Blessing

Blessing

I have been working with The Crystal Grid Oracle Cards by Ashley Leavy. It’s a beautiful set of cards that depicts a word and a set of crystals and stones arranged on a mandala-like grid. The card lists the stones and crystals arranged in the arrangement. It’s a nice deck to use when asking for a positive quality for contemplation or meditation. It can even be used by those who are working with synchronicity. By pulling a card in the morning, they then actively go about manifesting the quality of the card in the world around them. Today’s card is “Blessing.”

I consider a blessing to be a gift that I have received or have given myself, that benefits me or someone close to me, which if you think about it, also benefits me. I am happy and blessed when someone else is blessed. A blessing may not only be physical. It can be spiritual or emotional. But we most often think of the physical blessings of our lives.

I feel blessed to have a home and an income. I am happy to have the comfort of a cool home in the summer and a warm home in the winter. I am grateful for these things. One cannot usually contemplate a blessing without also feeling gratitude. We are taught to count our blessings at the Thanksgiving holiday. Blessing and gratitude are good friends, sharing a deep connection. Of course, there are challenges to this blessing/gratitude connection.

A difficult experience always has a blessing tied up in it. Napoleon Hill called this “the seed of an equivalent benefit.” This is usually overlooked, because these experiences also tend to have a heavy dose of sadness, fear, and miseries of various sorts attached to them. An illness or a death, a job loss, a bad decision that includes legal intervention, these and others are experiences that break us somewhat; but in each there is a blessing. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the bad feelings and thoughts that accompany such experience and forget to search for the blessing, however small, which is also present. Some might even think it silly, evil, or even sacrilegious to search for such a blessing. But not searching for it is a shame, because in those moments, we can forget that God/Goddess/Spirit/Universe loves us.

The tarot card that represents these negative experiences is The Tower. I think The Tower card should depict something of value, a diamond or a rose, within the fractured walls of the crumbling structure to represent the seed of equivalent benefit hidden within.

Crystals and stones associated with blessings vary. The stones of spiritual blessing include amethyst, chevron amethyst, and rose quartz. But just as a stranger is a friend without an introduction, all things can be a blessing in their own circumstance.

Essential oils associated with blessings include lavender, holy basil, frankincense, and myrrh. You can use essential oils in aromatherapy to spread their fragrance and essence throughout a room, or you can use a properly prepared mixture as a personal fragrance. Don’t use essential oils if you are allergic to them, and be sure to consult a professional before applying an essential oil directly to the skin.

I am carrying the Blessing card with me today, and contemplating the blessings in my life, including family and friends, and all of you wonderful people reading this now. May you also be blessed.