Category: mystical travel

Norse notes in an Irish song

(📩 650 words, Travel musings, photography, a five minute read) There’s something defining about the tall wooden figure facing off across the busy harbour-front road with its opponent: the icy-modern loading hoist, made in steel of various hues. We’re in Waterford, the vibrant coastal heart of south-eastern Ireland; home to the famous crystal glass factory. I can close my eyes and still hear the … Read More Norse notes in an Irish song

Trailing clouds of glory

It’s February; cold and wet, now… But in a few month’s time, It will be glorious May, and the landscape around the celebrated village of Grasmere, in the heart of the Lake District, will be transformed into one of the beautiful locations in Britain. Grasmere is to be our base for the Silent Eye’s Spring weekend of 2024, 10-12 May. Grasmere’s most famous resident … Read More Trailing clouds of glory

A Donegal Journey (1)

The town of Buncrana lies in the far north-west of Ireland, in County Donegal: that part of the country that is on a line with Northern Ireland, yet is in the Republic. It’s long been our intention to visit this beautiful part of the ‘Emerald Isle’. Green it certainly is, and currently living up to its rainy reputation… But hailing from Cumbria, we’re no … Read More A Donegal Journey (1)

Wet Summer Light

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

Musings on a Silent Night

I received a nice little present from WordPress the other day: a certificate to say I had been blogging with them for ten years! Ten years… Where did they go… Back then, Sue Vincent was our Silent Eye blogger – and she already had a large online following. Persuading her to join the fledgling Silent Eye was doubly beneficial: I got an excellent foundational … Read More Musings on a Silent Night

Wandering star

Nowhere to go nothing to do Only to be With the I That was you… Uig, Isle of Lewis 2Jun22

Orderly and Aligned?

There’s an old aphorism in the field of teaching mysticism: that if you endeavour to do something of significance; something that requires careful planning and even more careful resourcing, then you will be surprised how ‘testing’ the ‘final approach to the event will be. Moreover, the difficulties thrown at one may- humorously – be taken as a reflection of the event’s importance. The word’s … Read More Orderly and Aligned?

Winter wanderings with camera (2) Water: form and flow

It flows, seemingly singular… until something intrudes. Then, instead of resisting, it parts at the level of molecules, and recombines on the other side. The bank is the end of one world and the beginning of another; a place of soft contrasts, where organic forms reach the limit of their existence, and begin to dissolve. The water embraces them all. Its force and flow, … Read More Winter wanderings with camera (2) Water: form and flow

Winter wanderings with camera (1) mood and meaning

Winter… Most, but not all, of the colours are gone. What remains is a harder edge of the spectrum, where contrast is to be hunted rather than assumed. And texture and shade take on a different level of purpose; to stand in for the vividness of summer’s colour, to beckon our eye to look deeper. The sky is the photographer’s winter friend, donating half … Read More Winter wanderings with camera (1) mood and meaning

The City and the Stars (7) : the Standing Stones of Stenness

The Standing Stones of Stenness are reduced in importance compared with their former status. But 5,000 years ago, they were the stone circle for the Ness of Brodgar spiritual city. Only later, in the period culminating in the deliberate act of self-destruction of the Ness of Brodgar structures, were these stones eclipsed as the ‘guide to the heavens’… (1300 words, a twelve-minute read) The … Read More The City and the Stars (7) : the Standing Stones of Stenness

The City and the Stars (6) : the twice-chosen

To build something so sophisticated, so designed, as the Maeshowe Chambered ‘tomb’, would have required enormous dedication from the people of Orkney. Seen alongside the emerging splendour of the Ness of Brodgar ‘spiritual city’, you get a flavour of the total commitment of these ancient people to their task… (1500 words, a ten-minute read) (Above: The long passageway that leads into and out of … Read More The City and the Stars (6) : the twice-chosen

The City and the Stars (5) : ‘Structure 10’ Pyramid

The more the Orkney archeologists uncover, the more it is certain that the settlement on the Ness of Brodgar was the hub of a dynamically influential and spiritual society, 5000 years ago… For example, what’s this pyramid…. yes, that’s right, pyramid? (1700 words, a fifteen-minute read) (Above: Illustration of Structure 10 by Kenny Arne Lang Antonsen and Jimmy John Antonsen) That can’t be right, … Read More The City and the Stars (5) : ‘Structure 10’ Pyramid