inner journey

A Reading for the Fall Equinox with My Deck – Animal Reflections Healing Oracle

Posted by Barbara Techel

Happy Fall Equinox!

A time of inward reflection on what the year has taught us so far and how we wish to not only move through these last few months but in the next year too.

With this in mind here are three questions I asked for us all to contemplate and relate to in our own lives.

🍁What needs our inward attention at this time?

Kangaroo – Honor: How often we want to just leap forward and we get caught in the illusion that we are running out of time and that we must keep moving and make things happen. But we are being reminded to honor our own inward flow instead of the cultural conditioning that keeps us stuck in a maddening loop.

Any time of introspection always pays off in the way of knowing more deeply who we really are, which gives us the courage to move forward when it is time.

Honoring the cycles of the seasons is what helps us connect deeper to our true selves.

🍁What is it that our hearts know?

Llama – Healer: Our minds are a powerful part of us that work hard to convince us that it knows what is best (which often comes from a place of protecting us from pain). But within our hearts lies our true healer.

Llama reminds us how it is that at times we default to a guru or other external influence for the answer because this is what we’ve been conditioned to believe. But Llama is here to assure us that we are our own best healers.

🍁What is our most meaningful way forward at this time?

Lion – Courage: Following the call and the roar of our hearts – whether that is a loud or gentle roar – it’s about sharing who we authentically are.

Yes, this does take courage. But Lion walks beside us with the reminder that when we do the brave and courageous inner work of examining and releasing emotional wounds that kept us bonded to fear, we are granted the gift of clarity and a sanctuary of inner peace.

We can then stand in our power and welcome in a rush of acceptance for our lives instead of engaging in the angst of struggle.

***

Just an update that I received the first prototype of my Animal Reflections Healing Oracle deck! I did have to make some minor adjustments so it is back out to the printers and I await the second prototype. Inching closer to having the editing done for the booklet also and then that can go into design mode. I’m aiming for the early part of 2023 to have my deck available while realizing I have to stay fluid to changes that may occur! 🙂

But I was excited to be able to use the first prototype set of cards to do this reading and share it with you! I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful.

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

                  

Channeling my Inner Flying Nun

Posted by Barbara Techel

Who needs wings to fly?
Certainly not I,
I prefer to take up on the breeze,
Follow any swallow that may please my fancy.

I just close my eyes,
Tiptoe through the skies,
Long as there’s a habit standing by,
Who needs things like wings to fly?

~Lyrics from The Flying Nun

Many mornings last week I found myself grumbling under my breath upon waking to see the trees blowing in the gusty winds. I wanted it to be calm for my morning walk. I didn’t want to fight the wind. And so some days I didn’t walk.

Today it was windy yet again. But this time I decided to not fight against what was. So I bundled up and out the door I went. These days I truly walk more for my mental health than anything else and when I don’t get in a walk my energy feels different – not as energized.

Upon returning home today I caught my reflection in the storm door. With my hood up, I felt as if it looked like I was wearing a nun’s habit and I felt as if I’d just channeled my inner Flying Nun!

I posted the above photo on my Facebook page and my thoughts about my hood feeling like a habit and channeling my inner nun. My mom commented she was pondering my thoughts. Perhaps not seeing and feeling what I did.

A friend posted the opening line from The Flying Nun, Who needs wings to fly? Certainly not I, I prefer to take up on the breeze…immediately I heard myself inwardly say, “Yes!”

Though I found myself feeling bothered that my mom didn’t understand what I was seeing and feeling. I admit I felt deflated for a few moments. But then I paused and sat with what I was feeling. I realized I was falling back into an old pattern. I didn’t feel heard or understood. Though I know this wasn’t my mom’s intention. It was my projection. It was also just something she wasn’t perceiving as I did. Nothing right or wrong about it.

It didn’t mean that what I felt and saw in the reflection in the door that morning was wrong. But how often is it that we wish to be understood? Especially by those we really love.

But again, I realized it was my projection and it was just that my mom didn’t see what I saw. This was perfectly okay. It was up to me to not let that take away from the truth of what I’d been feeling – and more importantly – the magic of what I’d felt coming home to seeing myself as The Flying Nun.

And why did I feel like I was channeling my inner Flying Nun? And why did I see my hood up over my hat and head as a habit that nuns wear? Well, that along with my friend sharing the opening line of The Flying Nun lyrics really had my mind flying (pun intended) in a flow of excitement wanting to go deeper with this…

It begins with the fact I made the choice today to go with the flow of Mother Nature and not against it. My hood up over my head and hat created this safe and cozy sanctuary against the element of the wind. I was contained within myself but yet a part of the elements.

Researching the habits the nuns wore in The Flying Nun TV series I discovered they were called cornettes.

According to Wikipedia, a cornette is a piece of female headwear. It is essentially a type of wimple consisting of a large, starched piece of white cloth that is folded upwards in such a way as to create the resemblance of horns on the wearer’s head. 

The cornette was retained as a distinctive piece of clothing into modern times by the Daughters of Charity, a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life founded by St. Vincent de Paul in the mid-17th century. The founder wanted to have the sisters of this new type of religious congregation of women, that tended to the sick and poor, and were not required to remain in their cloister, resemble ordinary middle-class women as much as possible in their clothing, including the wearing of the cornette.

It is said that the cornette worn by Sister Bertrille (The Flying Nun), that due to her being light in weight and the heavily starched cornette is what gave her the ability to fly.

Then from IMDB.com along came the episode in 1969 where: The Mother General has issued an edict for the sisters to wear a new habit. The sisters are all thrilled by the new, modern habit, that is until one by one they all realize that the new cornette with which will no longer allow Sister Bertrille to fly. Not only is Sister Bertrille devastated by the fact, but all the sisters are as well.

But as the plot continues it ends with The Mother General having the sisters returning to wearing the old habits once again.

This means Sister Bertrille could fly once again! But isn’t it interesting to note that we can all fly, no matter what, if we just remember the truth of who we are? And how we sometimes let our projections or old patterning, or that of not feeling heard or understood deflate our wings?

I’m also pondering my feeling connected to The Flying Nun played by Sally Field, who also played in another TV series called Gidget. And it will be two years next week since my dachshund named Gidget, petite and sweet just like Sally Field who played Gidget, will be gone.

While my pint-sized doxie was oh-so-sweet, she was also a light warrior and master teacher who guided me to finally accept a memory of a childhood trauma that haunted me for over two decades. As I walked through that self-healing journey, I came to realize I was, and will always be, worthy just as I am.

I don’t need a heavily starched cornette to fly nor do I need to wear a habit to feel safe. But it’s by continuing to do my inner work when I feel not heard or understood, digging into why that is, that I can course-correct old patterning. This is what gives me the ability to fly!

Who needs wings to fly? Certainly not I, I prefer to take up on the breeze…I just close my eyes,
Tiptoe through the skies…

Connecting in with my higher self and with the universe I give myself permission to explore all my feelings, reminding myself to do so without judgment, and remembering I’m always being supported by something bigger than me that has my best interest in mind at all times.

I close my eyes, connecting with the stars, the sky, the Divine, and the breeze of all that is brings me back home to the center of love and all that I am. This is the space I strive to be in more often where life isn’t a struggle, but a gift that reminds me that yes, I can indeed fly.

XO,

Barb

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