oracle cards

No Place Like Home

Posted by Barbara Techel

No Place Like Home

As I continue to be a mentor for Oracle School, working with students in the classroom I’m assigned to, along with three other mentors, we take turns posting a question for the students to ponder to work with their oracle cards to gain deeper perspectives about their lives.

I loved today’s question from the Lead Mentor: If you could be any Wisdom of the Oracle Card, which one would you be and why?

One of my favorite cards from the Wisdom of the Oracle deck is No Place Like Home. I couldn’t help think of this one as I celebrate 34 years of marriage with John today, and it was this week five years ago that we also welcomed Gidget into our lives.

Home is my sanctuary. Being my zodiac sign is cancer and to boot my moon sign in cancer also, it can sometimes feel like a double whammy as cancer people tend to be quite sensitive. It’s something I’ve worked hard  to understand about myself and accepting that being empathetic is a gift, though at times it has felt like a curse.

And it is my home that has always been my soft place to land when life can feel sad or cruel. It’s one of my values that I hold deeply close to my heart. And my relationship with John which continues to expand and deepen in ways I would have never imagined when we met almost 40 years ago. 

The card I’d most like to continue to work on is Come to the Edge. I think of this one reflecting on the past year and how I was brought to the edge in a way I’d not expected. While it was a scary and fearful time for me earlier this year, it was coming to the edge to understand what it was about that I was granted another pivotal teaching. From that experience my sense of gratitude about life deepened once again.

I want to remember that when something is causing me angst that it’s an invitation to make a course correction in my life. It’s a signal to experience more freedom if I will just take the leap and dance with the unknown.

And how intriguing it is to me to just realize as I write this (an epiphany!) how beautiful Come to the Edge and No Place Like Home work together…

For when I am able to embrace that edge, dance with it, and discover the lessons within it, that I find my way back home again to peace and love.

Now that is magical!

XO,

Barb

 

An Opened Heart Finds Peace and a Special Offering: A Love Letter to the Part of You in Pain

Posted by Barbara Techel

An Opened Heart Finds Peace and a Special Offering: A Love Letter to the Part of You in Pain

I’ve been reflecting on 2018 as this year begins to come to a close in less than two months.

While personally I started out the year going through intense emotional pain, and my coping skills that almost became nil, I’m happy to say I’m now in a space of deep gratitude for what I learned, and how far I’ve come.

Walking through this dark period, there were times I honestly wanted to run the other way. At my rock bottom point, the thought crossed my mind that I’d rather die than deal with the pain I was going through.

That startled me! But the blessing is that it was a wake-up call.

Step-by-step with support from many, I moved through this difficult time, and eventually came to experience an opening of my heart unlike anything I’ve felt before.

From this journey, I’ve created a special offering for others who are going through an emotionally challenging time also. It’s something I sat in many hours of contemplation and with careful thought I wrote:

A Love Letter to the Part of You in Pain. (if this resonates, you will find a link below to download a copy)

It’s my hope it will give others just that, hope. And to trust that there is freedom and peace to be had on the other side of emotional pain.

Recently I heard what is described as the “Sacred Wound,”coined by Jean Houston, Ph.D., author, scholar, philosopher and researcher in Human Capacities, and who began the human potential movement.

The idea of the Sacred Wound as Jean writes is, “Looking back on your own betrayals, you may notice how they’ve given you the necessary shove, the unwelcome but needed kick in the pants to invite you to get on with it, to release patterns and attachments that need to die. The key to redeeming our betrayals is forgiveness.”  

This is exactly what I faced earlier this year – forgiving where I felt betrayed in my past – and most challenging of all, was forgiving myself when I experienced unfamiliar and very uncomfortable feelings of resentment and anger toward my sweet and loving dog, Gidget. She was my reflection to finally see the part of me that was broken and was desperately calling to be healed.

This is something that has taken me years to understand because I often thought if I just read this or that book, or took this or that class, I’d be okay.

But it was dedicating myself to digging into my inner world and really looking at my own story, that I was able to see how that affected my insecurities and struggles. Being a gentle witness to this helped me to make a welcome shift. 

I’ll be sharing more about this journey in my new book I continue to work on, I’m Fine Just the Way I Am —and how Gidget lovingly and unconditionally walked beside me as my soulful guide.

Not only did I move through a metamorphosis, but I’ve been witness to the gift of a beautiful change and a new sense of peace within Gidget, too.

I’ve come to understand that my sacred wound was a spiritual lesson I needed to go through in order to embrace on an even deeper level not only empathy, compassion and love, but that I was never alone (even though I often felt that way).

For the first time in my 55-years on this planet, I felt the undeniable love of Spirit embrace me as I took the necessary steps forward in healing.

It was by reaching out for help from animal communicator Dawn Brunke, pet counselor and coach, Joe Dwyer, Depth Psychologist and Dream Analyst, Tayria Ward, Transformational Breathwork® practioner, Parnee Frederick, a session of Emotional Freedom Technique with a therapist, my monthly Women’s Mastermind Circle, and last but not least, my dear mom and husband, that I found the courage to do the inner work I needed to do.

Also the fact I was enrolled in Oracle School during this time, working with oracle cards as a tool for self-reflection I was able to gain perspectives about myself I’d not have considered.

It enabled me to see what I could change, while being compassionate with myself, which helped me move forward with more confidence. 

I continue to be committed to my personal growth so that I can move through my little corner of the world from a place of love and peace and be of service to others who also seek more inner peace through my oracle guidance sessions.

And so it is I present this offering, A Love Letter to the Part of You in Pain….because you matter and you are worthy just as you are.

Just click on graphic to be taken to link to sign up to receive a copy:

Please note the link to the love letter includes receiving my newsletter.

XO,

Barb

 

On Becoming and Making it “Official”

Posted by Barbara Techel

On Becoming and Making it "Official"

While it’s been official for some time now, and while a certificate is simply a piece of paper which I received yesterday, this acknowledgement of the deep personal work I accomplished since Fall of 2017, ….well, I must say, it made my heart smile.

It’s not always an easy road to travel when looking at what causes us pain, for we don’t always remember that on the other side, what is waiting for us is a new and improved version of ourselves, not to mention a new found sense of peace!

Revisiting my journal entry from October 9th, 2017, the second week into Oracle School and the first phase being the foundation called Personal Mastery, we were asked to pick four cards from The Wisdom of the Oracle Deck and do a “Becoming” reading.

It began with what part of my becoming needed the most healing?I pulled Never-Ending Story. In order to become who I wanted to be, I would need to let go of past pain, transform it, and learn to see it as a gift of how it helped make me who I am. As so often happens, and we don’t often recognize it, but we do get stuck in our never-ending stories and thus find it difficult to move forward.

The next card representing what aspect of my healing needs the most encouragement I pulled Peace in protection (reversed). I was being called to trust that if I worked with what it was I felt wounded by, brought it into the light, and witnessed it without judgement, that I could find my way toward more peace for my life. I had to believe that if I walked through the pain, I’d find peace on the other side.

The third card was about what aspect of my healing needs the most effort. I pulled A Change in the Wind. I can still feel the resistance I felt when I pulled this card that day. We humans don’t always like change and oh, do we like to resist it. But I knew that if I wanted to achieve more lasting inner peace, I’d have to accept that change was needed and that indeed it would take effort on my part.

The last card pulled was about what aspect of my past story is the biggest obstacle to my becoming? I pulled Unfinished Symphony in protection (reversed). How often we get so close to the finish line of making a breakthrough, but then we quit out of fear or lack of confidence thus missing out on the big teaching and the thing that will catapult us forward and living from a new place of awareness.

I look at this reading today of what it would take to Become and clearly see I was being supported during the deep dive into my inner world this past year… and why receiving this certificate means so much to me…because I can say I busted through and had tremendous growth. I am not the same woman I was a year ago. And I’ve become the woman I knew I wanted to be. I’m dang proud of this.

It took tears, anger, stubbornness, believing, trusting, and faith…but I made it!

And while I’ll always be a work in progress, as we all are, it’s the new awareness I now carry with me that helps illuminate the way. And while I’ll still have challenges, it’s the remembering they are signposts to something greater to deepen my understanding about this journey I travel on planet earth.

It’s also been so rewarding to now encourage women through areas they feel stuck, gently invite them to open to change, and support them to become who they truly wish to be through my Oracle Guidance Sessions. If I can be of support to you, I’d be honored to do so.

XO,

Barb