Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel
Dear Jeanne,
Yesterday, I wrote about a deer who I perceived as facing death, the inevitable. In our lives, we struggle with fears that can loom large and threatening or sneak up on us in very subtle ways. Sometimes it feels appropriate to turn from them, while at other times it becomes apparent that we must turn and face them head on, in order to grow. As we face our fears and resolve the issues around them, those particular fears no longer bother us, though others appear to guide us. I get all this. Personally, I am at a place where my deepest fears no longer freak me out as they once did, coming at me with such intensity that I hid from them for a long time. Now, as I wrote of yesterday, they find other ways to show me where I need to do my deepest work.
I am still haunted by the image of that deer lying so majestically still, looking directly back at her body, at her footsteps in the snow, at the path she had traveled, sitting straight up as death came. I understand that this is what we are training our awareness for, to face our deaths with dignity, unafraid, to go on without our fears of this life burdening us in our next life. Can you talk about this today and kind of wrap up our conversations around fear?
My Dear One, fear is perhaps man’s only true guide to awareness, for, as you perceive, it is constantly present in some fashion, clearly revealed or well hidden until the time to face it arises. Fear is a constant. Fear is what underlies every action and thought, until a conscious effort is made to investigate the mechanisms of how it operates within the human psyche. You may not think that your life has been driven by fear, but if you are completely honest with yourselves you will all understand the prominent place it has and has had in your lives.
Does fear reign still in your inner world, as it may also do in your outer world? This is the question to begin with today as you take in the image of that deer that so represents such beauty of purpose in life and death. In life, from a human standpoint, a deer is a creature embodying fear, running, sometimes frantically, from that which approaches, instinctively smelling and reacting without forethought, simply understanding fear in a visceral manner. Yet does the deer also graze contentedly, calmly, in quiet reverie every chance it gets, also instinctually reacting to its circumstances, reading the energy of its present situation and acting appropriately. Your image of a deer fits quite well into the premise of our discussions around fear.
As humans, it is possible to train out instinct, to deny its place in your lives, to resort to thinking, to bypass the mechanisms of nature in order to appear in control, tamed, doing what is acceptable and expected. The deer does not operate with the mind, though its brain is certainly a variable in its life and its actions. I suggest, in my analysis of the deer’s natural reactions to the energy of its situation, that it allows itself to react based on its reading of the energy in a way that has been bred out of man.
Man’s natural instincts are so controlled, by society, by drugs, religions, teachings, and expectations placed on him by his own need to be in control that, when he is confronted with energy of place, his reactions are no longer naturally available or recognizable as such. That being said, man has other attributes that the animal world does not carry as strongly, his ability to study himself more intimately, his innate abilities to stand and face not only his fears but his confusion and his most vulnerable self, with conscious awareness that he is doing so.
Perceive the self as that deer, as Jan has been doing. Perceive the self as instinct and you will discover that you will also run from that which approaches when appropriate, you will calmly graze in balance when appropriate, and you will lie down and face that which approaches when appropriate. This is the key to your inner work, to determining the appropriateness of action by learning to read not only the energy outside of you, as all nature does, but by reading the deeper energy inside of you that is indeed showing you where you need to go next. You see, in the end, you will face your fear. What fear is left will come to greet you at the end, and it will want to accompany you on your final journey into energy. It will want to ride upon your departing energy and remain bound to you, showing you what you still need to learn. You will be given ample opportunity to dismantle it, to resolve it, to leave it tumbling into the netherworld of old fears, by your own choice, made with awareness.
As you work on the self throughout your life, facing your issues and your fears, you prepare your self for the greatest fear: inevitable death. You may elect to work on eliminating fear. You may work to gain greater awareness. You may work to understand energy, life, and life beyond, but you will not avoid your own death. However, you may be as prepared for its approach as that deer lying in the field, unflinchingly ready, with all your training having prepared you well to hold onto your awareness of its imminent approach, its fearful energy that, in reality, is tied to the circumstances of your life upon that earth. For as you pass from that life you will discover that your fears are as natural as the air you breathe and, as you accept your natural transition, they will pass from you as easily as your last breath, and you will perceive them as having indeed been your greatest tests, your greatest teachers, and your greatest guides.
If that is true, then what is the point of doing all this inner work, if everything is just energy and we will experience that in the end anyway?
To face your death as naturally as that, your inner work will aid you well in maintaining awareness. Your understanding of life as energy will aid you well. Your access to your natural energy, your instincts, your perceptions of the world as energy will aid you well in life, as well as at the moment of your death.
In the end you will discover that it is so. You will discover that all life is energy, so why not understand that now, as nature does? Why not allow the self access to your fears as mere energy, showing you where you will discover this phenomenon of everything as energy, in your own life? Why not acquiesce to the inevitable in your life now, taking on the challenges of discovering your fullest potentials? Why not face your greatest fears and discover your self as energy, as alive and available for so much more upon that earth, right now?
You see, My Dear Ones, your jobs, your true work upon that earth will only be revealed as you face your fears and allow your selves to have access to the true facts of energy, in you and around you, as they guide you, teach you, and challenge you. Fear is but another form of energy. Use it wisely and well.