animal cards

Gidget Shares Her Magic Once Again (from the World of Spirit)

Posted by Barbara Techel

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

                  

Two To Go. Update on My Animal Reflections Oracle Deck.

Posted by Barbara Techel

I’m near the end of my  Animal Reflections Oracle Deck project. Well, sort of, as I’m almost done with the completion of this phase. First was creating the deck which I did collage and mixed media style. Then began phase two and writing a message for each card.

Each afternoon I’d randomly pull a card and have it waiting for me on my writing desk for the next day. I didn’t always write each day if I felt I needed more time with that animal that was up next or if other things needed my attention.

But there I was at the end of last week with two cards left to write the first draft for. I appreciated how it was Wolf and Firefly as the last two. I smiled at how it fell into place. I intuitively knew that Wolf would be the next message I wrote, which I did today. White Wolf came to me years ago during a guided visualization and then again when I asked her name one evening before drifting off to sleep.

She came to me at a time when my heart was in a great deal of pain. It was a time when I wanted to close my heart down for fear of being hurt again. But White Wolf reminded me that this is what stretches the heart and to close it down would shut me off from experiencing love again. This is the journey we walk having this human experience of feelings and emotions which helps expand our compassion and empathy not only for ourselves but for others too.

The last card left to write a message for – Firefly – is the culmination of the theme of the deck with each animal offering wisdom encouraging the importance of inner work – that each time we move through an experience of growth we emerge with a more confident sense of being and shine our light out into the world.

I’d been pondering whether or not to add one more animal to my deck, but now everything feels as if it has clicked into place so I won’t be doing that.

It’s time to complete phase two before I go onto phase three which will be going back through each message I’ve written and fine-tuning things. Then phase three will be sending the text off to my editor. Once that happens I will begin to scan and digitally add a word to each that represents that card/animal, while also exploring how I wish to publish the deck with two possibilities I’m giving thought to.

It’s fun to stop and look at how far I’ve come with this project. And I thought it would be fun to give you an update as many of you have expressed support for my deck, which I really appreciate! Thank you!

XO

Barb

                  

The Back Design of My Animal Oracle Deck Almost Complete. How it Came to Be.

Posted by Barbara Techel
Working on creating the design for the back of my animal-themed oracle deck.

I don’t mind days like yesterday and today that are snowy and blustery. It’s a great time to be tucked inside my cozy Joyful Pause Cottage. Working on art. Listening to my favorite YouTuber’s or a documentary.

I’ve been thinking lately about how my creative endeavors have unfolded over the past twenty years. While I was in one aspect of creativity, such as writing my books for many years, I’d catch a glimpse of being where I am now. Though I wasn’t quite sure how any stage would exactly look, I’d have these moments of insight that I’d move into a different aspect of creativity at some point.

For the last two days, I’ve been working on the design for the back of my animal-themed oracle deck feeling grateful to be living the life I have. Because again, I knew at some point I wanted to delve into other mediums of art. While writing is something I still enjoy doing and having written the books I have, I wanted to also experience other avenues of creativity too. And here I am. Doing just that.

Just like writing a book, creating the 52-cards for my deck, the idea began percolating over time and then began to take shape. Also like writing, creating something from mixed media, it shifts and changes along the way. 

I’m still pondering a title for my animal deck. Right now I’m thinking of calling it: Animal Wisdom Reflections. For me, animals have, and continue to be a mirror to various teachings that have benefited me in some way. Some big lessons. Some small.

Some of the teachings came from painful experiences I needed to learn from and open myself to the shadow aspects of myself in order to heal.

White Wolf is my spirit animal, though Dog and Snake I’d have to say play a big role in my evolution also. But Wolf came to me, as many of you know, a few years back when my heart was broken after a relationship with a friend ended. White Wolf, who I’d eventually learn her name, Laoiloa, encouraged me to not shut my heart down.

Laiola was the beginning of a healing journey I’d be taken on over the next two years, along with my dog, Gidget (and a mama snake), who was pivotal in guiding me to releasing the trauma of a childhood experience.

So I knew I wanted an image of a wolf as part of the back cover design as this is how the journey to healing began for me. Laiola reminded me of the love and compassion in my heart even though at times it can feel pain.

As I was in the process of creating my deck I was eventually down to working on the last card, though I wasn’t sure which animal it would be. It would take me a few days of pondering before it came to me. But when it did, I just knew it was right!

The last one I created was of Firefly.

Firefly for me represents how we are able to shine our light even brighter out into the world when we heal the wounded parts of ourselves.

And that is how I came up with wanting to have Wolf and Firefly part of my back cover design. My original idea was to have Firefly sitting atop Wolf’s back. But I wasn’t able to create such a small version of a firefly and have it actually resemble one.

So instead I now have a whole field of fireflies represented by the touch of fluorescent yellow dots in the background of where Wolf stands on the card—standing at the beginning of a path—as an invitation to you to come walk the path to find your light too—to not be afraid—and to trust that the animals will guide you with the utmost of love. Because that is what they do. And they are just waiting to walk us home to the essence of who we are.

XO

Barb