We are using Oracle cards in today's yoga class as a means of focus and bringing attention to something in our present that we may be overlooking.  Oracle cards, unlike Tarot cards, do not predict or foresee your personal past, present and future issues.  Instead, they help direct you on your current path.  You may choose a card that  merely asks you to think about its meaning as your day progresses.  Or maybe you turn a card and know instantly what the card is referring to.  Or it is possible that the card gives you direction in answering questions you may have.

Oracle cards are to be looked at as fun and insightful. They come in a myriad of themes and artistic decks so choose a deck that appeals to you!

I always receive the question, "Can't every card apply to everyone?"  My response is this:  I believe the Universe leads you to choose the card you are supposed to choose on any given day.  But for the skeptics, I ask you to consider this.  Let's imagine I bring a deck in which every single card says devotion (I just pulled that card from a deck).  And let's assume I am the only one who knows that every card is the same.  Yes, each person can apply the word devotion to their lives but the important aspect being missed is that the word means and represents something different to each one of us...and that is how it helps take our focus to an aspect of each of our individual lives. 

Osho writes that when we are self-conscious of ourselves we are actually in trouble because if we truly knew ourselves we would not be self-conscious.  In tomorrow's class, we will explore the idea of making cheap, bandaid-like fixes to our ego versus making the investment to know and be our true self. 

Quotes I used in this class:

"When you are self-conscious you are in trouble.
When you are self-conscious you are really showing symptoms that you don’t know
who you are. Your very self-consciousness indicates that you have not come home
yet.”
― Osho 
 
"People are crying up the rich and variegated
plumage of the peacock, and he is himself blushing at the sight of his ugly
feet.”
― Saadi
 
"Our Christian destiny is, in fact, a great one:
but we cannot achieve greatness unless we lose all interest in being great. For
our own idea of greatness is illusory, and if we pay too much attention to it we
will be lured out of the peace and stability of the being God gave us, and seek
to live in a myth we have created for ourselves. And when we are truly ourselves
we lose most of the futile self-consciousness that keeps us constantly comparing
ourselves with others in order to see how big we are.”
― Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island