SteveTanham – writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends

Category: esoteric psychology

The high pass over the North York Moors is seventeen miles long and crosses the ‘roof of the world’ in the heart of the national park. You’d think twice about going there once the autumn has given way to winter. Local photos show the many times that groups of people have been stranded on the long line of its peak. In one case, in … Read More Keys of Heaven (8): crosses at heaven’s gate

January 2, 2020 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, esoteric psychology, Photography, Spirituality

Keys of Heaven (7): the path to gentle darkness

by Steve Tanham

The tiny fishing village of Staithes is a place of peaceful beauty. It lies part way between Whitby and Saltburn on the North Yorkshire coast. It’s geology is also one of the few breaks in the vast cliffs that define this region; and which are the main source of the famous Whitby Jet semi-precious stone. Staithes was our destination… and I was taking a … Read More Keys of Heaven (7): the path to gentle darkness

December 31, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, esoteric psychology, Photography, Spirituality

Keys of Heaven (6): the greater force

by Steve Tanham

The greater force… What did they know of it! Anyone could see it in the fall of boulders in the mountains; in the crashing of the seas on the rocks, in the burning of the forests when the wildfires took hold; in the legends of the earth boiling and glowing when the ground ruptured… But only a few could see it at work in … Read More Keys of Heaven (6): the greater force

December 24, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, esoteric psychology, Photography, Spirituality

Keys of Heaven (5): the will of the king – gathering

by Steve Tanham

We climb the steps to the Abbey at Whitby, aware that something different is happening; that the curtain of time is being drawn back… for as long as we can keep the critical mind at bay The years pass away. From the present keepers back through years of being a rich man’s possession… As – in a mist – we see the year 1539 … Read More Keys of Heaven (5): the will of the king – gathering

December 19, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Celtic Christianity, esoteric psychology, Photography, Spirituality

Keys of Heaven (4): through the bones of the whale

by Steve Tanham

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 5, 2019 + #Silenti, Astrology, Astrophysics, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Mystery Schools, Spirituality

Cycles of Light (2) – Wheels of Fortune

by Steve Tanham

Part two of our investigation into the mysterious mental and emotional construct we call the ‘week’ and its celestial influences… This time we begin to examine the intimate relationship between events on Earth and the map of the ancient heavens.

December 3, 2019 + #Poetry, #Silenti, Belief and Faith, Christianity and modern mysticism, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Mystical poetry, Spirituality

End of the Line

by Steve Tanham

Take me out in darkness Where the only light is black Like a railway platform leading To the forms that end the track ⦿ Let endless trains of thinking Pass, ghostly, through the night And cease their whistling thunder In a silence turning bright ⦿ Let what I am-not die there On the empty, singing rails As sleepers are run over As tickets blown … Read More End of the Line

November 28, 2019 + #Silenti, Astrology, Astrophysics, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Mystery Schools, Spirituality

Cycles of Light (1)

by Steve Tanham

The mysterious mental and emotional construct we call the ‘week’ and its celestial influences… Click on the link below for the post…

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

October 1, 2019 + #Collie dogs, #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, humour, Lake District, Lake District, English Lake Distric

Bad morning at the pharmacy

by Steve Tanham

It’s been a bad morning at the Boots pharmacy in Kendal, which is why I’m posting some gentle pictures of the park where, earlier, I walked Tess before the catastrophe… The annual ritual of the flu jab is upon us. We soothe it with breakfast in Kendal afterwards; but we have a Collie dog, Tess, who needs at least two good walks plus frisbee … Read More Bad morning at the pharmacy