Intuition
You are a genius of subtle energy and intuitive information. When you trust this to be the truth, you are plugged into an endless stream of loving, reliable guidance that inspires you, protects you, and tells you precisely what you need to know.
As you will recall from chapter four, the third eye chakra is the area at your brow that is related to your psychic abilities and intuition. Additionally, as a human unicorn ally, you might say you have an invisible horn of light extending from this energy center: a spiraling, shimmering antennae that may be invisible to most naked eyes but is nevertheless present in the form of radiant energy. This horn can both broadcast and receive information, and it acts as a conduit that allows you to perceive messages from the Divine, other people, and the natural world.
In this chapter, you will become more sensitized to your intuitive gifts and discover how to employ them with increasing confidence and skill.
The Secrets of the Universe
Unicorns are incredibly subtle creatures. Their sensitivity is so immense, in fact, that it causes them to hide away in the most remote and untouched corners of the forests to shield them from the hard lines and harshness of the human world. At the same time, their sensitivity is what makes them such formidable allies: they are so aligned with the subtle currents of the cosmos, they can ally with the energetic momentum of the moment like the most masterful of ninjas and dexterously ride the energetic ocean like a surfer on the most colossal of waves.
You, too, have access to these precious powers. If you’ve read this far and you’ve been faithfully completing the recommended exercises, chances are good you’re already starting to sense the more subtle reality and (whether or not you consciously realize it) you’ve likely begun to receive intuitive guidance in various forms.
While intuitive guidance and information about the subtle reality always comes to us in the form of energy and vibration, there are a number of ways you might perceive it.
You might see it. You may receive visual information in the form of light, color, words, or images in your mind’s eye or with your actual eyes.
You might hear it. You may receive auditory information in the form of words, sounds, or music in your mind or with your physical ears.
You might smell it. You may receive olfactory information in the form of scents or strong memories of scents.
You might feel it. You may receive information from touching certain objects or you may feel physical sensations that alert you to intuitive information. Areas of your body such as your stomach or fingertips may become extra sensitive, tight, or tingly. Or, you might receive emotional information in the form of feelings.
You might know it. Finally, you may just know things without being told and without having any other tangible reason for knowing them.
If you’re not already sure of the ways you receive intuitive information, here’s a useful clue: it’s likely you casually use language that indicates how you are intuitively oriented. For example, over the next few days, try noticing which of the following phrases (or ones like them) you most often use.
Visually oriented intuitives say things like “Here’s how I see it…” “I see,” and “See what I’m saying?”
Auditory intuitives say things like “I hear what you’re saying” and “Sounds good to me.”
Olfactory intuitives say things like “Something smells off” and “I’m sensing a change in the wind.”
Sentient or feeling intuitives say things like “I feel you” and “I feel like…”
Cognizant intuitives say things like “I know what you mean” and “Wouldn’t you know it?”
Of course, you may say something similar to all of these at various times, which would be an indication that you are a multisensory intuitive. It’s certainly not uncommon to receive intuitive information in more ways than one.
Noticing the ways you receive intuitive information helps you to recognize it more frequently when you do. The more you recognize your intuitive guidance, the more you validate the information you’re receiving and the stronger your intuitive current becomes.
Visions and Dreams
In addition to being open to receiving intuitive information through your feelings and senses, you will receive signs, visions, and dreams. You can then easily interpret these in order to align your life even more thoroughly with the resonance of the cosmos.
For example, have you ever noticed a certain number combination showing up again and again in your life (such as 11:11), or possibly a symbol, animal, or other theme (such as frogs)? The vehicles for such recurring signs are endless: license plates, billboards, podcasts, films, nature, and conversations, just to name a few. When this happens so much that you begin to notice, it’s a sign from the universe.
Before you go Googling the symbolic meaning of what you’re seeing over and over again, go straight to your own intuition by asking yourself what you think it means. If you answer (as you likely will) “I don’t know,” ask yourself again. But this time, add the phrase “if I had to guess.” So, you’d say to yourself, “If I had to guess, what do I think it means?” This will bypass the part of you that has been trained to only know things when you have learned them from a source outside of yourself, and it will therefore allow you direct access to your clear and powerful intuition.
After that, if you’d like, you can go ahead and look up the traditional symbolic associations with the sign you have been seeing. For example, 11:11 is often seen as a reminder that you are able to manifest the true desires of your heart, and frogs are symbols of wealth, abundance, and luck.
When they feel significant, dreams can be interpreted in an identical way. Ask yourself what you think your dream means. Then add the magic words: if I had to guess. Every time you employ this seemingly simple secret, you will surprise yourself by how accurate and helpful your dream interpretations will be.
Visions may arrive in the form of daydreams, or you may see certain images, pictures, or stories in your mind while you are doing something such as meditating, showering, walking, or driving. Sometimes their meaning will be obvious. Other times you may need to pull out the “if I had to guess” trick, which will not fail to yield helpful and accurate results.
Unicorn Portal Key #9:
Activate Your Third Eye
This exercise is both fun and powerful at the same time. You will be consecrating and decorating the area at the center of your forehead: your third eye chakra, the seat of your intuition and the location of your invisible spiraling horn of light. This will help you recognize your identity as an intuitive being and remind you that it’s in your nature to receive psychic information and divine guidance.
If you look with your inner vision, you’ll see this key looks very much like a unicorn horn made of moonlight and rainbows.
You will need:
- lavender essential oil (if you have sensitive skin, you’ll want to dilute it with a carrier oil, such as sunflower or sweet almond)
- one or more materials to decorate your forehead, such as henna, face glitter, temporary tattoos, sticky jewels, or a bindi (a bindi is an adhesive forehead ornament that is available online and at many Indian import stores)
First, you might want to light some candles and incense on your unicorn altar to set the mood. Next, relax and take some deep, conscious breaths. When you feel centered and calm, very lightly anoint the center of your forehead with the lavender oil. Say:
My inner light is sacred. My inner sight is strong.
Take some more deep breaths. Feel your mind clear and divine light enter your forehead as the oil absorbs into your skin.
When the oil has been absorbed (you can also wipe it off if you need to), begin to adorn your forehead in any way that feels right to you. Just a single bindi is great, but feel free to get as elaborate as you like. As you decorate, do so with the intention to honor your clear inner knowing and connection to the Divine.
When your decoration is complete, gaze lovingly in a mirror. Say:
I am a divine child, beloved by
the unicorns and the universe.
I honor my intuitive gifts as aspects of my divinity.
I give thanks for my clear, bright, and powerful psychic abilities.
Take a bit more time to breathe, close your eyes, and envision receiving the spiraling, shimmering key.
Now you can do whatever feels right with your adornment: leave it on or take it off. Go out into the world or stay in. Meditate, create art, dance, or go for a walk in nature.
P.S. If you post a picture of yourself with your forehead art, please use the hashtag #UnicornMagic!
The Path of Your Destiny
What is in the cards? Luckily, there are plenty of beautiful card decks out there designed to assist us with our intuition. So get yourself one and find out!
Both oracle cards and tarot cards serve as excellent guideposts toward your own intuitive wisdom. While popular culture sometimes portrays intuitive card readings as potential harbingers of doom, this need not be the case for you. In fact, when you begin with the clear and confident inner knowing that the universe is on your side, all you will see in the cards is loving and supportive guidance, helping you make choices that feel authentic to you and that lead you down the path of your heart’s deepest joy.
If you’ve never read cards before, you’ll probably want to start with an oracle deck rather than a tarot deck. Oracle decks are much more accessible to the beginner. Some of my favorites are The Wisdom of the Hidden Realms and The Wisdom of Avalon Oracle Cards by Colette Baron-Reid, as well as my own Magic of Flowers Oracle. You can also find decks specifically created for unicorn lovers, such as The Magical Unicorns Oracle Cards by Doreen Virtue and Oracle of the Unicorns by Cordelia Francesca.
On the other hand, if you feel drawn to working with the tarot, there’s no time like the present to begin learning. An especially magical deck (and one with plenty of unicorns) is The Star Tarot by Cathy McClelland. I also like Witches Tarot by Ellen Dugan and find it to be a wonderful choice for those who are still getting acquainted with tarot basics.
Whatever deck you choose—and do wait until you find one that sings to you, glows brighter than other decks, or fills your hands with tingles and warmth—for the clearest and most accurate readings, spiritually cleanse it and consecrate it before you use it. You can cleanse your deck by safely smudging each individual card, front and back, with the smoke from a stick of cinnamon incense (make sure to catch any burning embers on a plate or incense holder). Then bathe each card (again front and back) in bright sunlight for a moment. Finally, hold your deck in both hands. Close your eyes and take some deep breaths. Imagine sending roots of light from your tailbone deep into Mother Earth and connecting with her glowing golden core. Feel her radiant golden light moving up your roots and into your body and energy field. Then imagine sending a trunk of light up from the crown of your head, out of Earth’s atmosphere, and sending branches into the liquid, diamond-white light of Infinity. Sense this light moving down your trunk and into your body and energy field. Imagine Earth light and Infinite light merging and mixing throughout your body and becoming especially radiant at your heart. Then send this light out from your heart, down your arms, into your hands, and then into the deck itself. Take a few moments to strongly see and sense the deck pulsating with golden-white light. Say:
I now recognize and activate the divine power within this deck. By aligning my personal energy with the energy of these cards, I create a powerful resonance that will result in accurate, insightful readings that are for my own highest and truest good, and the highest and truest good of all. Thank you, Mother Earth. Thank you, Father Cosmos. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Blessed be. And so it is.
Your deck is now cleansed, consecrated, and activated. If you’d like, you can sew or find a beautiful oracle card bag for it (Etsy has lots of good ones). Some card readers also like to keep a clear quartz crystal point with their deck to keep its energy clear, resonant, and strong.
Most oracle decks come with a guidebook containing instructions for how to do a reading. But you’ll find two of the most basic ways to read oracle cards below.
For both types of readings, consider your question and phrase it properly. It’s best if you ask for guidance rather than for a definitive yes or no answer. For example, “What guidance will best support me in deciding whether or not to move to Santa Fe?” will yield better results than “Should I move to Santa Fe?” Similarly, “Please give me insight into my potential relationship with Jason” will open the door to much more helpful guidance than “Should I go out with Jason?”
Once you feel good about the question you’ve composed, hold the deck in both hands. Take some deep breaths, center your mind, and call on the Divine. Become aware that you are a part of All That Is. Take this time to remember, also, that you are a divine child with access to divine wisdom. When you feel ready, ask your question inwardly or aloud, then shuffle the deck in any way you like.
At some point, you’ll get the sense that it’s time to stop shuffling. Some people feel it in their hands, some people hear it in the sound of the cards, and some people just know. Be assured that there is no wrong way to receive the inner nudge to stop shuffling; whenever you stop will be perfect.
Once you stop shuffling, for a basic one-card reading, simply draw a card from anywhere in the deck. Take some time to look deeply at the image on the card and to get a feeling from what you see. See what intuitive messages you receive from simply looking at the image. How does it make you feel? What story does it seem to tell? Then look in the guidebook to see what the author of the deck says about the card you selected, and look deeply into its relevance to your question.
For a simple three-card reading, remove the top three cards from the deck and lay them faceup, left to right. The first card will represent the past, or the genesis of the issue. The second card will represent the present, or the core of the issue. The third card will represent the future, or the natural evolution of the issue. As described in the one-card reading instructions above, begin by taking some time simply looking at each image. Get a feeling for them. How do they make you feel? What stories do they seem to tell? What intuitive messages do they trigger for you? Then move on to reading the descriptions in the deck’s guidebook. Take your time and look deeply into the ways this guidance may provide answers to your question.
If your first card deck happens to be a tarot deck (rather than an oracle deck), it’s likely you have a lot more learning ahead of you before you begin to master your new intuitive tool. While tarot instruction is beyond the scope of this book, there are plenty of accessible resources out there to help you learn, including the website Biddy Tarot (biddytarot.com) and books such as The Ultimate Guide to Tarot by Liz Dean and Tarot for Beginners by Meg Hayertz.
Once you feel confident doing readings for yourself, if it feels right to you, you can also offer them as gifts to friends and family who might appreciate them.
Everyday Intuition
In truth, we are not separate beings; we are all connected, and we are all one. We are one with other people, animals, plants, the earth, and the entire universe. That’s why intuition is not bizarre or exceptional; it’s natural. Just as we can tell a lot by the nuances of someone’s facial expression, we can also tell a lot by the energetic and vibrational cues we pick up in various situations and environments.
Once you accept that you have intuitive abilities and then choose to honor them, they will steadily become clearer, more accurate, and more powerful. Simply placing your attention on them will bring this about. It can also be helpful to have at least one supportive friend who honors their natural intuitive abilities as well. This way, you can share your discoveries, validate what you’re experiencing, and even practice working with your intuitive gifts together.
Just like every intuitive person, there will be some things that come easily and naturally to you and other things that don’t. Maybe you’ll have deep insight into the emotions of those around you, but seeing future events isn’t usually your thing. (Incidentally, the future is not singular or finite. So if you do see the future, you will likely see many possibilities.) Regardless of what you know or don’t know, you can be honest with yourself and others about it. There’s no reason to feel pressure to know something you don’t or have access to information in a way that isn’t in alignment with your inherent gifts.
Additionally, there are some things that can be helpful to relate and others that won’t. This, also, is something to listen deeply to your intuition about. For example, let’s say a friend who knows you are intuitive repeatedly requests information about her love life, asking things like “Is this guy trustworthy?” or “Should I move in with this person?” While in some cases, giving specific answers to such questions might be appropriate, when you tune into your intuition in this case, you may sense that giving her these answers isn’t what is going to best support her. Instead, it will support her to encourage her to cultivate her own intuition about such things. In this case, you might ask her, “What do you think? Does he feel trustworthy to you?” and “Well, do you feel like moving in with him?” You may feel further guided to continue to ask questions after she answers these ones, such as “Why?” or “Why not?” or “What is stopping you from sharing these feelings directly with him?”
I share this because when we first get started on the intuitive path, we may sometimes feel pressure to “deliver” and to have it all figured out. At these times, we must remember that the point is not to impress people or to know more than they do, but to be a conduit of divine guidance and to relay it in the most loving and supportive possible way.
Similarly, when it comes to ourselves, it can be helpful to remember that we don’t need to know everything or understand everything, nor should we expect to. However, we can trust that what we do need to know will be available to us precisely when we need to know it. Imagine, for example, that you are the one with romance questions, such as “Is this person trustworthy?” and “Should I move in with this person?” When you ask yourself these questions, you may not know the answers initially. And when you look deeper, you realize what you really need to know is that it’s not time to move in with someone you aren’t sure is trustworthy. Maybe in the future you will be more certain, but for now it’s time to retain boundaries that feel authentic to you. So if you and this person were to discuss the possibility of moving in together, it would be important for you to clearly state that you’re not yet ready for that step.
In both cases (whether it’s you or your friend), you can see that the point is not to know all the answers. The point is to navigate this life experience with grace and authenticity, and to listen deeply to the current of divine wisdom that’s available to you at all times. This way, you can fully immerse yourself in this precious, ultimately unfathomable life experience and continually deepen your wisdom along the way.