|
Diana's Baths, White Mountains, NH. Photo: Jonathan Guilbert
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. Photo: Aidyn Guilbert
Dianas Baths. Photo: Jonathan Guilbert
Me standing by the Chalice Well Gardens Gate Photo: Jonathan Guilbert
Blockley, Glos. UK. Photo: Diana Durham
|
Diana Durham has been involved in the collective life of intentional community in England, the United States and Canada over the past thirty years. In the 1980’s she was among a grouping that explored dialogue and collective intelligence with the late theoretical physicist David Bohm. (Those initial conversations were turned into the book: Unfolding Meaning: A weekend of conversation with David Bohm from Foundation House Publications). Out of these experiences Durham began a deep inquiry into the possibility that our current crises are reflections of a prevailing dysfunctional sense of identity and consciousness in us as human beings.
These ideas were later explored in her non-fiction book The Return of King Arthur: Completing the Quest for Wholeness, Inner Strength, and Self Knowledge (Tarcher/Penguin), coming to focus in the figure of the Wounded King and the Wasteland Kingdom that is a reflection of his wound found in the grail myth. Diana realized that the way to heal the wasteland - the problems of our society and the damage to our ecology - is to heal consciousness. If wounded people produce a wasteland, whole people produce living systems. Diana also wrote, performed and co-produced a dramatic retelling of the grail myth called ‘Perceval & the Grail‘ a recording of which can be found at CD Baby and other music outlets. The story is also now an animated series on YouTube: Part 1 Morgana's Retelling - YouTube. Diana also runs interactive workshops on the story in which participants act out some of the scenes. The author of three poetry collections, 'Sea of Glass' (Diamond Press), 'To the End of the Night' (Northwoods Press) and 'Between Two Worlds' (Chrysalis Poetry), Diana’s poems have also appeared in numerous magazines in the UK and USA, including 'Orbis', 'Tears in the Fence', ‘Kindred Spirit’, 'Mankato Review', 'Northern New England Review' ‘Parabola’ and Ecozone@:European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment from Leiden University, The Netherlands, as well as in several anthologies, including ‘Soul of the Earth: The Awen Anthology of Eco-Spiritual Poetry’ edited by Jay Ramsay, published by Awen Press, UK December 2010; ‘Poet Showcase: anthology of New Hampshire Poets’ edited by Alice B Fogel and Sidney Hall, published by Hobblebush Books, NH November 2015 and most recently 'Diamond Cutters: visionary poets in America, Britain and Oceania' from Tayen Lane, CA August 2016. Diana's first novel, 'The Curve of the Land' from Skylight Press draws on extensive research into the megalithic sites of Britain and follows the journey of a woman in contemporary society seeking to reconnect to an ancient land and share in its spiritual topography Diana was a member of the renowned poetry performance group Angels of Fire, who performed throughout London and the UK, including the Royal Festival Hall’s ‘VoiceBox.’ In New Hampshire she founded ‘3 Voices,’ featuring the work of three women writers who weave their poetry and prose together both on the page and in performance. Diana is a graduate of University College London (BA in English Literature) and in 2011 was a Visiting Research Associate at the Women’s Studies Research Centre, Brandeis. She is also a certified practitioner of Attunement, a lifestyle and healing practice; and was a founder member of the Seacoast Attunement Practitioners, based in her home town of Portsmouth, NH, who ran workshops and conferences on Attunement, Women’s Healing Space and the Ethics of Personal Power for mental health professionals. Diana has recently moved back to England after having lived on the East coast of the USA for over 20 years. She and her husband own a production company that makes documentaries, dramas and commercials. Their current project is a series of short films, 'Making Sense', featuring writers, psychologists and practical visionaries whose work opens up a new understanding of how our brain and powers of consciousness affect our lives and shape the wider culture. For their first film they talked to psychiatrist Dr Iain McGilchrist, author of ‘The Master & His Emissary: the Divided Brain and the Making of Western Culture’: Gandy Dancer Films - YouTube - YouTube. Diana's new non-fiction book, 'Coherent Self, Coherent Mind: a New Synthesis of Myth, Metaphysics & Bohm's Implicate Order' from 'O' Books, draws on archetype and the quantum worldview to understand our creative power to argue for a sense of personal coherence, a deepening of the sense of who we are and what is valuable in life so that our actions and creations are also coherent. The Labyrinth in the Village is a young adult/adult novel retelling the grail story in contemporary Wales in which 17 year-old Pierce discovers a labyrinth that takes him into the grail story. Moving back and forth between story and village life, he discovers the power of his imagination. Read a sample chapter here:
|
