Spirit of Place

Spirit of Place, or the genus locii, is something Pagans talk quite a bit about currently. It can be taken two ways: the Spirit of Place is the land itself, or the spirit residing within the land. The distinction is a subtle one, and needn't always be either/or.

That's rather a dry and bare description of the Spirit of Place though. That I use to have two blogs called 'A Sense of Place' and 'A Journey into the Land" will no doubt give you an inkling that this is an important subject to me. I think in this (as in so many other things) I shall always be a seeker.

Getting a sense of the spirit of a place is a little like getting to know a human in many respects. You might hit it off straight away, but the chances are that it will take a while to build up some sort of 'picture' of the Spirit of Place. Just like making friends with anybody it takes time for you to get a feel for them. You know... A feel...

Probably you know exactly what I mean, but if not imagine your bestest buddie. They are more than the shape of their name in your mouth. More than lines and curves of body and face. All the many aspects of this person converge in your mind to create quite a distinctive feel for who this particular and unique person is. The land feels much the same. Never a two-dimensional image but a living presence.

Without being aware of it it's likely you already sense this in different places. When this was all new to me I was surprised when I realised the river to the north of my house was not the same river I walked along to the south of my house. It just didn't have that same feel to it. Of course I was fairly smug when I checked my map later to confirm that they were indeed two different rivers. There are no words to describe the shape of this feeling-sense. None that I have that are sufficient, at least.it's like trying to describe the feeling of love.

And what is the Spirit of Place?

I don't think the question is really as important as the sensing. The distinction between Spirit of Place and Goddess seems to have been a little hazy in the past. For instance, Sulis. Nymph of the hot springs in Bath? Goddess? Spirit of Place? All the above? Maybe the distinctions are not all that important in the end?

In the next few days I'll be posting a little bit more on connecting with the Spirit of Place, and building up that feeling-sense.