How to talk to animals and other gifts of the spirit
by Karen
There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.
Albert Einstein
Snow White can talk to animals. As a child, I wanted to be Snow White. I still want to be Snow White. Not the part with the evil stepmother trying to kill me, but I want to talk to the animals. She sings and the animals come and sit on her hands and shoulders. How does she have this power? To understand Snow White’s ability for clairsentience, we must view the story metaphysically.
Snow White, as her name implies, is pure, naive and untainted by the world. She represents someone with a clear mind. She retains her child-like innocence and naivety, the innocence of Eden, even into adulthood. In essence, she has a pure and clear heart.
Clairsentience, from late 17th century French clair (“ clear ”) + sentience (“ feeling ”), is the extra sensory, or psychic perception of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, emotions, and physical sensations based on a feeling, the ability to perceive that which is beyond normal perception. For example, a person may sense that words are said, rather than actually hearing them. This means that with clairsentience, one can possess all the clairs (clairvoyance, clairaudience, claircognizance, clairsentience, clairgustance and clairalience).
Clairsentience is one of the powers of the 8 siddhis. The siddhis are for some the powers people seek when they decide to follow a spiritual path. Baba Muktananda, a guru in the Siddha Yoga lineage, instructed about obtaining the extra-sensory abilities, like clairsentience. Baba said that siddhis are a secondary result of a pure, enlightened mind and heart, and should not therefore, be the focus of a spiritual seeker.
The 8 siddhis and the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit
Patañjali, was an Indian sage thought to have lived between 2nd century BCE to 4th century CE and wrote the texts that became foundational for classical yoga including the Yogasutras. In the Yogasutras, he described the 8 siddhis:
- Anima– The ability to become very small, as small as an atom or totally invisible.
- Mahima– The ability to become very infinitely large, as big a the universe.
- Laghima– The ability to become very light, to levitate or walk on water.
- Garima– The ability to become very heavy.
- Prapti– The ability to change the form of objects form and ability of the 6 clairs as well as telepathy, thought-reading, channeling, ability to understand plant and animal language and ability to cure disease.
- Prakamya– The ability to enter into the body of another, be invisible, and breath under water
- Vashitvam– The ability to tame and mesmerize animals and people by thought control
- Ishathvam– The ability to bring back to life the dead and divine power.
According to this description and accounts from the Bible, Jesus was certainly an accomplished Siddhi. The Bible calls siddhis gifts of the Holy Spirit and lists 9 of them. According to Corinthians each of us is given at least one and sometimes more of these powers which we are born with an affinity. This means that we are all born with a natural and native power, a power that some would call supernatural. According to the Bible, when we work together then we are one body, the Christ body.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
1 Corinthians 12:7-11
So siddhis and gifts of the Spirit, rather then being supernatural, or supersensory are really quite natural. Among the Ojibway this sense is described as one of our 6 grandfathers, the other 5 being our physical senses. This 6th grandfather in modern language is called our sixth sense. The sixth sense has been described in many ways, most commonly as intuition, a knowing that comes from feeling.
What Jesus and Snow White have in common
Both Jesus and Snow White have pure hearts and display siddhi power. Moreover, they share a remarkably similar life journey. Both face the trials with evil thought form, Jesus in the desert and Snow White with the evil queen. Both choose universal love and law over egoic identifications. Both also are resurrected from death and obtain Divine Union.
When I began to write about the metaphysical meaning of the Grimm’s tale Snow White I discovered with delight that my interpretation had already been published in the 1941 by New Thought author Florence Scovel Shinn in her book The Secret Door to Success. You can read her article here on Sacred-Texts.com.
The old thought-form is dissolved and dissipated forever, the prince symbolizes the divine plan of your life. When it wakes you up you live happily ever after.
Florence Scovel Shinn, THE INNER MEANING OF SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
While acknowledging that clairsentience comes from pureness of heart aligned with our Divine self, we can still exercise and cultivate our natural tendency to clarity without undertaking the complete journey of Jesus and Snow White. By acknowledging the existence of intuition as our inborn 6th sense in ourselves and children, through play we let our hearts lead us through feeling into inner knowing, inner sight, inner clarity. And guess what? Children, according to Jesus, are way ahead on this score.
But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.“
Matthew 19:14
Affirmation: I open my eyes this day to new seeing. I open my eyes to clear sight. I see from my feeling heart.
Chakra engaged: heart
Science of Mind foundational principle
WE BELIEVE in the direct revelation of truth through our intuitive and spiritual nature, and that anyone may become a revealer of truth who lives in close contact with the indwelling God.
Activity 1: Advice from a forest spirit
This is an African tale from Nigeria.
There once was a hunter, who although skilled in hunting, wanted to be the best and most celebrated of all hunters, the one who could provide for his family well and whole village. He thought if he had the power of invisibility he could hunt any animal and thereby obtain his desire. This was his single thought and focus. Every day he went into the forest with this singularity of thought. One day when he was in the forest, a forest spirit called Musa came and spoke to him. Musa told him that if he crushed some of the bark of twelve trees into powder and then mixed the powder with water, he would have a paste to spread on himself that would make him invisible to the animals of the forest. The hunter did as he was instructed and in time, achieved his wish of both invisibility and a celebrated hunter.
Moyra Caldecott explains the magic in the ingredients from Musa that may not be understood at first reading on Spirit of Trees. Invisibility resides not in the paste but in the quest. The quest to find 12 trees alone brings about a deep understanding into nature and with this deep understanding, one gains mastery. Caldecott also explains the recurring significance of the number 12 in spiritual mastery: 12 months in a year, 12 disciples of Jesus, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 knights of the round table and so on.
We might compare the entrance of man into another world with the passing of a fish from the water into the air; the fish has first to be prepared for this by changing its air bladders into lungs. This resembles the transition from sense perception to spiritual perception, whereby a man’s soul is made capable of employing certain forces in a different element. Many things are then revealed to him. […] Man must not remain in the water. If he did, his later life would be “airless” as regards spiritual ideas — he would gasp for air.
Rudolf Steiner – GA 124 – Excursus on the Gospel According to St. Mark: Lecture VII – Berlin, 13th March 1911
Activity 2: Become invisible
Like our story, see if you too can gain the power of invisibility by learning from the forest. Even though we are not hunting for food anymore, very much alive in us still is the instinct to hunt, whether it is by photography or in creating a scavenger hunt, we still challenge ourselves to know and understand the movements of the natural world.
Go on a scavenger hunt with your child to find the bark of 12 different tree species in your local forest. Make bark rubbings of each of them. Then blindfolded examine each tree. Describe it using senses other than sight.
Next find 12 animal tracks, learn 12 bird calls, find, harvest and prepare 12 foods from the wild, study the behavior of 12 wild animals. How do you study animal behavior? Take a tip from Jane Goodall and use your intuition.
When I began in 1960, individuality wasn’t an accepted thing to look for; it was about species-specific behaviour. But animal behaviour is not hard science. There’s room for intuition.
Jane Goodall
Keep adding 12 and see how your relationship and understanding of nature deepens with each exploration. Before long, you too may become invisible and understand once again, the language of nature.
Activity 3: Kid power
Trusting in the senses is an important power to instill early on in our children. Why is is important to know and trust your feelings? Our feelings are incredibly valuable in leading us out of tricky and sometimes dangerous situations. I love and highly recommend the series from KidPower Children’s Safety Comics by Irene van der Zande that teaches kids to trust their instincts and how to respond in situations of danger. It also guides away from stranger-danger language and stereotyping and helps identify situations in which people my be acting tricky or false.
When I teach with Kidpower, I always take the opportunity to act out the scenes and scenarios described in the book.
Activity 4: The intuition game
- For this game sit in a circle.
- Explain that the game works best if everyone is quiet and focused.
- Select a player to sit in the middle who wants to test their intuition. Put a blindfold on the middle player.
- After the player in the middle is blindfolded, select another player from the surrounding circle.
- The circle player will stare with happy focused intent on the middle player, perhaps silently calling their name or saying hello in their mind, while everyone else bows their heads, shuts their eyes and stills their thoughts. Remind everyone that the game only works if everyone stills their mind and quiets their thoughts. To help still their minds, have them listen to the sounds around them.
- When the blindfolded player sitting in the middle has sensed the focus, they point in the direction the stare is coming from. They don’t have to pinpoint the direction exactly just the general area.
- If the guess is correct, ask the middle player to explain what made them point in that direction and ask the circle player what thought they used and technique. Ask the group what were they doing to to still their thoughts.
- Switch players.
Activity 5: Guess the shape card game
In The Highly Intuitive Child: A Guide to Understanding and Parenting Unusually Sensitive and Empathic Children by Catherine Crawford, the author recommends not to wait until dangerous situations present themselves but to hone our child’s ability for clairsentience, their native intuition, when there is no risk involved.
For this, you can guess who is calling or texting, what music will come on next on the radio, or what another person is thinking. A game we like to play at home and in the CSA classroom is a simple card guessing game. I created a card deck with each card having a simple geometric shape on one side: circle, square, triangle, ankh, plus sign, moon and so on. To play the dealer selects a card and looks at it, then holds it to their chest, not revealing the shape on the card. They then do their best to concentrate on the shape and project it to the players. Each player takes a turn guessing the shape on the card. The winner gets to be dealer next.
Activity 6: See the form beyond the form
Develop spiritual sight using the method described in Rudolf Steiner’s How to Know the Higher Worlds. In it, he advises to study a seed closely beyond its physical appearance. See in it the potential that exists for growth and new form, the plant that it will become and the generations of plants that it holds within. Study the seed closely until you can perceive this. You may also witness the plant that it once was concentrated and compressed into this tiny seed package. When you are able to visualize these etheric qualities, you may also begin to see or more accurately feel, a color emanating and surrounding the physical seed. Steiner describes this color as purple at the center and blue at the edges, but of a hue different and distinct than that which we perceive with our physical eyes.
Likewise, this exercise can be continued with an adult plant, one that is in its height of physical expansion, as in one that is in in flower. Sit with and contemplate this plant. Again in this exercise, you will be looking at an actual plant but seeing beyond the world of your physical eyes. See this plant as it withers and dies, then as it contracts back into a seed. The impression of color is green-blue at the center and yellow-red around the edges.
With this exercise, we can begin to perceive a sight that is beyond the physical sight and in doing so, open to these sense impressions all around us in the physical world.
Once we have reached the point of such spiritual seeing, we have already achieved much. Things now reveal to us not only their present being but also their arising and passing away. We begin to see the spirit- of which our physical eyes know nothing- everywhere.
Rudolf Steiner, How to Know the Higher Worlds
Activity 7: Practice self-love
We hear often to love ourselves first but perhaps don’t always understand how to go about self-love. But the ability for clairsentience is linked entirely and wholly to the extent of self affirming and life affirming thought, to self acceptance and self love. Without this, we may question constantly our thoughts and actions and beliefs and look “outside” for acknowledgment instead of trusting our inner sight and knowing. Know that when you practice self-love, you are worshiping God, honoring God in its purest form and you will gain pureness of Spirit and Mind, the precursor to clairsentience.
How do you practices self-love? Here are just a few ideas:
- Treat yourself with kindness in word, thought and deed.
- Honor your body as it is with gratitude in your every thought.
- Adorn yourself beautifully.
- Eat your favorite foods, prepare them lovingly and serve them in reverence
- For more ideas and activities for kids, see my post on Self-love.
Activity 8: Gratitude prayer for clairsentience
There is only One.
One creative force pulsating and glowing, expanding and contracting, forming and dissolving, breathing in and out.
This One is God.
God exists everywhere in everything including me.
I cannot see God with my physical eyes but I can feel God everywhere.
God is a pulse, a heartbeat, a breath, a song, a vibration, a whisper.
I open my eyes this day to new seeing.
I open my eyes to clear sight.
I see from my feeling heart.
In all directions, inside and out, the world is glowing and pulsating with Divine presence and light.
It is beautiful.
It is magnificent.
It is far more beautiful than my eyes see alone.
I am filled with the power and presence of God.
I am so grateful for this gift of clear sight.
Thank you God.
And so it is.
Amen.
Activity 9: Song to Sekhmet
Sekhmet is an Egyptian lion-headed goddess called into existence by the grief of Ra. Born of the great mother Hathor, Sekhmet was set upon the world to cleanse it of the unbelievers- those who could no longer see God. She is power, strength, fiery and blood-thirsty. She is pure feeling unabated and is power so great that none but Thoth, god of wisdom, can satiate her hunger and appease her strength. Unleash Sekhmet upon your senses and see God everywhere.
I cannot praise enough Lisa Littlebird, thebirdsings.com. Watching our community chorus perform this Song to Sekhmet has got to be one of the most memorable and moving in my recent memory. It was a mouth agog, body transfixed, breath slowed, heart thumping, tears flowing one-of-a-kind moment. This song speaks to our feeling sight, the powerful lioness in each of us. Get a taste of her here with this recording from Lisa and the chorus.
Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.
Jonas Salk
Related Posts
Find even more activities: stories, crafts and games, for teaching clairsentience can be found in these posts from Science of Mind Child
Image credits
Lion with girl Sarah Richter
Snow White Ina Hall
grandfather in bamboo hat pisauikan
5 grandfathers Maklay62
Magical forest Artie_Navarre
San hunter with child Susanne Stöckli
Energy fields ooceey
Article sources and inspiration
- What Are Spiritual Gifts? Understanding the Types and Discovering Yours, Christianity.com
- I honor the constant inspiration from Lisa Littlebird from thebirdsings.com
Dedication
Again this post is dedicated to my teacher Dr. Bill Little, who taught me how to find the sidhis.
My Sponsor
Thank you to my sponsor for supporting this week’s lesson.
Please contact me if you’d like to sponsor a post for Science of Mind child info *at* SOM-child.com. Find a the list of upcoming topics at Center for Spiritual Awakening children’s program.
