Rousay Archaeology……..’The Will Of God’………From ‘Emergence’ Magazine…..
by Bernie Bell - 08:10 on 09 July 2025
Rousay Archaeology…..
At Skaill Farm….
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2025/07/06/skaill-2025/
And while you’re there, you could visit Swandro…
https://www.swandro.co.uk/blog
And while you’re here - my Rousay tuppenceworth…..
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/05/18/bernie-bell-orkney-walks-with-stories-rousay/
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‘The Will of God’……
Julian’s new book arrived in the post, and here’s the ‘blurb’ from the back cover…
‘The Will of God is the literal translation of the Latin ‘Deus Lo Vult’: a ubiquitous war cry and a commonly offered explanation of all the horrors and iniquities unleashed by the First Crusade of 1096 to 1099, when thousands of Europeans made the dangerous and terrifying journey to the Holy Land and the liberation of Jerusalem. It is the first of two books on the subject.”
You can order your copy from…..
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-will-of-god/julian-de-la-motte/9781964700113
With all that’s happening in the world today – I don’t choose to spend time with The Crusaders!
However, Mike is very keen to read it…and I quote….
“Having read ‘Senlac’ 1 & 2, I’ve found that I’ve learnt a lot. Julian has done a lot of research and includes facts which I never knew.
I’m not strong on history - didn’t learn it in school after about the age of 13. Julian’s books present facts in an accessible way, but with a solid historical background, and the fictionalization makes the material more palatable so that I actually assimilate historical facts in a way I’ve never done before.”
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From ‘Emergence’ Magazine….
“Summer of Practice
Part One
“Attention is the beginning of devotion.” —Mary Oliver
Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the lasting light and beckoning warmth calls us out onto the land. The summertime invites a simple intimacy with the living world—sunshine, harvest, the profusion of color, beauty, and fragrance offer opportunities to engage with Earth’s abundance. As a gateway to Emergence’s upcoming theme of seasons, we’re slowing down our publishing over the next two months to bring you a special summer of practice. Now online, and released weekly throughout July on our podcast, are four audio practices that invite you to break the limitations of linear time and reconnect with the cycles and rhythms of Earth time using your inner and outer senses. Come August, we’ll share another batch that encourages you to listen to the language of birds, witness the wonder of darkness, and more. Additionally, check out the writing prompts and practices in our Shifting Landscapes Film Series Engagement Guide, or contact us if you’d like to host a screening of one or all of the films in the series as part of a community event this summer.
Keep this newsletter handy in your inbox, and dip in whenever you have a moment to practice. Grab your headphones for the audio versions, or your device if you prefer to read—and a notebook, if you wish—and head outdoors to respond to the season’s invitation to be present with the Earth.
PRACTICE
We’re accustomed to thinking of time as the ticking of the clock, a repeating round of numbers and measurements. But time is also made up of relationships, experienced as cycles and rhythms woven from a matrix of ecological processes interacting in continuous collaboration. This practice invites you to attune to how your body and those of nearby more-than-human beings are in conversation with your ecosystem via internal clocks. Creating time together with the Earth, you are attentive to the pulses within and around you, and time can become an experience of kinship.
https://emergencemagazine.org/practice/kinship-time/
PRACTICE
Humans have evolved to set one foot in front of the other: our bipedal bodies are finely tuned for walking. In this practice, follow the metronomic rhythm of your feet—down a bustling street or through a secluded woodland—and learn how moving at your most natural pace allows you to form relationships with what surrounds you. Receptive to the present moment, open to a simultaneous experience of deep inwardness and profound outer attentiveness, and step into the expanse of the timeless.
https://emergencemagazine.org/practice/walking-out-of-time/
PRACTICE
In Ancient Greek mythology, the old and powerful god Chronos oversaw the linear progression of time. Conversely, Kairos, the youthful, wing-footed god of opportunity, expressed the possibility within a given moment. This practice orients you towards kairos time: openings in time in the wake of change; timing that moment itself dictates. How does our sense of time determine how we participate in the world? How can we learn to balance our reliance on structured time with an openness to the opportunities presented by the unpredictable?
https://emergencemagazine.org/practice/meeting-kairos/
PRACTICE
The Earth has an immense capacity for recording the passage of time—crust, rock, sediment, and soil hold memories of the planet’s many changes. In this practice, learn to see the Earth as a great self-documenting archive and explore how the topography, ecosystems, and human imprints of your homeplace offer enduring testimonies to bygone geologic eons and technological ages. Imagine your way back through millennia, and then forward into the far future to see how the land is always recording, always remembering.
https://emergencemagazine.org/practice/ledgers-in-the-land/
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