by Melissa Nierman of NowAge Travel
Anything can be magical or mundane; it’s your choice.
Take something as seemingly mundane as a guided tour. It’s an efficient way to see an unfamiliar place in a little amount of time, yes. But I can tell you as the founder of a VERY small tour company (just me) here in Witch City and someone who has walked countless strangers through the process of a tour, they can be, well, the magical broomstick people are seeking- a shrouded modality that can help take folks to the heights of wherever their Spirits need/want to go (or at least a little closer). And none of us, on a conscious level, has to know where that is.
If this is all sounding a little BIG for a wee thing like a two-hour commercial walking tour, it doesn’t have to be. The formula is simple and it goes back to what a tour technically is: a shared experience where we all agree to follow a set path, stand in intentionally chosen places on the Earth, and listen to stories about what once WAS and how it connects to what IS. This is true no matter what the intention of the guide is, but intention definitely helps…
In a society where the very magic of being alive in a human body has in so many ways been sucked dry by capitalism and its self-serving institutions, the act of purposely gathering with others to be to be 100% PRESENT, to pay homage to our connection to the energy of Place and Time, to move through space synchronized with other human beings, to notice, to pass along knowledge of those that came before us, to exist in an agreed upon liminal space where curiosity is the shared language is like a MOVING RITUAL FOR THE SOUL (if you let it be).
Whatever your expectations going into it, it’s a ritual nonetheless. It’s different than, say, walking to your car thinking of other things, or walking and texting, or just walking and talking. This is a SHARED group experience where we all agree to go on the same journey together, even as we’re all on individual journeys. But what I discover through my journey can affect what you discover on yours. Hence, we may look like we’re tourists on a walking tour, but in many ways we’re no different than, say, anyone in history who has ever gone on a shared pilgrimage to a “sacred” place or let themselves sit in a congregation and be moved by a church service (if that’s your thing). We create what’s sacred Together. And also, Everything is sacred.
So, it’s your choice (and one that we ALL make every moment) whether we’re aware of it or not: magical or mundane. But whatever you choose, it’s always a journey.
Melissa Nierman is the founder of NowAge Travel in Salem, Massachusetts and DIY occult historian with a passion for past lives. Her current walking tour is Wonders of The Invisible World:
"Part seminar-style historical tour and part hands-on psycho-sensory experience, we’ll use Salem’s urban landscape as our classroom/ practice space visiting a thoughtfully-curated collection of sites - from pop-culture famous landmarks to soaring 400-year old trees to radical spiritual groups’ sacred sites of worship + burial. Special focus will be given to the Invisible World’s intersection with The Witch archetype and how collective beliefs around what is labelled as “occult” have both shaped + been shaped by the dominant institutions of our times."
