How to lose fear

These two kitties once lived with their cat Mom, sister and brother at our house.  Now they are almost two years old and because their human can no longer keep them...they have come home, but not quite.
They are hiding outside because they cannot lose fear of this now unfamiliar place with its three grown cats and strange humans.   I also need to know how to lose fear because I want them to come into the warmth when the good food and hugs are--but  what to do to help and not hurt the situation?

I decided to do a Journey Oracle reading using two cards.  The first is showing me an image of the situation.  I see a person still grounded--but only barely.  The person is a risk of falling into water, which I interpret as emotion.  The person is radiating a strong center of personal power from their third chakra, which in this situation might be a force that is overwhelming the kitties, rather than drawing them near.   Certainly the red and orange of passion and attraction are also colours of survival, and since the person's head is in the red zone, maybe there is too much focus on imagining fearful outcomes. I next read the Oracle's wisdom about this situation and am especially impacted by the last sentence in the second group of pronouncements.  

 THE  SITUATION

This situation began by saving all the parts.

The prevailing energy of this situation is a slight current from the east.

The core energy pattern of this situation is created in fire.

The Mother of this situation is rising up.

The Father of this situation is reappearing.

               

 ALIGNMENT  TO  THE  SITUATION

Your relationship to the prevailing energy is warm on the inside.         

Your perception of the situation is exploding.
The impact of your perception is majestic.

The connection between the core energy pattern and the situation

 is felt as sunshine.

The momentum of this situation is fed by knowing when to stop.

The second Journey Oracle card I drew represents the change I feel is calling me.  I see an almost cartoon-like male figure in a strange vehicle, wearing a helmet and with his right arm raised.  He is looking toward the sky and is speaking. In my view the image is of the man calling out to heaven while racing along.  I feel this is my masculine aspect demanding to hurry the situation along so I don't have to live with the uncertainty of the kitties' comfort and safety.  These are the Oracle's pronouncements about the change that will transform my fear and therefore the situation.  

CHANGE 

 The power needed to shift this situation will be a sound of a story.

Change will come by being carried to the other side.

Your relationship to the change in this situation is shouting from beneath.

The moment of letting go into the change will smell of sweat.

The concern to be avoided within this change will taste of addiction.

 DIVINE  WILL

                               

The wisdom of living in the garden will empower the transformation.

Completed transformation will be felt as a quality of staying silent inside.

 DREAM  ON  THESE  QUESTIONS

 Are you willing to break free?

Can you make peace with this moment?

                                                               

HOW  IS  THIS  AN  ANSWER   

 Holding the center

To lose fear I need to tell myself a new story of how the kitties will be empowered by living in the garden of their first home.   Success for me will be letting go of being addicted to telling myself fearful stories, and instead becoming silent inside.  I do need to break free from fear and make peace with whatever the outcome will be.  My best help is to hold the center until they can feel safe enough to come into it. 

History of oracle card

I have been working to find the correct form of my Journey Oracle divination card deck for 23 years, and sometimes have felt its true form was impossibly out of reach.  Then I started reading Chris Hadfield's excellent book, "An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth," and now I believe I am right on course.  In 1992 I had a dream in which I made a deck of Oracle cards.  The first shape the Oracle card took was a little leather circle with colored beads fastened to its rim.  This glimmer from my dream reminds me of Hadfield's wanting to be an astronaut since he was 9 years old.

I next remade the discs using hardened deer hide. Images appeared which I enhanced with India ink. The little circle of colored beads--different for each 'card'--was still part of the design. This Oracle card is Ngetal, or Reed, the Celtic tree month from Oct 28 to Nov 24 which symbolizes accuracy, aim, completion and resolution. 

These rawhide discs were too bulky to make and work with, and so I painted each card as an art work using colored inks.  The colored beads became my criteria for selecting colors.

The colored beads of Ngetal made a rainbow, and so the full spectrum of colors needed to appear in the painted card.  I understood that Nature never looses anything, and so each orbit of the cards around my original vision of the Oracle deck had to keep all the parts. Painting the cards took 5 years, and I really could relate to Hadfield saying that, "the ratio of prep time to time on orbit is many months: single day in space."

Hadfield describes how much of the work an astronaut does is for other astronauts who might already be in orbit, or are going to be, or who have just returned. Certainly my first version of self-publishing the Journey Oracle cards would not have happened without the good friends who came forward to help with design and printing.

In the last several years I have given oracle readings at the Cortes Island Friday Market, and so the friend who printed the oracle deck made this version without text that I could give to a client at the completion of a reading.

Even the blue 'shadow' from the print has been kept in this new, soon to be released edition.

 My favorite teaching (so far) in The Astronaut's Guide as been about the word attitude.  Hadfield says that in space flight, attitude refers to orientation: which direction you are pointing.  Attitude keeps one feeling steady, stable, and headed in the right direction.  Thinking like an Astronaut has helped my attitude about the journey of the Oracle cards.  Everything is right on course, and its good to know that my attitude is what keeps me heading in the right direction.

Frame drums in Kaua'i Hawaii

During my holiday on Kaua'i, Hawaii, two interesting things came together.  My friend took lots of pictures of water, and a visitor we met on the beach asked me about my shamanic drums.  When I began describing my journey drums I found myself thinking of Sue Garvey's photographs and here are the connections I made.

This clear, light 14" frame drum I call "Sunshine" is like the gentle ruffle of water that eases one into the turquoise depths.  There is no apprehension here for the journey to come, just a welcome in. 

This 19" frame drum called "Keeper" continues to be a mystery.  It has been sold several times and yet comes home.  It has been repainted twice and now I think I will paint it again--always the same two creatures but sometimes more clear and sometimes like these fish who live in a world apart from earth and air, and yet participate in these elements.  

This 17" blacktail deer skin drum called "Fox Medicine" beckons to a place alien and apart from ordinary reality.  A place that once one has entered--all semblance of control is given over to the spirits who inhabit its depth.  A true shamanic journey.

Perhaps odd at first look, this small 12" "pebble" drum built during the Mayan awakening of December 21, 2012 is the biggest view of all. Every part, and every part between each part of this drum resounds with meaning at a vast scale--just as water takes form and light from the earth and sky and yet moves to a rhythm beyond what can be understood from a single perspective.

Hawaiian legend of sacred stones

I am enjoying a winter holiday of Kaua'i island, and just visited the Limahuli Valley Garden and Preserve where I met a powerful Hawaiian legend of sacred stones: The legend of Pohaku-o-Kane.  If you follow my blog on www.journeyoracle.com you will know that I have a deep relationship with stones that are teachers to me.
 

This beautiful story begins long before humans came to Kaua'i and tells of how three huge rocks, two brothers and a sister, were seeking a new home.  They rolled across the ocean floor and after visiting other islands they finally arrived at Kaua'i.  They were refreshed by the colors of land, ocean, sky and clouds as well as by the reef fish and the fresh water of Limahuli Stream.

The sister, O'o-a'a was enchanted by this location and decided to stay, soon falling asleep lulled by the sound of the waves and the warm sun.

The younger brother, Pohaku-loa stopped to rest in the shade of the hala trees and decided to stay beneath their rustling leaves, falling asleep in the cool breezes.

The older brother decided to continue on alone to the top of the mountain. Yet when he reached the cliff his strength failed and he faltered and fell time and time again.  Because he refused to give up the great god Kane came to investigate and asked why he was struggling so hard to reach the top.  The rock replied, "I want to be where I can watch the world below."

Kane pointed out that it didn't matter because surely he would also fall asleep like his sister and brother but the rock insisted that he would stay awake.  Kane determined that the rock would never give up trying to climb the mountain and so made a deal with him.  He would lift the older brother to the top of the mountain ridge and in return the rock would stay awake and watch and remember all that went on below him.  Kane then said, "When I come again, you must tell me what you have seen.  When you are ready to go the island will sink beneath the waters and the waves will climb up to you.  Then you and your brother and sister may begin to travel again.  Until then, watch and remember."

To this day Pohaku-o-Kane, which means Stone of Kane, sits wakeful on the mountain top, and all is well.  In order to honour this beautiful Hawaiian legend, I have not taken a picture of this sacred stone. Photography would freeze in time a small moment of the watching and remembering--that must instead keep flowing like the seas rise and fall and the trade winds sigh in the hala trees.

Oracle reading for the new year 2014

Happy new year from Journey Oracle.  I love to share these new cards and my way of reading them. Even if they are not quite ready to go live on my www.journeyoracle.com website, I can still offer a reading for the new year on this first day of 2014.

This first card represents the situation of this new year.  I see a creature that is strong and protective; earth bound.  Atop its head in a place of safety is a creature capable of lifting off to great heights.  We all have the ability to be steady and purposeful in our moving forward, and also the ability to fly when we have support from a safe launch site.

The second card of this new year's reading represents our experience within the situation shown above.  When I look at this card I see a creature calm and peaceful yet divided.  I also see the butterfly face  joins at the mouth.  Maybe speaking about our situations this year in a calm and peaceful manner will help us experience ourselves as a unity, instead of as split apart fragments.

This third card in the new year's reading represents the change that is calling us, the change that wants to happen.  I see a beautiful spiraling movement that passes through areas of dark as well as light, earth tones as well as sky colors.  Some parts of the path are clear and some parts are foggy with blurred edges.  In whatever situations we find ourselves this year, may we remember to keep moving to the centre, keep moving toward the seed always waiting to unfurl new growth.

The fourth and final Journey Oracle card in this reading represents the resolution.  The final result of our situation that is most possible for us.  What a beautiful image showing the outcome of our willingness to lift off and fly, to be peaceful and unified in our experience, and to be spiraling always inward to our own seed of growth.  May we all drum and dance in the pouring-down rays of a loving sun in 2014.