Growing up, I lived in the same small town from the age of three to 18. Since leaving I’ve never lived in any one place for that long. While there were certainly negatives to growing up in such a small town (though our primary youth hobbies of cow tipping and road sign shooting have been replaced with, well, meth I think) there were also benefits.

One of those was the peace and quiet required to see the liminal landscape. In fact, I still dream of the land beneath the land of that place. From the river that doesn’t exist, to the cliff dwellings where there is no cliff, to the non-existent pass where the observatory really isn’t. The most potent one for me is the boring suburban backyard that contains a doorway to fairy. It’s potent because at one point, as an adult, I revisited the old neighborhood and peeked into that yard. Sure enough, there it was, not visible to the naked eye, but not only accessible in dreams.

Unfortunately, my ability to access the liminal landscape has atrophied somewhat with age. This is in part because I’m usually traveling by car or public transport (mostly car) instead of walking. But it’s also the creeping busyness that comes with adulthood. I have to make time for magic and often, practical magic concerns are top of my priority list.

A young psychonaut of my acquaintance recently had a first experience with the liminal landscape and that inspired me to do some additional work in this area. So I was out walking with the dogs and found that with a bit of perspective shift, I could still sense the land below the land. It’s a good reminder that I need to spread these skills a little more widely (not just during the monthly Depinon, for example). Because otherwise, it’s not that magic stops working, but that it becomes just another task to make life turn out right. And that’s not all that magic is about.

Never fear, I’ll still be a source of practical enchantment advice and tips. I’m afraid I’m not capable of really being impractical for very long. But I’m also approaching a powerful crossroads in my life, and I think my ability to experience the liminal landscape is going to be an important part of navigating it.