SteveTanham – writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends

Category: Consciousness

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

March 5, 2023 + #Silenti, #wantonwhimsy, Consciousness, Dark Humour, Photographic techniques, Photography

A lushness of patio: #wantonwhimsy

by Steve Tanham

The New Zealand white slipped down easily as he typed furiously on the iPad. Hours seemed to pass, industriously. Ideas flowed and the plot thickened… By one inch from the bottom of the bottle, he had it nailed. The robbery, the savage death in the pool of the sadistic villain, the near drowning of the woman – the kidnap victim who had given up … Read More A lushness of patio: #wantonwhimsy

March 2, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, People power, Photographic techniques, Photography, Places and Prose

Decline, Fall … and Renewal

by Steve Tanham

As we approach the spring, it can be instructive to consider examples of how cherished things struggle to maintain vitality – and which ones succeed. The inevitable cycles of growth, maturity and decay are ever-present. But they are not all-powerful. Business fortunes as well as personal fate obeys certain laws of success and decline. As a young computer salesman with a (now long defunct) … Read More Decline, Fall … and Renewal

February 28, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, landscapes, Photographic techniques, Photography, Places and Prose

Lines against the Sun

by Steve Tanham

I never used to like strong sun. The temperate summer of verdant and lush England always suited me fine. The rain was the price of the incomparable greens of the Spring. Everything was balanced… And then I became more involved with creative photography… and my trusty iPhone Pro has never been far from my questing fingers and eyes, since. But then I noticed, while … Read More Lines against the Sun

February 23, 2023 + #Poetry, #Silent Eye, #Silenti, #WhimsyPhotoEssays, Consciousness, Higher Mind, landscapes, Mystical poetry, Travel, Travel and Photography

Reborn in innocence

by Steve Tanham

©Stephen Tanham 2023 Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye, a journey through the forest of personality to the dawn of Being. http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk and http://www.suningemini.blog

February 16, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Psychology

The Glowing Ascent of Reaction

by Steve Tanham

We all have moments when we experience that inner sense of ‘glow and wellbeing’ – often quite unexpectedly… This usually happens when we are carrying out a task or thinking out a situation and become absorbed to a depth that assists us to resolve something complex. That eventual sense of a breakthrough is indicative! As is the deep breath that usually accompanies the triumph… … Read More The Glowing Ascent of Reaction

February 9, 2023 + #Silenti, Celtic Christianity, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Love, Metanoia, Mindfulness, Mystery Schools, Soul, spiritual turning around, Sufi Poetry, The Beloved

Barriers to Love

by Steve Tanham

Eight hundred years is a long way to look back and extract meaningful guidance about ‘today’s world’, and yet I can say with honesty that the historical figure whose wisdom made one of the most important differences to my spiritual life lived in the 13th century… Generally known by the short-form of his last name: Rumi, the Sufi mystic and poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad … Read More Barriers to Love

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

February 2, 2023 + #Silent Eye, #Silenti, Child of Light, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Higher Mind, Incarnation, meditation, Mindfulness, Mystery Schools

Age and the Inner Life

by Steve Tanham

How old are we? It’s often a cruel question and we wrestle with the answer, knowing full well how many years downstream we are … but feeling, not too deep inside, that our inner state bears no relation to that set of two digits… Traditionally, this has been dismissed as just part of our psychology. We don’t want to feel old, so we learn … Read More Age and the Inner Life

January 31, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, English Lake District, landscapes, Photographic techniques, Photography

The Light and the Gloom

by Steve Tanham

Kendal, midweek… the retail day was drawing to a close. A thin fog had covered the town and its surrounding hills for most of the day, and the encroaching darkness at the end of the afternoon made the gloom seem even more dense. I have always been drawn by urban photos of streets where the lights have that ‘just turned on’ look. Collie in … Read More The Light and the Gloom

January 26, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Incarnation, Love, meditation, Memories, nature

Embrace of the Inner Age

by Steve Tanham

There are many symmetries in life but one of the least remarked on is the complementary states of early and later life relative to where we place our attention. When young, despite ‘trailing clouds of glory’, as Wordsworth elegantly wrote, we are completely in-volved with the physical world ‘out-there’. From the wonder and adoration of our baby state, through the realisation that we can … Read More Embrace of the Inner Age

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