Kelley, Several years ago, I received intuitive guidance to let go of my university career and write. I self-published a spiritual memoir, wrote a novel, and I am working on another. I can’t find an agent for my novel, and I didn’t make much money from my self-published book. I’ve followed my intuitive guidance for many years and things have always worked out. I am being told over and over again that this will work out too. Yet, it’s been four years and I need to “make a living’. Do you have any insight? ~Patricia

Thanks for your note, Patricia. The publishing industry is a tough gig, particularly now as it transmutes into a more metaphoric manifestation of itself. Couple that with divinely guided instruction or information that manifests on a seemingly divergent timeframe and you have what amounts to clashing ideologies. Or do you? Dynamics like this are not as simple as, “Just hang in there; they said it would work out,” or, “Just work/focus your intent a little harder.” There are bigger things at work on both personal and collective levels.

I draw a card from the Wise Woman’s Tarot, and the card is Maat, or Justice. On a personal level, the message here is that Justice will prevail. Hard work pays off. The prevailing force is balance, and that is what is lacking now. When I see you interacting with your guides in a meditative space, the interaction feels like making wishes, rather than the equal, shared effort of all involved working toward manifestation. You receive info from them well, though you are not seeing yourself as their equal in the creative process with which you are all involved. You are not valuing your contribution as much as theirs. You have listened, done the writing, made the lifestyle changes, but this creative process requires your attention on a higher level. You have filled yourself with the details of these parts of the process. Your hands and mind are so full of that process and what it has or hasn’t accomplished that you have no free hand to receive the gift. You have to make room for it to manifest in your daily life.

In this scenario I highly recommend engaging in chronic random acts of blessing. From a shamanic perspective, blessing is the ability to find Spirit in whatever is at the end of your focus. For you, this means doing small things about your earthly consciousness and personal space to allow your needs to be filled by the Universe. Internally, give attention to releasing patterns of insecurity and micro managing that derail you from your connection with All Things, which means such patterns separate you from receiving what you have stated you need. As within, so without. Declutter the areas of your home and work area where energy is stagnant. In the places that make you feel joyful place something beautiful–a flower, a prism, a poem. Especially place something inspiring in the areas that leave you distressed. Capture the beauty of the things that make you feel good and place them through your home, garden, car. For you there is also a facet of blessing Nature. I see birdseed provided for your resident feathered friends making them happy, shiny, pretty things set in the garden for your faerie folk, walking through your fondest Nature space and stating to its inhabitants that you know they are vibrant souls interacting in the matrix of Life. The payback of blessing everything around you fosters more blessing. Such is the symbolic commitment to yourself that you have faith in the Universe, that it will look after you, that you know you have been heard and your needs are met. If you feel resistance to feeling your needs are met, don’t force yourself to go this alone. Find an energy worker or shaman who can help you fit into a more suitable state of being.

The collective part of this dynamic is that you are attempting a life change, not just career change, at a time when the entire world is going through the rebirth of itself. A friend reminded me just today as I was expressing grief about the publishing industry that this isn’t just hard times, it’s the turn of an age. Regimes die away and new life blossoms, not just in publishing, but in every facet of life touched by economics, politics, need, and desire… This is a time of consciousness expanding and of need for people who see out of the box to stand firmly in that vision. You are one of these people. Pioneering was never easy, and you are one of many bringing in an entirely new level of awareness.

Finally, if you haven’t expressly stated your needs to your guides, don’t hesitate to do just that. Make sure that your guides understand your needs, as clearly as you can convey them. They work on a totally different timeframe and measure of accomplishment, thus definition of closure, than we do. While they may view the writing process as sending you inspiration while you pen it, they may not understand your mundane needs around the culmination of this process. They may not even understand that this process still has not culminated for you, the living, breathing being in form who has to deal with the denser rules and semantics of minutia. Don’t be afraid to qualify their insights with your needs. Do some creative writing, so that you are clear on precisely what you need. Be lavish in your detail, with the specificity of ordering food from a menu. This part of the process is for you to create a space where you know what it feels like to have those needs met. You plant the seed of them being met by beginning to feel that they already are. Distill that world to 4-5 items, if that many, expressing one clear intent in each. “I need you to help me manifest a suitable, regular income within the next three weeks.” These carefully crafted gems you present to your guides, not only with the sincere conviction of an informed member of your own counsel, but as an equal who does the legwork by seeing those needs met everywhere in her mundane.

“Bless whatever you can with eyes and hands and tongue. If you can’t bless it, get ready to make it new.”
The Art of Blessing the Day by Marge Piercy