This banner has inhabited this room for several decades, since what is now the kitchen was actually a meditation room during the period that I ran Steppingstone. The banner is by Ringu Tulku; a very friendly Tibetan Lama who was close to the Dalai Lama and used to come here to teach meditation and talk to us about Tibet in the ’80s. The banner says, in his Tibetan buddhist script, ‘May Every Living Being That Moves And Does Not Move Enjoy Perpetual Wellbeing’. There was such a bother putting it up, that I couldn’t bear to take it down, so there it sits on our wall!
I started Steppingstone as a little project in 1980, while Anthony was at work in his refrigeration life. We bought the house next door to No 9 – number 11 Royal Terrace – and opened a small ‘open centre’, as it was called in these days. It was one of the early ones in Scotland – there were some down in England but not many up here. It began as a small cultural centre for arts & crafts, and some of the first people to use it were the Rudolf Steiner people – Anthroposophists – because I hoped to help them start a school in Glasgow for Anthroposophy, but it took ages and didn’t happen for nearly 20 years. So… they were there, and also a lovely Swiss woman called Margareta Burrell who taught bamboo pipes. This was a whiz-kid activity for little boys and girls learning how to carve out music from a piece of bamboo – she also taught Eurythmics, and it was all in this room where the banner is.
This was also the time I was doing homeschool with the boys (Barnaby, Ben & Trevor), so it was a great opportunity for them to share time with more than just the family unit.
The house became popular because I made it look nice with lots of interesting crystals and pictures – it was kindly furnished for every man. There was a communal kitchen, an open diary in the hall, a list of all participants – I tried to be as efficient as my nature would allow me. Because of increasing popularity as a teaching space, the 3 small back rooms became fully booked very quickly and it became increasingly used for therapeutic purposes – it was kind of a hub for alternative medicine in Glasgow in the ’80s. It was full of fun, interesting people – Crystal healers, yoga, all sorts of meditation groups, Alexander technique and co-counselling… it was rather loud, messy and emotional! In the early days we also had calligraphy classes, veil painting, all kinds of art. It all happened by word of mouth… bush telegraph.
We had quite a trail of buddhists using the space… they would come and book a room and do ceremonies. I remember partaking in a delightful episode with a Bön Tibetan. It actually happened in our garden at number 9: there were about 20 of us, and we had to make these little wax figures – this was a blessing ceremony, a nature blessing ceremony: nothing sinister at all. We just went out and enjoyed the garden, walked round it carefully. I left a dolly shape under the umbrella tree… we had great fun, but there was a serious intent behind it.
It really became a focal point for people representing the Great White Brotherhood, which is a spiritual brotherhood for all the great teachers of time who are up there, and therefore it also dealt with people who are rather sensitive, so there was quite a lot of channelling work which one had to be cautious and protective about.
During this time I was also going to Quaker meetings…I suppose that spiritually I’m a ‘universal’ character – I really liked every path and I insisted that every path was equal, but as far as spiritual thoughts went – the more I worked, the less intense my desires became because there was a great necessity to neutral.
We closed Steppingstone for good in 2000.
Alison
NB. Alison and Anthony bought No 11 Royal Terrace from Mrs Dewar, mother of Donald Dewar (the inaugural ‘First Minister of Scotland’), who was brought up there.
The Royal Collection 