Magic of the Land

A few years ago, I chose as a working site a clearing on top of a wooded hill near a lake way up in the mountains.  It takes about forty-five minutes to drive there over highways and dirt roads, then about fifteen minutes to walk to it.  It is very beautiful up there, and isolated so there's no chance of being disturbed, and I doubt anyone but me has stepped foot into that clearing since I chose it, let alone gone near the circle I cleared of a few layers of rock.  It is the Rocky Mountains, so the soil is full of rocks all the way down to bed rock.  Most of the rocks are about the size of your fists, but some are larger.  I piled the ones I removed around the circumference.  I followed my instincts when I dedicated and tied the site to myself and to the valley I live in, but I won't describe that now.

The one issue with a working site up there is that this is Wyoming, where the winters are long and cold, and the roads are impassible for nine months or more most years.  So it's a summer site.  I take advantage of that time as much as I can, and do other types of workings during the time I can't get to it.  About this time of year, I start checking as when they open the road varies each year.  The other magical site I use, for much different purposes, is real high up, near the top of a pass, and has ten feet of snow over it this time of year on a normal year and I can't usually get to it until mid July and can't get there after August or September if I'm lucky.  They usually get that road open by Memorial Day (last Monday), but they predict it won't open at all this year because there's so much snow there, and what they plow during the day gets filled back in with ten feet each night, due to wind and fresh snowfall.  So I'm not ever trying that site.

So I went for a drive out in the county, out toward the mountains this afternoon.  It was beautiful day, bright sunshine, blue sky with floating clouds.  The road was still closed, though, a metal cable stretched across and a sign saying the road was closed in half a mile.  I will have to wait a little longer, I guess.  Though I couldn't make it to where I was driving, I took in the beauty and enjoyed the countryside.  It's days like this, lazy drives with stunning views, that remind me of why I love Wyoming.  There is magic in the mountains, the hills, the plains, the streams, the lakes, the irrigation channels, the glens, the dells, the ranches, the public lands.  You just need eyes to see.  You just need to reach out with your soul and you will know, you will feel the magic in the land.

Wyoming
By Muninn's Kiss

Under blue skies, stretching across the heavens,
Brighter and bigger than the mind can contain.
Rolling, billowing clouds float like islands,
Shadows that creep across the hills.

Hills and flat lands stretching and rolling,
Browns and greens, sagebrush and grass.
Hidden dells and meandering streams,
Secrets hidden in the folds of the land.

Mountains rise in purples and blues,
Snow filled gullies and rocky peaks.
So tall and so huge when standing among them,
The huge sky and plains make them seems small.

Aspen groves, green and dense, full of life,
One but many, they stand vigil around the streams.
The greens so bright, the leaves swaying in the wind,
Trees of healing, reaching out and touching my soul.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss