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

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Gene: Yes. And also overreach. You know, by imagining you can bend reality in ways that aren’t feasible. A wonderfully fluent account of how the strange magic of water, and the beings that inhabit it, can enchant and intoxicate” Chris Yates David: Join us next time as we continue our exploration of “Morals and Dogma: The Annotated Edition”. Gene: Just that it mentions being out under the stars, and that the ritual is linked to the mysteries of Ceres and Isis. Gene: The oath continues with - “Do you promise that you will be humble and contrite before the deity; and ever bear in mind the fate of Phaleg and his followers, who endeavored to build a tower whereby they might climb beyond the reach of another Deluge, and defy the omnipotence of God?”

Gene: They mostly disappeared in the 16th century, but they actually lingered into the 1800’s. The Vehmgericht were officially abolished by the King of Westphalia in 1811. David: That’s very interesting. You said that the incorporation of the Vehmgericht was due to a reworking of this ritual by Pike. What was the earlier ritual like? Gene: Yeah, that’s Matthew 7:2 - “... with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

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.

BBC Radio 4/RGS Journey of a Lifetime: Mano/Moro Rivers, Sierra Leone and Liberia Expedition Report – Available from Will or the RGS on request The Reverend Dr Peniel Jesudason Rufus Rajkumar, Programme Executive, Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation, World Council of Churches, Switzerland A hermit’s lifestyle is one of solitude and seclusion from society. When and why did you decide to become a hermit? 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? Understandably, these events led him to re-evaluate his life. He decided that none of the usual coping mechanisms would work: no “booze, gambling, junk food, drugs or smoking, all just to mask the tedium, while accelerating us closer to the grave”. Instead, he went to Canada. Once he was in the Yukon, living in the wild, he started to feel more at peace and at home. After six months he returned to England and scraped by, but after another trip to Canada, he had a choice to make, to “accept my predestined place in the lifelong tradition of earning little while giving over my body, mind and most of my time to paying rent and bills – or… replicate that new-found way of life.”David: We will. The Degree Lecture this time draws heavily from the “Resolves, Divine, Moral and Political, of Owen Felltham”, which I’ve linked in the “Show Notes”. Gene, where do you want to start with the Degree Lecture?

In a culture characterised by incessant noise, Mario Aguilar's celebration of the sound of silence could not be more welcome. This book will not only engage your mind with its thoughtful insights - its prayerfulness and beauty will touch your soul.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. Ken Smith has spent the past four decades in the Scottish Highlands. He lives alone, with no electricity or running water. His home is a log cabin nestled near Loch Treig, known as 'the lonely loch', where he lives off the land: he fishes for his supper, chops his own wood, and even brews his own tipple. He is, in the truest sense of the word, a hermit. 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: 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.

Ken Smith’s advice for staying alive in inclement conditions could equally be applied to achieving hard-won dreams' – Geographical Born in Derbyshire, Smith left school aged 15 in 1963, and went to work for the Forestry Commission at Bridge of Gaur in Perthshire, planting trees. It was not an entirely pleasant experience: “The lads I lived with were merciless bullies, especially to newcomers or people they marked out as a bit different from the rest.” For a few years, Smith drifted from job to job – until October 14 1974, when he was 26, and his life changed forever. He was leaving a disco in Ripley when he was set upon by a gang of skinheads who, for no good reason, threw him through a window and beat him mercilessly. After two weeks in a coma and four operations, Smith returned to work, where he promptly fell onto some steel spikes, just missing his vital organs – and then his mother died. David: Yeah, I hear you Walter. But it just makes me think that you don’t know where that line is until you step over it and get smited. Your book, The Way of the Hermit, documents your conversations with hermits in Scotland, Chile and India. Did the lives of these fellow pilgrims seem similar or different to your own, and in what ways?David: So they started in the 12th century and were most powerful in the 15th. When did they cease to be? A wonderfully fluent account of how the strange magic of water, and the beings that inhabit it, can enchant and intoxicate” Chris Yates (Author of ‘The Secret Carp’) David: That’s so true. And that theme of arrogance being the root problem continues in another quote that says - “the Mason should be humble and modest toward the Grand Architect of the Universe, and not impugn His Wisdom, nor set up his own imperfect sense of Right against His Providence and dispensations, nor attempt too rashly to explore the Mysteries of God's Infinite Essence and inscrutable plans, and of that Great Nature which we are not made capable to understand.” At first sight the lives of hermits, living in solitude and committed to a life of prayer and contemplation seems to be a world apart of the active practice of interfaith dialogue. Yet, there is a long tradition of seeking the divine together and thus making a contribution to better mutual understanding and an active contribution to peace between Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism in India. Eventually he ended up in the Scottish Highlands, and for a while he became a permanent bothy-dweller, which sounds like hell. You can stay for free overnight in bothies, but so can the junkies and alcoholics who regularly burn the furniture and rip up the floorboards. Smith recalls digging around a bothy one day and finding 50 needles buried in the mud. Thank goodness then that, in 1986, when he was 39, he was granted permission by the local laird to build his cabin by Loch Treig, where he has lived ever since.