SteveTanham – writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends

Category: Consciousness

March 18, 2021 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Mindfulness, Mystery Schools, Silent Eye School, Truth and Esotericism

The Belief Tree

by Steve Tanham

It might be thought that, in our technology-driven age, the concept of belief has become less important. If we go back fifty years, belief was still central to most people’s lives; so what has happened to change that? (1000 words, a ten-minute read) A friend of mine suggests, slightly tongue in cheek, that the biggest factor in religion’s decline is shopping… We might substitute … Read More The Belief Tree

March 9, 2021 + #Silenti, Consciousness, landscapes, Photographic techniques, Photography, Silent Eye School

Eyes in the Sunset

by Steve Tanham

I love this time of year. The early spring offers an interesting mixture of summer light and winter forms. The last few weeks of the bare organic structures offer mischievous possibilities for a slight degree of editing… But sometimes, nature surprises without any artifice on the photographer’s part. In the opening shot, I was walking Tess through the local forest when I was startled … Read More Eyes in the Sunset

February 25, 2021 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Psychology, Silent Eye School

The Big Picture (6) : Unshakable Mine

by Steve Tanham

I am the child of two loving parents. One gifted me a living background in philosophy and mysticism; the other gave me the gift of verbal conceptualisation… talking. (1500 words; a ten minute read) My father passed away a decade ago. We’re still clinging on to mother, who at 91, is robust only in her ability to talk. She is in our care for … Read More The Big Picture (6) : Unshakable Mine

February 23, 2021 + #Silenti, Consciousness, Dementia, Mindfulness

Books, coffee, knowing things (2) Auden’s pamphlet

by Steve Tanham

A loving journey with a mother’s dementia… and occasional humour. Part Two (This post is 1000 words, a ten-minute read) The photo, below, shows my final attempt at an ‘ark’, as we came to call them: a place of refuge in times of extreme storms. The idea of the ark was born of the need to direct my mother to a point of safety … Read More Books, coffee, knowing things (2) Auden’s pamphlet

February 18, 2021 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Psychology, Silent Eye School

The Big Picture (5) : A glass of silver wine

by Steve Tanham

One of the ancient mystical traditions that has turned out to be startlingly modern is that of the Sufis. We may be familiar with Sufi thought in the form of its often quoted poetry, such as that of Rumi, or the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the ‘Astronomer-Poet of Persia’, whose work became widely-read in the west, following its translation by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. … Read More The Big Picture (5) : A glass of silver wine

February 11, 2021 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Psychology, Silent Eye School, Unconscious

The Big Picture (4) : a kind of hammer

by Steve Tanham

As children, we lose ourselves in play and the toys or games that give the play structure: a skipping rope, chalk to mark out a court, balls to kick and control… perhaps, now, a computer to enter a virtual world. As adults we inhabit a different world, and the entanglements of our earlier years may pay us a return visit… (1400 words; a ten … Read More The Big Picture (4) : a kind of hammer

February 9, 2021 + #Cats, #Collie dogs, #FurryFives, #RagDollCats, #Silenti, Cats, Collie dogs, Consciousness, Dark Humour, Dementia

Books, coffee, knowing things…

by Steve Tanham

(This post is 600 words, a five-minute read) I loved the image… I’d credit its creator if I knew where it came from; but there it was in my in-tray. The cool black cat with the importantly steaming mug of coffee, and an engrossing book with covers in my favourite colour… all of it pushing back the awfulness of an English February. There’s a … Read More Books, coffee, knowing things…

February 4, 2021 + #Silenti, Biology and mysticism, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Higher Mind, Life-sciences, Psychology, Silent Eye School, Unconscious

The Big Picture (3) : objects of desire

by Steve Tanham

The word ‘object’ has many meanings; but none more mysterious and potentially wonderful as the meeting of spirituality with the findings of psychology’s Object Relations Theory… (1400 words; a ten minute read) Everything in our daily world comes from them; they are the highs and lows, the anguish and the triumphs, the misery and the joy… and above all else, the overwhelming violence of … Read More The Big Picture (3) : objects of desire

January 28, 2021 + #Silenti, Consciousness

The Art of Drowning

by Steve Tanham

I’ve drowned before… Drowning comes in the form of waves. Eventually, when your ability to fight back has gone, even the smallest wave can make the difference and take you beneath the surface to a place of the unknown. Many years ago, I faced the inescapable collapse of the software business that we had spent eight years building from nothing. The business climate had … Read More The Art of Drowning

January 21, 2021 + #Silenti, Biology and mysticism, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Higher Mind, Life-sciences, Psychology, Silent Eye School, Unconscious

The Big Picture (2) : a portrait of the archer

by Steve Tanham

If we’re going to set off in search of the spiritual – as seen in humanity’s ‘internal pictures’, we need to have a more modern definition of what ‘the spiritual’ actually is… Imagine we are reading a paragraph in an absorbing book – something like the image below. Normally, our brains would assemble a sequential stream of characters into recognised words, then meaning. The … Read More The Big Picture (2) : a portrait of the archer

January 17, 2021 + #Silenti, Consciousness, nature, Photographic techniques, Photography, Seasons of the year, Silent Eye School

Winter walks with camera (6) : the shape of drama

by Steve Tanham

Drama comes in many forms, but those forms can be accentuated by the rigours of Winter (250 words, a two-minute read) The estuary to the west of Arnside has an ancient feel, and is filled with dramatic shapes and foliage. In Winter, some of these can look primeval, and the natural desaturation of colour caused by the lower levels of light play to the … Read More Winter walks with camera (6) : the shape of drama

January 14, 2021 + #Silenti, Biology and mysticism, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Higher Mind, Life-sciences, Psychology, Silent Eye School, Unconscious

The Big Picture (1) : life and the image

by Steve Tanham

We don’t live ‘in the world’… an outrageous thing to say, and yet it’s true. Well, if we don’t live in the world, where do we live? We don’t live in the world; we live in a picture of the world… the ‘big picture’ of the blog’s title. If we actually lived in the world, we would go insane within a very short time … Read More The Big Picture (1) : life and the image