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“When I fractured my ankle, I was strongly advised to undergo surgery to insert a pin and ensure my ankle heals correctly. I was reluctant to do this because I had heard of people with pins suffering from ongoing pain. I was confused about how to approach my healing. I tuned in to my inner wisdom and I chose to take a longer route with my recovery. I didn't do the surgery. I rested, did physio and followed great recovery protocols. It was hard to defy Western science, especially when doctors paint a bleak picture of long term risk but when I listened to my intuition, the surgery didn't seem right. My ankle has recovered fully. By listening to my gut, I opened myself up to learn from my body about how it wanted to heal.” Nomzamo Mji, Advocate + Yoga Educator “One day I was in the middle of writing for a work project, and was overcome with a sense that I needed to drop everything and begin to make art. After months of struggling to hear this voice, it felt crystal clear: in particular, I was called to draw the Aztec sun calendar. Since I was a teenager, I had known that his great grandfather, an Italian immigrant to New York who worked as a terrazzo craftsman had made an epic installation of the Aztec sundial in the New York Natural History museum, and here I was, compelled to draw the piece that my great great grandfather had studied so many years ago. This was impractical as I was on a deadline, having finally found a few hours of peaceful flow in my work. The intuition was intense; I needed to do this and I needed to do it now. I pulled out an old piece of cardboard, sloshed brown paint evenly across the surface as a base and as soon as it dried began to sketch the skeleton of the Sun calendar, using my whole upper body to move across this large makeshift canvas, undaunted by the challenge of getting an even circle without an aid. I spent about an hour drawing and set it aside. About a week later, a friend who had seen one of my paintings referred a curator who was seeking artists to be part of a group show dealing with ancestry and spiritual practice to me. When they reached out, I invited them to come by and see some of the photos I had, thinking that I wouldn’t have time to create a new piece. We connected with ease, and as I was pulling out photos to show them, they noticed the cardboard study. The curator loved it, loved the story behind it, and asked if I would be able to make a full painting in three weeks. Up until that point I could not have imagined even dreaming of submitting work to a group show. Perhaps because it was so far out of the realm of my imaginings, it was easy to accept, but I had no idea what it would take of me, if I even possessed the technical skills to do justice to such an ancient work of sacred art. The biggest challenge was believing that this would be possible in the face of practical factors that suggested otherwise- I didn't have time to finish my study or work on another draft. Inviting my intuition into my process allowed time to bend in a way I hardly believed. In order to get into the right headspace to paint, I needed to find my intuition, to help me see past what my logical brain saw: not enough time, not enough practice, not enough colors, too many other commitments. Each session, I would open and close with a short ritual to invoke my intuitive selves, my ancestors and guides, but in particular, the ancestor whose work I was intuitively called to honor-- Victor Foscato. I felt that as I was simultaneously humbly learning the Aztec sunstone, I was also connecting with him, creating a channel, perhaps a release, but certainly a space where we were working out some of the pain and trauma that weighs heavily in my father’s lineage. The pain and trauma of white supremacist narratives around work, productivity, and self-worth. I came to know, to feel, that my own tensions around creative work and capitalist work had also been my great great grandfathers’. I completed the piece in about 7 days, and the process of doing so unfolded as a healing one. I don’t have answers to what my great great grandfather’s experience was, but letting my intuition guide me to the cardboard draft- instead of suppressing it to complete tasks in the middle of a busy work day- guided me through a healing cycle, an exchange of love and recognition with a troubled and complicated part of my ancestry. It guided me beyond my wildest imaginings for myself.” Stephanie Yawa de Wolfe, Consultant + Producer “I had narrowed my next steps to two options: 1, apply to work for a children’s book publishing company, or 2, create my own children’s book. Neither option was better or worse, both have their benefits and challenges. The children’s book publishing company would get my foot in the door, allow me to learn by working within the industry, and this specific publisher centered on multicultural stories. Creating my own children’s book would also allow me to learn about the publishing process, I could choose to self-publish vs. go through the industry (which feels more accessible to me), and it would be a story that I would want to share. But when I really sat with it and was honest about the options in front of me, I realized the main reason why I would apply to work for the children’s book publishing company would be for financial gain and stability—and I already knew from my own experience that anything I pursued with finances being the central motivator always ended up leaving me burnt out and doing other tasks that I didn’t want to do/benefited the system vs. my own well-being and joy. And then a voice/feeling overcame me and my body blurted “I just want to color.” I then envisioned myself playing with colors across a spread, colors and images I wanted to create, and *there* was the tinge of excitement. “Okay, I guess we’re going to create our own children’s book,” I said to myself. And as soon as I had decided, story ideas came pouring in so quickly that I had to grab a notebook nearby and jot them all down—as if my decision had opened a portal and the Universe was gifting me with my own stories that have been waiting to come out. I just had to finally decide; and everything else would align. Since then, there have been several moments of alignment, nurturing reminders to keep going: from story ideas, to learning that some of my friends have been working on their own children’s book stories as well, to sharing and affirming all our ideas in excitement. It will no doubt be a process with its own challenges and lessons, this I know. But I can always come back to that tinge of excitement, lean into trusting that feeling, and let my intuition continue to lead the way.” Gigi Mascarenas, Visual + Performance-Based Storyteller “It was the winter of 2021, and I was deep in a pandemic winter depression. Concomitantly, I was experiencing increased symptoms of physical chronic illnesses I’ve had for a long time. My doctors were running extensive tests, and “surgery” kept falling out of their mouths. They were naming it the solution to this flare. My relationship with healthcare is complex: I depend on my doctor’s testing and medicines to feel healthy, yet I have little trust in their care. Even after months of telling me there was nothing to help relieve my symptoms except surgery, my intuition was not totally convinced that was the truth. I turned to a close friend and shaman, from whom I have learned the ways in which becoming deeply in tune with the needs of my body can lead to some of the most powerful self-healthcare I’ve ever experienced. After a particularly difficult recovery from a test, we worked through what my body needed in this moment of increasing emotional panic over surgery, physical pain of surmounting symptoms, and stagnant depression. I began working with movement (not to be confused as exercise) as one healing tool, as well as womb healing. It’s has been six months and I have gotten a new job, moved to a new city, I am feeling healthy and happy and— for the time being— not being closely monitored for surgery. “I am feeling my inner critic right now telling me that the jump in this story— feeling severe chronic illness symptoms to feeling well via holistic healing work— feels trivial, dismissive, or magical. This voice was part of the reason I felt that there was nothing left to do but get surgery. While I do agree there is a toxic dismissiveness to able-bodied people who tell us things like, “yoga cures chronic illness,” there also is a magical component to intuition: That when I truly seek out and listen for what my body needs in a particular moment, the answer is sometimes far more accessible and empowering than outsourcing advice from a medical professional.” Tracy Naschek, Writer + Artist “Very early on as a child I knew there was something special outside of any human understanding guiding me. I didn't know exactly what it meant, I just knew that it purely derived from God. As I got older and came across life’s adversities, I began to slip away from my inner guide. I often ignored my gut feeling (what I know now to be the gift of the Holy Spirit) and followed what seemed comfortable in the moment. Last year, things took a turn for the worse. I was in a really dark place. I felt hopeless and didn't know where to turn. I wondered if depression, hopelessness and the mundane were all there was to life. Unhappy with how my life was going, I cried out to God in desperation, pleading for things to get better. Shortly after in the summer of 2020, I had to make a decision to go to Florida for about a month. It didn't make sense for me to go. Leaving meant resigning from my job and I was already in a financial bind. The safe choice would be to stay with my family because I've never been away from them for that long. There was so much uncertainty and fear, yet underneath I also felt reassurance that everything will be okay. I knew I needed this, so I blindly followed my inner voice and booked a flight immediately. My life has not been the same since. In the short time of being in Florida, I’ve gained more than what I prayed for. I found healing, self-love and most importantly an intimate relationship with God that is fulfilling and completely liberating. Currently I still live in Florida. I have a job that I love and built a supportive community with people who have overcome similar struggles. I still find it challenging to follow my intuition right away as it often collides with reasoning and what makes sense. In essence, I have to keep in mind I believe in a mysterious God. I don't understand most things He does, but I am certain it's all for my good. I trust that no matter what comes ahead my intuition align with God and it will carry me through. Romans 8:28 NIV ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.’” Tizita Mekonnen, Student + Crisis Counselor “I have noticed in other creative folx that intuition visits them in different ways: a dream, a vision in nature, with an experience or even a physical sign saying something like “take this route”. For me it is in sound, music and often as my inner voice. Intuition drifts in when I give myself divine space to create at a self-determined pace and that creation is a choice. For example, when my manuscript is declined, I choose to give the disappointment space rather than give up. When I decide to stop working with a collaborator, I have to choose my courage to let that person know. When I receive a face-to-face poetic critique that seems married to rationale and academia or when I face rejection from an editor, I choose to listen instead to a voice within me that I have called my Wild Women, giving me the grace I need to move with divinity." Manisha Tirelli, Writer + Advocate “In 2019, I started a new plant-based diet to help relieve some of the chronic aches I was feeling in my physical and emotional body. This amplified my awareness of the slightest feels, touches, and hunches in my body. This accumulating feeling was hinting me towards a major change; I didn’t know how this change would look, feel, sound, or even smell, I just “knew” that it was coming. My vivid dreaming subtly began to reappear during this time, after many years of dormancy, and although it was difficult to understand the meaning in a logical sense, the visuals felt incredibly personal, and intimate. One night, I had a dream that I was in a library that was two stories high, with floor to ceiling windows that filled the large room with the sun’s full embrace. I was walking up to the 2nd floor where I saw three other visibly presenting femmes, one who was a maternal elder leading the discussion. The maternal elder was dressed in traditional clothing that covered her entire body, except her face, and as the others and I sat at the wooden table, with our marble notebooks closed, our eyes followed the voice that waltzed around the table. I could not hear any words, or any sound, but it was as if we all knew she was speaking, and we listened. Suddenly, I see her eyes looking directly at me. She slowly raised her arm towards me and said with a stern voice, “you will be a writer.” I looked around the room, confused and surprised by this message. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, though I could conceptualize that I was having this spiritual experience. Moments later, I found myself transitioning back into the 3D world, and noticed the sun’s rays shining through my window. I did not know how to respond, and who to share it with to fully understand/ reaffirm this message. However, the next step that made sense to me at the moment was to begin writing these messages down. Almost three and half years later, I continue to experience extreme lucid and vivid dreaming and communication with my elevated ancestors, elders, and those who have transitioned. The more I write these messages, the more I am honoring their presence, and wisdom. I am now in a different physical and emotional space due to these intuitive messages and interactions. I currently live off-grid as a social-radical nomad: writing, creating, and dreaming, which has magnified these spiritual experiences further. These intuitive messages have served a literal road map for me as I continue to travel cross country with no logical or “practical” plan. Rather, I have learned that with time, trust, hope, intentional energy, and intuitive flow I can create a relationship, life, and community that encompasses my passion, no matter how raw, illogical, or unconventional it may be. I can embrace my true-complex expressions and identities with love, power, and faith. Being open to this portal of communication, where I am able to receive messages and visitations from my elevated ancestors, elders, and spirit guides is a radical revolution in of itself. It involves the constant colonial internal and external challenges, as well as a commitment to collective liberation. I say this with gentleness and compassion, simply because my intuitive journey is not linear, and has been broken up into small segments throughout my life. Such that receiving these messages was one part of the experience, learning how to interpret these messages was another; and finally learning how to accept and integrate them has been and continues to be an ongoing experience.” Melissa Vargas, Social-Radical Nomad + Writer
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