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Author Topic: Experiences with Genius Loci?  (Read 3470 times)

Nightwind

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Experiences with Genius Loci?
« on: March 26, 2017, 05:06:12 am »
Has anyone had experiences or a relationship with a deity who is specific to one particular area? Maybe one that doesn't have a name anyone knows or remembers or something like that?

There's a Goddess of the mountains around my house and she's become more 'awake/aware/powerful' or something lately. I really don't know how to explain or describe it.

I've made offerings to her and had some experiences tonight especially - actually tonight has been extremely active and I'm not the only one who experienced it. The veil feels really thin around here right now.

Basically I'm wondering what other people's experiences are and how they interacted with the deity?

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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2017, 07:37:17 am »
Quote from: Nightwind;204181
Has anyone had experiences or a relationship with a deity who is specific to one particular area? Maybe one that doesn't have a name anyone knows or remembers or something like that?

 University town where I live has a main avenue I had odd dreams about the personification of, but lares via might not be the same as genius loci...and it's new, not historical, just from a dream, so there's that too. :p
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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2017, 02:02:46 am »
Quote from: Nightwind;204181
Has anyone had experiences or a relationship with a deity who is specific to one particular area? Maybe one that doesn't have a name anyone knows or remembers or something like that?

 
Some of the powers I interact with do have names, some more than one - Portlandia, Willamette, Columbia - and some do not have names I know yet, like the spirits of my current neighborhood, the library wights, and so on. I make offerings, talk to them, listen, ask for help if I need it. I feel like I get more feedback from the smaller ones than the bigger ones. Willamette's got lots of shit to do, the library wights, less so.
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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2017, 07:24:47 am »
Quote from: Jack;204230
Some of the powers I interact with do have names, some more than one - Portlandia, Willamette, Columbia - and some do not have names I know yet, like the spirits of my current neighborhood, the library wights, and so on. I make offerings, talk to them, listen, ask for help if I need it. I feel like I get more feedback from the smaller ones than the bigger ones. Willamette's got lots of shit to do, the library wights, less so.


Oddly enough, I've never had a sense of a local deity for NYC (we could call him/her "Gotham" if there were)--oddly because this city has such a distinct energy flowing through it, and tons of history and various peoples layered on it.

There's a local deity for my garden I've written about here at TC before; Verdanus (my coining) is most interesting because the garden he watches over didn't exist before 2001, since the garden was just a bare rooftop before then. Did Verdanus exist before that? Does he exist now, or is it all in my head? Am I just slapping a name on a collection of feelings, associations, hopes and dreams I have for a very special place?

It doesn't matter. (And I'm not going down the rabbit hole of soft polytheism/hard polytheism/what deity means to me right now!) What matters is that Verdanus works through me and around me to make a green and growing place.
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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2017, 09:46:40 am »
Quote from: Altair;204239
There's a local deity for my garden I've written about here at TC before; Verdanus (my coining) is most interesting because the garden he watches over didn't exist before 2001, since the garden was just a bare rooftop before then. Did Verdanus exist before that? Does he exist now, or is it all in my head? Am I just slapping a name on a collection of feelings, associations, hopes and dreams I have for a very special place?

Or possibly some unattached spirit, or one who had an attachment elsewhere but had enough free time to "branch out", saw the garden under construction and said, in so many words, "Hey, that looks like it's going to be a nice place. Nobody else has laid claim to it yet; I think I will. Hmm. He wants to call me 'Verdanus'? Okay, I can live with that."

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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2017, 10:10:27 am »
Quote from: ehbowen;204244
Or possibly some unattached spirit, or one who had an attachment elsewhere but had enough free time to "branch out", saw the garden under construction and said, in so many words, "Hey, that looks like it's going to be a nice place. Nobody else has laid claim to it yet; I think I will. Hmm. He wants to call me 'Verdanus'? Okay, I can live with that."

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My first thought was that at some point in the past there was probably something growing there and the land had someone linked to it, but this sounds equally likely.

I wonder if Gotham almost encompasses too much to make it easy to hear from or reach out to her? Portlandia is reachable but we're a much smaller city and it still was a slower process than getting to know "smaller" powers. I know Columbia is more distant-feeling than Willamette, who is more distant than the creek that runs behind my house.

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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2017, 10:16:04 am »
Quote from: Altair;204239
Oddly enough, I've never had a sense of a local deity for NYC (we could call him/her "Gotham" if there were)--oddly because this city has such a distinct energy flowing through it, and tons of history and various peoples layered on it.

There's a local deity for my garden I've written about here at TC before; Verdanus (my coining) is most interesting because the garden he watches over didn't exist before 2001, since the garden was just a bare rooftop before then. Did Verdanus exist before that? Does he exist now, or is it all in my head? Am I just slapping a name on a collection of feelings, associations, hopes and dreams I have for a very special place?

It doesn't matter. (And I'm not going down the rabbit hole of soft polytheism/hard polytheism/what deity means to me right now!) What matters is that Verdanus works through me and around me to make a green and growing place.


I wouldn't really be surprised if there really wasn't a singular entity for the entire city of NYC, considering the evolution of the city? Idk, that's the impression I got when I read a book called "Gotham Unbound" by Ted Steinburg, which was about the city's ecological history and how it's been transformed by humans to what it is today. From what I remember reading, it seemed like the city was added to piece meal by filling in wetlands.

Plus it's also built on multiple islands, so maybe there's specific spirits for each island or borough?

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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2017, 10:42:04 am »
Quote from: Jack;204247
My first thought was that at some point in the past there was probably something growing there and the land had someone linked to it...

A good possibility as well. While I don't claim a direct link, I regularly volunteer at a railroad museum and I get a strong sense that there are several personalities with a strong sense of attachment to the past. Show respect for the heritage of a locality and you're likely to be shown respect in return.

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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #8 on: March 27, 2017, 10:44:22 am »
Quote from: Tom;204249

Plus it's also built on multiple islands, so maybe there's specific spirits for each island or borough?


I've just started doing some explicit work with genius loci in Boston (and specifically the Charles River.) I actually live closer to the Mystic River (and live in its basin: I work in the Charles River basin..) but the Charles has a much stronger personality to me.

It's also lead to me thinking about the energies of Boston vs. Cambridge vs. first tier suburbs (I grew up in one, live in another now, and work in a third, so they're the 'this is the part of the metro I know best' in many ways.)
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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #9 on: March 27, 2017, 07:30:12 pm »
Quote from: Jenett;204251

It's also lead to me thinking about the energies of Boston vs. Cambridge vs. first tier suburbs (I grew up in one, live in another now, and work in a third, so they're the 'this is the part of the metro I know best' in many ways.)


Let me know what you conclude; during my college days (a looooong time ago!) that was my stomping ground, and I still visit frequently and feel connected to the distinct energy of Boston and its allied areas. I'm curious what your assessment is.

And whether the Citgo sign constitutes a gigantic monument to [whatever we're calling the Boston spirit].
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #10 on: March 27, 2017, 07:32:06 pm »
Quote from: Altair;204284
[whatever we're calling the Boston spirit]


"Botolph"?
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #11 on: March 27, 2017, 08:00:22 pm »
Quote from: ehbowen;204244
Or possibly some unattached spirit, or one who had an attachment elsewhere but had enough free time to "branch out", saw the garden under construction and said, in so many words, "Hey, that looks like it's going to be a nice place. Nobody else has laid claim to it yet; I think I will. Hmm. He wants to call me 'Verdanus'? Okay, I can live with that."


That makes so much sense, considering everything*, that I wonder why it never occurred to me before. (Probably because Verdanus feels so specific to the four corners of my garden--a true genius locus--that my thoughts never made that leap.)

*Fun facts: My neighborhood, Manhattan's East Village, is well-known for being studded with little pocket gardens on nearly every block (mine has two); it's one of the things I've always loved about being here (and in fact, when a former mayor threatened to destroy them all in the name of "progress," Bette Midler swooped in with a charitable trust that protected quite a few of them.)

Also, the old tenement buildings that characterize the neighborhood--5- and 6-story brick walkups (complete with the classic metal zigzag of the fire escape on the front)--were populated by successive waves of immigrants: Jews, Germans, Poles, Ukrainians, and most recently Puerto Ricans...many of whom probably hailed from much more rural places and maybe brought their greening impulses with them to plant here.

And there used to be a so-inadvertently-pagan-it-was-beyond-fabulous rite in the neighborhood every spring: An artist group would dress up in body paint and nature-themed costumes and stroll in procession from garden to garden, ringing bells, banging on drums, and blowing on conch shells to wake up the Earth for the return of our green and growing things. (Sadly, changing economics seem to have put an end to that once annual event two or three years ago.)

So there's definitely something nature-spirity going on in this part of town.
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2017, 08:09:23 pm »
Quote from: Jack;204247

I wonder if Gotham almost encompasses too much to make it easy to hear from or reach out to her?


That, and if I had to guess, Gotham would almost certainly be a shapeshifter, reflecting New York's penchant for constantly changing and reinventing itself. So that could make him/her harder to "lock on" to.

Tremendous energy in a Gotham, if it exists, however: equal parts the positive energy of a loving but tough, no-nonsense grandmother, and the negative energy of a reckless, speeding taxi driver. Foul-mouthed in both cases.

And the spirit of our subways is definitely that of old, ornery, uncooperative dragons.
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #13 on: March 27, 2017, 09:26:46 pm »
Quote from: Altair;204287
My neighborhood, Manhattan's East Village, is well-known for....

So there's definitely something nature-spirity going on in this part of town.

I wonder - and was wondering even before you made the post I quoted - if the thing with NYC, or even with just Manhattan, is that its genii loci are functions of its various neighborhoods, rather than (or as well as, and see various comments above on the greater accessibility of smaller spirits) of the whole. Certainly some of those neighborhoods are well-known - storied, even - in their own right, in a way that even folks far afield from NYC  are aware of. So, kind of like what Tom said, only maybe even more granular.

More generally to the thread, the Rush song '' is a kind of musical study of the concept of cities' genii loci, using New York and London as illustrations; I've found it helpful for thinking about the concept even though I've never been to either place.

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« Last Edit: March 27, 2017, 09:27:37 pm by SunflowerP »
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Re: Experiences with Genius Loci?
« Reply #14 on: March 27, 2017, 10:51:10 pm »
Quote from: Altair;204284
And whether the Citgo sign constitutes a gigantic monument to [whatever we're calling the Boston spirit].

 
I am pretty sure my sonnet in honour of the Lady of the Hub makes a reference to the Citgo sign. ;)
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