Each client I work with has a unique astrology chart, but there’s one piece of advice I find myself giving almost everyone: follow your intuition. This article will give you some practical tips on how to empower your natural intuitive abilities so that you can more easily receive your inner guidance!
The Gods of Change
The best way I know to negotiate the frequently challenging transits of the “gods of change” – the life-transforming outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – is to tune in to the unique flavors of intuitive communication they each use. Uranus’ modus operandi is the intuitive flash – the sudden electric jolt of insight, usually accompanied by goose bumps or some other powerful somatic signal.
I call these feelings the “ITC” – the Intuitive Tingle of Certainty. When you feel the ITC riding shotgun with a sudden insight, take it seriously. Chances are, it’s your Higher Self sending you a cosmic text message!
While Uranus is typically the most dramatic outer planet, Neptune is much subtler: more flow than flash. If Uranus is a lightning bolt, Neptune is a never-ending waterfall, pouring down a constant supply of bliss and inner knowing.
Neptune and Uranus are usually the easiest outers to work with, since they give us earth-planers a way to figure out what they’re up to. Pluto, however, tends to raise a huge cloud of dust while he spends about three years tearing down whatever’s outlived its usefulness, then replacing it with new and improved structures. (Astrologer Rick Levine memorably called Pluto “a tsunami moving at the speed of a glacier.”)
Since it can be notoriously difficult to figure out what the Master of Transformation is up to, Pluto transits usually involve a test of faith. Can you manifest the courage to release the old familiar things and “rest in the not-knowingness” when their absence leaves a temporary vacuum? Even if you don’t know what’s coming to replace them?
And, bottom line: what do you do when all of this sounds great in theory, but you can’t actually do it yet?
The Daily Morning Meditation
The thing that’s worked well for me lately is a daily morning meditation. If you’re time-challenged, this doesn’t have to take a lot of time: my Core Invocation can potentially flood you with light and divine consciousness in seconds! It has been said that there are as many paths to God as there are people. So link up with Source in whatever way works best for you.
In my experience, starting the day with at least a moment of inner connection makes a huge difference. When I do, I feel more balanced, centered and serene. My body is more relaxed, I get more accomplished, and I have more fun! And – more to the point of this article – I more easily receive my Uranian flashes and Neptunian flows, and can more confidently “step into the void” when it’s time for a Plutonian transformation.
Does “Monkey Mind” Really Need Taming?
While we’re talking about meditation, allow me to dispel the most persistent and pernicious misconception about meditation that I’ve come across. This is the idea that if your mind is not completely still, you’ve failed. It’s the mind’s job to think, so don’t get upset with it when it does its duty!
I used to deal with monkey mind using visualizations, but now prefer to just rest in simple breath awareness. The cool thing about this approach is that if you’re completely focused on the simple sensation of your breath in your body, thought is not possible!
Ultimately, you can discover firsthand that are not your body, your emotions or your thoughts. What you really are is the indestructible consciousness which animates them all. The less you identify with the impermanent aspects of yourself, the more you’ll be able to receive and be guided by your intuitive wisdom.
The Best Security in “Interesting Times”
We now live in “interesting times,” and they’re going to get considerably more interesting throughout the 2010s. (For more on this, see my article on the Uranus-Pluto square.) It’s time for the corrupt “make a few obscenely wealthy at the expense of the many and the climate” dealings in the U.S. and the world to be exposed and cleansed. (For more on this, see Naomi Klein’s incredible book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate.)
It is unfortunate that this clean-up will inevitably be accompanied by the suffering of so many who did nothing wrong themselves, but this will only be temporary. I sincerely believe that a more equitable, harmonious and enlightened world is emerging out of this massive global restructuring. It’s as if an old building is being gutted and rehabbed. There’s no way around the fact that we’re going to be faced with a messy construction site for a while.
In the midst of such all-encompassing change, the things we usually turn to in the physical world for security might be less capable of providing it. But, by allowing our inner wisdom to guide us through times when our usual methods and strategies no longer work, we are in the most secure place possible: in the embrace of the unconditionally loving, omniscient Source that sent us here in the first place.
And it’s that daily meditation – ideally in the morning before you get caught up in your regular worldly activities – that can make you more sensitive to Spirit’s perpetually available guidance. Spirit never stops speaking to you. If you’re not hearing it as consistently as you would like, then perhaps some of these ideas can help you become a better listener!
Revised 1/10/15. Originally published in the October 2008 newsletter
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