Cornwall art and culture from genius loci

THE LOST MAGIC OF THE LAND

photography by phil aston click to enlarge

Cornwall has a magic all of its own, a magic that will soon be lost to future generations who cannot ‘SEE’ beyond the DVD or video game, the next film to hire or see at the cinema; or indeed the next pop star or boy/girl group to hit the screens in our living rooms.

I am as much to blame as the teenagers and I am 60, I love a good thriller on the telly,

Harrison Ford and the lost ark and all that sort of thing just confirms my Margaret’s views that most grown men are very good at hiding the excited small boy with a vivid imagination.

The magic I can feel lies in the land itself. I once stood at a car boot sale at a rugby ground and could feel the vibrations through the soles of my walking boots. I found if I moved slowly to the North or South the Vibrations stopped, only to return as I moved back to retrace my steps. This I felt was tangible evidence of a Ley line running East to West roughly, and this is the magic I can feel. Cornwall as a land is heavily mineralised with all manner of exotic minerals, and of course Granite.

Granite posses a power all of its own, it has shaped the lives of those who have been before as they built with it those magnificent structures that stand so proudly against the skyline. As a long lasting building material it has no equal for me, the town church was built in the 1400’s and looks as fresh today as when it was finished!

So, through the Granite runs the ore bearing bands of other rocks, in veins and huge ‘bunches’ of ore, these give a life to the land, a power that can be felt tangibly if one just opens that part of the mind we have not used for many generations, and all it takes is to just stand still and wait for the land to speak.

Fantasy or poppycock I can almost hear you splutter, but look stranger, next time you walk upon the high moors or the farmland in search of cromlechs and standing stones, ask yourself why you are looking for them, and why you have that excited little tingle in your mind you cannot put a word to?

Perhaps you can feel some of that magic I am talking about?

Clies Stevens KERNOW BYS VIKEN

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