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Using Medicine Cards for Clarity with Your Horse | Listen To Your Horse
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Using Medicine Cards for Clarity with Your Horse

When we’re dealing with difficult situations with our horses; whether they’re health issues, behavioural issues, or environmental issues, it can be really  helpful (and quick and cheap!) to use a deck of oracle cards, or medicine cards, to give us insight or answers.

I’ve been going through a puzzling health issue with our herd guardian, Montaro, surrounding his sheath, scar tissue and other trauma from his castration 3 years ago. A few of our long-term horse listeners on the blog here have also been sharing their challenges lately and the difficulty of not only of figuring out what’s really wrong with the horse, but also, how much is emotional/psychological/spiritual versus just physical. And if that wasn’t complex enough, also trying to figure out what parts of this imbalance (i.e. illness, infirmity, injury, etc) belong to the horse, and which parts are actually being caused by us!

Montaro – a rare day of sunshine in a sea of rain and mud

As most of you probably know, the road to true healing (wholeness) is usually winding and a bit tangled. Occasionally it can be a straightforward cause & effect, but usually, it is multi-factorial, with numerous strands of causation, meaning, and messages woven together.

So although I’ve had my equine chiropractor/bodyworker out for a few sessions with Montaro, done EFT Tapping, BodyTalk, a chat with the vet, and Bowen Method as well… Montaro is still not healed. Describing what I’ve learned already – and yes, it involves me as much as him – would take an hour or two. But briefly, we are delving into the aspects and expression of masculine energy, along with learning and walking a path of Leadership together.

We are both facing similar challenges; Montaro became guardian of the 5-member herd when he was only two years old and he had no elders to learn from or be supported by. Now his herd has jumped to 11 members – a massive expansion. Likewise, my business is launching into the UK and Australia, simultaneously. The increased demands on both of us to vastly and quickly increase our leadership – which extends even to expanding the definition of leadership – are tracking alongside each other.

The herd of 11 – and more mud

There’s no easy fix. This is a process. Because when the mind/body/spirit are integrated, the divine or higher self uses the physical body as a way of messaging us. As a solid, incontrovertible way of saying, “Pay attention!” So it’s like following a trail of clues, putting the pieces of the puzzle together, one by one. Pacing is also important, because when healing is a process, each piece needs to be integrated and actioned, before you can be given the next piece.

Resisting the process, panicking, or continuing to drug and cut, in a desperate attempt to just make it all go away/better… just delays the process. It’s like trying to generate abundance, by moving into scarcity. The two don’t go together. Abundance is a flow, while scarcity is a constriction.

In addition to the mind/body healing tools I’ve already mentioned, I wanted to share with you another very simple, yet powerful tool that you can do on your own, at any time. You can also do it as often as you like. And whether you have difficulty discerning the messages from your horse, or you’re just plain blocked – it works equally well.

Medicine cards with a twist

Many of you likely already have a divination method, like a deck of medicine cards, or tarot cards, or letting a religious text (the Bible, the Tao Te Ching) fall open spontaneously to a page or paragraph of text.

So for this version of using your oracle method, you simply change your intention. Instead of aligning your intention to connect with the divine, you set your intention to receive a message from your horse! Yes, it’s that simple. Here’s what I do:

1. Use meditative breathing, or a guided meditation to descend into the still place where you can listen and perceive. Don’t skip this step! Without becoming peaceful and grounded, this will not be a connection, it will just be a game.

2. Ask the horse which deck of oracle cards the horse wants you to use – most of us have more than one deck 🙂

3. As you shuffle that deck, say, “Open to receiving a message from X [name of your horse]”

4. Keep your intention focused on your horse, bring that horse into your mind’s eye, open your heart to that horse, as you continue to shuffle the deck, waiting for a card to drop out of the deck while you’re shuffling. If you need to make your shuffle messier to have a card drop or flip out, please do so.

If you have 2 cards drop out, perhaps they are both pertinent and show different key aspects of the situation, or message. If shuffling doesn’t work for you, then just cut the deck, over and over and stop at the card you feel drawn to like a magnet.

5. Even if the card that jumps out doesn’t feel relevant, write it down in your journal. Write any thoughts or questions it provokes. Sometimes the relevance will come later, or is explained later, or you’ll have a dream about it. Sometimes the relevance becomes clear as you are writing it in your journal When we are really blocked on something, our resistance to understanding the message can be quite severe. Other times, you will look at the card and it will be an instant Eureka! moment and you will start furiously scribbling in your journal.

6. Either way, write down the key points, anything from the card description that jumps out at you, questions and musings that arrive. Because once you start writing, that is another way that your horse, or the divine/source can now easily connect and flow ideas, thoughts and pictures to you.

When I did this process with Montaro, he clearly directed me to use the Medicine Cards. And the card that fell out was the next piece of information that triggered an exploration into the function of the ‘group mind’ in leadership. This lead to a conversation with Montaro, Kesia and me the next day about how exactly we could each maintain our necessary leadership, while simultaneously stepping aside to let other others rise in power. Then the next step was for each of us to look at the members in our circle and assess who could step forward and move into leadership in each niche or capacity?

I then took action on my insights the day after that, by having a conversation with one of my team about moving into a management role I previously thought wasn’t necessary, but, would sure make my life easier! And what did we say about abundance earlier… how it is a FLOW? So anything that leads to greater peace, increased energy, increased vibrancy or greater ease, creates and supports flow.

As I said, Montaro and I are not done walking this journey to wholeness together. In the meantime, I have to be centered enough to let him dwell in his discomfort. Because the process is the point! I even had the vet, Dr. Hermen Geertsema, on-site yesterday and Montaro did not want Hermen to even look under his belly. Audelina, on the other hand – my other previously semi-feral mare – asked to come into the paddock so Hermen could thoroughly examine her teeth (unhaltered).

Audelina having her teeth examined for the first time in her life

Aude is 7 years old by the way, and her teeth are in excellent condition despite never having had dental work – just low-sugar hay, mostly 1st cut (coarser, with more silica), in slow feeders, available 24/7. And while we’re on the subject: my domestic mare, Zorra, has not had her teeth floated in the last 5 years. When she first came to me at age 9, her previous owner warned me that her teeth weren’t good and needed to be floated every year for sure. But I let Zo decide what to do with her teeth and she didn’t want to see a vet until last week. I said to my daughter, “I’m not sure if she actually needs her teeth floated, or she just wants to show us that she’s doing a great job on her own.” Well after being examined, Hermen said she only had one sharp point on the inside, but unless I was riding her with a bit, there was no need to file it down; it was not affecting her health, or her ability to chew. Shazam Zo!!

But even though Montaro refused help from the vet, that doesn’t mean I’ll stop offering physical relief or solutions – because healing is holistic. His message was simply that the physical was not the primary issue/causation here. Or perhaps, not at this time. And he reminded me that the physical body cannot release the symptom/condition until the full message has been received anyway. Montaro still wants lots of scratches on his belly and sheath, and he likes me to do energy work around the area, so we will keep walking this path together.

If you’re struggling through a health or behavioural challenge with your horse, I encourage you to try out this oracle deck method. Add it to your toolbox of healing options. Decks that I particularly love and find helpful are:

Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams and David Carson

Energy Oracle Cards by Sandra Ann Taylor

Oracle of the Unicorns by Cordelia Francesca Babbs

2 cards from the Energy Oracle Cards deck

If you’ve got a favorite deck that seems to be particularly accurate for you, please tell me about it in the Comments section below 🙂

Using Medicine Cards for Clarity with Your Horse

4 thoughts on “Using Medicine Cards for Clarity with Your Horse

  • December 16, 2018 at 8:37 am
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    Thank you Jini…I don’t have any medicine cards. A lot of this is new to me so I appreciate your blog on this topic. Will look into buying a set of cards to help in my journey of connecting with the herd. ✌🏼❤️🐴

    Reply
    • December 16, 2018 at 11:13 am
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      YOU don’t have medicine cards?? Michelle, knock me over with a feather! Guess what hubby needs to buy you for Christmas? 🙂

      Reply
  • June 21, 2023 at 12:11 pm
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    This is so wonderful Jini … I sat down to meditate and I saw the Herd in front of me, standing in a line, and they told me “the round ones, use them.” That is my oldest deck, the Motherpeace deck, which is round. I sat back down, held the deck and began shuffling, and I asked which horse am I connecting with? I heard “Zorra”! And two cards fell immediately onto my lap. The Lovers and Son (or Knight) of Cups … I wrote about them, read them … my question was “is it time for me to join the Apprenticeship program with you all?” Jini it feels as if a huge silence just fell over me, a deep, profound silence. Just magnificent. So … I’m joining!!

    Reply
    • June 22, 2023 at 12:13 am
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      Wow Dawn – and of course it was Zorra! I’ll see you inside… you’re gonna love it 🙂

      Reply

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