A deck of my Animal Reflections Healing Oracle cards made it to Australia last week and had a lovely impact on the receiver, who I’ll call, A, that I share with you today. Because, well, this is the magic of oracle cards and the wisdom of animals!

With each deck, I include pulling one card as a personal message to the person. The card I pulled for A was that of Snail and the message of forgiveness.

Forgiveness, one of the hardest things for many humans to do. But yet, the message landed spot on with A and was met with a giggle as she shared how perfect it was for her at the moment, especially around family issues.

Forgiveness is not only for those we have been hurt by, but just as important, it’s about forgiving ourselves. I think many of us can relate to how hard we judge ourselves at times.

Before I share the rest of A’s story here is the message from the guidebook that came through from Snail as I hope it will help those that need to hear it also:

Snail, with its protective shell, asks you to remember a time when you’ve felt vulnerable and put a defensive wall around yourself so as not to be hurt again. Oftentimes these walls are still in place long after the situation has dissipated.

In sending you this card, Snail encourages you to be patient as you slowly and carefully let your guard down so you can start clearing away past distressing experiences. Do so with compassion for yourself and be sure to set judgment to the side, along with worry about where you think you should be.

Carrying its home upon its back, Snail is a wonderful messenger about balancing trust with
self-protection. As a child, someone may have said or done something creating in you a conditioned
pattern. However, what began as a way of safeguarding yourself against further emotional pain became an unhealthy way of being continuing to play out in different situations. Now is your opportunity to bring the broken pieces back together.

Snail is your partner, helping you liberate yourself by leaning into feeling what needs to be felt while also encouraging you to forgive those who have hurt you. When you arrive at a place of forgiveness you can also shift more easily into understanding they were acting from their own hurts and betrayals — and quite possibly without awareness of the effect their behavior was having.

Seeing this truth, you give thanks to your inner child for doing what was needed to keep you safe and are able to lay down the burden you’ve carried for far too long. Forgiveness opens a pathway to a deeper compassion, not only for yourself but also for those who suffered before you and acted from a place of pain.

The unseen part of you feels recognized and heard while you experience an expanded level of joy and freedom. With this refreshing awareness, you know it’s safe to be you.

©Barbara Techel

That same day A received the deck and read about Snail and its message she went to her friends for a massage. Before getting on the table, she visited the bathroom and was met with this glass snail staring her in the face.

A wonderful example of the outside world sending yet another confirmation of what A was being called to continue to explore, or in case she had any doubts, here was a synchronistic moment sent as yet another confirmation.

She then shared with her friend the fact that she’d gotten Snail for a one card reading and it’s message about forgiveness when her friend commented how relevant it was to her also.

And this is the power of animal wisdom, as Snail so beautifully demonstrated. And how I appreciated A’s willingness to share the message with her friend as not only did Snail provide insight for A, but now for her friend too. Animals and Oracles! So very clever they are in their delivery of guidance.

Later that evening after reading the email from A, I was reading a favorite blog of mine by Maria Wulf. It was in a post about a walk in the woods that she shared an exquisite photo of a snail she saw that day.

And it’s the design on the shell that took my breath away…

It looks like a tree! It made me think of A and her struggles with family issues, as well as the fact that we all have them to some degree. That family tree that we are born into that can sometimes have some feeling like they don’t fit in, or perhaps they don’t know of their family origin, or whatever the issue may be. But the disharmony and inner conflict this can bring.

I don’t think there is a person on the planet that hasn’t experienced feelings around family and all that comes with that. But here is Snail reminding us to go slow with ourselves, to have compassion for ourselves, to stop carrying the burdens of which we need not carry, and to love that little one within and truly know it’s okay to be you…just as you are.

Thanks so much to A for permission to share her experience!

XO

Barb