Building Your Intuitive Vocabulary

One of the most common misconceptions about intuition is that it should arrive as complete, grammatically correct sentences or as film-like images with perfect clarity.

For many people, this expectation becomes a source of frustration. When intuitive impressions show up as fleeting images, half-formed thoughts, bodily sensations, or abstract feelings, they are dismissed as “noise.”

But this is not a flaw in intuition.
It is the nature of how intuition communicates.

Intuition speaks indirectly

Across intuitive literature—from Laura Day and Ingo Swann to Jungian thinkers and somatic psychology—there is a shared understanding:

Intuition rarely speaks in finished form.

Instead, it communicates indirectly, through:

• fragments

• symbols

• sensations

• emotional tones

• partial words or sounds

Much of the translation from intuitive signal to conscious meaning happens unconsciously. By the time you become aware of an impression, your mind has already begun interpreting it—sometimes accurately, sometimes not.

This makes intuition both powerful and delicate.

Clarity vs. literalness

It’s important to separate two ideas that are often confused:

• Clarity: how strong or noticeable the impression is

• Literalness: how directly it maps onto real-world meaning

Intuitive information can be very clear and still highly symbolic.

How literal an impression feels often depends on which intuitive mode you are accessing most strongly.

The three primary intuitive modes

While experiences vary from person to person, many authors broadly observe the following tendencies:

• Clairvoyance (seeing)
  Often feels more literal. Images may resemble objects, scenes, or spatial layouts.
  Even here, symbolism is still present.

• Clairsentience (feeling)
  Highly figurative. Meaning comes through bodily sensations, emotional shifts, tension, warmth, heaviness, or ease.
  Interpretation is rarely direct.

• Clairaudience (hearing / inner words)
  Often seems literal because it uses language—but this can be misleading.
  Words may be metaphorical, partial, or emotionally encoded rather than factual statements.

Most people use all three, but one or two usually dominate.

Fragmentary signals are normal

Even experienced intuitives report receiving information as:

• brief images

• single letters or sounds

• vague emotions

• bodily sensations with no immediate explanation

These pieces must then be assembled to make sense of the whole.

This is an intricate process, with plenty of room for error—especially if assumptions rush in too early.

A simple example by Laura Day: the letter “C”

An intuitive impression of the letter C could mean:

• the sea

• the Spanish word sí (yes), heard as “cee”

• a word beginning with C

• something shaped like a crescent

• a personal symbol you’ve formed over time

There is no universal answer.

Only you, within context, can interpret what your intuition is pointing to.

Some symbols are personal and context-based, not universal

Laura Day gives another example: The color red.

In one context, red might mean:

• blood

• danger

• death

For another, red could signify:

• love

• vitality

• passion

This is why symbol dictionaries don’t work.

While some archetypal images recur across cultures (snakes, water, darkness, light), the most powerful intuitive symbols are the ones you form through lived experience.

Your intuition speaks in your language.

Building your intuitive vocabulary

As you practice, you’ll begin to notice something important:

Certain symbols, sensations, or impressions are consistently reliable for you.

This is the beginning of your intuitive vocabulary.

Over time, you may find that:

• a tight chest reliably signals “no”

• a specific image precedes accurate information

• a certain emotional tone appears before confirmation

These patterns cannot be borrowed from others.
They must be discovered.

Keep an intuition notebook

One of the most effective practices is simple but lifelong:

• Notice the images, sensations, or impressions that arise

• Note the context (what you were asking, feeling, or doing)

• Record what later turned out to be accurate—or inaccurate

Do not judge. Just observe.

Over time, meaning emerges.

Getting in touch with your sensory symbols

You can begin uncovering your intuitive vocabulary by gently questioning yourself.
Write down your responses without overthinking.

Here are some starting prompts:

• How do you feel in your body when someone tells you no?

• How does happiness show up for you physically?

• What sensations accompany relief?

• What inner image feels positive to you?

• What image feels negative or unsettling?

• What smell do you find comforting?

• What smell immediately repels you?

Expanded prompts

You can also explore:

• What texture feels “safe” to you?

• What sound feels intrusive?

• What temperature feels calming?

• When you feel uneasy, where does it appear first in your body?

• What image do you associate with trust?

• What image appears when something is off, even subtly?

These associations form the raw alphabet of your intuitive language.

What other authors agree on

Although different writers use different terms, many converge on the same insight:

• Intuition is filtered through personal perception (Ingo Swann)

• Meaning arises from felt sense, not force (Eugene Gendlin)

• Symbols gain power through repetition and experience (Jungian thought)

• Intuition must be learned through observation, not imitation (Laura Day, Sonia Choquette)

No serious intuitive practitioner suggests that intuition arrives fully formed or universally interpretable.

A lifelong relationship

Building your intuitive vocabulary is not a one-time exercise.

It is a lifelong relationship between:

• perception

• experience

• reflection

The more gently and honestly you listen, the clearer your language becomes.

- Chris

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