Inside Mypalmleaf with CEO and Founder, Stephan Oesterreicher

As Mypalmleaf grows and the message of the palm leaf prophecies spreads, so does the longing to cultivate real transparency within the organization. To this end, we felt that it would be inspiring and insightful, both for us and for you to get a closer look at the organization from behind the scenes.

This article is based on a recent interview with Mypalmleaf CEO and founder Stephan Oesterreicher. He shares with us details of his own spiritual search and the journey that lead him to his first palm leaf reading in a car outside a Vipassana center. This first meeting eventually blossomed into a thriving and nourishing international team dedicated to service to humanity through making the predictions of the Rishis available.

“This brought the insight that while these traditions have different languages, cultural customs and practices, each of them points essentially to the same underlying essence of reality.”

– Stephan

Stephan’s spiritual journey began young. In his late teens, he became interested in meditation and in exploring consciousness in general, sitting in his first meditation retreats and courses. Upon turning 20 he decided to take a one-way flight to India, following an inner intuition or calling. This journey to India was deeply inspiring and the exposure to many different yogis, saints, and sadhus ignited a passion to dedicate his own life to the exploration of the mysteries of life.

Stephan’s curiosity lead him not to study under a single teacher, but to spend many years seeking the guidance and the wisdom of different spiritual traditions while practicing primarily meditation and different yogic practices. This brought the insight that while these traditions have different languages, cultural customs, and practices, each of them points essentially to the same underlying essence of reality, the same universal consciousness.

In 2008 or 2009, while Stephan was traveling in India. He came across a small Palm Leaf Library in Delhi and registered for a reading. Unfortunately, his leaf was not found, nonetheless, the ‘realness’ and authenticity of the experience left an impression.

“Initially there was just a very strong interest to know more about the palm leaf reading. Yet as time passed the aspiration developed to share and make available the wisdom of the palm leaves.”

– Stephan

Upon waking one morning, many years later, while back in Germany visiting family, the sudden impulse and intuition came to search again for his palm leaf. A brief search online lead to a meeting with an online company that facilitates palm leaf readings via Zoom calls with the Indian palm leaf libraries. The time had finally come. Being impatient to hear about his prophecies, Stephan had his first palm-leaf reading sitting in a car outside of a Vipassana retreat center. He recounts his journey and experience with the palm leaves in this video.

The days of silence were potent and allowed a lot of time for a new vision to be born. By the end of the 10 days, the desire to understand the palm leaves, and to connect with the Rishis (the authors of the leaves) had become a primary focus.

Initially, there was just a very strong interest to know more about the palm leaf readings, not necessarily to create a business around them. Yet, as time passed and the understanding deepened, so did the inspiration and aspiration to share and make available the wisdom of the palm leaves with as many people as possible.

From sharing with friends to building a simple website, My Palm Leaf quickly grew into a professional, global organization with an international team and clients from many different countries. Simultaneously, a deep working relationship was developed with My Palm Leafs’ primary partner palm leaf library in India.

“Spiritually developing MyPalmLeaf means for me to constantly encourage the team to consider that the mission of my palm leaf is not just a job but a service to the benefit of all beings.”

– Stephan

Having explored a number of different business ventures since the age of 18, (and having learned the hard way that making everything free for those that don’t want to pay is not necessarily the best business model). It became obvious that there was a need for a new way of relating to business, money, and moving in the world according to the spiritual calling of the heart.

As fate would have it, a uniquely impactful meeting with Amma, the hugging mother, further instilled this need in Stephan’s

being. When receiving a hug (Amma’s primary way of sharing teachings or offering Darshan) he took the opportunity to ask her a question about teaching meditation. The hugging saint replied in a very direct manner, “You need to learn how to make money”.

Stephan was now ready to implement a cutting-edge vision for the birth of a successful, profitable business that nourishes both its team and its clients, both on material and spiritual levels. Materially, by paying fair and – with a vision towards ample – wages to the members of the team while keeping the cost of readings as low as possible. Spiritually, by constantly encouraging the team to consider that the mission of my palm leaf is not just a job but a service to the benefit of all beings. As such, the team is inspired and consistently goes out of their way to provide the most loving, supportive, and complete experience to the clients, including aftercare/integration calls and any other support requested or required.

Conscious Business, A Mission of Love

Stephan explains the very profound purpose that drives operations at My Palm Leaf. We remind each other at the start of every team meeting of our mission by invoking the blessing of the Rishis, dedicating everything we do to the benefit of all beings and we also spend a few minutes sending love and blessings to everyone we work with and to our past, present and future clients. All My Palm Leaf team meetings begin with a short meditation and consecration in this style.

Sometimes in spiritual communities, the predominant view on business and money is that this is not a spiritual dimension or they can’t go together with the Heart. Money is see as a distraction from the purpose of life to realize the Self. However, this is a misguided idea, as its effect is very often that the money in the world stays in the hands of those that do not have the best interests at heart for the world and its’ people, while those who do, often lack the resources to create new structures and change in this world.

A Vision of Foresee

The vision at My Palm Leaf holds that we need to change our reality on multiple levels. We need to learn to awaken our hearts and remember the deep interconnection with all of existence. At the same time, we need to learn how to bring this understanding into new structures that operate from a different paradigm. Only then, we can co-create a new world.

Businesses and organizations are a fundamental aspect of this change as they are tools that can shape and recreate our society. It is very important that those of us that do this can dedicate ourselves to it fully, which means to be fully supported on a financial level.

Beyond simply offering palm leaf readings and making the palm leaf prophecies available, My Palm Leaf also aspires to create rich educational and spiritually nourishing content not only about Nadi astrology and the palm leaves themselves but about different topics related to living an integrated spiritual life in this modern world.

If you’re curious about the process of finding your own palm leaf you can check out the How the Process Works page on our website to learn more and to begin your journey with your own palm leaf prophecy.

Or head straight to our booking page to arrange your own palm leaf reading now!

published: 05/06/2022