July 1, 2005

Bide One's Time

New Mexico, Land of Enchantment
By Lee Prosser

New Mexico, Land of Enchantment. So true. So accurate.

One of the great times in my life was living in New Mexico. It seems of the many states in America's southwest, New Mexico has the most charm and enchantment about it. New Mexico is about living a life with nature and it is about living in a place that is blessed with magick, ghosts, supernatural happenings, and strange forces that attract different people to its climate for different reasons.

People cannot live long in New Mexico before they come into contact with medicine women, curanderas, sobardoras, brujas, Witches, Wiccans, and others of the occult arts. Some of the curanderas are legends, names such as Sabinita Herrera, Gregorita Rodriguez, and Jesusita Aragon speak highly of these healers. Among the medicine woman are found such highly respected individuals as Annie Kahn, Tu Moonwalker, and Dhyani Ywahoo.

Of course, there is the enduring call of the extraterrestrials and the Roswell Incident of the 1940s. Evidently, depending upon which source you are investigating, there were many other sites and encounters with extraterrestrials in New Mexico as well. 

New Mexico has its share of Witches and Pagans now. Each is sharing knowledge and presence there, and each in his or her own way contributes meaning to the existence of this land of enchantment. This peaceful sharing adds enhancement to the perspectives of those who listen. The answer to what one is wondering about may be just around the bend of the next cactus!

As to ghosts, the state has its ample share of them. I know because I have seen some of them and written about them. To share what one encounters is a way to contribute to the history of the area one lives in. 

When I think of New Mexico, and sometimes I dream of its beautiful landscapes at night, I recall the numerous places I visited while living there. So many cities, so many different things in each one. Yet, there is something about the people there and the places which connect on some deep spiritual level, giving it a sense of wholeness that is absent in other areas of the United States. If we are what we eat, we are also where we live, and our existence is colored by it accordingly.

There are many positive earth energies at work and functioning in New Mexico. Many things are unexplained and that, too, adds to the magickal charm of the area. One uses the word magick to denote a sense of the occult and supernatural rather that the word magic which denotes a hat trick. There are no hat tricks in New Mexico, only real magick working at different levels and affecting individuals at different levels. 

It is easy to step outside of a good restaurant after listening to a good band play and having had a good meal, to suddenly feel something pleasant touch your face like a gentle, blessing kiss and then quickly vanish in the night mists! Night mists in New Mexico have a certain verve about them that I have not found elsewhere to any great degree. Night mists are part of the New Mexico magick.

Maybe someday I will return to this area, if but for a visit. To see what has happened to the old haunts I once visited would be interesting. Times change. People change. Memories evoke circumstance and situation, and recall. 

We are what we remember. We remember what we were. 

Lee Prosser is Ghostvillage.com's book reviewer and a regular contributor. "Bide One's Time" is Prosser's twice-monthly column on his supernatural musings.