SteveTanham – writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends

Category: Fear

October 7, 2021 + #Silenti, Consciousness, Esoteric Meaning of Myth, esoteric psychology, Fear, Fiction, imprisonment

Midnight Mask

I’m not a fan of horror films. Many are simply exploitative, and the genre in general has normalised extreme violence. But once in a while I come across something that, to me, is exceptional, and only in the genre of ‘horror’ out of misunderstanding; or even better, because the ‘film’ has two layers of meaning… and if you stick with it, you get to … Read More Midnight Mask

April 13, 2021 + #Silenti, Consciousness, Fear, Higher Mind, Unconscious

The Wrong Queue

by Steve Tanham

We were sitting on the M6 motorway. The car was stationary, as it had been for the previous thirty minutes. Ahead of us was the next junction, within sight, but closed off. Beyond that there was a wall of standing traffic. The motorway was closed but we – the stranded – were still on it. The fourth ambulance came screaming up the thankfully empty … Read More The Wrong Queue

September 26, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Bakewell, Consciousness, Fear, Life and Death, Love, Spirituality, Travel and Photography, Understanding Fear

Fear and Love in the High Peak (2) – “I want a posset!”

by Steve Tanham

The first visit of the Silent Eye ‘Rites of Passage: Seeing Beyond Fear’ weekend was to the Derbyshire village of Eyam (pronounced Eem) – The Plague Village. Our family has a personal connection with Eyam and the terrible events of 1665-6, when bubonic plague, newly arrived in Derbyshire from London, took the lives of 260 of its occupants: over seven-tenths of its population. No-one … Read More Fear and Love in the High Peak (2) – “I want a posset!”

September 5, 2019 + #Silenti, #writingprompt, Consciousness, Fear, humour, Magic, myths and spirituality, Photography, Short stories, Silent Eye School, Speculative fiction, Spirituality

The Stump and the Ring

by Steve Tanham

Image from Pixabay This is in response to the September Speculative Fiction Prompt from Carol Forester of Writing and Works, who has taken over from Diana Wallace Peach of Myths of the Mirror Diana has caregiving commitments that have prevented her continuing with a prompt she clearly loved. I would like to add my thanks to Diana for her personal responses to the writers … Read More The Stump and the Ring

August 22, 2019 + #Silenti, Consciousness, enneagram, esoteric psychology, Fear, Higher Mind, Life and Death, Love, meditation, Metanoia, Mindfulness, Mystery Schools, Photography, Politics, Powers of the Mind, Silent Eye School, Speaking truth to power, Spirituality, Travel and Photography

Vexed by the Tribe (part two) – the fabrication of complexity

by Steve Tanham

We’re visiting relatives. It’s friendly. We have a light meal and some cake to follow. But then someone mentions Brexit and a cold frost descends on the room… My wife and I bite our tongues, knowing our hosts are firm believers that Britain’s post-colonial destiny lies in a renewed ‘Little England’ reborn from some poster of decades ago. Until my wife’s uncle says, “Besides, … Read More Vexed by the Tribe (part two) – the fabrication of complexity

August 15, 2019 + #Silenti, Consciousness, enneagram, esoteric psychology, Fear, Higher Mind, Life and Death, Love, meditation, Metanoia, Mindfulness, Mystery Schools, Photography, Politics, Powers of the Mind, Silent Eye School, Speaking truth to power, Spirituality, Travel and Photography

Vexed by the Tribe (part one)

by Steve Tanham

I am vexed… It’s a word you don’t hear much, now. Old English, I believe. It describes an agitated state of mind – and possibly body – when something nagging can’t be solved. What I’m vexed about is the entrenchment of nationalistic opinion across the world, in the face of much more important issues – like the world’s climate problems and the undermining of … Read More Vexed by the Tribe (part one)

August 8, 2019 + #Silenti, Biology and mysticism, Child of Light, Consciousness, enneagram, esoteric psychology, Fear, Higher Mind, Life and Death, Life-sciences, Love, meditation, Metanoia, Mindfulness, Mystery Schools, Photography, Poetry, Powers of the Mind, Sexual Force, Silent Eye School, soul in body, Speaking truth to power, Spirituality, Travel and Photography

Primal screen

by Steve Tanham

Somewhere in the frontal cortex of our brains there’s a very special junction – a place where we learned to do something truly different with our minds… Let’s call it the Primal Screen… Our spines can be considered the highway of our historical evolution: the inherited paths of form and energy that developed from single cells in oceans, through fish, lizards and apes. At … Read More Primal screen

August 1, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Castles, Consciousness, Fear, Higher Mind, Spirituality

Only a Horse and a Sword

by Steve Tanham

We become habitual in our thinking. It’s a good idea (and fun) to play little games with our mind to help us look at things differently. One of these is to look at things in a ‘zero-sum’ way: that is, to consider life as a vast journey of ‘bought and sold’: acquisition, usage and disposal… Saladin, (Salah ad-Din) the legendary first Sultan of the … Read More Only a Horse and a Sword

July 30, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Biology and mysticism, Child of Light, Consciousness, enneagram, esoteric psychology, Fear, Higher Mind, meditation, Mystery Schools, nature, Photography, Silent Eye School, Silent Eye Workshops, Soul, soul in body, Spirit, spiritual turning around, Spirituality

Have you seen it, yet?

by Steve Tanham

Do you see it all, sometimes? Turn, doing something strange with your mind Look back with different eyes And see the path that led to you? A moment of vast lucidity… But there’s one thing you don’t see The thing that can’t be seen Have you seen it, yet? ©Stephen Tanham Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness, a not-for-profit … Read More Have you seen it, yet?

July 25, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Biology and mysticism, Child of Light, Consciousness, Egregore, enneagram, esoteric psychology, Fear, Higher Mind, Incarnation, Initiation, Life-sciences, meditation, Mystery Schools, nature, Photography, Silent Eye School, Silent Eye Workshops, Soul, soul in body, Spirit, spiritual turning around, Spirituality

The creature on the beach beyond thought

by Steve Tanham

It lay there, head in the sky, gazing at the radiance. Its tail was still in the ocean of thought, the gentle waves urging it back where it belonged… The gaps in the waves had always been there; they were the rhythm of life. But it had never thought to use them as a way through. To where? To beauty, certainly. The sights and … Read More The creature on the beach beyond thought

July 18, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Egypt, Astrophysics, Belief and Faith, Biology and mysticism, Child of Light, Christianity and modern mysticism, Consciousness, Egyptian Gods, enneagram, esoteric psychology, Fear, Incarnation, Life and Death, Love, Mindfulness, myths and spirituality, Photography, Solar Year, spiritual turning around, Spirituality, The Beloved, Understanding Fear

Death of a salesman

by Steve Tanham

In a few short weeks it will be September. We (the Silent Eye) have been invited to speak at the Unitarian Society of Psychical Studies annual conference at the Nightingale Centre in Derbyshire. We use this lovely place for our main annual event in April each year. We had our official ‘birth’ there in 2013. It is a very special place to us, and … Read More Death of a salesman

May 16, 2019 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Fear, Journey of the hero, Life and Death, Love, Lust, Mindfulness, Mystery Play, Mystery Schools, Mystical ritual drama, Myth, myths and spirituality, Sex, Sexual Force, Soul, soul in body, Spiritual use of sex force, Spirituality, Stream of Consciousness, Sumerian myths

Gilgamesh descending (9) – final part

by Steve Tanham

And now you will want an ending… Like day gives way to night, though there is no single point where we could all agree that it was either… Like the moment of sleep or awakening, though one drifts into the other and each knows little of its twin… Like the point in the play where the character releases the player from his undertaking and … Read More Gilgamesh descending (9) – final part