#Silenti – Page 31 – Sun in Gemini

‘Surreal’ is an often used word and does its best to convey a moment, usually quite fleeting, in which there is both a heightened sense of ‘being there’ and another feeling of strangeness. The two come together and we feel vaguely uncomfortable that something for which we have no real words envelopes us. This state of consciousness is described in more detail in the … Read More Bright in the dark: endeavour and the lighthouse (2)

July 13, 2017 + #Silenti, mystical travel, Silent Eye School

Bright in the dark: endeavour and the lighthouse (1)

by Steve Tanham

The tiny airport was a refreshing change to the madness of modern flying, with its scarring signature of ‘security’. You could imagine a kindly local lady rushing out and saying, “Hamish the Russian terrorist is on holiday today, so I’m just going to wave you through, dearies…” There was, though, little distance to wave us through. Tiree is one of a pair of Scottish … Read More Bright in the dark: endeavour and the lighthouse (1)

July 8, 2017 + #Silenti, Consciousness, Megalithic, Silent Eye School, Silent Eye Workshops

An Eye full of Reflections (7 of 7)

by Steve Tanham

Amidst the seemingly pristine field of stones, the old oak tree usually went unnoticed… Like this group of happy but somewhat weary pilgrims, newly entered via the gate at the top of the narrow, fern-lined path, most visitors stood in amazed silence at the large oval of twin-chambered stonework in front of them, conscious of the oak within the oval of stones but seeing … Read More An Eye full of Reflections (7 of 7)

July 4, 2017 + #Silenti, mystical travel, Silent Eye School, Summer Solstice

An Eye full of Reflections (5)

by Steve Tanham

Our visit to the actual village of Portmeirion ended quietly, but with an interesting mosaic of happenings. We rejoined our colleagues, silent in our own conclusions – for everyone must find their own in a place like this, and there can be no right or wrong, for the author, McGoohan, is long departed. We took the beautiful coastal walk which would bring us to … Read More An Eye full of Reflections (5)

June 29, 2017 + #Silenti, mystical travel, Silent Eye School, Summer Solstice

An Eye full of Reflections (4)

by Steve Tanham

As the land-train pulls out of the main square in Portmeirion, we head up into the forest. There are three distinct internal regions within the Portmeirion site. The first is the village, itself; the second is the coastal walk; and the third is the forest walk. The little train follows the forest road, but stops to give a view of the coast in several … Read More An Eye full of Reflections (4)

June 25, 2017 + #Silenti, mystical travel, Silent Eye School, Summer Solstice

An Eye full of Reflections (3)

by Steve Tanham

It takes only a few minutes to descend into the village from the entrance archway, beneath which is the McGoohan bronze, but in that time the temperature soars, and the rare and pure blue of the June sky, only a week away from the fullness of the summer solstice, becomes flecked with gold whenever I raise my head to stare at its beauty. But … Read More An Eye full of Reflections (3)

June 22, 2017 + #Silenti, mystical travel, Silent Eye School, Summer Solstice

An Eye full of Reflections (2)

by Steve Tanham

There is so much going on that you can miss him on the downward leg of the guided introduction to Portmeirion. In a world of the strangely beautiful, one in which the normal laws of constructing a ‘village’ have been changed, there is simply too much to see to notice the quiet, deeply bronze head of Patrick McGoohan. We stop to consider this dramatic … Read More An Eye full of Reflections (2)

June 20, 2017 + #Silenti, mystical travel, Silent Eye School, Summer Solstice

An Eye full of Reflections (1)

by Steve Tanham

The idea is a simple one: to pick a location and invite a group of friends – some of them Companions of the Silent Eye School, some simply friends, some new to the whole thing – to experience it in a different way… It does require a degree of preparation. For these ‘shared discovery’ events to work they have to flow, smoothly, from one … Read More An Eye full of Reflections (1)

June 8, 2017 + #Silenti, Consciousness, Silent Eye School

The ‘Village’ and its occupants

by Steve Tanham

It is hauntingly beautiful. It sits in its own part of a lovely estuary, just east of Porthmadog, in the south of Snowdonia, Wales. Its name is Portmeirion and it was the life-work of an architect named Clough Williams-Ellis, who held a passionate belief that a ‘tightly-grouped coastal village’ could be developed in that majestic mountain setting, and that its development would illustrate how … Read More The ‘Village’ and its occupants

May 31, 2017 + #Silenti, Mystical poetry, Silent Eye School

My Secret Self

by Steve Tanham

How long it took to make him My secret self and I To stabilise and raise him That he might touch his sky Then watching as he made the world In image of his days gone by ➰ The jewelled world was wonderful For secret self and me So far removed from vulnerable Was where we went to be But jewel is as dual … Read More My Secret Self

May 10, 2017 + #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Silent Eye School

The Touch of Otherness

by Steve Tanham

In every mystical gathering, of whatever nature, there comes that moment when a correctly constructed ‘vessel’ is taken over – however fleetingly – by a sense of ‘otherness’. Experience teaches us that this is actually paradoxical. What is ‘taking over’ is the very state that is the goal of the activity, be that a deep talk, a shared, group exploration of a key … Read More The Touch of Otherness

May 6, 2017 + #Silenti, Ancient Sacred Sites, Silent Eye School

Unexpected Shaman (1)

by Steve Tanham

Jerome (not his real name, but those are his hands) had been teaching us some elementary Spanish. We had been advised that the lesson was half an hour later than billed, but it had started on time. By the time we got there, the other two students were well ensconced in the picture cards that matched local Mexican animals with their Spanish names. I … Read More Unexpected Shaman (1)