Does anyone have advice for hearing their gods? I remember when I first started my deity journey with Freyja and Loki I could hear Freyja pretty well, Loki sometimes not so much but I could very easily tell that Loki was there and talking to me.
But for a very long time since then I don’t hear them. I think I might’ve accidentally blocked them off bc of my fear of doing smth wrong and just never opened it back up. I’ve been using only divination methods of communication which is fine and world great. But now I want to try and open up communication like I used to be able to do.
Clairalience is the spiritual gift that allows one to smell without anything nearby giving off a scent. It can also be called clairosmesis, clairessence, clairscent, and clairolfaction. It is receiving spiritual information through the sense of smell.
*Disclaimer: Not everything is from the spiritual realm, your guides, etc. Mental illness/disorder, trauma, and medical issues can cause you to experience similar things as well. Don't hesitate to reach out towards someone from the medical field (doctors, psychiatrist, therapists, etc.) and take medications if prescribed!*
Some signs you may have clairalience is picking up scents when it is physically unavailable such as smelling flowers in a desert where no flowers are around. You can guess who is calling you or reaching you from receiving a scent that relates to them beforehand. In a learning setting you prefer to learn where the sense of smell is involved such as being in science class where the scent of chemicals and tools fills the room.
Clairalience may not sound as exciting to have such as clairvoyance. But it can be quite as helpful. Smells can carry strong emotions and memories that makes it a powerful sense. There is a saying that goes "I smell a liar," and you definitely can. Different people have their own smells to guide them. Someone might smell rotten eggs when facing a liar and to someone else it can be a wet dog. Either way spirits communicate with you by scents. You can smell energy and it translate to a scent. You can tell when your friend needs you because the smell of their favorite food surrounds you. You know when an area is dangerous because you can smell rusty metal. When you are feeling down the scent of your favorite flowers appear making you instantly happy and relaxed.
The downside is yes you can smell and it is not always pleasant. It's not fun when the scent of rotten eggs hit you every time someone lies. If someone is sick you may smell a strong medication scent when no one else can. The smells can be too soft or too obnoxiously strong. You know when your deceased grandfather who smokes a lot is around because his heavy cigarette assaults your nostrils.
To protect yourself pray to your god, goddess, ancestors, angels, etc. first thing in the morning, and before going to bed. To surround you and your spiritual gifts with a protective shield to help repel negative influences. Or if you don't have anyone to pray too then imagine yourself being surrounded in a white bubble of light that repels negativity. You can also carry certain crystals to protect yourself. Beings that genuinely care about you raise your spirit up. They NEVER put you down negatively, cause you any fear, or encourage negative beliefs like hurting yourself.
If it's a negative spirit, know you have power. You can smoke cleanse, do a banishing spell, use bells, etc.
Here is an exercise you can do to improve or develop clairalience. Practice makes perfect, so as long as you practice often you will notice results.
Scented Trip
To develop a spiritual gift in smell, you must have a strong physical sense of smell. When you go outside, take time to smell the flowers, the air around you, and ask questions. Is the air fresh, stale, how can you tell? Is the flower scent strong, weak, pleasant, or annoying? Before you eat your meal take time to explore the smells. Does it smell warm, cold, spicy, simple, or sweet? If you are driving what do you smell? Can you smell gasoline, smoke, perfume? The more you focus and become aware of the smells around you the more it leaves an imprint in your mind for the spiritual realm to use.
So the first clair-sense I noticed when I started my practice was clairalience (psychic smelling), so here's the smells I associate with some deities based actually smelling them during interactions:
Hekate: honey, sandalwood, jasmine, sometimes incense smoky
Anubis: old parchment, dust/sand, slight wine notes
Medusa: rosemary, vanilla, some sour mineral notes like old pennies or wet rocks
Loki: burning sugar, pepper
Disclaimer: this is UPG, personal experience, etc. I don't actively work with all of these deities, and I've had encounters with some others that haven't involved any scent association.
How to Discover Psychic Abilities and How to Use Them
The thing about psychic abilities is that they can be subtle until you work on them, this means that they often go unnoticed. If you have ever heard your name being called when no one was around, felt as if someone touched you when you're alone, smelled something without a culprit, or tasted something without eating, you may have psychic abilities and this is the perfect post for you. Most of the time, psychic abilities appear during childhood or at younger ages as kids and elderly are the closest to the 5D. If you have ever been a really good judge of character, spoke about past lives, were extremely empathetic, had a special bond with an animal, knew about things before they happened, had imaginary friends, didn't like crowded spaces, had trouble sleeping, strong creativity, and could see auras throughout your childhood, you may be psychic.
Clairvoyance: This ability is often depicted in media as being able to see ghosts, for the most part it is watered down. Clairvoyance is the ability to see all things spiritual. If you have this ability you will often see wisps in the corner of your eye, sometimes you will see what are called shadow people (if you want me to go in depth about what these are please don't hesitate to ask), lower vibrational entities, angels, demons, energy, auras, and information will be given to you where you can see it like a specific person, place, object, color, symbols, spirits, etc. This ability is basically everything to do with seeing, sometimes it won't show up in the same way as you see the things in front of you, it will show up as a distant memory or remembering a dream.
Clairaudience: This ability is known as "clear hearing" it means that you are able to hear things from the 5D. You would be able to directly hear what your guides need to tell you, in terms of hearing your name, or specific phrases. There isn't really much to say about this one as it is pretty simple.
Clairempathy: This is the ability to feel the emotions of others even spirits. You can often feel the energy of someone, be able to tell what current emotion they are feeling and how best to help them, you can also feel the emotion of the spirits around you whether they are happy or upset. This ability comes in handy when working with spirits and deities to identify them and know their intentions. Empathy is something that is often confused with just being able to tell what emotion someone feels, it the ability to feel what others feel, cry when they cry, smile when they smile, laugh when they laugh. Basically the opposite of Shane Dawson.
Clairsentience: Is the clair ability related to intuition, it is the gut feeling that someone has. This is a message sent to you from your guides that can be very different to how you were currently feeling. It is the same reason why we feel our stomach drop on roller coasters, or when we feel something is very wrong. Sometimes it may manifest as a stomach ache, or anxiety.
Clairalience: This is the ability to smell a fragrance or odor from the 5D. Some people communicate with their guides through smell, and each smell means something different to every person, it is something that is highly personalized and takes a lot of effort in order to figure out exactly what they mean. The common scents are, cologne or perfume, flowers, smoke, mint, cinnamon, and pine trees. Cologne or perfume of a past love one generally means that, that person has came back with a message. Flowers and floral scents be sure to stay alert for a message from your guides. Lilac means pride, lavender means love, roses means love and passion, and orange blossoms means you're going to meet a soulmate. If you are smelling smoke and nothing is on fire around you, you make be experiencing an upheaval soon. If you smell mint your body may be asking for some mint tea or for you to seize the moment. If you smell cinnamon you or someone you know may be getting pregnant soon. If you smell pine trees, you may want to take a vacation soon or carry pine scents around you more often.
Clairgustance: This is the ability to taste the essence of spirits. Usually it would be something they loved to eat when they were in a body. This is another ability that is highly personalized but a general rule of thumb is to eat or place the food you are smelling onto an altar as an offering.
Clairtangency: Also referred to as psychometry, it's the ability to gain information from the things you touch. If holding an object that is personal to someone, that vibrates on the same frequency as them, you may be able to tell how the person feels or what situation they were going through while near the object. You may hear see or feel how that person is feeling whether it be past or present and there have been some cases of premonition with this ability.
Everyone has one or more of these abilities, the most common being clairsentience as it is rooted in intuition. These are all gifts that can be developed and worked on more, getting stronger over time. They are kind of hard to determine which one you'll get, but it doesn't hurt to try them anyways. The best way to enhance your abilities is by enhancing your intuition and trust in spirit.
Here are some links that may help, it is also important to do as much research as you can on this topic as it is very different for each person:
Now, this blog would not be complete without a “how to” post, would it? I’m gonna break it down to the best to my knowledge on how to connect to spiritual and your intuition-- or, rather, connecting VIA your intuition, below. These probably won’t be eye-opening to some more seasoned psychics, but if you’re just starting out, sure, go for it!
The “Clairs”
The Clairs refer to all of the 5 senses, including a 6th one, Claircognizance. Those would be Clairvoyance (sight), Clairsentience (This could be emotion, but could also be touch), Clairaudience (Hearing), Clairalience (Smell) and Clairgustance (Taste). While the last one I mentioned is a bit rarer to see in people, The others are quite common. These, Called the “Clairs”, means that you have a perception of the respective sense of the astral beings nearby.
Clairvoyance, or clear seeing, is the most renowned of these, but gets a misleading reputation, as if the senses are so strong its like a physical presence in the room. The truth is, that isn’t the case! In fact, you’re well aware that there is “nothing” there, when you are clairvoyant. Clairvoyance can be in the form of seeing someone on the physical plane, but also can be dreams and visions! In my experience, I’ve seen the latter quite often.
Clairsentience refers to clear feeling. Since “Feeling” is a bit vague, I like to include both definitions under this category, since both has happened to me and others before. The First one would be the emotional aspect. You may feel “inappropriate emotions” for your situation. These often are from spirits in general, so if you feel happiness around something that doesn’t normally make you giddy, the spirit you’re communicating with likes that particular thing. Its complex, but it’s certainly a thing. One of my guides likes yellow flowers for that reason. I’m pretty indifferent about them, but she absolutely admires them, so I pick some dandelions in summer when i get the chance.
The other half of Clairsentience is physical touch! This is much more simple. This can range from a slight poke to the side, to a reassuring hand on your shoulder, to a full embrace. They are just as capable of touch as humans are, and know which kinds of touch are ones you need to feel. They also can poke you in places on your body that need attention, like if you put your hand near a sharp object and you’re about to have it cut. They might make your hand uncomfortable and prompt you to move it, to keep it safe. That kind of thing!
Clairaudience is when you are able to hear sounds that are associated with the spirit in question. This is my primary communication method, if i’m honest-- and most of these sounds are within your mind. Like Clairvoyance, these inputs are usually not overwhelmingly present-- they’re subtle. Its less about hearing things, than it is knowing how you feel when you’re being spoken to. How you feel when you hear “Yes” is much different from what you feel when you hear “No.” So after a bit of practice, you can kind of “translate” these feelings into speech. They also include a dog barking if they like animals, or music playing if they want you to hear a song, or a song they like, or things of that nature.
Claircognizance is simply knowing something you had no way of knowing. Ever feel something was “off” but then you were right about it being off in the end? That is claircognizance. Sometimes spirit guides give you the knowledge you need to advance in life if there’s a result that wasn’t really planned or supposed to happen according to pre-incarnation.
Clairalience is smelling things that aren’t there to smell. This is more common than you think! Scent is heavily linked to the memory part of your brain. So lets say your grandmother passed away, and you suddenly smell the perfume she always had on, but you’re on vacation and alone in the hotel. You may not have even thought of her before then. That is because scents trigger all kinds of memories, and spirits know that. I have a friend that actually can “sniff” out the presence of certain spirits, since they have an energetic signature-- kind of like perfume, but doesn’t smell like anything. The best she can describe it is a scent! Some DO have a warm or floral scent about them. She also says her guide smells like cinnamon buns :)
So now that all of that is out of the way, if you ever want to practice any of these, intuition is key here. Know that what you are perceiving truly isn’t there in the physical. and ask yourself these questions if you want to perceive a guide. Ask your guide for help perceiving them, and know they’ll follow through.
Try to clear your mind, and objectively ask yourself these questions.:
“What do I perceive right now in the physical?”
“If I were to perceive something in the astral, what form would it take?”
“What would my guide sound like?”
“What would my guide look like?”
“What would my guide smell like?”
“What would my guide say to me, right now?”
Trust that there’s answers to these, but don’t overthink it! the first answer is probably the right answer! I use “What would” instead of “What is”, because that helps take pressure off of trying to take on answers and straining your abilities. The important thing is to be open to almost anything.
And as always, make sure you stay on your guard. If ANYTHING comes through that makes you feel unsafe, you have every right to cease all communication and protect yourself. I personally envision a veil of light surrounding me, kind of like a shield from anything bad that could harm me, but depending on your beliefs, you may smoke cleanse, add salt cirrcles, or do any ritual that puts up your spiritual shield. The more you think you may be in danger, the more danger you’re in, in my experience, so do whatever makes you feel safe.
May your guide make themselves apparent to you, and I hope this little doohickey has helped with understanding the Clairs!
I’ve noticed that there are a lot of witches out there who don’t have a solid grasp of the different clairsenses and how they manifest. This is a problem, because a lot of the time it leads to people feeling inadequate when they can’t perform a divinatory task or travel to the astral using a clairvoyant method. NOT EVERYONE IS CLAIRVOYANT AND THAT’S OK! But there are tons of clairsenses that you could have instead.
Clairalience, or “clear-smelling” is the ability to perceive information about the energy signature of a being or object in a way that mirrors physical olfaction. In less fancy terms, it means you can smell spirits. Wacky, right? It’s closely related to clairgustance in the same way smell and taste are closely related.
How do you know if you are clairalient?
Do certain smells remind you of certain places, people, or things in a way that goes beyond a mere memory trigger? If you work with spirits or deities, do you feel their presence as a distinct smell? Do you perceive certain smells when you look at a person, place, or thing, without a logical source for the odor necessarily being there? If so, you may be clairalient!
If I’m not naturally clairsentient, will I be able to use this sense?
OF COURSE YOU CAN! With practice you will be able to develop every single one of your clairsenses, though you will always find some easier to use than others. Here are some good methods for practice:
Pay attention to the smells in your environment! We live in a smelly, smelly world my friends, but as the Febreeze commercials love to remind their target audience (whoever that is), it’s really easy to go “nose blind”. Start to pay attention to the scents in your environment. Do they remind you of certain people or places for no reason? Do they make you feel a certain way?
Play with your food! The best way to hone this sense is to get to know smell better on a physical level. The best way to do that is to use your best resource: your food. Give your breakfast a sniff before you start eating to see if you can smell anything, then take a bite. Think about the way the food tastes. Now, take a second bite with your nose plugged. How much of that taste do you lose when you lose the sense of smell?
Learn from your colds! A bit of odd advice for sure, but when your nose is stuffed up the world feels different for a lot of reasons. See if you can figure out what some of those differences are from an energetic perspective. How much do you rely on smell to gain information about energy signatures?
