Meet the Land Spirits

Having a good relationship with the neighbors...

Even if you don’t see yourself as Pagan, you might have experienced a deep connection with a natural environment. That’s part of being human. It’s clear in the psychological literature that merely looking at a natural scene in a photograph improves our sense of well-being. Physiologically, being outdoors is necessary to our health. Not just because vitamin D is produced in our skin, but melatonin production is triggered, and there are other benefits to sunlight exposure.

Talking to land spirits is a common experience for Pagans. Many of us grew up talking to trees or butterflies. We [often] weren’t afraid of bats, spiders, or snakes. [Fear of the last two can be visceral and primal and exists for sound reasons.] If you’ve never felt the presence of land spirits, they can be both protective, and helpful with local land management.

At our old house, I often visited with a maple tree that stood at the edge of our property, about fifteen feet from the house. Beyond the property line was an abandoned lot full of black cherry with their dark, twisted trunks, and black walnuts, that spread from root suckers and fix nitrogen in the soil. Some of these were 80 ft high. The maple shaded the house and we attached a clothesline to it. I hung out clothes regularly and would say hello. Sometimes I offered some of my homemade mead.

When Hurricane Sandy hit Connecticut, I was in Maine. I can only imagine the trees whipping in spiral patterns. I’d watched them twist in high winds. I came home to mayhem behind the house. Five of the mature trees had come down, all pointing toward the house. One scraped the siding, stopping 2 ft short of the kitchen greenhouse window. Another took out the back deck stairs and tapped the roof of my office.

The TWO that would have fallen directly on the main part of the house were leaning on that beautiful maple, its bark cracking under the strain.

When I got back to Connecticut, I poured an entire bottle of my favorite homemade grape mead onto the roots to thank the tree. We had to say goodbye. When the tree crew came, there was no untangling three trees, and my friend came down with the other two. I watched most of it before having to leave for work. It hurt.

But I saved a part of her. I have this strand of prayer beads. From one of her smaller branches, I cut a piece and made a bead. She is now part of my prayer practice, and I am reminded whenever I touch them. But she left me another gift that I cherish nearly as much as I cherished my home. With the trees gone, I had enough sun to grow vegetables. Death leads to new life, one feeding the other.

The world we live in is all straight lines, masked odors, and curated sound. Paying attention to land spirits feeds our senses in a way that most of us don’t get unless we routinely work outdoors. It can also give us some much-needed humility to observe the complexity and power of the natural world. From inside a building, and our food available from grocery stores, it’s hard to understand just how fragile we can be.

Meeting land spirits is best done in a place you visit frequently. If you don’t own property then try a favorite park. Pick a spot to sit down for a while and make sure you can be comfortable and not worried about bugs or getting wet or cold. Dress for the outdoors and put on repellant. [For the record, I don’t think you need to commune with ticks, flies, or mosquitoes.] For me, it’s my garden. [I moved out of the house with the maple tree in 2016 and it took a few years to get a new garden put together.]

It’s good to start with a polite greeting and appreciation of the beauty in front of you. This is a relationship, and starting out with ‘I want something/I have an opinion about…’ is no way to start a friendship. A better approach is observation, and asking what your conversational partner might want or need. It’s not scientific observation in that one doesn’t step back from one’s feelings. Appreciation of the mystery of the life around us brings us closer to it. [Scientists do this too, they just can’t include how they feel in how they write things up.] However, stepping back from one’s desires facilitates the connection. No one likes needy and demanding. Land spirits are no exception.

Sit quietly and listen. What sounds do you hear. Identify each one. There might be something you’ve never heard before. Look carefully. how many different colors do you see? If the wind is moving something watch how it shifts. If you’re near flowing water, how do the currents or waves move? What do you feel? What’s touching your skin? What do you smell? Flowers? rotting vegetation? Pine needles?

All of these things can be a way for land spirits to communicate. It might be a sudden birdsong or the scream of a raptor. It might be the appearance of a fish in a stream, or a garter snake zipping through the garden.

Take at least half an hour to be present with the world around you. It might be easier to choose a specific thing to address: a tree, a plant, a bird. Sitting still is fine, but so is walking. This isn’t meditation. Communing with land spirits expands our sensory systems, and our brains which filter what we can see, hear, smell, and feel.

When your time is up, thank either what you were focused on, or the guardians of the place even if you didn’t feel anything. That’s polite. just because you didn’t see/hear/feel something doesn’t mean you were not observed. Ask if there is something they would like. Before you come back to this spot you might get a flash of an idea.

If you don’t, then tobacco [a pinch], birdseed [a handful], or [drinking] alcohol [a shot or cup] are good options. If the space is yours, [and even when it’s not] then labor is an excellent offering. Perhaps there’s an invasive plant you could pull up, or a park cleanup day in which you could participate.

Pagan practices can focus on the transcendent, but they also focus on the world in front to us. The world we live in right now. This world is a place of beauty and we can make it joyful by recognizing that.

Selina Rifkin, M.S. [Nutrition], LMT, has been to Hades in a handbasket. More than once. This has given her some opinions. She has direct communication with her gods and they’ve always given her answers when she asks. Like most of her generation [X] she’s okay with snark. Most days she tries for good writing. But the snark, and side comments creep in. Be warned.