What are you waiting for? How many times are you going to keep telling yourself the same old lies? When are you going to stand up to the old ways and say no? You make think you have things right, but that may not be true. Question your assumptions. Maybe you never got yourself right to begin with. Maybe the path you’ve been pursuing isn’t the right path after all. Take another look from a different perspective. Be vulnerable, and open yourself to another viewpoint, another possibility, another answer. There’s no time like now to make a change. Dare yourself to turn in a new direction, be open, and see what happens. Drop your fear, for that is your greatest crutch, and trust that something good will happen now, for there is plenty of good going around. Why not tap into it and allow yourself a taste of it? Let goodness reign within yourself, even as you wish it to be a fact of life outside of yourself. As you wish goodness for others, wish it for yourself. The idea is not that farfetched. Make a wish, set an intent, be open, and see what happens. Nothing is certain, but you can certainly give it a try!
Acknowledge your vulnerabilities but also your strengths. Accept that you are a mix of childish innocence and mature wisdom, that both aspects of you are important, and yet, to navigate the world with ease, balance between the two must be established and maintained. Both aspects of the human self must work together. Then there are the other parts of you, your consciousness, your Soul, and all that comprises your energetic self. All parts, in order to remain in balance and flowing through life with grace, kindness, and compassion must know each other fully, care for each other as a family unit, allowing for expression and yet perfectly capable and willing to withhold when necessary; not out of anger or jealousy but out of love, knowing that nothing is more important than your growth and maturity and the ability to seamlessly abide in your human form; perfectly aware of your energetic form; perfectly aware that there is so much more to life than this moment; perfectly aware that this moment matters, and yet, in the grand scheme of it all, that it does not. And so, you easily shift back into balance, and keep your love alive, without attachment or need, but simply because you are a loving being, first and foremost, and because you can.
Learn self-regulation, the art of inner self-control, so that no matter where you are, who you are with, or what disturbs you, you may take over that which seeks to overwhelm you, whether from within or without. Self-regulation involves making choices that are productive, beneficial, and energy wise. Self-regulation means taking responsibility for the self, in all ways. It means knowing what you need and what you don’t need, what is good for you and what is not, but most of all, it means paying attention to what your physical body tells you. For your physical body, where you spend your life, is like a barometer. It feels pressure, and you can detect it and learn to regulate it. Learn the art of self-regulation first by getting to know your body, the home of your Soul. This may first entail changing some long held beliefs about yourself and learning something new about yourself that you never imagined. Self-regulation is enhanced by learning calming exercises. Learn to breathe deeply. Learn what it means to be in balance in your body. Learn that, yes, you do have the ability to control what is happening inside you, whether generated from within or without. For you are indeed master of your own body.
There are alternative roads for now… – Lawn sculpture by Chuck Ketchel, photo by Jan Ketchel
I was born to be a therapist, but my first college degree was in history. I chose history due to my conviction that if we don’t learn from history we repeat our mistakes. As with psychotherapy, a thorough recapitulation of our history frees us from repeating global mistakes.
My bachelor’s thesis sought to understand the etiology of controversial lectures that Carl Jung delivered to the C. G. Jung Gesellshaft (the Psychological Club of Berlin) in July 1933. I will report more on the findings of this exploration in coming blogs, as it delivers keen insights into the world patterns of now.
Barbara Hannah, an ardent student of Jung’s, was determined to attend these lectures, but this would require her to drive from Switzerland through Germany, alone. When she queried Jung about the advisability of such an undertaking, given the current atmosphere in Germany, he quietly deliberated and then replied, “Yes, risk it! Mind you, I don’t know what will happen, but it will be an interesting experience.”
I am reminded here of the sparkle of delight in Carlos Castaneda’s voice when he would tell us to go have our own journeys and, “See what happens!” All must discover for themselves the truth. We must become our own gurus, not simply rely upon what we are told.
Barbara reports that she encountered almost no cars on the highways but instead crowds of listless hikers wandering along the roads. Barbara writes that when Jung “read in the newspapers that the Germans were restlessly on the move, wandering from place to place, he was reminded of the wanderer Wotan and realized that this was an ‘archaic symbol’ that was certainly going to produce an unacceptable situation in Germany, unless enough individual Germans became conscious of the danger in time.”
History proves that consciousness did not prevail, and a collective trance set in that saw a civilized nation devolve into mass murderers, who committed the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Germany was struggling with difficult economic times, much as the world today is faced with growing scarcity, as the impact of climate change dries up resources and precipitates mass migrations. In an effort to empower Germany’s downtrodden, Germany’s ruler tapped into the themes of nationalism and white supremacy, blaming the alien, the not pure-white Aryan, in this case the Jews, for controlling and hoarding Germany’s national wealth that only legitimate citizens should be entitled to.
Despite the hypnotic prowess of a charismatic leader, citizens’ psyches cannot be hypnotized unless the rhetoric being preached by the leaders resonates on some level with their own personal beliefs. This is why Jung determined that consciousness, becoming conscious of the beliefs and forces within one’s own psyche and how they operate and hold sway, was the only hope to avert disaster.
When illegal immigrants are arrested and separated from their families, what is the citizen’s internal psychic reaction to this action? Many law-abiding citizens might express sympathy for the children, but blame the parents of those children for their unfortunate predicament. The underlying belief might hold that the illegal entry of those aliens into a country is robbing legitimate citizens of their entitled resources, which trumps the fate of those children.
Citizens might blame their leaders for such horrific practices, but do they inwardly go numb and passively agree, out of concern for their own personal survival? Only consciousness that is willing to honestly face the depths of those feelings and beliefs, within the self, can be freed to act beyond its narrow, self-centered fixation.
Fear, in this time of scarcity, has resurrected the challenges and behavioral solutions that resulted in WWII. Jung’s sage advice remains fully applicable. If individuals face their own psyches, with deep consciousness, they are no longer vulnerable to outer polarizing suggestions that justify white supremacy and elimination of other.
Just one individual who truly faces the darkness of their shadow can change the world. And what’s in that darkness? As mirrored by world leaders of now, we all have our own narcissistic MEüber alles, within us, that may rule from the shadows of our unconscious minds.
Consider the ME that insists on consuming the substance that places the overall self in crisis. Consider the blind conscience whose stock portfolio flourishes in the greatest market gains of all time, fueled by destruction of the planet’s resources and balance. Consider the ME whose hunger for attention takes actions that negate the true well-being of the whole self.
Can we bear the tension of the volatile energies of desire, like a Christ nailed to a cross, or a Buddha sitting unflinchingly amidst all the sensual delights and grossest fears of this world?
Such are the extremes we see exploding throughout the world now. Mass shootings simply reflect an individual’s inability to bear and resolve tension within, and they foreshadow the mass atrocities that loom oppressively on the horizon, if consciousness does not prevail. Let us not walk sheepishly on an old road to Berlin. Let’s refuse the scapegoat solution.
Let’s not repeat the nightmare. We must face it and wake up. Kali Yuga needn’t end in repetition compulsion. A new dream with true resolution waits on the horizon. But to arrive there, we must individually bear the tension of the polarity of consciousness and shadow within our own psyches.
Go within… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Let’s evolve that dream now. Bring consciousness within, bear the tension of the opposites within, and allow that contained explosive energy to rise to the level of the heart chakra, where we are all in this together, parts of the same whole. And together, as one, we can indeed dream a new dream.
Learning from history,
Chuck
Excerpts and references:Jung: His Life and Work, A Biographical Memoir by Barbara Hannah
Make every day a heart-centered day, no matter your mood, no matter your physical state, no matter your mental dilemmas. Breathe into your heart chakra and awaken your goodness, your loving kindness, and your compassion. Stir it within you and let it naturally flow out of you, even toward those who are the most difficult of opponents, the most different in attitude, the most farfetched in opinion. Let loving kindness be your motto, your means of navigation, the fuel that drives you. If love powers your core then you have nothing to fear, for love does conquer all. Let it show you how, by adopting it as your own core energy, and watch how it does its magic. Let the love flow.
