Hello Kindred Spirit,

I hope you are doing well. As we turn inwards for the winter, I thought I would share some of my adventures & learnings from following my intuition with you. 

1. Our Intuitive Mind Speaks in Pictures: In The Empath's Journey, I talk about learning to listen to my intuition instead of always discounting it in favor of my rational mind. Intuition often shows up in pictures, whether it's an image that pops up during a visualization or a scene that unfolds in a dream.   

The symbol of the mountain lion felt really attractive to me at a time when I was reclaiming my anger.  

I painted it as a reminder to follow my attraction to symbols & as a talisman for the sacredness of anger. It was okay to go-it-alone for a while (just like the mountain lion) even if others misunderstood me while I claimed my space.  

2. If a picture comes up in your dreams or flashes in your mind, think first of your personal associations. Paris showing up in your dream is NOT a good thing if you got your suitcase stolen there: The great psychologist Erich Fromm gave this example when he talked about how dreams are "a forgotten language." 

Paris means something else for someone whose dream it is to go there versus someone who went there, got their luggage stolen and had a horrible vacation. 

The reason dreams often get associated with "Oh, it's all nonsense," is because dream dictionaries give pat answers that might not be true for you.

Dream meanings depend on the context. 

3. If you can't figure out your personal associations for pictures that show up in your dreams or pop up in your mind.  

There is an archetypal quality to a lot of images that show up in our dreams. Animals, for example, can represent our instincts. They can also carry archetypal qualities.

This was my year of the Black Jaguar. I write about it in this post, which also has resources for interpreting meanings. 

A jaguar sounds pretty good but if an animal like a rat or a snake shows up in our dreams, it can feel as if we are walking towards a repulsive, unwanted aspect of ourself.

A lot of these feelings are often projections. It's what we, as human beings, think about rats and snakes.

In The Empath's Journey, I talk about my own animal dreams of crocodiles, snakes and other creatures that live in the shadows. If you have a specific fear of snakes, a fascinating book to read is Dawn Brunke's Awakening the Ancient Power of Snake.

It's good to think of ALL associations (good and bad) when we think of possible meanings. 

So, if you have been spooked by what you find in your shadow and your dreams, what might be broken is not that thing, but your understanding of it.

As we go inside this winter, I hope we all find that our shadows also contain the very gold in our psyches.

Upcoming Sale: The Empath's Journey will be on a 99-cent sale on Thanksgiving weekend (November 26 to Nov 29) for the first time. So, if you would like to get a Kindle copy for yourself or someone else, this would be a good time.

And please tell others about it.  

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's a gift for me to have you connected with me, and I hope you got something from this little newsletter gift I made for you.

With love,

Ritu