This startling image was taken on a walk up a mountain in Basque country in northern Spain. I have no explanation for what happened, but the impression of the tree is hard to forget. It is as if it is reaching out, or warning us. It could also be dancing though I don't think that's it. The ambience is too ominous. There have been recent films on Netflix from this area, such as The Invisible Guardian or Coven of Sisters which focus on the area's connection with witchcraft or, at least, magic that is not necessarily sinister. There is a myth going around that the Basque people were actually survivors of Atlantis. Certainly their dances and language appear to be unique.
But that is a subject for another day. This blog is about images in nature. Sometimes a cloud is just a cloud, but it is what one feels that is relevant. Take a look at this taken in Cornwall.
Actually now I see it in place on the page, I realise just how evocative the image and the experience was is not really captured here. (Perhaps if you enlarge the image you may get some of that atmosphere.) The appearance of the cloud, the loneliness of the road, it felt at the time that something was about to occur. Nothing did, other than the feeling. This may seem to invalidate my point, but the ability to understand weather and climate symbolically is important. In Feng Shui, weather ch'i is the intermediary language between earth and sky ch'i. There is an African belief that when it rains the sky is making love to the earth.
Shapes can also be perceived in landforms. The picture below is part of my new postcard line. I always felt the rock on the right to be a goblin whose moods change quite strikingly on different days. The island in the distance I simply saw as an island till some friends told me they called it 'The General in the Bathtub', as it looks like General de Gaulle lying down. Since they told me this, I've constantly marvelled at the magical landscape on that stretch of coastline - surreal, powerful and humorous. It's become even more alive for me.
I am starting the postcard line with south west England then moving further east and even abroad. They won't necessarily be 'daimonic' like the one at the top of the page, as I'm intending them to be more generally accessible to the public. And so far they're proving to be just that.
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