What is Intuition?
Highlighting the importance of listening to and developing personal intuition.
What is intuition? Intuition to me is an inherent wisdom that helps us choose specific items, substances, people, places, and situations. It helps us see ahead in some ways. I am not saying intuition is the same as seeing the future or a form of additional sight. I am saying though, sometimes there are moments when we just know the right answer, or we can just tell something isn’t quite right. A sensation goes off within us, sounding silent alarms. As the individual experiencing those silent alarms, it is up to us to tap into that sensation or wisdom and listen to it. Let our intuition guide us, and work at developing it and creating a stronger connection to intuition within ourselves.
The proper definition for intuition is the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning, according to the Dictionary of Oxford Languages. That means in simpler words, there are some things you just know. Intuition shows itself in every part of our lives. In the work paths we choose, the friends we make, the places we go or don't go, and it can even make itself ever prevalent in your craft. That is where it can do some of the best work for you. Intuition can help you decide what deities, if any, you work with. That knowledge will help you notice what you are more drawn to. It can help you pick ingredients to use in spells, if you think a spell needs a specific ingredient, listen to that as you learn and research. It might surprise you how often your inherent knowledge/intuition was correct and led you to the right choice. The more you listen to intuition the stronger it becomes. It learns as you learn and therefore it grows as you grow. As your craft grows, intuition can help you avoid working with energies or beings you are just not ready for. A silent alarm will sound, and your body will react. Even if it is so subtle you don’t even really notice.
It is important to grow your intuition and test it as you develop your system and craft. Testing intuition helps you learn to trust it. When you go with something that intuition leads you to and it's the right choice it reaffirms that within your mind. Which strengthens that sense within you. Ensuring the next time, it makes itself known you feel more confident to trust it and let your inner self guide you through your growth. The stronger your intuition is the better it helps serve your intentions. Intention is where spell work starts, and intuition is what helps make the spell work stronger as you build it up. Each ingredient adds another ounce of power to the working. Spellwork is like weaving a tapestry on a micro-scale. Every ingredient acts as a thread that gets woven around your intention.
Meditation, self-reflection, trial and error, energy work practices, and techniques all help build and shape intuition. We all come equipped with inherent knowledge within us, but our day-to-day lives make it easy to become disconnected from that wisdom. We begin to drift into the literal world and stop listening to those silent subtle cues our mind and body give to us. Practicing witchcraft and being spiritual is in large ways about reconnecting with the divine source and that inherent wisdom that presents itself in our minds and bodies. Part of the lure in spirituality and witchcraft is the link it provides to the ancient ways, the knowledge they had, and the connection to the neutral source of energy we all crave to be a part of again. I believe our intuition is the active link to that source that resides within our subconscious mind. Allowing it to function without taking up conscious thought and creating more indecision or fog to sort through. Listening to intuition and strengthening it brings that link closer to the conscious mind. Bringing us closer to the source in all that we do.
I see a lot of questions these days in communities for witchcraft about material that is based on monotheistic beliefs. This tells me the intent of these people is to feel more connected to their beliefs and the universal energy around them and find new perspectives to see their beliefs through. This is a valid quest and there is intuition telling them it is possible to develop their craft and practice the alchemy of self while keeping the systems that already speak to them on a spiritual level. An individual should never have to abandon beliefs that speak to them to pursue developing their power and making use of the energy that surrounds us and is there for us to use. This is where intention matters. Anyone can use their system and develop spells and rituals that fit their unique style better.
Christians could use god in all their workings and still build spells for work and prosperity, health, or luck. Anything really, or they have the saints and apostles and arch angels. If intuition is telling you to stick with your beliefs but reach out and practice energy work then do so. Research techniques that involve visualization of energy and the force that runs through all things. The spell work and rites themselves can be based entirely on energy alone without the need to adopt and or abandon beliefs that are already established. I use Christians as an example but that applies to all monotheistic theologies. Witchcraft, spell work, is not so much about the gods and goddesses that receive those petitions, requests, and evocations as it is about grasping the forces with two hands, bending them to a specific will, and pouring energy into that process to produce results. This is not exclusive to polytheistic theologies.
My goal is to prove that through these writings. To shed light on practice in a way most are not talking about. I do not follow a system or read from a scripted page when I practice. I use myself. I am my tool. My power is the spark for any work I start, and each ingredient is hand-picked, harvested, and added into my workings with intention in order as I state clearly my goals. I do not call on multiple deities and I very rarely utilize evocations. I recognize the feminine and the masculine energies in the world and I celebrate the raw power and beauty in those forces. I stay connected to them and keep an essence of duality in my day-to-day life. I walk with the energy of the world, and it receives me openly. Intuition led me to witchcraft. I had a drive within me that refused to be silent to find something bigger than myself; this is where I have come so far. I listen to my intuition all the time. I strengthen my intuition through my studies and new workings. I let my mind explore possibilities and I reflect often on my connection with the divine. I allow myself to feel the energies flowing through me and all things. Intuitively I connect with myself and allow my inner and higher self to send messages to me that without the quiet from meditation, I would be oblivious to.
Intuition will lead you to many discoveries if you are quiet and still. It will prove itself to you through experience. Your intuition will amaze you, let yourself be amazed. Discover new and exciting parts of yourself. Learn the information part of you knows and bring that information forward into the light of consciousness. If you have a playful nature, turn it into a game and have fun learning about the things you already possess knowledge of. For me, this is some of the most fun in practice. I am still over a decade later surprised at myself at what I “know” before I acknowledge the information is stored within me. Something that catches me off guard every time is the items that I will pick up on my travels from time to time, just to turn around and come across an individual in need of them. So many times, I will bring something home with me just to have it for a mere number of days and then give it to someone else. We’ll be discussing it or their need for something similar and it always works out that I just so happen to have it. That I had picked it up when I didn't need it without knowing the exact reason. Only that I could not leave that item behind where I had found it. However, that is a perfect example of intuition at work. That is part of my gift in this life, I help others find their ways, their items, their voices, their passion and joy again, or lend what assistance I am capable of. The work I have put into developing my intuition has facilitated that gift and my success in its execution