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
URTHONA Buddhist arts magazine
We cover contemporary and traditional arts from a Buddhist perspective. Our inspirations are William Blake, the zen poets of Japan, creative pioneers of all ages. Urthona, appearing once a year, is a beautifully designed, 68 page, glossy magazine. Each issue contains 10 pages of new poetry, a copious reviews section, news and fascinating articles.
For essays on the transformative power of art and imagination – see listings to right (or bottom of page on phone / tablet)
Editor’s blog: musings on art, literature & spirit of place – scroll down past information.
Current Issue: Urthona issue 34 – 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… Interview with CHRISTOPHER PRIEST, TRANSCENDENTAL SCIENCE FICTION, 2001 ODYSSEY REMEMBERED, PHILIP K. DICK as modern seer.
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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) 
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…
The Old Straight Track
Stourbridge Common –
tracks to nowhere, the iron bridge, memories of the fair…
Stourbridge Common is the nearest piece of semi-rural land to where I live in Cambridge. It is only a five minute cycle ride away but on dark winter afternoons it can take on an epic doom-laden appearance… The straight track across its centre becomes a walk into the infinite instead of a few hundred yards towards the railway bridge.
Watercolour is alive and well
Some fine water colour paintings by Buddhist artist Sudhi S. Pooniyil. He finds inspiration in the village life of his native India, as well as scenes in the UK. More on his website at https://sudhispooniyil.com
Backstreets of academe
Some recent sightings in the backstreets of Cambridge, not exactly dingy but not well heeled either. Raffish encounters with odds and ends…
Golden tunnel
to nothing good
Littoral Fringes of the New Forest
Many of us would like to have a corner of the earth with which we have a special connection. But I suspect I am not alone in finding myself pulled in two directions: there is the place where I was brought up, on the fringes of the New Forest and the edge of the large estuary of Southampton Water – a shoreline but not a seashore, with industrial relics, and intrusive modern gravel banks, a boundary zone for which the word liminal is far too airy fairy…. Continue reading “Littoral Fringes of the New Forest”
New Post – THE GATE IS OPEN: William Blake’s time by the sea
THE GATE IS OPEN
Adriana Díaz-Enciso explores the inspiring but troubled sojourn of Blake and his wife in a cottage by the sea on the South Coast at Felpham
New Post – striking mythic drawings based on ancient slavic beliefs
We feature the fascinating mythic art work of Marek Hapon based on the ancient slavic beliefs of his pagan ancestors.
“My first contact with ancient Slavic beliefs occurred while spending summers at my grandmother’s farm in eastern Poland. It was there that I discovered the world of supernatural beings — some frightening and others wondrous. One such scary demon was the Licho…. ”
