Flying Kites…

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… The church of St Lawrence is surrounded by Yew trees and as we leave the grounds I see a flash of red arrow from tree to tree very low as if coming in to land. I burst through the copse yelling for Wen to bring the camera just in time to see the Kite take off again not thirty feet away. As it climbs into the sky Wen too emerges from the copse of trees snapping away. As the first bird takes off we see two others circling the hill before they glide gracefully in to land which they do… simultaneously… and then… after a few brief moments on the ground they take off again… together…

“What are they doing? There doesn’t seem to be any point to their landing.”

“They’re definitely just showing off this time,” laughs Wen beaming, she is obviously as thrilled as I am to be so close to what looks and feels like some sort of descent of the spirit. The first three birds are now nowhere to be seen and I start to wonder with a tinge of regret if the aerial show has already ended… but then I see another three birds swooping by overhead to my right and also… overhead… to my left… incredibly… are another three birds…

“Six! There are six of them… there’s at least six!” I yell running right to get closer as they each take turns to land briefly before again taking off… and as the last of the six climbs gracefully back into the sky an additional bird swoops in from who knows where to join them.

“Seven! There are seven. There are seven birds Don, I can count seven.”

The flock of Red Kites, if seven constitutes a flock, are now spiralling higher and higher in long lazy loops around the hill in what has the feel of a grand finale and although difficult because of the speed and dynamics of their collective flight I make one last attempt to number them all and reach a definitive… nine… before they each appear to drift into a point and then disappear in the mists beyond sight.

“There cannot be nine! There simply cannot be nine! It is not possible for there to be nine!”

“There were nine alright,” laughs Wen. She is sitting on the grass her face flushed with exhilaration laughing.

“Did you get them all?”

“Oh, I got them!” She says and taps her camera like it is some sort of trusty steed…

The Initiate

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Sue Vincent was a Director of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness, from its inception in 2012 until her untimely death in 2021.

This book is a collection of her writings in that role.

In these monographs, originally published as blog-posts, her unique and unmistakable voice relates the trials, tribulations, challenges and joys attendant upon the setting up and successful stewardship of a Modern Mystery school – it’s birth on the inner planes, and its pioneering work which ultimately led it from the safety of the traditional indoor temple and out into the wild and rugged landscapes of the Blessed Isles of Albion.

Amusing, inspiring, and enlightening, in turns, these stories relate above all else what it is to be truly human in an increasingly dystopian technocratic age.

Now available in paperback from Amazon