Wanderland. A Search For Magic In The Landscape With Jini Reddy
There are places where the ‘veil is thin,’ where we can connect with the Other in the landscape — if only we learn how to listen. In this interview, Jini Reddy talks about how to find magic in the natural world. Jini Reddy is an award-winning author and journalist. Her latest book is Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape. Show notes * How can we connect with the ‘Other’ in the landscape? * The attraction of islands * Aspects of pilgrimage * The archetypal attraction of labyrinths * Seeing our local area with new eyes * Can a traveler ever find home? * Travel book recommendations You can find Jini Reddy at JiniReddy.co.uk Transcript of the interview Jo: Jini Reddy is an award-winning author and journalist. Her latest book is Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape. Welcome, Jini. Jini: Hi, Jo. Thank you so much for having me. Jo: I’m excited to talk to you. I love the book. I’ve got it here in hardback on my desk. Jini: How brilliant. It’s also just come out in paperback. Jo: Oh, there you go. So let’s get into it because it’s just wonderful. I love it. And you write about “seeking the wild unseen” and your “yearning to connect with the Other in the land.” The book is about a search for magic, but what do you mean by magic in this context? Jini: I should give this some context so people will know what I mean. I’ve been a travel writer for some time before I came to write the book. And on my travels, I’d had opportunities to meet people from indigenous cultures, people for whom the idea of being in a relationship with a sentient, animate earth wasn’t unusual, it was something pretty normal. The idea that there is human and then more than human life and we’re just one part of the whole was an idea, a way of being that really resonated with me. So this idea of wanting to develop a relationship with a responsive universe, this wild unseen, is something I wanted to explore in my own way. I was asking myself, might it be possible for a regular person like myself to experience a glimpse of the world I’ve seen through these eyes? So by magic, I guess the understanding that as humans, we’re just one form of intelligence and that we exist in a world of multiple intelligences and asking how might we communicate with some aspects of this intelligence or intelligences? I wanted to inject a spiritual dimension into my roaming. The seed for the journey was sown that way. So while I’m going into landscapes and while I’m appreciating the physical beauty of the landscapes, there’s a parallel journey going on while I’m where I’m trying to open up to the spirit of the landscape. Jo: That’s fantastic. I resonated with the book because I feel the same way. I feel that there are these places as you write as well, where “the veil is thin” and where I’ve had these experiences where I felt like there’s more than human life here. I might only be the only human here right now, but I am not alone amongst nature. But I think one of the frustrating things is that this doesn’t happen all the time. What are your thoughts on how can we open our minds or our spirits to be more aware of these places? Jini: It’s not just places, but also the idea that all living creatures within the natural world have sentience. Animals, plants, birds, trees, as well as what we would call places. But in terms of opening our minds, it’s to do with the sincerity of our intention, about listening deeply, slowing down, asking questions, putting questions out there,