Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
I had a hard time falling asleep last night and in an attempt to settle my thoughts I focused on setting a dreaming intent. Eventually, I fell asleep and dreamed about intent itself. Carlos Castaneda came into my dream and explained that the idea of setting an intent becomes like a tent that gets in the way of accessing intent, telling me that I must leave my fear of intent behind in order to access intent. He showed me a magical pass to push away my “tent of intent,” first to the left, then to the right in order to access the true energy of intent. He said: “You must leave intent behind so you can go forward into intent.” I take this to mean that by focusing so intently on setting an intent I am in fact blocking access to the energy of intent, which I understand already exists. How do we set an intent to access intent without getting stuck in the asking? How do we simply allow ourselves to be open to the magic and adventure of our lives without trying to control what we get?

My Dear One, though one is often fearful during a lifetime the greatest gift one can give the self is the gift of innocence. This involves allowing the self to be vulnerable, open to that which comes, yet also open to that which cannot come into one’s life if one does not allow the self to be vulnerable.

If you, My Dear Readers, are interested in growing you must allow access to the innocent and vulnerable self, the soft self, the ethereal self. This self is many-faceted. This self is complex. This self is most necessary to understand and tend to, to expose to the self, fully, in order to access the greater adventure of a meaningful life.

When you, My Dear Jan, set an intent for a specific event you are limiting your access to the adventure of your life. Though I do not dismiss such activity, I do suggest that such step-by-step intent to grow does not allow for true intent to freely guide you. Your dreams of evolution and growth will only manifest to a certain point if you consciously set them before you. However, if you remove all goals and all ideas of where you want to be in your life, where you think you should be, what you deserve, desire, and conceive as necessary for your life and instead open to the adventure of your life then you will truly be open to intent.

Intent is not tied to you or to anyone else. Intent is the possibility of everything in existence, available without attachment to outcome, fully available if you are freed of control as far as the process is concerned.

There is no process that you can truly come up with to access intent, for a process implies control. The only thing I can suggest is that you allow the self to trust that your life’s unfolding is the only process and guidance you need. For example Jan, your process in searching for answers leads you on your unfolding journey, but you have learned that in order to take that journey you have had to shed your many cloaks, or tents of intent, your controlling intentions to be safe and fully in command of your life, living a predictable life in a prescribed manner until you dared to access the yearnings of the inner self most deeply. You began to access the energy of intent upon opening the door to recapitulation, allowing the mysteries of your life to become clear and known. In accepting the mysteries of the self, allowing for the vulnerable self to become known and acceptable, one is available to experience life on a new level.

I find that recapitulation is a lifelong process, that only in continually questioning my motives for all my actions do I discover what my life is all about.

Recapitulation means not only recapturing the past, reliving it, and acquiescing to the facts of it, but it also means resolving all self-imposed rules, regulations, and controls so that recapitulation leads to detachment and truly being available to the energy of growth, which is intent. Intent is the energy that an evolutionary journey is fueled by. It is not created by you nor by your innermost desires. It is simply available and in order to access it you must also be available. This is why inner work is so important. Without inner work and truthful exposure of the self, to the self, your wounded self will not heal, but simply be left in a state of protection, unavailable because of your intent to remain in control of your innocence.

Your innocence, My Dear Ones, is your key to life and to accessing the evolutionary energy of intent. Do not be afraid to discover what your innocence truly means to you. Do not be afraid to discover your vulnerabilities. Do not be afraid to expose the self to the magic of your evolutionary journey.

If there is a process to engage it is the process of evolution and growth. Utilize your own life, each moment of your personal life, as part of that process so that you may allow the self the freedom to be open to the energy of intent and for life to evolve as it should.

When you speak of there being no real process to accessing intent, except being open to it, my first reaction is that to get to that place one must adopt many processes. Can you explain what you mean by this, in greater detail?

I do not mean to imply that a life is not a process nor that many processes are not undertaken in order to evolve. However, once one has evolved to the point of understanding that such a thing as intent exists, one must then be available to the energy of intent by becoming open, vulnerable, and innocent, with no intent except to be open to a life of fulfillment, simply open to it.

This will certainly entail utilizing many processes and, as you yourself describe in your dream, a process of acquiescence without intent, otherwise your outcome would be predictable. You see, intent is not attached to prediction or outcome. It is merely opening to the possibility of everything, without attachment to anything in particular.

Are you truly ready to take the adventure of your life? That is what you must acquiesce to in order to access intent. The greater energy of intent is, My Dears, working at all times, and this is its greatest secret. It is working for you at all times, without your acquiescence, your control, or your permission. It is always present, available, and in action, yet do you refuse it simply by your habitual responses to it.

Respond to it differently, without placing attention on its powers, simply by breaking your old patterns of thoughts, behaviors, and ideas of the self. You are an evolving being, aided by intent, whether you are aware of it or not. Wouldn’t you rather be aware or it? Wouldn’t you rather be available to flow with the energy of it, unafraid of it, simply because you know, by the truth of your life thus far lived, that you are not in control, that something else is urging you to take the adventure of this lifetime to the fullest? Are you ready to acquiesce to true life?

I leave you today with the thought that a life’s unfolding process is all you need to discover your personal reality. Study the self. Acquiesce to the journey of your life, with maturity and innocence walking hand in hand.