One of the most common complaints I hear from women is that they feel disconnected from their intuition and they don’t know what to do to recover this most precious of senses.  It’s easy in this busy world, with all it demands of us, to lose touch with the voice inside that warns us when a situation or person is inappropriate for us and guides us towards what will be fulfilling for our soul life.  It’s similar to losing touch with a trusted old friend because of a move or life change.  Sometimes, and this is frequently the case with our relationship to intuition, we never invested enough energy into the relationship in the first place, and when we remember its value it seems too late to go back and fix it.  In relationships with people, time away may render the lapse impossible to mend, but our intuition can only recede from consciousness for a time.  Intuition is a birthright and is only waiting to be re-membered and engaged with.

I recently began teaching a workshop designed to help women connect with intuition through a deep exploration of the folk tale, Vasilisa the Brave, and the creation of a hand crafted doll.  I have written briefly about how conscious examination of stories can increase mental health (refer to this post) so I won’t go too deeply into it here.  In brief, stories can serve as maps to personal development.  The key to understanding these maps are the symbols and archetypes that make up the backbones of the stories.

The story of Vasilisa and her journey to the witch, Baba Yaga, gives clear instruction on how to nurture and utilize a relationship with deep wisdom and intuition.  A handmade doll given to Vasilisa by her dying mother symbolizes the powerful roll the intuition can play as a messenger from the inner realm of deep wisdom.  It is clearly illustrated that in order to establish an ongoing relationship with intuition we have to nourish it, listen to it, and trust it to guide us even when we cannot consciously foresee where the indicated direction, endeavor, or relationship may lead.

In the workshop, the telling of the story of Vasilisa forms the bones of understanding and the exploration of the symbols and archetypes becomes the flesh.  But, as if often true of learning on a soul level, there is no breath or life until we translate the knowing into physical experience and form.  This is where the doll creation comes in.  Several years ago I learned to make needle felted dolls.  Here is a photograph of the doll I made for the purpose of working with intuition:

Intuition doll

The creation of the doll serves two purposes.  First, while students are listening to the story of Vasilisa and working with the symbols and archetypes they are also crafting the doll.  Their hands are engaged in a simple and repetitive motion, thus freeing up mind and soul to aborb the wisdom in an itegrated way.  Second, the finished doll takes on the energy of a talisman.  The doll as talisman is a physical reminder of their developing relationship to intuition.  One woman who recently took the class spoke of her doll as representing a powerful protective force.  I found this very interesting because the word intuition has its roots in old French and Latin and can be translated as not only “to look at or consider” but “to watch over.”  This understanding of the word sums up the purpose of connecting to intuition: as we build a relationship to our intuitive selves we engage with a force within us that carefully considers everything around and inside of us and thus allows us to make decisions that will ensure our development.