How Can I Connect with the Land?

I frequently see posts online from "Baby Witches" or "I'm new to all this" asking for simple ways to begin a practice.  I wondered if I could break down my years of druid training and experience as a lifetime Okie to distill parts of my own practice that I use to keep me connected to this land. The information in this post is specifically written for someone who has no experience with ritual or is just beginning to think about what it means to feel a connection to a land, place, or nature. This is based on what I actually do in my everyday practice.

First I will lay out the instructions, then there is a bit of explanation and metaphysics. For the more experienced practitioner who is new to Oklahoma, the ritual described is generic enough to be used anywhere but it also has specific meaning for me in this particular place. I may write more about why in a future post. For the experienced practitioner who wants to check on what I'm peddling to the innocent... welcome. I hope I don't disappoint. :)

The simplest of simple ways to magically connect to the land:

1. Greet the first tree or bush you see when you step out of your home. Do it every time you leave, or at least once a day. “Good morning, Tree!” or “Hello, bush! I like your flowers. Have a nice day!”
2. A tiny ritual:
1. Need one ritual item (for example a lit candle, incense, container of water, can of beer, pumpkin spice latte, etc. Something you can easily and safely carry)
2. Find the directions (north, south, east, west)
3. Face east. Raise your ritual item. Say “I honor the Wind which blows across the land.”
4. Face South. Raise your ritual item. Say “I honor the Sun which shines on the land.”
5. Face West. Raise your ritual item. Say “I honor the Rains which fall on the land.”
6. Face North. Raise your ritual item. Say “I honor the Land beneath my feet.”
7. Face east again to blow out the candle or say a closing word like “Blessed Be” (“Amen”, “Cheers” etc)
3.  The third simple way is to honor the things you may already be doing as the magical acts they are. Watching the sun during your work commute, giddy excitement when it rains, bringing in a fallen leaf or found feather, watching a spider weave, listening to crickets and cicadas, whatever fills you with joy or longing is a magical act. How you personally can best focus or make conscious use of that might be a life-long search. :)

There are many metaphysical theories and spiritual tradition descriptions of the whys and hows of human communication with the non-human. But the basic idea of why #1 above is a useful magical act is that your human brain, by years of training, processes communication through spoken language. Even if you don’t actually say the words out loud, thinking them still consciously engages your ability to communicate with the tree on whatever level you believe it can hear you. A process is begun, a connection is made, a thread of fate spins out that will weave into your unique life.

I am an animist by inclination and training. I see many parts of the natural world, like the trees and bushes of our everyday lives, as interested in being treated as neighbors and friends. I talk to them as I would a human person. But I also see them has having, although maybe different, just as varied a range of emotions and personalities as human people. This means that if you get a strong feeling that a tree doesn’t want you to say good morning to it, trust that instinct. Maybe it isn’t into you for whatever reason and you can greet the second tree you see. Maybe it’s just surprised or cranky, though, so it isn’t necessary to be afraid, just respectful. When I first moved to my home I discovered an old redbud tree tucked away in a perfect corner for meditating. I sat in the peaceful shade many times but I just kept getting feelings that it was cranky and crotchety and wasn’t sure it liked me. Occasionally the moment I arrived I would be beset by a horsefly or mosquitos and I just respectfully said “ok, sorry, I’ll go someplace else today.” That tree and I are old friends now but his corner of the yard is still one I only use rarely and for specific work. There is a pecan tree on the other side of the yard that is much more open to my shenanigans. Trust your gut feelings about the attitude of your trees, but don’t take them personally.

This tiny ritual is the most basic description of what I added to the globally practiced OBOD teachings to connect them to my own land. My starting point was asking how not having an ocean makes my relationship to water different from, say, someone living in Ireland. Thanks to the jet stream, dry line, and terrain, storms generally move across this state from west to east. The importance of rain in Oklahoma is probably something you don’t need me to explain. So, in the west, where my tradition honors the element of water, I honor the rain which falls upon the land. That is one example of how this almost ridiculously simple seeming ritual has deeper meaning for me and how I connect to the land of Oklahoma.

This ritual can be elaborated or inserted into any ritual structure. You can cast a circle if you wish or add things at the beginning or end. When I do ritual for myself, I add these into my calling of the quarters. You can change “honor” to “greet”, which I sometimes do in the morning, or “thank” as I sometimes do at the end of a rite or the day. I might do this basic simple ritual by itself with only an intentional prayer added at the end if I am quickly prepping my house for a party, or planting a new garden bed, or sometimes just because it feels right. Sometimes I share beer with the land. To do so, I might use a bottle of beer in the ritual and after the “I honor…” statement say “Please accept this drink in friendship” then take one swig and pour one out. When I’m getting ready for a special day in my life, I might lift my coffee mug and “toast to” the quarters. I may also face center at the end and honor ancestors, or guides and guardians, or whomever I’m thinking about or working with at the moment. To signal the end of the ritual, I usually say something to indicate that it is over. My tradition has some common “end of ritual” wording that I like and so use, but anything that seems appropriate to you will work. Roman Catholic mass has several types of endings such as my favorite “I leave you peace. My peace I give you. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” I have occasionally adapted this for my own use. Bottom line is, to do this tiny ritual you don’t need to add anything for it to open your connection to this land, but it is a living ritual can be improvised from the heart.

Sometimes when we are first starting out we want to get everything *right*. There is no ancient tradition of connecting to the lands of Oklahoma to be found in a book or a website with explicit instructions. So this ritual came out of my own experience and practice. I am always experimenting with it. I wrote it. Now you have it. If you are the type of person who needs someone to grant them permission to trust their own intuition, intellect, and heart, who isn’t sure if it is ok to try something out and reject it and try something different: Here is your permission. *plop* One permission. Reusable.

I leave you permission, my permission I give you. Go in permission to create and connect with this land! 💚