*

‘A wonder of a land,

the land of which I speak.

We behold but are not often beheld.’

*

Perfected art can accentuate things,

and make them more attractive to the eye and mind,

but it cannot enhance the innate spirituality which men of all ages have held.

*

There seems never to have been a time

when tribe, race or nation did not hold

some sort of belief in an unseen world

inhabited by unseen beings.

*

Everything which can be said to exist is natural,

yet the Holy-Man who experiences the spiritual condition of ecstacy

cannot adequately explain it to the man who has not known it.

*

If the Ancients possessed an arcane language

to encompass such psychical experiences,

it still remains a secret.

*

But the natural aspects of the countryside impress Man

and awaken in him the Subliminal Self

which in turn inculcates an…

“’Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought,’” said my son, reading out the daily inspirational quote he has delivered to his phone. “It says it is by Basho. Who’s he?”
“Seventeenth century Japanese poet.” It was a short answer, but enough for the question.
“Okay, Google,” he said with disgust. He was not using voice commands…that is one of the politer names he calls me.

It was a good quote though, when I had just been writing up another of our visits to an ancient sacred site. It summed up perfectly why these places matter so much to us and what it is we find there. We do not seek to return to an earlier time or belief system, but to move beyond the imposed and acquired dogma of our times. Somewhere, beyond both the beliefs of the…

*

And then, we came across this…

Although, ‘came across’ is maybe a little inaccurate.

We were definitely looking for this one, having a host of quoits to go at, for some reason or another, this one stood out, and we were not disappointed.

Also known as, ‘Chi an Kowr’, the Giant’s House, Trethevny Quoit, just happens to have a Dragon-line running through it, and boy can you tell, only it is not the, ‘Michael Line’…

So maybe that should be ‘girl can you tell’.

Though, we did not know this at the time…

*

        Hello. Is that Mr Elk?

We’ve all had them. The incessant sales calls, interspersed with the “Hello, I’m a hacker looking for easy access to your computer, erm, I mean, Steve from Microsoft…” type calls.

Now, apart from the half-assed hacker boys who I like to hold on the line for as long as possible (personal record now stands at 75 minutes before he realised I was taking the piss), I fully appreciate that these sales people, pollsters, market researchers are, like all of us, simply trying to make a living. I usually try to be polite, thank them for their time, and end the call as pleasantly as possible. This, often as not, fails to work, and I’ve been on the receiving end of a torrent of abuse on more than one occasion.

The past three months, I came to realise something. If I thought…

There is a particular science

of Evil

Which draws its ghostly blood

From the bones of hatred.

⦿

Its moment is likened to

a Ship

Strangled with strange growth

That fills the shapes of sailing

⦿

It has learned the helm of your

Reactions

And has a blunt denial that you

Float on water

⦿

Laden with untruth

Darkly smeared

We lie in others’ rotting water

And gaze at edges

⦿

For only there can freshness

Dawn

Where good becomes, beyond despair

Its own baptised survivor

⦿

©Stephen Tanham