I want to pick back up on the idea of introducing yourself to the land when you travel to a different place. Especially as we begin to travel again, this can be an important practice for becoming the Witch of Your Place. Even if you’re only going to be someplace for a few days — a conference, or business trip, or quick vacation — take some time to go outside and say hello. Make a small offering to the land spirits. Introduce yourself and say, “I am coming to you with an open heart,” or “I am coming to you in good will,” or “I would like to be in right relationship to you,” and then listen.
Going out and sitting down or walking around and spending time with the Earth and opening yourself up to be receptive and listen is at the same time very very simple and is the practice of a lifetime. And what I think happens with a lot of people is that they’re walking along and they feel like a tree sort of says to them something that’s important and they immediately say, “Well, that’s me imagining that.” “That’s my own subconscious talking to me and I’m imagining that it’s coming out of the tree, or from that big boulder over there, or, in the city, from that fountain.” But how else would you expect those beings to communicate with you?
And speaking of fountains, we have bodies of water all throughout our cities that we sort of ignore because humans have gotten involved in their creation, but humans have been managing streams, and creating damns, and being involved in bodies of water forever. So just because you’re in an urban area doesn’t mean that you can’t be in a relationship with it. In fact, you’re in a place where people have been living and been in relationship probably for a long, long time. So the land is probably used to it. Here in America, a lot of our cities and towns are built on places that were originally inhabited by larger groups of the First Peoples who were here. So the idea that you can only be a Witch and be in relationship with a place if you move out to the edge of the woods and build your beautiful little cottage and have your little garden outside is wrong. Lovely as that image may be, it’s not the only way to be a Witch in today’s modern world.
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This is something I’ve been contemplating for a while. I’m not a gardener but I am learning to be in relationship with the plants and trees that are here (I live in a town).
In the Before Times, when I went on business trips (and will again, someday), the first thing I always liked to do after arriving at my hotel, checking in, and dropping my bags, was to go for a walk just to see what was around and what the neighborhood was like. I never really thought of it specifically as connecting with the spirits of that place, but I also never really felt “present” in my new, temporary location until I had the chance to do that.
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