Letting Go with Oracle and the written word

Professionally, I am a teacher. That is how I pay my rent. How much teaching is done by my own volition? I am not sure sometimes. However, I am sure that leading others to writing as a primary source of detox is the best kind of teaching I can do. As a writer, artist, educator, and participant of the Mind Key project, my purpose has leaned more toward helping others find the stories they need to tell. As resistant as some may be, every single person has a story in words, pictures, or song. Once the creative outlet is found, we can let go of everything else which feels the need to hold us back.

Creativity is an integral part of connectedness and restructuring, and some of us need a little more than guided journals or story-starters to produce writing for healing. A deck of oracle cards can create the bridge between emptiness and fulfillment - and fulfillment, healing, and connectedness are the necessary molecules of Mind Key.  That same deck of oracle cards can also lead you to release things that are no longer serving you.

Three years ago I never would have thought that a deck of cards could hold so much power. When I taught Pre-K several years back, a mother of one of my kids gave me an email reading with a deck of angel oracle cards that floored me with its accuracy and depth.

My very first deck - Chakra Wisdom Oracle Cards by Tori Hartman

Though I was initially skeptical due to my tainted metaphysical past, I quickly learned there was something genuine about the use of oracle decks. There was no, “I see a scratch-off lottery win in your future.” There was no, “Someone you know on the other side is trying to contact you! She has a vowel in her name. A…E?” Nope, Janan was legit, and she was my first exposure to the spiritual tool of card divination. 

In addition to learning different spreads and letting the messages and the pictures speak to your life, many oracle decks can be used as journaling and storytelling devices. In fact, if you check out the web pages or YouTube accounts of many tarot and oracle enthusiasts, you’ll find that many use oracle decks to help motivate a variety of creative endeavors. In a previous blog, I reviewed Leonie Dawson's Create Your Shining Year workbooks and mentioned how effective Dawson’s approach was to planning and visualizing a productive year. I may not have mentioned, at least not in much depth, the use of her favorite oracle deck to create a foundation for each month. A card can be drawn once a month, or twelve cards can be drawn at once. Either way, Dawson’s workbook devotes several pages to your own oracle card insight and reflection. 



From The Chronicles of Destiny 
don't leave home without it.

The versatility of oracle cards is tremendous, and the freedom of expression they induce often surpasses the tarot system which is more concrete. In a way, oracle decks are your every day, “average Joe” source for card divination, for lack of a better description. Nevertheless, a new enthusiast who wants to use oracle cards for journaling and creative writing may run into a problem - deciding on a deck. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of decks from independent publishers as well as large publishing houses such as Llewellyn and Blue Angel. 

The Chronicles of Destiny by Josephine and Emily Ellershaw

Chakra Wisdom Oracle Cards - Tori Hartman 

StoryWorld Cards - Caitlin Matthews 

I have lost count of how many decks I have acquired in the last year and a half. Admittedly, there are a few decks I can sell due to a lack of connection to those decks. Talk about release, its very difficult to know when/if you should let a deck go because you never know when it might be just what your soul needs.  But there are other decks I feel would dry up my creative well if they were ever lost or ruined.

This, ladies and gentleman, is how I let go of the mundanity of every day life, when I need to remember that there is something more to me than this and that. Check out my next column about the decks listed above which will include recommendations for using them as  creative and reflective tools. 



Tara Ann Lesko

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The Green Tara Chronicles - The journey from the confines of believing in one thing to the freedom of believing in everything



The Mind Key Community: Meet Sarah

Mind Key Member, Sarah Loukos

If you’re so psychic tell me when my birthday is.

When people ask me questions like that, I know they don’t understand what being psychic really means.
Sarah Loukos

Although a deeply connected Mind Key Member, Sarah Loukos is more than just a psychic.  She picks up on the subtleties of humanity, particularly those of the emotional variety. 

“I can’t read your mind,” she clarifies. But as an empath, she can energetically read the emotional signals each person’s body and aura transmits.  Once aware of a person’s dominant feelings she uses her clairvoyance (psychic seeing), clairaudience (psychic hearing), and claircognizance (psychic knowing) to decipher what is happening to trigger the emotion—the loss of a pet or friend, or news of a marriage or baby, for instance.

 “But don’t ask me what number you’re thinking of,” Sarah says. “I have no way of accessing that information.”

Sarah also has access to spirit guides, those spirits that are with us at all times and who push us toward our higher good.  Her readings are a direct connection with these guides.  With permission,



guides tell Sarah what you most need to know on your path at this time.

“Guides can tell me all sorts of things,” Sarah said. “For example, they can tell me what job you have now, what job you wish you had, and how to make that transition.”

These types of readings help create a safe environment for an individual to express concerns that may be holding them back. In this way further information can come through on how to move through situations of all kinds, particularly those that are dangerous or detrimental.

“Your guides will tell me anything and everything I need to know to help you. That rarely, if ever, includes the date of your birth, how many fingers you’re holding up behind your back, or, sadly, lottery numbers. If only, right?”

Sarah's daughter, Samantha

Although Sarah’s extrasensory perception is strong, her cards act as a pathway to the spirit world.  Through them Spirit offers the signals, symbols and insights she needs to confirm her perception.  An important part of this work is remaining grounded, and Sarah maintains a close connection to the earth and water (which she is closely aligned with, using the mermaid tarot for her readings). She relies on meditation and yoga to help her continually become the best version of herself.

“I also try very hard to just be in the moment and love as much as I can.”

A practicing psychic for 22 years, Sarah is also a novice medium and is certified in Buddhist Meditation and has trained in Kauai, Hawaii under the guidance of Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami.

Sarah offers meditation classes that often include the elements of yoga for relaxation and creative writing. Check the Mind Key Calendar for a listing of her classes, or you may contact her at sarah@mindkey.me for more info and to make an appointment for a reading.

She is also a poet whose work is represented in "The Mind Key Project: An Anthology." You can read her musings on her blog: https://shantisun.wordpress.com/

Saffron, Simone and Cain

Panda

 

Sarah loves all animals, yoga and hiking. She lives with her husband, Joe, their daughter Samantha, their 'fur children': their dogs Saffron, Simone and Cain; and their cat Panda.