Turn one eye inward. Internal wisdom is the medicine we all need.
by Astara
In my Heartifact Archaeology eco-system and in our Sound Alchemy, we help you come home to your heart. We call it dropping the pebble of the mind into the pond of the heart. The heart is where our powerful intuition is sourced. Our intuition is the hidden force that moves our lives, whether we admit it or not. Thanks to the studies of the HeartMath Institute, science has demonstrated that our heart knows before we know. That is, before we know with our mind. Recall a moment in your life where you followed a strong feeling regardless of reason or rational explanation. I just knew, you might say. Or perhaps you remember a time when you wish you had followed that knowing, but instead you ignored it out of fear.
Intuition is calling.
In the spring of 2017 I was commissioned to write a poem to accompany a piece of art for a poetry event. As I toured the Artists’ Cooperative Gallery in Omaha, I found my feet affixed in front of the incredible painting of a larger than life human form by Judith Anthony Johnston titled “feminine lines” from her Gold leaf series 2010. The overall size of the painting is 72 x 48 spanning across 4 panels of gold leaf.
I love the human form and took multiple life drawing classes from junior high to college. Out of a large gallery with so many incredible artists to choose from, I instantly knew this was the piece for my poem. I sat there for about a half hour just staring and absorbing its reflective and shimmering power. I could feel the bravery that went into creating these four panels. I was moved; my heart whispered listening to intuition. Years later the artist let me know that this was the most challenging of her gold leaf series.
Around that same time, I had just seen the wonderful movie Innsæi: the Power of Intuition. Innsæi is the Icelandic word for intuition, which has more evocative layers of meaning than its American English counterpart. The poetry event was cancelled weeks later, but the magic was already in motion. Judith’s gold leaf painting and this potent Icelandic word gave birth to the poem Innsæi.
I offer these words as an invitation to paint your life anew, this time more golden, more luminous, more you. As if each word could paint your intuitive knowing and embodied passion back into your life’s canvas. This is where your power resides; it’s your truest wisdom.
Turn one eye inward. Listen. Your internal wisdom is the medicine we all need. It is the map of a new territory yet to be discovered. Your heart is the compass. Your body and the world offers a golden mirror of each creative choice — this time rooted from innsæi.
Innsæi, by Astara
In Iceland, the ancient word innSaei
holds multiple meanings,
like the tree trunk that supports
many limbs reaching toward the sun.
InnSaei is the sea within.
A boundless borderless ocean
where your inner vision
washes on a wordless shore
spreading maps, signs and awareness
onto gold sand at your feet.
InnSaei is to see within,
your answer to Socrates’ plea to know thyself.
Again and again, after all these centuries,
you turn a willing glance now and then
towards the vast tug of emotion
and an unnamed shimmering sense,
more accurate than any thought,
that seems to reside somewhere between your
last meal and your heart beat.
InnSaei is to see from the inside out.
Moving from the frontal lobe to the pineal gland,
dropping down to the heart, beneath the skin,
all the way to muscle, ligament, and bone,
as blood pulse and electricity paint the line of your neck
from inside my fingertip.
My organs, yes even my cells,
send messages in color, temperature, texture,
their gaze clearer than sight.
In America, innSaei means intuition.
A dirty word in laboratories, boardrooms,
financial markets, sports bars, and big data clouds.
It’s a word that frightens grown men,
except those rare few like Einstein and Walt Whitman.
This has never stopped you.
You know intuition is the only true thing
shining inside you as you lay there naked
before me, larger than life.
I want to paint you like that, facing me,
at rest without limits.
You cannot be contained within one canvas.
The lines of your shoulder, hip, thigh
create new horizons.
All logic, definitions and rationales alchemize
into hunches and luminous insight.
Your knowing is so bright
everything you touch turns to gold.
Written in April 2017, inspired by Artist Judith Anthony Johnston art titled “feminine lines” shown at Artists’ Cooperative Gallery.
Become an inner space astronaut in our Inner Space Academy. Or get one-on-one support to build your intuition muscle with Astara.
