Can You Learn to Hone Your Intuition?

Yes, you can

Dec 26, 2023

What are some good ways to ensure your intuition will grow ever-more helpful?

1. Set aside all expectations about what the past implies and what the future may bring. Instead, cultivate a desire to recognize and respond to the raw truth of each new moment.

2. Meditate on the difference between your fearful fantasies and your accurate intuitions.

3. Cultivate the understanding that your imagination and intuition are as essential to your success as your analytical mind.

4. Assume you regularly need to express your playful, creative urges, and that requires you to sometimes transcend your analytical mind.

5. Maybe it’s wise to work with your dreams.

EXPLORE THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR LIFE

with my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES for the Coming Year:

https://RealAstrology.com

What new influences and opportunities will be headed your way in 2024? What fresh resources will you be able to draw on? How can you conspire with life to create the best possible future for yourself?

Beginning this week, and for the next two weeks as well, I'm exploring the BIG PICTURE of your life in my Expanded Audio Horoscopes.

If you slip into a philosophical, visionary mood at the end of each year, you might appreciate my perspectives on your long-term outlook.

To listen to PART 1 of your BIG PICTURE horoscopes online, go to

https://RealAstrology.com

The cost for the Expanded Audio Horoscopes is $7 per sign. (You can get discounts for multiple purchases.)

Each forecast is 7-10 minutes long.

P.S. You can still access last week's Sneak-Peek at 2024. In these expanded audio horoscopes, I describe some major themes I think you'll be working and playing with in 2024. After you register and/or log in, click on "Last Week (Dec. 19, 2023)."

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TAKING A BREAK FROM THE COLLECTIVE'S MONKEY MIND

One possible goal of meditation is to empty our minds of their obsessively generated thoughts, habitual rationalizations, and addictive images.

Alas, much of the media functions as a reverse meditation machine: a manic chaoticizer. Not only does it stir up our own mental clatter, but it also floods us with seething surges of other people's personal pandemoniums.

Furthermore, it delivers this rattling racket with entertaining words and brilliant colors and crystalline sounds, driving it as deeply into our psyches as our own vivid flotsam.

What might ameliorate the effects of the media's relentless reverse meditations? Can you regularly clear a space for the counsel of the still, small voice within?

I suggest a once-a-month day-long fast from all media: a luxurious immersion in the Wild Silence.

INNER FAKE NEWS

Using our fears and superstitions and delusions as a power source, our monkey minds and monkey hearts are churning out fake news about ourselves all the time.

One possible remedy: Treat our monkey mind’s fake news with the same healthy, exuberant skepticism we do toward politicians’ and media’s fake news.

FEAR VERSUS INTUITION

I love to help readers learn to distinguish between their fearful fantasies and authentic, accurate intuitions.

A reliable way for me to earn the right to discourse on this subject is to keep learning more about how to distinguish between my fearful fantasies and my authentic, accurate intuitions. I doubt I will ever gain full proficiency at this skill. But I’m making progress. I’m better at it than I used to be.

In the history of civilization, has there ever been a time when this skill was less than critical? I don’t think so. But it’s even more essential nowadays. Humans are in the midst of a thrilling and unnerving pivot point. Decrepit habits of thought are unraveling. Structures that have kept us enthralled to fake values are crumbling. The coming decades will be ripe with opportunities to forge a world that empowers the soul to flourish.

As the monumental mutations proliferate, many so-called leaders cram our imaginations with scary visions and angry emotions. They sell us the delusion that their visions of gloom and doom are rooted in logical analysis.

In the face of their toxic propaganda, it’s wise to remember that we have the power to shun their fearmongering. As a partial antidote, we can tune in to the guidance of the demure but potent voice within us—the muse-like intuition that will, if we allow, lead us capably through the zigzags of our destiny, even when we experience the personal ramifications of civilization’s colossal transformations.

Knowing the difference between our fearful fantasies and our authentic, accurate intuitions is a spiritual superpower.

Let’s explore what it means to grasp the distinctions between the frightening, alienating pictures that pop into our imaginations and the warm, clear directions available from the deepest source within us.

Many people confuse these two. I’ve done it myself on countless occasions. When an alarming future possibility wells up in our imagination, we worry it’s a sign that our intuition is foreshadowing a real event that will literally assail us.

For instance, we may fantasize about getting in a car accident or falling down a flight of stairs. Maybe we dream of a loved one becoming sick or a beloved pet getting lost.

On a few occasions, demoralizing fantasies like these are authentic warnings from our deeper knowing. Maybe we should indeed drive more carefully or urge our loved one to get a medical check-up. But mostly, these dire scenes invading our mind are not accurate premonitions. True intuition is rarely fueled by fear. It's not prone to motivate us with dread.

Our true intuition emerges from the part of us that knows love is the ultimate law. It blooms in the spirit of affinity and intimacy. Like a slow-motion fountain of lucid compassion, it reveals the objective truth about the riddles before us. It shows us the big picture.

Forbidding fantasies, on the other hand, burn and itch and demoralize us. They drain our energy and cloud our judgment. They fill us with obsessive urges to run and hide or act desperate and melodramatic.

I don’t believe our true intuition is always calm and emotionally neutral. It isn’t, necessarily. But I will say this: The feelings that accompany true intuition aren’t alienating. They don’t arouse hate or revenge, and they don’t encourage us to act superior to others. When true intuition flows, we are usually empowered, not rendered hopeless or helpless.

True intuition may provoke our anger. But if so, it’s an invigorating rage that leads to clarity and constructive action.

True intuition may show us difficult truths, but it offers directions about how to deal courageously with those truths. True intuition may suggest changes and adjustments, but it does so in ways that groom our poise and grace.

I will emphasize this point: True intuition may not reveal that everything will turn out fine or that we can keep living exactly as we have been. True intuition isn’t falsely optimistic. But if it does alert us to how we need to transform, it does so with love and aplomb, not with loathing and panic.

Here’s another key theme. Just as our true intuition never works by spooking us, neither does it flatter us with grandiose suggestions about how faultless and superb we are.

It may even inform us to correct our attitude or abandon a delusion or fix a wrong conclusion. It may tactfully but firmly show us that we have been suffering from some ignorance and need to wise up.

True intuition reveals the story of our lives from our soul’s point of view, not our ego’s. It’s the voice of our inner teacher.

The certainty that true intuition provides is never strident or cocky, but reliably humble and impeccable.

Now is a perfect moment to ruminate on these ideas and add insights of your own. I invite you to have fun flushing away any disquiets and perturbations and trepidations that may have distorted your relationship with your true intuition.

I’m giving myself the same invitation, too. I always need to do more work!

PS: One way to facilitate the process is to cut back on the amount of horrifying and disorienting images we allow to flow into our imagination from the TV, internet, newspapers, movies, and other mass media.

RELATIONSHIP WITH INTUITION

“Intuition” refers to the capacity to get insight without calling on logic and rational thinking. It seems to enable us to skip steps as we quickly and directly home in on a clear insight. We may have the sensation that the crisp, lucid realization has been fully formed for some time, and has been waiting for us to pounce on it.

Surprisingly, many scientists don’t regard intuition as being the province of pseudoscience. Researchers have studied it in lab experiments.

But as I meditate on intuition here, I speak as a poet and creative artist, not a scientist.

In seeking intuitive help, one reliable spur comes from formulating specific, timely questions, like:

• “What is it I most need to learn today?”

• “Who is it I most need to learn from right now?”

• “What practical measure can I initiate to live my life with more vigor and rigor?”

• “How could I attract new experiences that will enhance my intelligence and artful pursuits?”

Intuition often reveals the action we need to take next. It doesn’t necessarily show us the entire plan of the big picture and all the particular steps required to assemble the big picture.

So we shouldn’t try to pressure intuition to give us a mountaintop perspective. Instead, we might ask, “What one or two things should I do in the immediate future?”

Another approach to stimulating intuition is to work with dreams. That takes study and expertise. Our nightly adventures speak a different language from that of our waking life. If we develop even a modicum of skills at translation, we can draw a steady stream of useful clues from our other brain in that other world. They resemble the insights that intuition provides.

I enhance my intuition by walking. Nature hikes and strolls around town often rouse realizations that turn out to be useful and enduring. I take a notebook or recorder with me to capture them.

Here’s one more aspect of my relationship with intuition. I’m most successful in accessing sudden outbreaks of fresh truth when I have gone as far as I can in doing research, thinking hard, employing logic, and being objective and reasonable.

Then I hand over my ruminations and questions to intuition and say, “What more can you tell me, given that I’ve come this far with all my analysis? What treasure can you add?”

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Week of December 28

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn-born Lebron James is one of the greatest players in basketball history. Even more interesting from my perspective is that he is an exuberant activist and philanthropist. His list of magnificent contributions is too long to detail here. Here are a few examples: his bountiful support for charities like After-School All-Stars, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Children's Defense Fund, and his own Family Foundation. I suggest you make Lebron one of your role models in 2024. It will be a time when you can have more potent and far-reaching effects than ever before through the power of your compassion, generosity, and beneficence.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I propose we make the shark your soul creature in 2024. Not because some shark species are apex predators at the top of the food chain. Rather, I propose you embrace the shark as an inspirational role model because it is a stalwart, steadfast champion with spectacular endurance. Its lineage goes back 400 million years. Sharks were on Earth before there were dinosaurs, mammals, and grass. Saturn's rings didn't exist yet when the first sharks swam in the oceans. Here are the adjectives I expect you to specialize in during the coming months: resolute, staunch, indomitable, sturdy, resilient.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In the 19th century, many scientists believed in the bogus theory of eugenics, which proposed that we could upgrade the genetic quality of the human race through selective breeding. Here’s a further example of experts’ ignorance: Until the 1800s, most scientists dismissed the notion that stones fell from the sky, even though meteorites had been seen by countless people since ancient times. Scientists also rejected the idea that large reptiles once roamed the Earth, at least until the 19th century, when it became clear that dinosaurs had existed and had become extinct. The moral of the story is that even the smartest among us can be addicted to delusional beliefs and theories. I hope this inspires you to engage in a purge of your own outmoded dogmas in 2024. A beginner’s mind can be your superpower! Discover a slew of new ways to think and see.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Among couples who share their finances, 39 percent lie to their partners about money. If you have been among that 39 percent, please don’t be in 2024. In fact, I hope you will be as candid as possible about most matters with every key ally in your life. It will be a time when the more honest and forthcoming you are, the more resources you will have at your disposal. Your commitment to telling the truth as kindly but completely as possible will earn you interesting rewards.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): According to tradition in ancient Israel, a Jubilee year happened every half-century. It was a “trumpet blast of liberty,” in the words of the Old Testament book Leviticus. During this grace period, enslaved people were supposed to be freed. Debts were forgiven, taxes canceled, and prisoners released. People were encouraged to work less and engage in more revelry. I boldly proclaim that 2024 should be a Jubilee Year for you Bulls. To launch the fun, make a list of the alleviations and emancipations you will claim in the months ahead.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "Make peace with their devils, and you will do the same with yours." The magazine Dark's Art Parlor provides us with this essential wisdom about how to conduct vibrant relationships. I invite you to make liberal use of it in 2024. Why? Because I suspect you will come to deeply appreciate how all your worthwhile bonds inevitably require you to engage with each other's wounds, shadows, and unripeness. To say it another way, healthy alliances require you to deal respectfully and compassionately with each other's darkness. The disagreements and misunderstandings the two of you face are not flaws that discolor perfect intimacy. They are often rich opportunities to enrich togetherness.

EXPLORING YOUR LONG-RANGE FUTURE

Would you like some inspiration as you muse and wonder about your upcoming adventures in 2024?

In this week's EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, I offer you a long-term, in-depth exploration of your destiny in the coming months. This is Part One of a three-part series.

Part Two and Part Three will be available in the next two weeks.

Access them at

https://RealAstrology.com

You can also still access my Sneak-Peek forecasts for 2024 from a week ago. To hear these, click on "Last Week (Dec 19, 2023)."

The cost is $7 per sign. Discounts are available for bulk purchases.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian author Franz Kafka wrote over 500 letters to his love interest Felice Bauer. Her outpouring of affection wasn't as voluminous, but was still very warm. At one point, Kafka wryly communicated to her, "Please suggest a remedy to stop me trembling with joy like a lunatic when I receive and read your letters." He added, "You have given me a gift such as I never even dreamt of finding in this life." I will be outrageous here and predict that 2024 will bring you, too, a gift such as you never dreamt of finding in this life. It may or may not involve romantic love, but it will feel like an ultimate blessing.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Renowned inventor Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) felt an extraordinary closeness with sparrows, finches, pigeons, and other wild birds. He loved feeding them, conversing with them, and inviting them into his home through open windows. He even fell in love with a special pigeon he called White Dove. He said, “I loved her as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life.” I bring this to your attention because I suspect 2024 will be an excellent time to upgrade your relationship with birds, Leo. Your power to employ and enjoy the metaphorical power of flight will be at a maximum.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “All the world's a stage,” wrote Shakespeare. He was comparing life to a theatrical drama, suggesting we are all performers attached to playing roles. In response, a band called the Kingpins released the song "All the World’s a Cage." The lyrics include these lines: "You promised that the world was mine / You chained me to the borderline / Now I'm just sitting here doing time / All the world's a cage." These thoughts are the prelude to my advice for you. I believe that in 2024, you are poised to live your life in a world that is neither like a stage nor a cage. You will have unusually ample freedom from expectations, artificial constraints, and the inertia of the past. It will be an excellent time to break free from outdated self-images and your habitual persona.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): At age 10, an American girl named Becky Schroeder launched her career as an inventor. Two years later, she got her first of many patents for a product that enables people to read and write in the dark. I propose we make her one of your role models for 2024. No matter how old you are, I suspect you will be doing precocious things. You will understand life like a person at least ten years older than you. You will master abilities that a casual observer might think you learned improbably fast. You may even have seemingly supernatural conversations with the Future You.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Here are excellent questions for you to meditate on throughout 2024. 1. Who and what do you love? Who and what makes you spill over with adoration, caring, and longing? 2. How often do you feel deep waves of love? Would you like to feel more of them? If so, how could you? 3. What are the most practical and beautiful ways you express love for whom and what you love? Would you like to enhance the ways you express love, and if so, how? 4. Is there anything you can or should do to intensify your love for yourself?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Like the rest of the planet, Scotland used to be a wild land. It had vast swaths of virgin forests and undomesticated animals. Then humans came. They cut the trees, dug up charcoal, and brought agriculture. Many native species died, and most forests disappeared. In recent years, though, a rewilding movement has arisen. Now Scotland is on the way to restoring the ancient health of the land. Native flora and fauna are returning. In accordance with astrological omens, I propose that you launch your own personal rewilding project in 2024. What would that look like? How might you accomplish it?

Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter

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