SteveTanham – writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends

Category: Ancient Sacred Sites

The pale winter sun lies – to our symbolic view – just beyond the East Cliff horizon. Its lowness and lateness in the cold sky speaks of the approach of the winter solstice, a time of maximum darkness and minimum light…. but also a time of turning. History is made from a series of turning-points. Changes – some of them completely unforeseen and incapable … Read More Keys of Heaven (4): through the bones of the whale

December 17, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, esoteric psychology, Photography, Spirituality

Keys of Heaven (3): the synchronicity of kindness

by Steve Tanham

There’s a certain ‘presence’ about kindness. Like the spiritual – or, more likely, as a part of it – the act of unexpected kindness drops into our lives like a messenger from the ‘Gods’. So it was with our visit to the ancient church of Lythe in the middle of the Friday afternoon of the Keys of Heaven workshop. The village of Lythe lies … Read More Keys of Heaven (3): the synchronicity of kindness

December 12, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Belief and Faith, Celtic Christianity, Christianity and modern mysticism, esoteric psychology, Gurdjieff, Mystical ritual drama, Photography, Spirituality

Keys of Heaven (2): a pocket left open for magic

by Steve Tanham

It’s a winter’s tale, so best told in warm snippets… With a weekend workshop carefully envisaged, there’s always a moment where that mental and emotional picture becomes ‘invested’ with life. These old English words contain a wealth of linguistic depth so easily passed over in modern usage. After months of refining the stages, and a preparatory visit, the latest of our ‘Landscape’ workshops was … Read More Keys of Heaven (2): a pocket left open for magic

December 10, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, Christianity and modern mysticism, Consciousness, Photography, Spirituality, Travel and Photography, Winter Solstice weekend

Keys of Heaven (1): Cod and Lobster

by Steve Tanham

Bright against the icy darkness, the Christmas lights of the Cod and Lobster pub greet the quiet sound of only two sets of winter boots, where, until a few hours ago, there were many… It’s quite a walk down from the car park above the lovely fishing village of Staithes – pronounced ‘Steas’ – just north of Whitby along the coast of Yorkshire’s beautiful … Read More Keys of Heaven (1): Cod and Lobster

November 21, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, esoteric psychology, spiritual turning around, Spirituality, Travel and Photography

Divide and be Conquered

by Steve Tanham

It’s a funny thing, division – its principles apply to many aspects of our lives. We can cut something up, but its original ‘wholeness’ persists in ways we may never have considered. Wholeness as a concept is worth some thought. Can we step back and consider why we think something is whole? Is it simply that ‘it works’ – in the way that a … Read More Divide and be Conquered

November 14, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, Christianity and modern mysticism, mystical travel, Silent Eye Workshops, Winter Solstice weekend

A prospect of Whitby (3) – Touching the Sun

by Steve Tanham

There’s something ‘monumental’ about planning to be high on the vast moorlands of the North Yorkshire National Park at the end of the first week in December. Yet that is exactly what we’ll be doing on the Sunday morning of the ‘Keys of Heaven’ workshop on the start of the workshop’s final day – weather permitting. If it doesn’t, there’s a plan B… Bridges … Read More A prospect of Whitby (3) – Touching the Sun

October 31, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, Christianity and modern mysticism, mystical travel, Silent Eye Workshops, Winter Solstice weekend

The Moment that Teaches

by Steve Tanham

Most people who venture into the mystical encounter it before too long – that momentary sense of the world dropping away and an intense silence taking centre stage. In that silence is a new perspective which does not belong to the subjective, reasoning consciousness. I think of it as the ‘moment that teaches’. It is to be sought after as though it were gold. … Read More The Moment that Teaches

October 29, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, Christianity and modern mysticism, mystical travel, Silent Eye Workshops, Winter Solstice weekend

The Landscape that Teaches

by Steve Tanham

When we were creating the Silent Eye’s mentored correspondence course, we envisaged a three-year journey through a mental, emotional and spiritual landscape which would evolve as the Companion’s learning and depth of ‘being’ increased. This landscape was to be internal – an active, meditative experience, whose presence would extend into the daily life as learning of true cause and effect deepened, and different aspects … Read More The Landscape that Teaches

October 17, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, Christianity and modern mysticism, mystical travel, Silent Eye Workshops, Winter Solstice weekend

A prospect of Whitby (1) The Abbey at the centre of time

by Steve Tanham

The title’s cheeky… Bram Stoker created Count Dracula of Transylvania and had him come ashore at Whitby in a ship named The Prospect of Whitby. We’ll not be talking much about Dracula in our coming weekend workshop; we’ve got enough to contend with considering the truth… There are many ways to approach the centre of Whitby, but only one to truly approach its heart… … Read More A prospect of Whitby (1) The Abbey at the centre of time

September 26, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Bakewell, Consciousness, Fear, Life and Death, Love, Spirituality, Travel and Photography, Understanding Fear

Fear and Love in the High Peak (2) – “I want a posset!”

by Steve Tanham

The first visit of the Silent Eye ‘Rites of Passage: Seeing Beyond Fear’ weekend was to the Derbyshire village of Eyam (pronounced Eem) – The Plague Village. Our family has a personal connection with Eyam and the terrible events of 1665-6, when bubonic plague, newly arrived in Derbyshire from London, took the lives of 260 of its occupants: over seven-tenths of its population. No-one … Read More Fear and Love in the High Peak (2) – “I want a posset!”

September 19, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Bakewell, Consciousness, Esoteric Meaning of Myth, esoteric psychology, guided mystical walks, Higher Mind, landscapes, Life and Death, Love, meditation, mystery, Mystery Schools, myths and spirituality, Photography, Silent Eye School, soul in body, Spirituality

Fear and Love in the High Peak – part one

by Steve Tanham

It’s not the best of photo resolutions, but the above image says it all. Briony saluting the Derbyshire landscape in her own way at the end of three days of the Silent Eye’s Tideswell-based workshop: Sue and Stuart’s creation; and a wonderful experience for the group of souls who braved the provocative title for the weekend… Rites of Passage: Seeing beyond Fear …and decided … Read More Fear and Love in the High Peak – part one

August 1, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Castles, Consciousness, Fear, Higher Mind, Spirituality

Only a Horse and a Sword

by Steve Tanham

We become habitual in our thinking. It’s a good idea (and fun) to play little games with our mind to help us look at things differently. One of these is to look at things in a ‘zero-sum’ way: that is, to consider life as a vast journey of ‘bought and sold’: acquisition, usage and disposal… Saladin, (Salah ad-Din) the legendary first Sultan of the … Read More Only a Horse and a Sword