There are certain places on our planet that act as portals to another dimension where the veils between worlds are thinner. Often, they are preserved in time, containing the frequency of another era that is alive and palpable even while it may seem implausible. Visiting these locations is valuable for enhancing our sense of history and context. They also offer ways to expand our imagination, conjure magic, and connect with the various elementals, goddesses, guides, and higher dimensional teachers assisting humanity. Read on to discover how these portals can help you experience the magic within wrinkles of time and space.
One such place is conveniently located near my home, and I make it a point to visit every summer. I am continuously floored by its power. Only six miles offshore, located between the border of Maine and New Hampshire, the storied Isles of Shoals, rise up from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. With a deep history and much mystical lore, the location is shrouded in awe with tales of buried treasure, ghosts, and shipwrecks.
The late Anita Shreve wrote about the Isles of Shoals in her novel The Weight of Water, which became a movie. It describes the historical and tragic fate of two women on the island of Smuttynose in the late 1800s. Used first by Indigenous Peoples as a fishing camp, it then became a flourishing summer vacation destination, when the Appeldore Hotel opened in the mid 1800s. The nineteenth century female poet Celia Thaxter hosted a community of well-known artists on Appledore where she resided after having spent her childhood on the nearby White Island, where her father was the lighthouse keeper. It was also a successful fishing community. With nine islands total, the more well-known islands include Appledore, Smuttynose, White and Star.
The latter is the only island that the public can access and, as such, the only one that I have been able to visit. Time seems to have stopped on Star Island. It houses a stately old inn called the Oceanic Hotel, which is still in use today as a conference center. Beauty is in full force at every turn on the Isles of Shoals. From the picturesque Gosport harbor to the flowers and wind-shaped trees to the stone buildings, gardens, and sharp granite landscape, the space holds the stories of all it has witnessed. There is a profound and alluring magic about the island.
The vibration of this portal insists on slowing down. It acts as a bridge for you to your own muse, your spirit of inspiration. Often when looking out towards the far side of the island, away from the harbor, I see a mermaid enveloped in a seafoam shawl in my mind’s eye. She rises to the surface and, with a knowing smile, sings, her voice blending with the wind and the waves. I’m not even sure if it is my imagination.
Mermaids are connected to my own lineage as a priestess of the sea and a daughter of the primeval sea. These majestic beings always seem to find me whenever I go to the Isles of Shoals. Indeed, they show up when no one else is around except me. Is this by design to expand my imaginative capacity, I wonder? Or is my ability to perceive radically expanded in places such as this? This ambiguity both enchants and excites me, and I love going there. The metaphysical potentiality of the visits invigorates and reassures me.
Just as the poet Celia Thaxter invited many brilliant artists to gain inspiration from the portal of her home, I invite you to prioritize a connection to the sacred magic of our world and find your own versions of the Isles of Shoals. Use these magical spaces to access the Divine. By spending time therein, we cultivate the capacity to create these very portals within ourselves. Seeking these spaces out will help you expand your mind, open your imagination, and reconnect with the unseen teachers, helpers, and sacred beings here to help you live beyond your wildest dreams.
*Inspired by the wisdom of the Sumerian Goddess Inanna, this blog is an invitation to live as she does, like an Unapologetic Heroine.
Seana Zelazo, LICSW is a psychotherapist, spiritual coach, and intuitive channel committed to helping us live unapologetically, by restoring balance within and without through the wisdom of the Sumerian Goddess Inanna. Look for her upcoming book The Way of Inanna: A Heroine’s Guide to Living Unapologetically in Septembr 2022. seanazelazo.com
