Things I Believe That Make People Question My Intelligence
By: Yael Wolfe
Tags: Spirituality, Lifestyle, Self, Feminism, Soul

Things I Believe That Make People Question My Intelligence

And why I’m not afraid to share these beliefs anymore.

Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels

“What did you just say?”

We were sitting in the conference room and I was awkwardly folded into my chair, feeling uncomfortable and tense. “I need to find someone who does Reiki. My body and energy are so off right now.”

“Reiki,” my coworker repeated. “Like energy coming out of someone’s hands.”

I nodded.

“You know that’s a load of bullshit, right?” She looked at me with her eyes narrowed, as if she wasn’t sure whether or not she should be worried about me.

I’m used to this. I have certain perspectives on the world that aren’t necessarily logical. For instance:

I believe in aliens.

Yep, it’s true, I think there is life out there, somewhere. No, I don’t think that life is in the form of little green men and no, I don’t think they’re coming to kill us and take over our planet in an apocalyptic future.

But if the universe is infinite, then I think it’s illogical and even arrogant to assume we are the only life forms in it.

I believe in energy.

Just as I mentioned earlier, I believe in Reiki, which means I believe in energy and energy work. I believe our “energy” — that intangible, indefinable “something” that exists within and just beyond our physical bodies — has a life of its own that is undetectable to the human eye.

You can say it isn’t real all you want, but you know what it feels like when a room goes quiet just before an argument erupts. You know what it feels like when someone behind you in line at Starbucks makes the hairs on your neck stand up and you just want to get away from them. You know what it feels like to realize, without any kind of logical evidence, that your business deal is about to fall through because something feels “off.”

I believe in readings.

I will occasionally indulge in tarot readings or energy readings not because I think they predict the future (I don’t) but because they often help me to clarify what I’m going through right now in a way that my soul can process.

I’m very careful about this, however, because I find that people can be very careless with their words when giving readings. Being as sensitive to that as I am, I only let people I intrinsically trust give me readings.

I believe in astrology. (Sort of.)

I’ve always had a love affair with astrology and went through a period of time during my youth in which I tried to understand people solely based on their sun sign.

As I’ve grown up, my perspective of astrology has changed — a lot. Sure, I love to ask people what their sign is and identify their general astrological energy, but ultimately, that’s not where my interest lies.

I pay attention now more to which sign the moon is in, and to a lesser extent, the planets. I find that there’s worth in noticing these cycles and using it to help shape my perspective of the world and how I’m currently responding to it. I find that it also helps me stay grounded and connected to nature and even the universe.

I believe in crystal therapy. (Sort of.)

I’m not sure if it’ll come as a surprise or not that I have around 100 semiprecious gemstones scattered around my house. Malachite, calcite, prehnite, agate, chalcedony, jet, amber, moonstone, and more crystals than I can count.

Yes, I believe these stones carry the energy of the earth within them and as such, I want them around me. It is my way of bringing nature into my home in a way that’s more tangible to me than just flowers or twig art.

And I do believe that they have specific energetic qualities based on their color and chemical composition. For instance, I believe in touching rose quartz to my body when I need some extra love. I keep a huge piece of obsidian beneath my bed to clear away negative energy so I can have a peaceful sleep.

I don’t believe that stones can do magic or that they are healing remedies to be exclusively relied upon, but I do believe in using their energy as a way to create and sustain the kind of environment I need in which to flourish.

I believe in sigils and charms.

While I don’t think sigils and charms have power in themselves, I do believe in their symbolism — which is ultimately why people use them, anyways.

Last year, when I was building a fence around my garden, which is behind the community mailbox, several people complained that I had taken away a place where people liked to run their dogs and let their kids play while they talked around the mailbox. One male neighbor was particularly aggressive and rude. Another neighbor shot at my fence with a BB gun.

I became so afraid and upset that I decided to paint runes on the inside of each fence post. While doing so, I said a prayer and dripped clove oil over each one, imagining not just a protective boundary, but a boundary that was pretty and pleasing for the neighbors to look at. I wanted to create a feeling of peace, not strife and animosity.

Of course, I don’t believe that the runes protect me from angry neighbors, nor was that their purpose. When I see those runes, it reminds me of my intention — to create a safe space for my garden and to create something beautiful for the neighbors to look at. I think of peace when I see those runes, which in turn, makes me peaceful, which in turn makes the neighbors peaceful. (Well, sometimes.)

I believe in the power of sigils and charms as a way to capture an intention and help remind us of that intention.

(If you think this is garbage, count how many people you see at the grocery store wearing a crucifix around their neck. That’s a sigil or charm whose use just happens to be supported by the masses.)

I believe we can — and should — talk to plants.

When my nephews were little and would go ripping up plants in the woods because they thought they were pretty and wanted to take them home, I’d ask them to slow down and get permission from the plants, first. “Ask them if it’s okay if you take from them and then wait and listen for the answer.”

I still do this in my own life, especially when I want to harvest plants in my garden or pick wildflowers. I always ask for permission — and in a garden, the answer seems to be an enthusiastic, “Yes! That’s what we’re here for!” In the woods, though, the answer is sometimes — though not often — no. And I respect that.

I believe plants and trees speak to us in the most subtle way and I believe they are sovereign creatures whose will should be respected.

I believe in prayer and blessings.

I believe with all of my heart that blessing another person is like feeding their soul a protein shake. I believe with all of my heart that prayers create a space of healing energy and that the universe directs our energy to the people for whom we are praying.

I believe in God’s Law.

This one might surprise you, being as I left Christianity. But I’m not talking about “Christian God.” I’m talking about God as the Creator of the Universe. God without gender, God without form.

I believe God is energy (not an old white dude in the sky) and I believe that that energy is law. I believe in the power of that law above all else.

I believe that that law trumps human law, it trumps the laws of physics, it trumps the laws of time, it trumps the laws of biology… God’s Law, I believe, is the law of miracles and that’s the law I choose to live by.