The Art of Sensing

I found this a very helpful book, dealing as it does with staying true to our soul’s journey through challenging times by engaging and trusting one’s sixth sense. The author regards intuition as the expression of our soul that leads us to experience wholeness, fulfilment, and peace as we gradually awaken collectively to the truth of our underlying unity and its implications. She sees the purpose of our earthly journey as uncovering and discarding layers of internalised, accumulated, false beliefs that obscure the radiance of the soul. In her terminology, soul is spirit or individualised God-consciousness, personality is our distinctive set of qualities, while ego is ‘a complex of ideas, beliefs, defence mechanisms, conditions responses, emotional patterns, and recurring thoughts that centre on the self, the “I”.’ (p. 10) It is important to distinguish the mind narrative from intuition (p. 39), which can also tune into other life forms such as trees.

There are some moving and illuminating episodes involving contact with the deceased leading to a wider understanding of life and meaning. The four qualities required for personal transformation seem central to me: honesty, surrender, trust, and patience. We may well need to release resistance to the intention of our soul in pursuit of higher truth, and there are many bridges to cross on the way including the stages of contemplation, reflection, and movement/action. A profound chapter explores dark nights in terms of finding meaning, value and purpose in difficulties, while another explains seven natural laws as the context for personal responsibility and choice. The one I found most relevant and indeed new on such a list is the law of gestation – the period of time required for something to come into physical form. One has to proceed through a series of steps. The third part explains our astrological birth charts as mapping the intentions of our soul, then considers the nature of what the author calls ‘soul pods’ expressing archetypal themes (p. 164) and corresponding to the 22 Arcana in Tarot cards. The final chapter outlines practices for higher consciousness and healing, encouraging us to remember that we are not limited or defined by our challenges. An inspiring read.