This edition of Practical Magick is directed at those individuals that travel for work or business, and spend significant time away from family, friends, and their homes. If you are someone who dreams of traveling more and is in search of magick advice on how to explore the world and expand your horizons, this particular article, unfortunately, isn’t for you.

Unlike some of my Practical Magick articles, this one doesn’t contain specific rituals, spells, or incantations. What it does include are areas of focus that might need addressing in your day-to-day world and tools and techniques for focusing and connecting energies that can help balance life in regards to your specific needs.

For many, the idea of travel seems exotic, romantic, and even glamorous. Many of us long to explore the world we live in regardless if that means a trip to a local hot spring or a European vacation. Even those of us who spend considerable time on the road will tell you that personal travel can still be all of those things. Even after the accumulative years on the road, I am grateful to be able to travel for my own personal growth and experiences, especially when sharing those experiences with family, friends, and like-minded individuals. Nevertheless, anyone who travels because it’s required of them will tell you that there’s a reality that doesn’t have the glamor and romance. Tell people you travel for a living, and their immediate reaction is to mentally superimpose you in the far-off settings of travel magazines and television shows. What they don’t imagine is the mundane actuality of living out of a suitcase, eating fast food for every meal, and missing major events in loved one’s lives waiting out yet another layover in Denver, Atlanta, or Dallas. The reality is, that life on the road can be demanding and quite often spiritually challenging.

Over the years I’ve spent more time traveling than I care to think about. At one point, in a conversation with a colleague, I figured out that I had spent a combined total of five months at one particular hotel in a city I frequently was sent for work. That wasn’t in the lifetime of my career, that was in less than a year! That also didn’t include the month and a half of combined travel to another destination and the random travel to several other locations. All in all, I spent close to eighty percent of one particular year away from my home and those I hold close to me. Throughout it all, the challenge is staying physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually charged. If you are someone who can relate to the struggle, I hope you will find this article to be of some use in your own situation.

Talking to many travelers over the years, I’ve learned that everyone experiences the highs and lows of being on the road in different ways. That said, however, I think there are definitely certain themes that resonate with us all.

One of the biggest things I’ve had to deal with over the years is a sense of feeling ungrounded. Your world exists in a roll aboard suitcase. Many times, there is little connection to the places you might find yourself, and it’s easy to start seeing the world as an ethereal place where apparitions of people come and go in airplanes, buses, and the continental breakfast at the hotel. Another aspect of this is not feeling like you are connected to the home where you should feel grounded. “Groundedness” is truly one of the most important areas to find balance since it is concerned, quite literally, with your connection to your lifelines and support systems, in other words, a part of your identity.

For grounding, especially while away from home, I suggest bringing the accoutrements for a small altar. It’s no different from packing your toothbrush and razor. My “kit” includes a small circle of fabric that acts as a cloth to put my traveling altar. It doesn’t need to be big, and it certainly doesn’t need to be emblazoned with pagan symbols. It will, however, provide a symbolic sacred space, that you’ve brought with you, that will help ground to your personal energies. I’m also very fond of stones and gems while traveling. They are easily transported, durable, and in general the innate nature of stone and crystal is that of permanency and stability. More specifically, there are a few stones that have traditionally been used for grounding and protection. To complete your traveling magickal space, you can add a few things that you feel provide grounding or magickal capabilities. One year I was going to be in a southern climate for Thanksgiving. I know a lot of people enjoy year-round good weather, but I have to admit, I’m a four-season kind of guy. In order to connect with that energy, I brought a few leaves with me. As I was heading off to a Thanksgiving dinner at Denny’s, I just held them and visualized my connection to my home and family.

Be careful of bringing things like candles and incense. Some places might have a no candle policy. In rare cases, the smoke from a candle being put out, or the heat from a misplaced candle can set off the fire system. I’ve even heard of some places that don’t allow incense or anything that might be considered objectionable by future guests. If in doubt, ask the front desk. Although I’m a purest when it comes to certain things (a real candle will always be better than an electric one in my opinion), a little ingenuity can at least bring the mental focus and spiritual attunement of the intent. So, even though I can’t have a real candle in the hotel, I can at least have the ambiance of the flickering glow, helping me visualize and transport my mind and spirit to the places where I’m grounded and at home.

Since stones and gems become a big part of my traveling kit, it’s very important that they get the proper care. When you get home from a trip, you might have to plug in and recharge your cell phone, laptop, Fitbit, Bluetooth, iPad…maybe even your car. I do all of these as well, but I also make it a point to recharge my stones. My “charging station” is a small area outside in the garden. In the center of this little space is a small selenite tower. The selenite is perfect for clearing the other stones and dissipating the foreign energy. By leaving my stones outdoors for a few days, it also allows them to recharge with the energy of my home and familiar surroundings. When I take these stones back on the road, I can truly feel, and ground, in those places that are close to my heart.

Another idea is to have two sets of stones. One set gets carried during the trip. While you are away, take moments to hold those stones and reflect on the people that you love. Take comfort in your loved ones’ energy stored for you while infusing the stones with your love for them later.  This energy is usually very powerful because the soul is usually missing a connection to those who help fulfill your life. The other set of stones stays with those same people you are thinking about; maybe they are a spouse or significant other, child, or good friend. While you gone, your energy is being given to them while at the same time recharging the stone with their energy for you to take with you the next time. Such transfers of energy bring us to another area that requires attention, communication.

Of course, being ungrounded in physical space and location is unnerving, but one of the hardest parts about traveling extensively for work, is feeling like you have no connection with loved ones. One of the most important things you can do is keep open positive channels of communication. It’s easy to believe that this can’t possibly be a problem in a society where we are more “connected” then ever in our history. Nevertheless, think about the differences between being connected to an acquaintance on Facebook, and being connected to your wife or children. Connection on the deepest of levels requires much more energy than a few character text message, especially if physical connection is also hindered by distance. Just like in any magickal working, the outcome of the spell, is often linked to the intensity of the energy put into it.

When it comes to maintaining connection, here are a couple of tips. There are times when a text message or even email might have to suffice for a short time. Even this communication is better than nothing. However, in order to truly foster higher levels of communication, it is important to think about all of the things we use in other forms of magic; intent, intensity, vibration. Here are a couple of examples. We always talk about having a clear intent in magickal work. When put in this context, what that means is actively thinking about what you are trying to achieve in the communication itself. This might seem completely obvious, but at times it’s the most obvious things that get taken for granted. There’s a big difference in just “checking in” as opposed to making time to honestly connect on a deeper level with your loved ones. It grounds you and lets them know you are still part of their world as well. Think about the ways that you communicate. Like I said previously, a text message might do in a pinch, but the vibration of hearing your voice over the phone will have a different level of energy to it. Finally, just like when we’re working a magick spell, find as many ways to focus your energies. Before you leave, sit down and actually write a handwritten letter to leave for a special time. The materials themselves might have significant meaning, but there is also a heightened sense of intensity in the fact that you took the time to think about that person. Find ways to put as much thought and intent in your communication with the physical people in your life as you do with the energies and mysteries of the world.

A few “communications” practices that can be kind of fun are experimenting with energy transfers over great distances. During a deep meditation, spend some time raising and sending positive energies toward a loved one. Focus all of your intent on communicating with that person. In time you will find that when you talk to them next, they will suddenly say something like, “I was thinking about you today during lunch…” It’s no coincidence that that was exactly when you were sending those energies. Couples have even played around with things like astral projection (more on that in another article) as a fun experiment that both partners can enjoy together.

Traveling has made me a more worldly and open person. I’ve been blessed to have been places and seen things that I never would have if it hadn’t been for my career and the travel it required of me. Maybe even more so than traveling for pleasure, sometimes business travel takes us out of our comfort zones and forces us to experience things we wouldn’t have chosen initially, but that still add to our life and it’s direction in the long term. Nevertheless, traveling by necessity and requirement has its share of downsides. I’ve met some great people while traveling, but I’ve also known way too many friendships and partnerships that ended because of the blessing turned curse. It’s important to acknowledge the need for connection and grounding, then summon your magickal abilities to find deeper connections that others outside the magickal community might regretfully never see.

If you are a business traveler and have found ways to integrate magick in your travel routine, please send us a message. We’d love to hear about your experiences and practices.

© 2021 Marcus Everett & The Victorian Society of Metaphysics & Magic