SteveTanham – writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends

Category: Ancient Sacred Sites

December 11, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, myths and spirituality, Spirituality, Travel and people, Winter Solstice weekend

Hands of the Future

by Steve Tanham

It was cold, very cold on that Friday… just five days ago. Across the road, people were trickling out of the railway station and along the busy main road through Penrith. Three hours from now it would fill with commuters both leaving and arriving in the Cumbrian town on the main west-coast line to Glasgow. But not yet… “Full Circle: Finding the Way Home’ … Read More Hands of the Future

November 29, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, Spirituality

Remarkable Rocks

by Steve Tanham

Even from a distance, it separates itself from the landscape that gave it birth. After two hundred million years, its many faces continue to laugh at the sky – in the defiant way that large rocks often do… or perhaps it is long-lost love… Its act of separation is not one of colour, for the hues are not dissimilar to those around it on … Read More Remarkable Rocks

November 7, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Spirituality

A walk with dogs, the Lune and St Michael

by Steve Tanham

The Lune Valley is always worth exploring. The river Lune rises as a stream near Ravenstone Dale, Cumbria, and gathers momentum and volume as it winds towards the sea at Lancaster and its one time port, Glasson Dock. Devil’s Bridge, above, is, perhaps its most famous landmark, and was once the main highway between Yorkshire and the north Lancashire region – prior to the … Read More A walk with dogs, the Lune and St Michael

June 21, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, Spirituality

Patterned in Dorset (4)

by Steve Tanham

He did not know how many were up there… Centurion Calogerus stared at the edge of the plateau above him. The vast hill-fort rose from the chalk lands below in what appeared to be a series of grassy layers. There were no walls that he could see. This would be quick… As the dawning sun of the year’s longest day crested the edge of … Read More Patterned in Dorset (4)

June 19, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Spirituality

Patterned in Dorset (3)

by Steve Tanham

It is said that a chapel dedicated to St Catherine once stood on this hill, looking down at the little town of Cerne Abbas, below. The original St Catherine was a pre-Christian figure about whom very little is known. She was associated with the symbol of an eight-armed wheel – the famous ‘Catherine wheel’, remembered now in the name of a firework…. Those visiting … Read More Patterned in Dorset (3)

June 16, 2018 + Ancient Sacred Sites, Spirituality

Patterned in Dorset

by Steve Tanham

I’ll leave the detail to they who planned this : Stuart and Sue. But, some real-time photos and narration will give a flavour of the Silent Eye’s 2018 pre-solstice weekend, here in beautiful Dorset. Dorset-based, yet our first journey was 18 miles north into Somerset, to the legendary South Cadbury site of the ‘Arthurian Castle, the site of an an ancient fortified settlement, and … Read More Patterned in Dorset

May 22, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Spirituality

An Orcadian Diary (2) Before History

by Steve Tanham

Continued from Part One And now we should go back to an older time – a much older time – to flesh out the story of the islands of Orkney, north-east of the Scottish mainland. The man in the picture is Gordon Childe. It’s 1927. He’s the newly-appointed Abercrombie Professor of Prehistoric Archeology at the University of Edinburgh. The photo shows him emerging from … Read More An Orcadian Diary (2) Before History

February 1, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Fear, landscapes, Silent Eye School

Castles of the mind

by Steve Tanham

Do we have ‘castles of the mind’? Traditionally, ancient castles were built where there was trouble… Do we have the equivalent in our minds and emotions? Have we, over the course of our lives, built up strong fortifications with which to repel those intrusions which, as children, we considered frightening? The foundations for such things can begin very early, and be formed of some … Read More Castles of the mind

December 12, 2017 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Megalithic, Silent Eye School

Riddles of the Night (4) – Leaving the Temple

by Steve Tanham

The Riddles of the Night weekend, created and hosted by Sue Vincent and Stuart France, reached a dark crescendo on the Saturday night. By dark, I mean the kind of physical blackness that comes with an early December trip to the middle of an ancient site at nine in the evening… After the all-consuming (Saturday) daytime visit to Robin Hood’s Stride, and the nearby … Read More Riddles of the Night (4) – Leaving the Temple

December 9, 2017 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, Silent Eye School, Silent Eye Workshops

Riddles of the Night – Templar Shadows (3)

by Steve Tanham

A bastard’s bastard, he would never know that he carried the blood of the Templars in his veins. That was only speculated after his death; being proved, later, by the researcher who followed his short life. He did it because he was a runner… Hardship was the key; hardship and the words his cruel companions at the parish school carved on his leg with … Read More Riddles of the Night – Templar Shadows (3)

September 28, 2017 + Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, Silent Eye School

Women in the Mist (4)

by Steve Tanham

(Continued from Part three on Sun in Gemini) The spiritual, stripped of the trappings of religion, is a search for the real. We may protest that we already live lives that are real. It is one of the hardest and yet most profound jobs of a magical or mystical school, such as the Silent Eye, to show, as gently as possible, that this is … Read More Women in the Mist (4)

September 26, 2017 + Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, Silent Eye School

Women in the Mist (3)

by Steve Tanham

(Continued from Part two on Sun in Gemini) “There’s nothing else in Midmar, so just look for the church.” Allan’s words, given some time prior, echoed in our heads. We were lost… and he was nowhere to be seen. Its a cat problem, in the sense of herding them, as Allan said (and I agreed), during the weekend… It’s also a problem of … Read More Women in the Mist (3)