One late September day, I awakened to see the most glorious light streaming in through my window. The telltale tingle of magic was in the air. I knew it was a special day, but it wasn’t until I was sipping my tea and writing my morning pages that I realized it was my grandmother’s birthday.
My grandmother, Verna, died when I was two. Though my time with her was brief, I grew up hearing stories about her — about her elegance and grace, her kindness and generosity, her capability and determination. I grew up hearing I was just like her, just like this woman I barely remember, this woman I suspect was far better than I will ever be.
It wasn’t until I deepened my magical practice and started traveling through the dreamworlds that I began to connect with her. And now, after dreaming of her and meeting her in guided meditations, I have a meaningful relationship with this ancestor.
On this day, the anniversary of her birth, I dressed in her favorite color (scarlet) before I remembered it was her birthday. Just one small thread connecting granddaughter to grandmother.
My grandmother was born in the most magical season. Autumn is the time when portals are everywhere. Or maybe I should rephrase that. I believe there is an abundance of portals anytime, but we are more likely to find them in the autumn.
Autumn’s energy is that of wild magic. It comes at the time when the earth is quieting as it prepares for winter’s hibernation. Autumn is the sigh of relief after the chaos of summer.
Ever since the age of twelve, when I first consciously and intentionally used my magic, I have most keenly felt magic in the autumn. And when we feel magic, we can collaborate with the universe to make amazing things happen, such as discovering portals that lead to all kinds of wonderful places.
There are many ways to find portals, mostly completely by accident, but on occasion we can find them if we time things just right, and sometimes we can even create them.
Accidental ways of finding portals can look like this:
You are out walking through a woodland path, and you come to a crossroads. You tell yourself you will go in one direction, but your body starts to move in the opposite direction, and you give in to this wild magic. Perhaps you have explored every inch of this woodland and think you know every twist and turn of the path, but somehow, on this day, the woodland shapeshifts into a place you have never seen before. And suddenly you see something so incredibly beautiful and unexpected.
or maybe like this…
You wake up feeling excited and you don’t know why. You go about your day as usual, but somehow you are open to the idea of allowing magic in, whether you consciously realize it or not. As you are running errands, or driving somewhere, a song plays on the radio. This is a song you haven’t heard in years. It is a song that reminds you of a particular person. You come home and check your messages, and there’s a message from that person. It’s as if hearing the song opened a portal allowing that person to reach out to you at just the right time.
or like this…
As you go about your ordinary day, a whiff of scent travels to you. The smell reminds you of a particular time and place. It is so strong that for a moment it completely transports you and you forget where you are and what you are doing.
Portals are everywhere. They can be found when we are open to magic. But they can also be created when we are in need of them. There are several methods you can use, depending on your intention. Maybe you just need to escape reality for a moment. If that’s the case, the easiest way of accessing a portal is to read a book. But it can’t be any book. It has to be one that your spirit is drawn to in that particular moment.
Perhaps you want to return to a particular time and place in your past. One easy way of doing this is by listening to music from that era of your life.
But one of my favorite ways of accessing a portal, is through journeying. This can be done at night when we dream, or through a guided meditation. When we get into a trance through drumming or by simply going into a deep meditative state, we can find portals that lead to amazing places. Anytime I miss my village in England, I journey to the great ash wishing tree in the New Forest. It is my portal back home. Once there, I’m free to explore my entire village.
Journeying isn’t something that can be easily taught. It takes practice. But if you really want to explore this, I recommend starting in the autumn. If you’d like book recommendations, I’d be happy to share some I have either read or that have been recommended to me by various magical folk.
On my grandmother’s birthday, I journeyed by myself (not with the help of a shaman or a member of my old coven) for the first time in a long time. The air was heavy with magic, my thoughts were with my ancestor, and I had the time and space to devote to journeying. It was the perfect time to let my spirit travel through a portal to other worlds. And my experience was wonderful! It was just what I needed to rejuvenate my spirit.
Next time, I’ll share my experience of that journey with my paid subscribers. And if you have found a portal, I’d love to hear about it.
With love,
Cait
Thank You Caitlin. You added some context I was missing form my own portals. Mine have been from journeying and every so often I will get the strongest aroma of perfume. Always in a setting where it could not have come in from someplace else. But, not exactly sure who it might represent though? You also mentioned music. This morning after waking up, I've had a really negative mood filled with bad feelings and anxiety. Driving in though on the radio a song These Are Days by 10,000 Maniacs came on. A song I knew but have not heard in a long time. That 1 song changed my mood and picked me up. If you don't know it, I recommend it for you today. Wishing you a wonderful day filled with love and light.
Wow 😍 I loved reading about your experiences of portals! It is so fascinating to me to learn about the magic that others experience - magic was such a personal and private thing to me when I was younger, so finding that there are parallels between other practitioners’ stories and my own experiences makes me feel like there is truly some wider and deeper force out there that we are all a part of 💞. Ooh, and your example about books reminded me of one of my own practices - in which the right books appear at the right time in my life, and I use a kind of intuition when picking what to read next ✨.