Seeing In The Unnerving Stillness
Podcast Interview with BBC & Nat Geo Wildlife Cameraman Raymond Besant.
The Audio is of my Introduction to this Episode with Raymond.
It does not appear in written format below. Please enjoy:
Image used with kind permission of, and Copyright © to Raymond Besant.
Viridian Love
That is how I experience the being who is Seagrass. Her generous effulgence, her gentleness, her healing, regenerative tenderness.
When I came across the image above, on Raymond’s IG feed, I knew instantly, that I had to speak with this man. Raymond lives in the Orkney Islands, in Scotland. His wildlife and sea images have long captivated me. Plus, I knew Raymond was holding an Exhibition of his seagrass images, and that he was collaborating with the pre-eminent global seagrass organisation Project Seagrass, and I wanted to speak with him about that experience.
What I didn’t know, was Raymond’s extensive background as a long lens cameraman for BBC and for National Geographic. Nor, that he was the underwater cameraman for the film adaptation of the novel ‘The Outrun’ by Amy Liptrot, filming both the principal actor Saoirse Ronan, and gray seals.
Hmmm
Before I knew all this, I’d reached out, via a naive and excited DM. Raymond sounded gleeful in his ‘Yes!’. But then I did my homework. And suddenly I felt a little out of my depth.
SO: swim . . .
We spoke about what it means to enter the suspended space of stillness, to truly connect with an animal - and still ‘get the shot’ for the behavioural sequences. Raymond shared an experience with a wolf, on the high Tibetan plateau, ‘coming and coming and coming’ toward him down from a high ridge as he sat in his filming hide. Then stopping, mere meters from him. The ‘nerve wrack’. The quiet. The animal’s Presence, as it sat and licked itself; the nexus of trust, vulnerability and compelling preciousness. The privilege.
He wept.
This is the work of a shaman, a transmitter of the interface of the experience of One who has been there, to us. Through the visceral immediacy of film.
You can watch the two part interview, or listen:
Preparing for Delivery: Birth
As I sit here typing, it is exactly two hours (to the minute) since the New Moon. In Aquarius in my 11th house, conjunct my natal Chiron (wounded healer turned Shaman, Teacher and Healer), and in exact opposition to my natal Uranus in Leo (volatile rule breaker, revolutionary, maverick; creatrix on steroids), among other transits. It’s the New Moon I’ve been waiting for
all my life.
In one week, The Saltwater Songlines New Dreaming opens its doors to you for Registration. It is neither understatement nor exaggeration to language this body of work as my life’s work. Whilst it does not include the path of yoga (my second limb), it does include movement both spiritual and physical.
Yours.
There are just 8 places.
I will not be spamming you with constant reminders.
I will be offering you the most luminous invitation as my spirit welcomes you into this space one week from now. With a few gentle provocations laced with the usual stories and images. So; please keep walking with me.
It’s about to get very still, very focused, and deeply unbelievably joyous.
With so much Love,
Narelle xo
PS Yes, you will be able to purchase Prints from me soon (ish).
A Print has presence. It is a transmission.