As an INFJ I resonate with everything you say in this post. I have the directional sense of a gadfly. What struck me about your post is the possibility that intuition is not always to be fully trusted. This links up with how active imagination with dream figures might not be as straightforward as it seems. A figure who presents themselves, say, as 'the saviour' can also be a trickster. I find this rather disconcerting. Unlike Christianity, where one rather facilely assumes a fully beneficent deity, depth psychology seems to plunge me into a more realistic, shadow-inclusive domain, where all might not be how it seems, but this means its a tricky terrain to negotiate and trust. I'm still bothered that the unconscious might not always be in one's corner, as it were. But then, it has to be objective, in order to be compensatory, so I guess it could never be entirely in one's corner. I'm probably rambling!
I liked the tips on how to ground our propensity to live in our inner world. Thank you.
My sense is that, an intuition is rarely ever complete, much like a dream. What we receive at the other end of that communication is usually just a piece, a symbol, a first starting point. There are of course exceptions. But overall, I have found that I need to develop these ideas further, see if they can truly manifest in reality, if they have unknowingly become distorted by my complexes, etc.
In my experience, intuition seems to give insight in ways that are constructive, with aim, and purpose. I may not always find them agreeable, easy, or congruent with my ego's attitude. I think things can get tricky if we have somehow stumbled into powerful archetypal dynamics (that can possess and inflate ego) or are working with trauma (think Kalsched's bivalent self-care system), etc.
Kalsched - yes - his idea about the protector who turns bully is relevant. I hand't thought of intuition being distorted by complexes but ... of course. Thank you.
INFJ too, I really resonated with this wonderful article. I am pursuing learning deeper mediumship this year to enhance what I can already do. (Emotional empath, and a few weaker Clairs). The reminder to create and maintain a bridge is a good one. Intentional living does keep me grounded, or else I get lost in my head, reverting to non-productivity in the end. I am registered for the workshop-looking forward to it so very much!
I've explored many intuitive practices over the years. What I have found is they appear to act as a catalyst to focus the natural intuitive function. Once I realized that, it was clear that I didn't need to read tarot or use a pendulum to tap into that, but it was really helpful in creating the environment for me to "open the channel". It also is great in learning the quality of how intuition is experienced in my psyche, I think it can look really different for everyone, hence the discourse around clairs and such.
This is an interesting subject, perhaps I'll write more about it!
actually, I've since realised that the Christian tradition does present the deity as a trickster because there are biblical texts where God, for example, sends an evil spirit to plague King Saul, and where his encounter with Job is the result of God's test prompted by 'the adversary' who is a member of the divine council.
I sometimes just intuitively know things and it has made me feel psychic. I try to make sure I'm grounded by researching our current scientific understanding of the world and by reasoning through the different possibilities.
I have wondered if I'm just storing more information in my subconscious that I'm not aware of and it's like the movie Limitless where the main character takes a pill called NZT to access that information. Like how you could be overhearing an audio book or glancing at a page in a book but you aren't consciously paying attention to it. This information could have been stored since childhood.
I am an INFP by the way. I'm definitely more disconnected from the physical world. I love traveling though. I have to pace myself and take breaks when I do because I feel like I'm processing so much information. Every day or 2 is an "off" day for me.
I subscribed to your substack because I have always related to Artemis. Not because she's a hunter, my dad is though and he has deer heads on his walls, but because I'm asexual and a Virgo. I'm a vegetarian and I couldn't see myself hurting some poor deer. I didn't even know what this substack was about 😆. I just downloaded this app the other day.
Welcome, Alecia! I'm glad you found your way here. Artemis is quite fascinating, multi-dimensional, with many aspects to relate to whether it is her expression as a goddess of the moon, being chaste, as representative of nature and its wild aspects, etc. I see her as a mythic patron figure of sorts for this publication, and for many areas of my life!
I relate to your feeling of being psychic, it's happened time and time through out my life in the strangest and most incredible ways. I wrote about one such experience here: https://alyssapolizzi.substack.com/p/the-hounds-of-diana
I do think we are storing information that has been taken in subliminally. All of those perceptions are housed in the unconscious aspects of psyche and can come into our awareness at later times. There also seems to be times when the intuition transcends that logic, how that's possible is a mystery to me.
Thanks for commenting and sharing your thoughts :)
I love this. Thank you for writing and sharing. I too, live by my intuitive senses. They always guide me in the right direction. I feel it in my body. I love your tools provided too for living this style of life. I often dance around, shake and move. The release of energy is significant.
Yes, the release of energy is powerful! Sometimes I jump up and down, or stomp my feet as I walk in circles. It's a very grounding practice, to root into the body that way :)
The somatic and embodied practices you speak of are crucial in cultivating a clear channel. It's definitely a process of trial and error, and we don't have to get it right all of the time, but like anything we hone our intuition with practice and dedication. Thank you for a wonderfully insightful article; probably one of the most balanced and nuanced articles I've read on this subject.
I agree with that framing, the somatic practices really allow a clarity of intuitive connection. Especially when I am tuning in an intentional way. When my body feels calm, grounded, open, I can drop more easily into an intuitive flow state. I find this especially helpful when practicing active imagination.
Thanks for your comment, so glad you found the article insightful :)
I really enjoyed this piece -- intuition has been a huge theme for me especially in the past few years, and I've found that my life has dramatically improved as I act on it more and more -- it's almost an accelerating effect the more I live from it (I just wrote about that on my own substack!).
I'd be so curious to hear more about the interactions between those four cornerstones. How can rational thinking and intuition work together in harmony to create an outcome better than just one or the other on its own? I was especially surprised at the way intuition, physical sensation, and feelings were split out; they feel so intertwined for me.
The way we talk about intuition, feeling and sensation has a lot of overlap at times. We say, "I have a feeling..." when we are actually referencing an intuitive hunch, or, "I sense something else here...". Despite the language, we are often (although not always) referencing subtle perception of intuition vs physical perceptions or a feeling state. Makes this all a bit tricky to wrap your mind around!
To your point, the four cognitive functions do mix together. In general, we tend to have two rather strong and differentiated functions as our typical tools (I use intuition and feeling most). So the rational dynamics of thinking can be mixed with intuition, and it creates a really wonderful approach for creative thinking, philosophizing, inventiveness, engineering outside the box, etc.
Thank you for this piece, it resonates with me deeply. I am a person of conviction so I especially related to the notion of recognizing when my approach has become too rigid and taking seriously what isn't working in my life. A journey for me (and all of us) that continues and helps me become more spiritually integrated as I move through the seasons of my life.
I appreciate your comment on problems with spatial awareness, etc., when getting too far into one's intuition. I had a similar experience when I tried remote viewing a few months ago — I suddenly had a hard time writing and editing, and I needed to write and edit coherently for my work, so I quit remote viewing. Details here: https://astrologybooks.substack.com/p/my-remote-viewing-binge
It can be really disruptive! Taking a break and grounding back into the everyday can help bring balance. I find taking a walk outside, exercising, doing a body awareness meditation to be especially useful during those times.
This is very helpful-I hadn’t thought about the idea of the bridge before. I am an INTP, very N. I follow a felt sense more than anything for intuiting.
I'm curious what that felt sense is like, can you describe it more? I'm an INFJ, so our intuitions (at least at the psychological framework level), are a bit different.
It is something I learned the label for, that I already was doing, in study with a Zen Master. If you google it, there is another interpretation of the same words, some therapists see it as something to “fix” as an incorrect read of reality. For me, I feel sensations in different parts of my body from which I can intuit meaning without being able to explain it. Because I had significant trauma in my childhood, I have a felt sense for a room before entering it, I call it knowing the temperature of the room. I don’t hear or see anything, but I will know the mood or attitude of whomever is in there, I will react with fear if the person is angry, maybe avoid the room. I can feel when I am glancing quickly through numbers on a large spreadsheet where the error is without really knowing, I can just stop where it is with a feeling, like an electric jolt or chills. Stuff like that where my body reacts.
This is really interesting, thank you for sharing. I feel that I'm often 5 steps behind the somatic cues in my body. SE therapy has helped repair some of this.
I relate to that jolt you speak of, but I've yet to feel it from a bottom up perspective. More like, an awareness that suddenly seizes me, an image of something, a knowing. It's much more ethereal, without solid form.
My connection to intuition is wavering, as is my connection to my body. I love your emphasis on reconnecting through somatic exercises and rekindling that intuitive flame by means of presence. Internal messages are difficult to hear in this world of perpetual distraction, but grounding exercises and mindfulness really do help me return to the moment and to myself
Perpetual distraction, constant stimulation, it really does impact how grounded we are in our bodies and the ability to be connected to our intuition. I find carving out time for quiet meditation and intentional breathing to really help as well.
Learning to sense intuition is a long journey. Sometimes it happens so intensely and explicitly that there's no question. Other times, it is soft and subtle. That's especially where being embodied is helpful, I think.
As an INFJ I resonate with everything you say in this post. I have the directional sense of a gadfly. What struck me about your post is the possibility that intuition is not always to be fully trusted. This links up with how active imagination with dream figures might not be as straightforward as it seems. A figure who presents themselves, say, as 'the saviour' can also be a trickster. I find this rather disconcerting. Unlike Christianity, where one rather facilely assumes a fully beneficent deity, depth psychology seems to plunge me into a more realistic, shadow-inclusive domain, where all might not be how it seems, but this means its a tricky terrain to negotiate and trust. I'm still bothered that the unconscious might not always be in one's corner, as it were. But then, it has to be objective, in order to be compensatory, so I guess it could never be entirely in one's corner. I'm probably rambling!
I liked the tips on how to ground our propensity to live in our inner world. Thank you.
My sense is that, an intuition is rarely ever complete, much like a dream. What we receive at the other end of that communication is usually just a piece, a symbol, a first starting point. There are of course exceptions. But overall, I have found that I need to develop these ideas further, see if they can truly manifest in reality, if they have unknowingly become distorted by my complexes, etc.
In my experience, intuition seems to give insight in ways that are constructive, with aim, and purpose. I may not always find them agreeable, easy, or congruent with my ego's attitude. I think things can get tricky if we have somehow stumbled into powerful archetypal dynamics (that can possess and inflate ego) or are working with trauma (think Kalsched's bivalent self-care system), etc.
Kalsched - yes - his idea about the protector who turns bully is relevant. I hand't thought of intuition being distorted by complexes but ... of course. Thank you.
You're welcome!
INFJ too, I really resonated with this wonderful article. I am pursuing learning deeper mediumship this year to enhance what I can already do. (Emotional empath, and a few weaker Clairs). The reminder to create and maintain a bridge is a good one. Intentional living does keep me grounded, or else I get lost in my head, reverting to non-productivity in the end. I am registered for the workshop-looking forward to it so very much!
I've explored many intuitive practices over the years. What I have found is they appear to act as a catalyst to focus the natural intuitive function. Once I realized that, it was clear that I didn't need to read tarot or use a pendulum to tap into that, but it was really helpful in creating the environment for me to "open the channel". It also is great in learning the quality of how intuition is experienced in my psyche, I think it can look really different for everyone, hence the discourse around clairs and such.
This is an interesting subject, perhaps I'll write more about it!
That would be a great topic!
actually, I've since realised that the Christian tradition does present the deity as a trickster because there are biblical texts where God, for example, sends an evil spirit to plague King Saul, and where his encounter with Job is the result of God's test prompted by 'the adversary' who is a member of the divine council.
Good point! Old Testament God tends to be more multifaceted in his archetypal qualities.
I sometimes just intuitively know things and it has made me feel psychic. I try to make sure I'm grounded by researching our current scientific understanding of the world and by reasoning through the different possibilities.
I have wondered if I'm just storing more information in my subconscious that I'm not aware of and it's like the movie Limitless where the main character takes a pill called NZT to access that information. Like how you could be overhearing an audio book or glancing at a page in a book but you aren't consciously paying attention to it. This information could have been stored since childhood.
I am an INFP by the way. I'm definitely more disconnected from the physical world. I love traveling though. I have to pace myself and take breaks when I do because I feel like I'm processing so much information. Every day or 2 is an "off" day for me.
I subscribed to your substack because I have always related to Artemis. Not because she's a hunter, my dad is though and he has deer heads on his walls, but because I'm asexual and a Virgo. I'm a vegetarian and I couldn't see myself hurting some poor deer. I didn't even know what this substack was about 😆. I just downloaded this app the other day.
Welcome, Alecia! I'm glad you found your way here. Artemis is quite fascinating, multi-dimensional, with many aspects to relate to whether it is her expression as a goddess of the moon, being chaste, as representative of nature and its wild aspects, etc. I see her as a mythic patron figure of sorts for this publication, and for many areas of my life!
I relate to your feeling of being psychic, it's happened time and time through out my life in the strangest and most incredible ways. I wrote about one such experience here: https://alyssapolizzi.substack.com/p/the-hounds-of-diana
I do think we are storing information that has been taken in subliminally. All of those perceptions are housed in the unconscious aspects of psyche and can come into our awareness at later times. There also seems to be times when the intuition transcends that logic, how that's possible is a mystery to me.
Thanks for commenting and sharing your thoughts :)
I love this. Thank you for writing and sharing. I too, live by my intuitive senses. They always guide me in the right direction. I feel it in my body. I love your tools provided too for living this style of life. I often dance around, shake and move. The release of energy is significant.
Yes, the release of energy is powerful! Sometimes I jump up and down, or stomp my feet as I walk in circles. It's a very grounding practice, to root into the body that way :)
The somatic and embodied practices you speak of are crucial in cultivating a clear channel. It's definitely a process of trial and error, and we don't have to get it right all of the time, but like anything we hone our intuition with practice and dedication. Thank you for a wonderfully insightful article; probably one of the most balanced and nuanced articles I've read on this subject.
I agree with that framing, the somatic practices really allow a clarity of intuitive connection. Especially when I am tuning in an intentional way. When my body feels calm, grounded, open, I can drop more easily into an intuitive flow state. I find this especially helpful when practicing active imagination.
Thanks for your comment, so glad you found the article insightful :)
I really enjoyed this piece -- intuition has been a huge theme for me especially in the past few years, and I've found that my life has dramatically improved as I act on it more and more -- it's almost an accelerating effect the more I live from it (I just wrote about that on my own substack!).
I'd be so curious to hear more about the interactions between those four cornerstones. How can rational thinking and intuition work together in harmony to create an outcome better than just one or the other on its own? I was especially surprised at the way intuition, physical sensation, and feelings were split out; they feel so intertwined for me.
Thank you for writing this!
The way we talk about intuition, feeling and sensation has a lot of overlap at times. We say, "I have a feeling..." when we are actually referencing an intuitive hunch, or, "I sense something else here...". Despite the language, we are often (although not always) referencing subtle perception of intuition vs physical perceptions or a feeling state. Makes this all a bit tricky to wrap your mind around!
To your point, the four cognitive functions do mix together. In general, we tend to have two rather strong and differentiated functions as our typical tools (I use intuition and feeling most). So the rational dynamics of thinking can be mixed with intuition, and it creates a really wonderful approach for creative thinking, philosophizing, inventiveness, engineering outside the box, etc.
This tag on my directory of posts has my other writings on the subject if you're curious: https://www.theartemisian.com/t/personality-type
Thank you for this piece, it resonates with me deeply. I am a person of conviction so I especially related to the notion of recognizing when my approach has become too rigid and taking seriously what isn't working in my life. A journey for me (and all of us) that continues and helps me become more spiritually integrated as I move through the seasons of my life.
It can be hard to soften that rigidity, especially when it's tied to something that feels meaningful! It's a practice, for sure :)
I appreciate your comment on problems with spatial awareness, etc., when getting too far into one's intuition. I had a similar experience when I tried remote viewing a few months ago — I suddenly had a hard time writing and editing, and I needed to write and edit coherently for my work, so I quit remote viewing. Details here: https://astrologybooks.substack.com/p/my-remote-viewing-binge
It can be really disruptive! Taking a break and grounding back into the everyday can help bring balance. I find taking a walk outside, exercising, doing a body awareness meditation to be especially useful during those times.
This is very helpful-I hadn’t thought about the idea of the bridge before. I am an INTP, very N. I follow a felt sense more than anything for intuiting.
I am also curious about what felt sense is like
I'm curious what that felt sense is like, can you describe it more? I'm an INFJ, so our intuitions (at least at the psychological framework level), are a bit different.
It is something I learned the label for, that I already was doing, in study with a Zen Master. If you google it, there is another interpretation of the same words, some therapists see it as something to “fix” as an incorrect read of reality. For me, I feel sensations in different parts of my body from which I can intuit meaning without being able to explain it. Because I had significant trauma in my childhood, I have a felt sense for a room before entering it, I call it knowing the temperature of the room. I don’t hear or see anything, but I will know the mood or attitude of whomever is in there, I will react with fear if the person is angry, maybe avoid the room. I can feel when I am glancing quickly through numbers on a large spreadsheet where the error is without really knowing, I can just stop where it is with a feeling, like an electric jolt or chills. Stuff like that where my body reacts.
This is really interesting, thank you for sharing. I feel that I'm often 5 steps behind the somatic cues in my body. SE therapy has helped repair some of this.
I relate to that jolt you speak of, but I've yet to feel it from a bottom up perspective. More like, an awareness that suddenly seizes me, an image of something, a knowing. It's much more ethereal, without solid form.
Thank you for sharing :)
My connection to intuition is wavering, as is my connection to my body. I love your emphasis on reconnecting through somatic exercises and rekindling that intuitive flame by means of presence. Internal messages are difficult to hear in this world of perpetual distraction, but grounding exercises and mindfulness really do help me return to the moment and to myself
Perpetual distraction, constant stimulation, it really does impact how grounded we are in our bodies and the ability to be connected to our intuition. I find carving out time for quiet meditation and intentional breathing to really help as well.
Learning to sense intuition is a long journey. Sometimes it happens so intensely and explicitly that there's no question. Other times, it is soft and subtle. That's especially where being embodied is helpful, I think.