02/28/2025
Spirits of Place: Who are they and how do I work with them?
The Romans called them the Genius Loci (geh-nee-us low-kai). The spirit of a particular place or geographical feature. In ancient times, these included mountains, rivers, pools, lakes, and the sea. In a modern context, these also include (but are not limited to) highways, busy intersections, particularly old buildings in town, and bridges. Assuming everything has a spirit from an animistic point of view, the next step is to identify them and decide whether you wish to honor them in your day-to-day life.
As I write this, I live in a relatively small Midwestern town a few hours from Chicago. Being smack in the middle of the Rust Belt, the manufacture of cars and other vehicles have always been what drove my town. The old factories may have closed before my parents were born, but that energy is still in the air. I give thanks to Studebaker and Oliver, the companies that made the town grow in the first place (the fact that it's larger than the surrounding towns makes it more liberal, which suits my personal tastes much better than the Trump-supporting rural areas merely 15-20 minutes down the road). I thank the roads themselves, US-31 for safe passage to and from my destinations branching off from there, as well as the small country roads for the lack of jumping deer in front of my vehicle. I also thank the South Shore train line, for connecting us to the big city. Roads and railways are a lot like rivers used to be: arbiters of commerce and travel. Since I travel a fair bit for my small business, I have double the reason to develop a symbiotic relationship with them.
Old buildings and busy intersections hold a great amount of power. I say please and thank you to the green lights as I pass, and without timing the lights, I rarely hit a red. I say hello to the Library, the community college, and the building I work in for the knowledge bestowed within their walls and the satisfaction of setting out to accomplish something that is then completed on time or ahead of schedule. As much as some in the community balk at Christianity, churches are centers of power as well. Think about it: genuine prayer and worship give deities power, right? So it would make sense that would hold true for Christianity as well. Fair's fair. If it works for us, it works for them as well. And if we manage to harness that power, we have a huge bank to tap into. Personally, I look into the saints the local churches are named after, and say prayers to them to stay on their good side, but I'll get more into that later.
Bridges and parks also get prayers of thanks, for allowing safe passage and the formation of good memories within their space. I pick up litter when I take a walk and knock down stacks of rocks in streams to help the local wildlife. When I leave offerings, I make sure it doesn't harm the ground or the creatures if they happened to take a nibble (which is a good thing). Remember what they taught you in the Scouts as a general rule: take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints. Biodegradable is the name of the game here, as with rivers, streams, lakes, oceans, etc. Sooner or later, your offering will cross paths with animals. Make sure not to harm them, to the best of your ability. If you must write something on the ground, chalk is your best bet. If you can't write with chalk, draw lines with crushed eggshell powder (use a food processor instead of a mortar and pestle and thank me with all the time and effort you save). DO NOT use salt. Yes, I know salt is the gold standard of protection, but it kills the ground. Nothing will grow there after you salt it. A little sprinkle isn't likely to be concentrated enough to do much harm, but if you pour out great thick circles of the stuff, you will ensure that the patch of ground will die. Do not take that information lightly.
All this isn't to say that the natural world has taken a back seat in this modern day and age. It's solidly riding shotgun, the navigator to the city's driver, having traded places back at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Times have changed, but the Old Ways are still as relevant as they ever have been. We may not be able to stop Global Warming, but we can try to keep the worst of the effects away from us and our loved ones. It's the little things in life that matter the most. The first example that comes to mind is the set of rituals that I performed to Logi, the Norse spirit of wildfire, when fires threatened the home of my then-girlfriend in Georgia. I explained to Him that if he promised to keep away from her family's property, I would give offering to him in equivalent exchange. Sure enough, the fires stopped exactly on their property line, so I built a rather large campfire in my fire pit, got a pair of meaty chicken thighs, and seasoned them liberally with powdered ghost pepper. When the fire was solidly built, I threw the thighs into their pyre and sat down to watch them burn. This was easily one of the least pleasant experiences I've had recently. The ghost pepper seemed to turn into natural na**lm in the smoke, all of which seemingly blew into my face. Neighbors arguing went inside, dogs stopped barking, and the people in the house directly behind mine at the time vacated their pool on a hot summer's night. My eyes were watering, my nose was running, but I stayed where I was. I had promised I would stay there and watch the offering burn, and watch it I did. We are only as good as our word, especially at the beginning. Remember that.
A Note About Local Tribes: If, like me, you live in the United States, at some point the land you live on was once occupied by Native Americans. Their forcible removal caused a deep stain on the earth they once lived in, just like any other traumatic event. Consider donating to specific local tribes and going to pow-wows. I know, it seems awkward. The first time I went, I wasn't really sure I should even be there, given how obviously white I am. Pow-wows are some of the best places to find Native artisans, buy Native crafts and medicines (if they didn't want you buying it, it wouldn't be for sale), and enjoying a fantastic fry bread while watching incredible dancers. This is also the place where you need to be asking about closed practices. White sage and sweetgrass are closed. End of story. If you haven't been trained specifically by a Native American how to smudge, I guarantee you are not "smudging" the room. You may or may not be smoke cleansing it, but smudging is a specific ceremony they don't teach many outsiders to do, if at all. I haven't heard of any, but to be fair, I haven't looked into it since I found out it was a closed practice. Be ready to hear answers you don't want to hear, and also be ready to get rid of anything Closed you might have bought when you didn't know any better. You don't know until you know, but once you ask a question and it's answered, you know better. Act accordingly.
Who are they? How do I work with them?
