If there is one thing that might interfere with your ability to connect to urban magick, it’s this: the city spirit is NOT the same as the genius loci. The genius loci is the inherent intelligence in the land. Rivers, lakes, and oceans - are separate intelligences that interact with, harmonize with, or work against the land and city.

The city spirit is its own consciousness, in most situations. I have seen a lot of Tik Tokers go on about a city egregore, and it’s frustrating to observe. First, most almost but don’t quite get what an egregore is. An egregore is a collective thought form built from human consciousness (always as a collective) that can become an independent spirit. Most overarching city and neighborhood spirits do begin at some point with egregore energy. An egregore is exclusively a being of the astral.

However, city spirits do not stay as egregores very long (if you measure in centuries) because city spirits do not only have human consciousness contributing to their shape and manifestation. Plants, animals, the genius loci, the waters, and spirits that live parallel to humans both living and dead are also part of what forms a city spirit. If a shared identity forms over a geographic region, it’s enough for a city spirit. That city spirit becomes something of the astral AND of the animistic.

A genius loci is the consciousness of the land itself. It is never astral. It is purely animistic, here and is, and always will be. The same is true of the spirits of our water sources. (Also, water spirits, indeed, are always looking to mess someone up. Because of pollution. If you go ask one to mess someone up without forming a relationship and trying to clean the water, you deserve what you get.)

A city spirit becomes both animistic and astral when the city spirit consciousness forms a relationship with the land. That relationship may not be a healthy one. The land spirit in San Francisco is constantly trying to shake off or collapse the too-densely built physical city, and it often wants to put the San Francisco city spirit out of the land’s misery. On the other hand, the spirit of New York City has fused with the genius loci and its surrounding water spirit. Say what you will of the human government and the rats; the city, land, and water are robust and working as one.

I don’t see it happen as much among folk practitioners with animism at its core, but I see it a lot with Pagans who approach the astral as a catch-all for all phenomena. There is a tendency among European-inspired American Pagans to try to cram a concept back into what they already know. Not only does that not work if you’re authentically committed to magick and spiritual practice, but doing so can put you in danger. Making an active choice to “not believe” can work with things that are wholly astral and human-generated. However, the animistic is what makes your very bones - you’re not going to escape a consciousness of the very structure of all that is that has decided you need to learn something.

City spirits are not wholly human-generated. Humans aren’t the only beings that live in them. Trying to cram them back into your religious or spiritual knowledge subset is disrespectful to the genius loci and the city spirit because conflating them ignores that they indeed have agency. Also, it assumes that you already know everything that’s out there and there are only so many things that can be, and your religious or spiritual view is the one that defines the whole of reality. Not only is that not true, but that’s total colonizer thinking. Religions have zero business explaining phenomena nowadays, and humans have zero business attempting to cram phenomena back into incorrect classifications so they feel comfortable.

The real spiritual is an uncomfortable place, and not all the things that read as uncomfortable, evil, or challenging need to be changed. Sometimes, it’s the human and the human perspective.

Unless a fusion occurs, the city spirit is different from the genius loci. If you’re serious about working with urban magick/magical urbanism, ask the land and the city to help you tell the difference between them. When you do, ask them to be gentle.

And to the uninformed who think that spirits are exclusively ghosts: go read some folklore. You don’t belong here.