General Oracles Study Group #17

Welcome AzulParadiso. Hello 2dogs and other "old" friends.

I love Spirit of the Wheel. I used it quite a bit about three months back and found the readings to be quite thought provoking. I just thought I'd try another Native American deck this go round hence the Medicine Cards. I can't wait to see how they work.

For fun I decided to draw a card right now. During shuffling I was thinking what this card might tell me about starting up the study group again.

The Card is #1 The Eagle. (Spirit). Eagle medicine is the medicine of the Great Spirit. A connection to the divine. Eagle reminds you to take heart and gather your courage because you are being given the opportunity to soar above the mundane.

What a perfect card for me....as I have been absent from these forums for a bit and also have been neglecting my cards and other aspects of my spiritual development. Perhaps it is indicating that this will give me an opportunity to start again. I must honestly say when I stray to far from the cards my life seems to get a little "off center" and I feel something is amiss. I was thinking that prior to starting to work with the cards again.

Perhaps the rest of you might like to ask your cards for some indication about your involvement in the study.

DragonFae said:

...Perhaps the rest of you might like to ask your cards for some indication about your involvement in the study.

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Budding Trees Moon

keywords: expectation, process, goals

A hawk flies through the sky, between native expressions of the moon and sun, one wingtip over each of them. One wing in the daylight and one wing in the night. Balance. Yin and yang. Looking within and without.

I feel as if getting back into introspective work will help balance me. Help to get me back into my inner life, in addition to all the work that I'm doing in my outer life. My career is on the cusp of soaring, but in my efforts to make a go of it, I've been neglecting my inner life. I see this as an opportunity to explore my inner world, and get my life back into a healthy balance.

DragonFae said:

Here's a question for you....

In spreads where there is a "meaning" to the position like "something that's holding you back"
How do you read the card??....I noticed when working with the medicine cards that most of the meanings are quite positive in nature so how would that for example "hold someone back"? (I'm just using that as an example but there are other position meanings too that can be problematic)

The book also has reversed meanings and I thought perhaps to use those on the position ones where it seems applicable but that doesn't seem quite right either....

What do you think..???

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Well, I don't really go by the book under the best of conditions lol. But I suppose its like how people will see The Tower and read it as a good thing, a needed transformation. I look for the darker aspects of the card in that case. Everything has dark and light aspects =)

Using your example, I pulled a card for something that's holding me back regarding an upcoming possible promotion. I got card 42 - black background, bluewhite flamey things in front of a fat X. Feels almost superheroish to me. To me, this says I need to curb my arrogant side, not be cold and detached. I know I'm pretty darn awesome, and so do they, but cocky isn't an appealing trait. (hugely paraphrasing. The problem I find with this deck is I tend to get ... Flooded. And then I have to quickly try to recapture everything that got thrown at me. Hence why I want to work with it more lol!)

For the sake of science, the book says this is a warning to watch for situations that may get you fired up, don't fall into old patterns. Stay present and heart centered. Lol I WOULD pull the card that has a literal warning with that as a question...

Yeah I'm not a huge book person either but in the case of these Native American medicine wheel type cards I do like to read those even though I may follow some other train of thought as well. I feel like the animal symbolism is essential in these decks and the history or how they were viewed. So at the very least it's good to have at least a basic understanding of the "medicine" of each animal.

I've worked with totem animals for several years so I have a certain connection to some of the animals that allows me to read more intuitively but some I need to learn more about and respect what they have to teach also.

DragonFae said:

Perhaps the rest of you might like to ask your cards for some indication about your involvement in the study.

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Secret Language Of Color: Purple - Develop Mental Clarity

I was intending to go on to ask what quality I should try to develop after asking how the study would go with this deck, but the first card has already covered it so perhaps I should accept this is the answer and I don't need to pull any more.

The card has an attractive forum-coloured image of a flower with dark purple and violet petals leading inwards to a brightly glowing centre, suggesting flying through dark clouds and entering a tunnel filled with light. Possibly the clarity I need is that of understanding the distinct message of each card, what it is unique in saying that makes it different to the others.

Enchanted Map: Rock Bottom

Forget it - this deck may throw up answers in its own mysterious way, but studying it will get you nowhere.

Earth Magic: Dawn - New Beginnings

I like this card, it's a lovely scene with the sun starting to reveal a beautiful landscape. As I looked at it the crows started cawing in the garden and the guidebook comments about the birds waking and singing, and developing a new project, made me think of the new decks currently in the post. The main one is an oracle of ravens, with a lot of writing on the cards, but all in German. I have made a few attempts in the past to learn the language, which have fizzled out, but am thinking this would hold my interest more as I'd be using it. The other two decks coming with it are German translations of the Earth Magic and Enchanted Map, which I am planning to compare against the English ones.

AzulParadiso said:

Hello, I would love to join. May I?? I will be using Gypsy Witch fortune cards. How or when do we start?

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I LOVE this deck! The artwork is so colorful and whimsical. Its one of my favorites.

I'm already thinking I might switch decks. I just got the Enchanted Map Oracle, and I LOVE it!!! I'm going to wing it whenever we get our first "assignment" as to which deck I'll use. Both the Spirit of the Wheel and the Enchanted Map are lovely. I am strongly leaning toward the Enchanted Map, though, because I've already had some profound experiences with it today.

Looking through the cards, I keep stopping at the "Deep Freeze" card. It shows a snowy scene by a river with a frozen lion laying beside it. He's got one paw dangling in the water, and he appears to be sleeping. Lion is my power animal. And looking at this card makes me realize, and acknowledge, that I've spent too much time distracting and distancing and staying in my head. Its been quite awhile that I've spent a lot of time away from the tv and computer and out in nature, or journeying with my animals. I feel as if my power is asleep, just waiting for me to awaken to my need for it. Interestingly, the water appears to steam where his toes touch the water. As if his strength, his energy, his warmth, is beginning to spread to the lake and all that lies beneath.

I'd like to wake the lion, but I can see by how powerful this card is for me right now, that I have to take my time and let him awaken at his own pace. This is a journey, not a destination to be forced. I need to honor my strength, honor my inner wisdom, and honor exactly where I am right now. In other words, I need to be present to the journey right now, in this moment. A lesson that I seem to revisit over and over again. Clearly a tough one for me. A life lesson that resonates in its difficulty.

Today I've spent most of the day with my tv set to the "Soundscapes" music channel (inspirational instrumental music such as native american flute) instead of cop shows like usual. It sets a completely different tone for the day, and helps put me in a more introspective frame of mind.

"Deep Freeze" is a nice card and your description has made it much more comprehensible to me. I'd be very interested to hear what you make of some of the other cards.

It appears that I need to look more deeply into the Earth Magic cards, so am going to try to just use them and nothing else, although this time I am also trying to learn German by using the translated edition and referring back to the English guidebook for help.

This has already pointed out a couple of obvious differences, firstly that there is no order to the cards, they are listed alphabetically in both editions and so the sequence is different in the two languages. Secondly, my German edition has an extra "Gaia" card, which is possibly the best card in the deck, representing the Earth Goddess constantly re-creating the wonders of the world and providing for us abundantly every day. The guidebook says I should simply allow Gaia to nurture my body, heart and soul - so perhaps I need to take the extra card out and keep it where it will remind me of this?