Category Archives: Chuck’s Blog

Welcome to Chuck’s Place! This is where Chuck Ketchel, LCSW-R, expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences! Currently, Chuck posts an essay once a week, currently on Tuesdays, along the lines of inner work, psychotherapy, Jungian thought and analysis, shamanism, alchemy, politics, or any theme that makes itself known to him as the most important topic of the week. Many of the shamanic and psychological terms used in Chuck’s essays are defined in Tools & Definitions on our Psychotherapy page.

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Karma Of Resentment Is Ultimately Love

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Self Importance Kills!
-Photo by Chuck Ketchel

Resentment means, literally, to feel, with intensity, over and over again; resending to the self feelings that have affected it deeply. The actual feeling experienced in resentment is one of passionate anger and bitterness, held tightly, and felt enduringly, for perceived wrongs committed against the self.

Such emotional fixation and repetitive emotional experience rigidifies the heart, inhibiting the free flow of loving and compassionate energy.

The mind often replays incidents associated with its resentments, whereby refreshing their smoldering energy with renewed vigor that then seeks outlet in actual or imagined revenge.

As is evident from the current state of the world, resentments from centuries ago have led to fervent beliefs of entitlements, which are being played out in wars and conflicts throughout the globe. The family of nations and the oneness of the human race is overshadowed by a stage of separateness that is focused on individualistic needs, entitlements and resentments.

Behind all the material veils of physical life is the ultimate truth that all is One, that everyone is part of everything. This truth can only be lived when we emerge from our narcissistic shells and are able to be in love with, and of service to, the Greater One. The karma of separateness, as embodied in resentment, is love. Love is the acceptance of everything, which removes all barriers to Oneness.

The journey from resentment to love is a developmental process. The shamans of ancient Mexico discovered that the key to freeing the stuck energy of resentment lies with overcoming one’s self-importance. Self-importance must first be differentiated from self-esteem.

The essence of self-esteem is a measure of one’s self-confidence in the ability and capacity to face life’s challenges. Equally important is one’s ability to be in full acceptance of self, of all one’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as all that one has done, good or bad.

In contrast, self-importance is an egoic strategy of defense, which protects the ego self from feelings of inferiority and inadequacy. The self-important ego clings to its archetypal entitlements, as, for instance, in the expected love and support of parents, or in the right to have its needs met and not to be abused.

These are, of course, healthy archetypal expectations, however, they hardly address the fullness of reality conditions in Earth School, beginning with the universal experience of violent separation and trauma at birth. Regardless of our ultimate mission in an earthly incarnation, we have all chosen a milieu where the ego is always behind the eight ball. To graduate from Earth School we must arrive at total acceptance of everything, even the most unfair experiences.

To defend against the enormity of this challenge the ego employs self-importance, demanding to be compensated in some form for all the basic entitlements it has been denied. The ego’s resentments for violations to its self-importance might result in aggression expressed outwardly, or buried inwardly in a silent, bitter depression.

The ultimate goal for shamans is the total elimination of self-importance and maintenance of a healthy self-esteem that provides the confidence and clarity to face life’s challenges without attachment to the outcome. Success and failure are equal for shamans. There is no diminishment of self for failure, there’s simply acceptance of the truth without judgment. Healthy self-esteem has no need for self-importance; it acts from its own self-assuredness.

Shamans suggest using the  petty tyrants in one’s life to get over self-importance. Petty tyrants are those people or circumstances in our lives that offend us and drive us to resentment. The goal is to arrive at not being offended by the most offensive behaviors inflicted upon us. If we are not offended we gain utter clarity in how best to navigate a difficult person or situation.

Of course, we may need to safely release genuine primal screams of reaction for what we have endured. However, once released, rather than shift into resentment, we are strengthened in our confidence to come to full acceptance of the truth of our experience and fluidly take action to best address the circumstance we are in. Only the ego caught in self-importance suffers woundings and resentments, the High Self never does.

We don’t indulge in hate, but ultimately feel genuine love for our petty tyrant, a necessary teacher from the dark side, who has offered us such opportunity to shed the weight of resentment and hone our skills of navigation as we deepen our ability to further journey into infinity.

We might also employ the power of autosuggestion to gain release from the habit of resentment. The subconscious mind transforms resentments into habits as the conscious mind incessantly dwells upon them. If we raise our consciousness and freely choose to suggest love for all of our neighbors, we exercise the Divine spark at our disposal in the subconscious mind to transform resentment into love.

Shamans have also provided the recapitulation breath, the side to side bilateral breath that accompanies the reliving of encounters with petty tyrants and both neutralizes resentments and frees stuck energy for the ultimate journey of love, for every One.

And yes, we can set extremely firm boundaries with petty tyrants and still love them. These boundaries are not boundaries fueled by resentment. To the contrary, they are firm boundaries that reflect the truth of the heart.

In this infinite journey that we all traverse, the ultimate karma for all resentment is love. For how are we ever to advance without the total acceptance of everything that is all-inclusively an expression of the One?

Choose love, the ultimate free choice,

Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: Seize The Moment Before It Seizes You

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A fortunate result…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Stepping down from a small ladder, I misjudged the final step. Suddenly I was falling backwards. I was able to turn slightly, allowing my wrist and hand to somewhat break the fall so I did not land flat on my back. But I hit the ground hard nonetheless.

Immediately, my consciousness flew to The Mother, Aurobindo’s guide and partner. She had painstakingly made clear that pretty much anything could be healed if we could fully gather our awareness and focus it on the experience at hand,  in the current moment, before it was defined.

I grabbed my wrist and hand before the expected pain arrived and incessantly told myself, “My hand and wrist are healing; my hand and wrist are healed.” The boomerang wave of expected pain did not arrive. I kept repeating my suggestion.

Soon, I couldn’t be sure which hand had broken the fall, since both hands felt identically calm and agile. The same still holds true, as if no fall had ever happened. Funny, Jan heard the fall from a distance but encountered no voice in crisis, hence moved on without feeling the need to check.

The critical factor in this definition of life experience is to assume control of defining it, before the absolutely expected outcome arrives. The Mother pointed out, that though one could still heal if the expected definition of pain and disjointedness arrived, it is so much more difficult to unseat a ruling expectation once it has set in.

We have all learned a myriad of cause and effect reactions to body mishaps in physical life. The subconscious mind readily offers its knowledge to consciousness as it prepares it to experience the consequence of its defined predicament. That is habit.

What I was able to do was seize hold of that energy and redirect its mission to total healing. The subconscious was all ears and it changed the expected outcome of my fall.

For the record, this was but a small three-step ladder. This was not a dramatic fall from an extension ladder. The rational mind has plenty of reasons to disavow anything special in this minor fall. Nor do
I claim any specialness in this instantaneous healing. However, it is a fact, a fact of my life.

The time we are in is wrought with extreme polarization. The Law of Opposites enables us to differentiate and define ourselves as specific personalities based on our beliefs. The rupture to our wholeness, which is the state of the union of those opposites, that we are currently experiencing, does have the enlightening effect of challenging the certainty we previously held of how energy must play out according to established order. Anything is possible.

In fact, we have free will. On the mental plane, we can indeed direct our intent, as we will, to manifest material results. Take advantage of the possibility of defining life in new ways as we traverse this time of breakdown. Direct it towards the greater good. Seize the moment before it seizes you.

Seizing the moment,
Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: Do Not Lose Yourself In The Sadness

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Breathe and ride the rhythms of now in balanced calm…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

The atrocities of now are rampant and heartbreaking. For those who are sensitive and tracking of the truth, the impact of such sympathy can be one of overwhelming sadness.

Life, like the tide, is cyclical. This is the Law of Rhythm. Rhythm is a natural law, not karmic. The former movement of the world toward inclusion of all has rapidly shifted toward its opposite, a world of separateness. This example of rhythm is as basic as the breath.

When we inhale we bring home to the lungs oxygen. When we exhale we release from this inner wholeness carbon dioxide molecules to go off on their separate lives in the universe. Oneness and separateness are the Yin and Yang rhythm of our existence.

Currently, we are in an extremely rapid swing of separateness that is causing many innocent casualties around the globe. The indifference of world leadership toward these horrors, at core, reflects the brutality of a cosmic change of season.

Nonetheless, ancient karmic forces have attached to the current brutalities, seeking revenge for felt crimes from former times. Furthermore, the decisions and actions of now will generate karma for many whom will meet the inevitable consequences of their actions in this world, or beyond.

The swing we are in the midst of is inevitable and unstoppable. Its speed  has accelerated beyond light speed. This, though so deeply ungrounding for the majority of the world’s populace, suggests that the climax of its dominance is close at hand. Once the climax has been reached, we will all be able to breathe in fully, as the inclusive needs of all will assume the ascendency once again.

Perhaps with this perspective, one can find calm in the midst of chaos and uncertainty. Though we cannot stop the tide, we can ride its waves in calm balance and find harmony in change. For those who are fatally caught by its waves, we can know that at the astral phase of existence, beyond physical life, everyone has the opportunity to live and complete all life that was shortened by the storm.

The gift of our time is the growing awareness of the power of the subconscious mind to share in the power of the creative, and the created, through autosuggestion. In a time of limited resource, we can go inward in joy and gratitude as we suggest ourselves toward health and fulfillment in this material world. Through intention for the highest good for all, we contribute to better balance for a world steeped in shifting tides.

With the breath, we can slowly breathe in our wholeness and enjoy its wonder as we hold it for a while, then slowly release it to its separateness, as it exhales to the world. With every breath, we ride the eternal Law of Rhythm.

In the midst of the horrors of the Great War (WWI), Judge Hatch, from infinity, instructed his scribe, Elsa Barker, to balance herself as follows:

“Reach up to the indwelling Spirit and repeat, For her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”*

This affirmation is a well-established path for everyone to traverse in order to arrive at a state of inner peace beyond sadness. Our indwelling Spirit is our High Self, the spark of the Divine that resides beyond the fray of mortal life. It is indeed a separate part of the Divine, the uniqueness of you, yet holographically united with All That Is.

Finally, from the ancient wisdom of the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 33:25), is expressed the knowing: As your days, so shall your strength be. 

Whatever comes to greet us each day, we have the strength to greet it in return. Sadness must at times be felt and released, but know you are filled with the strength of mastery, of all things.

In Rhythm,
Chuck

*War Letters from the Living Dead Man, Elsa Barker, p. 125

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Chuck’s Place: The Interplay Of Black And White Magic Now

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Turn the moral compass to the higher power of love & the greater good of all…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

It has been suggested that the fall of Atlantis parallels the state of our current civilization. Plato introduced the story of Atlantis, crediting its origin and transmission as having been handed down from generations of ancient Egyptian priests.

Atlantis was a spiritually and technologically advanced civilization that lost its moral compass as it exercised its psychic powers in the form of black magic. In modern terms, black magic could be defined as the use of the subconscious mind for malevolent purposes.

The karma of such abuse of its powers was the total destruction and sinking of this island continent into the Atlantic Ocean around 10,500 BC. The modern psychic, Edgar Cayce, has confirmed the validity of the downfall of Atlantis.*

Judge Hatch, as channelled by Elsa Barker in 1916, observed that many old souls from Atlantis had incarnated back into human form and would continue to do so in our modern era, particularly in America where new spiritual ideas so quickly can take root. America is thus a major player in the karma and interplay of psychic powers exercised through both black and white magic.

Black and white magic are distinguished by the quality of the intent behind the suggestions one poses to the subconscious mind. Black magic refers to suggestions issuing from self-serving, narcissistic intent. White magic refers to suggestions in alignment with the purity of truth and love, directed to the greater good of all.

The power of suggestion, as applied to the subconscious mind, is the most influential psychic power of our time. The birth of autosuggestion in the early 20th century, from its older parentage in hypnotism, empowers any person to potentially heal themselves, to manifest in physical reality any changes they have imagined and desired from the subtle dimension of their mind, and to telepathically influence the subconscious mind of others.

What is known as distance healing, whether through healing prayer or directed healing intention for another, is actually the power of the mind to telepathically present a healing suggestion to the subconscious mind of a person in need. If the subconscious mind of the recipient is impressed by the suggestion, the desired healing may result. Ultimately, though we might have a healing intent for someone else, actual healing is a function of their own subconscious mind choosing to actualize the suggestion. Healers intend healing but we ultimately heal ourselves.

This is the same mechanism as in the placebo effect. If someone believes the suggestion that they will be healed by the ingestion of a pill, the subconscious mind may indeed generate the expected healing through its power to influence physical reality.

Our thoughts and beliefs are incessantly sending suggestions to both our own subconscious mind and that of others. What the world is presently experiencing is a plethora of negative, self-serving suggestions, the stuff of black magic. These have galvanized mass movements of genocide, displacement of peoples, appropriation of people’s property, and a worldview of hatred and self-interest toward all others.

The outcome for the advanced but self-serving civilization of Atlantis warns of similar consequences for our modern world. Fortunately, the advance of autosuggestion empowers every individual to utilize the power of white magic for the health and healing of our planet, and the human race as well.

For white magic to be effective, our intentions must be rooted in love. Love knows only one race, the human race. Love spares no one. Love loves all, even those who hate, pillage and kill. No one is excluded from love’s purview. When I think of those I’m most tempted to hate, my conscious mind states, “May they discover love for the greater good of all.” This is my intention for all burdened with the passion of hate.

Let not my emphasis upon love suggest that any soul should escape the justice, or karma, that must necessarily be meted out upon all for the choices they have made. How helpful could it possibly be for one to be spared the learning opportunity of feeling the effects or outcomes of the causes they have generated? But let the decision to not help someone come from love of the truth, as well as the intent to allow them their full opportunity to discover what they need to learn, without interference.

If we indulge hatred, we invite black magic, through the power of thought, to influence those who surround us in our interconnected family of One. Responsible use of our thoughts and feelings positively impacts the suggestions we impress upon the subconscious mind of our human race.

Foundational to the use of black and white magic is the power of the subconscious mind to change the world based upon the intention of the conscious mind. It is my intention that all humans will acquiesce to the truth of the heart in making their suggestions to the subconscious mind.

Never be discouraged. We simply have no control over how the subconscious chooses to realize our dreams. If we get angry or push too hard, we may find ourselves unwittingly tempted into the mood of black magic. Of course, this then gives us the opportunity to feel compassion for those who similarly struggle.

Exercise your psychic power of suggestion by keeping love, truth and the greater good of all in mind. Express your gratitude for this power and intend the patience needed to stay the course.

That’s white magic,
Chuck

*Whether the story of Atlantis is a myth or a fact does not alter the similarity to what is happening in our world now.

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Chuck’s Place: Learn To Love The Dweller On The Threshold

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Time to Love The Dweller…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Mystical traditions appropriated from fiction the term, Dweller on the Threshold, to describe an inner psychological character who serves the role of initiator to deeper spiritual realization.

The Dweller is a psychological complex that is an amalgam of all of one’s fears and unresolved inner darkness at a personal level of present life, as well as the spiritual debts, or karma, one has accumulated from the soul’s journey through infinity.

The Dweller is a universal character that might appear as a powerful archetypal demon in a dream encounter. However, the Dweller is also quite uniquely fashioned to reflect that which is suppressed, repressed or unknown within the darkness of one’s personal unconscious, what Jung termed The Shadow. Nonetheless, the human race, as a single organism, bears its collective Shadow with its own guardian Dweller on the Threshold.

In order to grow, we must know thyself. In order to know thyself we must ultimately subdue the Dweller who tempts, taunts and exposes us to our darkest deeds, desires, habits, thoughts and primal impulses. To subdue the Dweller we must shine the light upon and accept the full truth of all we have hidden from, or all that has been hidden from us, behind the  door to the Shadow.

The Dweller might appear to be an evil entity, and in our encounters with it we might be tempted to act out our hidden compulsions, but full responsibility for all one’s actions resides within one’s conscious personality, named the ego. The Dweller is not responsible for the ego’s failure to grow. The Dweller indeed leads one into temptation, but one no longer faces temptation who has reconciled with the wholeness of who they are through inner shadow work.

Ultimately, the Dweller is entitled to deep gratitude and love for the service it performs in helping one to reach the maturity needed to open the door to higher spiritual enlightenment. Failure to love the Dweller is an attachment to hatred that bars entry to higher consciousness.

Though the Dweller often appears in dreams, it is most often met in the projections that unknowingly issue forth from our Shadow and take on mental and emotional life, as reflected in our daily interactions and relationships. Anyone or anything in waking life that gets us emotionally charged, for better or for worse, is a strong candidate for a potential showing of a character within ourselves.

Those we admire might reflect our unknown innate potential. To own that potential and develop it, rather than living it vicariously through another, is the shadow work of broadening one’s personality. To shine the light on one’s inner darkness rather than blame and hate its outer reflection, in the person of another, is the shadow work of accepting the unacceptable within the self. We are challenged to love, with equanimity, the best and worst of ourselves.

Self-knowledge, self-acceptance and self-love are the key technologies required to effectively open the door to higher consciousness. As regards our projections, we are equally charged to love thy enemy as thyself. My enemy is indeed acting from the same venomous impulses buried in my own heart. I must own and love these impulses, and accept that the law of karma applies to all actions. With awareness, I can pay my dues and make my amends as I become able to somewhat look through the window of higher consciousness.

Behind the door of initiation to higher consciousness is our access to psychic powers, and the astral world with its greater access to the divine powers of the subconscious mind. As we, as individuals, must pass the tests of the Dweller to realize our soul’s potential, so the human race too is facing its own developmental challenge.

There are several Dwellers on the Threshold in positions of power throughout the world, currently, who are challenging the organism of humanity as a Whole Being to face the truth about itself. We are on the threshold of a major leap in human evolution, however, we are too weighed down by the burdens of our disowned Shadow to advance.

Our greatest challenge at present is to accept that we are in an accelerated period of major transition. The antics of the Dwellers mark this speed of transition.

Face the truth and have gratitude for all the Dwellers. They insist that we do our preparation by truly admitting the depths of our narcissism and by learning to love all beings, as necessary parts of our one human family. To love the Dweller is to love the self in its entirety, the ticket to higher consciousness.

Loving,
Chuck