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Tag Archives: Emotional intelligence

Knowledge, Wisdom, and Intelligence Part 3

When I started this series I was hoping for a very quick maybe even weekly posts going over the three subjects, but I learned something about myself and this time of year. For months I have been sapped and unfocused. When I started the blog that was really my prime. Fall through late Winter is where I really shine and feel the most “in control”. That aside, Lughnasadh is behind us and I feel that spiral becoming tighter. There is a returning to inner power and creativity that I see over the horizon and i wait… with open arms.

To catch Part One and Part Two of this series follow the links.


Is it simply just the ability to learn. That is the simplest definition I came across in my study. Interestingly it was a good starting point not because it summed up Intelligence well but because I raised a lot of questions that fueled my search for some understanding.

What are we learning? How do we do this? How is this Quantified? Is this a learn-able ability? Teachable even? Can Intelligence be made then or trained?

Carol Bainbridge on About.com defines Intelligence in this way:

  • Capacity for knowledge and the ability to acquire it
  • Capacity for reason and abstract thought
  • Ability to comprehend relationships
  • Ability to evaluate and judge
  • Capacity for original and productive thought

This is certainly a much more profound reach into intelligence. It is no easy subject to understand or to grasp as it is still beingstudied today. What I particularly like about the above definition is the parts about evaluation and original thought. Both of those put an interesting spin on what intelligence means. It really makes me think about how intelligence is tied to morality and polarity. To be able to sift through the information that is given certainly plays its part in intelligence. Being able to judge that information into appropriate categories is something that I had never thought about when it came to intelligence but gives some good food for thought. Capacity for Original thought almost seems to be like a contradiction. I first thought about this as comparing my thoughts to all thoughts ever thought throughout time. In this line of thinking Original thought hardly exists, because I can imagine that most everything that has popped into my mind has occurred in someone else as well at some point in history. I heard somewhere that over a person’s lifetime they will only ever have 3 original thoughts. When I was in High School I thought one of my originals was something I called Human Foosball. It was a scheme I had where giant hydrolic machine could be placed on a field as an amusement park ride. People would pay to be in the hydo-cages to spin around and hit the ball by other people who would pay to control the hydro-cages via remote. Now, till this day I am still not sure if this is a truly original thought but for me it was. Today this is where my focus on originality changes that maybe original thought is not about never before thought things but the ability to step outside your own collective thought processes to come up with something that is outside your own nature or normal thoughts. If that is the case then a person could have many original thoughts in their life, depending on their Intelligence or if they have the capacity for it.

I did find an interesting resource on intelligence and I urge anyone who wants to research it more tovisit www.aboutintelligence.co.uk/what-intelligence.html.

There psychologist Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences states that intelligence can be broken down into 8 distinct components: logical, spatial, linguistic, interpersonal, naturalist, kinesthetic, musical and intrapersonal. Thus he believes that standard IQ tests and psychometric tests focus on certain components, such as logical and linguistic, while completely ignoring other components which may be equally important. If IQ covers mathematical, spatial, verbal, logic and memory. What about emotional, which has a good deal to do when it comes to comprehending relationships?

One alternate type of intelligence often mentioned in popular media is ‘emotional intelligence’, developed by Daniel Goleman and several other researchers. This refers to an individual’s ability to understand and be aware of your own emotions, as well as those of people around you. This ability enables you to handle social interactions and relationships better.

The concept of emotional intelligence was first suggested by Charles Darwin who emphasised the importance of emotional expression in adaptation and survival.

So how can we apply this to our Magick.

Concisely put: Know your magick, apply what you know to benefit, and adapt that knowledge accordingly. Further more, always develop whatever set or level of intelligence you have. Adaptation, productive thought, relationships, how to use knowledge, are all things that can be trained as long as you have the capacity to do so.

When casting a circle, a spell, a hex, a wish, a hope, a dream, or a prayer… do so with intelligence. The kind of both the mind and heart. Blessed be.

What the Tarot says about Intelligence: A single card pull from the Tarot.

For this pull I used the Tarot Pro app on the IPhone. Check it out here.

The Chariot (Inv) – What good is done if intelligence is not shared? Intelligence, to be of benefit, must be used in conjunction with wisdom. It is also a reminder never to disregard, disrespect, or ignore the intelligence of another.