Tasting stuff that isn’t physically there: clairgustance
Tasting things that you didn’t eat? Getting a phantom taste in your mouth of a very specific flavor or food? Experiencing it recurring, catching you off guard, seemingly attached to certain moments like it’s try to tell you something?
Congratulations, you’re experiencing clairgustance.
Please note: This post is not medical advice. If you have an enduring and unexplained unpleasant or worrisome taste in your mouth, it’s time consult a health professional.
Clair = sensing things that aren’t physically there
The clairs are when the human sensory pathways receive ultrasensory information from beyond the physical human world. You’re probably familiar with clairvoyance - the gift of sight, of seeing things that aren’t there in tangible reality.
There’s also claircognizance - knowing things that, in the physical world, you should have no way of knowing. As well as clairaudience (hearing), clairolfactory (smelling), and some name multiple other clairs.
But one of the least talked about and most fascinating of the clairs, is clairgustance. Clairgustance is when you perceive and receive intuitive information through your sense of taste. Basically, you’re a cosmic foodie, a mystic gastronome. You’re eating off the divine’s table.
With clairgustance, the universe feeds you information as tastes that can symbolize any number of things you need to know. It’s up to you to work with the meaning of the taste in your mouth to understand what it’s trying to tell you.
Taste bud messengers
Tasting particular flavors through your clairgustance can be signaling to you that:
A passed on loved one is nearby, when you suddenly taste something that reminds you of them
The universe is confirming something for you, as a sign or synchronicity or significant symbol of something you’ve been asking for clarity about
There’s a story to the symbol of what you’re tasting that’s trying to get your attention because of its relevance to your life and path right now
I’ll give you a quick example from my recent experience:
A few weeks ago, I woke up with the taste (and smell but that’s a different blog post) of fried chicken. It was so clear, like I was sitting in a barbecue restaurant eating a fried chicken basket. For health reasons that are actually directly related to my tongue, I am currently not even eating chicken. So I knew it wasn’t that there was a leftover chicken-y aroma in the house or in my mouth.
This was at the same time I was creating the visuals for the second found oracle, the Chicken Wing Oracle, and was still new to this project coming into form so quickly through me in the physical world. I was definitely in a phase of: what the heck, chicken wings are talking to me and want me to share a message from them, what am I doing here?
When I experienced the clairgustance with the fried chicken, though, it was confirmation to me. I took the phantom chicken taste - which disappeared as quickly as I noticed it, as phantom taste tends to sometimes do - as divine and cosmic confirmation that the chicken wing wants me to share its message as it relates to our human story.
And the moment was actually so funny, too. Clairgustance is delightful and hilarious when you allow it to be. In my fried chicken moment, I laughed and said okay, yes, I understand, universe. Now let me go brush my teeth.
Finding out what the phantom taste means
So what does your clairgustance mean? What is your phantom taste trying to tell you?
Like any intuitive message that comes through to get your attention, you can work with the energy of your clairgustance more intentionally understanding it better. Here are some ways that work for me:
Look up the symbolism of the thing you’re tasting (or experiencing - often clairgustance comes with tasting the thing, but also smelling it and seeing it in places it shouldn’t be as well). This is one reason I started Found Oracles, and why I started with food items. There’s. not many sources out there for what it means when suddenly you see/taste/run into root beer floats everywhere, for example.
Reflect on the taste’s significance to you. What is it about that flavor? When have you tasted it before? What were you doing last time you had that food or drink? What are you doing when the clairgustance pops up? Keep a little tally of what you’re doing, thinking, or pondering when the taste appears until you see a pattern emerge.
Meditate and ask the food what it’s trying to tell you. This may sound silly but give it a try. The answer you get back is going to surprise you. I love visualization meditations for understanding something that seems unclear. Get into your meditative practice, and if you don’t have one, sit somewhere quiet and close your eyes. Visualize the food you’re tasting. Pretend it’s an ancient spirit or a claymation cartoon, whatever helps you give it agency. Now ask it: What are you trying to tell me? Don’t second guess - the first thing that comes back is the thread for you to follow.
Journal about it. This is one of my favorite intuitive practices to get in touch with any symbol, any energy, any experience that seems connected to all that is. Talk with your journal about the energy of the food you’re tasting, as it’s connected to you personally. Whatever journaling style you prefer will work. If that sounds interesting, but you’re not sure where to start, I have Intuitive Journaling Packs for different foods in the Found Oracles Shop. You can use them for junk journaling, bullet journaling, automatic writing prompts, or any kind of journaling you want to do.
If I don’t have the food you’re looking for available in the journaling packs, you can steal relevant prompts, inspo, and even cut outs from a food item that’s related (another dessert, another produce item, another refreshing food, etc). Or, send me some words and tell me what you’re tasting! I’m happy to help with a prompt if I can, and your clairgustance food could could end up being the next found oracle.
It doesn’t matter what practice you use to intentionally notice the taste, uncover its language and message for you, and get clarity on what it wants you to know or do at this time. Your understanding that it’s not a coincidence, your willingness to pay attention, and your decision to work with the energy is all you need. Trust yourself and your intuition to guide you where you need to go from there.
New intuitive tool unlocked
Once you know better what your phantom taste means to you and for your life right now - once you assign that purpose to it - it becomes a personal tool and signal that you know how to work with forevermore. Every time it pops up in your reality, you’ll know quicker and quicker what the energy of that taste saying to you personally, what it means for your life and path at that moment, and what - if anything - you should do about it.
Everything emits its own energy and frequency, and your taste buds are very receptive to subtle information. Your clairgustance is just one way the universe works with you - to connect you to yourself, to the world around you, to the realms beyond this one, and to all that is.
Your Oracle Card Message for Today
Your intuition already knows which oracle card has the intuitive and encouraging message that’s wanting to find you today.
About the Oracles
Bailey Lewis - the voice behind Found Oracles - is a modern-day mystic, multimedia artist, writer, and award-winning storyteller. Bailey’s work draws from her own intuitive practice, her years of studying symbology and narrative meaning-making, and her fascination with how the stories we tell ourselves create our reality.
Found Oracles is a project of Bailey Sends Word, Bailey’s creative and intuitive media house - where everything is that deep, but not everything is that serious.