SteveTanham – writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends

Category: Silent Eye Workshops

August 13, 2019 + Ancient Landscapes, Collie dogs, Consciousness, English Lake District, Lake District, landscapes, nature, Photography, Places and Prose, Silent Eye School, Silent Eye Workshops, Travel and people, Travel and Photography, Your inner wolf

Above the Lion and the Lamb (Part Two)

by Steve Tanham

We were on the Helm Crag plateau, about to climb up and beyond the Lion and the Lamb rocks to reach the start of the ridge. When you’ve just done a steep climb, it’s natural to feel that you’re ‘at the top’. In our case, this assumption was to prove expensive… It was time to say goodbye to the glorious views of Grasmere – … Read More Above the Lion and the Lamb (Part Two)

August 6, 2019 + Ancient Landscapes, Collie dogs, Consciousness, English Lake District, Lake District, landscapes, nature, Photography, Places and Prose, Silent Eye School, Silent Eye Workshops, Travel and people, Travel and Photography, Your inner wolf

Above the Lion and the Lamb (Part One)

by Steve Tanham

We were delighted to meet up with some friends from the UK who had emigrated to New Zealand many years ago. Bernie went to school with Kathryn and the couple had kindly collected and put us up in Auckland – their home, now – at the end of our short cruise from Sydney, last November. Jon is a keen walker, and has fond memories … Read More Above the Lion and the Lamb (Part One)

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

April 16, 2019 + #Silenti, Highlands of Scotland, Mindfulness, Mystery Play, Mystery Schools, Places and Prose, Scotland, Silent Eye School, Silent Eye Workshops, Spirituality, Stream of Consciousness, Travel, Travel and Photography, Writing

Pen of the oyster-catcher

by Steve Tanham

Portmahomack, a fishing village on the north shore of one of the fingers of land that jut out into the North Sea, thirty or so miles north of Inverness. There is something perfect about it. Somewhere close, our collie dog, Tess, is barking, playing with the waves. I follow the waterline, ensuring that only the thick soles of my boots get wet. It is … Read More Pen of the oyster-catcher

September 22, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Silent Eye School, Silent Eye Workshops, Spirituality

The Stone and the Pilgrim (3)

by Steve Tanham

“It’s all about tea-rooms, with you, isn’t it!” It was said some years ago, and there was anger in it – just a bit – but she was right. We both collapsed in a heap of laughter on each other’s shoulder a second later. There has to be humour in these weekends. They can be very intense – not by imposition, but by personal … Read More The Stone and the Pilgrim (3)

September 20, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Celtic Christianity, Silent Eye Workshops, Spirituality

The Stone and the Pilgrim (2)

by Steve Tanham

Rested, the group of pilgrims gathers on the Saturday morning beneath the vast presence of Bamburgh Castle. The castle was restored to its present glory by the 19th century munitions entrepreneur and inventor William Armstrong. Lord Armstrong bought it from the Crewe trustees in 1894 for the sum of £60,000 – a fortune then. He went on to spend a further one million pounds … Read More The Stone and the Pilgrim (2)

July 26, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Celtic Christianity, Consciousness, Fear, mystical travel, Silent Eye Workshops, Spirituality, Understanding Fear

Pilgrims of blood and stone

by Steve Tanham

The blood: the Life that flows through us, taken in as breath, fresh each second, flowing out to be renewed in the world of nature; natural, given. The stone: the fixed structures we rely on to ensure persistence of that life-force made flesh. The riddle, the contradiction – the mystery… beginning with that most profound and persistent structure: the body… There is no more … Read More Pilgrims of blood and stone

July 5, 2018 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Mystery Schools, Silent Eye Workshops, Spirituality

Castles of the Mind (2)

by Steve Tanham

Continued from Part One As the group walk through the arched entranceway to the interior of the castle, a new feeling emerges: one of ‘being in it, together’. The transition from outer to inner space of the newly considered ‘organism’ of the castle brings with it other changes of perspective. One of these is that a process – that of the weekend, itself, has … Read More Castles of the Mind (2)

June 28, 2018 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Mystery Schools, Silent Eye Workshops, Spirituality

Castles of the Mind (1)

by Steve Tanham

Like the best of ideas, it begins with a partly-seen ghost, the glimmer of an edge of something that will work…. Ideas are great, but, unless something is practical and consistent on the day, its value is limited to fuelling a ‘greater’ idea that will be. And then the right idea expands, filling out, not linearly, but with emotions that billow like a spinnaker on … Read More Castles of the Mind (1)

May 17, 2018 + #Silenti, Mystery Schools, Silent Eye School, Silent Eye Workshops, Spirituality, The Jewel in the Claw, Tudor Lifetimes

Jewels in the Claw (iv)

by Steve Tanham

Continued from Part Three. The line of packing cases is nearly complete. The man looks down at the three chairs in the East, one white, one purple and one red. The symbolism of the outer two was plain: the Tudor colours, central features of the royal Tudor Rose – the white of House York merged with the red of House Lancaster. Queen Elizabeth had … Read More Jewels in the Claw (iv)

May 10, 2018 + #Silenti, Mystery Schools, Silent Eye School, Silent Eye Workshops, Spirituality, The Jewel in the Claw, Tudor Lifetimes

Jewels in the Claw (iii)

by Steve Tanham

Continued from Part Two The man with the packing case pauses as he passes the place that was the East, the place from which the Queen began her direction of proceedings in this, her favourite palace of Nonsuch, in 1590’s South London. There is little left of the ritual-drama space now. Just the mental image of the chequered floor that was the Royal Court … Read More Jewels in the Claw (iii)