POWER SPOTS AND ORISHAS Copyright © Al Deveron 2006 Power Spots are places in nature that energise one and reduce one's need for rest and recuperation. Power spots raise your frequency level, making you less vulnerable to illness, discouragement and depression. They naturally balance and heal you so that you can increase your productivity and enjoyment of life. A year or two ago, I would have classified this as new age wishful-thinking, or stuff for easily-suggestible people with a vivid imagination. Now, however, I think very differently, because it recently occurred to me that this is the perfect description of places I am familiar with. The first one is an island off the coast near where I live. I have been aware of its effects on me ever since I was a kid. When I go there (and this has always been the case), I feel uplifted and inspired... But there is more to it than that. One can feel uplifted and inspired in all sorts of situations. This place is different. I feel almost like a different person when I go there. Sometimes I feel like I'm glimpsing life through the eyes of the best possible person I could ever be. Now I realise that enchanted wood (the first one) I have posted here about is also a 'power spot' for me. When I go there, I feel completely transported into a different frame of mind; lifted out of any worldly troubles and right to the threshold of something altogether higher and better than the mundane world that is so familiar. Now, after a few weeks of reflection, I know what one elder meant when he referred to the wood as 'a power place'. It has been said that you need not always be physically present at a power spot to benefit from its special properties. Once you know where the spot is, you can journey there shamanically or re-create it in your mind's eye. That is exactly what I discovered recently regarding a certain wood which I found I was receiving remarkable inner power from, even though it was located 50 miles away from my home There is a tradition called Candomblé which can be found today in Brazil, but which originated in Western Africa whence it was brought to South America by black slaves shipped across in the 16th Century. The tradition believes in an all-powerful and all-encompassing God (sounds familiar?) called Olorun who created Heaven and Earth. Being a benign but impersonal force, Olorun created an army of unseen helpers in the spirit world to assist the human members of his vast human family. These beings, who never take on physical form are called 'orishas'. The Candomblé tradition holds that we all receive a 'father' and a 'mother' orisha at birth. These provide us with protection and guidance throughout our evolutionary journey in life. Each orisha is connected with a specific element in nature. In order to discover our father and mother orishas, we must discover the elements with which we best resonate. The places where these elements predominate (and where we feel the strongest resonance) are called our personal power spots. The spots are the Earthly home of our orishas. It is at these places that we receive the fullest measure of our orishas' benign healing, strength and wisdom. I am now reflecting on the idea of my two discovered power places as being my places of contact with my maternal and paternal orishes.
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