Ritual Inspiration from The Caregiver Deck

The Caregiver Spread is a three-card spread created to help you gain insight into your practice as a caregiver. It explores self-care, care of others, and guidance from the universe for any situation you may be currently experiencing in your work or family environment. Lay the cards our in a half circle to symbolize the sunrise. Every day is a new day!

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We are using the Caregiver Deck by Jennifer Bower MSN, RN. She has created an inspiring, intuitive self-care tool filled with wisdom, supportive guidance, and resources you can use on a daily basis to cultivate a steady self-care practice. We have pulled our three cards, with short excerpts from the accompanying guidebook. The guidebook also contains journal prompts for each card, and ritual suggestions.

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The Questions

Card 1: How can I best care for myself today?

We pulled "Ancient Ancestors," a card which reminds us of our caring lineage, the people who came before us and whose wisdom we carry in our DNA. We are encouraged to lean on the efforts of our ancestors, and know that their strength and wisdom are available to us whenever we choose to access it.

In a spiritual sense, ancestors can be anyone who came before us, so whether you come from a long line of healers or you're the first in your family, know that the cumulative knowledge of an ancient caring past is available to you.

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Card 2: How can I best care for others today?

For our second card we got "Intuitive Knowing," which calls for us to follow our intuition or gut feeling. Each of us was born with this internal gift and connection to the unseen. As we grow, we can forget about it, and get stuck in the intellect, thinking, ruminating, and making this type of thinking our default mode.

Pay attention to those subtle nudges of insight more often experienced as a feeling. This kind of knowing is often challenging to describe. It is the type of knowing that simply IS.

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Card 3: What guidance does the universe have for me in this situation?

Our third card is "Spaces Between," which is all about the power of perception. You are being asked to consider a different perspective.

When shifting your perspective, think of the aspects that make up your point of view, such as your culture, religion, finances, relationships, family structure, self-esteem, successes and failures, personal identity, birth order, education, and sense of security. Release any judgements you may have regarding someone else's views, and seek to connect with them from this new way of seeing the world around you.

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Take time to journal after completing your reading. What comes us as you write may surprise you. You may also notice themes that can provide you with even deeper insight.

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Lead from your heart, don't overthink it, and have fun working with your oracle cards.