Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Your Amazing Psychic Gift of Intuition

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Your Amazing Psychic Gift of Intuition: Intuition is one of your amazing psychic gifts. It is the direct knowledge of something without the conscious use of reasoning. Intuitive e...

Your Amazing Psychic Gift of Intuition

Intuition is one of your amazing psychic gifts. It is the direct knowledge of something without the conscious use of reasoning. Intuitive experiences include mystical insights (a feeling of oneness with life), discovery and invention in science, inspiration in the arts, creative problem solving, the perception and understanding of complex phenomena, ESP, precognition (future knowledge), telepathy (communication by inexplicable means), clairvoyance (seeing out of the natural range of human senses), feelings of attraction and aversion, hunches, and strong feelings of what is going to happen.

Intuition has often been referred to as the 6^th sense, but it is more than that. Intuition dramatically enhances and sensitizes your other 5 senses. Clarissa Pinkola Estes vividly describes intuition in her book, Women Who Run with the Wolves, “Like the wolf, intuition has claws that pry things open and pin things down. It has eyes that can see through the shields of the persona. It has ears that hear beyond the range of mundane human understanding. “

It might be helpful to look at the range and dynamics of intuition on four levels: the physical, emotional/heart, mental, and spiritual. The physical level of intuition requires that we learn to trust bodily responses, noticing situations that are comfortable and uncomfortable, tension headaches, sensitivity to others that you want to know better or stay your distance. Physical intuition is the sensation in the pit of your stomach when you are in contact with something or someone that is dishonest or unethical.

The emotional level of intuition is the feeling of being drawn to someone that you want to know better; a feeling of the heart opening or noticing that your heart is closing down; something feels right or something feels wrong. Emotional intuition can be an outpouring of love, playfulness, or laughter in response to a situation or a person. Intuition at the emotional/heart level is a place of clarity. As Saint Exupery said so beautifully in his book, The Little Prince, “It is only through the heart that one can rightly see.”

Mental intuition is the ‘aha’ experience; unexpected breakthroughs in thinking, creative ideas, inspiring thoughts, and the power of imagination that feeds the higher mind. Mental intuition is the unearthing of new possibilities, options, and choices. Mental intuition is a sudden flash of understanding that turns out to be precisely and unexplainably correct.

The spiritual/transpersonal level of intuition is a feeling of oneness, peacefulness, and unity that transcends worldly problems and concerns. Anytime you feel blissful and deeply connected to nature or to some spiritual quest, or know that despite all the logical reasons why you should be angry or afraid, instead you feel a profound trust that everything is OK, these are examples of you drawing upon a higher inner intuitive wisdom.

What blocks intuition? Some of the basic ones are being too judgmental, critical, fearful, angry, stressed out, feeling hopeless, powerless, and relying too much on the intellect for answers on life’s journey. Albert Einstein wrote, “The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition, and the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.”

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: The Great Ditch on the Yellow Brick Road

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: The Great Ditch on the Yellow Brick Road: In one poignant scene in L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz written in 1900, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Lion see before them a gre...

The Great Ditch on the Yellow Brick Road

In one poignant scene in L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz written in 1900, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Lion see before them a great ditch that stopped them in their tracks. It was a very wide ditch and when they crept up to the edge and looked down they could see it was also very deep. The sides of this ditch were so sheer, that it appeared impossible to climb down without serious injury.

The four of them sit on the edge of the great ditch wondering what to do. It appears they are stuck.

Life tests our resolve again and again. Some things come easily to us and some things do not. Some goals are achieved with just a little effort and others require deep reserves of patience, determination, and ingenuity.

Baum wrote, “We cannot fly, that is certain; neither can we climb down into this great ditch. Therefore, if we cannot jump over it we must stop where we are,” said the Scarecrow.

”I think I can jump over it,” said the Cowardly Lion after measuring the distance carefully in his mind.

“Then we are all right,” answered the Scarecrow, “for you can carry us all on your back, one at a time.”

Confidently and courageously jumping and leaping over and over again, the Lion carries each one of them on his back as if he were an amazing stallion. He requires a bit of rest between each marvelous leap because this kind of exertion is unlike anything he has done before. Each leap with one of his companions on his back takes his breath away and he needs time to regain his strength and momentum to do it again and again.

As they go a little farther on their journey to Oz, they come up against other challenges that force them to wisely use their heads and to draw upon solutions. Every time this happens, one of them comes up with an idea that stirs their collective imagination and the obstacle is circumvented.  Barriers inspire creative solutions and solutions serve to strengthen their basic character and resolve to succeed. As they continue their long journey on the Yellow Brick Road they are displaying the qualities they each believe they lack.

The imagination opens doors and helps us to see the bigger picture. Transforming problems into solutions strengthens Dorothy’s power and tenacity and inspires the Scarecrow to use the brain he believes he doesn’t have. Defying obstacles opens the heart of Tin Woodman; a heart he fears he has lost.  Creating solutions allows the Cowardly Lion to draw upon deep reservoirs of courage; courage that he always worried he was missing. Overcoming obstacles together helps each of them return to a state of grace.

Therefore, one of the most important lessons the Wizard of Oz teaches us is that we need each other. Like Baum, I believe that we are at our best when we harmoniously work together, joining with others in a variety of ways to make life a sacred journey.