#555 Death: The Great Releaser

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Today, Chuck asks a question.

Dear Jeanne,
On Saturday, I wrote about the time of now, the darkening of the light. Recently, we, and many people within our sphere, have been dealing with sudden death, near death, and imminent death. This weekend has brought the unexpected death of a young person, as well as several serious car accidents of some young people, including our daughter Erica. Jan and I have also been dealing with issues surrounding the end of life decisions of an elderly family member. As darkness descends I see its message of death as an advisor. We truly live as if we are immortals in our bodies. I see darkness as it encroaches upon the light, stirring us to carefully protect and truly actualize our lives. I ask for your commentary.

My Dear Ones, when death comes into your lives there is but one thing to remember and one thing to contemplate and that is that all must die. It is an inevitable fact of life. However, while you live you must learn to truly live and this is what death reminds you of as well. Death is not an end in itself, though it is the demise of the human form. But in reality it is new life, as a new birth into energetic form takes place at the moment of death. In order to truly learn from the experiences of death, near death, and the natural ending of life that you have lately been experiencing, so must you turn to your knowledge of life as energy and energy as eternal.

Facing death holds much sorrow and sadness for those who must contend with loss, but death is the great releaser of energy that is no longer needing connection to life upon that earth. At release comes great awareness of the self as energy and as having lived upon the plane of earth for a reason, but it is also the moment of decision for what comes next. This I have spoken of before and it must become a part of your awareness of death, that it is not truly loss, but truly new life for the one who takes the releasing journey.

Now, to address the natural end of life; this must become a common thread throughout life, that each of you may live long lives and face your own death in aged physical disrepair. This is your choice, once made a long time ago. What are you supposed to learn from the process you go through with the elderly in your lives? What does the natural end of life process that you are partaking in now teach you about the self? How will you approach your own natural demise, if this be your journey?

To address the question of accidents, I think you already know that there is no such thing as an accident. In your own lives, My Dear Ones, what does an abrupt halt to your plans show you? Are you being asked to slow down? Are you being asked to take another route? Are you being shown that you have been too hasty, too reckless, too slow, too thoughtless, too unaware, or even perhaps too inflated?

These questions, and many more, may lead to clarity in discovering why a young person, even our own daughter, must suffer a serious and abrupt change in direction. Such a time offers the opportunity to search within the self for answers, rather than place blame or reason for pain upon others. Even young people are given the opportunity to deeply contemplate the value they place upon their own bodies, as you surmise, Chuck.

This leads now to your own essay, My Dear Chuck, regarding the darkening of the light. Such a time asks for collective inner contemplation, as exhibited by the events of death and near-death all around you. A collective inward turning to the inner light will hold, solidly protected, the truth of each of you, but it will also hold protected the collective truth that cannot be released at this time.

There is a new energy that has been making its way toward great change upon that earth and each of you who reside there now have some of this energy within. You would not be there otherwise. Even those who do not appear to carry this light of change that is so necessary and vital have been the bearers of those of you who do carry it. So do not look upon the dissenting or the deniers as anti-change. They play their parts. But now, during a time of darkening, it is as you have already pointed out, a time to go innerly, to hold onto the inner truth of the self, as an individual, knowing that this is the collective truth seeking change, seeking release into new life, the same metaphor I choose to use for death.

So you see, life and death are but different forms of the same thing. They are collective energy individualized, in each one of you who are the bearers of new life, in one form or another. You always carry new life within you, even as you must confront death in its many forms and its many messages, teaching you to look to the self.

The time of inward turning does not mean the death of change, it means that a time of incubation must be undertaken in order for the collective truth to become known, as well as the individual understanding of why sudden deaths, accidents, and even expected deaths are present. All energy is guiding energy. All events, challenges, tests, and processes are valuable, no matter what age. Find the inner truth based on what you know about energy within the physical body and what you know about that same energy outside of the body. Each of you, if you have not consciously experienced the self as energy, do dream each night, taking journeys in your energy body, and this is what you must use to guide you in understanding energy, life, and death.

In conclusion, a journey belongs to an individual, no matter the age or the maturity. Each person must make choices as to how they will grow and deal with the circumstances they find themselves in. Even our daughter must discover why she is in the painful state she now finds herself in. And if she is not truly ready to understand, then that is fine, for she is learning so much of value anyway. The mature ones among you must step back and truly let nature take its course. The energy of life must be allowed to evolve whether it be continued life upon that earth in physical form or not. Whether that form is temporarily or permanently damaged, so must the energy in each individual be allowed to teach the lessons without interference.

Guidance and advice may always influence another but, ultimately, each individual must decide for themselves how to live and how to die. Both are choices, and they are supremely important decisions that must be attended to, no matter the age.

Collectively and individually, as you suggest and I concur, it is now a time to not only protect and value physical self and the experiences being presented, but also to energetically keep the inner light alive, fed, and nurtured by what is most important for now.

I hope this message aids you as the coming weeks of outer darkness approach asking for greater inner turning. Keeping the flame well tended is the antidote. You are certainly right about that, My Dear Chuck. Thank you for keeping the light.

#554 Chuck’s Place: Darkening of the Light: Ascent of the Prince of Darkness

Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences! Many of the shamanic and psychological terms used in Chuck’s essays are defined in Tools & Definitions on our Psychotherapy website.

Recently, in my quest to ascertain the overriding archetype of now, the I Ching presented me with Hexagram #36: Darkening of the Light. This hexagram is built, at its base, with the trigram of fire encapsulated by the trigram of the mountain, hence, the hexagram depicts fire within the mountain, light surrounded on all sides by darkness.

The interplay of these trigrams reflects this time of year, as we approach summer’s end. The zenith of the sun’s power on one day, June 21st, has long since past, as, slowly but surely, darkness encroaches upon the duration of light in each day. Internally, our creative energies stir, seeking release and life before they must retreat deep into the psyche, like all seeds requiring long germination, until they are born anew in the spring. We approach the time of universal SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, the time of natural depression, as potential life sinks into the earth where it must await the proper time for its return.

What is critical in the time of darkening of the light is an attitude of acquiescence to the inevitable. The I Ching teaches that the Prince of Darkness ascends to absolute power in this time. The only recourse for the Prince of Light is to retreat deep within the self, hiding its light, attracting no unnecessary attention, remaining inwardly protective of the truth. This inward resolve requires intense perseverance as outer conditions turn unfavorable to its expression. This is not a time to take on battles with evil directly.

When we look at the energetic dynamics currently erupting on our national stage we see the synchronistic reverberation of darkening of the light. President Obama has advanced the cause of health care reform in America, a necessity so obvious and right that I waste no time here in its defense. We see daily the archetypal armies of the Prince of Darkness seizing any opportunity to consume all the light of goodness and rightness of Obama’s intent. In this context, the Prince of Darkness employs the cloak of greed, enlisting corporate sponsors, Republican extremists, and the Christian Right to advance his cause: total consumption of the light.

These attacks are not rational arguments being advanced to challenge the President. They are irrational frenzied energies that have slumbered in the collective unconscious, awaiting their opportunity to slip into life. They found their opening with the health care debate. They come armed with hate, rage, and, sometimes, guns to the battleground of town hall meetings, with the goal of annihilation. They bring symbols of National Socialism: swastikas, and Hitler’s mustache imposed upon Obama’s image, as well as an onslaught of inciting propaganda. What we see before us is a people possessed by archetypal energies that seek to exterminate: wipe out the good and the light.

We live in times of deep depression and deflation of our national pride as we face the ruins created by the former administration and the truths revealed by the present administration. In some ways, our American depression can be compared to Germany following World War I, the very conditions that gave rise to the archetypal evil perpetrated by Hitler as he sought to inflate the value of the German “volk”, rather than face the true reality of Germany’s inferior position. In fact, a nation in ruins needs to slowly and soberly find its appropriate place in the world. The Prince of Darkness is seeking a similar opening in the American psyche, denying the reality of our truths, seeking instead to maintain the notion of “America über alles.”

The cadres of the Prince of Darkness project evil and darkness upon Obama, a man of color. In fact, Obama reigns as the Prince of Light, maintaining the candle of truth amidst the prevailing darkness. Unfortunately, America’s tolerance for the sober truth is undercut by its characteristic childish desire for instant relief. This is where the Prince of Darkness preys upon the collective American psyche and weakens its needed perseverance and tolerance for the slow wheel of necessary change.

Through Obama’s brilliant management of the crisis in the auto industry we now have GM introducing the Chevy Volt on the near horizon. A volt is an energetic measurement. The introduction of the Volt is the beginning of a long awaited energetic shift. The electric car, which has been suppressed for decades to ensure our dependence on the oil industry, is finally being born. Obama has cleared the way for this emergence through demanding change. All car companies will follow suit. In a few years, even the Prius may be viewed as a gas guzzler. Despite Obama’s obvious progress, the Prince of Darkness continues to prey upon our demanding American baby that deserves it all, now!

The I Ching counsels the absolute necessity to go inward and hold firmly to one’s truth in the time of darkening of the light. This is the same advice the shamans give when confronting one’s petty tyrant. The shamans appreciate the time of darkness as the time to remold oneself by disengaging from the grip of the baby, with its self importance, soberly observing the real facts at hand, taking right action. In practical terms this means not engaging the irrational insanity of the energy being unleashed at town hall meetings. Such restraint is difficult because of the assault to reason these protesters bring. It’s not personal and to engage this irrationality directly would result in being consumed by it, either through annihilation or by becoming possessed by the same rageful energy in an attempt to combat it. This restraint requires not attaching to victimhood. The trick is to hold onto the truth, advance it when possible, and not get caught in the web of anger, battling the Prince of Darkness on his terms, which are irrational, incitant fury and rage. Ultimately, the challenge is to hold onto one’s light, with tenacity and the clear knowledge that the time of darkening of light will pass, and that the conditions for the Prince of Light to emerge victoriously will return.

Now is not the time to exhaust oneself in a battle with the archetypal energies of the Prince of Darkness. In fact, the I Ching points out that evil can only be sustained through feeding upon the light. If the light retreats, the evil energy loses its sustenance.

The shamans counsel that the flyer entities, or the Prince of Darkness, constantly feast upon our energy by engaging us in all sorts of emotional entanglements, which all boil down to affronts to our self-importance. We can use these entities to help us lose our self-importance by retreating from the trap of feeling offended: victimhood. In this way, we maintain our true light, protecting it from unnecessary traps, as we patiently and perseveringly await the time of darkening of the light to pass, as we reemerge, at the right time, our light guiding the way to new life.

As usual, should anyone wish to write, I can be reached at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com

Until we meet again,
Chuck

#553 The Life You Live is of Your Choosing

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have guidance for us today?

It is time to continue in the flow of your life, accepting that this is where you are now. The questions to ask the self are these: How do I elect to deal with the situation I find myself in? Do I acquiesce and remain aware of the ever-present energy as it guides me? Or do I resist the process of my journey and refuse participation for some reason? What are the deeper reasons for making the decisions and choosing the steps I take in my life? Why do I do what I do? Who is in charge of my life?

Ultimately, the challenges we all face in our lives upon that earth relate very specifically to us alone, though the challenges may be posed by those outside of us. If we keep ourselves isolated from society, with little human contact, that too presents us with our own inner dilemmas. Why must we constantly face challenges? Why can we not simply exist, free of such interruptions? Why must we constantly be making choices and determining what is right? Why must life be so difficult?

These are questions that I hear quite often among those of you who reside upon the earth plane. I can only answer from my own perspective and the journey I have taken thus far. Life upon that earth is full of challenges because it is the greatest feat, the greatest gift, and the greatest opportunity you will ever receive. Your earth time is your learning ground where you have the opportunity, during each lifetime, to assemble all knowledge, in an understanding of energy and the true journey, to reach a point of evolving beyond that place. It is truly a most exciting journey if you become aware of its potential and the possibilities that it offers you.

Do you find it difficult to grasp the ideas of energy and energetic discourse and connection? Is it too farfetched to speak of everything as energy and everything as meaningful? Is it too much to ask that you trust that your journey is, no matter how difficult or seemingly mundane, the perfect journey for you to take at this time?

I am full of questions today! The last one I will ask you is: Have you discovered what it is that you, as an individual entity, are supposed to learn from this life? Study your life intently for the answers. Each one of you has a core challenge to discover and resolve in that lifetime. It may be the same challenge that you have struggled with for many lifetimes, or you may have decided to return with a fresh challenge, having already completed others. The choices to face challenges and to elect to evolve are yours alone. With enlightenment (meaning gaining clarity, awareness, and access to all knowledge) you are also presented with options on what to do next with your energetic self. Whether to elect a new lifetime upon that earth, or to go on to the next level of being is your choice, and this is what I stress next. The life you live is of your choosing.

This topic has been touched upon by many upon that earth who have visited the upper realms of awareness. I can stress that this choice of life challenge is, most often, made in full awareness. It is made by your spirit because it is ready to take on such a challenge to further train the awareness that lies waiting, in each of you, for nurturance and cultivation.

Today, I leave you to ponder the many questions I pose. Only in deep inner questing will you discover who you truly are and why you are there. But remain equally certain that the life you live, the people you meet, the circumstances you are in, and the challenges you face are all part of your own plan for growth. You are the choice maker. You are your own ultimate challenger and teacher. You are your own greatest asset and partner. You are your own greatest gift, offering your self the answers you desire.

Close your eyes and go into your inner silent self. Find the answers to every thing you seek, ready and waiting for you to unearth them. For they have been but slumbering alongside you, waiting for you to recognize them again, as they appear to guide you on your journey. Every thing you encounter has been encountered before, set up by you. Now it is up to you to decide how to proceed, in actuality, based on all the decisions and choices thus far made. You are an evolving being, living an evolving life, unfolding each day toward clarity and growth.

See what happens next. See if you recognize the circumstances. See if you know exactly what to do, without thinking, but by the guidance of your inner self knowing what is right. Good Luck!

#552 Immerse in the Undercurrent of Calm

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a message or some guidance for us today?

The energy now will continue to cause great stress, yearning, and even turn quite wild, but underneath it all lies calmness and a new energy of inner peace. Find this undercurrent. Do not simply dabble your feet or fingers in it, but fully immerse your selves in it, My Dears. For it is the energy you have been seeking for a long time. Little did you realize that it was present the whole time. It is always present and ready to receive you, but you must be ready to engage it, to become it, and to fully acquiesce to the fact that this calmness it affords, this clarity, is what you have been seeking.

In times such as these that now reign upon your planet, the calm undercurrent becomes more known and apparent to those with the right seeking mind. This undercurrent resonates with heart-centered knowing and will find its way to alerting you to its presence. It will also offer you access to itself so that you may find it. Your challenge is to finally acquiesce to its beauty, its stability, and its spiritual certainty, though it may not give you the highs and lows of the upper energy.

The upper energy may feed your ego’s desire to be fully engaged, while the lower calm undercurrent is fully available for your spiritual self and your spirit’s endeavors to become more firmly grounded. Even though the upper/outer energy may, at this time, seek quite forcefully to keep you attached to it, you cannot deny that the inner/spiritual self craves something different. Well, I am suggesting that you do not need to go looking very far for what that might be. It is present now. It is available.

How do you get to it? How do you disengage the outer energy that calls so needily, asking for your attention, as a baby calls in the night? How can you leave a helpless baby lying screaming in the night? It is a very difficult thing to do! But look at it this way: Is it really a helpless baby screaming in the night? Or, is it something else that is simply acting like a baby? Are you being called out to test something that the self must learn or do? If so, seek what that lesson is and find that, perhaps, you have passed its test already. If you are still trying to learn the lesson, you must determine why you are being brought to this testing center over and over again. What are you being shown?

Accept your challenges. You are not limited or bad in any way. You are not mean or selfish. You are merely being presented with issues that must be owned and utilized, to their fullest, so that you may move on, having fully learned what you, specifically, must learn from them.

Your detachment must come from fulfillment of your duties based on complete clarity and understanding of what you are being challenged with. Once clarity is gained and your lessons learned and fully owned, as necessary, then it is time to move on, no longer bound by the need to repeat the lesson, but by your spirit’s desire to move on to inner work, inner calm, and the underlying energy of support, love, and complete compassion for the self and others.

Does this make sense?

Yes, I think it does. What does it mean if the outer energy continues to batter us, asking more of us?

It may mean that you must look again and see if there really is something left undone. Or, are you being energetically teased out of your good standing by the entities that have long fed off you and do not like to be left behind? You may find that it is merely the last futile attempt by such entities to see if you have truly learned your lessons and truly moved on.

Remaining grounded in heart-centered inner calm, fully immersed in the energy of the undercurrent that I speak of, will help in discovering the truth of the outer energy. From this place of calm, right knowing will guide you, true resonance of self will come forth, and truth of each situation you are confronted with will be revealed.

Finding your own inner place of calm, your personal undercurrent of good and nurturing energy is what to look for now. It beckons you to find it, to bathe in its safety and protection, and to reside in its knowing, clarity, and stability. You see, all I am saying is that, within you, you hold everything you need and seek. You are complete. You just need to hold off the outer/feeding energy of the world around you, the conjuring mind, and the false presentations. Go innerly and listen to your inner spirit, speaking words of wisdom, telling you to let that outer world go for a while, as you rediscover and reconnect with this aspect of true self. That’s all.

#551 A Day of Reconciliation & Action

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a Monday morning message for all of your readers?

My Dear Ones, today is a day of reconciliation. It is a day to realize your transgressions, issues, habits, denials, regressive behaviors, and the repetitive signs showing that you continue to be caught in old patterns, but it is also a day of punctuation and growth. Reconciliation comes to guide and to further you along your path. Do not regard the self as a failure when reviewing the actions and thoughts of the self, but accept the possibility that, individual though you may be, you are equally part of the collective whole.

In order to release the self now into a place of progressive recapitulation and spiritual growth, it is important to understand how the collective whole works to guide and challenge you. Though you may feel that your challenges belong to you alone, be certain that they are afforded you by the same energy that gifts so many others with their own challenges. Do not dismiss others as less challenged, or not in need of guidance as you may think you are, for that is not appropriate behavior for an evolving being. That is the ego delving into self-pity and self-immolation.

Today, this day of reconciliation asks several things of you:

1. Dismantle the aspect of ego that interrupts your evolutionary flow. For each one of you it will be a different aspect of the outer self, but it is nonetheless present to test and tease you. Perhaps it is so well trained in its testing ability that you don’t even know it as ego.

2. Use recapitulation of the ego self to shift from this place that continues to hold you captive. Use it wisely and truthfully to prove to your self, once again, that you have an issue that is most prevalent as a recycler of your energy, repetitively reclaiming it, feeding off it, and generally stealing it from you. This may be in the form of an emotional habit, a physical habit, a mental habit, a greedy habit, a passive habit, or any repetitive habit that continues to emerge as your buddy and your torturer.

3. Reconcile with the inner self on a continual basis in order to maintain a constant connection.

4. Do not reprimand the self for engaging or not attending to any of the above suggestions for growth, but do acknowledge that it is time to take the next step.

This step may come in any form that is personal and directly related to your most prominent issues. However, fully understand that the collective whole and the energy of the collective whole stand behind each and every one of you, and this energy pushes now for reconciliation, ego release, inner attention, and a new step forward; one that has long been procrastinated over, mulled over, pushed for, and held you long enough in a place of indecision.

This step is known. The action that is right has already been revealed. Now is the time to move on. Without regret must you make your next step, My Dears. That is what the energy of reconciliation, recapitulation, and the collective whole is asking of you. It is very good energy today, in spite of your idea that it may not be. Your fears will be allayed as time goes on, for you will experience release as you edge your way closer to this energy that is present to guide you. Ask it to help. Call upon the energy of the universe, the collective whole, and the inner self to guide you through this current moment of reconciliation with the ego self.

Step out now. Take the next step in becoming the true you. It is the right time to take some action that is truly transformative, ego busting, spirit building, and evolutionarily monitored and guided.