What other nuggets of wisdom do the animals have to offer, I wondered? This was my thought a few weeks ago as I was nearing the end of writing the first draft for my Animal Reflections oracle card messages.
In the first draft, I’d written them either intuitively and/or incorporated personal insights I’ve received from different animals on my own healing journey. I also read more about the behaviors and habitats of each of the animals represented in my deck.
It occurred to me as I pondered going back through the messages to do what I often do when I am wondering if there is more insight or perspective that I am not seeing for whatever reason. In my own journaling when I’m working through something I’ll often just write out my feelings first. Then I will pull an oracle card to go deeper, which often will reveal an insight I was blocking or that added another perspective.
So I decided as I began the second draft of the message for each animal I’d pull an oracle card from another creator’s deck to add another potential layer to what I’d already written.
I’m about one-fourth way through my animal cards a second time. So far, two of my animal cards I didn’t feel needed additional insight. But now it was the card I created representing Dog which is depicted by my dachshund, Gidget, who is now in the world of spirit.
When I pulled an oracle card for her, the card I got was Loyal Heart. I felt a rush of sweet, gentle, and loving energy flow through me which made me feel quite emotional.
Gidget’s card (Dog) represents the Sage within each of us. The one we can often push aside and don’t trust those inner nudges and voices when they are trying to get our attention.
The Loyal Heart card and the image of the two owls looking at each other represent for me what Gidget saw in me that I couldn’t see about myself and that which I needed to heal. Gidget saw my strengths and knew what it was I needed to heal and release. She was one wise sage who did everything in her tiny ten-pound power to mirror that to me.
She never gave up and eventually, it worked! Loyal Heart is then for me about staying loyal to my own heart and when I do my heart grows in compassion and empathy for myself. Instead of that inner talk that bullies me about what I think I may think is ‘wrong.’ It’s also about her loyalty to me and her belief that I could work through all those self-doubts and emotional pain I’d carried with me for far too long.
The additional magical part to this Loyal Heart card is that I’ve pulled it a few other times in the past related to Gidget.
A while after pulling the card and simmering in its wisdom, I sat outside on my deck for lunch. Out of the corner of my eye, just a few feet from me, I spied a chipmunk sitting atop the birdhouse off the corner of my writing cottage.
This prompted a memory to bubble to the surface about when I was in middle school and had to go to a new school. How uncomfortable it was to go to the cafeteria for lunch being a new student, not yet having any friends, and having to sit alone. But I realized seeing that chipmunk that I’m never alone.
And I linked this encounter back to the Loyal Heart message from Gidget earlier. That even though she is no longer here, she is still here in a different form because of what I felt in my spirit and the beautiful emotion that moved through my body when I pulled that Loyal Heart card. I knew it was Gidget connecting with me.
We are never alone.
As I boiled water for tea after eating my lunch I glanced out my kitchen window to see a large feather on the lawn. How often they represent a message from loved ones. Again, we are never alone.
As I sit at my writing desk completing this blog post, I see yet another layer for all that magically transpired. When I continue to be loyal to my own heart, I grow even more confident in my being…
which makes me enjoy my own company…
And thus once again, I am never alone.
I shall savor this unfolding and I’m grateful once again for these experiences that always leave me in awe and remind me once again of how connected in life and death we really are.
XO
Barb
