Sign Mapping
To use signs, messages, and synchronicities for guidance and direction it is important to develop a relationship and familiarity with them. There are a few common characteristics that signs share. As you become more aware of the events surrounding their appearance and how and when they surface, they will become more frequent.
It can be helpful to keep a journal and document your encounters and experiences with signs and messages to better notice patterns and commonalities. As you do this you will become more comfortable deciphering their symbolic meaning, and your ability to gain insight into their message will become more spontaneous and natural.
Noticing Signs
When Sheila left her office to take a quick trip to the post office, she noticed two doves sitting on a branch near the entrance. If it hadn’t been for the cooing that startled her, she would have never noticed them. On her way back to the office Sheila was waiting for a light to turn green when two small sparrows that were playfully chasing one another flew directly in front of her car windshield. When she noticed these two birds, a warm flow of energy filled her heart while a shiver of energy moved up her spine, and an image of the single and good-looking man that she had recently met at a friend’s home came to mind. She smiled when she thought of him. However, by the time she pulled up into the parking lot at work, she had forgotten all about the birds and warm feelings she had recently experienced.
Divorced for several years, Sheila was beginning to doubt if she would ever meet her soulmate. If she had been more alert to and aware of signs, she might have recognized the birds as important messangers bringing the news that a positive relationship was on its way. The more we engage with signs, the easier it becomes to decipher them.
Here are some questions that will help you to be alert to signs and get the most from them:
• Do I notice signs and synchronicities, or do they seem to happen more to others and not me?
• Am I initially trusting and excited when I encounter a sign, but then become more skeptical and doubtful?
• When I receive a sign, am I grateful and open-hearted, or do I question and dismiss it?
• When I encounter a sign, can I pause and listen within to my intuition?
• Are there any bodily sensations, a sense of warmth, or emotions and feelings that accompany signs?
• Do I feel the presence of angels or loved ones on the other side when I encounter a sign?
• Do signs seem to trigger my intuitive awareness? Do I sometimes receive instantaneous insights and revelations?
• Do I feel loved, comforted, restored, or healed during or after receiving a sign, omen, or synchronicity?
Asking yourself these questions and journaling your responses will help you to notice signs, increase your intuitive receptivity, and gain insight into their meaning and deepen your overall experience.
What’s Happening
Working at technology firm for the past several years was no longer enjoyable for Laura. She thought long and hard about what she really wanted to do and accomplish. She kept imagining herself going back to school and getting a teaching degree in special education. Yet, she feared that she was being impractical and overly idealistic. She didn’t know what to do.
One morning the train she was on that took her into the city for work unexpectedly stopped. She heard an announcement that a small mechanical issue was at fault but that they would soon be up and moving. She glanced out the window and noticed that the train had stopped in front of a schoolyard. Children were busy going into the school and she noticed a pretty little girl in a wheelchair smiling and laughing with some others girls while being escorted into the school. In her heart she knew that this was more than a coincidence. It was a sign that becoming a teacher was the right decision for her; she was sure of it.
It can be helpful to pay attention to the circumstances and conditions that you are experiencing when you encounter a sign. This will help you to better tune in to its message and what it is related to. Ask yourself these questions when you encounter a sign:
• Am I lonely and in need of comfort?
• Is there a choice or decision I am confronting?
• Have I been thinking of a loved one on the other side?
• Have I sent a message or prayer to my angels or the divine presence asking for guidance and direction?
• Am I experiencing a new beginning in my life, planning a trip, starting a new job, or beginning a new relationship?
• Does the presence of a sign coincide with an anniversary, birthday, or special past event?
Not only are present-time conditions important, but what unfolds after you receive a sign is equally significant. Here are some questions to ponder after you have received a sign
• Has something unexpected occurred after I received a sign or experienced a synchronicity?
• Has a new opportunity presented itself?
• Has a relationship ended or a new one begun? Has there been any change in my finances, either loss or gain, or surprising opportunity?
• Has there been a birth, illness, healing, or passing over soon after the emergence of a sign or synchroncity?
Patterns
Jessie was getting ready for a fun weekend with some old college friends when the lights in his apartment flickered. He didn’t think too much of it. When he got back on Monday, he thought, he would make a report to the office and ask them to check it out. This was the third time it had happened in the last couple of days.
That evening he met up with his friends in the sports bar near their old college dorm. They were having a great time and in an unusual pause in the conversation the lights of the bar flickered. That’s odd, he thought, and shared with his friends how the lights in his apartment had also begun to flicker. One by one his old college friends shared the same story. In the last few days they had all noticed the lights in their homes or offices quickly going off and on again.
Jessie didn’t know if it was the alcohol talking, but he quickly thought of Jerry. He had attended college with this group and had died in a car accident on spring break during his senior year. Jokingly, Jessie mentioned to the group that maybe Jerry was letting them know that he was with them. Surprisingly, his friends shook their heads in agreement. It would be just like Jerry, they reasoned. He never wanted to miss out on a good time, they reminisced. They bought another round and made a toast to their good friend.
Signs can be repetitive. Notice signs that repeat themselves or patterns that continually surface. As you do this, their meaning and message will become more apparent and clear. Here are a few questions to help you develop a better understanding of the meaning of specific signs:
• Does unexpected financial gain or loss repeatedly occur after an encounter with a specific sign?
• Do the lights in my home flicker or my phone mysteriously ring when I am thinking or talking about a loved one who has passed over?
• Do I glance at a clock or watch at the same time, day and night?
• Do I continually find feathers from the same species of bird, for instance, bluejay, owl, or hawk?
• Do I often find the same denomination of coin, for instance pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters?
Symbolic Significance
Jenni was twenty-four years old. The number on the house that she grew up in was twenty-four. She was also born in February, the second month of the year, on the fourth. Her license plate even had a twenty-four in it. There was no doubt in her mind—when the number 24 surfaced, she paid attention.
Since graduating from college, Jenni had not been able to find a job that she liked. She felt as if she was just floating along with no goals and no destination. Some days she felt invisible and did not know what to do with herself. On what seemed like an endless job search, she scanned her notes for the address of the next job interview.
The office was hard to find, but eventually she sat in the waiting area, not very hopeful that the job would work out. A friend of hers had gotten her the interview, and although she would love to work in television production, she was used to disappointments. After being called in for the interview, she nervously sat in front of the production manager and listened to what he was looking for. Jenni was startled when she heard that there was more than one job opening and that one of them was for a new division called 7/24. She had always had a thing for numbers and considered the number 7 her lucky number, and of course 24 was her number. She knew she would get the job, and she did.
Perceiving the world and what you experience in a symbolic way is an ability that may take practice, attentive observation, and the ability to employ creative, intuitive thinking. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
• Do certain songs, movies, or pieces of art invoke deep emotions or remind me of another time or certain people from the past?
• Can I make associations between what I am experiencing and the signs that I encounter?
• Are there certain things that I encounter that remind me of something from my past or invoke a memory?
• Do I pay attention to my dreams and seek to understand their meaning?
• Do I look beyond appearances and penetrate to the core of an issue or situation?
• Do certain numbers, colors, or objects have symbolic meaning to me?
When you experience a sign, take note of anything that you notice or feel, even if it does not seem particularly important. Your awareness of subtle clues and connections will become more obvious as you focus attention on them. In time, the meaning behind the message will likely become more clear. Keep in mind that some signs, synchronicities, and messages bypass human reasoning. Not every sign will be intellectually understood and make sense. This does not mean that it has no purpose or meaning. Instead, the divine energy inherent within the sign is working on an unconscious level. Healing, transformation, and consciousness growth cannot always be understood on a rational and human level.