My Intuition Doll

Intuition Doll
Intuition Doll

I’ve been thinking about the intuition a lot lately.  Trying to focus on the place in my body with it resides, the Hara, just below my belly button.  I’ve been going there when I get anxious about something, or my mind starts getting wacky on me.  I’m practicing trusting my intuition.  For most of my life I  didn’t trust it.  Couldn’t even really access it.  But gradually, over the years, it’s been coming back to me.  And in the past few weeks it’s been getting stronger and stronger.  Decisions are easier for me to make, and I’m not second guessing myself so much.

So all of this is happening,  and yesterday I read the story of Vasalisa in Women Who Run With The Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.  Vasalisa is an old Russian fairy tale.  It’s about a girl, Vasalisa who is sent, by her stepmother and step sisters to get a coal, to restart their fire, from Baba Yaga.  Baba Yaga is essentially a witch who lives in a house with chicken feet that dances around.  Before she died, Vasalisa’s mother gave her a doll and told her daughter that if she ever gets lost or needs help she should ask the doll.   Vasalisa sets off into the woods  and all along the way she asks the doll which roads to take until she gets to Baba Yaga.  Once there Baba Yaga gives her a bunch of  impossible tasks to do, threatening that she’ll kill Vasalisa if she can’t do them.  Each time Baba Yaga gives her a task or asks her a question, Vasalisa asks for the dolls help and gives the right answer or completes the task.  Finally Baba Yaga gives Vasalisa the coal and sends her home.

The doll is intuition, passed down to Vasalisa by her mother.  Estes says that intuition has been lost to most of us.  It’s no longer seen as something important.   Like a muscle it needs to be exercised otherwise it withers.  But it’s never really lost.  It’s always inside of us and just needs to be used and fed.  In this way it’s strengthened.  It’s fed by our listening to it and acting on it.  And each time we do this it becomes stronger and stronger.

The other thing that Estes writes about is the need for us to sometimes go into the dark places.  Vasalisa needs to leave her Stepmother’s home, where she toils day and night without complaint.  She needs to know that she can face Baba Yaga and survive.  Now she can live her life without giving it over to the people who would try and take it away from her like her stepmother and step sisters.  Those dark places may be scary , but they always have a gift.

So today, I made an Intuition Doll.  A version of my I’m alive Goddess.  But I gave her donkey ears, because yesterday when I sat in the barn Lulu came to me and rested her head on my shoulder.  And I got the feeling of ancient wisdom from her.  And I  knew my intuition doll had donkey ears.  I also gave her a wide open eye where her hara lies, just below the belly button.  I chose chicken feet instead of boots in homage to Baba Yaga.  And I sewed her on an old stained linen.   A much used and loved linen, passed down from someones grandmother to her daughter to her daughter to me.  Like the passing on of intuition.

 

5 thoughts on “My Intuition Doll

  1. Ohhh, I remember hearing that story years ago. I wrote a story about that and eventually pared it down to put into my novel. My take away was how the doll represented her mother’s blessing, and how that would protect her. (In the novel the blessing from the father and a letter he sent.)

    At any rate, I too am on a journey towards listening to my intuition. When I haven’t, things have not gone well. I remember having a gut feeling not to go to Chicago to meet with someone. I thought it was because I didn’t want to deal with Chicago traffic, but no, this friend didn’t help my fragile hope with regards to the above mentioned novel. It’s been hard for me to sort that voice from the voice of fear, but I think I’m getting better at it. But when I have, I have felt a deep sense of relief. (I just resigned from my job of twenty years because my intuition said it was time.)

    Your post about your horse spoke to me too because I’ve been on a similar journey with mine, though I found a way to assert my leadership through using positive reinforcement. Thank you for writing this.

    1. there are so many different versions and interpretations of all those fairy tales Katie. Sometimes the “right” ones show up that make sense for me at the moment. Glad to hear that your horse journey is going well.

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