One area where you are probably quite familiar with intuitive symbols is your dream life. You can practice working with symbols more consciously by “redreaming.” Choose a dream (or day-dream) which is very familiar, comfortable, and strong for you. Recall it as completely as you can. Then close your eyes and recreate it in your imagination from beginning to end. See it, feel it, taste it, smell it. Be in it as fully and completely as possible. And simply notice all of its symbols.

Since this a dream, you don’t have to wonder if it makes sense. It can go in any strange direction it wants, and it doesn’t have to mean anything in particular. It is a reflection of your own mind and, as such, is valid. Seek to experience the dream fully and richly; and if you can’t recall it in its entirety (or if you can hold only part of it in your mind), then pour yourself into that part. Notice every detail and feel every emotion. Discover what it tells you.

Once you’ve practiced this with a dream or day-dream you’ve already had, ask your intuition for an intuitive story (or a waking dream) that can give you information to help you now. Close your eyes, look for a symbol and pretend you are dreaming about it. Allow it to expand, change, grow and take you through an evolving story. It doesn’t have to make sense. You don’t have to second-guess your impressions. You don’t have to question the mini-dream’s validity. There is no right or wrong. All of the images in your dreams and intuition — though subtle and sometimes surrealistic — are valid because they seek to inform. Notice what they tell you and how you feel. Take a few notes about your experience in your journal; write down what you feel the symbols mean. Come back to this journal entry now-and-again to see how the events in your life have reflected this intuitive message. As you continue to touch in with your intuitive symbols and stories regularly, you’ll see just how much insight lies within.

(Excerpted from Intuition and Beyond, Random House, Canada. All rights reserved.)