oracle guidance

Our Wise Self Knows How to Move through Chaos and Conflict – Animal Wisdom and Oracle Guidance

Posted by Barbara Techel

Here we are in the last week of April. We’ve certainly all gone through changes we’d not anticipated along with what I hope you’ve gained which is a new way of seeing the world and also hope for what is yet to come.

For this week’s reading, I pulled both cards in reverse which means protection in these two particular decks. This is a message from Spirit/Divine/God really wanting us to understand this teaching while at the same time giving us a hug and gentling nudging us to get on with it.

Chaos and Conflict: No doubt just hearing these words you may be finding yourself cringe. I know I sometimes do when I pull this card for myself. It can conjure up a negative thought and perhaps you are feeling a tightness somewhere in your body just reading the words. This a beautiful clue to explore further.

The fact it is in reverse means we have to ask ourselves the question of where aren’t we opening our minds and hearts to finding the gifts in what appears to be a time of chaos or conflict?  It’s during these times we may have to ‘work’ a little harder to understand, but this is where the true reward lies. This is what will advance us forward in a much quicker, fulfilling, and lasting way if we can ‘see’ past what appears to be a disruption or may feel like things are falling apart.

We humans don’t like change. I’m just as guilty of this at times. Especially when it feels like things are going smoothly and life feels like it is all roses. In the middle of chaos and conflict, we may yearn for the good times of the past or pine for what we hope the future will bring.

But it’s in the middle of turbulent times that we can glean the greatest teaching that can change us in a profound way. I can’t help but think about my own life and what felt like a tornado that moved through me in the winter of 2018. How that chaos and conflict of wrestling with all those feelings I knew had to be dealt with regarding a childhood wounding felt like the pain would never end. Times of chaos and conflict doesn’t always go in a straight line, nor does it exactly outright share how everything will turn out. But what’s important to remember is that it is only temporary.

The Chaos and Conflict card is the exact one to help us deepen our faith and expand our trust in a way we’ve never done before. As we continue through these times of uncertainty and while hints of what may all come from this is beginning to appear in different ways, we still have unanswered questions too. Lean into what you know is certain, like the fact that Zebra do indeed have stripes, even though the card shows only partial stripes. But they are there. Trust that.

Owl Spirit: When we are in times of confusion and worry we can often lose sight of our own wise inner compass. Did you notice the owl on the card has a crown on her head? This is a message for us to tap into that energy center within ourselves to gain insight and understanding. When we open that chakra – our crown – and connect with not only our higher self but also with the Divine, we find that in time we can gain the clarity we are seeking. 

Times of chaos and conflict can have us getting stuck in our minds where we go round and round with what are just thoughts of what could or should be and this just keeps us spinning our wheels. 

As I shared at the beginning of this reading when we find ourselves in what feels like chaos and conflict it’s a beautiful clue to explore further. So take time to drop into your heart space. Do something that feels grounding to you – such as meditation, walking, getting out in nature, painting, journaling —whatever it may be—because this is what will help that monkey mind to rest.

And as your mind begins to quiet, your wise self will feel more comfortable in coming forward and you’ll be surprised at how the answers you seek will more easily float right on up to the surface. 

Wishing you much love and peace this last week of April!

xo,

Barbara

One-to-one intuitive guidance and oracle readings available here.

Cards: Wisdom of the Oracle and The Spirit Animal Oracle by Colette Baron-Reid

The Dance of Delight and the Gift of Flexibility – Animal and Oracle Wisdom and Guidance

Posted by Barbara Techel

What do we need to know for the highest good as we move through this week?

The cards I pulled for us are from The Soul Coaching Oracle by Denise Linn and The Ark Animal Tarot and Oracle by Bernadette King

DELIGHT

Such a happy card! It feels like an extension of how I felt this weekend and an invitation for us to bring that into this week. As I turned up the wood chips and soil in the gardens around my home the last two days, I relished in how good it felt to connect with Mother Earth. 

I’d grown a bit weary of hearing about what a “new normal” will be and tired of the conversation each evening circling back around to the coronavirus. I’m not trying to sound as if I’m making light of it, because I’m most definitely not.  But I’d just reached a point of not wanting to take in any more information about it and what the future may hold or the theories that are all being investigated, not to mention the fear, bickering, and hostility that comes with this too.

As I puttered around outside and within my home which I’ve always enjoyed, it just really hit me how much I love and delight in the simple things of life. If that will be the “new normal,” I’m all for it.

I also caught a post by a life coach where she said that her nervous system is beginning to acclimate. And even though she stated it as acclimating to a “new normal” I heard it in my mind as a new way of being.

What the heck is “normal” anyway? What is normal for me, may not be normal for you. But where is it you really take delight in life? This is the time we get to seriously explore this if we choose. I believe so many became numb to what that is because of getting caught up in the adrenaline of “busy.” 

When I think of the word acclimate I feel that in my body as more peaceful and fluid which brings me into this space of being. It feels so much more satisfying than when caught up in the energy of what busy feels like.

So as we all continue to acclimate to this time of evolution looking at the two birds on the card which I see as doves and symbolize peace, I see this as an invitation to dance with the exploration of our hearts and what is it that makes us feel light, free, and delightful?

EEL

Our animal ally as we explore what delights us is Eel. I immediately saw the eel as smiling, not to mention the color purple which is so soothing and calming.

I then heard in my mind, electric eel. How electrifying it feels and all our senses light up from the inside, out when we are living from the place of what it is that brings us true joy.

The word flexibility on the card also jumped out at me. This is a time we are all being asked to be more flexible in how we move within the outside world. While that can feel constricting at times because it’s what we’ve become used to, the Eel so fluid as it moves through water invites us to find delight and joy in this new way of being not only in the physical spaces of our homes but also within our own inner world.

As we each participate in this expedition of how we each need to individually evolve, I see this more fluid, peaceful, and way of being as the gift that has the potential to positively affect the world at large around us. And being a part of that movement, well, I take great delight in being a part of that.

Much love and peace to you.

xo,

Barbara

 

 

Sweet Time in Meditation with Robin

Posted by Barbara Techel
Photo credit: Daniel Roberts

This morning I was listening to a video of one of my favorite mentors as I got ready for the day. As I was listening I noticed two robins outside my window. They were hopping along in the grass, their beaks full of dried grasses. Before I realized it, I found myself drifting into their space.

They are now in the season of building their nests and will soon be welcoming new life with a brood of baby birds. This made me think about how important home is to me, which I wrote about earlier this week.  

I couldn’t help but link it to what is transpiring in our world right now as so many more of us are gathered at home. The teachings we are receiving as we learn to live in a new way right now and what we will perhaps give birth to that we’d not considered before.

As I was in this sweet space of connecting with the robins I was suddenly brought back to where I was, sitting at my vanity in my bedroom, listening to my mentor, as I heard her say how meditation does not mean having to just sit with your eyes closed. It can be in many moments during the day. It can be looking at a feather and when your mind drifts away to something else, it’s just about bringing your mind gently back to the feather.

I smiled as I realized I was meditating with the robins and how they brought me to this precious peace by just pausing to be with them.

Adding another layer of connecting with Robin I then pulled an oracle card from the Animal Kin Oracle by Sarah Wilder asking what else it is we may all need to know right now?

I pulled the unicorn with the word on the card of miracles. The symbolism above the unicorn image is that of the element of Spirit.

I see this as Robin inviting us to see the miracles in the things we perhaps may have taken for granted. How nature provides if we treat mother earth with respect. While some may see the unicorns as doing battle with their horns crossed, I sense it as being united, sort of like, X marks the (sweet) spot. That, together, we can make the changes necessary to appreciate all of life. And how the robins outside my window were working side-by-side gathering materials to build a nest that will support new life.

And every day when we can appreciate this larger force that is at work supporting and guiding us, the more we will be inviting in miracles that help us to acknowledge more deeply this one precious life.

Then reading the guidebook this line resonated: “Since this mythical being is not of this world, we can link it to our ability to travel astrally, reminding us of our own ability to see and visit other worlds outside of the one we are born into.”

Let us not dismiss or forget that each of us can truly do this, just like what happened for me in how I was transported to being with those robins and how that connected me back to how important home is. It’s where it all begins.

Isn’t it beautiful how we are all connected? That is one of the gifts for me right now and how I’m feeling this connection on yet an even deeper level.

I hope you are too.

Much love and peace to you.

xo,

Barbara