Picture copyright Jennifer G 2022
Recently my magical partner and I visited Portugal. One of the many amazing places we visited was Monsanto, Portugal, which is a village that is built around the natural boulders. The buildings actually incorporate the boulders into the building and the villagers take pride in having a boulder as part of their home or business. I thought that was really fascinating because it struck me that they had made an intentional choice to live with the boulders and make them part of their lives.
When we explored the mountain around the village, we looked for a place to do some magic. The picture above, of a path between a couple boulders is near where we found such a space, but finding that space required us to listen to the genius of the land, the spirit that inhabits and defines the identity of that mountain. When we first scouted for a place to work magic, we found an area that seemed right and we went back and got our ritual gear, but our search for the right space was just beginning.
We came back to the place that felt right and we started looked in earnest for the right space. First we found a place with a few small boulders, but the wind was blowing and after spending a few minutes, we knew we needed to keep looking for the right space. We walked away from our initial site and let the wind blow us in the direction we needed to go. We walked down this path and when we were close to the sacred grove we’d end up working magic at, I spotted this boulder.
“That’s where we have to go,” I excitedly said.
We eagerly walked toward the big mossy boulder. My partner spotted the magical grove across from it and said, that’s the place we need to work in. She was right. The spirit of the land had lead us through the wind and through the boulder to the right place where we could work the magic we wanted to work.
Working with the genius spirit of any land involves learning to listen to the land, and all the ways the land speaks to you. The quality of light, the feeling of the air, the taste of the land and the spaces that call to you can only be heard when you are willing to let go of your preconceptions about how spirits will communicate and truly embrace the experience of connecting with the spirit through your senses. We found the magical grove because we recognized the need to listen to the land and let it guide us to the best space to work with it in. It wasn’t the initial space we found. It wasn’t even the boulder I saw, but letting the wind blow us and seeing the boulder called us to the right space and allowed us to work an amazing ritual. We even got further confirmation once we were at the space when we saw a specific bird that was relevant to the magical work.
The Genius of the land can be a potent ally and all it asks of you is that you listen to the land. When you do that you can connect with the land and work with it. You also can open yourself up to a potent magical experience.
