animal messengers

Feeling the Magic Bubbling Within

Posted August 6, 2019 by Barbara Techel

I wanted to share my personal animal card for August with you. At the beginning of the year, I sat down and pulled a card for each month to be my guide.

I continue to be inspired by how the animal for that month has provided helpful insight, reflects what I need to pay attention to, and gently nudges me in the right direction.

Scarab Beetle Spirit – Magic Works through You

How often I can forget that the real magic is within me. All I have to do is believe in it (in me!) and pay attention to the inner whispers that call to me.

This leads to my feeling optimistic and hopeful for being in the world in a way that fits me the most authentically.

I’ve definitely been feeling excited about potential creative projects that have been lurking within me as I’ve been bringing them to surface and writing about them in my journal.

The magic begins by first acknowledging them to myself so that they can then begin to percolate and gain momentum.

Speaking of creative projects I’m happy to say I heard from my editor yesterday. I will have the edits for my third memoir, I’m Fine Just the Way I Am by end of the week.

But the best part of the email? She said she loves it!

I’m eagerly anticipating the magic she imbued into my book and looking forward to going through the manuscript again to shape it into another new phase of its being.

Xo,
Barbara

Card from Spirit Animal Oracle by Colette Baron-Reid

Rabbit, Rabbit What Do I Need to Know?

Posted July 25, 2019 by Barbara Techel

It’s intriguing that this sweet rabbit keeps showing up on my front stoop lately. I can walk right up to the full glass door and we look eye-to-eye at each other and she doesn’t run away.

I know it’s the season of bunnies as I’ve been seeing them everywhere! Just this morning on my walk I saw two bigger bunnies and three little ones. There isn’t a day that I don’t see at least one baby bunny – or perhaps they are more like teenagers, as they are a bit bigger than a baby would be. But whew, it seems those adult rabbits have been busy, busy, busy!

But animals, some of my greatest teachers, I can’t help but pause and wonder if there is something this particular bunny is reflecting for me.

In early January of this year, I sat down one morning and pulled a Spirit Animal Oracle card for each month of the year. I took a picture of all the cards together. It hangs on my bulletin board by the table where I do my (almost) daily card pulls.

At the beginning of each month, I print out a copy of that particular animal card for the month and place it on an adjacent table where I can see it every day.

I then study the card and journal what insight comes to me. Then I turn to the guidebook to see if there is anything that resonates from what the author wrote. If there is I journal from that prompt for deeper insight and guidance. After I’m done with that, I then turn to some books I have about animals and read more about that particular animal to see what I can glean that may link it to anything I’m going through in my life at the time.

At the end of each month, if I remember, and sometimes during the month, I stop to think about how that particular animal and their teaching may be playing out in my life at that time.

For the month of July, my animal card is Rabbit. It’s interesting that this being the time of year you see them more often that I also pulled Rabbit and not some other animal.

Now sometimes animals are just there presenting themselves for no other reason which I feel is important to acknowledge.

And I know the rabbit that shows up on my front porch loves the Impatient plant as I’ve caught her chewing it a few times.

But yet, when I saw her again this morning it had me going back to a message from the author of the Spirit Animal Oracle that talks about vulnerability and to act as if everything will be okay, and that soon you will see that you are indeed okay. This is indeed a space I’m in right now with something I’m pondering.

I also thought about that rabbit. She too was vulnerable sitting there on my stoop looking at me and no doubt her heart beating fast. Was I friend or foe?

I did kindly ask her to please stop eating my Impatient, but yet she returns and we find ourselves looking at each other through the glass. I assure her she is safe and okay with me and she reflecting that I am okay and safe with who I am.

XO,

Barbara

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I Love It When Oracle Cards and a Scarab Beetle Make Me Cry

Posted July 24, 2019 by Barbara Techel

I shared this post on my Joyful Pause Facebook page yesterday and received such a lovely response from Linda Su who appreciated my honesty and that my sharing helped her with a struggle she was going through. So I thought I’d share this post here, too.

I Love It When Oracle Cards and a Scarab Beetle Make Me Cry…

Well, ok, not always – but for the most part, I do. It means I’ve hit the truth. Once I acknowledge the truth, I can then be with it, feel it, and integrate it. Otherwise, it follows me around and weighs on me like a ton of bricks until I say, “Okay, I see you. I hear you.”

This is so great for helping not repeat patterns. We all do it. It’s human. But it’s why I enjoy working with oracle cards as part of my daily devotion to myself.

I knew right away what these two cards were about today and as happens when I hit that nugget in my heart, it brings tears to my eyes. I was falling back into the pattern of forcing something that is not yet ready to be born. I was in that place of trying to control an outcome of how I think it SHOULD unfold.

And you know where that gets you right? Yup…struggle, and an inner battle that makes you feel off-balance and cranky.

Scarab Beetle was the perfect animal to present himself today to remind me to not push because I think I SHOULD which won’t get me too far – and will feel inauthentic – but in order to shine my true magic, there is grace is allowing the flow to happen with the timing of the Universe.

Go with the flow and listen to that inner compass (i.e., Intuition!) is what To the Sea card said to me.

I KNOW this, but that dang ego of mine wasn’t listening as my mind went round and round.

But after pulling these cards and journaling, I recognized where this was coming from, and I then felt more at peace.

XO,
Barbara