SteveTanham – writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends

Tag: Keswick

It was all entirely accidental, though no-one would believe me, later. A flock of birds flying low over Derwent Water drew my camera eye away from the colourful couple in front of me, their dogs (one could only assume they were their dogs) barking at them as though they were in charge of the outing and hadn’t approved the new storyboard. I love these … Read More The bemused dog with the people with the complementary umbrellas

February 14, 2023 + #Silenti, English Lake District, landscapes, Photographic techniques, Photography, Silent Eye School, Travel and Photography

The massive Skiddaw

by Steve Tanham

The massive presence of the mountain called Skiddaw towers over the Lakeland town of Keswick. The entire north-eastern horizon is dominated by its sheer size. I was intending to simply post the photo above, but the dramatic image invites a bit more background information for anyone who is not familiar with the northern part of the Lake District National Park. The opening shot was … Read More The massive Skiddaw

November 22, 2022 + #Humour, #Silenti, Dark Humour, English Lake District, Photographic techniques, Photography, Places and Prose

Goths on the Lake?

by Steve Tanham

A mid-November trip to Keswick and one of its two lakes – Derwent Water. The last few days of the visit of our artist friend from Oz, before she leaves for a final rendezvous in Manchester and then the long journey back home to Melbourne. A week with us then she had two days with a fellow artist and his engineer wife… who happen … Read More Goths on the Lake?

June 23, 2022 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, Lake District, myths and spirituality, Photographic techniques, Photography

Heroes in a Landscape (7) End of the Quest

by Steve Tanham

Continued from Part Six… The final day of a weekend like ‘The Journey of the Hero’ has to serve many purposes. It has to reinforce what has been shared; it has to send people on their homeward journeys with a smile… and a desire to do it, again. In short, it needs to embrace the companions with a warm hug! It also needs to … Read More Heroes in a Landscape (7) End of the Quest

June 2, 2022 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Photography

Heroes in a Landscape (4) Two faces of the Labyrinth

by Steve Tanham

Each of our landscape weekends follows the same pattern: a socially-oriented Friday afternoon with a hint of what’s to come; a full Saturday which contains the main body of the ‘work’ and ends with an early evening pub meal out in the countryside; finally, a relaxed but meaningful Sunday morning, ending with an informal snack lunch and farewells. Saturday the 7th May dawned over … Read More Heroes in a Landscape (4) Two faces of the Labyrinth

May 26, 2022 + #Silent Eye, #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Photography

Heroes in a Landscape (3) Learning from Nature

by Steve Tanham

Continued from Part Two… My phone wasn’t dead – it looked perfectly bright against the dark landscape, but it wasn’t responding to any finger gestures. And it contained my copy of the script, now locked away by the storm. I reached into my ‘Fool’s’ kit bag, a sturdy old canvas friend that I’ve used for years. Often in the run up to workshops, I … Read More Heroes in a Landscape (3) Learning from Nature

May 19, 2022 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Photography

Heroes in a Landscape (2) Lessons in the deluge

by Steve Tanham

Those familiar with the attempt to hold any kind of drama in the open air will know the difficulties to be faced… The vagaries of the British climate are well documented but the severity of the rain as we travelled through the blinding spray along the last few miles of the A66 towards the Castlerigg Stone Circle was a thing to be seen. We … Read More Heroes in a Landscape (2) Lessons in the deluge

May 12, 2022 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Photography

Heroes in a Landscape (1) Arrival

by Steve Tanham

It’s a method for uniting a group of people to a common purpose. It’s a technique for ‘washing’ the immediate environment and dedicating your effort to the highest motive and energies. It’s a wonderful way to align yourself to your immediate surrounding, teasing out that sense of really ‘knowing’ what’s around you – especially in a landscape as beautiful and powerful as the English … Read More Heroes in a Landscape (1) Arrival

May 10, 2022 + #Silent Eye, #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, humour

Spirituality in Transition

by Steve Tanham

There are times when you know that a particular world is changing. By ‘world’ I mean a specific part of life, not the whole world, though that could be said to be in a state of apparently chaotic change, too… The ‘world’ I mean is that of spiritual teaching; and the challenges to its present methods come in various forms: The major one is … Read More Spirituality in Transition

May 5, 2022 + #Silenti, Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Sacred Sites, Consciousness, English Lake District, humour, mystical travel, myths and spirituality, Photography, Places and Prose

Orderly and Aligned?

by Steve Tanham

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?

October 21, 2021 + #Silenti, Consciousness, English Lake District, Esoteric Meaning of Myth, Journey of the hero, Mystery Schools, Mystical ritual drama, myths and spirituality, Neolithic, Silent Eye Workshops

Emerging from the Mist…

by Steve Tanham

There’s a certain amount of ‘fighting back’ in this. The long period of Covid restrictions, followed by a summer in which we all got a taste of gentle freedom again; the sad death of the ‘third musketeer’, Sue Vincent, in March of this year; the inability to hold our regular workshops in the mystical landscapes of Britain… But then there were positive things: learning … Read More Emerging from the Mist…

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…