Shifts without require shifts within and vice versa. When there is shift within, the world without will take on new aspects and a variety of experiences will ensue. A warrior knows that experience is everything. A warrior does not believe anything and yet a warrior has strong views based on experience. A warrior’s viewpoint on life is formed and constantly shaped by circumstances and what transpires.
A warrior is constantly changing and shifting, even as that which is in the world constantly changes and shifts. And so, a warrior is always unpredictable. But a warrior is also a dedicated liver of life, adherent to promises made. So a warrior does duty when appropriate with graciousness, kindness and consideration, for a warrior is aware that all of life offers lessons in compassion. But in the end, a warrior’s goal is to be changed by experience.
Intuition, the neighbor of mind, awakens during times of intense emotion or during times of intense quiet. Mind has many levels and many possibilities, but intuition is its own grand operative. It is the warrior’s prerogative to cultivate intuition, to learn of its gifts and bounty. An intuitive warrior has the opportunity to forge ahead into new dimensions as intuition is developed.
Through repeated adventures with intuition, a warrior begins to trust its missives and its voice. Through experience in life’s reality and in intuition’s reality, a warrior’s knowledge grows. A warrior’s knowing is tightly interwoven with keen intuition and keen mind. How else does a warrior “know?”
Notice how your own intuition works and begin to cultivate its natural “knowing.” This is the warrior’s way, for a warrior does not simply guess, a warrior truly does KNOW. Your own warrior spirit is always ready, your intuition asks only that you test it and learn to trust it. Your own warrior spirit loves the challenge and the experiences of knowing, intuition, and spirit mind.
A warrior knows that every aspect of the self must be confronted and so a warrior does not shirk this duty. A warrior returns to clear out that which must go so that retreat may be complete, without strings, and without regrets. A warrior knows when it is time to leave, when something is done, and then a warrior turns and walks away in a new direction, never to return.
In 2003, while in the process of a shamanic recapitulation, which I have written extensively about in my books as well as my blogs, I discovered something important. I knew that change would not happen, not even consciously-willed change, such as adopting new habits, if I didn’t completely rid myself of the root cause of my problems.
In recapitulation, we constantly reenter the center of who we are, facing our shadows and discovering our truths… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
As a practicing hypnotist I became well aware of this. A hypnotist cannot change anyone or anything. A hypnotist only makes suggestions as to how change may come about, but real change only comes from within. Too many times people look for a “quick fix,” but the truth is there are no quick fixes. Yes, there are plenty of techniques for achieving calmness and steadiness, techniques that provide relaxing effects, but longterm change requires patience and deep work on the self.
My discovery—that change can only happen if the root cause is eradicated—is not new, but when I discovered it for myself I felt as if I HAD discovered it. This is a phenomenon of deep inner work, as we tread into the territory of ancient knowledge where that which has not yet been revealed is revealed, as if for the very first time.
Anyone doing deep work has the opportunity to discover such phenomena, in a personally meaningful and pertinent way, making such experiences strikingly unique and helpful. Such phenomenal discoveries, if taken seriously and acted upon, have the possibility to become the great catalysts they portend to be, leading to real and lasting change.
During the recent Mercury Retrograde, which I know many people experienced in very potent ways, I entered the whirlwind of its energy too and barely had time to pause for breath. Confrontational circumstances arose repeatedly, old issues were revisited, changes occurred, and I was given the opportunity to discover a lot of things. How far have I really come? The lessons of this most recent Mercury retrograde were many. It was a good time for all of us to test what we’ve done with our lives and to perhaps discover that we really have changed and we will continue to change because we’re ready to do so.
In 2003, as I was recapitulating my childhood and discovering the root cause of all that plagued me then, Mercury was also retrograde, four times that year. For most of that year I simultaneously and repeatedly faced my deepest core issue: fear. I was afraid of everything, I discovered.
Like invasive vines, our core issues will not stop growing until we totally eradicate them! – Photo by Jan Ketchel
My challenge then was to face and release myself from the clutches of all-pervasive fear, completely eradicating it from my being, for I knew that to embrace any idea of change without that complete eradication was just a cover up, another avoidant behavior, many of which I was very skilled at. How could I truly change if I refused to change myself at the deepest level, if I continued to ignore that core issue? I knew that the intent to change, by itself, no matter how strong, wasn’t going to have any effect without complete and conscious eradication of what really controlled me.
I knew that eradication of the fear would also provide room for change. If I was no longer consumed by fear, I’d have energy for other things. To aid in that process, I envisioned making space inside my body. The absence of fear, I envisioned, would create enough room in my physical body to allow for the change I so desired. Until the fear was gone I was just pushing it around inside me, restocking it, re-encapsulating it in some other body part, not getting rid of it as I should. I also knew that if I continued that habit I would never be free of the pain that plagued my physical body.
Once I became aware of the reason for the fear, I could deal with it. At the time, I wondered: How can you tackle something you don’t know about? I knew I had to continue the deep work of recapitulation, the technique that was proving to be the answer to all my questions, if I was to discover the remaining mysteries of myself and my past. It was the path to knowing myself on the deepest level.
So, as I dove deeper into the recapitulation process and deeper into my inner world, my inner self, and my past, the deeper mysteries of who I was and what controlled me became very clear. At the time, I also knew that I had to find a new way to tackle the fear; not in the old way of holding it in and avoiding or running from it, but by facing it, getting the truth of it, and letting it release, without restriction, to flow out of my body once and for all.
It was the final stage of my shamanic recapitulation, to let go of everything that I held inside me, thinking that I needed it or that it served a purpose. I discovered that fear had no real purpose, it was just an old habit, and that it had a sneaky way of holding me back from fully living. Once I faced, resolved and released the many faces of fear, I advanced into a new reality and new life. In addition, the phenomenal discoveries that punctuated my deep inner work during my recapitulation have never ceased to visit, enlighten, and inspire me.
Everything comes in its own time; what we need and what we are ready for is revealed at the right time. I learned that during my recapitulation too; as difficult as many of my memories were to face, I truly was ready to confront and resolve them so that I could eradicate the fear that I had been bound in my entire life, that had me physically bound in pain and inertia. I discovered that fear was nothing more than a habit, that it only really existed because I was attached to it. Like worry, it was just another entity not worthy of my attention.
Eventually, we emerge, centered and happy… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Our core issues come to challenge us. What frightens or bothers us generally will show up during times of change, whether change that we instigate or change forced upon us.
As we change and move forward in life, we are able to look back with the kind of clarity that a Mercury Retrograde brings, along with its dizzying energy of confrontation and recapitulation, so that we can come out of it having moved along to a new level on our journeys. As we turn back to look at the distance we’ve come, we notice that we really have changed, perhaps in small ways, perhaps in greater ways, but changed we are nonetheless!
In support, Jan
NOTE: Chuck wrote about a similar process a few weeks ago in his blog entitled: Face, Feel & Absorb
Get in tune with your spirit! Without extremes sail through all your days with sound mind and sound heart, attuned to that which is right and good for all beings. Find your balance and equilibrium inside and out. Without these things to keep you harmonious and humming along, life’s ups and downs may prove too difficult and your journey may become weary and full of woe.
You do have a certain amount of control and choice. Choose your temperament each day. Decide who you will be. In tune with the greater good, the higher intent of your spirit? Or out of tune, scrambling to make sense of the disharmony you have created?
Attitude, approach, and alignment are all in your control. The decision to get in tune with your spirit is also your choice. You CAN create a harmonious life for yourself. It’s up to you. What do you really want out of life? If you hum yourself a nice melody at each day’s dawning it might just get you humming along nicely for all of your days!
