CHAPTER 1

Reconnecting to Our Body Wisdom

In 1988, Holgar Kalweit wrote: "Only human beings have come to a point wherethey no longer know why they exist. They don't use their brains and they haveforgotten the secret knowledge of their bodies, their senses, or their dreams.They don't use the knowledge the spirit has put into every one of them; they arenot even aware of this, and so they stumble blindly on the road to nowhere...."

As these words were written, a group of ordinary women were meeting at thebehest of Sharon, a mutual friend. Sharon's daughter, Lila, had prematurelydelivered twin boys, both of whom were gravely ill. Sharon awakened oneafternoon from a nap with the distinct impression that if she gathered togethera circle of her closest female friends they would know how to heal the babies.She spoke to her daughter, asking Lila's permission to follow her inclination.

At her invitation the women met, listened to the grandmother, and decided toform a circle and let intuition be their guide. Before they parted that evening,they knew their contribution was to keep the boys' photos within a symboliccircle of healing energy. Solemnly pledging to do so, they sent for photographs,agreeing to meet again in a few days. After three weeks of meeting for severalhours each week and sharing how their bodies felt as they thought about theboys, one of the women in the circle asked if she were the only one who had anintuition that the continuing deterioration of one of the twins was linked tothe emotional health of the mother. Others agreed; they too had the sameinsight. One women said that when she first became aware of this feeling, shefelt like she had a "band around my heart. I knew that something was causingLila heartache and preventing her from being able to love both boys equally."With her permission, Lila's picture was added to the circle. On the eighthnight, two of the women came in and said they had strong feelings that both boyswere going to be fine. One reported she was taking a shower "when I thought ofthe boys and I wanted to laugh and sing." Six weeks later the pediatricianconfirmed their "remarkable recovery" and the group turned their attentionelsewhere.

I was part of this circle, and the experience only strengthened my convictionthat women are often more far more effective and influential when they trusttheir intuition to guide them in situations when intellect is not enough. Thetwins were under the care of an excellent physician, yet the intuition of thesewomen, myself included, led them to create a healing ritual that complementedwhat was being done.

Finding Our True Home

Each of us has the capacity for intuition—that sudden inexplicable insight thattells us we know something we had no idea we knew. By nature, we women arehighly intuitive. By puberty we are learning how to direct our attention to themyriad of internal signals that are preparing us for menarche and childbirth.For each of us this heightened sensitivity introduces the strong true strain ofintuitive wisdom that reposes within us and is expressed by our bodies as much,if not more, than by our minds. That's because intuition is a gut response—butterfliesin the stomach, a twinge in the solar plexus, a sudden shiver, or aflutter of heartbeats. These are the signs that something is going on beneaththe surface of things—that we are being alerted by signals from an embodiednonverbal wisdom—our intuition.

While it's true that everyone has intuition, not all of us have the samecapacity to use it. There are many women who are highly intuitive and sopracticed at using this function of the bodymind that they take it for granted.Others feel their intuition is a disposable gift, arriving unexpectedly andrather inexplicably, to be accepted, marveled over, and discarded when thenovelty has worn thin. Others treat their intuition with suspicion, avoiding itas they would a threatening mystery. And there are those of us who seldom, ifever, recognize its presence, discounting the multiple ways we all accessintuition daily as habit, lucky guesses, or even coincidence.

In actuality, intuition is a major part of all your decision making and everycreative inspiration. The dictionary defines intuition as an immediatecognition; sharp insight; the act or faculty of knowing without the use ofrational processes. In other words, knowing what, moments before, you didn'tknow you knew. Medical intuitive Mona Lisa Schulz, M.D. says, "If you have abrain and a body, if you have memories, if you sleep at night (or any othertime), then by definition you have to be, you are, intuitive." When you arecooking and you creatively add an unexpected seasoning you just feel will beright, or you get up in the morning and have an inkling that you should changeyour plans and do so, or you follow a hunch about something, you are using yourintuition.

Women have been trusting the wisdom of their bodies and listening to the insightof their dreams and intuitions for centuries, since long before recordedhistory. In the earliest inscribed tale of the feminine, the story of Inanna,Queen of Sumer, and her sister Eriskigel, Inanna's life is dependent upon herreception to an intense keening and wailing from the "Great Below," which shetakes seriously. Inanna's intuition alerts her to respect the summons from herinner self and prepare to do the business of Soul. However, intuition is neitherthe gift of queens nor the folly of innocents. Intuition is the voice ofembodied Soul.

Unfortunately, most of us have become so alienated from our bodies that it isdifficult to access our bodies' wisdom. This is a grave handicap. For bodywisdom contains the essential truths about what matters most to a woman andultimately to the human race as a whole. Body wisdom especially amplifies theinherent sacred relationship between a woman and the deep feminine. If shedoubts this, she has but to turn to the exquisitely sensitive cycles of her bodythat have been teaching her since puberty how intimately she is influenced bythe innate intelligence of her biochemical bodymind.

This relationship is sacred because it has deep and abiding roots in thecollective history of womankind. As...