A little un-named Tarn approaching the summit of Eagle Crag. We figured we'd call it Heart Tarn, for some reason. The winter sun was perfectly white and stayed close to the horizon all day, as we were only a few weeks from the Solstice. 

From the summit, looking back down to Castle Crag and the Borrowdale Valley. This is our wonderful back garden. 

Chocolate Bun - aka Eagle Crag - from the start of the walk. It always looks such a long way up when you start these walks - and most often actually is. 

Looking back down towards Keswick across Derwentwater. Not a boat in sight, for a change, and no wind, either, so the lake is perfectly smooth. 

Derwentwater Lake on a very quiet, still, winter morning. Looking across to Catbells and Maiden Moor from the road going to Borrowdale. 

B's Bum on Bun. This 'Touching of the Cairn' ritual causes a bell to sound in the sacred Halls of the FellWalker, indicating succesful completion of yet another mountain or fell. Apparently there's a prize. Or not. 

This, that I have called the Solar Work, is complete.

I've just finished and sent off my first paper for the MA in Western Esoteric Studies, on Alchemy and its significance in the Western Esoteric Tradition. It's been a mind-bender in more ways than many, but it's complete and sent now. I've been reminded how significant the Emerald Tablet of Hermes is to the tone and texture of the esoteric current, in that it comprehends the concerns of the tradition, from the occult unity of all manifestation, to the correspondence of all things, and that all creative acts, whether it be the entire universe or a single essay, are manifest by the identical process.

It's worth another meditation upon in any of its versions;

http://www.alchemywebsite.com/emerald.html

I'd also highly recommend Edinger's 'Anatomy of the Psyche' as a good example of the alchemical corpus applied to the development of the psyche, although it is not the entire story, as it is purely from a Jungian perspective.

Sri Guru dev Asher (Her Holiness)

"I'm not paying £70 for a cake," I said. Not even a Jane-bloody-Asher creation for R's 18th birthday. So, I went and bought the book, Cake-Making the Asher-Way to a Perfect Life, or something, and we ordered all the ingredients, and baking equipment (for we know not what we do) and I said we'd *make* the bloody thing. So we did, with much cursing, and "Oh No it's sticking to the *&^%'ing work surface!" type commentary. Anyhows, when following the instructions to not only grease the cake tin but to sprinkle a little bit of flour on it, I began to suspect our instructor knew what she spake of. And surely, as was prophesied by Guru Asher of the Culinary World, the cake came out whole and square, with Zen-like perfection. All hail Sri Guru dev Asher!

Winter Solstice 2005

Well, we got a Tree and decorated, and we got our "non-denominalised tree-topper," and we got our plastic snowman out from behind the wardrobe so it is now officially the holidays! We also got our Altar set up for the festival, with a neat pentagram made of twigs.

We've all got loads of revision and writing to be done between us; R. for his January exams, B. for her MA journal, and me for my first MA paper (on Alchemy). R. also got a place offered at York University, so he's really chuffed with that! We're getting to be quite academia-katz!

Alchemy ... Alchemy ... Alchemy ...

This is how I spent Boxing Day, with my legs going to sleep underneath my laptop as I worked for several hours on formatting my references, notes and bibliography for my Alchemy essay according to the MHRA Style Guide. Argghhhh! It took forever! Did you know that if you refer to a specific volume of a set of volumes, then you don't have to put the p. for pages, as it is 'accepted' that you don't need it? But, of course, if you use ( ) to refer to a specific page within the range referred to previously, then you *must* use p. as a prefix. And so on. My brain has the consistency of the Christmas Pudding I'm half-way through. At least the darned thing is done now (well, the essay, that is, I have two puddings still to get through)!

Now, just got to get my Bibliographic Diary done, and I can start my holiday ...

A Hobbit Recommends an Icelandic Band!

I was reading a newspaper recently, and Dominic Monaghan, who played Merry in "Lord of the Rings", and who is currently in "Lost" was recommending some music. I don't know why, but I felt impelled to go check out one of his recommendations, an Icelandic band called Sigur Ros, whose website is http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/. Woah! What gorgeous music! Just like I imagine some Icelandic vistas - all white endless chill, with sudden eruptions of hot geysers from the earth beneath. Their website not only has sound samples, but you can watch a whole two hour video of one of their concerts! I just received their album "Agaetis Byrjun" and have been playing it constantly - it's going to become my soundtrack for Yuletide 2005!

Bum on Bun ... A Winter Walk

Earlier this month we went up Eagle Crag, down the Borrowdale Valley. It's a walk we've long wished to do, as we affectionately call the crag 'Chocolate Bun' as it sometimes resembles one, particularly with snow on the top. B. had never actually 'summitted' the crag, which is the Wainwright-anorak-bobble-hat-Fell-Walker equivalent of a signed certificate. So off we went. It was a quiet day, weirdly so, and no-one was on the lake (Derwentwater) so the reflections were unusually clear. I took some photos. Later I took a photo of a heart-shaped tarn, close to the top of the 'bun' then I finally took one of B's bum as she touched the sacred cairn with due reverence and awe. Then we had sarnies, scarpered across to Sergeant Crag (or the other way around, I was delirious with fear that we wouldn't get down before the clouds and darkness descended!)

The view from Seargeant Crag was stupendous. B. of course could name every range, mountain, crag, gulley, tussock and cairn for as far as the eye could see. I was content with knowing that 'back there' was the most incredible back garden anyone could ever hope to have.

In fact, whilst wandering around on the summit, I suddenly noticed that I could see the breath coming out of my mouth, which meant the temperature had dropped whilst we were standing there, which was a very spooky-poltergeist-film-moment ...