Monthly Archives: November 2009

Messages from Jeanne

#611 You are Energetically in Charge

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Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Today we begin a new work week after a few days of respite. Do you have a message of guidance for us?

My Dear Ones, I wish to begin by enticing you into reassessing your lives as an unfolding process, a project as yet unfinished, each day presenting a new element that may shore up the foundations of your energetic undercurrent. Each day are you presented with the next step in your process. Although that step may be bold and quite energetically charged, or quite subtle and barely noticed, so are you offered the guidance you need in your individual lives.

Look not too far from the self for what you need in your life. Look not too far into the future, too quickly desiring too much, or expecting only disaster or fault. Look not with impatience into your future, but with measured contentment, knowing that each day you are, without a doubt, being shown what to do next, where to go, how to approach your next assignment with life, knowing that you are indeed ready for what comes.

Do not doubt that you are fully capable of handling what comes to greet you as you arise, open your door, and step out into the energy of the new day. You are ready. You have prepared well for this day. You are strong, capable, ready, and eager for the next step in your life.

Move flowingly into the energy of this coming time. It too meets you with equivalent readiness, wishing to merge with your energy, to surround you with properties of attention and support, so that you may remain aware that you are energetically in charge.

Remain aware of this phenomenon as you begin a new day, My Dear Ones. Your energy, that inner self that you step out into the world with today, is fully in your control. Your inner energy may be humming nicely, or it may be nervous, excited, afraid, bold, or touchingly sensitive today. It may be sad, depressed or quite overwhelmed by the bigness of the events in your life, or daunted by the seeming inertia in the flow of your life. But I ask all of you, no matter what the state of your inner energy today, to be aware that it is attempting to guide you, to speak to you, to show you something, to point out to you where you truly need to go now. I ask that you do not push aside, cover over, or pretend away the inner energy of the self today. This inner energy is present so that you may use it, so that you may not only take note of it, but so that you may allow it to deeply guide you to acknowledgment of the issues of the self that you see reflected all around you.

Today is an inner day. Begin from this inner self. Stay connected to it as you throw your energy back out into the world of work, outer exploration, and challenge. Stay connected to this inner self, if even by a thin line of connection no bigger than a thread. Stay in touch with this inner energy of self, this place you feel, for it is the truth of where you are now. With it fully known, recognized, and embraced, accept this place of self as your foundation for your next step in life.

Where do you need to go next? This knowing self will guide your life. By your intent to flow with your life you will be shown where to go. Your challenge each day is to remain connected to this inner truth of self as you step out your door and meet the energy that comes to awaken and guide you. Greet it fully, trustingly, and with love and compassion for self and others in your heart.

Your challenges in life are indeed many, for that is how you grow. Good luck as you accept your next step forward. The energy awaits you!

News and Notes

Our Thanks for a Break

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Dear Readers and Fellow Explorers,

Today’s message is posted below. We will be taking a much needed short break over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Messages from Jeanne and Chuck’s Place will resume starting on Monday, November 30, 2009.

We encourage the giving of life. If you are heading out to begin your holiday shopping on Black Friday we ask you to consider giving the film Food Inc. to everyone on your gift list. It offers timely, meaningful, and helpful insight into how to live a life that is respectful, modest, and thoughtful of all life.

Happy Thanksgiving! See you soon!
Love,
Jan, Chuck, and Jeanne

Messages from Jeanne

#610 Inner & Outer Balance: The 4th Step in Learning Detachment

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Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
What guidance do you have for us today?

Find the equilibrium that suits you as you go forward now in your lives, My Dear Ones. Do not look with regret or sadness upon the transgressions of others nor the complications that develop as all seek to find stability in their personal lives. This is a time of disruption and turmoil coupled with understanding the certainty and necessity of life as a learning ground. In firmly establishing the self on a journey of growth so is one quite automatically prepared for the journey that lies ahead, whether it be traveled over rocky roads, steep paths, challenging terrain, or upon smooth and flowing waters. Life is meant to be a challenge and a joy.

Seek to find the balance between the challenges and the joys in your lives, My Dear Readers, between the disruptions and the smooth flowing life you so desire. Utilize your lessons and your practices in evolutionary growth to firmly ground you in your lives upon that earth, and in your spiritual existence as well.

Firmly embedding the self in the journey that has become known to you, as you do your inner work, will enable further growth. In acquiescing to the inevitable, one complies with the purpose of life and learns to accept the lessons that come to guide.

I suggest that establishing a calm inner balance and an equally calm outer balance is the next step in your process of learning detachment. This is the fourth step in a process that entails doing quite a lot of inner work while remaining fully engaged in the outer world. This process of understanding the two worlds as complicit and equally necessary, challenging, and purposeful, is part of learning detachment. Without a fuller understanding of every aspect of life as being part of your process of evolution your ability to learn detachment will be snarled.

Inner balance and outer balance are maintained as one recognizes how they are constantly at odds, confronting each other, pulling one way or the other as life unfolds. Today, the outer energy may push your inner energy to retaliate in withdrawal. The outer energy may ask for too much, seeking excess at a time when it is far better to establish rules of conduct that are conducive to the truths of the inner self, forced to live upon that earth at a time when there is rampant excess.

In times of overabundance there is a tendency to overindulge whether this be in material or emotional form. Considering the self as an evolutionary being, ask the following: What is really most important at this time in your life? What do you wish to offer the self? What do you wish to offer others? How do you want to use your energy while at the same time remain fully present in your world? Consider your place in life at this very moment of your existence. Contemplate it seriously, realistically, and truthfully. Where are you, in all aspects of your life?

Establish a sense of balance based upon these conclusions of self by acquiescing to your truths. Find the inner calm and the outer calm that are available to you now, at this moment in your life. Use this inner and outer state of calmness as your gauge. Feel what it feels like. Ingrain it in your body and mind so that you may return to it when needed, whether it be a known state of calm, already familiar, or unknown, but fairly easy to regain. If you do not find a certain sense of calmness then accept that as your place of self now, because in order to learn to balance the inner and outer self one must have a reference point to return to over and over again. Do not be hard on the self if you cannot gain a familiar or desired balance, for the point of this exercise is to establish a baseline of balance, based on this moment.

Begin to feel what it means to be in balance, in a state of flux with inner and outer realities, allowing the self to take in, observe, and respect all that comes to you, allowing the self to flow with life without extremes of emotions, reactions, or physical stresses. Learning to flow, establishing a reference point of inner and outer balance without judgment or condemnation, and asking the self to return to this place of balance as often as possible is learning detachment in the flow of every day life.

Remind the self often to get into balance. Ask the self, each day, to take a few moments, a few deep breaths, a few inner heart-centered breaths and a few deeply invigorating breaths of fresh air to establish the self in both the inner world and the outer world.

Be thankful for a life that offers you the opportunity to constantly be challenged to broaden your outlook, your experiences, and your ideas of the self and others. Be thankful for a life that offers you the opportunity to grow and evolve.

Chuck's Blog

#609 Chuck’s Place: I Am a Being Unfamiliar to Myself: Removing the Tent of Intent

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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.

Several years ago, at a Tensegrity training in Barcelona we, the practitioners, were assigned to answer, in writing, the question: “Who am I?”. I was sure I had the correct sorcery definition of self: “I am a being who is going to die.” The truth was, however, that I was a being in hiding, terrified to speak a word in this foreign land. My high school Spanish blended with my college German to form a “foreign language,” the same language that comes to me whether in a Spanish speaking or German speaking country. To avoid humiliation my self-importance chose to become mute. In one store I opened my shaking hands filled with change, holding them like a beggar, while the disdainful shopkeeper picked out the appropriate coins for payment of my purchase. In this moment, the tent of my intent was the cloak of the beggar, embodying my fear and shame.

Jan and Jeanne, in Message #606 The Mystery and Magic of Intent, explored the notion of identifying the intent we are attached to and learning to free ourselves from being bound by that intent. Our personal intent creates a tent around us that embodies that intent; we physically become that intent. In Jan’s dream, Carlos Castaneda introduced her to a magical pass to remove this tent of intent as follows:

Removing The Tent of Intent Magical Pass: Imagine that a sheet is draped over your head and your intent is to remove it. Stand with legs slightly bent at the knees, feet comfortably apart. Bending the left arm at the elbow, palm facing up, raise it to the side of the head above the left ear even with the top of the head, elbow pointing straight ahead. Breathing in, hook the sheet with curled fingers and gracefully push it away, with a definite and forceful exhalation, in a downward sweep out to the left, which then rises in a wavelike gesture away from the body ending with left arm fully extended at shoulder level, fingers pointing to the side and palm back. Return arm to left side. Do this on the right side as well. Repeat at least three times.

In shamanistic terms, when we remove the tent of intent we allow for a shift in the assemblage point, a ball of awareness on our luminous body that, depending upon its position, determines how we interpret who we are and the world we live in. However slight that shift, we become a being unfamiliar to ourselves. With that shift our body changes, our thoughts change, our feelings change, our “issues” change, time changes. We step out of the familiar into new possibility, perhaps for a moment, like a deja vu experience, or permanently, a new being.

Sorcerers have many techniques to remove the tent of intent. They propose that the number one reason we remain familiar, ad nauseam, to ourselves, is our incessant internal dialogue that constantly tells us what we think, what we feel, who we are, and how to act, which we then obligingly manifest in our bodies. This creates the tent of our intent. Shamans would argue that we unconsciously perform self-hypnosis all the time to maintain a consistently familiar sense of self. One exception is in dreaming where the tent of our intent is automatically lifted as the assemblage point is dislodged from its habitual position. This is why shamans place a premium on learning The Art of Dreaming, taught in Carlos Castaneda’s book of the same name. To counter the incessant internal dialogue shamans employ practices to achieve a state of Inner Silence. A set of magical passes for inner silence can be found in Carlos Castaneda’s book Magical Passes.

Another sorcery method to remove the tent of intent is the practice of Not Doings. Not doings are behaviors individually selected to interrupt the energetic flow of habitual patterns. For instance, wearing two different shoes, two different socks, underwear turned backwards, or creating an OCD ritual for a day all serve to disrupt the typical self-hypnotic suggestions that we normally operate under to embody our familiar sense of self. Sorcerers embark on more extended not doings in a practice they call Stalking, where they literally embody the habits and behaviors of an unfamiliar personality, freeing themselves from their familiar selves, going so far as to actually change their names and live as new characters, a kind of improvisation gone semi-permanent. This volitional interruption of the habitual energetic flow of the self develops the ability to fluidly remove one’s tent of intent. I would add to these practices the use of conscious self-hypnosis to disrupt the flow of unconscious self-hypnosis. Create your personal mantra, state it incessantly, like saying an unending rosary. Watch what happens!

Shamans and physicists tell us that all things are connected. The thesis of The Holographic Universe, as presented by Michael Talbot in his book of the same name, suggests that infinity exists, all things exist, in every grain of sand. Everything that exists, exists in you and in me. What is it then that gives us definition, our tent of intent? I believe don Juan’s answer to this question would be our predilection, our personal preferences. In other words, what tent of intent do we choose, perhaps forsaking all others, though with fluidity we have access to them all. If we are able to remove the tent of intent we are free to explore and embody infinite possibility, or simply change.

If today I were asked the same question that was posed in Barcelona (Who am I?) my response would be: I am a being intent upon becoming unfamiliar to myself, intent upon removing the tent of intent.

As always, should anyone wish to write, I can be reached at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com or feel free to post a comment.

Until we meet again,
Chuck

NOTE: The books mentioned in this article are available in our Store. This is not a sales pitch, simply a convenient link.

Messages from Jeanne

#608 Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone

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Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
What guidance do you have for us today?

I am inclined to remind you to always gauge your selves within the context of a greater picture. You are important, your issues and challenges must be met in order to evolve, your work on the self must continue in order for your personal growth. These things are certain or you will not evolve, but I must remind you to occasionally pull your head up out of the water and look around you. Take in some deep breaths of fresh air and re-establish your direction by the points on your horizon, taking in how far you have come and how much you have accomplished before heading back into the waters of your unconscious. Your inner work must always be balanced by the reality of your life upon that earth.

Your practice in personal growth must include a pragmatic outlook upon your reality, for too much inner work without fresh air may keep you bound to issues that could have been resolved a long time ago. Do not be afraid to seek options, opinions, and outlooks that are not immediately comfortable to you. In asking the self to step outside of your comfort zone you offer the self an opportunity to not only shift, but to make some progress. In constantly swimming around in circles or running the same laps over and over again one may gain in strength and conviction but fail to offer the self any new ideas, fresh perspectives, or interesting points of view.

I suggest that now is a good time to introduce some changes into your routine, to do something that you have long contemplated but feared doing. It is time to push the self beyond the established and controlled practice that, though innerly focused, may not be getting you to a new level. The point of inner work is not the practice itself, but the opportunity to evolve.

I ask you all to question the progress you are making. Is it progress, or are you swimming in circles? Is it time to come up for air; to grab a towel, step out of the water and sit upon the shore for a while, determining where you have gotten to? Is it time to swim in a new direction based on the strengths gained by your hard work on the self? Is it time to seek advice from a source outside of the self?

It is time to push beyond your comforts, beyond your established routines, to do something different for the self. Even a well-established and deep inner practice can become routine, stagnant, and boringly known, a rut that does not offer any new insights though it may be a practice rooted in growth and with evolutionary potential. Push your selves beyond your limitations; let in some thing new; challenge the self in some fashion that is growth-oriented, enlightening, and non-judgmental; be open to change without bias or control. Be completely open. Flow and float awhile upon the surface of your life, sit upon the shore and see what comes along to show you what this new aspect of growth might be. Dare the self to remain open while at the same time pushing the self to act upon the right next move, based on what you know you need.

And how do you know what you need? Feel, test, and wait for more signs. They will arrive to show you that you are on the right track or that, no, this is not right. You must also question your sense of comfortability, for often being comfortable in a new situation is showing you that you are not being challenged, while uncomfortability is asking you to take on a challenge because it is so right for you. Decisions must be based on what your true challenges are, and that is where your inner work comes in to guide you. What are your most basic truths and your most basic challenges based on those truths? Fear often lies at the bottom of all issues within the self. I leave you with the suggestion to confront your fears. They will lead you where you truly do need to go next.