Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

The Alchemists: Isaac Newton… Stuart France

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Portrait of Isaac Newton aged forty-six years by Godfrey Kneller.

‘Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the Sumerians…

The last great mind which looked out on the visible world with the same eyes

as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance ten thousand years ago.’

‘Newton the Man’, J.M. Keynes.

Isaac Newton was born on Christmas day, 1642. At first his genius seemed more mechanical than intellectual. He constructed water works, windmills, kites and sun dials, but nurtured by the King’s School at Grantham his intellectual prowess and prodigious powers of concentration gradually became apparent. A maternal uncle intervened and had him prepared for Cambridge, to which seat of learning, young Isaac went up in 1661.

Continue reading at France&Vincent

Posted in alchemy, biography, Poetry | Tagged esoteric psychology, mystery, psychology, Silent Eye Teachings, spirituality | Leave a comment

The Spinner

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Sue Vincent

She sits and spins,
A tapestry of wonders taking shape and life
Between her vision and her words.
Her mind a world away
From errant children setting out
To carry the spark of life
To a new dawning.

And yet, within that spark
Her fire blooms.
A wildflower sown
And rooted in their souls.

Planted with love,
Watered with tears,
Nurtured with laughter
And cherished wisdom.

Looking back as the tide takes them,
Her children see only the distant beacon
Of a mother’s love.

Posted in Poetry | Tagged being, family, Life, love, magic, motherhood, spirituality | 40 Comments

Constant #midnighthaiku

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Ancient shadows cast

Man’s understanding questing

Truth remains constant

Posted in Photography, Poetry | Tagged haiku, petroglyphs, truth | 11 Comments

Jaipur Part 2: Do not touch arms #travel #India #humor ~ Barb Taub

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Reblogged from Barb Taub:

NOTE: this is STILL the same day described in Part 1 here. (image credit: all photos unless otherwise noted are ©Janine Smith & Jayalakshmy Ayyer)

We’d seen Jaigarh Fort looming above us as we explored Amber Fort that morning.

Now we looked down to see Amber Fort spread out below.

Built in the eighteenth century by Jai Singh II to protect Amber Fort, Jaigarh Fort is an engineering feat whose walls enclose over three kilometers, including Amber Fort with Maota Lake gleaming like a jewel so far below, and the artificial Man Sagar Lake, water supply for Jaigarh fort.

Continue reading at Barb Taub

Posted in reblog | Tagged birds, Humor, India, international travel, Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur, memoir, travel, world's biggest cannon | Leave a comment

Circles Beyond Time ~ The Thrice-Risen Sun

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Sue Vincent

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We were out long before dawn, driving the few miles to our rendezvous at Fox House, where we would meet our companions. With Sheffield behind us, we saw the sun rise above the distant horizon and watched its soft gold suffuse the sky of the city below as the car climbed the road to the moor. We were taking our little company to a high place to watch the dawn… yet we had already seen the sun rise in splendour.

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Gathering our companions and blessing the fact that they had all risen so early to share the birth of a new day with us, we headed out to Higger Tor, the highest point in the area and an intriguing place in its own right. The views from there are spectacular…and have the added advantage of being only a few minutes walk from the narrow road that winds its way across the moor.

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Our timing was perfect. We reached the top with just a few moments to catch our breath before we gathered to greet the sun, with a chant that echoed back across millennia to ancient Egypt. The sun’s timing was prefect too, but then, it always it… it is we who rise too late. Climbing above the hills beneath which the city sleeps, the solar disc crested the horizon as the final chants rang out and bathed the world in gold.

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The photographer at the other end of the plateau must have wondered what on earth was going on…or maybe he, who rises early to catch the first rays of the golden hour, understood. We did get the impression that our presence was less than welcome…and we can understand that too; these early morning moments are special and seem, somehow, very personal. It is as if, standing before the sun, the world falls away and you come face to face with great Nature… and the Source of that great outpouring of life that stands behind her. True awe is not something we feel in our workaday lives as a rule, yet the miracle of a perfect sunrise reminds you of more than beauty…

Continue reading at France & Vincent

Posted in adventure, albion, Ancestors, Ancient sites | Tagged dawn, HiggerTor, Photography, symbolism | 4 Comments

Two journeys, one destination (7) – Rosemarkie, The Black Isle ~ Steve Tanham

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Our final visit of the Saturday was to Rosemarkie, a beautiful village on the Black Isle, whose seafront looks south across the vastness of the Moray Firth.

Rosemarkie was also home to a Pictish Monastery. This is now celebrated by the presence of an excellent local museum – close to the site of the original church. Groam House Museum highlights and celebrates the Pictish connection.

Continue reading at The Silent Eye

Posted in The Silent Eye | Tagged Ancient Sacred Sites, Groam House Museum, landscape, Mystical Travel, Photography, Pictish art, Picts, Rosemarkie, Scottish Highlands, Travel and Photography | Leave a comment

Finding the path…

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Sue Vincent

“We should write a book…”

Over the wineglasses, it seemed like a good idea. Not that anyone would believe the half of what we would have to recount. Far from exaggerating our adventures and jumping on the bandwagon of sensationalism, we would probably have to tone them down a little. Not everyone believes in magic.

There was no lightning strike called down by some evil villain, no waving of wands or chanting of barbarous names… but magic was what we found in the living land, its ancient and sacred places… and in the birds that appeared to be guiding us on a quest we barely realised we were beginning. It was a journey that would see us questioning the meaning of beheaded saints painted on the walls of a medieval church and the arcane stories hidden in plain sight. It would lead us along the dragon lines, teaching us to listen to the whispering of the land and into the realms of vision.

It was a journey where “nothing happened”… and everything changed.

We wrote the story. It was not the first book for either of us, but it was to be the first of many that we would write together, documenting a magical and spiritual quest through history, symbolism and the ancient places of Albion.

Continue reading at France & Vincent

Posted in adventure, albion, alchemy, Ancient sites, archaeology, Books, Don and Wen | Tagged esoteric, magic, Mythology, Photography, sacred sites, spirituality, Stuart France and Sue Vincent, symbolism | Leave a comment

Golden…

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Sue Vincent

My hair’s a mess and lacking life
I’m feeling fat and frumpy.
Although I gave up vanity
A while ago… I’m grumpy.

I ache in bits I will not name
And every bone and tooth,
I don’t mind growing older
But my body misses youth.

I tell myself it’s normal
Just the years are dancing by,
And that going downhill’s faster
So the time is bound to fly…

But why should I regret
That I am part of Nature’s wheel?
My mind is still a teenager,
My heart can laugh and feel…

Of all the seasons of the year
The autumn’s best of all,
When gold and scarlet branches
Wear the jewels of the fall.

I think that I should see
My autumn season as the best…
And paint my days with golden glow
Outshining all the rest.

So that when winter catches me
And paints me white and sere,
I can look back on autumn,
Saying gladly, ‘I was here!’

Posted in Humour, Photography, Poetry | Tagged ageing, autumn, autumn colour, seasons | 74 Comments

Found #midnighthaiku

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Stability sought

Life’s backdrop ever-changing

Peace in balance found

Posted in Photography, Poetry | Tagged haiku, peace | 3 Comments

Staunin Stanes

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Meet Derek Ross… and the standing stones of Callanish…

Photos-Poems-Haiku

STAUNIN STANES

Thir are those
Wha seek meanin
In the alignment 
O staunin stanes.

Wha line up
The stars an mune
An track the shaddies
Imprintit by the sun.

Thir are ithers
Wha accept a mystery
Fir whit it is,
Beyon an answer,

Perhaps it is eneuch
To staun an look
Within these places.
The stanes become

Question merks
Embedded in
The deep pages 
O the lanscape.

Sumtimes, wi can
Dig too deep,
An tapple too
Mony unknowns.

This is space eneuch
Tae leave alane,
Tae wunner an dream,
As wi search

Fir yon lane stane
We ken is oot there,
But is alwise
Jist oot o reach.
                                                                  Derek Ross