Urban Wicca - Foreword
The examples you read in this book will all draw from Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minnesota. Why? Because I live here and that means I test all the propositions of my magic here. Some references will not make sense to you: if you live in a landlocked city, you may want to skip the chapters on rivers and lakes or adjust to the human-imbued energy of a reservoir. If your city has little in the way of museums, you may want to take stock of libraries, churches, meeting halls and figure out what buildings are the oldest. The energies of each and every geographic location will differ: what I find in Minneapolis may not apply or even translate in Chicago or New York. The worksheets provided in the back and online can help you determine alignments for yourself, and then it's up to you to build your own table of correspondences for your own city.
You will also need to pull from non-magical resources for your city. This, at minimum will necessitate two actions: first, that you get your hands on a phone book. While most of such information is online these days, there are hidden things that can only be found in phone books, or that were in phone books first such as detailed street-by-street city maps. Second, you will need to find a time to visit your local library and read up on the history of the city. Most libraries have a room or wing dedicated to historic preservation, much of which carries antique texts and historical data. If you can, visit a university library as well - sometimes they will be entrusted with the more valuable of those collections. Expect to go on frequent visits as you build up your own selection of city lore and magical practice. The better you understand the history of an area, the better you'll understand the folklore.
Also make note of every government-run building in your city. These secular locations are the strongest repositories for the city spirit, because everyone in the area must visit them at some point. Even DMV locations will have some kind of snarling beast attached. Your city hall will resonate with its own energy, and if you live in a county seat, the county courthouse will definitely have some power to it.
It sounds a little strange, reading the phone book and visiting the library for purely magical purposes, but it will connect you to your community by making you aware of how much minutiae goes into creating an entire community.
Do the above, and bring the worksheets with you. You'll be able to find some online at dianarajchel.com/urbanwicca to print out. You may want to collect them in a binder with some loose-leaf paper so you can make notes on what you discover both at the library and at the sites you visit. When you engage in these meditations, have this binder nearby. The sooner you capture your impressions and experiences, the better quality of information you will have to contribute to building a table of correspondences from your city.