Monthly Archives: January 2010

Messages from Jeanne

#636 Using the Energy of Fear

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Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
I would like to continue questioning you for guidance around the subject of fear. Often, in my attempts to get beyond my fears, I simply push them away by commanding myself to: Get over it! This can work quite well as a release from being stuck, but I find that if I am not quite done with a particular issue it will return and pursue me until I look at it more closely. I will blog later about the inner process of closer examination of a particularly obstinate fear of mine, but for now I’d like to ask you, Jeanne, to address the subject. How do we know when we are done with a particular fear and that it is appropriate to push it away, rather than stay with it and do deeper work?

Inner work requires great patience. It requires an underlying desire to discover the truths of the self. It requires facing not only your fears, but everything and everybody attached to those fears. Fears are set up to allow for a process of growth to take place. This is an evolutionary purpose. In contrast, they are also set up as blockages to evolutionary growth, true challenges to your awakening spirit.

My first question to you in return, Jan, is: Are you truly ready to take the awakening journey? In asking the self this question each day you may reassert your self upon a spiritual path. I ascertain, as you know, that this spiritual path leads innerly, is reflected by life outside of you, but is mostly presented by what already exists inside of you, in your fears, your dreams, your personality, your characteristics of ego self and inner self. In order to continually confront your fears, you must continually reassert your self upon this inner spiritual journey.

Now, to return to your question regarding fear as a tool, I suggest that if you think of your fear, as I have already suggested, as your companion, you will always find your way to your inner self. Your inner self sits behind the door that your fear points out as the next one to open and venture into. What feelings and emotions do your fears present you with? How does your physical body react to your fear? What does your heart say about it? What does your inner child say about it?

When you push your fear away, when you elect to slam the door shut, walk past it, or turn and run from it, who is making that decision? Is it your knowing adult, your big baby, your evolving spirit self, or your unknowing inner child self? Who is making the decisions, and for what reasons? You may attempt to fool your self but, as you already know, that may only be a temporary thwarting of the necessary process. You may postpone your inner work, but believe me, it will return again to prod you into noticing that you are not as done with an issue as you thought.

Your mind is always ready to act on the behalf of your fear. It is always ready to trick you into complacency and comfort, into feeling inflated, into pretending that you are quite all right. In this manner it plays along with your fear, allowing it to sneak in again and find the prefect hiding place so that it may jump out and scare you again. The mind is not the place to fight your fear, but it comes in handy if you connect it to your inner process, with openness, and truthfully, so that it may empty of its usual talk and allow your heart-centered talk to fill its cavernous chambers. In letting go of the mind, in refusing to listen to the old lies and refrains, you allow your fear to lead you deeper into your other self: your psyche, and the mysteries of the inner you. In allowing your mind to work hand in hand with your fear, so that you arrive on the brink of an old place, you are offered the opportunity to once again face what is waiting beyond the brink. The brink represents your controls, the mechanisms you have previously set up to avoid facing your fears.

So, to return to your question, you must also ask your self to dismantle all of your old controls, your repetitive behaviors and habits of avoidance: your refusal, hiding, running, pretending, and even perhaps the pains and sorrows that may have become your traveling companions. In refusing to play the old games you must bear the tension of what lies beyond the door of fear and, as you stand on the brink of the darkness beyond, you must accept that you are going to step into the unknown self now, into a deeper self who has been waiting a long time for you to discover that your darkness will lead you to your light.

In facing your fears, again and again, you will discover something new about the self. You will achieve a moment of enlightenment. You will find a truth that you could not have found otherwise, and you will learn something that you need in order to advance. This is how you will know if you are done with your fears. It will only be appropriate to turn away, to push away, or to walk away from your fears when they are no longer fearful episodes, emotions, feelings, encounters, or anything that previously held you caught or blocked. Until it no longer holds any energy for you, fear will remain as your teacher. When you have learned your lesson that particular fear will no longer appear as your guide. Does this make sense?

Yes. You are saying, in effect, that to command ourselves to get over it is, in fact, rejecting our inner work. If we were done with an issue we wouldn’t be faced with the fear again to begin with, right?

Yes, you will no longer be faced with a fear if you have completed your deeper inner work around it. Of course, a new fear will appear to lead you even deeper, but you will have gained new ground, and you will be ready for this next challenge. You see, fear will always be present. It has to be, for otherwise you would not have opportunities to keep evolving.

Thank you for this guidance. It helps a lot. I am going to continue with this line of questioning in our next channeling session because more questions are arising, but I have to stop now.

Messages from Jeanne

#635 Fear is Your Greatest Guide

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Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
We continue to learn, no matter how often we think we get it, to acquiesce, accept, detach, and flow with what life presents. It seems that our lessons and tests never cease. I think fear is what challenges most of us most often. This is perhaps our biggest block to really flowing and evolving. How many times do we have to confront our fears before we truly flow in our lives?

My Dear One, you will always be confronted with fear, for it is your guide showing you where to go next. Fear shows you where you must find your next direction and it shows you where your challenges lie.

Our response, most often, is to run and hide from our fears, to protect ourselves from that which scares us.

That is an automatic response, developed as a protective measure, as you state, honed from the beginning of life when in a state of awakening to the world. As children you are unsure of the world, taught by others to fear much in life and forced to conform to set ideas of the meaning of existence. With new awareness and deeper understanding of the true meaning of your existence upon that earth you may grant your self permission to question your old reactions to that world as well. In gaining a new perspective on life, as you age and allow your self to evolve, you grant your self permission to embrace new possibilities that have not previously been allowed entry into your knowing.

For instance, I give guidance surrounding the possibility of all life being in natural flow. I offer you the opportunity to allow your self to be guided by this flow of life, learning to read the signs pointing out your direction, facing the options and dilemmas coming your way by understanding resonance and by paying attention to the deeper inner challenges. These challenges are often based in old fears. Today, I propose that you look at the challenges in your life as just that, old fears.

Do your inner work today around the possibility that you have carried your fears for a long time, from early childhood and perhaps even for many lives. Consider that until you face them and acknowledge them as your challenges to be reckoned with, they will continue to confront you, causing you to stumble, to turn from a new path, and to sit down upon your path, defeated once again.

In order to advance, to change, to gain in awareness, and to be able to accept guidance one must continually confront the fears that arise. You may be afraid of change, but it is not enough to simply know this fact. It is far better to understand how this fear of change has manifested so that you may remove it. Is your fear truly a big wall or is it an illusion of a big wall? Is your fear a wide uncrossable river or is it a figment of your imagination? Is your fear a reality or is it an untruth long carried, originally placed on you by another?

In order to challenge your self to confront your fears you must dive down to the source of those fears. You must dismantle them from a new fresh adult perspective, from your place of evolutionary growth, with a full understanding of why you are on this journey, clearly aware that your life is full of meaning, purpose, guidance, and the possibility to keep evolving. Your fearful self is showing you where you need to go next. And that kind of challenge will always be present.

Fear may appear as your greatest enemy, but it is equally your greatest guide. Take that into your day and work with it, two companions, two innocents on a journey of discovery, searching for the truth of the self so that the greater mysteries of life may continually be revealed.

Do not be afraid of your fear. Embrace it for what it truly is: the next sign guiding you on your journey! Good Luck!

Chuck's Blog

#634 Chuck’s Place: Don’t Ask

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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.

This morning I thought about someone whom I am deeply concerned about. I must be careful to remain present to the signs that direct me to act upon my concern. Were I to act impetuously upon my concern, versus reading the more objective signs placed before me, I would be addressing my needs and not truly the needs of the other. I had the opportunity to inquire about this person in conversation with another. Instead, I heeded an inner command: Don’t ask! The energy of my curiosity, with its myriad of thought associations, quickly dissipated. I moved on, stayed present, and wondered: What will the day bring?

The action, to not ask, is based on the intent to stay present, to trust the flow of energy, as it presents itself in the unfolding of the day, to highlight what is meaningful and most necessary for my attention. This is letting go of control. Asking takes me out of the flow. It would send me on an inner expedition, on roads of thought off the path of the greater energetic flow of the present moment. Furthermore, that detour activates a string of associative thoughts that generate images, feelings, and a slew of possibilities, all of which generate energy. When energy is generated in thought, about a person, it acts upon that person, like calling them on the phone.

This was why, for most of his adult life upon this earth, Carlos Castaneda was the ultimate trickster of anonymity. No one could get near him. No one ever really knew who he was, or where or when he was born. He, like the shamans of his line, positioned himself to be shielded from the energetic consequences of people’s thoughts about him by assuming personas that kept him illusive and untouchable. At a tensegrity workshop, I recall him sharing a story of going to a party where he was introduced to Carlos Castaneda. He joked that this Carlos Castaneda was playing Carlos Castaneda quite well. Obviously, the fact that Carlos was sharing this story to a large group of tensegrity practitioners showed a shift in his need to uphold total anonymity. In fact, he had become quite enamored with the use of the internet to communicate to the masses.

We live in a time where the sharing of personal information and staying connected at increasingly faster speeds dominates the world economy and networks of communication. The challenge of our time, as recipients of these energetic invitations, is to filter the superfluous and the predatory from the truly meaningful and energetically necessary. This is how we need to protect our energy in the modern world, as the shamans did through the use of anonymity in their time.

Of course, there are times when it is appropriate to ask. However, for me, this is when synchronicity places the issue before me in the present moment in a way that resonates; it becomes clear that it is time to act, to actively pursue the path of acting upon concern for another. This discernment filters out both my inner curiosity as well as the static of outer energetic invitations, the thoughts of others, which present but don’t require attachment.

By not asking, because it is not necessary to ask, I both maintain my energy to fund my awareness to stay present, as well as not burden another with the energy of my attention. To simply not ask is a highly pragmatic tool to conserve energy, remain present, and support the greater tool of detachment. So, try it, don’t ask! See what happens!

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

Until we meet again,
Chuck

Jan's Blog

Go Where it Takes You

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As I work on my recapitulation book I find the following guidance from Jeanne, given to me in January of 2004. I think it jives nicely with the themes of the recent questions and answers.

At the time, I am struggling with old memories and trying to get to a calmer, more balanced place so that my daily life will flow more smoothly. I am divorced, living with my two children who are twelve and fifteen at the time and working as a freelance artist, muralist, and writer. I ask Jeanne for guidance on what to do and how to proceed. The answer is this: Let it all go.

And then what? I ask.

Nothing; you don’t have to do anything, just let it go, and go where it takes you. Let yourself be carried into that tunnel of ocean. (This refers to a recent dream where I had swum out into the ocean, representing all knowing, the universe, into perfect calm.)

Is it safe?

Of course it’s safe. It’s your destiny; it’s where you belong. Just go there; you’ll see.

How do I deal with this world, the bills to pay, the kids to raise?

It will all happen on its own, you just have to allow it. Let go. Go with the flow. Let yourself be taken on your journey. You are going there anyway. Make it easy on yourself by not fighting. You are going there anyway.

But what about making decisions?

The end result will be the same.

And what is that?

You have to go there. You have to trust and allow yourself to go.

As usual she gave me enough encouragement to keep going, but I still had to do the work and get myself there. And I can certainly say that I’m very happy I did!

Have a great weekend! And keep flowing and daring to go where you have to go.
-Jan

Messages from Jeanne

#633 Help is Available to Take Over the Wheel of Your Ship

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Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
I enjoyed working with your guidance the other day, learning to flow with what comes. I discovered that my own agenda is often based on wanting to be in control, as much as it is focused on the practical. By acquiescing to the inevitable interruptions and digressions I was able to have a fairly easily flowing day without the normal tension and stress that accompany the fact that things are not going my way. I noticed that balance comes automatically when I can accept that life may not go as I had planned and in being more open to the flow of it. I guess I get afraid of the possibility that life will overwhelm, that in acquiescence comes surrender of a sort and the feeling of being on the brink arises, of having to decide between being in command and being controlled by the commanding, demanding situations that arise and getting swept up in loss of control. This is still a question of balance but, as I allow myself to acquiesce to the flow of life, I realize more thoroughly that we are not really in control, even though we may think we are. Can you comment on this? Who is really in control of our lives?

Well, My Dear Jan, you ask quite a big question that is not easily answered by a simple statement of fact, for in each of your lives does the position shift as often as the day shifts into night; at least this is what should happen. Your journey through life guides you to experience control and no control, to experience being guided and being let loose. It allows for many experiences in order that you might begin to put together the pieces of who you are in the pure light of truth. Your journey allows for this possibility to gain clarity, even as it allows for the possibility of control and the possibility of acquiescence to other guidance.

Aside from who is in control, you see, is the greater question of whether or not you can allow your self to acquiesce to a constantly changing journey so that your own position as captain of your ship may shift to other positions, equally valuable. In allowing for your status as commander-in-chief to be usurped by another inner commander and other support, as you experience other aspects of your ship’s necessities, you afford your self new perspectives and gain new abilities that will aid you greatly on your journey. You see?

In allowing the self to acquiesce to your journey you actually learn valuable skills and gain in many areas of life so that you become a well-rounded and compassionate individual. It is not wrong to lose control, to go over to another side of the self, for to experience all that you are presented with in a lifetime is quite an experience, each acquiescence potentially leading to further growth.

If you understand life as a journey, if you can accept that there are hidden aspects of the self, and that you each have a dark side, then your fulfillment of life will be greatly aided. Yet the challenge is not only to acknowledge your many-faceted self, both light and dark, known and unknown, but to take such knowledge to new levels of depth of understanding as you progress through life.

As you speak of this, I think of myself as previously needing to be in total control of every moment of my day, of every movement almost, in an effort to remain constantly protected, though I did not know what I had to fear. I became an automaton almost, neurotically controlling and demanding allegiance to my agenda, though underneath I was constantly wondering what was wrong with me and aware that I was seeking something else. I cannot now imagine that I would even be alive if I had stayed that way. There came a point where I had to let something break down and through in order to shift out of my iron-fisted position of being in command at all costs. Is this what you are talking about?

Yes, I am talking about letting go of fears in order to find out who you truly have the potential to become.

I see, as another example in my life, my own mother who has refused all calls to go innerly, who remains brutally in control late into her eighties. I could have stayed that way myself and I feel such deep compassion for her as I observe the position she is in, holding on with such fierceness to her old agenda. How do we begin to crack the veneer and allow ourselves to find the means to shift to the true inner journey?

As you know, it takes great courage and one must be ready to take the journey. Using the analogy of the captain of the ship, I suggest the first step may be to acknowledge that you are supported, that help is available in the universe, outside of you and in your inner universe as well. Begin with learning and understanding that this is true in each of your lives, My Dear Readers. Each one of you has plenty of help to support and guide you through change. Help is available to take over the wheel of your ship should you wish to go down into the hold and study your cargo, more deeply inspecting what it is that you carry.

Begin also with allowing the self to be loved from without and from within, even though you do not clearly see or understand how this could be possible. Allow the self to be cared for tenderly by the energy that abounds. Begin with self-love and self-appreciation for your daring and bravery to begin an exploration of the inner self on many levels, previously locked and kept at bay.

Do not be afraid, because no matter where you go, no matter what you discover, help is available. Begin with that.

Thank you. Perhaps we’ll follow up on this next week.