Stuart France writes at:https://franceandvincent.com/
Tag Archives: photography
Departing…
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With the afternoon heading inexorably
towards evening at a pace…
and a two-and-a-half hour drive
before our next hostelry
ahead of us…
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*
We probably did not really have time to explore…
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But I am so glad we did.
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Deep within the Forest of Yore…
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We discovered a Clootie Tree…
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And an Old Celtic Chapel.
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A visit to spiral castle…
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Although we didn’t know it at the time,
Ballowal Barrow is a ‘Faery-Fort’.
It is situated close to a now disused tin-mine
and miners, during the late nineteenth century,
upon finishing their night shift, are said to have seen
lights burning over the barrow and faeries dancing there.
It would explain the sense of caution with which we approached the site.
Getting on the wrong side of the Faery-Folk is never advisable.
And it did feel like we were being watched, observed, or monitored, by something.
Still, as our intentions at these places are generally honourable we managed
to escape with our wits, more or less, intact.
Though, curiously, for the evening was still young, our sojourn there signalled the
end of adventures for that day.
Perhaps, they had some thing in store for us on the morrow…
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Holy Scions…
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Given that we were now checking out the ‘Michael Line’,
One might have expected some sort of ‘Angelic Support’…
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But even by our standards,
The send off assumed ridiculous proportions…
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It also offered unexpected vindication
for our speculations in the ‘Doomsday Trilogy’…
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A ‘Glastonbury Thorn’.
***
DOOMSDAY
The Aetheling Thing Dark Sage Scions of Albion
All books available via Amazon in Paperback and for Kindle
Don and Wen, following the breadcrumb trail of arcane lore and ancient knowledge, scattered across the landscape of time, turn their attention to the myths and legends of Old Albion. They delve into the tales of King Arthur, asking some very strange questions about biblical family trees and exploring the many stories that abound in the very landscape of Avalon. Meanwhile, in Derbyshire, the voices of the past still whisper from the stones, opening a passage through time, place and memory to another world…
Doomsday: The Ætheling Thing
How is it possible to hide such a story… the hidden history of Christianity in Britain? Oh, there are legends of course… old tales… Yet what if there was truth in them? What was it that gave these blessed isles such a special place in the minds of our forefathers? There are some things you are not taught in Sunday School. From the stone circles of the north to the Isle of Avalon, Don and Wen follow the breadcrumbs of history and forgotten lore to uncover a secret veiled in plain sight.
Doomsday: Dark Sage
…. something was spawned up on the moor… something black that flew on dark wings. It heeds not time or place… but it seems to have developed a penchant for the travels of Don and Wen….
“Are those two still at it?”
“Apparently….”
Doomsday: Scions of Albion
Things are getting serious…
Exactly what is Wen doing with that crowbar and why is she wearing a balaclava?
All will be revealed…or will it?
Follow the story begun in The Initiate and the Triad of Albion,
as Don and Wen explore the ancient land.
Alder-Ley…
*
A rift in the bed-rock
Makes us wonder
Just what is destined to emerge…
A poisonous fume
Or the trailing plumes
Of a Sun-Bird?
*
Clues…
*
“Well, it has taken a while, but I think we can be fairly certain that this particular example of the symbolist’s art has something to do with the number eight.”
“‘Fairly certain’? ‘Something to do with’? It is hardly the stuff of science, now is it?”
“Symbolism, by its very nature, is much more than science, and much less too.”
“You are not making much sense.”
“It is open like an ‘art’, but its precision is less focused and more inclusive.”
“I keep wanting to turn it on its head.”
“Which would give us a… mirror!”
*
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“And the ‘S’?”
“Stands for saviour.”
“Or a stream.”
“Which flows underground.”
Chapel-en-le-River…
*
“There was one thing.”
“Oh yes?”
“Well, two things, really.”
“These days ‘really’ is not a precise term, but proceed anyway.”
“No, no of course not… it’s just that, it struck me that the stones were conceived as shadows.”
“Shadows of what?”
“The ancestral realm.”
*
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“And the second thing?”
“We’re being haunted.”
“By what?”
“By a shape!”
*
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“It’s a Cop.”
“Look again.”
“It’s still a Cop.”
“Or a very big Long Barrow.”
“But it’s a hill.”
“Look again.”
“It’s still a hill.”
“Or a very big Long Barrow.”
“They didn’t build Long Barrows that big.”
“Why not?”
“It’s absurd. It’s preposterous. They simply couldn’t have.”
“They built Silbury.”
“Silbury’s not a Burial Mound.”
“No, but the ‘Archaeos’ used to think that it was.”
“The ‘Archaeos’ are always getting it wrong.”
“They think it’s a hill.”
“They thought all the ‘Motte and Bailys’ were mediaeval.”
“Precisley, it’s definitely a big Long Barrow.”
“It’s not definitely anything but what makes you so sure?”
“Numbers.”
“Numbers?”
“Most of the sites hold a lot of people and there are thousands of them. A lot of them would have taken huge numbers to construct and there are thousands of them and yet, the burials are relatively few. Even at the massive sites…”
“Where are all the bones?”
“I knew you’d come around to my way of thinking.”
“Especially on Ilkley.”
“We know Ilkley’s a Necropolis…
“…And yet, there are hardly any cairns.”
*
So the story goes…
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From a lake such as this…
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A supernatural hand yielded forth, a sword!
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Can’t really see it, myself…
Fairy Thorn…
*
… Just then there is a flurry of wings, and squawks and screeches overhead and we turn our attention skyward in time to see an enormous buzzard chasing off two ravens from the precincts of Uffington Castle.
“Oh, Don look!”Cries Wen, “the hawk of the morning has chased the shadows of the night away.”
As if on cue a sky lark flies up from the ‘fairy thorn’ with as an incongruous a cacophony of song as you are ever likely to hear in such a setting…
As the ravens fly into black specks and disappear in the mist another buzzard glides into view and we watch the two mighty birds soar on the up-draught for awhile as if spiralling around some unseen cone of power.
It certainly feels like we have been accepted into something although I am not quite sure what.
I make a mental note to look up the origins of the phrase, ‘…the Heart of Albion’…
*
The acrid smoke hung heavy in the night air.
They would feast tonight.
But for now she plaited the strands of horsehair from the white mane.
A gift from the gods she would treasure…
A blessing as she shared the meat roasting in the pit on the plateau.
The flames cast a dull glow across the faces of the clans.
They were expectant, eager yet solemn.
They were waiting…
***
THE INITIATE
Book One of the Triad of Albion
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
The Initiate is the story of a journey beyond the realms of our accustomed normality.
It is a true story told in a fictional manner. In just such a way did the Bards of old hide in the legends and deeds of folk heroes, those deeper truths for those ‘with eyes to see and ears to hear’.
Don and Wen, two founding members of a new Esoteric School, meet to explore an ancient sacred site, as a prelude to the School’s opening event. The new School is to be based upon a nine-fold system and operate under the aegis of the Horus Hawk.
The trip does not unfold as planned.
Instead, Don and Wen, guided by the birds, find themselves embarking upon a journey that will lead them through a maze of spiritual symbolism, to magical mysteries and the shadowy figure of the Ninth Knight.
As the veils thin and waver, time shifts and the present is peopled with shadowy figures of the past, weaving their tales through a quest for understanding and opening wide the doors of perception…
Now available via Amazon worldwide.
Paperback UK Kindle UK Paperback Amazon.com Kindle Amazon.com
Callings…
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It is entirely possible that this ‘fella’ once stood in a ‘circle’.
He now guards a lay-by in an unassuming stretch of Dartmoor,
if such a thing can be said to exist.
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Nearby, stands a ‘wayside cross’ which may not be a cross at all.
It may be a ‘hammer’ or a ‘thunder-bolt’.
It may even be a sign post…
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We posit such querulous notions
only because the landscape
again appeared to be offering us ‘clues’.
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And shortly after this impromptu stop,
the Dragon’s Breath completely whited us out…
We may have to go back again.
Stuart France 
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