Wednesday, June 23, 2010

A new way of reading Oracle cards

While giving readings every Friday at the Market on Cortes Island, I have been discovering a new way of reading the Journey Oracle cards that I call the Journey Reading. Imagine that you are sitting across from me and I tell you to think about a situation for which you want some advice, and then to tell me only a one word indicator of the topic. You think of this question, "Where are I and .........going together?" And you summarize this topic by saying "relationship" to me. (Of course the blank doesn't have to be a person, it could be a place, or a dream, or even an awareness.) I ask you to hold the oracle cards between your palms in the prayer pose for a few moments and then you select this card.

First I ask you to notice that this oracle card is from the Journey suit because of its lavender rim. The larger themes of this group of cards are these: Boundaries, Desire, Work. I ask you to feel into these words and choose the one that seems a good fit to your situation. I next gaze into the image on the card and describe it using ordinary language, asking you to notice what phrases or words have an emotional charge for you.

I see a rushing of power to the right, which is the direction of action in this world. I see blue flower-like forms being propelled in this stream of purple, flying out before a flow of yellow like sunlight, held on thin stems of warm earth brown. There are some dark reflections below the stream but these are not involved in the flow .

I next ask you to share what phrases or words had a charge for you. I ask how is this question, "Am I creating a hollow space?" a comment on what these phrases mean to your situation. Next on this journey to the Oracle for advice I read you the story corresponding to this card, asking you to hear it like a dream...noticing within its details a feeling, or phrase, or description that resonates with your situation.

HAVING WHAT IS NEEDED
A man and a woman were hiking. They had been doing long, hard walking along a steep slant of terrain that dropped through trees and brush to a glitter of mother energy by water far below the trail. A cold wind and occasional spitting shower of rain moved through the forest like shaman power.
After many hours, the couple came out onto a narrow delta of uneven ground near the inflow to the lake. The hummocks and gouges in the land made the expanse look like an overgrown garden, with patches of gorse and willow atop islands created by trenches in designs made as if by watery creatures of art.

The woman thought “I can barely take in the eye and what it is seeing in this place. How will we ever make a comfortable bed here for the night?” Still, the man seemed cheerful as he created a cache line for their food and wandered the soggy meadow looking for a tent site. As they considered possible locations the man reported finding a fresh pile of bear scat near the cache tree. As if to add to her alarm about a bear in the area, it began to rain in earnest, driven by the wind against their already cold faces and hands.


A wide hummock was found whose steep sides acted like drainage ditches for the rising gurgle of water moving to the lake. The tent was staked securely in the willow brush; its rain fly stretched to include shelter for packs and gear. The man fixed a hot meal a distance away under a spruce tree, and heated water for washing. Though all this was about really seeing something, the woman found herself staying with her feelings of unhappiness. Never had she been so miserable!
At last the man and the woman were inside the tent in their sleeping bags. The woman was curled into her struggle with the bear and the sound of the rain when the man said “This is great! I’m warm and dry and fed. I have all I need.”

Finally we arrive at the Oracle's wisdom and I read you each of these five statements, asking you to respond spontaneously with what each means for your situation.

The origin of the situation is an unfolding.

The color of my perception is black and white.

I am influenced by light.

I will recognize change as something appalling.

The answer is in the experience of wave energy.

Although most seem evident, we spend some time discussing what the word "appalling" means in your specific circumstance. We discuss lots of different meanings of wave energy. We finish by relooking at the larger themes of the oracle card suit that began our reading, checking to see if another theme is now more insightful for your situation, or confirming your first intuition as still true.