ABOUT THE COVER ©
by Tira Brandon-Evans

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Rainbow in the Mist
Tira Brandon-Evans

"And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things."

(Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth)

ABOUT THE COVER ART

This digital art was created by Tira Brandon-Evans from an image found at Wikipedia. The image is a computer enhanced picture of the Cat's Eye Nebula, a planetary nebula with concentric rings.[1]

The name of the image refers to the title of my own essay: Spirit - A Rainbow in the Mist.

ABOUT THE COVER VERSE

The poem usually called Tintern Abbey is actually titled Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798. Tintern Abbey is composed in blank verse and describes Wordsworth's feelings upon revisiting a place of natural beauty that had affected him when he first discovered it years before as a child.

"... though the actual form of the Abbey does not appear in the poem, the idea of the abbey--of a place consecrated to the spirit--suffuses the scene, as though the forest and the fields were themselves the speaker's abbey. This idea is reinforced by the speaker's description of the power he feels in the setting sun and in the mind of man, which consciously links the ideas of God, nature, and the human mind--as they will be linked in Wordsworth's poetry for the rest of his life, from "It is a beauteous evening, calm and free" to the great summation of the Immortality Ode."[2]

To read the entire poem go to: http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww138.html.
Tira Brandon-Evans is the Founder and Moderator of the Society of Celtic Shamans, editor of Earthsongs: Journal of the Society of Celtic Shamans, and is, herself, a Faery Shaman. Her books, The Green and Burning Tree: A Faery Shaman's Handbook, Portals of the Seasons: A Celtic Wheel of the Year, Through the Unremembered Gate: Journeys of Initiation, The Labyrinthine Way: Walking Ancient Paths in a Modern World, and Healing Waters, are all published by Elder Grove Press. She is presently writing a book about the Ogham. You may contact Tira by email at info@faeryshaman.org.

ENDNOTES

1. Acknowledgment: R. Corradi (Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Spain) and Z. Tsvetanov (NASA). Credits: ESA, NASA, HEIC and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and the European Space Agency. Hubble material is copyright-free. Material published by NASA may be freely used as in the public domain without restriction, although NASA requests credit and notification of further use. ESA requires that they be credited as the source of any of their material that is used. The material was created for NASA by STScI under Contract NAS5-26555 and for ESA by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre. [Return to Article]

2. From Spark Notes, William Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey [Return to Article]

About the Cover copyright © 2008 by Tira Brandon-Evans, all rights reserved. Used with permission. Top of Page

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