Daily Angel Oracle Card: Grace, from the Tao Oracle, by Ma Deva Padma

Grace: “Ancient cultures throughout the world revered those who were exceptionally gifted or beautiful as manifestations of God’s grace on earth – a link between the divine creator and humankind. Today we call such people “stars,” but what we really revere is their celebrity and fame rather than their individual qualities. To be a true star, however, is to radiate well-being and an attitude that says “I feel at home with myself and with the world.” Everyone, in this sense, has the potential for stardom; it is our birthright, regardless of our physical appearance, social standing, abilities, or the whims of fashion.

Despite what the cult of stardom would have us believe, real beauty and the grace that surrounds it is never contrived. It is a luminosity that emanates from within, ephemeral and ageless, a natural glow that arises from living a balanced life. Like the lotus blossom that appears above the muddiest of waters, the lifelong challenge we face is to transform the dark and the difficult into light, fragrance, and ultimately, the flower of consciousness.

Beauty and our perception of it manifests in myriad ways. For a scientist, it might appear as a flash of clarity when one of the mysteries of the universe reveals its hidden design. For a painter, it could be in the interplay of shifting color or light and shadow in the landscape. A composer might hear music in the night sky or in sunlit waters. The creative impulse in us springs from those moments of grace when all the divergent elements of life seem to harmonize perfectly; when, everywhere we look, we perceive the brilliance and mystery of a masterwork that transcends the knowable. Our expressions of creativity are essentially an homage to the Tao.

Awareness of beauty is inextricably bound with a sense of impermanence. Everywhere in nature beauty is born, fades, and returns again to beget beauty, in a continuous, creative unfoldment. We create many problems for ourselves by wanting to demystify and possess beauty and grace, to reproduce an essentially ephemeral experience and make it permanent. When all efforts fail, as they inevitably must, we become stuck in an impossible longing to re-create what was lost through some contrivance of our own. If we can manage to withdraw from this desire to grasp and possess, the experience of grace becomes a source of inner nourishment that deepens our aesthetic pleasure and joy in life.

Learn simply to greet beauty when it comes, to reflect upon it and become one with it, with no demands or expectations. Contemplate beauty and allow it to infuse your life; you will be beautified by it, and an aesthetic sense will naturally arise within you. Recognize that beauty is fleeing; meditate on the transitoriness of all things, which will kindle in you the desire to be aware in every moment and to give life’s beauty some form of expression. This moment is an invitation to shine and to give of your best, graciously and wholeheartedly. Let your model be Mother Nature, whose elegance and generosity knows no bounds, and whose capacity to beautify is never less than perfect. The beauty of nature is love.”*

~ By Ma Deva Padma

Are you seeing the beauty around you in everyday life, starting with your own? Or are you putting it off, waiting for the stars to come into perfect alignment first, waiting until you lose weight first, waiting until you meet the love of your life first? What if you committed instead to seeing every tiny detail of beauty in every aspect of yourself and your external life? What would that look like? What could that feel like? How would it change your life to feel gratitude and peace whenever witnessing the grace of the Universe and Mother Gaia?

When you train yourself to mindfully see the abundance of beauty around you, and its ultimate vulnerability, you start to cherish its tenuous delicacy and elegance. You start to appreciate it more. You slow down and enjoy it’s allure. It feels like a gift… and rightfully so.

On the contrary, if you take all the exceptional beauty around you for granted, and refuse to see your own unique beauty, you block yourself from receiving the Love that you deserve. Life becomes two-dimensional, black and white. There is less to look forward too, less to linger on, less to appreciate. When we shift that perspective, and focus on what is beautiful and wonderous in our lives… that is when we attract more magic.

See and Be the beauty that stars in your own life.

Be the grace that you are.

Namaste

Dee

~Archangel Oracle

*Tao Oracle, by Ma Deva Padma