A lot of Paganism is spent trying to “get back” to nature. For some of us, this means we get an itch to leave the apartment complexes or suburbs and buy that little farm out in the country. However, this is not always an easy, or even possible, scenario. My husband works for a large telecommunications company as a Linux admin, and needs to be able to drive into work at a moment’s notice in case a server or network goes out. It would not be easy for us to just pack up and forsake Society. We’re not even sure we’ll ever *buy* a house, as we tend to need to move around quite a bit. So we are living in one of the forests that are apartment complexes. This does mean we’ve got neighbors and lots of them. I recently seem to have struck up an unlikely friendship with the seven year old girl who lives above us. She wants to move in…

It isn’t *just* about being one with nature. It’s about being in harmony with what is around you, and wherever you are, whether is be the country or the city, honoring and loving those around you. Athena is a good example of a Goddess who loves the hustle and bustle of metropolises. She’s the Greek Goddess (along with her Roman counter-part Minerva) of Civilization. She got an entire city named after her!

While helping an entire city may appear to be a daunting task, you can certainly do a few things for your neighborhood. Start small. Help take care of trash on the ground, take a moment to actually talk to your neighbors and get to know them (I’m horrible at taking my own advice). Magically speaking, you can light a dark blue candle to promote communication and openness among neighbors, or cast a protection spell that deters thieves, or protects children from harm. Easier to do in smaller areas, or suburbs, but I lived in a neighborhood that would get together every summer for a block party. Everyone came, and there were games and sooo much food.

What can you do to protect or bring harmony to your neighborhood?

– Alfrún