There is a car parked outside the village shop, identical to my late, lamented Silver Bullet. Granted, the Green Goddess is in a considerably better state than her predecessor, but there are still twinges of nostalgia. The notice in the window of the car describes its legal condition and price and adds a single, simple phrase, guaranteed to make you think that this is a trustworthy vehicle.
‘One lady owner.’
The immediate assumption is that here is a car that has been well maintained and gently driven. It is a phrase we are conditioned to accept as a reassurance of reliability. We do not think twice about it… the car, should you be looking for something of that nature, is definitely worth a look.
Except… that’s the thing. We don’t think about it… we simply accept the implication.
Now, not only have I driven with a good many female drivers…
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Greetings, high priestess Camma
How humbled I was to receive your message, my love of so many years ago! We of the Roman army may think ourselves focussed and disciplined, but your simple message cuts me as would the blades of your fabled twin daggers.
You did not mean to do, this, I know; and you did it with such care that I could, indeed, in the dropping of the veil that time has thrown over our love, feel as we did, those years ago.
Are we so changed, my love of the groves and the moonlit lakes? Do the tides of Môna no longer speak of the unseen mists where mind and heart meet with the wonders of the wild things?
Suetonius Paulinus arrives soon. He will need to be advised of the ways of crossing the deadly straits of Môna Insula, where a man – or even a horse – may be swept to their deaths in the blink of an unprepared eye. Tell, me beloved High Priestess, how I may divert his keen eye so that, as we invade your island sanctuary, armed to exterminate, you may slip away, your tribe intact, via some other seaward route?
I do not believe that you want to die. There are many gods known to the Romans, but none of them would demand that we lay down our lives in this way. Is this simply the Roman gift of practicality, or does the Druid faith go so much deeper into the cycle of life that we have simply never known of the worlds you already inhabit?
You speak of ‘The Living Other’ when you instruct me in your ways of seeing what lies before you; a state that is not simply the Camma I know and loved, but a merging with something much greater. My time among you, in my youth, was obviously not sufficient for me to grasp this. I would know how this idea can be so powerful that you stand, unafraid, in the face of the might of Rome.
Answer this, if nothing else, my love of old. I know I intrude yet again, and risk the life of this runner, who continues to serve our dwindling exchanges. If I do nothing, the beaches, groves and sacred pools of your – our – ancient home will run red with your blood. There must be another way?
Amathus, Centurion.
Môna Insula was the Roman word for the Isle of Anglesey, the location for the Silent Eye’s December 2016 pre-Solstice weekend and the last stronghold of the Druids in A.D. 60.
For more information about the “Of Ash and Flame”, weekend, 2nd-4th December, 2016, Click here to download the PDF of the event. This is a ‘walk and talk’ weekend and everyone is welcome. The workshop fees are £50.00 per person. Accommodation and Food are not included.
©Stephen Tanham, 2016. The Silent Eye School of Consciousness.
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Perverse the eye
That sees the wheel
And learns to fear
That Life can steal
—
By virtue of
The four above
We come to life
And from it move
—
Arising bright
From distant night
We feed and grow
And seek to know
—
Maturing strong
Enduring long
We make the world
Reflect our song
—
But voice must fade
Our notes degrade
And later years
Be passed in shade
—
From crown to toe
From ebb to flow
We feel the Life
Begin to go
—
Then inner eye
Beholds the lie
Which tutors teach
Of life on high
—
So, choose to live
Not die below
By being real
Within the flow
—
Perverse the eye
That sees the wheel
And learns to fear
That Life can steal
(c) Stephen Tanham, 2016
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Stuart’s ability to delve and reveal exemplified!
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Part Twelve of The Unseen Sea
Maria is calmer, now, after their confrontation. The rawness of such encounters is draining, her father knows. Like all deeply personal interactions, they uncover forces deep within the psyche, the self. The advantage is that they still that psyche – the personality – for long enough to allow some real healing to occur. Real healing, in his world, lies not in something originating within the mind–something we can engineer as though finding our way through a fog–but by the connection of our everyday existence with something vast that we have forgotten…
And that lies, hidden, below the personality; a personality that, in us all, is the strongest force we will ever encounter…
“You… we… can’t control every aspect of her young life.” he says, gently, hugging his daughter, who, initially, resists, then slides into the warmth of his embrace, remembering, in that warmth, her…
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Greetings, Amathus
How my heart leapt when I read the scroll your brave courier risked his life to bring. My own life has moved far from those innocent days when we gave that thin and trembling boy food and shelter. For several years we raised you as one of our own. I helped, of course, and watched and studied that intense boy with the blue-green eyes.
It has always been the custom among the Môecini to let the fates weave their pattern, especially within the minds and hearts of those in the care of the Druid tribes. So, when they saw us falling in love, they let us be; knowing that the life-thread would both add to the depth of my training as Priestess, and broaden the dimensions of your young life.
I know, without asking, that we hold in our hearts the memory of that final parting, in the grove by the sacred pool, when we pledged, on the light of the full moon, our undying love for each other…
How life broadens the view of such moments. Can the child determine what is right for the mature warrior or priestess? Of course not; and so I had cast you from my mind, dear Amethus, thus freeing you to continue your adventures… and me to turn, forcefully, to the study of the magic of the women and men who walk the paths of the spirit, in the love of the land.
We have both changed so much, my love…
I put aside my cloak of power; my wrought silver that sings to the Moon; my twin daggers that determine life and death when cast into the shallows of the waters by the grove when she is full.
I put them aside, for but a moment, so that I may speak to you as you remember me, and only for that moment; so that we may share one more time, and for the last time, the joy and the thrill of our short journey, together.
I do this because I, too, remember how perfect that love was. But like the traces of the far-line of the returning sea on the beaches of Môna, it was swept away by currents bigger and more righteous than our little hearts.
Do not strain your Centurion’s heart for me, my once-love. Do not think in terms of blood and sacrifice. We have long known that our days were ending. We do not see the divisions of life and death; only the turning of life-seasons, as the plant rises above the soil, ripens, is taken for its goodness, falls and is returned to the soil, again, to leave the root to work its magic in the dark places and re-kindle that silver blood that is life in the world.
Your leader, Suetonius Paulinus is well known to us. His coming, and its meaning, are written in the living silences of the sacred groves. We do not fear what must come to pass.
Be peaceful. Learn to read what must be, and study its unfolding for what others miss. We taught you this, once. Honour us, now, by holding it in front of your heart with the sword you must wield. My little gift accompanies this wish. May your courier ride on the hidden wings of the night.
Do your duty, brave warrior. Do not question that my flesh and blood are the fateful price of that meeting to come… Be true to the weave.
Camma, High Priestess, Môecini Druid People.
Other parts of this story:
Môna Insula was the Roman word for the Isle of Anglesey, the location for the Silent Eye’s December 2016 pre-Solstice weekend and the last stronghold of the Druids in A.D. 60.
For more information about the “Of Ash and Flame”, weekend, 2nd-4th December, 2016, Click here to download the PDF of the event. This is a ‘walk and talk’ weekend and everyone is welcome. The workshop fees are £50.00 per person. Accommodation and Food are not included.
©Stephen Tanham, 2016. The Silent Eye School of Consciousness.
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*
Never look back!
It is good advice, unfortunately, in story-telling this advice, when given, is never adhered to.
Gilgamesh…Orpheus…Lot…Dr Faustus…
They are all concerned with Soul.
The Soul that turns to look back is caught in time.
It is an intention thing, like trying to serve two masters, do not walk one way and look the other.
There are any number of mythological monsters depicted in this way to prove it.
Tiamet…Nergal…The Dread Beast of Mercia.
The hero ‘slays’ them all, by moving forward.
*
*
But going back to take another look, that is different.
That is part of going forward.
And it is also inevitable.
This time we inadvertently found ourselves following our own advice from one of our books.
*
*
We started at Hordron’s, that hoary old receptacle of time, went on to Strines, the ‘Peacock Pub’, and finished up at the Old Horns Inn.
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Part Eleven of The Unseen Sea
“You didn’t listen–you never listen!”
Maria is angry. Grandad Lucca has seen it many times. Recent events have, of course, made things worse. Maria has opened the gates and it floods at her father, the only other person in the house.
“It’s not much to ask – just don’t fill her little head with all this mystical stuff!”
Grandad Lucca nods, letting the anger flow from his beloved daughter without resistance on his part. He waits, one hand cupped in the other, while the rage is vented, knowing how it ends. He does not deflect the emotion. He listens into its flow, knowing that, although the state of presence in which the truth lives is difficult to maintain in the face of such powerful emotions, it will help Maria as they bring their combined consciousness to bear on what would, otherwise, be damaging. It’s…
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Greetings, high priestess Camma
Where my heart would speak I must make my rank as Roman soldier talk in bitter tones. I long to place my arms around you, once again, and protect you from what is coming, but we have little time.
Suetonius Paulinus, a veteran of campaigns in North Africa, and much honoured in Rome, makes his way north, in haste, and means to cross the treacherous straits to Môna Insula with infantry and cavalry. His reputation is a bloody one and I fear for your people.
How little he knows of them! Would that I could open to him the gifts of my time with your tribe of Druids and show him the gentle and cultured face of those whose defiance and bravery have caused such fear in the hearts of the sons of Rome.
Alas, I may not tell my own story. Suetonius Paulinus can never know of the time a new priestess befriended a young traveller, a man between worlds and searching for meaning. He can never know how you and your people made him one of your own, before his returning wanderlust set his immature mind and heart on other paths…
How cruel that those other paths and lands would see him earn a reputation as a learned scholar, capable of many tongues, a man who was also gifted in close combat – born of too many encounters with thieves and rogues on the long journeys of discovery.
How cruel that the fates now cast him absorbed into Rome’s vast army and commanding a hundred soldiers, soon to unite with Suetonius Paulinus’ army which comes to slaughter you and your brethren…
Let me help you, beloved of my youth! Let me lead you from Môna Insula to a place of safety. Be certain, my love, that he means to put you all to the sword and the flames; and also to destroy your sacred groves and defile your ancient pools.
Nothing will be spared.
He plans to be at the straits of Môna Insula by the next full moon. Let this secret scroll, carried by a runner braver than I, be your way back from the jaws of death. Send me your answer at once. The runner will wait.
Amathus, Centurion.
Môna Insula was the Roman word for the Isle of Anglesey, the location for the Silent Eye’s December 2016 pre-Solstice weekend and the last stronghold of the Druids in A.D. 60.
For more information about the “Of Ash and Flame”, weekend, 2nd-4th December, 2016, Click here to download the PDF of the event. This is a ‘walk and talk’ weekend and everyone is welcome. The workshop fees are £50.00 per person. Accommodation and Food are not included.
©Stephen Tanham, 2016. The Silent Eye School of Consciousness.
Sun in Gemini 
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