animal oracles

When a Book Hits Home. Soul Healing with Our Animal Companions.

Posted by Barbara Techel

I really can’t say enough good about this book I recently finished! I loved it so much that I did a video book review for it which I share below.

But as I wrote for a review on Amazon also, Soul Healing with Our Animal Companions – The Hidden Keys to a Deeper Animal-Human Connection by Tammy Billups, is a beautiful book on how animals sense our energy and emotional wounds and often reflect that back to us – all in an effort to help us heal – and then how it often helps our animal friends heal too.

Because animals don’t speak our language, Tammy identifies through her work and book, five core emotional wounds that our animals can experience – and then how this is often reflected in their behaviors, actions, and physical issues – and to add to this – these are emotional wounds we as humans experience also.

Having recently gone through my own deep emotional healing with my dog Gidget who was the most profound reflection of what I needed to heal, I can attest to so much of what Tammy shares in her book.

I easily identified two core emotional wounds through her book that my dog worked diligently to help me heal, and I’m happy to say I did the inner work to do just that. But what was the most profound proof for me of my healing was that I was able to be witness to a beautiful and calm shift in Gidget as she healed too.

My favorite paragraph in the book is this one:

“A (human) congested energy field can affect all aspects of one’s emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Consequently, this knowledge can significantly influence the choices you make about your animals’ care. Knowing how sensitive they are to your emotions is also motivation for you to do your own energetic housekeeping.”

This, to me, is one of the keys to the book. When I was in my own dark night of the soul and realized I needed support and then began to heal, I wanted to do my work not only for myself but for Gidget too. I wanted her to live out the remaining of her life with more harmony and peace.

While I wish I’d had Tammy’s book when I was going through such a difficult time the last few years, reading her book now is just more validation and confirmation of what I experienced.

After reading Tammy’s book and having had to say goodbye to Gidget in May of 2019 I can say that I believe what Tammy shares in her book needs to be read by everyone who shares their life with a pet.

And I wholeheartedly concur with the last line on the back cover and that our “pets higher purpose is to help people understand themselves.”

Tammy’s book has been such a gift and another layer of confirmation for me and what I experienced in my healing journey which is what I’ll be sharing in my upcoming memoir, I’m Fine Just the Way I Am.

This is the video review and in it, I share more passages from the book that really hit home for me.

XO,

Barbara

Let Go and Leap Forward with More Positive Energy: Oracle and Animal Guidance for the Week

Posted by Barbara Techel

Okay, so I’m chuckling to myself. Last week I shared with you that I would now only be recording the weekly oracle and animal guidance sessions and not include written text.

Well, try as I might I couldn’t do this today. I’m getting over a cold and each time I tried to do the recording I’d have a coughing fit. I feel fine, but it’s this last lingering cough that seems to be saying, Um, no way. You are going to have to go to Plan B. So hence the reason I’m sharing the reading this way today.  🙂

This week I worked with the Animal Dreaming Oracle Cards by Scott Alexander King and Soul Coaching Oracle Cards by Denise Linn.

To start I want to share what Scott says in his introduction in his guidebook regarding energy: “Energy exists within all things of nature and it can be accessed and incorporated into our own lives.”

Everything carries energy. This wasn’t something I understood years ago. But we are indeed made of energy, as are animals, plants, rocks, etc. and oracle cards carry energy too. It all serves guides to live with more joy and meaning.

And then a mentor of mine recently said, “We are responsible for the energy we put out into the world.”

It’s one of the reasons I continue to be what I call a personal growth junkie. Having a daily practice that helps me tune into what I’m feeling, where I may be struggling, and working with the why of it, to not only feel better about myself but so I don’t want to project negative energy onto others. I’m not perfect, but I continue to work on it. And it’s why I love working with oracle cards as a self-reflection tool and sharing with others.

So here we go…

FROG – Cleansing

This deck works not only with animal energy but with the energy of elements which are water, fire, air, and earth. The frog card carries the water element. Makes sense as frogs spend a lot of time in and around water, right?

The element of water is about our emotions. Either we take time to work with them or we drown in them. Water asks us to be in tune with our feelings and bring them into our awareness so we can heal them.

So frog is asking us this week where do we perhaps need to clean out emotional gunk. I know for me when I’m feeling emotional gunk I can feel it in terms of anxiety and like a ton of bricks are holding me down. When I’m struggling with something it can tend to play like an endless loop of thoughts that go round and round in my head. More often than not that is fear talking and that can become toxic if I don’t take time to be with what is going on.

So Frog is encouraging us to spend time in contemplation if we are feeling bogged down. This means finding a way to settle our mind in contemplation and self-reflection. Journaling is one way I do this, adding in a question of what I’m contemplating and using oracle cards to tap into myself deeper. Or meditation with a focus on my heart and just being with what comes up. 

When I sat and looked at the frog card for a few moments I felt called to close my eyes. The image of a frog came to mind, floating on his lily pad in a small pond. It’s a perfect day. It’s 72 degrees with a slight breeze. I felt as if I was the frog as the warm rays of the sun penetrated my bumpy skin.  My lily pad gently swayed back and forth with the breeze moving on the water.

This is me, I thought. Not my thoughts that are often attached to fear and rarely come true. I’m here and now. I am safe. I watched as those toxic thoughts floated away on the slowly drifting clouds in the sky.

I then open my eyes, jump into the pond, and leap onto the shore refreshed and ready to face the day without the negative gunk weighing me down.

Cleansing can also literally mean what it is we may need to purge in regards to objects that no longer carry joy for us. One thing I’m a fan of doing is that every time I bring a new piece of clothing home, I take an existing item and put it in a bin I have in my closet to donate to a second-hand store. I try to do the same with household decorative items too. 

All of this carries energy too and can weigh us down. Or perhaps it’s a relationship that no longer works for you. Those can bog us down too and we need to find the courage to move on with compassion and gentleness.

When we release what no longer works in our lives, we can then welcome in new growth and new energy. Yes!

So this week Frog asks us to look at what is no longer working and start to take small leaps toward changing it.

Anything else we need to know Frog?

Pulling a card from the Soul Coaching Oracle Cards we received Radiance – “I am a radiant reflection of God’s light.”

Love this. It’s true. When we are willing to work with what is weighing us down and let it go, we can radiate with more vibrant energy into the world. And goodness knows, we sure need more of that now don’t we?

So let’s say we all make the leap together, shall we? Are you with me? It’s going to feel so good!

Have a beautiful week everyone!

XO,

Barbara

If you are in need of a little extra gentle and compassionate support you can learn more about my one-to-one oracle guidance and reading sessions here.

Rabbit, Rabbit What Do I Need to Know?

Posted 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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