Eversden wood is an ancient managed woodland in South Cambridgeshire. Rather than carpets of bluebells as in Hampshire or Somerset the insouciant flowers hide between ferns and saplings.
Full text of blog post with photos
Advertisements
Author: urthonamag
Essays on art, consciousness and radical transformation, with an East West perspective
Longing for the swifts
High summer approaches. For me this time of year is very much associated with that most aetherial of birds, the swift. I’m waiting eagerly for them to arrive. Remembering sitting in the garden at peace on summer afternoons; looking upwards into depth upon depth of blue, where the screaming swifts are seen looping through the sky in their great, unhindered gyres. So sad that their numbers have declined in recent years, not enough people have proper wooden eaves under which they can make their nests anymore.
Orc in the fires of hell
I have just updated our website – let us know what you think of the new look. The featured image is now Blake’s engraving of Orc in the fires of energy, from his book America a Prophecy.
WELCOME TO URTHONA
(On tablet/phone best viewed in landscape format)
URTHONA Buddhist arts magazine covers contemporary and traditional arts from a Buddhist perspective. Our inspirations are William Blake, the zen poets of Japan, and all creative spirits who have pushed back the boundaries of human consciousness. Urthona, appearing once a year, is a beautifully designed, 68 page, glossy magazine.
For essays on the transformative power of art and imagination – see listings to right.
Editor’s blog: musings on art, literature & spirit of place – scroll down past information.
Current Issue: Urthona issue 33 – THE SCIENCE FICTION ISSUE –
Buy at Urthona Shop (Or buy a sample back issue for only £5)
URTHONA investigates science fiction, and finds in speculative literature ways of expanding the imagination similar to those used by the Buddhist sages of old… Details below…
View Sample-Pages
Become an URTHONA MEMBER for only £1 / month (£2 outside UK) – get priority subscription & free access to back issues. More donation options on DONATE page (click on top menu) 
Issue 34, the Science Fiction issue, JUST PUBLISHED
Yes, the next issue of Urthona magazine is out. It will be launched on 16th Feb 7.30 PM Cambridge Buddhist Centre, CB5 8DT LAUNCH DETAILS :
ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:
- An interview with doyen of British SF, Christopher Priest.
- Our amazingly knowledgeable movie editor Ed Piercy on classic alien encounter movies.
- A vision of Transcendental Science Fiction, with a focus on Olaf Stapledon, and the Chinese classic novel The Story of the Stone.
- Dharmavadana on the seer, Phillip K. Dick.
- A feature on Arthur C. Clarke, including memories of meeting him in Sri Lanka.
- New poetry, news, reviews and photography.
- Appreciation and interview with Ursula Le Guin
Science Fiction at its best can explore regions of human experience that no other kind of literature (apart from perhaps the heroic epic) is capable of doing justice to. The best writers open up these vistas with due regard for the subtleties of human psychology and human frailties. Such writers are moving into the same territory that Buddhists have been exploring for thousands of years. Find out how they did it in this fascinating issue.
Subscribe in Urthona Shop – top menu
New post: a major essay on ambivalent faith and doubt in the poetry of Geoffrey Hill
‘Unction and Slaughter’
Faith and Doubt in the poetry of Geoffrey Hill
by Ratnagarbha (Ambrose Gilson)
The only Megalith in Essex?
This standing stone was spotted just outside Hatfield Forest, north east Essex. Although it has clearly been set up by a farmer just outside his farmhouse as an interesting feature, the stone itself does look very old and extremely weathered. It is some kind of conglomerate with many small pebbles ingrained in the rock. Surely someone trying to manufacture a megalith would not use this kind of stone as it doesn’t look especially mythic or impressive. However its shape is certainly very like some of the smaller standing stones at Avebury. So if a forgery a clever one…
PS I hear rumours of a church somewhere in Essex that is supposed to have a ring of buried megaliths all around the edge of the grave yard. I hope to report on this properly at some point in the future. Any pointers gladly received…
