Written by Jan Ketchel with a channeled message from Jeanne Ketchel.
I sit and look out over the peaceful scene of my backyard, the magnolia tree finally in full bloom after a long struggle to blossom, the blue birds nesting in the boxes we’ve put out for them, flitting about, feeding their young. The crows, chickadees, robins, Baltimore orioles, phoebes and Caroline wrens are loudly calling, cackling, chirping, dancing and fluttering in the trees and sky. The grass has turned green now, the dandelions adding a touch of golden sunlight, nature in full swing. I’ve even seen honeybees this year, a good sign. I contrast this scene before my eyes on this early spring morning with the truth of the world. I may have the perfect little acre, which I am thoroughly grateful for, but I am also a member of the human race and I must face the truths of what my species has done and is doing around the world, beyond my private world.
The big news, as everyone must now know, is that Osama Bin Laden is dead. I’m not sure how I feel about this, either how it was done or how I see people reacting. Something is missing in all of this for me. I see his death as a symbolic tactic, an attempt to let all terrorists know that such blatant disregard for human life is unacceptable to us. But I also see that terrorism, right or wrong, is a true fact of nature and that it exists for a reason. Yesterday, I watched as the pretty, peaceful looking bluebird swooped down and snatched a white moth, coming out of nowhere. Death happened. Yet the bluebird flew home to feed his young with that moth.
On the other hand, the Hitlers and the Osama Bin Ladens must be stopped, just as greed must be stopped, an equally dangerous terrorist in my opinion. We sit back, complacently watching as the greed of a few powerfully wealthy individuals infiltrates every aspect of our world, our politics, our natural resources, destroying our health, land, oceans, streams, wells, air and our very food sources.
How do we make sense of all this? I can accept Bin Laden’s death as necessary. I accept the decision that President Obama made. It is done. Like the white moth, Bin Laden is dead. I appreciate the quiet stealth of Obama’s tactics in undertaking the mission. Like the calm and peaceful bluebird he swooped in and made the kill. He was in the right place at the right time, taking right action according to nature. As the peacefully meditating Buddhists often note: sometimes you have to leave the retreat on the mountaintop and take up arms and fight for what is right. But they also know that eventually we will return to our everyday lives, once again face contemplation, seeking what our real purpose is.
Today, I ask Jeanne to comment on this. As a peacefully living and acting human being, I know I must also face the fact that I am a killer, a terrorist too. When my President kills, I too kill. When Bin Laden killed, I too killed. We must all accept that side of ourselves. Partly, I think we are being asked to acknowledge the truth of the natural world, to face what we, as a country and as individuals, do each day as international terrorists. Can I accept the fact that I am both killer and victim, that I am just like everyone else on this planet?
What do you make of this, Jeanne? At the moment I have so many thoughts running through my head. Please grant me, and all of your readers, some clarity. I know a lot of people prefer to turn to the beauty of nature in their backyard, as I do, rather than dwell on the truths of evil in our world because they make us have to feel bad. But I also know how important it is to face the facts of evil in ourselves, because we are all interconnected, good and evil energy combined. We must all face the darkness within, that we are all Bin Laden; we are all the bluebird, the moth, and the baby bluebirds too.
Jeanne responds:
My Dear Ones, well may you rejoice and embrace a moment of such climactic resolution; for indeed, in order to change the world, the truths of evil and greed must be exposed. Is it right for man to kill man? I pose this question to you, but I will not solve that riddle for you, though I direct you to your inner decision making process. For all of you have within the same system of conflict that abides in the world you live in.
However, I caution jumping to conclusions. This action, killing Osama Bin Laden, will not resolve the true issues at stake. It removes a major blockage, yet the work to remain diligent and alert in the pursuit of accepting and understanding evil must continue. Evil will not be destroyed or stopped, but it must be explored and acknowledged as innate within all of life, in nature and mankind as well. Only in wrestling with it, in discovering its purpose will balance be achieved.
Pause a moment. Take a look at the self in the world that mankind has created. Look at how involved you all are in the destruction of so much life upon your planet, without even realizing it for the most part. You have all been hiding out in your personal caves and compounds declaring that you are doing the right thing, your ideals correct, your life worth something. Everyone feels this way. Yet, I ask that you consider yourself a world terrorist for a moment, as evil as Osama Bin Laden. To truly understand why he has lived these past decades upon that earth you must put yourself in his shoes.
What was his purpose? I pause in the channeling to ask Jeanne this question.
Jeanne responds:
His purpose was to awaken the world to the truth of destruction, rampant on the part of mankind. He was but a symbol, representing nature fighting back, attempting to reclaim that which has been destroyed. Mother Nature does the same thing with equal ferocity to reassert proper balance. Evil must be fought with evil.
Okay, I say, interrupting again. I know we must all face the truth of our world, that we, as Americans especially, have been equally evil. We continue to destroy the planet, spread our detrimental habits and way of life far and wide, bringing our modern diseases and our greedy habits elsewhere, killing natural resources and other human beings in an effort to Americanize the rest of the world. In so doing, we destroy indigenous lands and cultures, undermining ancient wisdom and practices that are far more connected to the earth and the laws of nature than our plastic offerings could ever be. The struggle for all of us who are truthful in this acknowledgement is the frustration we feel as we come up against the status quo, so staunchly present and unmoving, though we ourselves, in our so called right-thinking, clearly see it as wrong. How do we have greater impact in change?
Jeanne responds:
Well, you see My Dears; here you have a great blockage, a staunch symbol of the status quo, Osama Bin Laden, now removed. But having removed him does not solve the issues still at stake. Now the real war begins. Now the real work begins. Now the time of real hardship begins. All the worlds’ peoples must face the situations that have been created worldwide as a result of the fear of this man. The man is gone, but the true fears still exist inside each person upon that earth. Bin Laden was merely a symbol of fear. What are you really afraid of? Who are you really afraid of?
Anyone who does deep exploratory work on the self knows that all fears exist inside the individual, that the world is merely a mirror. I suggest that you cautiously and honestly accept the death of this man who lived anchored in evil inflation in his heart, terrorist tendencies in his veins, death in his brain, as one stark picture of the full truth. On the other side, take the picture of peaceful nature and accept its full truth as well. Ponder what they each represent and see that they are equal. They both represent the same thing: the struggle to survive, to find meaning and purpose, on the one hand, ego in full command and on the other the forces of nature. But I contend they are one and the same. Can you see this?
Yes, I interrupt the channeling again. I see it all as life and energy, doing what it has set out to do. I also see that in order to change things in the world we must, as always, change things inside ourselves. We must dig deeper still, because the truth, as it is spoken, may not be the real truth. I experience this all the time in what the media presents, in advertising, in what we are told, fed to believe. I have learned to question everything. I hope everyone else does too. I cannot accept something as right or wrong simply because someone tells me it is so. I must find out, within myself, what it means.
Jeanne do you have one final comment for your readers today?
Jeanne responds:
Yes, let the fear go through you, even as you let the hatred go through you, even as you let love and gentleness go through you. Only in letting yourself feel all of these things will you reach an energetic shift, a place of emptiness and peace without grasping and greed, without need and desire for anything upon that earth, except to more fully understand and explore your purpose.
What is your personal purpose? Are you there to cause a shift, to shock the status quo, like Bin Laden? Or are you a blockage that refuses to budge, creating backlogs of energy that must one day spill out, in some form, out of your control, also like Bin Laden? Where is the good inside you? Identify it, own it, release it. Where is the evil in you? Identify it, own it, release it. Where is your greed? Identify it, own it, release it. Where is your frustration keeping you bound to the status quo? Identify it, own it, release it.
You see, My Dears, you are all asked to do things differently now, to break down the barriers, to dismantle the machines that have been churning and spitting out the rules, first within the self, then without. This is your challenge. These are the times you live in, the times of change.
Watch nature for the most proper methods. You will not be disappointed. Nature will show you, but you must be ready to follow her guidance. She will challenge you, as you now feel challenged to accept the evil one inside. But you will not be free to access your utter good if you do not access your utter evil. Only in knowing fully both sides can you return to balance, within the self and within the world. Nature is included in this parameter because nature is really in charge. Even though man challenges nature, nature will always take command.
Know this about your own inner nature. It too will take command, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way, causing illness and suffering, but its purpose is the same: To show you the way to evolve beyond suffering and beyond good and evil to the true state of energetic beingness, truly in balance with all other energy.
I thank Jeanne for this message today. I will take up some of this in my blog on Wednesday as deeper truths about how we have tampered with nature come to light, at least for me. We have been destroying the natural environment for centuries without care. The truth of just how critically ignorant we are about what we have done to our world dawns ever more brightly each day. Our interconnecting abilities via Internet, television, etc, offer us the opportunity to face and share these truths more deeply. I see the truth-revealing potential of this kind of interconnectedness on the outside as offering us the same truth-revealing potential for interconnectedness on the inside, as we open ourselves to our deeper spiritual potential. I just hope that we can face enough of our truths to never fall back again into complacency.
As I write this final paragraph a racket ensues in my backyard. I get up from my writing position; shake off the trance I have been in for the past hour to observe a synchronicity in nature. I see that I have a terrorist situation in my backyard! A big black crow is invading a robin’s nest. I hear the pleas of the robins as they attack the crow, but they are helpless against his deliberate threat as he dives into the small pine tree that has been hiding their nest, keeping it safe, until now. The robins finally pull back as the crow shakes them off and dives once again into the pine, stealing the bounty of their nest.
Is this evil? Do I automatically side with the poor robins as I witness their babies being killed? Or do I see the black crow as just doing what naturally comes next—keeping nature in balance—doing what the hawk did to the crow a few weeks ago, that I also wrote about in my blog. All of this is going on without man’s interference, crows being crows. Where is the good and where is the evil? Are they, as Jeanne suggests, the same thing; equal?
Most humbly offered.