Life Aboard a WW2 Corvette THEY WERE NEVER meant to be heroes. Small, hastily designed, and built in civilian shipyards more accustomed to whalers than warships, the Royal Navy’s Flower-class corvettes were born out of urgency. In 1939, Britain faced a familiar nightmare: the slow strangulation of its lifelines by German U-boats. What was needed …
Ravens: Observers at the Edge IN JUNE, 2023 I was visited by a Raven. I wrote of this experience and the life-changing transformation heralded by the bird's appearance in my June '25 post, 'The Raven.' In that post I wrote about the raven as symbol and companion—an archetype that has dwelt beside humanity for centuries. …
When the Mind Turns Against Itself AS I'M SURE you know, the human brain is often described as the ultimate supercomputer. Not only is it extraordinarily efficient and adaptable, it possesses a processing power which beggars belief. Our brain's 86 billion (or so) neurons each form thousands of connections, processing vast amounts of information simultaneously …
Using Tarot to Explore the Inner Life IN OCTOBER last year I published my post titled 'Threads of Fate.' It's purpose was to showcase the Tarot deck I use — the Runic Tarot — and to explain how it combines two divination traditions, Tarot and Runes, to create a unique and comprehensive system: 'Each card …
Bruce Springsteen's Painful Reveal in 'The Tunnel of Love' FOR BRUCE Springsteen, 1985 was one hell of a year. After storming the global music charts with his seventh studio album, 'Born in the USA,' he blazed a trail around the world with a sensational sell-out tour. [For my own personal reflection of that tour, see …
THERE IS something unmistakably British about the Scout movement. Khaki shirts, wide-brimmed 'lemon-squeezer' hats, Bob-a-Job week and 'Ging Gang Goolie' sung around campfires. These things have long been part of the national imagination. Yet the origins of what eventually became a worldwide youth organisation lie not in a humdrum committee room, but in war, national …
Can Technology Support a Spiritual Life? FOR A LONG time, I assumed the answer to that question was a firm no. If anything, technology seemed to be the antithesis of the spiritual life. The modern digital world often feels like a machine designed to fracture attention, provoke outrage and keep people endlessly, mindlessly scrolling. I've …
Bruce Springsteen, Slane Castle Dublin, June 1, 1985 THERE ARE those concerts you attend, and memorable events they may be. But there are those that stay with you and never fade from view. And it is these that become life's touchstone moments. On 1 June 1985, I found myself standing in a vast field in …
FOR YEARS I've stood firmly in the anti-AI camp. There are sound reasons for that. The more I've observed the digital world evolve, the more concerned I've become about the ways technology could be (and is being) used to mislead, manipulate and entrap. We know that social media algorithms nudge people toward outrage and division. …
'Out of the approximately 37,000 trained U-boat crewmembers in World War II, only about 6,000 survived the war to return safely to their homes in Germany.' Hans Goebeler - 'Steel Boats Iron Hearts' FROM TIME to time on this blog I return to two very different passions and pursuits: the submarine war of 1939–45, and …
RAVEN MOON 