Look for the clues. There are always signs that tell us about our lives. Yes, intuition is involved, but so is logic. So many headaches and heartaches could be avoided if we just looked for the clues.

We call them red flags, but their color can be slightly more subtle than red. With family, friends, or lovers, you might notice silence on the phone or a sudden drop in text messages. You might notice yourself reaching out and getting nowhere. A few weird things might happen with someone you’ve just met, and your gut tells you to keep your distance, but to your annoyance, you move forward instead. Sometimes we avoid what we sense on a deeper level. There are many reasons for that, but to distill it, I think it’s because we don’t stand by what we deserve and need.

With love and attraction, it’s tough to listen to the clues because we get dopamine hits from hang times and texting our crushes. You literally have to work against addiction.

But back to the clues.

To look for the clues means you are tuned into yourself at the highest level; you are ready and willing to see your faults and listen. To watch. To observe. Looking for the clues means you are open to watching other people’s behaviors and your own. It means you’re open to hearing what the universe is doing to protect you.

This also comes into play when we’re making big decisions. Here’s a story to illustrate that point.

Before moving away from Chicago in 2021, I started feeling unhappy with the city. It’s not that I didn’t love it, I was just struggling to feel healthy in a chaotic and polluted metropolis. My partner and I had started talking about moving several years before, but I was torn. I loved my friends and spiritual community so much and felt like moving would be heartbreaking. And I wasn’t wrong there. It was incredibly hard to leave the vibrant life I had built there.

Before making the decision, several things happened.

• I was biking home after a dance class, and a car sped up through an intersection to hit me. Yes, they did so on purpose. Amazingly enough, I walked away unscathed.

• Someone started stalking me. It stopped once I discovered and stopped using a shared internet connection, but it was traumatizing.

• A tornado came through Chicago, and while it didn’t hit us directly, part of our tree snapped off and landed on our house. Huddled in the basement, we didn’t know if we’d find a hole in our roof. Luckily our roof was fine. Whew!

• Two days after our house was sold, a shooting happened in front of our house. It was so loud that I thought someone was pounding on our windows and trying to break in. We jumped out of bed and hit the floor, crawled towards the door, and listened. I realized I had no weapon to protect myself. That was a dark place to go.

The universe was proving my point: Chicago was no longer a place I could thrive.

Do I think we should head for the hills every time something bad happens? No. Of course not. But we can do is listen to ourselves on a core level and see how the universe responds.

The tarot offers us the archetype of the High Priestess (renamed the Mystic in the Colorful Tears Tarot) for listening. To work with the mystic is to tune in, see yourself as sacred, and embrace the co-creative process with the energies of the universe–good and bad–coming toward you.

So, how do you look for the clues? Here’s what I suggest:

• Meditate. This brings peace but also helps you differentiate between your energies and those of the people around you.
• Work on your psychic abilities: visualize, clear your aura, and listen to what comes in.
• Watch people’s behaviors.
• Look at what the universe is handing you.
• Look at what the universe is taking away.
• Believe in your power to manifest.
• Believe in your power to change course and to release.

I wish you the best in finding all the clues. May you be your life’s greatest detective.