The first time I ever considered the concept of a “Place of Power” was while reading the book by Carlos Castaneda: “The teachings of Don Juan”. This book talks about the apprenticeship that Carlos, a Master’s degree student in Anthropology at the University of California, undergoes with a Mexican “Shaman”. One of the first tests that Carlos is presented with is to be able to identify a “Place of Power”: a specific place in a room where he could feel happy and strong naturally just by being in that spot. When presented with this test most of us would probably default to our logic brain and start analyzing the terrain, the composition of the room, the temperature, the light, and many other factors trying to identify what that place might be. I’d like to introduce you to some other concepts before I give away how to solve this quest.
For millions of years humans had hunted and gathered food to survive. It was not until we discovered agriculture that things changed dramatically, allowing tribes to establish themselves. Back in those times, we did not have the option to go online and check for the reviews on a specific place or to use an app with GPS capabilities to scan the area and the neighboring land to determine if it was a good place to stay and build a family home or not. Instead, people would resort to their elders and specifically trained members of the tribe who could “read the signs” and make an appropriate decision. A clear example of this is presented in the Aztecs, a Native American culture, whose documented folklore describes the legend of how the once nomadic tribe settled themselves for good in “Tenochtitlan”, a city that eventually grew to be about 5 square miles. One of the Aztec gods, “Huitzilopochtli”, directed the elders to build their city where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus, eating a snake. When they saw this exact scene on an island they interpreted it as a sign from their god and founded Tenochtitlan on that island.
In the modern world we can find places that claim to have “energy vortexes”, like Sedona in Arizona, Stonehenge in England, Machu Picchu in Peru, Egypt, South Africa, and the list goes on. When people visit these “Places of Power” they usually experience a deep relaxation and even healing in their mind and bodies. How amazing would it be if you could have access to a place like that in the comfort of your own home? Or maybe even in that park that you regularly visit? What is the key to finding such places? This is a skills that dowsers, hunters and other people have developed over generations in order to find sacred places of worship, to perform vision quests, to source food for their tribes, etc.
Let’s go back to the quest that was presented to Carlos: “to identify a specific place in a room where he could feel happy and strong”. The only thing he needed to do was to FEEL. Quiet his mind and feel. But what exactly are we supposed to feel? and how can we learn this skill in a time when data and information seem to be the only thing that actually matters? Let me share a few tips that will hopefully help you find and set up your perfect spot.
Don’t rush.
In order to be able to feel we need to get out of our minds and into our bodies. Having a time limit or trying to do things fast will usually put you on an alert state making it almost impossible for you to relax. Take your time, play your favorite music or make sure you don’t have a pressing matter to attend to right away, so that you can allow that relaxation to happen in your body.
Sometimes you don’t get to choose.
You might not be particularly fond of the place where you live right now, or your financial situation might be such that you don’t have many choices on how to personalize your space or even change it at all. It’s OK. What we want is to find the spot where we can feel the most relaxed. It might be at that park that you usually pass after work, or the coffee shop that is a few blocks from your home that, even though it is not the prettiest, there’s always something about it that makes you feel like you are at home. Remember, this is not about making or creating, as much as it is about feeling.
