Intuition is a Compass, Not a Road Map

Intuition is a complicated phenomenon, and if you don’t know how to use it right it can be confusing and make a mess of things. It’s easy to confuse intuition with desire, with creativity, and with fear. It’s easy because intuition is usually a small part of each of these things. Our intuitions alert us to people and situations that are dangerous. It says “yes” to the things that feel right for us, helping us to know ourselves. It’s an integral part of the process of creating anything. But intuition is also not fear, desire, or creativity.

There are numerous false narratives intuitive people can trap themselves in.  One of the most common is the belief that if you’re following your intuition, everything should just work out because you’re “on the right path.” There is no one “right path.”

Intuition is a compass, not a roadmap.

Don’t Forget Your Power

You decide the path and your intuition will help guide you along it. Giving up your power of choice to your “intuition” is simply a way to avoid responsibility for the choices you have in your life.  And then if things don’t magically work out, it’ll lead to a crisis of faith.

If you want something for yourself and your intuition is also telling you that the thing you want is right for you, you still must do the work to make it happen. You’re not absolved from creating a plan of action or enacting that plan. Life is co-creative: you and your higher power/spirit friends/whatever your spiritual paradigm work together to make your dreams a physical reality. And sometimes, failure will happen anyway. Sometimes, other forces interfere.

Intuition is one tool available to you alongside a myriad of other tools. It’s valuable. As I said before, it’s a compass. Your road map is up for you to design. In magical work I usually say, “don’t worry about the how,” and what I mean by that is don’t try to control how it manifests. This bit of wisdom does apply to goals you’re actively working towards. It’s good to have a plan of action and to follow that plan but be open to other ways of getting there. Be adaptable. A road map is great but sometimes a detour presents itself that will get you there faster. New information comes to light, and it wouldn’t be wise to ignore it.

Fear Vs. Intuition

We can stop ourselves from getting what we want by confusing our intuition with fear. Just because something is uncomfortable, doesn’t mean it’s wrong for us. Change is always uncomfortable in some capacity. Whatever we want for ourselves inevitably requires change. Learning to differentiate fear from intuition is not an easy task. But if you want to be able to use your intuition reliably, you’ll need to learn how to do so. One of the best practices to help with this is meditation.

We do ourselves a disservice anytime we put intuition on a pedestal and use it to avoid taking responsibility and enacting our will. We need to see the bigger picture and to remember our power. What do we want, does it feel right to us, what will help us get there and what will get in the way? What mundane tasks do we need to complete to make it so, what research do we need to do? We can have a million great ideas. What one is truly worth pursuing? We must be the ones to decide.

About the Author

Jessica Jascha is a  psychic, herbalist, and writer in Minnesota. She gives readings & counsel, hosts the Moon Ritual Membership, and teaches. You can find her at jaschabotanicals.com or on Facebook.

featured image via pixabay