ABOUT

I am James Nichol and I live in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England. The Contemplative Inquiry blog started in August 2012, and includes personal sharing, discursive writing, poetry and book reviews.

Five years on, my inquiry is developing something of a Buddhist emphasis, mainly through a link with Thich Nhat Hanh’s Community of Interbeing. Originally it was an inquiry within modern Druidry, some of it solitary and some shared with others.

My book, Contemplative Druidry: People, Practice and Potential, was published in 2014 with a foreword Deep Peace of the Quiet Earth: The Nature mysticism of Druidry by Philip Carr-Gomm, who leads the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids of which I am a member. I continue to stand by this earlier work, itself influenced by an already existing interest in Buddhism. Druidry is still part of my life and practice.

Other, background, influences are: an encounter with Douglas Harding’s Headless Way; a thread of Sophian Gnosticism interweaving my Druidry; a concern with the developmental possibilities in ageing, which found a voice in a doctoral project Social spaces for mature imaginations: reflections on a participative inquiry (University of the West of England); a Jungian based training and practice in counselling at the London Transpersonal Centre; the practice and teaching Co-Counselling International (a peer and reciprocal support system); and my original education in English Literature (University of Cambridge). Forthcoming posts will continue to reflect this background and range of interests.

 

EDITED MONDAY 24 JULY 2017