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CANADA EDITION

ESOTERIC GEOGRAPHY

BRITISH COLUMBIA The Hidden Order Beneath the Mist

MAPING THE MASONIC LODGES

URBAN RITUALS

MASTERS OF THE OCCULT

INDEX

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MOST VISITED PLACE IN JAPAN Add a short teaser paragraph

TIMMERMAN AIRPORT Add a short teaser paragraph here

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HAWAII TROPICAL BLISS

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HANOVER AIRLINES

TRAVEL DIARIES

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Table of Contents 2

ESOTERIC GEOGRAPHY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AVERY DAVIS

MANAGING EDITOR BENJAMIN SHAH

CONTENT DIRECTOR HENRIETTA MITCHELL

ART DIRECTION MUHAMMAD PATEL

PHOTOGRAPHERS SOO JIN AE TAKEHIRO KANEGI

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AARON LOEB ROSA MARIA AGUADO

OUR CONTRIBUTORS PHYLLIS SCHWAIGER Place a short biography of this magazine's contributor here.

RUFUS STEWART Place a short biography of this magazine's contributor here.

SHARLENE ROSE Place a short biography of this magazine's contributor here.

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FROM THE EDITOR ESOTERIC GEOGRAPHY

Welcome. This guide began as a quiet observation. A feeling that cities, like people, carry stories beneath the surface, histories we do not always see but often feel. Vancouver, with its shifting skies and layered terrain, seemed to ask for a slower, more symbolic reading.

One that includes not just streets and architecture, but atmosphere, memory, and energy.

In these pages, you’ll find a blend of urban symbolism, planetary influence, spiritual terrain, and quiet rituals. This is not a guide in the traditional sense. It is more like a companion for those who sense that meaning is embedded in the everyday, and that the places we inhabit shape us as much as we shape them.

This issue is an invitation to slow down. To look differently at the places you pass. To feel the invisible patterns that form the soul of a city. It is not about offering answers, but about holding a space for presence, noticing, and wonder.

Thank you for arriving. And thank you for reading with intention.

Leonardo Moena EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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ESOTERIC MAP

Imagine embarking on an adventure guided by an esoteric map, where each step aligns you with the unseen currents beneath the surface, eager to reveal their mysteries. As you navigate these popular places, you'll attune to the subtle energies that can transform your perspective and deepen your connection to the world around you.

maping the lodges

By Rev. Leonardo Moena

A QUIET LOOK AT FOUR MASONIC LODGES IN BRITISH COLUMBIA THAT STILL OPERATE BEHIND FAMILIAR FAÇADES.

FFreemasonry became active in British Columbia in the second half of the 19th century. Its arrival coincided with the growth of cities, the expansion of railways, and the formation of civic institutions.

Lodges were usually founded by men already affiliated with the craft in England, Scotland, or the United States, many of whom worked in construction, law, surveying, and politics.

Many of these early lodges remain active. Their buildings are still part of the urban landscape, though rarely marked in obvious ways.

Some are situated above storefronts, others beside civic halls or in quiet residential streets.

From the outside, there is little indication of their function.

The four lodges presented in this section are documented locations where meetings still take place.

Their architecture, use, and placement within the city offer insight into how Masonic presence integrated into everyday structures over time.

This is a visual and historical register. It does not interpret or decode. It acknowledges the presence of these spaces as part of the province’s development.

Some buildings carry meaning through design. Others through persistence. These lodges do both, quietly holding their place in the architecture of the province.

Each structure tells a story, reflecting the values of Freemasonry while adapting to changing times. Their facades conceal a rich history within.

CORRESPONDENCE

VICTORIA MASONIC TEMPLE Pandora Avenue Victoria

UNION SOLOMON LODGE NO. 9 New Westminster

A heritage building of symbolic geometry and quiet authority, this temple hosts rituals, archives, and communal gatherings within its symmetrical stone walls. Inside, ceremonial halls reflect a lineage of esoteric continuity, while the exterior stands as a subtle anchor of spiritual tradition in the flow of Victoria’s evolving urban fabric.

Built in 1912, this discreet two-story structure blends commercial activity below with ritual space above. Its brick facade and modest signage conceal a chamber where ancient rites persist. More than a building, it functions as a spiritual node in Duncan’s quiet grid, a meeting point of history, fraternity, and inner work.

CORRESPONDENCE

GRAND LODGE OF BC AND YUKON Vancouver

TEMPLE LODGE N 33 Duncan, Vancouver Island

A central axis of ritual leadership and archival authority, this space coordinates the flow of symbolic work across the province. Within its walls, lineage is preserved, constitutions upheld, and initiatory traditions quietly refined.

It functions as both heart and helm of a broader spiritual architecture spanning lodge to lodge.

An unassuming facade masks the depth within.

Above street-level shops, the upper floor holds a ritual chamber shaped by over a century of symbolic practice. Here, the geometry of Temple Lodge No. 33 sustains a living current, where masonry, memory, and metaphysical intent quietly intersect in the heart of downtown Duncan.

IN CITIES WHERE SO MUCH IS TORN DOWN AND REPLACED, A ROOM THAT HAS NOT CHANGED ITS PURPOSE IN OVER A CENTURY HOLDS MORE THAN HISTORY. IT HOLDS STRUCTURE.

By the early 20th century, Masonic lodges in British Columbia were no longer limited to colonial outposts. They had become established institutions with dedicated buildings, printed proceedings, and coordinated provincial leadership. The Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, formed in 1871, maintained direct correspondence with other Grand Lodges in Canada and the United States, solidifying its role as a regional authority in Masonic governance.

Each lodge had a unique relationship with its surrounding city. In smaller towns, the local lodge often served as a central meeting place, drawing together figures from law, trade, and infrastructure.

In larger urban centers like Vancouver, the lodge became part of a broader civic structure, less visible but tightly organized.

Membership lists from the early 1900s often overlapped with municipal records, school boards, and land commissions.

Though Prince Philip was never formally initiated as a Freemason, his role in ceremonial institutions connected him symbolically to many of the same traditions.

During state visits and public events in Canada, he was photographed wearing regalia associated with other orders of knighthood, often sparking interest among Masonic circles.

His presence at events hosted by or adjacent to fraternal societies helped maintain a visible link between monarchy, ritual, and public life, specially in former colonies where ceremonial heritage still holds cultural weight.

The legacy of Freemasonry in British Columbia is not hidden, but it is easy to miss. It exists in city layouts, in building placements, and in the continued use of spaces whose original purpose has not changed. From Victoria to Duncan to New Westminster and Vancouver, these lodges are part of a larger historical pattern that blends social structure with private ritual.

Their relevance today is not symbolic. It is functional. They still meet, still vote, and still follow protocols that outlasted most of the buildings surrounding them. In a province known for its natural beauty, these rooms remain untouched in their purpose.

URBAN METAPHYSICS

Cartography, the art and science of map-making, is essential for navigating and understanding the world. In Vancouver, known for its natural beauty and vibrant life, maps reveal its unique geography and urban planning. From topographical maps of surrounding mountains to street maps for locals and tourists, cartography enriches our experience and aids decisions on living, exploring, and community engagement.

VANCOUVER Esoteric Analysis

by Rev. Leonardo Moena

Vancouver’s skyline stands between ocean an mountains, reflecting a city positioned as a gateway between elements and worlds.

“Vancouver speaks through light, fog, and form. Its energy is quiet, but present.”‌

Rather than offering fixed conclusions, the intention is to open a new way of seeing.

A way of sensing how a city might reflect inner states, and how its energy can shape awareness. In the end, we’ll reflect on which chakra this region may activate, and what subtle teaching it offers to those who feel called to live, visit, or simply pay attention.

This perspective is part of a broader approach I call urban metaphysics a way of reading cities not only by their history and design, but through their symbolic codes, energetic flows, and spiritual influence. Vancouver is just one chapter in this ongoing exploration of how the soul and the city are often speaking the same quiet language.

By tuning into the rhythms of a place, we can discover layers of meaning that resonate with our personal journeys. In Vancouver, the mountains stand as ancient sentinels, whispering stories of endurance and strength.

Vancouver is more than a beautiful coastal city. For those drawn to subtle energies and the unseen patterns that shape our lives, it reveals a deep spiritual and symbolic presence. This guide is part of a personal project exploring esoteric geography, the idea that places, like people, hold energetic blueprints.

Vancouver, with its mountains, ocean, forests, and ever-changing sky, feels like a meeting point between worlds. There is something in the atmosphere that invites stillness, reflection, and a quiet sense of inner power.

This section looks at Vancouver’s role on the Pacific coast, touching on symbolic terrain, astrocartographic alignments, karmic layers, and hidden stories. While Vancouver is the focus, nearby regions like Vancouver Island, Tofino, Burnaby, and New Westminster also carry their own energetic tones.

Gateway Between Worlds

Some places don’t just exist.

They remember.

Vancouver listens more than it speaks.

ESOTERIC ANALYSIS Vancouver’s energetic function can be characterized as a gateway and transmuter.

Geopolitically and spiritually, it bridges East and West, North and South, a point of. onvergence for cultures and currents. The city sits at the terminus of cross-continental pathways (the historical railhead and the Pacific shipping routes), making it a liminal zone where energies exchange. In esoteric terms, Vancouver acts like an egregore of integration: it absorbs influences from the Pacific Rim and North America, blending them into a unique collective field.

This gateway nature is evident in its demographic tapestry (one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Canada) and its role as Canada’s Pacific port , a place where goods, ideas, and people flow in and out. The energetic function here is mediator and transformer.

Vancouver takes raw inputs (from natural resources to cultural innovations) and transmutes them into new forms, much as an alchemist would.

Consider how the city historically shipped out logs and fish (extraction) but now exports films, software, and green technologies (creation); it has shifted from a frontier outpost to a cosmopolitan innovator. This reflects an energy moving from base survival towards higher creativity, signaling Vancouver’s role in raising vibrations.

The city often provides a peaceful neutral ground, for international dialogues, ecological activism, or artistic expression, functioning as a calming, unifying energetic node on the world stage. It’s no coincidence that Greenpeace was born in Vancouver in 1971, when activists set sail from its harbour to protest nuclear testing ; the city energetically fosters such global conscience efforts.

In sum, Vancouver’s function is to be a Pacific gateway of transformation, geographically, economically, and spiritually linking and balancing disparate worlds.

URBAN METAPHYSICS ASTROCARTOGRAPHY

From an astrocartographic perspective, Vancouver’s location and history reveal intriguing planetary resonances.

Astrocartography and Planetary Influences

The city was incorporated on April 6, 1886, placing its Sun in Aries, a cardinal fire sign of initiation and courage. True to that Aries impulse, Vancouver’s early years were marked by pioneering vigor: it rose rapidly as the terminus of the transcontinental railroad, a bold outpost of enterprise on the Pacific.

The Aries energy can be sensed in Vancouver’s willingness to blaze trails (for instance, becoming an early center of environmental activism and alternative culture). Yet Vancouver’s personality doesn’t feel purely Martian (Aries’ ruler); there is a strong Neptunian undertow here as well.

Neptune, planet of mystique, ocean, and illusion, seems to cast its hue over the city: consider the foggy harbors and endless rains, the city’s global film industry (nicknamed Hollywood North, spinning dreams and illusions), and its historic reputation for a laidback, even escapist lifestyle (locals basking in “Lotusland,” as one columnist dubbed it, alluding to Homer’s lotus-eaters).

It is as if Vancouver sits under a Neptune line that enhances creativity, spirituality, and yes, escapism (reflected in both healthy forms like art and unhealthy ones like the city’s struggles with substance use).

Settled under Aries skies, Vancouver’s terrain hums with the resonance of initiation, its geometry shaped as much by astrology as by earth.

Indeed, Canada’s national astrological chart (Confederation 1867) has Neptune rising in Aries, which astrologers say imbues the country with idealism. Vancouver, being on Canada’s western edge, might be seen as the exemplar of that Neptunian idealism, a place where utopian visions (of multicultural harmony, of sustainable living) are projected onto the civic canvas

URBAN METAPHYSICS ASTROCARTOGRAPHY

Vancouver Skyline and Canada PlaceUnder a Venus MC influence, Vancouver’s skyline merges maritime architecture with cosmic alignment. Canada Place, with its sail-like silhouette, echoes the city’s role as a spiritual port where water meets sky and beauty meets vision.

Film Crew in Gastown Mercury lines pulse through Gastown, amplifying communication, storytelling, and visual culture. This district becomes a stage for projection, not just of film, but of collective myth and memory encoded in brick, mist, and cobblestone.

OSGEMEOS Mural on Granville Island Jupiter’s expansive nature finds form in the vibrant figures of Granville Island. These monumental faces radiate playfulness, multicultural wisdom, and dreamlike symbolism. Public art here is more than decoration iit is coded with protection and presence.

SExpo 86 Grounds and SkyTrain Innovation once surged through this site during Expo 86. Uranus and Mars converged here, sparking futuristic dreams.

Today, the SkyTrain glides above the echoes of visionaries, carrying Vancouver’s collective memory toward its unfolding horizon.

URBAN METAPHYSICS ASTROCARTOGRAPHY

The Celestial Grid.

Lines cross above the city, but none belong to roads.

Each one marks a moment, where planet and place connect.

This is not a map of streets, but of influence.

“Planetary influences are also encoded in the city’s design and culture.”‌‌

Planetary influences are also encoded in the city’s design and culture.

The Mercurial energy of trade and communication is high, Vancouver’s a port and major communications hub, echoing Mercury’s domain over exchange. Venusian tones come out in Vancouver’s scenic beauty and artsy, highquality-of-life focus (the city consistently ranks among the world’s most livable, suggesting a Venus blessing of harmony).

Saturnian presence is literally in the mountains (Saturn rules mountains and boundaries): the North Shore range forms a stern backdrop, and Saturn’s lessons appear in the city’s occasional feelings of isolation (a beautiful yet distant corner of the world) and the hard realities of its real estate market (Saturn brings scarcity and cost, Vancouver’s housing famously expensive, imposing disciplined choices on residents).

On the world astro map, Vancouver aligns closely with the Earth’s 49th parallel, a line rich in geopolitical meaning (it is the border with the U.S. just south of the city). One might say this latitude, 49°, resonates with the number 7 (4+9=13, 1+3=4 – perhaps not 7, scratch that numerology; but 49 is 7 squared, a mystical number). Regardless, being near the 49th parallel, Vancouver stands at a threshold between nations , which is symbolically a Mercury role (messenger between realms) and perhaps a Chiron role (the wounded healer at the border, given the painful history of that border’s imposition on Indigenous lands).

Astrologically inclined readers might appreciate that during Vancouver’s explosive growth (late 1880s through early 1900s), Pluto (transformation) was in Gemini and Cancer, traversing the area of Canada’s chart governing the west – hinting that deep metamorphosis was in play.

Fastforward: Vancouver hosted Expo 86 as Halley’s Comet passed overhead – a cosmic salute to the city’s centennial, infusing it with a burst of Uranian energy (technology, sudden growth). In recent years, the slow-moving Pluto in Capricorn transit (2008–2023) has challenged the city to face its shadow around structures – seen in the housing affordability crisis and the overdose epidemic, both requiring profound transformation (Pluto’s demand) of societal systems (Capricorn).

As we enter Pluto in Aquarius, Vancouver could become a beacon for Aquarian values, high-tech innovation paired with humanitarian community, potentially manifesting the “city of the future” vibes it has long cultivated.

In essence, Vancouver’s astrocartographic tableau paints it as a city where water and earth energies dance under Neptune’s dream and Aries’ fire, producing a unique socio-political manifestation: a relatively peaceful, progressive society grappling with illusions and compassion in equal measure.

URBAN METAPHYSICS TOPOGRAPHIC GEOMANCY

Vancouver’s topography is a tapestry of. symbolic elements that contribute to its esoteric profile.

Topography & Symbolic Terrain

Nestled between the North Shore Mountains and the waters of the Salish Sea, the city benefits from what feng shui masters deem an ideal configuration: mountains at its back for support and water at its front for abundance.

Indeed, local feng shui consultants note that British Columbia’s geography is “lucky” protected by hills and nourished by waterways. Vancouver’s layout , a downtown peninsula embraced by English Bay and Burrard Inlet , evokes the image of a protective cradle, as if the city were cupped by nature’s hands.

Symbolic terrain features abound. To the north stand the twin peaks known popularly as The Lions, which the Indigenous Squamish Nation call Ch’ich’iyúy Elxwíkn (“Twin Sisters”).

According to legend, these two stone sentinels were once mortal sisters who brought peace between warring tribes and were elevated to mountain status to forever watch over the land in peace .

The presence of these “Two Sisters” above Vancouver imbues the city with an archetype of reconciliation and guardianship, the mountains literally embody an ancient pact of harmony, casting a protective and unifying influence over the region.

At the city’s heart lies Stanley Park, an emerald peninsula of old-growth cedar and fir that serves as Vancouver’s energetic heart center.

Vancouver’s land feels arranged by intuition, holding a quiet geometry of energy, memory, and meaning.

This great urban park, rich with First Nations sacred sites and totem poles, symbolizes the persistence of wild, primordial energy within the modern city – a reminder of nature’s heartbeat amidst concrete and glass.

The park’s famous Siwash Rock, a solitary sea stack, carries a legend of its own (an Indigenous story of transformation as reward for purity) another imprint of myth on the land.

URBAN METAPHYSICS Vancouver’s Energetic Function

The urban architecture contributes to the symbolic map as well. Vancouver is known as the “City of Glass” for its myriad reflective skyscrapers. These glass towers mirror the water and sky, symbolically dissolving the city’s edges into its environment, an effect of transparency and fluidity.

One iconic heritage building, the Art Deco Marine Building, incorporates zodiac symbols on its lobby floor and marine motifs on its facade, hinting at hidden astrological and elemental lore in the city’s early architectural DNA. (It’s whispered among local esoteric circles that even the elevators of this 1930 masterpiece bear subtle pentagram designs, perhaps a Masonic or occult signature, or simply the flourish of the Art Deco style.)

In the streets below, there’s an oft-overlooked piece of public art in False Creek’s Leg-in-Boot Square: bricked linesin the pavement intentionally aligned as “ley lines”. In the 1970s, a planner embedded these lines pointing to key features like The Lions across the water. This literal mapping of ley lines in the city’s fabric is a quietly potent statement, an acknowledgement that Vancouver’s geography has power points and alignments that residents traverse daily, usually unaware.

Even the city’s toponymy is symbolic: Gastown (the original settlement site) grew around a tavern by a maple tree, conjuring images of the world tree where community forms, and neighborhoods like Mount Pleasant or Coal Harbour reflect energies (pleasant plateau, underground wealth) embedded in names.

Altogether, Vancouver’s physical setting , snowcapped mountains, forested parks, encircling ocean, and layered cityscape, reads like a geomantic diagram. It’s as if the city’s blueprint was guided by an unseen hand to optimize energy flow: earth energy rising from granite mountains, water chi flowing from the Pacific, and air chi in the temperate breezes and mists.

Glass reflections of sky and sea Vancouver’s disappearing architecture The mirrored façades of the city’s towers blur the boundary between form and void, dissolving the skyline into the elements. A city built to vanish,

Sun halo above the Lions nature’s own esoteric geometry.

A rare atmospheric ring crowns the twin peaks of Ch’ich’iyúy Elxwíkn, marking a silent alignment in the sky. For those attuned, it signals an energetic aperture where myth, light, and mountain converge

Red umbrella at the seawall.

Walking the edge of seen and unseen.

Wrapped in mist, a solitary figure becomes part of the urban ritual, pacing the liminal path between water and skyline. A quiet embodiment of presence within the threshold of Vancouver’s psychic field.

URBAN METAPHYSICS KARMIC EGREGORES

Beneath Vancouver’s glassy modern surface lie karmic currents shaped by its history – triumphs, traumas, and unresolved cycles that still echo in the collective field.

Karmic History and Unresolved Energies

The city’s very birth was dramatic and symbolic: mere months after incorporation, the Great Vancouver Fire of June 1886 swept through and razed the fledgling city to ash.

This catastrophe, which came on suddenly from clearing fires gone awry, can be seen as Vancouver’s baptism by fire, a literalphoenix moment. The city rebuilt almost immediately, rising anew with brick and resolve. In karmic terms, one might say Vancouver was forged in flame, imparting a resilience but also embedding a memory of trauma and rebirth in the land.

The cycle of destruction and renewal is a theme that recurs: from economic crashes to riots, energy here sometimes accumulates and then releases explosively.

Consider the racial karma of Vancouver. In the early 20th century, the city saw ugly episodes of xenophobia, the 1907 Anti-Asian riots, the infamous Komagata Maru incident of 1914 when hundreds of South Asian immigrants were turned away by force.

These events left wounds that the city has had to address generations later (official apologies, memorials) an example of unresolved cycles of exclusion transforming (slowly) into inclusion.

Today’s Vancouver prides itself on diversity, but the karmic imprint of those past injustices called for healing and awareness.

Similarly, the treatment of Indigenous peoples is a deep karmic thread: the city stands on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories.

What a city forgets doesn’t disappear.

It settles into buildings, into memory, into streets where the same lessons return.

The displacement of First Nations villages (e.g. those that once existed in areas like Stanley Park or Kitsilano) and the suppression of Indigenous culture left an energetic disturbance.

URBAN METAPHYSICS KARMIC EGREGORES

Anti-Asian Riots (1907)

Vancouver Fire (1886) .

The fire that consumed the young city in 1886 was not just a tragedy but an initiation. In esoteric terms, it marked a purification of the land. Mars energy swept through, clearing the karmic ground for transformation.

Anti-Asian riots revealed the city’s fear of the other and its shadow side of exclusion. This moment left a karmic imprint on the land. Saturn’s presence can be felt in the rigid boundaries and silent generational grief woven into the city’s multicultural fabric.

Homelessness and Indigenous Displacement) .

The ongoing crisis of homelessness and the displacement of Indigenous peoples are not isolated events but energetic consequences. Neptune’s veil reveals the city’s unconscious, where compassion is tested and healing begins with recognition.

Only recently has there been concerted effort at reconciliation – acknowledging traditional place names, including First Nations in city decision-making , as if the city is trying to settle a karmic debt to the original keepers of the land. The Two Sisters legend atop the mountains, with its message of peace between peoples , stands as a reminder and perhaps a guide for this healing process.

Vancouver’s history also features class and labor struggles that carry an energetic residue. The Battle of Ballantyne Pier (1935) where striking longshoremen clashed with police on the waterfront, is an imprint of worker unrest and the fight for dignity.

The city’s cycle of boom and inequality has manifested in other ways: periods of wealth (real estate booms, expo-fueled growth) contrasted with persistent poverty pockets.

Nowhere is this contrast starker than in the Downtown Eastside (DTES), a neighborhood concentrated with low-income residents, many battling addiction or mental illness.

Dubbed “Canada’s poorest postal code” , the DTES sits adjacent to affluent Gastown and Chinatown, a spatial juxtaposition of light and shadow.

The heavy concentration of suffering in the DTES can be viewed as Vancouver’s shadow self, an aggregation of karmic density from decades of neglect, economic marginalization, and trauma (including the legacy of residential schools and colonial violence that many Indigenous people in the DTES carry). This area’s pain has been called a vortex of negative energy, yet also it has catalyzed great compassion and innovation (harm reduction approaches like the first supervised safe injection site in North America, for instance).

The DTES represents an unresolved cycle each generation confronts the challenge of helping its most vulnerable, and progress is achingly slow, but it remains Vancouver’s test in integrating compassion (heart energy) with action.

Unresolved as well are cycles of environment vs. economy. Vancouver enjoys a green image, but its port ships coal and its suburbs grapple with pipeline expansions.

The recent Burnaby Mountain pipeline protests (2014 onward) where Indigenous leaders and activists camped to block an oil pipeline terminus, epitomize this tension.

The standoff on Burnaby Mountain (just east of Vancouver) wasn’t just political but energetic: the land’s defenders invoking sacred connection vs. corporate forces of extraction. That collision of energies on a wooded mountain park felt like the area’s karmic reckoning for an economy long based on resource extraction.

While the protesters scored temporary victories, the pipeline project persists, showing an unresolved lesson about balancing Earth’s integrity with material pursuits.

Through all these episodes, one senses certain historical energetic densities in Vancouver: for example, in places like the old industrial False Creek flats (now slowly revitalizing) or the former red-light district of Hogan’s Alley (dismantled in the 1970s by a freeway plan, displacing the Black community).

These sites carry the memory of what was lost or suppressed, and new plans (like a memorial and cultural center for Hogan’s Alley) aim to rectify past erasures.

Vancouver may appear young and glassy, but its psyche holds layers of unresolved memory, fires, riots, injustices, displacements, that form the karmic tapestry the city must continue to acknowledge and heal.

ESOTERIC ANALYSIS Vancouver’s Energetic Function

Collective Psyche and Spiritual Temperament

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The collective psyche of Vancouver’s population is distinctive: spiritually attuned yet nondogmatic, compassionate yet reserved, progressive yet pragmatically so. Surveys and studies often identify Vancouverites as among the most “spiritual but not religious” people in Canada.

In practice, this means a large portion of the populace believes in a higher power or cosmic order but eschews organized religion and rigid definitions. As one local commentator put it, “Huge numbers of Vancouverites believe that there is something greater than ourselves, but recognize as futile attempts to define it”. This captures the respectful agnosticism at the heart of Vancouver’s spiritual temperament. People here tend to be seekers – through yoga, nature, art, or personal meditation – rather than joiners of formal sects.

The city’s many Buddhist temples, yoga centers, mindfulness groups, and holistic health clinics attest to a broad spiritual openness. At the same time, traditional church attendance is low; faith here often wears a secular garb of mindfulness or wellness. This creates a collective field that is accepting of the metaphysical as long as it’s individual-centric and low-pressure.

Socially, Vancouverites are known (for better or worse) for a “polite but distant” demeanor.

There’s the famous trope of the “Vancouver freeze,” wherein newcomers find it hard to break into social circles. Energetically, one might interpret this as the city’s somewhat introspective aura – possibly a byproduct of the region’s water and earth elements dominating fire and air.

People are calm, chill, perhaps a bit guarded. But that reserve coexists with a deep current of compassion and activism. Vancouver’s collective psyche has a strong humanitarian streak: it was at the forefront of LGBTQ2+ rights (one of the first cities in Canada with robust Pride culture), environmentalism (as noted, Greenpeace and a host of green initiatives took root here), and social justice movements.

ESOTERIC ANALYSIS Vancouver’s Energetic Function

Economic Archetype: From Extractive to RegenerativeVa ncouver’s economic ene

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Vancouver’s economic energy has its own archetypal journey. In its youth, the city’s economy was unapologetically extractive – a classic frontier town trading in timber, fish, and minerals.

The archetype then was The Prospector or The Lumberjack: expansive in ambition but rooted in taking from the abundant land. Loggers felled giant cedars, fishermen hauled record salmon catches, and prospectors left to find gold in the Klondike, all funneling wealth back to Vancouver. This left a strong energetic imprint of expansion through extraction. One can still feel it in the city’s early architecture – the sturdy brick warehouses of Gastown and Yaletown, financed by resource wealth. That extractive phase also gave birth to Vancouver’s enduring relationship with trade – the Port of Vancouver grew into one of the busiest in North America, making the city an archetype of The Merchant or Trader. Throughout the 20th century, Vancouver served as Canada’s gateway to the Pacific, and its economy thrived on commerce and the flow of goods.

As Vancouver matured, the archetype began to shift. By the late 20th century, resource industries moved outward (to remote areas of BC or overseas), and Vancouver reinvented itself as a postindustrial metropolis. The new economic archetype became The Developer and The Rainmaker.

Real estate took center stage – land itself became the resource to develop, building the shiny condos that define the skyline. The city’s economic aura in recent decades has been one of speculative growth and investment, fueled by global capital seeking a foothold in this attractive city. This has been an expansive energy, but at times also a vampiric one – a frenzy of construction and price inflation that, critics say, extracted affordability from citizens in exchange for capital gains to investors.

The archetype here straddles Jupiter (expansion, wealth, optimism) and Pluto (hidden wealth, power dynamics, even corruption in extremes). Indeed, Vancouver became known for foreign investment flows and even money laundering via luxury real estate (infamously, the “Vancouver Model” where illicit funds washed through casinos and properties ).

This shadow aspect suggests the economic egregore has had to wrestle with greed and inequality, an echo perhaps of the city’s karmic need to balance material and moral values.

Yet Vancouver’s economic energy is not just speculative; it has a decidedly creative and regenerative streak emerging. The city is fostering industries like film production (creativity and illusion, we see Neptune’s hand), video game and tech development (innovation, youthful Mercury/Uranus energy), and a burgeoning green economy (solar panel companies, eco-design, etc.). This indicates an archetypal evolution toward The Innovator and The Healer.

Vancouver’s commitment to becoming the greenest city reflects an economic archetype of regeneration – trying to add value back to the environment and society rather than just extract. We see this in the large number of social enterprises and sustainable businesses headquartered here, and in city hall’s push for circular economy principles. The economic egregore is learning to incorporate ethics and ecology into profit models, a sign of maturity. Perhaps the best archetype for Vancouver’s economy today is The Alchemical Merchant: one who still trades and grows wealth, but increasingly aims to do so by transmuting base inputsinto higher solutions. For example, turning the raw human capital of a diverse, educated population into cultural products, tech startups, or research (Vancouver has leading biotech and AI research clusters). Another example: Vancouver’s port is still shipping minerals and coal, yes, but simultaneously the city invests in clean tech incubators that hope to one day replace those old exports with green technology exports (shipping out ideas instead of ore).

This duality is the city’s economic balancing act. In archetypal terms, it’s as if Vancouver stands with one foot in its rugged, resource-rich past and one foot in a sustainable, knowledge-driven future – a Janusfaced economy looking backward and forward.

Economically, the energy is also resilient yet adaptive. Vancouver has weathered recessions, the 1990s Asian financial crisis (which hit real estate), and the 2008 global crisis, often rebounding swiftly. This suggests a karmic blessing of abundance in the region – perhaps tied to the land’s natural richness and that excellent feng shui positioning. However, the lesson has been that unchecked growth brings its own issues (housing unaffordability, traffic congestion, environmental stress). And so, in recent years, one sees more conscious efforts at rebalancing.

The tech sector’s rise, often more inclusive and less environmentally harmful, is part of that regenerative tilt. The city’s focus on local food, urban farming, and preserving green spaces amid development also speaks to integrating Mother Earth archetype into the economic psyche.

In summary, Vancouver’s economic archetype has journeyed from Extractive Pioneer to Global Trader to Innovative Regenerator. The energy now strives to be expansive in opportunity yet regenerative in impact. It’s an ongoing alchemy: witness projects like the new green construction standards (turning the construction industry, once an extractive force, into a sustainable one) and the emergence of Indigenous-led economic initiatives (which blend traditional stewardship values with modern business). All these show an economy seeking not just profit, but a higher purpose – aligning prosperity with well-being of people and planet.

This alignment effort is, in itself, a profound energetic process, indicating that Vancouver may be working through a karmic lesson about true wealth – that it must enrich the soul of the city, not just the bank accounts.

ESOTERIC ANALYSIS Vancouver’s Energetic Function

Future Symbolic and Energetic Trends

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Looking ahead, Vancouver stands on the cusp of symbolic and energetic shifts that will define its coming decades. One prominent trend is the city’s potential to become a global model for sustainable urban living. Symbolically, Vancouver may well embody the Emerald City archetype in the future – a city in harmony with its environment, glittering not with gold but with green innovation. Energetically, this suggests a rise in the city’s heart chakra qualities (love, compassion, balance) expressed through urban design: green roofs, abundant parks, emissionfree transportation. Plans are already in motion for dealing with climate change – sea walls to hold back rising waters, forestation to offset urban heat. These measures, while practical, alsocarry symbolic weight: Vancouver preparing to literally hold space against the tides, a guardian role that could strengthen its energetic presence on the world grid as a protector of Gaia principles.

Another trend is the deepening of reconciliation with First Nations, which in energetic terms can unlock potent healing for the whole region. If the city successfully integrates Indigenous knowledge and respects Indigenous title, one could imagine a significant karmic burden lifting.

The future might see more co-management of lands (for example, Stanley Park jointly managed by the Musqueam, Squamish, and TsleilWaututh). This would symbolize a long-awaited balance of energies between colonizer and original inhabitants. The effect on the collective field could be profound: resolving ancient discord and inviting blessings from ancestors. A city in right relation with its First Peoples may experience a flourishing of culture and a harmonization of that subtle discordant note that’s hummed beneath the surface.

Technologically and culturally, Vancouver seems poised to continue attracting the Aquarian-age industries – tech, film, game development, wellness tourism, and education. There is an energetic lightness to these industries (compared to smokestack industries of old), which may raise the city’s vibrational output. Think of thousands of people in virtual reality studios, essentially modern dream-crafters, working in Vancouver – they add to an aura of creative illusion (Neptune at work) but also forwardlooking vision (Uranus/Aquarius at work). The city may increasingly be seen as a visionary outpost, experimenting with concepts like the 15minute city (decentralized, walkable neighborhoods), multi-faith spirituality centers, and maybe even novel governance (some predict Vancouver will lead in city-level policies like basic income pilots or citizen assemblies for decision-making).

These would all manifest the city’s long-held progressive ethos in concrete form, pushing the energetic envelope toward collective enlightenment.

There are, of course, challenges that will shape the energy too. The specter of the “Big One” earthquake looms – a literally earth-shaking release of energy that is statistically overdue along the Cascadia subduction zone. While one hopes it’s far off or gentle, the awareness of this potential impacts Vancouver’s psyche: it’s an exercise in humility and preparation. Symbolically, the earthquake threat represents Gaia’s raw power, reminding Vancouver that despite its lofty towers, it sits on the Ring of Fire. If such an event occurs, it could be the ultimate karmic test for the community’s resilience and unity.

Energetically, it might serve as a purge of stagnant energies, forcing rebuilding (like the Great Fire did, but on a larger scale). How Vancouver navigates that – with panic or with collective grace – will influence its future egregore. Some sensitives even believe the city’s palpable calm, its tempered pace, is partly an unconscious attunement to the Earth beneath, a way of staying still so as not to provoke the dragon that sleeps below the Pacific

Regardless, preparation efforts (earthquake drills, reinforced infrastructure) are effectively rituals of respect for the Earth’s power, acknowledging human fragility and fostering community.On a more human level, Vancouver’s future will involve reconciling the duality of wealth and poverty. If the city can innovate solutions to housing affordability and integrate the marginalized into the thriving economy, it will symbolically heal the rift in its social body. The trend of cooperative housing, indigenous housing projects, and stronger social safety nets (like overdose prevention innovations) suggests movement toward a more holistic, inclusive energy. The Downtown Eastside of the future could transform from an epicenter of suffering to a phoenixrisen community known for healing and art – that is a vision some activists hold. Achieving that would transmute a huge pocket of dense energy into light, freeing Vancouver’s overall vibration significantly.

We might also see Vancouver’s role in the world stage grow. Already selected as a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and with whispers of future Olympic bids, the city will have chances to invite the world’s attention (and energies) again.

These global events act like energy convergences, amplifying whatever frequency the host city broadcasts. Expo 86, for instance, amplified Vancouver’s youthful, optimistic frequency of that era. A World Cup might amplify Vancouver’s multicultural unity and joy of sport, sending out a message of global togetherness.

Each event leaves a subtle legacy; the 2010 Winter Olympics, for example, left an imprint of pride and festivity (but also unearthed tensions in the form of protests that brought attention to homelessness). Future events could similarly charge the city’s ley lines with collective human emotion and intention.

Lastly, the symbolic narrative of Vancouver is trending towards being a city of refuge and renewal. With global instability (climate migration, political unrest), Vancouver is likely to continue being a desirable haven for people seeking safety and opportunity. Energetically, this influx (already felt with waves of immigration from Hong Kong in the ’80s, or more recently from countries like Iran and the Philippines) enriches the collective field with resilience and hope. Vancouver may unofficially stand as a beacon city – much like a lamp at the western edge of the continent – offering a fresh start to those who come. That role carries an almost spiritual significance: the city as a sanctuary or New World Eden for those escaping turmoil. It’s a heavy responsibility, but Vancouver’s character of tolerance and diversity suggests it can shoulder it.

One can imagine a future Vancouver known for its global spiritual gatherings or environmental summits, aligning with its identity as a peacemaker and problem-solver nurtured at the Pacific Rim. In summary, the energetic trends point to Vancouver evolving further into its ideals: greener, more integrated, more consciously spiritual in daily life, yet challenged to remain grounded and just. The city’s story is still being written, and the esoteric analyst senses that Vancouver’s peak energetically may be yet to come – perhaps when all its best qualities (cultural harmony, nature reverence, innovation, compassion) coalesce into a shining example. Should it navigate its trials,Vancouver could truly earn the title often poetically ascribed to it: “City of Glass, City of Light,” a place where the physical and metaphysical realms reflect each other clearly

In summary, the energetic trends point to Vancouver evolving further into its ideals: greener, more integrated, more consciously spiritual in daily life, yet challenged to remain grounded and just. The city’s story is still being written, and the esoteric analyst senses that Vancouver’s peak energetically may be yet to come – perhaps when all its best qualities (cultural harmony, nature reverence, innovation, compassion) coalesce into a shining example. Should it navigate its trials,Vancouver could truly earn the title often poetically ascribed to it: “City of Glass, City of Light,” a place where the physical and metaphysical realms reflect each other clearly

OCCULT TALES

Vancouver, celebrated for its natural beauty and vibrant culture, harbors a hidden side of mystery.

Exploring the city's occult history reveals esoteric practices, secret societies, and enigmatic figures.

From whispers of hidden rituals in mountain shadows to mystical symbols in its urban layout, Vancouver's past invites a fascinating journey into the unknown, uncovering secrets that shape its mystical identity.

Masters of the Occult

ALESTEIR CROWLEY

FOUNDER OF THELEMA

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was not merely a ceremonial magician, he was a cartographer of esoteric currents that flowed across nations. His life unfolded through a constellation of places charged with symbolic and occult power, leaving behind a geographical trail of magical influence.

ELIAS LEPHI

OCCULT PHILOSOPHER

Long before the esoteric revival of the 20th century, Éliphas Lévi (1810–1875) laid the foundations of modern ceremonial magic from the heart of Paris.

Born Alphonse Louis Constant, Lévi bridged mysticism and revolutionary idealism, leaving behind priesthood to pursue a deeper metaphysical inquiry.

Born in Leamington Spa, England, Crowley inherited the austere religiosity of the Plymouth Brethren, only to violently reject it in favor of mystical self-sovereignty. In London, he was initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, accessing a secret cartography of astral temples mapped to the Tree of Life.

In Cairo, during a trip with his wife Rose in 1904, Crowley received The Book of the Law—a channeled text that became the foundation of Thelema.

The Egyptian landscape, with its temples, deities, and ancient codes, catalyzed a new Aeon, shifting the axis of modern occultism eastward.

He later established the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalù, Sicily, where architecture, ritual, and daily life were woven into a living esoteric experiment. Even New York City, where Crowley resided during World War I, became a crucible for magical and political agitation, as he wrote, performed rituals, and embedded his influence in the transatlantic occult revival.

Each location in Crowley’s life was more than backdrop, it was an energetic node, activated through ritual, writing, and intention. In tracing his movements, we glimpse not only the evolution of a man, but the geographical unfolding of a magical philosophy still resonant in today’s urban temples and spiritual seekers.

His work fused Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Christian symbolism, and esoteric philosophy into a cohesive magical system that continues to influence Western occultism today.

Among his many contributions, Lévi was one of the first to define the concept of an egregore—a psychic entity formed by the collective energy, belief, and ritual of a group. He described it as a kind of “thought-form” that, once created, could act independently and influence people, institutions, and even the atmosphere of cities. This idea would later become central to magical orders and occult geopolitics.

Lévi believed that the astral light, a subtle medium permeating reality held the imprint of human thought, ritual, and will. Cities like Rome, Paris, and Jerusalem were not just political centers, but spiritual epicenters, shaped by centuries of collective intention and archetypal symbolism.

Though he never founded an order, his writings influenced the Golden Dawn, Thelema, and even Carl Jung’s explorations of archetypes and the collective unconscious. For Lévi, sacred geography was not metaphor, it was infrastructure. Invisible architectures of belief shaped the visible world, and understanding them was key to mastering both the magical and the mundane.

MADAME BLAVATSKY

THEOSOPHY FOUNDER

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891) was a spiritual cartographer who viewed the Earth as a living organism encoded with ancient wisdom.

Born in what is now Ukraine, raised amid aristocratic salons and mystical visions, she embarked on a lifelong journey across the energetic arteries of the planet in search of what she called the Ageless Wisdom.

ALICE BAILEY

ARCANE SCHOOL FOUNDER

Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949) was a British esoteric teacher whose work helped shape the metaphysical architecture of the 20th century. While Helena Blavatsky opened the gates of theosophy, Bailey extended its scope to a global framework, offering a spiritual cartography of nations, cities, and planetary cycles.

Her travels through Egypt, India, Tibet, Mexico, and London were not merely geographic. For Blavatsky, each sacred site preserved an invisible layer of vibrational memory, a resonance of initiatory knowledge waiting to be activated. In Benares, she studied with Brahmins. In Tibet, she claimed to receive instruction from Himalayan Masters. In Cairo, she formed a shortlived occult group steeped in Arabic Hermeticism.

Educated in England and later based in New York, Bailey channeled a series of teachings from the Tibetan master Djwhal Khul, producing over twenty books that outlined what she called the Ageless Wisdom. Her writings introduced key esoteric concepts such as the Seven Rays, the Spiritual Hierarchy, and the Plan. But perhaps her most lasting contribution was her view of the Earth as a living system of energetic centers, aligned with cosmic rhythms and human evolution.

In New York, she co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. Later, in India, she saw her mission as spiritual: to reignite the ancient centers of Eastern wisdom and bridge them with Western reason. Blavatsky believed that cities, temples, and mountains functioned as living chakras of the Earth, each radiating a particular spiritual frequency.

Bailey identified cities such as New York, London, and Geneva as planetary chakras —spiritual focal points working in harmony with Shamballa and the Hierarchy. She saw geopolitical events as symptoms of deeper energetic transformations, where nations carried karmic roles in humanity’s collective unfolding.

In her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine, she described the planet as a being in spiritual evolution, with each civilization representing a vital stage in the soul’s cosmic unfolding.

Blavatsky did not merely visit the world. She reimagined it as a sacred map, where geography, consciousness, and destiny converge.

Blavatsky's life's work wove diverse cultural threads, transcending material confines to explore metaphysical mysteries and inspire spiritual enlightenment.

The founding of the Arcane School in 1923 further positioned her work as an initiatory path rooted in global service.

Meditation, group alignment, and planetary healing were no longer mystical abstractions. They became precise tools for spiritual workers embedded in modern society.

Alice Bailey’s geography was symbolic and functional. In her vision, the Earth was not only sacred—it was strategic. A living temple whose awakening depended on conscious alignment with the subtle architecture of the universe.

JOHN MICHELL

CHARLES STANSFELD JONES

LEY LINES PIONEER

THELEMIC MYSTIC

John Michell (1933–2009) was a British writer, visionary, and researcher whose work revived the spiritual dimension of geography in the modern world. While many occult thinkers explored hidden dimensions of the self, Michell turned his attention outward, mapping the land as a living manuscript encoded with ancient wisdom.

Charles Stansfeld Jones (1886–1950), known as Frater Achad, was one of the most enigmatic and original voices to emerge from Aleister Crowley’s magical circle. Born in England but based for much of his life in Vancouver, Canada, Jones became a pivotal figure in the evolution of modern esotericism, not for his loyalty to dogma, but for daring to merge the ritual systems of the occult with the mystical heart of Christianity.

Educated at Eton and Cambridge, Michell emerged as a central figure in the 1960s counterculture. Yet his focus was neither political nor psychedelic. He became a quiet revolutionary of sacred space, reintroducing the idea that landscapes contain cosmic order. His most influential work, The View Over Atlantis, proposed that Britain—and by extension the Earth—was threaded by ley lines, invisible currents connecting megalithic sites, churches, and stone circles across the landscape.

Michell believed these alignments were not coincidental. They reflected an ancient science of harmony that united geometry, astronomy, and metaphysical intent. For him, places like Glastonbury, Avebury, and Stonehenge were not relics of the past, but active temples resonating with planetary consciousness.

His later writings explored geomancy, numerology, sacred architecture, and the metaphysical symbolism of cities.

Michell saw the ideal city not as a product of engineering, but of cosmic proportion.

He believed the restoration of harmony between humanity and the Earth depended on reawakening this forgotten geometry.

In a world increasingly shaped by digital abstraction, Michell reminded readers that true magic is rooted in place. The Earth, in his view, is not only alive, but precisely measured—a sacred text waiting to be read with reverence and reason.

In 1916, Crowley declared him the “magical child,” believing Achad to be the messianic successor who would carry forward Thelemic teachings. But Jones soon departed from orthodoxy. He reinterpreted the Qabalistic Tree of Life, proposed radical new correspondences between the paths, and began receiving what he described as direct transmissions from the Holy Spirit.

Vancouver was more than his residence.

He viewed the city as a hidden spiritual center, far from the distractions of Europe, ideal for quiet revelation. There, in solitude and silence, he produced his most controversial writings, seeking to reconcile ceremonial magic, Christian mysticism, and the inner gnosis of divine union.

While many rejected his shift toward Christic language, Achad foresaw a future where initiation and grace were not opposites, but complementary stages of spiritual awakening. In him, the cross and the wand met—not in conflict, but in luminous synthesis.

Today, Frater Achad stands as a solitary forerunner of integrated spirituality. His Vancouver years remain an overlooked chapter in the geography of modern magic.

His legacy is one of bridging disparate spiritual traditions, weaving a tapestry that honors both ancient wisdom and contemporary insight. As the world grapples with questions of identity and belonging, Achad’s vision of unity through diversity offers a hopeful path forward.

RITUALS

Imagine a journey where each step aligns you with the invisible currents that flow beneath the surface, waiting to be tapped into.

As you wander through these curated sites, you will find yourself becoming attuned to the subtle energies that can transform your perspective and deepen your connection to the world around you.

Vancouver public library