animal oracle 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

                  

I Now Understand Why this Stuffed Pink Octopus from Childhood Meant So Much to Me

Posted by Barbara Techel

The Octopus card I created for my upcoming Animal Reflections Oracle Deck had been sitting on my writing desk for four days.

Last Thursday I ‘shuffled’ the remaining cards I have left to write messages for and pulled Octopus. Sitting on my office chair in front of my computer I held the card in my hands. The first thing that popped into my mind was an image of me with a bright pink and lime green stuffed octopus I’d gotten for Christmas when I was a young girl.

It was then that I became very emotional and my eyes filled with tears.

Next, I thought about the film I’d watched last year called, My Octopus Teacher. A deeply moving film about the relationship between a man who is a scuba diver and an octopus.

But it was the image of me and that stuffed octopus that was evoking something I couldn’t name and caused me to feel weepy. Over the years when I’d see the photo or think of the image I’d wonder why it was I’d wanted that octopus. It just seemed an ‘odd’ or not a typical animal to ask for as a young child. 

I’d had many stuffed animals when I was young, but the octopus was one I’d always wished I’d hung onto. But why?

What was Octopus trying to share with me? When I tried to write a message for Octopus it just wouldn’t flow. Something felt off. I knew then I needed to just let this sit until I was ready.

I tried again the next day, but again, it didn’t feel right. So I took some time to study the habitat and behavior of Octopus and allowed that to simmer.

Next, I decided to print out the photo of me and the stuffed pink octopus. Thanks to my mom who saved photos of me when I was young and put them on a disk that I saved to my computer.

The fact that Octopus has eight limbs brought up an exercise I took part in a little over a year ago with my friend, Dawn, who wrote a book that will be released this fall called, Shadow Animals – How Animals We Fear Can Help us Heal, Transform, and Awaken.

In that exercise that will be shared in Dawn’s book, I’d come to understand my fear of spiders linked to my childhood trauma of being touched inappropriately.

While the spider with its eight legs creeped me out, the eight legs of an Octopus felt different to me. While I had viewed spiders out of fear, I felt a sense of motherly love from Octopus. I sensed the eight legs of Octopus wrapping around me as protection. I also sensed Octopus limbs as an extension to the outside world – and that eventually – in my own timing – and learning to expand and trust my own intuition – I’d eventually give voice to what had happened to me.

Octopuses also have the ability to camouflage themselves as a way of protection when danger is near and this brought up how I’d kept my secret hidden for over fifty years. Just like Octopus retreats into a cave-like structure within the ocean, a part of me had also retreated within as a way to emotionally protect myself.

As I worked through all that Octopus was sharing with me I realized that the stuffed octopus was my friend, my confidant, my protector. Now the tears flowed again but this time from a feeling of joy and what that stuffed octopus really meant to me – all these years – that I never really knew why. And now I do.

XO

Barb

                  

February 2022 – Animal Wisdom Reading – What Is Frozen Within

Posted by Barbara Techel

Hello February! This is a potent and powerful theme this month. So much expansion we can move into if we are willing to look within ourselves at what it is that needs healing. Nothing to fear, but just allow yourself to have the feelings and emotions and do so with unconditional love and compassion for yourself, while Polar Bear walks beside you as your guide.

I shared a bit about the numerology of the card, but forget to say that the number, when added together, is actually ten (28 which adding 2 + 8 = 10 and then adding 1 + 0 = 1), which is all about new beginnings. When we heal past wounds and hurts we move into a higher version of ourselves – and what a beautiful new beginning that is!

Click here or below to listen!

XO

Barb