You are not to blame for another’s difficulties, nor for the journey they must take through life. Focus on your own journey and learn what it is teaching you: how to be lovingly detached, how to be compassionately healthy, how to be kind to others but not to lose yourself nor wallow in what cannot be undone. Face yourself each day and get right within yourself, and without blame take responsibility for what you think, what you need, and what you want. It’s your journey. Take it forward now with loving kindness, compassion, and with a humble and grateful heart. Trust also that all journeys through life are full of the most important lessons for each person to learn, your own no more or less important than that of another. Let yourself be free now to carry on without blame, no matter what life throws at you. But do strive to perfect your own SOUL’s intent, even as you realize you cannot perfect that of another—that’s their job. But your own job is clearer now: to live and learn and grow every day, without blame.
You aren’t doing anything wrong. You aren’t bad. You’re just trying to figure out life and that naturally entails making mistakes, taking wrong turns, not knowing the best route to take, or fumbling around trying to figure things out. Eventually you learn. That is what a mistake does, it teaches, and yet the truth is, there are no mistakes. Every action and reaction has value. Every step, every falter, every decision and indecision has something to offer as you journey through life. Don’t be so hard on yourself. But do begin each day eager to learn, and with humbleness in your heart accept your appointment with life. Prepare to meet what comes to teach you in the best way possible. Be mindful. Remain aware of the unfolding journey that is your life, a cumulative experience. Remember what you have already learned and prepare each day to learn something new. Every moment is a teaching moment, an opportunity to learn, and there is value in even the most mundane of tasks and the simplest of experiences. The lesson is in recognizing it, learning what it means to you personally, remembering it, and moving on to the next great lesson. That’s life! Live it every day with the joy and openness of an eager apprentice. One day you will be a master.
So, you’ve made a decision. You’ve chosen a new path, a new direction, a change to strive for, an experience to gain in this New Year. Now go with the flow of it. It might not be exactly what you expected. It might not be granting exactly what you wished for. It might not be exactly to your liking. It might not be unfolding as you had anticipated, but go with the flow anyway, for once embarked upon a journey grows out of your control and your best decision then is to be fully present with what is, with what happens. Just be yourself, but also allow yourself to relax; be open and loving, and just go with the flow. It’s only then that you will truly be in alignment with your decision and prepared to meet what comes to you with purity of mind, with gentleness of heart, and without judgment. It’s only then that you will realize that everything is EXACTLY as it should be. Go with the flow and enjoy every moment, all the unexpected gifts you are challenged with, and especially the discovery that you are getting exactly what you need! Now that is truly how to travel a path with heart!
Dare to trespass and grapple with the dweller! – Photo by Chuck Ketchel
The dweller* is the ruler of the subconscious, in the basement of our human being personality. I also call the dweller the little soul of the personality. The dweller is bound to nature’s survival instinct with sex in the forefront for species survival, and food, shelter, material resource and power acquisition its focus at the level of personal survival.
The dweller relies upon nature’s instinctual archetypes to maintain physical homeostasis and prompt behavioral action. The dweller is extremely conservative, it stays with what works, the programs that have ensured planetary evolutionary survival. These programs are encoded in our DNA, our ancestral memory and, ultimately, in our deepest karma, our high SOUL’s purpose for sending us into this earthly life.
The dweller doesn’t think and is not open to change. Like a conservative fundamentalist, it follows, without question, the commandments of the archetypes. In the absence of new orders it stays with what works. Even if one has been miserable an entire life, from the dweller’s perspective this represents successful survival and, hence, it is loathe to allow new, consciously sought after behaviors to stick. In fact, like a hidden sniper, it patiently awaits its opportunity to defeat them.
The ego Soul, bearer of consciousness, lives in the ground floor of the human personality, as a result of its decision to gain knowledge and make its own decisions in Eden, resulting in its banishment from nature, the dweller’s domain in the basement. Curiously, though the dweller is bound to its programs, like a willing soldier it immediately responds to orders from elsewhere, such as from ego Soul, influential others, or public opinion.
This, in a nutshell, is the heart of hypnosis. The hypnotist becomes the ruler of the dweller through suggestions that the dweller enacts upon command. In fact, we, as ego Souls, are all self-hypnotists, constantly sending suggestions to the dweller through the repetitive internal dialogue of our thoughts. Thus the dweller manifests in the body in how we think about ourselves.
This includes our central nervous system, which the dweller oversees. Thus, if we tell ourselves we are not safe, the dweller activates neurological signals and chemical processes that mold us into body-clenching, anxious beings. If we maintain this belief system over time, the dweller institutes this habitual thought pattern as a permanent program, with its resulting body state—however uncomfortable it may be—as a proven survival program, the dweller’s guiding priority.
Here we witness the familiar vicious cycle of ego Soul attempting to enact change by exercising intent, discipline, mantra, or downright discipline and, after some optimistic initial success, ultimately being defeated. The hidden dynamic is the dweller, at first following ego Soul’s orders but actually opposed to them, laying in wait for a vulnerable moment to defeat the ego Soul’s heroic efforts with doubt and defeatism, whereby restoring the more trustworthy program of familiar hell. In truth, the ego Soul might willingly collude with the dweller’s plot, as glimpses of the unfamiliar lightness of being might scare the ego to death!
Often, ego Soul turns to the upstairs occupant of its human personality, the high Self, who is connected to the high SOUL, to seek solace and guidance and, frankly, to escape from the dweller’s paralyzing grip, which repeatedly freezes the possibility of change. Thus, we might turn to inspirational music, prayer, or positive self-help books to infuse ourselves with the positive energy of heaven, seeking release from the darkness of our private hell.
Dweller in Angel, contained… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Many religions offer the technology to cast out and cut off the devil dweller and identify instead with the beings of light: saints and angels. Psychologically, this often results in a state of dissociation where a major part of the psyche is disowned, the consequences of which, in extreme form, can be seen in bipolar disorder, where one swings from living a powerful identification with the dweller to a powerful identification with pure angel.
The plight of the Catholic Church, as well as many institutions and individuals outed by #MeToo, reflects the consequences of the disowned dweller unleashed in the dark, contrasted by only the sunny angel appearing in the light of day. Out-of-body practitioners must also be aware of their own physical body dweller, as the tendency of New Age technologies is to covet the light and disown the dweller in the dark basement. If you are in human form there is no escaping the force of the dweller.
Ironically, both Jung and Trump agree on one thing: we must construct the walls of a mandala sanctuary within if we are to safely integrate the powerful forces at all levels of the personality: little soul, ego Soul and SOUL. Trump reflects everyman/woman in his struggle to contain those forces within himself and has consequently become a major channel to the dark collective dweller archetypes that are currently wreaking havoc on the human playing field. Would that Trump would grasp that his projected wall must be created within himself!
Trump’s journey is instructive to everyone. We all possess the dweller, the angel, and an ego. We must use our ego to fully own all that we are. We must create a container, build that wall within, versus identifying exclusively with dweller or angel while projecting the dark side outside of ourselves onto someone else, or some other race.
As we bear the tension of our mandala container in our own body, with the dweller’s help we can turn toward the angel for inspiration and comfort. And then, well, see what happens! This is the journey of soul to meet its higher SOUL, the topic of next week’s blog. Until then, build your inner wall mandala, the sanctuary and proving ground for your own personal journey of wholeness and completion.
Contained,
Chuck
*I am deeply indebted to Elmer Green and his life’s opus, TheOzawkie Book of the Dead, for introducing the term dweller in the context I use it. Jan and I are on our fifth reading of this treasured three-volume masterpiece. It is truly a diamond, cultivated from the rough work of living a fully explored life.
Also Please Note: We are currently publishing Chuck’s blogs on Tuesdays.
Allow for the intersection of mind and body on a new playing field of consciousness, with mind and body relaxed, both elements freed of fears and old ideas. Keeping attuned to each of them, notice how they each have their own agendas. Keep them in line so that they become one, connected by heart, by love, by caring, and by a new eagerness to take life to a new level. Get in alignment with that new agenda. That can only be done through a conscious, consistent effort. But remember, each day is a new day, a brand new beginning, an opportunity to start over. Grab every chance to renew. On this day, start with the truth. Declare it out loud, and begin from there, with love in your heart, with wisdom gained, with knowledge earned, and be open to all that is to come, challenging though it may be. Stay conscious. Stay heart centered. Stay in the field of love.
