The Way of the Hermit: My 40 years in the Scottish wilderness

Product Information

Gene: But what do you think that confusion and the Pentecostal reversal of confusion of languages symbolize? The lives and hopes of all human beings are very similar as the Dalai Lama would reiterate. Thus, I have found a deep communion and friendship with others who seek the Absolute in India and Chile. Particularly in India I have met over the years Buddhist monks, Hindu Sadhus and Sikh scholars with whom we have shared not intellectual thoughts but our very souls, eating together, chanting, and laughing about the joys of being together. I must confess that I have found that many people who live a religious commitment tend to be sad, I do not understand that. On returning to see others at the Golden Temple or in the bathing areas of Varanasi I have always found a warm hand and a ready smile. God has given us a journey and it is great to do it with others even when in silence.

Gene: I mean the first thing is just that the Vehmgericht were basically a vigilante group. So they’re doing dark things in the dark, out of the light of scrutiny. They’re serving up dark justice to those that deserve it. But I started thinking about the timing of the Masonic meetings and whether they were related to the moon phases and that led me down a rabbit hole. Gene: Well, the Vehmgericht actually did some of that. Their membership was made up of Knights, Princes and other nobility. But they weren’t supposed to supersede the established authorities or laws. They were where you took allegations of abuses of power. Gene: Which leads to my last quote in this section which says - “Nor let him have any alliance with those theorists who… are wiser than Heaven; (and) know the aims and purposes of the Deity, and can see a short and more direct means of attaining them, than it pleases Him to employ: who would have no discords in the great harmony of the Universe… but equal distribution of property, no subjection of one man to the will of another, no compulsory labor, and still no starvation, nor destitution, nor pauperism.”

This is post-modern nature writing that embraces beauty where it finds it and marvels at nature’s tenacity (…) But there’s more here than just fish. This is also a book about growing up, about how to retain a connection with those who raised you while forging your own identity – what to keep and what to discard. And it’s about men. The strong surges of emotion that both draw them together and keep them apart, and the shared pastimes which recognise that intimacy and meaning aren’t always accompanied by words’ Olivia Edward, Geographical David: As I said before, that posture is actually the shape of the Egyptian hieroglyph for “child” but it’s also obviously a gesture of hushing your own mouth, too. Gene: Yes, after the Patriarch Noah. The Noachites are actually a sect of Judaism that hold that Noah laid down the first laws of God, which they live by. Digging deep and drawing generously from the wells of experience and expertise, Professor Aguilar throws open the richness of dialogue that happens in the depths of silence and solitude that characterise a life of hermitage. Theologically imaginative and spiritually inspiring, the book recovers the potential of presence, poetry and prayer for dialogue in fresh and fascinating ways. Gene: Up to a point, yes… but “there’s a line in the sand there dude and across that line, you do not cross!

Gene: Well, the Lecture starts off by saying “You are especially charged in this Degree to be modest and humble, not vain-glorious nor filled with self-conceit. Be not wiser in your own opinion than the Deity, nor find fault with His works, nor endeavor to improve upon what He has done. Be modest also in your intercourse with your fellows, and slow to entertain evil thoughts of them, and reluctant to ascribe to them evil intentions.” Gene: That means getting in tune with Divine Providence, aligning yourself to it so that you aren’t trying to sail against the trade winds, so to speak. The last quote I have from this Lecture is - “let him build no Tower of Babel, under the belief that by ascending he will mount so high that God will disappear or be superseded by a great monstrous aggregate of material forces, or mere glittering, logical formula; but, evermore, standing humbly and reverently upon the earth and looking with awe and confidence toward Heaven, let him be satisfied that there is a real God; a person, not a formula; a Father and a protector, who loves, and sympathizes… and that the eternal ways by which He rules the world are infinitely wise, no matter how far they may be above the feeble comprehension and limited vision of man.” Ken Smith comes across as a thoughtful, resourceful and above all humane man, one who has faced down his unpromising prospects and boldly lived life. For anyone who feels they are merely going through the motions, this book will make an inspiring read' BBC Countryfile

Join our email club...

David: That’s right Sean. Monotheism is the formula being put forward. It says “Let him steer away from all those vain philosophies, which endeavor to account for all that is, without admitting that there is a God, separate and apart from the Universe which is his work: which erect Universal Nature into a God, and worship it alone: which annihilate Spirit, and believe no testimony except that of the bodily senses: which, by logical formulas and dextrous collocation of words, make the actual, living, guiding, and protecting God fade into the dim mistiness of a mere abstraction and unreality, itself a mere logical formula.” Gene: Well, silence was referred to in two very different ways in this Degree. On the one hand, you had the silent judgment of the “Holy Vehm” tribunal, and on the other, we were lectured to keep silent about the faults of others. If you hanker for peace in all of its forms, do read this inspiring book with gorgeous wilderness descriptions and compelling anecdotes. Gene: Pike’s reworking of this ritual bases it on the secret medieval German tribunal called the Vehmgericht, or “Holy Vehm”.

Gene: Exactly. “You’ve got to have faith”.... in “God’s Will” or “Divine Providence”. Faith that, ultimately, there is justice in the world. Gene: Keeping yourself in the dark, or refusing to be self-reflective, which the Lecture says leads to the sort of arrogance that caused the destruction of the “Tower of Babel”. David: That’s an interesting turn of phrase there, “extra-legal but efficient criminal tribunal”. That’s a “Star Chamber” then. Ken Smith comes across as a thoughtful, resourceful and above all humane man, one who has faced down his unpromising prospects and boldly lived life. For anyone who feels they are merely going through the motions, this book will make an inspiring read' – BBC Countryfile

Featured Reviews

Some people might find it surprising that you are a professor of religion and a political activist, as well as a hermit. How do you balance these two different sides of your life? David: Right. The Tower was a hedge against Divine Providence, which is doomed to failure because Divine Providence is inevitable by definition. And that’s what’s symbolized by the Tower’s destruction. Gene: And that’s a good way to think of it, like a weight you’re carrying around but can’t see. But it affects your thoughts, your feelings, and your behavior. David: Ah, that’s too bad. So what about the Jewel of the Degree? It’s silver with an arm and sword and the words, “Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum” - “Let there be justice, though the Heavens fall”.