SteveTanham – writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends

Category: Solar Year

May 26, 2020 + #ShortWrytz, nature, Photography, Places and Prose, Seasons of the year, Silent Eye School, Solar Year, Spirituality

#ShortWrytz : Fractal Loving

by Steve Tanham

I confess, I’m in love with the sky… A strange opening to a blog post, I know, but, when I came to think about my photographic relationship with the sky, it was simply one of love. “Look up!” The admonition was from Sue Vincent, one of my fellow Directors of the Silent Eye, when talking about churches and what lies above the normal eye-level. … Read More #ShortWrytz : Fractal Loving

May 5, 2020 + #ShortWrytz, nature, Photographic techniques, Photography, Places and Prose, Seasons of the year, Silent Eye School, Solar Year, Spirituality

#ShortWrytz : The Time-Capsule

by Steve Tanham

I’ve written about it, before. The Saltpetre is a gunpowder store that was used to house the produce of the local gunpowder factory by the river Kent. The ‘black powder’ as it used to be called, was brought up through the village, slowly, by horse and cart – the cart having dressed wheels to help prevent sparks. There were many deaths in the village … Read More #ShortWrytz : The Time-Capsule

March 17, 2020 + #ShortWrytz, nature, Photographic techniques, Photography, Places and Prose, Seasons of the year, Silent Eye School, Solar Year, Spirituality, Travel and Photography, Writing

#ShortWrytz : Dreams of Trees

by Steve Tanham

The river is just below. Close and beautiful, as always, but he’s photographed it a hundred times and the winter’s challenge is to find a new place; a place hidden in the old, hidden in the usual. And then, as he turns to seek elsewhere, it’s there. Devoid of leaves, its tall structure is all there is, but its presence is magnificent and dark … Read More #ShortWrytz : Dreams of Trees

February 20, 2020 + Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, Photography, Solar Year, Spirituality

The Flickering Present…

by Steve Tanham

I’ve taken a lot of photographs during the past ten years, but none of them like the one above. Shot at Castlerigg Stone Circle, near Keswick, in December 2018, it depicts what I’ve called the ‘green flame’. The photo was part of a set taken during the ‘Full Circle’ Silent Eye weekend. Sue and Stuart had created the weekend and were doing the detailed … Read More The Flickering Present…

October 9, 2019 + humour, nature, Seasons, Four Seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter,, Solar Year

Landing on a lid near you!

by Steve Tanham

From somewhere overhead In the tree beneath which I was Eating Kendal Creamy cheese And coffee Sharing the cheese with the collie You took flight, bounced with percussion And – unlikey, I know – remained atop See! Good job I’d finished Or our worlds would not Have intersected… They’ll never believe you Either Back at the base… ©Stephen Tanham

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

December 2, 2018 + #Silenti, Consciousness, Photography, Solar Year, Spirituality

The love of Winter trees

by Steve Tanham

Returning home after a long trip, I am always taken by the sheer ‘energy’ in a British landscape. It may be adversarial with cold and rain, but it shakes the soul into a different kind of wakefulness. The leaf-stripped trees are the most potent symbol of this for me. There, framed in total contrast, are living symbols of growth, of organic process, of four … Read More The love of Winter trees

July 19, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Consciousness, Neolithic, Solar Year, Spirituality

An Orcadian Diary (4): The Light of the North

by Steve Tanham

We could be in any of the great cathedral cities of Britain. If someone took off the blindfold and asked, we might say Salisbury, York, Lichfield or the wonders of Durham Cathedral. The latter is significant, because they who built Durham came here to add their skills… We are in the capital of Orkney – Kirkwall (reference ‘F’ in the Northlink Ferry’s map, … Read More An Orcadian Diary (4): The Light of the North

May 3, 2018 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Solar Year, Spirituality

Rings of Sky and Earth

by Steve Tanham

To find that time and circumstance Had placed us in an isle of fertile space Where others led us to a place A ring wherein the sky and earth would quarter meet There is no sense of wonder deeper Than that of being ‘brought’ and left To gaze as heavens’ hands caress the land and sea And consciousness completes the longing three Strange markers … Read More Rings of Sky and Earth