Sedona: Do you believe in magic?

When all my friends and acquaintances kept telling me that I should visit Sedona because it is a location with “very powerful vibrations,” a magical place, therapeutic and special, I thought to myself: I have my doubts. Do you know where I’m from? I come from the land of Delphi and the Temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion. I doubt that Sedona will have anything to add for me. In any case, I decided to undertake the journey because, as a true descendant of Socrates, “I know one thing, that I know nothing.”

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We arrived in Phoenix by plane with my friend Katerina and there we rented a car for the drive to Sedona. The rental automobile looked like a US highway patrol car and this in itself made us feel adventurous.

We were surrounded by huge cactuses; I learned in fact that these plants are diligently protected by law. As we advanced on the road from Phonix to Sedona, the countryside became unique, difficult to compare it to something that you already know. As we approached, with our destination already within view, I said to Katerina: “In any case, I don’t see or feel anything special.” Nevertheless, along the way, I started to sing songs from my childhood, from the time when I would visit my grandfather’s village in Greece. Katerina asked me: “What’s gotten into you and you’re singing these songs today?” “I don’t know why, but something about this place reminds me of the village in the Peloponnese.” “That’s strange,” Katerina answered, “this place reminds me of my childhood home too.”

When you arrive in Sedona the surroundings are magical. One can’t use words to explain it; it is something that you have to experience, something that you feel. I don’t know if it’s due to the colors of the sun as they reflect on the deep red of the surrounding hills, or due to the smell of the dry but at the same time intensely present nature. Visitors with cameras stand for hours trying to capture the location’s strange beauty.

As we enter the town, we see several shops with tourist items and art including fairies and elves, Indians and cowboys, angels, energy therapies, and signs for all kinds of mediums and fortune tellers; and restaurants with all kinds of food. All these, however, are presented with respect for the environment. Everything appears to collaborate with the magnificence of the surroundings: The buildings, the art galleries, even the people who work there, are in harmony with the surroundings.

We start conversations and people tell us that they recovered with “distance healing.” Waitresses look as if they came out of a Harry Potter novel and store clerks from “the Lord of the Rings.” “That’s strange,” I whisper to my friend who concurs.

Sun rays emerge joyfully through the majestic cloud cover and everywhere around us white petals from fine fluffy flowers float in the air.

I feel so strange, as if I am in a movie studio where the director has assembled a set for a fantacy film. Everything is so perfectly harmonized that I begin to wonder whether this is simply happening to me by coincidence or whether this place is always like that.

Fascinated, I telephone my ex-husband and he admits that when he had visited Sedona in the past, he had felt as if he had returned to his home… I then realize that it’s for the same reason that the place reminds me of my village and reminds Katerina of her childhood home: It’s not that the physical location resembles our home countries; it’s the feeling that the place generates: A feeling of belonging, of comfort, of a strong desire to return. Katerina and I got goosebumps as we realized this. Now I see why I was singing songs from my childhood during the drive over!

Astrologists, fortune tellers, shaman doctors, lucky charms, cactuses and cactuses again, art, art, art, many artists with all kinds of creations; from the presentation of the meal down to the toilets at the restaurant, everything incorporates art, with a particular emphasis on the magical, the myth, the adventure. One sees shops with Christmas decorations everywhere. Now why so many Christmas shops, I didn’t get the chance to find out; probably because there is magic in the holiday celebration of Christmas.

The nights are covered with smells of jasmine and a passing fog covers the moon and gives a strange and eerie feeling to the large medieval clock and the narrow streets in the middle of the small town. Shadows slowly approach from the other side of the street and you’re not sure whether they are tourists or whether you are in another dimension.

Hiking the following day was fantastic, with the hills taking different hues and colors as they reflected the light of the setting sun. This is the joy of every hiker: The perfect exercise while surrounded by the perfect scenery; a wide expanse which reminds you of old western films that you watched as a child. You expect a black-and-white John Wayne to appear suddenly in front of you as you turn between the hills. And you worry that you might be attacked by a Native American Indian! In fact, many well-known westerns were filmed here.

Unfamiliar sounds of birds and smells from a nearby creek. As I return to the hotel that evening I sense that I don’t want to leave. Already, I start planning the house that I will buy here! I realize that the moments that I live in Sedona are magical. All my senses are in harmony and excitement. And I wonder, what is magic and what is it that makes my time here so magical? Is it something that the particular place and situation generate, or something that I create?

At the same time I realize that many wonderful places around the world are losing their appeal due to human abuse or neglect. Their magic is starting to wear off from the lack of care and interest, from bad taste, from pollution or noise, or in general from a lack of respect for their magnificence. It is we humans who create these magical situations. A physical attraction is there and we give it the spiritual appeal.

That is when I start to think that yes, magic exists. Magic is something that is based on our faith and on our ability to see something with the eyes of our soul. It is always there from the moment we exist. It can manifest itself in Sedona or anywhere else. Birth itself is magical. The more you believe in it, the more magical do things evolve in your life. The more you allow yourself to come to terms with it, the more it rewards you with its existence.

Our tendency to always be under control, to explain everything, to analyze and criticize everyone and everything, this pointless logic is what shuts the door to magic.

All things flow and change; to live magical moments, we need to allow ourself to go with the flow. How do we let magic embrace our life though?

Even small breaks and escapes have a very positive influence on our energy. When we feel under a lot of pressure, it is good to stop what we are doing and to undertake something that we truly enjoy and which helps raise our spirits. Having thus regained our balance, we will be able to return to the activity that was pressuring us and to complete it with greater success.

Going with the flow means accepting where we are and how we feel without resisting them. It implies changing how we see things and a confidence that whatever happens is for our ultimate good (we usually realize this when time has gone by and we have assembled the pieces of the puzzle – and then we say “a, now I understand why”).

When we encourage ourself to express more gratitude, more joy and more love for the things that we already have, for the people, the things, and the situations in our life, magically more new things appear for which we will be grateful, which will bring joy, and which we will love.

When we judge and compare ourself with other people and situations thinking that we are in a worse situation, we then block our self from enjoying the good things we already have.

Conversely, when we relax and we accept the place, the time, and the situation, we become synchronized with the universe and everything happens and flows positively. When we resist and compmlain, then the passages close…

I create, I take care of myself and of the others and I keep my environment “clean,” harmonious, and with beautiful things around me: clean air, light, candles, nice music, a favorite taste, etc.

Ritual is very important and has been lost in our time. Everything has become “fast food.” The more I hurry though, the more likely I am to trip, my behavior shrinks time.

I decorate nicely the table, even if my meal is simple. I sense each bite that I swallow and I am grateful.

I dedicate quality and romantic time to my partner and I realize magical times that I have imagined, or seen, or read about.

Follow your inner stream which knows where the source is. And if you allow doubt to creep in, then you fall off your magic broom… 

Magic is everywhere around us. We only need to open our inner eyes to see its amazing colors; our ears to hear its delicate sound; our taste to experience its sweetness; our smell to sense its out-of-this-world spectacular fragrancies; our sense of touch so that we can feel its exotic beauty; and our intuition so that we allow our self to follow it.

However, magic also needs care to exist; it needs faith, love, and synchronicity. And magic bears miracle.

Miracle, magic, and love are not rational. Nevertheless, they constitute the three most striking elements of our life.