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A bowl full of healingBowl: The Thin Place
“In ancient times it was believed that the delineation between worlds was more permeable in certain anomalous areas in a landscape; these areas were known as ‘thin places’, and were sometimes signified by burial mounds or standing stones.” - Ciara Healy, University of the West of England.
I’ve always been drawn to the pagan, Celtic notion of ‘thin places’, those liminal locations in a landscape where one might sense the presence of other worlds, and even, at certain times of the night, or the season, even cross into them. I blame it on a haunted childhood watching shows like Timeslip and Children of the Stones, reading books like The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, and the long solo walks I used to take into the urban edgelands surrounding my home.
The fantastic-value healingBowl seemed like the ideal weapon of choice to accompany this little sonic trip down an overgrown lane somewhere east of the East End, in a still bomb-damaged 1960s London, into the fringes of those Essex borderlands, trespassing into the grounds of what was then Western Europe’s largest mental asylum (we only called them psychiatric facilities long after most were closed down); to the ruined gatekeepers lodge there, my own secret thin place, almost swallowed by rampaging vegetation, there to sit and scribble precocious, bad Poe-influenced poetry, await the inevitable opening of a portal I never quite arrived on time for, and ready always to bolt if I saw one of the estates sad life long inhabitants, stumbling zombie like in a medicated haze toward the ruin.
Great and lonely days.
Comments
Very cool Irena. And thank you for reminding me of that book, which I loved as a boy, though had forgotten. I just noticed that the BBC did a drama adaption, seems like a good one too:
https://archive.org/details/alan-garner-the-weirdstone-of-brisingamen
I like how you're using the bowls. I got them too.
Funny, this reminded me that I, too, read that as a kid. I hadn't thought of it again until just now.
@Gavinski @MrStochastic : ah, thanks both for the listens and comments.
Fellow Brisingamites both! Alan Garner was a big author for me - The Owl Service, Red Shift, et al. And he was the first to lay the foundations of a distinctively English, rooted mingling of real location and myth-birthed fantasy that later blossomed into my life long love of what we now gather under the umbrella of ‘folk horror’.
English folk horror, to my eye, has a flavour very distinct from the American, frequently if implicitly Christian horrors of a Stephen King or Peter Straub. (For proof, may I refer you to the disastrous American remake of the sublime Wicker Man: “The bees! The bees!” Need I say more? ). We, in contrast to that new country imposed over an older, have the really Old stuff. The good stuff. (Interesting that the nearest King gets to folk horror - The Children of the Corn, the deadfall sequences in Pet Sematary - is when he draws on some of the actual ancient-ness of the uncolonised American land.)
It is something about the thousands of years of human weirdness soaked into the soil here, perhaps, here on our overcrowded little island, with its standing stones and burial mounds, bleak moors, dark forests, and centuries-tilled fields worked generation after generation beneath indifferent skies. It is there in Thomas Hardy. (The Stonehenge scene in Tess of the D’urbevilles just the most obvious example). It is there in Kill List. It is always there…
Also, a shout out to another seminal childhood author for me: Susan Cooper, whose The Dark Is Rising sequence trod similar terrain.
All these years later, I still feel a deep and inarticulate wonder at the… possibilities… certain places and states of mind seem to invite, something I owe first to those wonderful authors.
Yes, I love ye olde English folk horror vibe. I think the Wicker Man remake had many other problems going for it than its transplant to America, though. And perhaps something like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre shows that America can do folk horror.
The Dark is Rising is another one btw that had a beautiful BBC Radio dramatization - I imagine you might have listened to it already, we may even have mentioned it here before. They did a great job with the theme tune for that one.
Hmm. I feel like I need to write a dissertation or something, Gav.:) You raise an interesting point: Is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre folk horror? Discuss…
It is, unquestionably, a masterpiece. One of my all time favourite movies. The reveal of the living room with the skeleton sofa, its arm unnaturally extended along the back of it via the addition of extra bones, the little fetish clusters of bones and feathers, still gives me chills after all these years. The abruptness of the slaughter room door. The hook scene… though I think I could make an argument for it being a comedy in disguise too (think: Leatherface skidding on one foot around the corners of the house in pursuit of the Final Girl.)
But… folk horror? Hmm. This, and other ‘weirdos in the woods’ movies like The Hills Have Eyes and Deliverance are part of a recognisable distinctively American sub genre, satirised by the Harbinger in the very meta Cabin In the Woods, only approached in the UK perhaps by Straw Dogs and Eden Lake. Rural set, off grid, townies unwisely out of place and regretting it horror, sure. But… folk horror? I think that requires the present horrors to be tied in some inextricable and deep way to something ancient and inherent in the landscape itself. The only recent (and very good) example of such a thing I can think of in an American setting is The Endless, which you might also argue is a Lovecraft-adjacent cosmic horror.
Good shout about the BBC adaptation of The Dark Is Rising. I need to listen to it again, I think.
Ha, chatgpt agrees with you, though it does reckon there's a little overlap:
""The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is often debated in terms of its classification within the horror genre. While it is primarily recognized as a slasher film, some argue it has elements that could place it within the folk horror subgenre.
Folk horror typically involves rural settings, isolation, and themes of ancient or traditional rituals and beliefs clashing with modernity. "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" does take place in a rural, isolated area and features a family whose behavior is influenced by their own bizarre traditions and lifestyle. However, it lacks the explicit supernatural or folkloric elements that are commonly associated with folk horror.
So, while it shares some characteristics with folk horror, "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is more accurately described as a slasher film with elements that evoke a sense of rural dread and societal decay, rather than fitting neatly into the folk horror category."
We both agree it's a masterpiece though!
Ha! I don’t know whether to feel flattered or not that an AI agrees with the argument I just made up this morning. I guess I’ll just take the win!
Super spooky! Fantastic otherworldly atmosphere! I also loved reading Alan Garner as a youngster. I live fairly close to Alderley Edge too, where The Weirdstone was set. I have been there several times to see the wizard in the rock above a spring and also the lovely view over the Cheshire plains. Here is an image of the wizard in the rock (not my photo as I can't seem to find mine!):
The inscription reads 'Drink of this and take thy fill for the water falls by the Wizhard's will' Reputedly created by local stone mason Robert Garner, the great-great-grandfather of local author Alan Garner (famous for his book The Weirdstone of Brisingamen).
Oh wow, that's super interesting to see. I'm nearly finished that Weirdstone of Brisingamen podcast, it's very well done. I love the sound of the ticking clock which runs in the background in scenes set in the kitchen. The sound of nostalgia right there!
I used the DS version of healingBowl a while back but you’ve worked your magic with this one, excellent track 🙏
Colin ( @AlterEgo_UK ) is right, Alderley Edge is a fascinating place to visit with a rich history.