Intuition Q&A
I asked my beloved community to send me their questions about intuition — and they did not disappoint!
It was a huge honor to get to read everyone’s heartfelt inquiries, and an even bigger privilege to answer a few of the questions that were asked. Thank you so much to everyone who wrote in.
I invite everyone who chooses to read these responses to consider them as invitations, not directives. We are all intuitive in our own ways, and I encourage you to trust in your knowing above all else.
Content warnings for this post: mentions of anxiety, trauma, racism, misinformation, grief, religious trauma. We have done our best to identify difficult subject matter, but the labels may not be comprehensive for your personal needs. Please honor your knowing and proceed with necessary self-awareness and care.
Chelsea asks, “Hi Lindsay, Is it possible for a channel to get "clogged" (whether that's by anxieties/unhealed trauma or something else)? I want to be more in touch with my spirit guides, but I have a hard time receiving messages and I wonder if there's some clearing/uncluttering to do. And if not, what is the best way to "open up" a channel or set yourself up for clearer communication?”
I want to start by validating your experience — you are not alone in this! So many of us work for a long time to get more in touch with our Guides and with our channel. For me, this took years and years. It was easy for me to sense into the intuitive guidance for others when I was reading Tarot for them, but much harder for me to feel into the messages from myself/my own Guides.
If we think of our intuitive channel as a radio station, one that is consistently broadcasting loving and helpful messages, we can certainly find ourselves in situations where the volume on that station is turned down really low.
What are some of the things that can turn the volume down on that radio station? Anxiety and trauma can definitely do it, as you mentioned. I know when I feel sick, scared, or stressed, my brain radio is much louder than my intuitive knowing. Essentially, being in our vulnerable humanness can turn that volume down low, which is okay and normal.
What are some of the ways that we can open that channel up a bit, or turn the volume up a little? Honoring where we are in our process is the number one thing, in my opinion. Really normalizing that expanding our channel is lifelong work and that it’s okay to be wherever we are with it can help so much. We build that muscle over time, and it takes gentle, consistent repetition for our intuition to get strengthened and expanded. The second most helpful thing is doing regular Check-Ins, or Drop-Ins, making peace with the silence or low volume on the other end, checking in with your Tarot deck, and maybe even working with a pendulum, if you feel drawn to that practice.
With regard to the Tarot, a very helpful prompt for this kind of situation is to tune in, and ask, “Spirit/Guides/Inner Knowing, what would you have me know today?”
Again, it’s normal to go through little seasons where we don’t perceive much, or where things feel more muddy. It changes all the time; it’s part of being an intuitive human.
Nicole asks, “I hear a lot of talk about intuition/psychic ability over the years. Working to develop over the years it only pushed me into "you have to do readings" because no other alternative was available for your intuition. So that's what I did. It was a good learning experience, but didn't hit the spot for me as a profession. In truth, it has been better suited for my day job as an engineer. That being said, here's the question. Just because you have it, what do you do with it? Just because you cultivate it how do you share it? Why does something so precious have to be boxed into "do readings" as a profession? Why can't it simply be part of our human beingness? A gift from the Divine to help us have an expansive life?”
I am so happy you asked this question. This subject is something that I feel very passionate about — that everyone is intuitive, and we are all meant to share our intuitive gifts and skills in wholly unique ways.
There are (and are meant to be) intuitively guided and gifted lawyers, sex workers, childcare providers, bookkeepers, social workers, engineers (such as yourself!), doctors — you name it. Intuition gets to come with us into anything we do, if we feel a deep call and desire to take part in it.
Intuition is absolutely not meant to be relegated to just spiritual or helping folks (in fact, there are plenty of spiritual/helping folks out there working and sharing who are causing active harm or spreading misinformation in the name of being connected to their intuition).
Intuition IS a part of our human beingness, a gift from the Divine to help us have an expansive life, just as you so eloquently and beautifully shared — and it is devastating that something so precious and delightful (that is also a universal birthright that everyone gets to express and live out in their own way) has been relegated to the binary of the spiritual or helping professions.
The other question you posed, “Just because you have it, what do you do with it? Just because you cultivate it, how do you share it?” is the million-dollar question. That is the question that only you can answer, and it is the one you must seek out with your whole heart. You are meant to do things with your intuition that are rich and gorgeous, that will guide you into the unexpected in the best ways.
Trusting where you are, noticing what you’re passionate about, and letting your intuition dance freely is the deep work we do over our lifetime. It is, essentially, the core of what intuitive rewilding is.
Sunny asks, “How do I discern the difference between intuition and fear? I am so used to discounting my own urges, due to past trauma and being invalidated over and over as a child. Once an adult, I began invalidating myself, and allowing people into my life who invalidated me, because it felt normal. Now, here I am, trying to listen to my intuition and the voice inside my head says mean things to me to bully me into doing things, or seeing things from someone else’s point of view. I’m constantly battling, and feeling paralyzed.”
I am honoring and so fully validating everything you’ve shared here.
First and foremost, we can think of our whole channel as being one magnificent radio. Our mind/brain/ego is one of those channels, and our soul/intuition/connection to our Inner Knowing and our Guide is another channel.
The radio station of the mind is extremely loud because it has evolved to be. Its primary purpose is to keep us alive, safe, and in what is familiar. This part of us does not value the idea of leaping into the unknown or listening to our intuition, so it can tend to invite us into a tremendous amount of doubt, fear, worry, critical thoughts, and contraction, especially when we are very close to some kind of big expansion in our lives. It’s not trying to jam us up — it is just scared for us, and is trying to protect us in its own way.
If we’ve experienced trauma, those invitations can be even louder, even more extreme, even more seemingly dire. The inner dialogue can be really sharp and mean, too.
The radio station of our intuition actively wants us to be free, to evolve beyond our wounding and pain, to try new things and shake things up. It wants us learning, experiencing, and growing. These kinds of invitations can feel downright dangerous to the thinking mind, that just wants to keep us safe and cozy in our little containers! It is in this duality that we can feel great dissonance and a sense of stuckness and “battling,” as you mentioned. The soul is longing to fly, the mind is longing to keep us on stable ground.
This dissonance isn’t a bad thing, though. It can suck and feel so uncomfortable, but it is a necessary and crucial part of how we slowly, gently turn the volume up on our intuitive radio station, healing ourselves and our wounds in the process. Make no mistake: reclaiming our intuition is a rite of passage, an initiation, and a reparenting all in one.
In fact, at least for me, it is the process. I tune in with my intuition, perceive whatever I perceive, my mind has an opinion about it, I honor and make space for that, and in doing so, it expands and heartens me. It brings me into a closer kinship with myself. One of the ways we do this is by noticing those invitations from the mind, rather than believing or identifying with them.
How do we ultimately sense into the difference between intuition and fear?
Here are some good check points:
If the download seems extremely loud, emergent, demanding, judgmental, critical, or uses language like “you should,” “you ought to,” “why didn’t you,” “if you don’t, _____ is going to happen,” it’s always brain.
If the download feels a little softer (even when there’s more directness to it), if it’s more invitational, rather than demanding, if it’s compassionate and loving, if it feels expansive rather than something we are bracing against, and if it offers you some space, it is usually intuition, and/or our Inner Knowing.
Anonymous asks, “This is hard for me to ask, and it may seem totally off the wall. I was raised very Christian with the scariness of satan and his demons lurking everywhere trying to get a stronghold on my spirit. I realize this is bullshit, but it’s ever present in the back of my mind when wanting to open up to my intuitive power. Afraid that I’m going to open the door to a demon to get me. I really want to connect to my greater source but have fear. Any suggestions?”
This is such a valid fear that so many folks experience and carry from a traumatic experience with religion in their formative years. I am so grateful that you chose to courageously ask about it.
I don’t know if this will resonate with you, but in my experience, it’s our inner kiddos who are most afraid of this possibility. You might consider seeing this whole process of slowly wading into the intuitive waters as an opportunity to offer some gentle, well-deserved reparenting. When those worries and fears come up, maybe try speaking about them directly to that part of yourself. Something (in your own words) like, “Aww, love, I understand your trepidation about intuition. It’s so scary to consider. I want you to know that tuning in with our intuition is safe and that I’ll be here with you the whole time. If something feels like too much, or if something feels too scary, we have free will — we will tell that thing to go away and never come back, that we are unavailable to engage in any kind of connection with it.”
I invite you to experiment with that and see if it’s helpful in any way.
Kasia asks, “If you don't follow your intuition and go another way, does this mean you've totally messed up your life path? One of my biggest fears is thinking of all the missed opportunities or magical paths I didn't take because I wasn't listening to my intuition. Where I could be now if only....”
Absolutely not. You have totally not messed up your life path! Anything we do, and whatever we choose is always based on the best information we have at the time. Intuition isn’t linear, or finite. It doesn’t run out, or give up on you. In fact, without those choices and experiences, you probably wouldn’t be where you are today. Regret around this kind of thing is one of the strongest invitations from the mind to get us to swirl around in contraction or the past, rather than be in the present. The truth is, you are alive now. You have the option to be present with what is, which can fully open us to change, and to the possibility of new and different choices. Can you honor those feelings of worry and regret with the utmost tenderness, but consider the possibility that where you are is exactly where you are meant to be?
Libby asks, “We all want to trust our intuition, but we also know that we have deep-seated biases around race (among other things). How do you navigate this desire to deeply trust yourself and the knowledge that we all have unlearning to do?”
Absolutely. This is why I talk about The Hierophant as I do, and why I think it’s such an important, crucial Anchor for the kind of work that is necessary for us to do as intuitives.
We are human, prone to biases, confusion, and misinformation. When we have unchecked beliefs, fears, or traumas, it is very easy to mistake them for intuition. It’s also one of the ways that I see folks engage in a harmful amount of bypassing (assuming that global issues like racism, environmental degradation, conspiracy theories, and systemic inequities are somehow outside of the realm of the “pure” and the “spiritual — newsflash, they are not), appropriation, and the like.
I think we can embody our inner Hierophant — human beings with extraordinary connections to the Divine, who are also deeply flawed, capable of harm (no matter how unintentional), and bias — by staying humble, opening fully to our knowing, and being willing to check it against things we learn by being present in the world. Undoing and unlearning inherited beliefs and biases is the work of being an intuitive. There is no way to separate them.
A phrase I really like is, “this is what I know to be true today.” It helps me to make peace with the fact that I’m not all-knowing, nor do I aspire to be, and that I can trust in my guidance system while still remaining humble and open to adjustment, transparency, and change. Again, I believe that this is the core work for any intuitive.
Branwen asks, “I hate to admit this, but one aspect of my relationship with intuition that I struggle with is that I want to be "special" or "unique" because of my intuitive gifts. I struggle when people who seem more intuitive than me, have more natural seeming gifts, or when my intuition doesn't manifest in a classic Hollywood medium style. How can I learn to dig into and under these fears, and believe in myself more?”
Intuitive comparison is so real and so painful. So many of us have experienced this kind of spiky invitation (myself included), and sometimes even completely dismiss the idea that they are intuitive at all because it doesn’t match some Hollywood, or media-centric idea of what an intuitive is. I start with that to remind you that you’re not alone.
Here’s what I can say with total assurance: your intuitive gifts are magical, extraordinary, and beautiful. They deserve to be centered, honored and cherished, lifted, and championed. If you can remind yourself of that fact, that birthright, it will help to heal some of those painful comparison traps.
Another tip I would offer is to see if you can begin to notice those invitations into comparison, rather than believing or buying into them. I don’t know an intuitive worth their salt who doesn’t have those experiences or feelings, myself included. It’s big, deep, grief-filled work to shift those perceptions that we are all fed about what intuition (and intuitives) look and behave like.
With time, repetition, and heaps of self-compassion, that will start to shift. Until that time, I encourage you to be really gentle with yourself. It’s part of the big undoing work in the intuitive rewilding process.
If you feel a call to dive deeper into this kind of intuitive reclamation, I invite you to check out my newest offering, Rewilding our Intuition.
Rewilding our Intuition is a self paced, pre recorded audio course on intuitive expansion and reclamation, designed to assist folx in the initiatory process of opening to and trusting in their wise inner voice.
Using the four Queens of the Tarot as our guides for this journey, we will explore what it means to speak and live from the spiralic nature of intuition — the chord of wisdom that lives within all of us. Participants will leave this workshop with an abundance of resources, exercises, and skills to help them root into their inner knowing, as well as supportive Tarot spreads, prompts, and inquiries to help them if they get stuck or caught in doubt and contraction.
Enrollment is open now, and material is available for immediate download!