and modern mysticism, Consciousness

The Mysterious Road to Tain (2): the demi-god of Ross

by Steve Tanham

“You’d have thought they would have looked after it, better!’ Bernie can be highly critical on these occasions. Mind you, we had trudged all the way around the small town of Tain to find it. The original chapel of St Duthac. The priest to whose church three Scottish kings travelled to pay their respects, sits as an unmarked ruin in the middle of the … Read More The Mysterious Road to Tain (2): the demi-god of Ross

May 18, 2021 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Highlands of Scotland, Silent Eye School

Through a hole, clearly: the legend of Sallow Kenneth

by Steve Tanham

We were looking for dolphins… Between Rosemarkie and Fortrose, on the shores of the Black Isle, north of Inverness, there is a promontory named Channonry Point. It projects out into the Moray Firth in such a way that the local population of some sixty bottlenose dolphins take delight in swimming in the rapid tidal races just off its rocky shore. We had just missed … Read More Through a hole, clearly: the legend of Sallow Kenneth