SteveTanham – writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends

Category: Consciousness

August 3, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Higher Mind, Incarnation, Powers of the Mind, Psychology, Silent Eye School, Spiritual Enneagram

Nine Keys: (5) The Giant Sail

by Steve Tanham

So far, we’ve looked at the development of the self – the ego-personality. We’ve seen how our ‘being’ arrives, entirely whole but naked to this world, at birth. It then begins to develop a protective shell as it finds its place in a world that is not entirely comforting. We moved on to consider the layers of perception, and how there is a fundamental … Read More Nine Keys: (5) The Giant Sail

August 1, 2023 + #Poetry, #Silenti, Consciousness

This, July, Passing

by Steve Tanham

A test, perhaps, to see who lives till August With mind and heart intact Boiled down, diluted, merged with wet earth In all its sodden tones, from dark to dank. A sense of did that happen? Pale shadows – memories starved of sun Recounting, beer or second wine in hand The glory of that ‘ May, then June, then… This ©Stephen Tanham 2023 Stephen … Read More This, July, Passing

July 30, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, English Lake District, nature, Photographic techniques, Photography, Places and Prose

Insurgent Thistle

by Steve Tanham

The come by stealth; just when you think the summer landscape is settling down for its slow decline to autumn… Aggressive, spiky green – enough to make you walk several paces to one side. The thistle knows how to make an entrance. But then that beautiful flower emerges; an inonimate shade somewhere between vibrant pink and soothing lilac. A wonderful paradox, reminding us that … Read More Insurgent Thistle

July 27, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Higher Mind, Incarnation, Powers of the Mind, Psychology, Silent Eye School, Spiritual Enneagram

Nine Keys: (4) The edge of the known

by Steve Tanham

We look out at the world with our eyes. There is a strong, conceptual basis for our looking. We look out from an in-here to an out-there. In other words, we locate ourselves – the ‘me’ – inside something that we regard as an intimate ‘home’, never seeing, perhaps for all of our lives, that we have created the division. The immediate effect of … Read More Nine Keys: (4) The edge of the known

July 25, 2023 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Consciousness, Photography, Places and Prose

Never go back?

by Steve Tanham

Never go back! It’s a frequent admonition, reminding us that the world we find on our return may not have the magic it possessed at the time it was laid down, ‘shining’ in our memories. It’s often used in the context of a romantic involvement; the futility of attempting to recreate real emotion through place. But what if the going-back involved an early first-stage … Read More Never go back?

July 20, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Gurdjieff, Incarnation, Photography, Psychology, Silent Eye School, Spiritual Enneagram

Nine Keys: (3) the Fall

by Steve Tanham

We seldom think about what it must have been like to be a new-born.Perhaps there is something uncomfortable about the image of being so helpless? And yet that first period of life – emerging from mother’s body in which we have been safely cocooned with all our needs met – is formative for the rest of the human being’s incarnation in matter. The way … Read More Nine Keys: (3) the Fall

July 16, 2023 + #Phoetry, #Poetry, #Silenti, Consciousness, landscapes

#Phoetry : Old Light

by Steve Tanham

Like a knife, dividing Bright July from Oncoming storm Where birds of warning Guard the last resort With mocking grey From here is only stone And rocky way Towards the end of land Wise and full of warning Yet ancient-skilled in reach The light of ages searches #Phoetry is a mixing of predominant images and guiding worlds to – in this case – tell … Read More #Phoetry : Old Light

July 13, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Gurdjieff, Incarnation, Photography, Psychology, Silent Eye School, Spiritual Enneagram

Nine Keys: (2) The look of love

by Steve Tanham

A good friend wrote to me after last week’s Part One of this series. They wondered if they had ever really known their ‘real self’. It’s a common observation, and people who can say this are being emotionally honest at a deep level. But I can reassure anyone who feels this way that they are mistaken. The feeling is that life has apparently taken … Read More Nine Keys: (2) The look of love

July 11, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, nature, Photography, Places and Prose, Seasons of the year, Silent Eye School

The Perfect Evening

by Steve Tanham

I begin to look for it from the start of July… The ‘perfect evening’. Highly subjective, of course. For me, it begins with a gentleness of warm (but not hot) air flowing over the land. Add in light that has a softness – as though mother-of-pearl had been ground into a fine dust and scattered, unseen. And the final ingredient is an emotional, mellow … Read More The Perfect Evening

July 9, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, Lake District, landscapes, Photographic techniques, Photography, Seasons of the year

Gold and Grey

by Steve Tanham

I love that moment – when summer sun and dark clouds fight to cover the land below in a fast-moving and alternating patchwork of colour and it’s absence. If there’s gold on the land to bejewel the electric grey of the sky, even better… Here, at Fell Foot Park, on the southern tip of Windermere, the extremes always seem to be marked, both summer … Read More Gold and Grey

July 6, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Gurdjieff, Incarnation, Photography, Psychology, Silent Eye School, Spiritual Enneagram

Nine Keys: (1) The human hologram

by Steve Tanham

Modern spirituality is aligned with psychology in many ways; one of them being that whichever direction we travel in on our quest to ‘find the real’, we need to start with the personality. The personality is where we live. We think of it as us. Because it’s ‘me’, there is no questioning how it views things. True, we can be aware that we tend … Read More Nine Keys: (1) The human hologram

July 4, 2023 + #Silenti, Consciousness, Lake District, Mindfulness, mystical travel, Photographic techniques, Photography, Travel, Travel and Photography

Wet Summer Light

by Steve Tanham

Ulverston on a June day. Immediately after a dowsing in one of the rainstorms that have ended two solid months of sunshine and blue skies here in the extreme north-west of England. It’s actually a pleasant change, though I have no desire to ‘hex’ the lovely summer we’re having. We’re in Ulverston – a lovely market town that used to be in north Lancashire, … Read More Wet Summer Light