animal guides

More Reflection on Firefly Symbolism from an Intuitive Art Experience

Posted by Barbara Techel

Firefly sure seems to be flying alongside me these days!

I recently shared the cover reveal of my Animal Reflections Healing Oracle deck and how firefly is represented in the design and why.

Then early last week someone by the name of Hello From the Cocoon left a comment on a post I shared about my donkey card from my upcoming deck. One thing led to another quite quickly and with many synchronicities, and I ended up taking the self-paced online workshop to do a firefly painting facilitated by an inspiring and sweet woman named, Laurie who is from Hello From the Cocoon.

After painting the top half and then the bottom section with most of the reflective pond I turned off the light, closed the Victorian screen door to Joyful Pause Cottage studio, and went into my house for the evening.

Early the next morning the painting was on my mind. I could hardly wait to get out to my studio to work on it some more!

Shining the ott light onto the painting once again I realized how small I’d made my reflecting pond. Huh. That is interesting, I thought.

My Animal Reflections Healing Oracle deck is about helping others deepen their own insights and heal parts of themselves that need attention. It’s also about reflecting on situations and issues they feel challenged by and doing the inner work to discover why.

So why had I made the reflecting pond so small? This was an intriguing clue for me to ponder about. But one thing I knew was I needed to make that reflective pond larger. What was it I didn’t want to see as a reflection?

While Laurie’s tutorial was all about painting, I felt called to add elements from nature as I like to do in my own artwork I offer for sale.

After adding dried florals I collect on my walks plus a few stones, it was then I intuitively felt called to add a frog to sit along the water’s edge and a moth to hang out around the flowers.

When the painting was complete I know that Firefly is about continuing to shine my light out into the world (even when at times I wish to stay too long in my cocoon out of fear) and helping others do the same. While frog for me represents change and moth speaks to me about letting go – as in the sense of the death of something.

While I don’t have complete clarity about this yet, I will continue to simmer in the healing waters of that reflective pond and pay attention to any additional insight.

For now, I’ve hung the painting on a wall in my cottage and look forward to what may be revealed next.

XO

Barb

    

The Patient Wolf with a Big Heart

Posted by Barbara Techel
Patiently Waiting Inner Wolf potholder by Maria Wulf and wolf card as represented in my Animal Reflections upcoming oracle deck.

Three days had passed since I’d read the post on artist, Maria Wulf’s blog sharing she had some new potholders for sale she’d just created. She named them, Inner Wolf.

I couldn’t get them out of my head. Wolf spirit kept nudging me to go back and see if any of the designs were still available.

I believe that our spirit animal guides speak to us in a variety of different ways as I’ve had many different experiences over the years. And this time, though it may seem unusual, Wolf spirit, a guide who has been with me for quite a few years now, was trying to get my attention once again through Maria’s new creation.

With a final nudge from Wolf I revisited Maria’s post. It was the potholder Maria had named Patiently Waiting that spoke to me and actually brought tears to my eyes. I was happy when I reached out to Maria to find that particular potholder was still available. It was meant to be.

It was later, after receiving it in the mail, and had it sitting on my writing desk for a few days, that I’d realize why this one spoke to me. I reflected on when the spirit of a white wolf came to me during a guided meditation about seven years ago. She came at a time when my heart was shattered from the ending of a friendship I’d given a big piece of my time and heart to. The friendship ended abruptly feeling like it came out of nowhere, though looking back since then I came to understand with more clarity why it had to end when it did.

Wolf spirit was reminding me at that time when my heart was deeply hurting that I still had compassion in my heart, even though I wanted to shut it down so I’d never have to experience that kind of pain again. But white Wolf, while honoring the pain I was experiencing was encouraging me to keep my heart open because it would not only hurt me personally going forward if I didn’t, but could negatively affect my current and future relationships.

Reflecting back on this time and then thinking about the patiently waiting wolf potholder, I realized I was being reminded again about keeping my heart open and not protecting it so fiercely I don’t allow anything in. I felt such love and compassion coming from the image of the wolf on the potholder.

While I don’t wish to share personal details, I realized Wolf’s appearance in this way was about a friendship that is changing in the near future with a friend that will be moving many states away next spring or early summer.

I’d been struggling with my feelings about it, but Wolf spirit, as she has always been for me, was standing patiently by my side, loving me through every emotion that was being stirred within me. I felt her big heart radiating love to me encouraging me to be gentle with myself as I process what will be a new change in my life.

I took note again of the fact that Maria named the post, Inner Wolf. We all have a fierceness, protectiveness, and a loving aspect of ourselves. It’s important to acknowledge all of them and honor each of their processes in order to move through difficulties. So howl when you need to, but also be gentle and loving toward yourself, too.

So in honor of Wolf spirit I’m happy to also share that I have a card in my upcoming Animal Reflections oracle deck to represent her wisdom. You can see the card in the photo above with my now treasured patiently waiting wolf potholder. 

Another way I thought I’d also honor this recent reminder from Wolf spirit is to share an excerpt from my book, I’m Fine Just the Way I Am and the chapter about the white Wolf that came to me and how she eventually shared her name with me.

You can read that excerpt and see the collage card I created to honor that experience here.

XO

Barb

    

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