Tracing the Landscape

Here is one way to start feeling the land and land spirits in your own body. Fred Adams developed this method, where you trace landscape lines along the various shapes that you see around you in nature.

He first encourages you to be aware of your "basal body hum". This is not something you hear, but something you feel. It is the sum total all of your sensory impressions, moment to moment, as you breathe. Feel your heart beating, and the weight of your body on the earth. This will help you to know where you are energetically.

* First, do a small ritual to recognize and honor the four directions. Just noticing the directions and saying (even silently) "Blessed is the North, and "Blessed is the East", etc., is enough. Use a compass if you need to, to find the directions. This will help you know where you are.

* Reach out in the direction you are looking, and stroke your hands along the forms of the landscape, as if you are dancing with these shapes, or caressing the forms. This can give you a sense of being connected to the land. You may feel silly at first, but just accept that feeling, and keep focusing on the landscape.

* Notice what the feelings are in your center ("hara") - the area just below your navel in your belly. Try to imagine that center as like a large eye, opening out to the landscape around you, seeing and feeling what is there.

* From the vibratory presence of that basal body hum in your center, notice different forms in the landscape, not only visually, but also in a kind of extended touching way. Take a moment to imagine the interiors of those shapes, and be open to receiving messages and signals from those interiors.

* Next you extend your hand towards the horizon, and feel that your hand is way out there in contact with the horizon. Trace the horizon all the way around you, in a circle back to where you started. Then as you continue around, you start pulling it in. Imagine that you are pulling those land form shapes in towards you, in a spiral to the center of your circle. Let the feeling tone of the land forms suffuse your center.

* Notice whether you feel different, and whether you have a feeling of knowing the place you are in, and the spirits of that place, more intimately. Make a small gesture of acknowledgement and thanks to the spirits, before you take your leave...