Hidden Corners Of Places
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Features: Travel


A'kal the Wandering Wayfinder
The United States
Date: 12/17/2013

On the Hidden Corners of Places: A Travelblog

I'd been meaning to undertake this project ever since the disastrous "liveblogging" travel-a-thon across solar corona. I'm not sure if I made this abundantly clear at the time (the solar wind was a touch difficult to astrally project through) but travel there is stressful at best to carbon-based life. I would only recommenced it to a spicily seasoned traveler. What's that? I haven't mentioned this project? Well fear not dear readers; A'kal is a merciful chronicler.

Since I've had my fill of the physical and the editorial staff has put their collective foot down on an expensive or esoterically intensive endeavor I've decided to embark on an emotional excursion. This next trip is to a place that is not exactly a place, it's a state. Deep down under the ripples generated by conscious minds on memespace is a place where the shadows of ideas form, a place of emotional ripples and echos, a place of mood, a place of the fourth primary colour.

Where and How:

In my profession we call this "The Hidden Place" or "The Hidden Corners of Places" because they are fairly unobtrusive but nearly as ubiquitous as corners. You can get there by taking a short walk with an empty mind. Enter your meditative state of choice (or blank your .temp files) and move in whatever direction you please. Keep your eyes open (a good wayfinder keeps safety first) and let them settle. Chances are you'll have reached a universal wobble. Mark down the location for later use and return with a thematically appropriate passport (change for a vending machine, water for the thirsty, a tender hand for the stricken etc). Activate your passport toss a handful of salt at the nearest invertebrate (any variety aside from table salt will do) and then re-open them and you'll be there. Be sure to take a bag with you; travel light because there is no guarantee that your Hidden Place will have luggage service. While in a Hidden Place you can choose to ignore exhaustion, hunger or other physical symptoms of travel but you cannot travel faster than your walking pace or ignore the dominant sensations of the Corner so it's best to plan accordingly.

Things to Do:
Hidden Corners are flush with variety. Some are entirely visual, a symphony of images, colors and patterns to delight and confuse the sighted. Others are quiet and contemplative, dwelling on the inner lives of extroverts. I've been to one that consisted only of a lemon wedge, an uncharacteristically stained stainless steel floor and a note that said "good luck :(". Your Hidden Corner will form in response to the way that the emotions in your region resonate, the way that memes proliferate and the cultural context of the wayfinder's upbringing. Bear in mind that events may occur in such a way as to violate causality. No matter where you go you'll have something to do so it's best to keep an open mind.

Accommodations:
Hidden Corners can intersect with well-traveled Ways. At such junctions you may find waystations1 to accommodate you. As I outlined earlier this is a mental trip and not a physical one so physical needs only exist insomuch as you want them to. This of course leads us to:

Safety:2
Under no circumstances should you sleep in a Hidden Corner as doing so will invite the Unnamed or the Neverwhere into your psyche. If you don't want to spend the remainder of your existence screaming while marinating in your own juices then Don't sleep outside of a waystation. Remember that it's possible to avoid sleeping in a Hidden Corner for as long as you deem appropriate.

As always I'll be posting a photo gallery of my experiences as I travel (I know that's the reason you follow me; it's clearly not for my prose). You can follow me on TheShambles, Flastula or here on Planasthai. Happy Traveling3.

~A'kal

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