Have you ever felt that undeniable pull, that electric knowing that courses through your body? ✨✨✨
The one that doesn’t arrive through careful analysis but emerges from somewhere ancient and wise within you?
Perhaps it comes as a tingling that races up your spine, a sudden heat blooming in your chest, or a magnetic draw toward something your rational mind can’t yet comprehend.
And then – almost before you can fully receive the message – another voice crashes in.
The one that dismisses. The one that diminishes. The one that says with such certainty: “It’s nothing – don’t feel that – might be dangerous!!”
My long-time mentor, Sonara Medicine Wolf, (who is now an Ancestor since August 2022), used to respond to any of us questioning our intuition with crystal clarity:
“That’s called DOUBT. Don’t give it any room.”
I feel her all the time now; she is always there supporting our rituals, retreats, and other offerings.
I’m so grateful for her presence in that way, although I still deeply miss being able to hug her, visit her, and call her on the phone.
This paradox – feeling ongoing connection while grieving physical absence – lies at the heart of much grief work.
And our relationship with doubt shapes how we navigate this terrain, both for ourselves and those we support.
Reading the Weather of the Soul
Indigenous and traditional cultures around the world developed sophisticated systems for reading weather changes through subtle signs in nature.
A particular formation of clouds, the direction of wind, the way leaves moved, the behaviour of animals and birds – these weren’t mystical beliefs but practical wisdom that kept people safe.
Modern society has largely forgotten these skills as we’ve become less and less connected to nature.
Similarly, many have lost trust in their ability to “read the weather” of their inner landscapes and soul callings.
Just as weather-reading skills were:
- Passed down through mentorship and community
- Refined through practice and attention
- Sometimes subtle and requiring discernment
- Most reliable when multiple signs aligned
So too is our ability to sense our soul’s guidance. These aren’t supernatural abilities but natural human capacities that have been dismissed in our overly rational culture.
When Grief Opens Different Ways of Knowing
As someone who has supported hundreds of people through their grief journey, I’ve witnessed again and again how loss cracks people open to experiences that don’t fit neatly into conventional understandings:
- The widow who feels her husband’s presence in the garden he loved
- The bereaved parent who meets their child in dreams
- That song that comes on the radio at just the moment when you were thinking about them…
- The hospice worker who senses when death approaches, even without clinical signs
When clients share these experiences, they often qualify them with, “I know it’s probably nothing – just my imagination, but…”
They’ve absorbed the cultural message that intuitive knowing is less valid than rational thought.
How might our relationship to Soul change if we approached these moments not with skepticism but with curious respect?
Not immediately categorizing experiences as “real” or “not real,” but honouring them as meaningful ways people connect with love that doesn’t end with death?
The word “imagination” has been diminished in our culture to mean something childish or fanciful.
But imagination is not fantasy – it’s a way of perceiving beyond our usual boundaries, of connecting with what lies beneath and beyond the visible.
In grief support, imagination isn’t some frivolous escape- it’s a POWERFUL force that serves as:
- A sacred bridge between worlds when ordinary bridges have collapsed
- A fierce, loving way to maintain bonds with those who have died
- A radical tool for envisioning healing not yet manifested in a world that rushes past grief
- A revolutionary means of finding meaning when logic crumbles in the face of loss
When we dismiss these capacities as “just imagination,” we cut ourselves and/or our clients off from wisdom that arrives through channels other than rational thought.
This same dismissal that happens with grief experiences also happens with our Soul’s call.
Have you felt drawn to take a leap in your life that didn’t make full rational sense, only to hear that voice say, “That feeling isn’t real – too dangerous!”?
When Commitment Brings Up Fear
I want to speak directly to those of you who may be considering joining us in one of our trainings, courses or grief support groups this year.
But this process is helpful for ANY decision you are making in your life.
When we feel that UNDENIABLE CALL to deepen our practice through training or community support – when something wild and ancient within us KNOWS this is our next step – we crash headlong into both practical concerns and deeper existential hesitations:
- “Is this really worth the financial investment?” (practical doubt)
- “Do I have the energetic capacity for this right now?” (self-care doubt)
- “Am I really called to this work, or am I just imagining it?” (purpose doubt)
- “What if I commit and then discover it’s not right for me?” (fear of mistake)
- “What if I’m not really meant to do this after all.” (self-doubt)
- “Is this sense of meaning emerging from my grief trustworthy, or am I fooling myself?”
- “Is this continuing bond with my loved one real, or am I just desperate to believe?”(spiritual doubt)
Sonara’s wisdom applies here too: recognize doubt for what it is, and don’t give it more space than it deserves.
This doesn’t mean ignoring practical considerations, but rather not allowing doubt to undermine the Soul’s knowing.
Discerning Between Caution and Dismissal
How might we distinguish between helpful caution and unhelpful dismissal? Consider these reflective questions:
- Does the doubt have a particular quality? Fear-based doubt often feels constricting, while wisdom-based caution feels spacious.
- What happens in your body when you imagine moving forward? Beneath the fear, is there a sense of rightness or alignment?
- If time and money were no object, what would you choose? This helps separate practical concerns from deeper resistance.
- What would you tell someone else experiencing similar doubt about a meaningful intuition? (Sometimes we offer others more grace than ourselves.)
A Moment of Reflection
What powerful guidance has flowed through your being recently that you quietly dismissed as “just your imagination”?
(or that you FOLLOWED – and then what happened??)
What TRANSFORMATION might become possible if you approached these knowings with the same respect our ancestors gave to those life-saving weather signs?
Not with blind acceptance, but with the recognition that your soul is offering you something ESSENTIAL, something that might not just change your personal life, but REVOLUTIONIZE how you walk in this world of grief?
I’d love to hear back from you about your own experiences with Soul guidance in your grief tending practice. How do you discern? What practices help you stay attuned? Where do you struggle?
I will read every response I receive – I look forward to hearing from you.
And remember – trust that ancient knowing. It’s been guiding humans since before we had words for imagination.
With Love, Gratitude, and Deep Somatic Listening,
Josea & the Dark Woods Team
