I’ve been thinking recently about the spirit of place. The subject came to mind following recent visits to cities in the North America and Europe.

There are many esoteric practitioners who rejoice in the magic of the city, the archetypal British example being William Blake. Blake is one of the great inspirations of John Constable who last month celebrated his 23rd year as the oracular bard of Crossbones graveyard in London. Crossbones has been transformed from a derelict patch of land into a garden in remembrance of the outcast dead. The very fact that John and his confederates have held that land against the machinations of predatory capitalism is a testament to a remarkable act of magic.

When we explore the spirit of the city one of the key issues, it seems to me, is the ability to see beyond the simplistic duality of natural/artificial. While where I live is often thought of as ‘the countryside’ and therefore ‘natural’ I often point out to visitors that the green fields of Devon are actually the factory floor of the dairy industry, while the moorlands were created by prehistoric tree felling. Equally the ‘artificial’ city can be perceived as a technological rhizomatic complexity, a palimpsest of histories, as rich in its own way as a rainforest ecology.

Here, for your enjoyment, some recent pics of my recent wanderings in cities and just outside them…

Whether the magical city is Zion or Shamabhala, and whether that magical city is physically manifest as Northampton or elsewhere, the magician’s power lies in being able to discern the hidden reality. For even in the steel and the concrete, the glass and the tarmac, the spirits live if only we know how to find them.

Julian Vayne

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Next workshop…

I’m going to be in the sacred city of London in February next year where I’ll be sharing a range of practical techniques to help us discover the magical spirits of place. I hope you can join me there.