Training Intuition
What is intuition?
Literally the first thing my logical brain says to do is “look it up so you can give a definition”. That’s the thing though isn’t it? I should be able to intuitively describe what the word means. I believe that intuition is a type of innate wisdom that is developed over time. I think the more that we focus on intuition, the more we are able to use it. Now the question is: how are we to focus on intuition if we can hardly even describe it? Intuition exists in an infinite void of the mind. In order to see it, you have to first believe in it. Isn’t that the most absurd thing you’ve heard all day? That’s the kind of shit that will get you buckled into a straight jacket and thrown into a cell with padded walls. We don’t have the proper language to describe the thought realm without sounding crazy. Whether this is by default or by design… who knows…?
When we do tap into our intuition, it is something that can be felt in the body. At least it is for me. I get a “gut feeling” as it is described. Usually I have to wait for a wave of emotion to pass through my body, so I have to take more time to make up my mind. If I make a quick decision, it is not my intuition, it is most likely my impulsive nature. This may not be the case for everyone, I imagine some people can manifest on demand but I am not there yet (and don’t know that I ever will be). Intuition for me involves several forms of Divination because I like to have options. I consult the Tarot, Runes, I-ching, and the Astrological transits.
Now you might be saying, “none of that shit is real”. Perhaps you are right, despite the fact that I can hold my cards in my hand and reach into my rune bag, these symbols could be absolutely meaningless. That isn’t what my intuition says though. My intuition tells me that these altar pieces carry the wisdom of elders. The Tarot has been around since the 1400s in Italy, long before the establishment of the country within which I reside. For about 600 years the same symbols described through oral tradition in the same way were passed down as tools for decision making. The deck of cards even became standardized. So for a span of time 3x the age of the United States, our ancestors used this one form of divination, and it survived. The meme lived through those centuries.
It must be the almost unlimited access that we have to information which makes us think our elders were fucking morons. The truth is, they have a different kind of wisdom. It might not be the kind of intelligence that results in them scoring high on an IQ test, but its the kind that you get from lived experience. Gen X and on hardly take the time to examine their own lives, and groan at the mere mention of “when I was your age”. It seems so irrelevant, but it isn’t. Life happens in cycles and we can be pleasantly surprised by that when we learn to work with it. This is what training the intuition is like. Working with free will to our benefit as opposed to allowing our will to move us towards addictive patterns of thinking.
I can hear the grumbling of my logical friends and all of the objective arguments they would put forth, but the proof is in the pudding. When it comes to Astrology, I am tuning my mind to the cycles of the Heavens. (God that sounds amazing and I realize a little out there in woo-woo) In doing so, I prepare myself for each day. It isn’t always positive news, sometimes there’s some heavy shit happening in the cosmos. If that doesn’t come to fruition I rejoice over the planetary transits going easy on me. That is to say, if Pluto don’t smite me when I expect her too, then I just had a relatively better day than I might have otherwise. It is all mind set, because, guess what? That’s what life is all about. How well do you handle eating shit? How humble can you remain when you fee like you are on top of the world? Answering those questions says a lot more about your character than your six-figure income.
I had this thought about how when we interact with other people, we often hear what we want to hear. Sometimes I notice that messages from many different places seem to start to sound the same, as though everyone is on a same mental wave length. Now I’m starting to believe that this is how my intuition talks with me; through others. I glean from my cards, from conversations, and from transit charts the messages that I need to hear. Only when I am tuned in and paying attention do I notice those little Easter eggs. This is why having an observed life is training for our intuition.
Originally written in Collective Journaling at The Stoa
