Seated in front of a table, all 78 cards of my Rider-Waite deck spread in various formations in front of me, a wide-eyed client across from me, the statement that typically comes after all of the big life questions of health, finances, kids and romance is usually:

You know, I’ve been told that I’m a very intuitive person.  Can you see that in me?

The answer is always yes, because intuition is not a gift saved for the few.  Intuition is a muscle ready to be ripped and used and built up. Sure, some of us are born with that ability primed and ready to go, with just a few triggers necessary to make it shine.  It’s like this:  most people are born with the ability to learn tennis and play it to some degree of success.  However, not everyone is born to be a Serena or Venus Williams:  some talent is already pre-gifted, ready to be developed into star-quality abilities.

But with some work, almost anyone can play tennis well.  And with some work, nearly anyone can develop their intuition and learn to do what I do.  It’s all about how much dedication you want to devote to it.  Your life moves in the direction of what you prioritize: for the spiritually gifted, the river flows easiest in the direction of developing intuition to a supernatural degree.  For those of you not quite ready to tackle speaking to spirits who have passed on, or not interested in learning the language of Tarot forward and backward, intuition can still be developed to the level of giving you an edge in your daily lives.

Everyone comes to Earth to do soul work. We come to work out the snarls and kinks in our eternal spirits, to smooth our rough spots. We come here to unfold our souls, because only through trial and error, highs and lows, happiness and sadness in balance, can we have the opportunity to prove ourselves. Our existence at the source on the Other Side, when we are in full knowledge of divine love and not incarnated, does not permit us to make the decisions to become who we need to be.  We need this beautiful world, with all of its lessons, to effect change in our eternal selves.

Just as there is with anything on Earth, there is an easy way to unfold your soul and there is a hard way.  Neither is good or bad.  If you are here at soulunfold.com, then you are looking to tackle it head on.  So let’s get started.

I present to you the Soul Unfold Checklist.  For all of you who have ever wondered if there is a process to developing your intuition, there is.  This is the one that works for me, and I hope it works for you just as well.

Here is the short list:

1. Choose your divination tool
2. Journal your spiritual experiences, dreams and readings
3. Meditate daily
4. Read all of the spiritual books you can get your hands on
5. Be patient
6. Learn Reiki
7. Practice your divination art of choice and Reiki on your friends

And here is a slightly more detailed list, but still not all-encompassing:

1. Test the tools of spiritual communication and divination available to you to determine what works for you.  Be disciplined:  do not use this method just to relieve anxieties or answer questions.  Use it to develop a relationship with your spirit guides.
   • If you are interested in using cards as your tool, I recommend purchasing a physical deck for practice in downtime.  I also recommend downloading a digital deck for your smartphone and/or tablet. Tarot Pro is an excellent app to teach you what Tarot cards mean to you. For those interested in working with the angels, which I highly recommend, Doreen Virtue’s angel decks, including the well-known Archangel Oracle Cards, have given me incredible insights over the years.
     • Decks I love to use when communicating with the Other Side (disclaimer:  I have not been asked in any way to promote these items, I genuinely enjoy working with them):
       • Tarot Pro by Nuclear Elements (digital)
       • The Psychic Tarot Oracle Cards (John Holland, digital and physical)
       • Archangel Oracle Cards (Doreen Virtue, digital and physical)
       • The Enchanted Map Oracle Cards (Colette Baron-Reid, digital and physical)
       • Daily Guidance from Your Angels Oracle Cards (Doreen Virtue, digital and physical)
   • Randomized music
     • I prefer Pandora or the Amazon music player.  Sometimes I will use Spotify. Pandora works the best because it will show you new music you have never heard, therefore new messages will come through from the Other Side.
     • Look up the lyrics, record them in your spirituality journal (see step 2). You will develop meanings for songs that the Other Side will pick up on and begin to use as message for you in the future.  This is also how card decks work:  you develop a system of meanings for the cards/songs/dice, whatever you have randomized, and your guides use that system to give you message when you reach out if it is appropriate.  They do reserve the right to not give you a message when necessary.
   • Books
     • I have been known to use books to a multitude of purposes, but they can be a top-notch divination tool if you respond to words over visuals, the way I do.
     • Ask your guides what their message of the day is for you, then allow the pages to flip past your thumb like you are looking at a cartoon flip book.  Stop when it feels right, point at the page and your message will be there under your finger.  Need more structure?  Tell your guides the 10th line down on the page you land on is where you will look for your message, before you flip.
   • Fortune cookies
     • Fortune cookies are one of my favorite methods of divination (Read my post Kaleidoscope  to see this in action). On the front of my bullet journal are two fortunes I hold dear that came to me a few days apart:
       

       Fate loves the fearless.

       Don’t be afraid of opposition; remember, a kite rises against the wind.

     • Don’t forget to ask your guides for a special message before opening the cookie.  If you want guidance for something specific, make sure you tell them what the topic is.
   • Runes
     • Runes are a symbolic tool of divination that I find to be rather matter-of-fact.  Their messages speak to me in a similar way to Tarot, only with the message purified down a bit more:  this project will offer many obstacles. The answer to your question about whether you should trust someone is Sol, the rune of sunshine, light and vitality. And so on.
   • Pinterest
     • Pinterest, you say?  Yes. Pinterest can be used from time to time as a divination tool, but you can only ask one question per search term and you have to be open to interpretation. I once asked what my next apartment would look like, and up came images of beautiful, small apartments with bookshelves.  Sure enough, I have a built-in bookshelf in my entryway currently.
     • Pinterest also makes an excellent visualization tool.  If you create a “Vision” board and revisit it often to feel what it would be like for those dreams to come true, you are doing your daily visualizations in a pleasurable and easy way.
   • There are many other forms of divination.  i Ching, tea leaf reading, pendulums and dice are a few that I am familiar with but do not use on a daily basis.
2. Keep a journal. Record synchronicity, messages, meditation experiences and dreams.
   • Not sure what I mean by “synchronicity”?  Check out my blog posts The “Sines” of Change and Catalysis to read an example of finding message from the Other Side through random words or ideas occurring 3 times or more in one day.
   • Record your dreams every morning, immediately upon waking. Read over the journal as you progress and look for occurrences of premonition:  Seeing events before they occur. Even your weird dreams have meaning.  I do dream analysis often for my clients, and something as odd as seeing your boss covered in ants while you talk to her (a symbol that the relationship is “spoiled” or ruined beyond repair) can have meaning.
   • Any animal encounters that are particularly interesting can be messages from the spirit world.  Record your encounter and research the symbolism of the animal:  you will find within it a message.
   • Meditation is a powerful tool (see step 3) for building spirituality.  I would argue it is the most powerful tool in your spiritual kit for increasing intuition and achieving spiritual balance. I journal about my guided meditation experiences and have witnessed scenes as wild as a coy fish morphing into a dragon.  Having journaled my meditations means I can look back later and see how my meditation practice has evolved and what issues I worked through in the past.
   • Journaling is an incredibly valuable practice that never stops rewarding you. Looking back after years and seeing your subconscious speak to you and tell you how far you’ve come or what you have yet to change is worth the time it takes to write or type.
   • I began my spiritual journey through paying attention to my dreams. Through your dreams, you can begin to connect with your guardians, your own soul and your subconscious. I have even dreamed of “going to school” with people and beings I have never seen before.
   • Try asking a question or thinking of a problem you want to solve before going to sleep, then journaling about your dream and thought experiences upon waking.
3. Meditate
   • Meditation is the practice that took me from a nube who occasionally intuited the unspoken truth to an experienced intuitive. Meditation is practice in listening to God. The tagline of this blog is “Learning to Listen: A Journey in Spirit” for this reason. I love using my randomized Meditations and Angel card apps to guide my meditation for the day, because it feels like my guides have a hand in helping me grow. I also love using the song Alpha to Theta by Lowell Brahms while I meditate, because if feels like it opens my mind up.
   • Set the Scene
     • Setting your meditation scene matters. My tub was my temple when i first started. I love meditating in the water with Epsom salts and lavender. It sharpens my visions and makes me feel purified like nothing else does.
   • Stilling your mind
     • Meditation will teach you over time to separate your random thoughts from message. During meditation, wait for the time that your random (I call them monkey thoughts) thoughts start to settle down.  Wait for the period of stillness that feels like zoning out to a cicada hum in the summertime.  Just beyond that stillness await messages from your guardians.  Don’t give up, your first message after the stillness is a miraculous occurrence.
4. Read everything.
   • Read as many books about spirituality as you can.  Re-read the ones that speak to you the most. Take notes in your journal about what you want to explore and research those topics. This practice will tell you what your goals are and what abilities you are interested in developing.
5. Be patient.  It takes time, but you will see signs all along the way. Ask your guides to show you a purple cow in 24 hours and by God, you will likely see a purple cow.  Just be open to the way in which your guides may fulfill your request.
6. Learning Reiki from an authentic source who respects the process can speed up your spiritual growth.
   • Reiki launched me into the intuitive space and transformed me from an intuitive to an intuitive healer.  It was indispensable in my spiritual growth. To learn more about Reiki and its role in my journey, check out my blog post The Accidental Medium.
7. Practice on your friends.
   • Whatever your tool of choice is, practice on your friends and record the results. They will love it and it will give you the feedback you need to grow.

In love and light,

Erica