++ GENIUS LOCI: LOS ANGELES
Consult the genius of place in all.

The spirits of the land, the spirits of place. They are the protectors of nature and those who operate within their boundaries. In order to connect to these spirits, you have to examine and understand the native wildlife and flora, the weather patterns and topography, this history of the people that inhabited the land and the cosmology of the gods that smiled upon and smote its people. It is the essence of all that has lived and died there, it is the breath of the wind, the warmth of the soil, the bright burst of blood and the cool touch of thousands of years of morning dew, the echoes of a millennia of laughter, howls, screams, and scuttlings. It is the song of the land itself manifested into one energy, one soul; to propitiate it is to bring power and good fortune, but to anger or neglect spells ruin.

This is our multi-faceted series dedicated to the genii of Los Angeles, and we begin with the fluttering wings of LA’s psyche: butterflies.

Image: Los Angeles, 1906