Fall Equinox: A Spirit Walk

The Fall Equinox is a time of no time, a time of balance between the night and day, of balance between the physical and metaphysical.  Thus, it is a good time to seek balance and communion with the spirit world, and see what messages or insights they have for us on the journey ahead.  The spirits of the land, the Genius Loci, are always present, always ready to share and help us grow in our paths.   As my recent series on developing a wheel of the year for the age of the Anthropocene has suggested, rather than focus on harvesting at the Fall Equinox, we can focus our Fall Equinox on receptivity. One reason to do that is that in such an unbalanced and shifting world, the idea of receptivity allows us to be flexible and experience the unexpected without judgments or expectations. Today’s post on spirit walking is also part of my series on Animism where I am delving more deeply into practices surrounding how to live, be, and experience the world of spirits through animistic druidry. So let’s get started!

Creating Space for Spirits

Animism is a belief in spirits and a set of practices that help us connect deeply with the world of spirits.  Everything has a spirit–trees, rivers, mountains, but also human-made things like houses, pencils, and cars. It is important to take the time to connect with this world and learn from it, particularly from the spirits of nature that live where you do. Most of the practice of animism lies not in reading books or finding human teachers but in making time for the world of spirits–to converse, learn, and grow.

In my own animistic practice, I have found it necessary to set aside daily time to talk to the spirits, check in with my own guides and teachers, and also check in with the spirits of the land. Everything is otherwise too structured, and spirits have their own lessons and teachings that may not fit my own structured agenda.  Thus, creating space and time that is completely open for them to do their own work is important. This practice asks us to slow down, make time for spirits, and simply enjoy the world around us. This kind of practice doesn’t require anything formal like ritual clothing or a ritual setup, it just requires a small amount of preparation and time  to be present with the spirits of nature in a natural setting.

The Spirit Walk: Setup and Goals

A spirit walk is a walk in nature to commune with spirits and connect with the living earth.  While you can add many layers to it, that is the basic practice.  The idea behind the walk is that you will set aside time, ideally 30 min to an hour, to simply be present on the land, experiencing the land, and connecting with the Genus Loci (spirit of place) as well as the spirits of individual plants, trees, insects, animals, and stones.  Ideally, you will take your spirit walk in a natural setting–this can be one you are familiar with or one that is new to you.

The key to this walk is that you are working to converse with spirits and nature itself–so you will want to do it either alone or in silence with others. Having other people along for a “hike” who are not spiritually minded is not going to work for this particular practice.  You need to be alone or in a quiet space with like-minded practitioners.

Spirit walks often may lead you in unexpected physical or spiritual directions.  Becuase of this, you usually do not set a single path towards your goal, but can instead allow spirits to lead you.  Meandering will require some planning in advance.  Bring a map or compass and make sure you have a sense of the lay of the land.  Study the maps of the place where you are going if it is unfamilar to you so that you can be sure to not get lost.

Bring an offering of some kind. I like to make an offering at the start of the walk and then after particularly powerful messages or interactions. Carry the offering bag with you and make offerings as appropriate. Offerings can be many different things–an herbal blend, a song, drumming, a dance, picking up garbage, liquid gold, etc.

The goal is to converse directly with spirits of the land through various means–inner conversation, divination, feelings, energetically, etc.  If you are new to plant spirit communication, you might want to bring tools that can help you communicate like an oracle deck or pendulum.

You should also bring a journal or a recording device–you will want to record some of the teachings and lessons offered.

Of course, you should also do practical things like bring some good hiking shoes, bring a snack and a drink, and wear appropriate clothing.  I also highly recommend bringing a blanket or something that you might use to sit for a time if the walk goes in that direction.

The Spirit Walk: Beginning Your Journey

When you start your walk, find a private place to pause and do some preliminary work.  First, set your intentions for your walk.  It may be something very open like “I would love to commune with the spirits of this land and seek their wisdom”.  Speak this aloud.  Next, leave an offering to demonstrate your goodwill and respect to the spirits of the land.  Finally, do some protective work for yourself. Since you will be on the move, you want something that moves with you (not a standard grove or circle opening), but also something that will help you get into the spirit of the experience.  If you are in the Ancient Order of Druids in America, you can use the AODA’s Sphere of Protection ritual as a perfect way to begin.  This, or any other protective working, will support your walk.

Once you’ve done those things, begin your walk. Remember that this is a spirit walk–the goal isn’t to hike 10 miles, the goal is to be present and open to the voices of spirit.  Thus, you will want to set a slow pace where you can simply take in the world around you with all of your senses, including your sixth sense, and allow spirits to lead the way.  I suggest if possible

Pay close attention to your body as you walk.  Our bodies are the source of our intuition and our interaction with both the physical and metaphysical worlds.  You may feel a pull in your belly to go a certain way–you should follow that pull and see where it leads (while still practicing good observation and keeping track of where you are).  Pay attention closely to your body as you walk and let it lead you to places to converse with spirits.

Attune yourself and your mind to recpetivity and being open. Don’t fill your mind with thoughts of work, family, etc, but rather focus on taking in the world around you and being open to what you may experience.  If you are struggling with this, attend to your breathing, pause, and take a moment to let those things go before you continue.

Spirits of the land may converse with you about many things.  They may share things they would like you to do (e.g. make an offering, move a stone, return in a certain period of time).  Often, they are also willing and ready to offer you teachings about your own path, things to help you grow and heal, and so on.  The thing about the spirit walk is you never quite know what is going to happen nor what kinds of messages you will receive, so it is important to simply be open.

Covering with Spirits: Techniques

On your walk, there are many different ways to understand and experience the messages of nature: embodied, spirit, and through tools.  I suggest using a combination of all three for the most effect.

Body: Messages from nature are often embodied–we feel them as well as sense them, and we usually feel them in our core.  You can feel the energy of a place–happy, sad, tense, relaxed–just by attuning to it. Walk into a forest–what do you feel? Is the forest bright and welcoming?  Is it dank and mysterious?  Your body allows you to attune to the subtle energetic wavelengths that all places put out.

The second thing that your body can do very well is intuition.  When you begin to walk, you can literally allow your body and your intuition to lead you to different plants, stones, rivers, etc, that may want to speak with you.  This is subtle, but if you are attuned to it, you can easily sense it.

Physical/metaphysical connections: Nature has many, many different ways of communicating with you.  Often there are a combination of physical and metaphysical signs.  For example perhaps you come to a stream and recieve a powerful inner message.  Then, you can ask for confirmation or an “outer plane check” and you see a beautiful butterfly that flies over the creek in that moment.  Pay attention to both the physical and metaphysical

Spirit: In terms of actually conversing with nature spirits, I’ve written a lot about plant spirit communication before, so I’ll briefly summarize here and share my longer series on plant spirit communication: here, here, here, and here. Spirits can communicate with you in many different ways–perhaps you hear a quiet inner voice, perhaps they show you things in light or energy, and perhaps you get musical notes.  Each of us has our own ways of conversing, but, given time and practice, all of us can begin to fluently converse with spirits of the land.  The goal eventually is to be able to work up to open communication, where you can have a conversation with a tree in the same way you could with a person sitting next to you.  Recognize that it may take a long time to get there–so work in this journey to take one step further towards that open communication.

The Spirit Walk: Ending Your Journey

As you begin to wind down your journey, I suggest you take some time to work to close your journey, just as you carefully opened it. To do this, I suggest a final divination, final offering, and recording your thoughts.

Final Divination: After learning all that you want to learn, it can be useful to have a “wrap up” and do some divination for additional guidance. Thus, I have found that tools, like oracles, tarot, ogham, or a pendulum, are very useful at the end of the walk. As you start to wrap up your spirit walk, you can ask spirits for guidance on what you should be doing next or things to consider until the wheel once again turns (so for the next eight weeks).  This can be a simple reading or even a more elaborate reading that you do once you are home.

Offering and Gratitude: As the walk draws to a close, be sure to express your gratitude to the spirits of nature once again.  Thank them for the lessons and teachings, however difficult, and leave an offering in thanks.

Recording Your Experience: Before you leave, take some time to write down the insights you gained.  When you are still on the spirit walk, you are in a very receptive state that can help you remember the details of the walk.  Write down your experiences in a journal or use a recording device to record and then transcribe into your journal later.

I hope that your spirit walk practice is a rich one–and recognzie that while I’m sharing this at the fall equinox as an activity that promotes receptivity, it is certainly something you can continue to do throughout the year.  I find it to be a very, very useful practice in deepening my relationship to the land and her spirits.

Other Fall Equinox Celebration Opportunities

I hope that everyone has a blessed and wonderful fall equionx (and spring equinox, for those in the Southern Hemisphere).  Fall is one of my favorite times of year, and it is so fun to be present in this time, learning and growing with the spirits of the land.  If you are looking for additional ideas and inspirations to celebrate the Fall Equinox, please see: Sustainable activities for the fall equinox; rest, retreat and balance at the fall equinox; building soil fertility at the fall equinox; and creating a Fall Equinox balance mobile.

I also had a recent publication in Spirituality and Health’s magazine on Three Druid Rituals for Fall Equinox– please check it out!