Intuition is what speaks the nature of co-creative manifest from our pure intent to us. It is what guides us to be in the right place at the right time and it's listening to and following intuition that help free us up to flow for the rest of our lives. But we have to first learn how to read it and this is tricky because the noise of the five erupting in the back seat will always attempt to drown out our intuitive nature every step of the way.
Levah and I see two pictures within intuition and they're both annoyingly very different and also completely one and the same. The first is intuition in the bigger picture, one's view from the hill all the way to the horizon that represents one's highest potentials, visions, goals and aspirations in life. This is the metaphor I conceived in the Turpentine Inn the day everything changed. The second is intuition in the smaller picture, the scenario which is happening right here and now in the present moment, the one that guides and directs us along the paths we walk as we move towards all we see in the bigger picture.
Before going any further with defining these however, I want us to imagine something first. I want us to visualise that both our intuitive pictures (however they appear to us now) are contained within our timeless sphere of existence. I want us to then imagine that the hill from where we see our bigger picture of our reality is at the centre of our sphere and that we, the nucleus of the present moment are standing on the top of it looking out in all directions at the scenery of our lives. Visualising this way, we're able to bring our remembrance of the present moment fully into our co-creational concept, a place where it absolutely belongs.
Standing here, we must take a moment to observe what is around us and to see and feel our lives as we know them now. See what has been, what is and what is possibly yet to be and know in our hearts that right here and now (no matter how here and now has manifested materially, emotionally or spiritually for us) is precisely where we've chosen to learn and experience what we need to learn and experience in this lifetime. This is an incredibly hard concept to come to terms with and we may of course not choose to or indeed be ready to embrace and live it right now. This is perfectly okay. No one and no thing will ever stand in spiritual judgement of what we decide because our choices have, are and always will be left open for our free will to decide. Whatever your choice though, remember that just by choosing to be here, you've made the biggest and bravest decision of all.
Nonetheless, if we do make the choice, if we choose to start remembering our fullest capacity in being human, we must first be able to sense, to know, to love and to be grateful for all that we are. From this place of gratitude and awareness, we can then slowly start to set in motion the challenge (and challenge it is) of seeing and mindfully moving towards our highest potentials. We thus ignite our choice to consciously evolve towards peace, setting in motion a whole new set of potentials that can shift the very essence of who or what we perceive ourselves and peace to be.
But before we move forward, we must learn how to trust our potentials by remembering how to intend them into being, how to feel and know them in our hearts as truth and be grateful for them in the same way we're grateful for all that which we already perceive. Then, if we so choose, we're ready to start walking towards them with intuition by our sides, to start innately seeing exactly where we need to go, what we need to do and who we need to be as we move along the paths of our lives.
It's important to keep in mind here that although it's intuition within the smaller picture that guides us within the bigger picture in both its initial realisation standing on top of the hill and walking within it, it is intuition, indeed intended wisdom of the bigger picture that allows all this to be so. For if one simply walked within the smaller picture with no intent, trusting their intuition at every turn without a knowledge of what their bigger picture was all about, then humanity as we know it would probably fall apart. Nothing would get done because there'd be no broader concept to keep it all together. This may change in the future as the conceptual natures of who we are and how we do things recalibrates, but for now and for the majority of us alive today, living purely in the intuitive smaller picture doesn't work for our linear minds. Also, presently being creatures of creative need, if we all ran around in the present moment with no conscious knowledge of the bigger picture, then we'd never feel fulfilled.
The most difficult (and perhaps mind boggling) part of intuition that Levah and I struggled to get our heads around was that although linearly we could create separation between intuitive knowledge in the smaller and bigger pictures, the actual process of them both in terms of the horizon metaphor we'd created was fundamentally the same. All intuition whether big or small, short or long, is still intuition, the knowing guidance of co-creative intent. So from an intuitive perspective, the horizon metaphor works perfectly well for both of them. The decision to turn left or right in the moment for example could well be described as the highest potential on the horizon if one so wishes, for perhaps that's as far as the individuals horizon stretches in that particular moment. However, to try and keep things as simple as possible when discussing our perceptions with each other, Levah and I only used our horizon metaphor in terms of understanding intuitive co-creation in the bigger picture.
Intuition in the bigger picture is clear, vast, beautiful and wise. It's our view from the top of our hill, looking all the way to the horizon in every direction. That which is nearest to us we can see in great detail. We can see the shape of the land, the intricate colours of the environment, the paths, people, animals and settlements. We know where to go and we know what to expect, it's close to us and we can see it all in its broader physical context. The smaller picture may of course still surprise us along the way. Singing birds may distract us to the skies and trees, the smell of flowers may stop and enchant us, or someone may be hiding behind a tree close by waiting to playfully startle us out of ourselves. We can never foresee these things in their entirety, for others' potentials are always at play and we also may have a lesson to either teach or learn from each other along the way. But regardless of this, our path is still clear and the surprises only momentarily take us away from knowing what is before us. Our greatest challenge is how we react to the surprises, attempting to greet them mindfully for what they are and as what we need in the moments they arise.
A little further afield, the terrain becomes fainter. Here we can only see the contours of the land, the shapes of the settlements and the outlines of the roads, paths, people and animals. The colours are visible, but in blocks to suit their surroundings. This land feels known and unknown to us in equal measure. We can still see how to get to all the places we desire but we're also a little unsure if what we actually perceive is right for us because we likewise know that once we start walking into it, that its physical presentation will more than likely turn out to be very different to what we initially perceived it to be from the top of the hill. We may have to stop and ask for directions. We may be compelled to take a break somewhere peaceful, or we may be side tracked by someone or someone to an unforeseen scenic route. We may find challenges too, circumstances that we couldn't foresee from the top of the hill. There may be closed paths and roads causing us to stop, backtrack and reorientate ourselves. There may be traffic jams forcing us to find quicker and perhaps more beautiful and fulfilling routes. There may be torrential rain or snow storms meaning we have to seek cover, perhaps with kindly strangers in new places and rest for a while. We may receive a phone call from a loved one that's in need of our help and have no other choice but to stop our journey completely and be with them or their loved ones for a while until all is healed. But no matter what surprises and challenges occur along the way, the most important thing is that we still know and trust where we're going and remember that from the top of the hill we can always have access to the bigger intuitive picture of our reality. Remember, even when we we're in motion and feel we can only see a few metres ahead of ourselves, we're also always still in the present moment, metaphorically standing unmoved on the top of our hills with the ability to look out at the view of our lives, our highest potentials of the moment and our bigger pictures of reality. We all have the ability to stop and do this, wherever, whatever or whoever we feel we are in our lives.
When the landscape of the earth before us reaches as far as our eyes can see, melding together beyond recognition and description as its paths and roads become unforeseeable, the horizon starts to open up behind it and more often than not it's this horizon that we as human beings seek. This is our dream, our goal, our reconditioning, our remembrance, our purpose in choosing to walk the path we chose. It's what sits behind our intent, our vision and our very reason for standing on top of the hill and looking out to our life in the first place. From a linear perspective, we'd fly like an arrow as fast as we could towards this horizon, only to find a new horizon behind it and a new goal and new dream that we must fly towards. From a linear perspective, the challenges and surprises along the way would seem like a nuisance, unwelcome distractions that slow us down from getting what we want. This will of course ultimately make us feel unhappy and unfulfilled.
But as we know now, time doesn't naturally work this way. Our linear walk into the view is merely a metaphor of our experience as our intent acts itself out around us in the now. In reality the hill and the view may change, morph and evolve as we do, but regardless of these physicalities we're always standing upon it, looking out from the present moment and experiencing all that is, was and ever will be in our lives.
Intuition in the bigger picture is the peaceful remembrance of how to see and interact with one's highest potential, purpose and journey in this life. It's also one's surrender to the moment and the natural flow of one's experience and it's through being aware of and working with quietening the presence of the five that such naturalness can start to flourish. Our intuitive bigger picture offers us the opportunity to move into the circumstances, experiences, information, insights and revelations that change the very essence of who we are and what we do with our lives. We start to experience more 'Aha!' moments as everything we're doing and feeling starts making increasing sense to us. This only seeds deeper intuition and co-creative understanding within us and from here we begin to trust innately inside that everything around us is entirely as it should be. We find real purpose and peace in our position in life, whatever and wherever that may be. We begin to trust not only everything up to the horizon, but also the paradox of the horizon behind it, even if we don't know where it is or what it will bring to us. We just trust that it's there, that it's ours and that we'll see its potentials unfold around us when we're ready or indeed choose to experience them.
Stand on your hill a moment, what can you see?
Intuition in the smaller picture is what guides us in the present moment, a process that Levah and I named momentary intuition. All intuition is of course momentary, but for separation of the smaller and bigger picture, let's believe that this is what intuition in the smaller picture is called. As I mentioned before, it's the feeling that tells us to go left or right, to do this or that, talk to certain people and be in the right place at the right time.
Once the intuitive bigger picture is known, momentary intuition and intuitive 'common sense' can then start to come to the forefront. But recognising it is hard; the intuitive nature is quiet and it refuses to compete with the five for attention, finding subtler non-linear ways to be seen and heard. We may sometimes be following our intuitive natures and not even know about it. I'm sure that all of us can think of a situation in our lives where we simply knew inside ourselves that what we were doing was exactly what we were supposed to be doing at that very moment. Situations where despite our minds 'better judgement' commanding us that it's a bad idea, we found ourselves being there anyway, reaping the rewards and experience that our choice had given us.
Momentary intuition isn't thought, nor is it emotion. It also doesn't communicate with us the way the five do. It's of an older wisdom and knows the power of silence. Thus understandably, this makes reading it a very difficult thing to do for its nature is way beyond the realm of any instructional understanding that we're used to in our lives. In reality though, it's one of the most natural and organic states for us to be in, ironically being something we all know about and sense intuitively inside. Many of us have heard the sayings 'Listen to your gut' or 'Follow your heart.' This is intuition at its core. All rationality can seem to push against a given situations appropriateness in our lives, but something inside of us knows better and refuses to listen to the fear and doubt that's arisen, driving us forward in a way we don't understand but somehow trust. By trusting and going this way, we find ourselves in situations that we don't foresee, situations that challenge and enthral, enliven and enlighten and educate and inform us. We find ourselves being in the right place at the right time, meeting the right people and experiencing the things that are appropriate and just to our journey. We are fully alive and walking within our highest potential of the moment. This only makes our view of the bigger intuitive picture from the top of the hill clearer and our will to walk within it with heightened awareness greater.
Momentary intuition doesn't live in delusional arrow time like the five. It stays with us in our centre as time moves around us. It also comes in ways and moments that we don't expect, moments that we may feel are highly inconvenient to us. Most annoyingly for human beings, momentary intuition waits until the last possible moment to communicate; it's in the moment after all. This can be hard for us to come to terms with especially as we're creatures who like to know what's happening way before it happens.
Momentary intuition is fast, often too fast for us to process linearly. Coming in flashes, visions, Aha's and moments of illumination, it gives us situations where we're bowled over by its beauty but all the while still cannot really comprehend within the scope of our experience. We want words and form but intuition doesn't work this way because we cannot linearize it. We cannot put it in a box and figure it out. Our minds want structure, they're shaped by structure and intuition is not because it innately lives and is guided by the heart.
Therefore, if momentary intuition works this way, then how can I explain Levah's and my interpretation of it? The answer is that I can't, for we don't really have one. Nevertheless, we trust that it's real for we've seen and lived its magic in our lives and this is all the evidence we need. As I have said before, perhaps one day mainstream science will be able to measure it, quantify it, figure it out and put it in a box of understanding. However in the meantime, the best I can share with you is this.
Intuition is our true voice. It's what guides us to live within our highest potentials in being on this planet. It's the feelings that we know inside our hearts to be true. The feelings that we cannot for the life of us comprehend or explain, but when we sense their presence, we don't care and follow them anyway because something inside of us knows that they are real. Momentary intuition is a part of who we are and once we learn how it communicates and in time remember how to listen to and trust it, it will open up doors for us that we never even dreamed could be there. As a result, we'll never find ourselves paddling upstream again.
There is no right or wrong way to do it and there is no right or wrong way to be it. We all live in dramatically different environments and social constructs that ensure our potentials are never the same. A peaceful, intuitive human being, no matter their circumstance sees their life this way. A peaceful and intuitive human being see's where they're in their bigger picture as being precisely where they need to be at this time in this life, on this planet and from this place, only compassion comes forth, a compassion that's going to bring equality and peace to the earth. It's not easy, but this is the challenge of humanity.
So, if awareness and trust in intuitions presence in our lives is the first step, then real life conscious observation and practice of its workings is undoubtedly the second. Levah and I found two methods to help enhance our intuitive natures. The first method (along with our individual healing approach to each of the five) being our participation in an activity that enhanced their collective calming. Now this can come in many forms, be it meditation, momentary mindfulness, walking in nature, reading, active reflection, smoking a pipe, art, sports, fishing, putting on a loud and pumping tune, smiling at a stranger, fishing, parenting or playing with a child, indeed anything creative or spiritually constructive that one can intentionally create a conscious and mindful space within.
Personally, Levah began to meditate again, a practice that whilst she was nursing had taken a back seat in her priorities. Whilst travelling however, she reignited her passion and started meditating again daily, something that she'd continue to do and evolve more or less every day for the rest of her life. Every morning, she'd wake at 6:30am and meditate for about thirty minutes. She'd always wake me on rising, but knowing the bigger picture of why she was doing it and despite being a little grumpy at times, I really didn't mind. Intriguingly to begin with I'd always ask her how her meditation was, a question she'd always answer the same way, calmly stating that meditation was not something that could be assessed or quantified, just observed and left behind. This puzzled me so. I wasn't a meditator and although I tried, I quickly knew that it wasn't the process for me. I could see the change in her though, a slow and steady shift in how she was in herself and how she related with the world. It was so wonderful to behold.
The way I went about it was different. I started to write, setting aside time each day in which to do so. To begin with, I'd write about everything that came into my head at the time. My thoughts, my feelings, my dreams, my experiences and my interpretations of all the information I had. Some days I'd find myself writing pages and pages of words and some days, I'd write just a few sentences. It didn't matter really because the most important thing was that I was doing it. Once I had everything that was inside of me out and into form, I began noticing that everything I was remembering and beginning to know so well inside myself started becoming increasingly real and aware to me on the outside, meaning I was able to see and process its evidence in my daily life more and more. I thus found myself becoming progressively more at peace with the paradoxes I lived within and as a result, my ability to disintegrate the five began to follow suit. In turn, this gave me more space in my everyday life to begin working with my intuition.
I don't think there's any right or wrong way of finding one's process of conscious quietening. There are many methods out there for us to try, some very well-known and well used, and some uniquely personal and unorthodox. However, it's down to us to find the ways that work best for us and there is a way out there for each and every one of us. Once we find it, with pure intent and awareness of why we're practicing sitting firmly in our driving seat, everything will begin to shift, igniting and enhancing our lifelong experiential journey of co-creative intuitive awareness. At some stage in our lives, we may also find that we no longer have to consciously practice like we used to anymore because it will simply become a natural way of our everyday existence. But first, we must relearn the way of naturalness, learn it and never forget it again and this takes patience, commitment and a lot of hard work and practice.
The second method of enhancing ones intuitive nature is that of seeking and surrender. However, without active participation in the first method, this can be very tough, so again patience with oneself is vital. Remember, there's no hurry. With knowledge and awareness of one's intuitive nature, we must therefore go forth and put ourselves in situations that allow our intuitions to flourish. Because let's face it, intuition can only guide us so far when we don't open our arms to greet it. Now to do this, we must learn not only to quieten, but also to lean into the five. Intentionally do things and put ourselves in situations that tease them into reaction whilst observing what's happening to us in our reality. In particular, we must lean into our fears because fear (no matter how big or how small it is) is our first barrier to intuition. We find ourselves in situations all the time where our 'better judgement' stops us from doing something, going somewhere or talking with certain people. However, if we're honest with ourselves, I'm sure that all of us would acknowledge that despite this 'better judgement,' most of the time we also feel something inside that really wants to go through with the process anyway. Unfortunately, we don't know what that something is, so we don't trust it. This is fear masking our intuition and the astonishing thing is that most of us know fear far better than we know our intuition.
Sometimes, we unknowingly listen to our intuition, daring ourselves to 'go with the wind' and 'see what happens' and we end up having great experiences. This is fantastic and by no means should it be discouraged. However this attitude, although going in the right direction, is lacking conscious intent and awareness and it's through conscious intent and awareness that we truly start to see, accept and trust intuition in its full capacity. More often than not however, we listen to and trust our 'better judgement,' the judgement that comes from our minds and not our hearts. We need to start trusting the heart, trust the situations that go against the five and our minds 'better judgement' by mindfully throwing ourselves into them and observing what happens. If we hold true to ourselves then we'll never be disappointed by what we discover.
Ultimately, it's by following our intuition which allows us to knowingly open ourselves up to being in the right place at the right time. This is the final part of the co-creation process and although its nature is simple to define, it's the hardest of all to linearize. It is the process of synchronicity. A process that means at the exact moment we need something or someone to appear, it or they do. Be it an inspired thought, a teacher, a conversation, a material item, a parking space, indeed anything that can fit within the three dimensional construct of our present realities, it appears timely and appropriately when we need it to be there.
Whether we're conscious to it or not, synchronicity is all around us every day of our lives. It's what brings everything together in our external reality to give meaning and form to our experiences. Some may argue of course that synchronicity doesn't exist, that it's just the hopings of the confused and delusional and that the reality is that it's only mere coincidence of fate that brings things together in our lives. Please believe me when I tell you that this is absolutely not the case. Through awareness, observation and practice of all the processes of co-creation in one's life, we are able to see synchronicity in its essence. This way it becomes very very real to us and we find we cannot question its presence any longer.
I'm sure if we're open with ourselves, all of us can think of a magical situation in our lives where everything lined up perfectly for us and we got exactly what we wanted in the right place and at the right time. This is synchronicity. But in order to enhance its magical presence in our lives, we must commit to working with the other co-creational processes and remember how they operate for us. This is simply the way of it, for without commitment, we'll always doubt our power and input to synchronicities happening, time and time again succumbing to the belief that it's just coincidence causing things to 'just happen' to us. That it's a miracle, an 'oh my god, that is so strange' moment. This isn't the way of it; we are involved! We've just forgotten how.
We must look for evidence of synchronicity in our lives but we must be patient in doing so by first finding the knowingness in our hearts that can sense its truth. If we can do this, then the answers, indeed proof that we seek will start coming to us in ways we don't expect and soon we will question no more. Levah and I did and we were astounded by what we found.