All posts by Jan

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Something Different

Leave a comment

Here is the channeled message from Jeanne, beginning a week that she indicates is set to be full of surprises, if we are alert and open. Good Luck!

Changing time. Drying calendula and marigolds, at one season's end… But another's beginning… Photo by Jan Ketchel
Changing time.
Drying calendula and marigolds, at one season’s end…
But another’s beginning…
Photo by Jan Ketchel

Progress must become a key word in your work, progress toward an evolving self being of the utmost importance. Please note that progress can only be achieved as you allow the self to change, to accept that you may not always have all the answers, and as you soften and allow new ideas to seep into your awareness and offer something different.

As the world shifts into a new phase this week, allow the self to experience something different. This can be a deliberate decision on your part to act, partake, or be involved in something new, or it can be a subtle intent to be open to that which comes to you unbidden.

In being open, one must learn to relax the body and mind. One must release the self of the normal judgments, the habitual thoughts and behaviors that one automatically engages in without thought or discrimination. One must stop the rote activities of living and live with greater awareness. Even the slightest intent to be alert may be enough to open the self to greater awareness of how you think, act, and react. When the old self calls out, asking for things to stay the same, turn away from that old self and look in a new, different direction. With open heart ask the self to trust the universe for a change, to trust that life itself has enough to offer you to guide you along. And then see what happens.

See what pops up in your life to show you the new direction you must take. It may be a subtle suggestion, a hint of something new, or it may be a hard knock over the head. But all of you, if you are to take advantage of the new time of renewed energy and spirited evolution, must be open—and being consciously open and expectant helps a great deal.

Awareness that a shift is already in action will, I hope, aid you in your endeavors. All you need is one tiny suggestion of hope and change, of shift in energy, and you could be off and running.

Let the energy of now guide you. Be open with discernment, knowing your heart’s true intent. For if you skip that part of who you are, your endeavors will be futile. This is not a time for foolish ignorance, nor hasty leaping, but a deepening of your innermost process in a flowing manner that is right, that is gentle, loving and kind to the self and others.

I am asking all of you to let your hearts guide you now, to really listen and pay attention to that which is truly right for you, at the deepest level. Who are you? Perhaps that is the first question to ask as you begin your entry into the energy of now. Who are you really? What do you most desire—in alignment with that true self—for yourself, in your evolving life? Begin there.

Be soft and open. Greet the day with gentle breaths, and then wait and see what comes.

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Inward Turning Time

Leave a comment
It's dark in the evenings now, time to go inward… - Photo by Jan Ketchel
It’s dark in the evenings now, time to go inward…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The first deep frost has come. The last flowers that had been staunchly holding on, that had still brightened the garden, have lost their energy. They are wilted and browning, their stems dipping to the ground. Time to trim back and prepare the beds for next spring. Time to prepare for winter.

This is inward turning time. Usually I look forward to it, but this year I sense a sadness that I haven’t experienced before. Maybe because the fall has been long and mild, the days sunny for the most part, the nights cool, but still warm enough to keep a window open in the bedroom. I like listening to the sounds of the night, the coyotes, foxes and owls, the animals that scurry past the house in the night. One night we heard something chewing voraciously at a large cardboard box we had stowed beneath the deck. Soon after we discovered that a hole had been chewed into the side of it and that a nest of bees had taken up residence. The animal we’d heard, probably a opossum, had gone after the bees.

Another night we heard a cat being attacked, fighting wildly for its life. We could barely stand the excruciating sounds of its cries. We thought of going out and yelling, of scaring off the predator, but knew that it was not right, was not in alignment with nature. One animal eats another. It happens all the time. Look at us humans, we do the same. None of it is pleasant to ponder, especially when you actually hear death approaching, when you hear the last cries coming from the strangled animal’s throat, but death is a fact of life. Winter closing in is a fact of life too.

And so I face the inevitability, making the final preparations for its coming. I accept that I must be in alignment with nature; I can’t escape the truth of winter! I can’t imagine shoveling snow just yet, but the snow shovels are ready. The snow blower has been cleaned of the acorns stored in it by mice in the shed. The leaves are being raked and mulched, the wood and pellet stoves already in use and the daily hauling of logs and pellets begun.

With the end of daylight savings time—which I hate, by the way, as it interrupts the flow of spring’s awakening each year, forcing us out of a most natural alignment with nature—fall ends. The darkness, which we had been staving off is really here now. We noticed immediately how natural it felt to be back on nature’s time, the extra hour of sleep readjusting our inner clocks to nature’s clock, the only clock that we should be attentive to. We once spent time on an island, away from civilization, the lone inhabitants. We naturally lived by the rising and setting sun, and it felt so right. Without the constraints of the world, it’s easy to live that way, but I feel compelled to live in alignment with nature as much as possible, and so I am paying particular attention to this time of year now, especially as I’ve felt such resistance to it this year.

The outdoor chairs are abandoned for the warm fire... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The outdoor chairs are abandoned for the warm fire…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

In stark contrast to evenings spent on the deck, we’ve had to be inside now, before the fire or at the dinner table. Rather than watching the sunset, feeling its last warm rays, or taking a walk on a warm evening, we must adjust our habits. It’s a good time to make some changes, to prepare to face this winter differently from other years. It’s a good time to take up those creative endeavors, or those things we’ve been meaning to do, but just haven’t gotten to yet.

In inward turning time we can turn even deeper inward, as well, into ourselves. We can opt to study ourselves and our behaviors on a deeper level, asking ourselves to make some beneficial changes, whether in diet, sleep patterns, exercise, or at the deepest inner level, in how we act and react, how we behave and how we expect others to behave towards us. We can confront our projections and ask ourselves to be responsible for ourselves in a new way. We can go inward and ask ourselves to change something that needs changing and give ourselves the task, this winter, to finally make it happen.

It’s a good time of year to let the changes happen that have been brewing for a long time, to acquiesce to the inevitability of life moving on, of life in constant flux, just as nature does. As I listen to the cries that come from outside during the night—the owl catching a meal, the coyote on the scent—I must keep myself as alive and hungry as those creatures of nature do. I must remain alert and aware, always on the lookout for where my spirit wants to go, to where my inner world is pointing me.

I must not fall into slumber or into the complacency of the season, into the routine of holidays and events as usual. It’s time to do it differently, because the entire world is doing it differently now, the seasons have changed! And so should we!

Heading into winter with awareness,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Inner Revolution = Outer Evolution

Leave a comment

Here is today’s channeled message from Jeanne. May you all have a great week!

You never know what might be waiting for you just over the horizon! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
You never know what might be waiting for you just over the horizon!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

My Dear Ones, look not outside of yourselves for the answers, but look only inward. Your issues and desires reside inside you. To confront and resolve them will only be achieved in inward turning. Face your fears and your joys alike by allowing the self full access to the truths that you keep even from yourself.

It’s perfectly okay to admit your fears and your desires to the self, to accept them, but the way to evolve is to transform them into a new kind of freedom that will carry you forward. Fears and desires hold you back, keep you bound to habits, behaviors, and routines that in the long run are not beneficial. Yes, many behaviors are stabilizing—they keep you rooted and functional—but I am talking not only of evolving in your everyday world, but of evolving in your inner world as well.

Inner world evolution involves an inner world revolution, and you are the only one who can instigate such a revolution. You are the only one who knows your deepest issues, or you will soon enough if you take back your projections, your fears, anxiety, your desires and competitiveness, and go into your inner world and face just why you are the way you are.

Who do you truly wish to be? Can you allow yourself to be the calm and easygoing, grounded person you know you have the potential to become? Inner revolution involves inner confrontation, but evolution involves acquiescence to truth, to life, and to possibility.

Be open and daring with the self. Do not be afraid of what others might think, but do your inner work—your private work on the self—as often as possible. Accept who you are. Release old ideas of the self gradually as you allow your true self to fill the void. It’s a natural process, for, as you make room inside, your natural self will automatically find its way into your inner world and then into your outer world.

Set the intent to revolutionize! There is no greater task, no grander life, no more fulfilling purpose, for all things will resolve as you resolve the inner you!

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Seeing

Leave a comment
This is how I see Jeanne's energy... - Art by Jan Ketchel
This is how I see Jeanne’s energy…
– Art by Jan Ketchel

I lie awake. It’s 2 AM and I can’t sleep. It’s the energy of now, I think, the restlessness of this time of transformation. My mind races. Thoughts swirl. An hour goes by. I still can’t sleep. I should get up, I think, go sit by the wood stove and meditate or read, but it’s too cold. I snuggle down in bed, pulling the covers up higher.

I say my mantra: “Look into your darkness until you see the eye of God.” I repeat it, looking into the darkness behind my eyes. As usual I see all kinds of eyes. Faces loom, strange and wonderful, eerily looking right back at me. I know that they are all eyes of God. God is in everyone and everything, whatever God may be. To me, God is the energy of all of us and of everything, not a being but simply who we all are. But I cannot still my humming mind.

I should be able to handle this, I think, I’m a hypnotist after all! I do self-hypnosis. I go to a calm place, a safe place, a beautiful place. I go deeper into my body, relaxing each muscle, calming my thoughts one at a time, dismissing them as soon as they arise. Without attachment, I let them go, knowing they will reappear again in the morning. Another hour passes. I still cannot fall back to sleep.

Now I open my eyes. Instead of looking into my inner darkness I peer into the night. This has always been a fascination of mine, another kind of mediative practice that I’ve always done. As I stare into the darkness of the bedroom I see energy, swirling, twirling, flipping and soaring energy that immediately comforts me. Yes, this is good, I think. And I wonder if Jeanne will come to me, for this is often how she appears, in her energy body, as a fluttering globe of white light, a white moth surrounded by an ethereal glow in the dark of night.

Once, when I told Chuck that this was how I saw her, we lay on our bed in the darkness one night and looked for her together. I am a visual person. I see things, actually see. I believe everyone can see the same way, see the same things, but I also know that we are all constructed differently and some parts of us are more dominant and more exercised than others. I’ve always been like this. I have a kind of synesthesia where I see numbers in designs; the days of the week, the hours of the day, the months of the year each with their own specific layout. When I do math, I see the numbers in their places on the spiraling pattern that always appears when I think of numbers. I calculate by visualizing. If I think of the days of the week, Wednesday for instance, there it is, right where it always is in the weekly design layout. I see words in shapes and colors. I thought everyone saw the same way, but now I know differently, that we all perceive the world in our own unique way.

I know that Chuck does not see the way I do. Where I am visual, he’s intuitive. So it stands to reason that his way of perceiving things is different. He was always a good hypnosis subject when I was doing my training because I could never ask him to visualize something, to see it in his mind’s eye. He challenged me to go beyond my own perception, to accept and allow for other possibilities. Everything is abstract to him, he feels things, while to me everything has shape and form, so I knew that when I asked him to look into the darkness with me on that night, I was asking him to come into my world, a very different world from the one he normally inhabits.

How I see the world... -Art by Jan Ketchel
How I see the world…
-Art by Jan Ketchel

“Don’t look too hard,” I said, “gaze the way the Shamans say to gaze. Notice that the darkness is not just one color. Notice that it’s not solid, that it’s in constant flux. Do you see that reddish light over there to the left?” I wondered if he could indeed see what I was perceiving. After a while, he said yes, and he described exactly what I saw.

“See how it moves?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“Well,” I said, “that’s energy moving in the universe. That’s what the Shamans of Ancient Mexico talk about. We are all that.”

The other night, when I looked into the darkness, I called Jeanne to me, as I often do. “Are you there?” Out of the darkness she came.

“I can’t sleep,” I said. “Help me to sleep.” Her white fluttering globe came closer and closer until I blacked out.

In the morning, I was grateful that I had gotten a few more hours of sleep, but I clearly saw the power of the conscious mind, how it fights for precedence and how insidious our thoughts are, never willing to release us. The conscious mind feeds off us all day long and if we wake up at night it’s there waiting to suck our energy again. I went through a few more nights like that before, finally worn out perhaps, I slept deeply and solidly. I’d wake briefly but, without attachment, fall easily back to sleep after staring into the energy of the darkness. This activity, as well as being in my usual world, has also provided me with inspiration, the basis of many of my abstract paintings, the seeing of energy, day or night. Anyone can do it. Try it, whether sleepless of not, it’s quite an exhilarating experience. Allow the solid world to slowly dissolve into energy— vibratory strings, lines, dots—not unlike the pixilation of a digital image.

Perhaps the energy outside of us will calm down soon, perhaps we’ll all ride it to a new level. Perhaps, as Jeanne suggested in her message the other day, you’ll “Learn to flow with what comes and your fulfillment will loom large before you.” That’s what it’s like when I stare into the darkness, my fulfillment looms large before me. It comes to meet me, to speak to me in a different way, in image and abstraction, in the clarity of intuition that has no basis in visual seeing, but only exists in seeing the energy that we all are.

May you all be well and keep flowing!
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: The Great Listener

Leave a comment

Here is the channeled message from Jeanne for this week. Also look for Jan and Chuck’s blogs to be posted on Wednesday and Friday, according to our usual schedule. Have a great week!

It's changing time for all of us too! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
It’s changing time for all of us too!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Did you make it? Are you there? Did you reach some resolution on an important issue or decision? Do you feel like you’ve finally found the right answer?

Even so, keep in mind that backsliding is normal, that return to old sentiments, old desires, and old commitments is par for the course, until you are done. Keep in mind also that you’ve already traversed this territory so many times before, and so perhaps you really are done with backsliding. In all cases, acknowledge the progress made, the path already taken, and keep going, for no matter what, there is nowhere else to go except forward.

Do not allow life and growth to be curtailed now, for this is the energy of the changing time. You are all in it, whether you want to be or not. Whether you’ve planned for change or simply found yourself in a changing situation, know that it must be accepted and be made useful in your inevitably changing life.

Determine now that you are wholeheartedly accepting of a new journey and take measured, disciplined, thoughtful steps along that journey each day. Gather your energy and proceed, seeking your wholeness, in increments, as you gather your wits and your knowing about you.

Life is an ever-changing journey. Learn to flow with what comes and your fulfillment will loom large before you. You might not recognize it at first, for it often comes in unexpected ways, but in the long run you will know it by the tremor of its cadence and the stirrings of your heart in resonance. You will also know it by the utter calmness that comes over you. If those tremors and stirrings of resonance and that calmness do not appear to greet you, then just keep going. Your heart, the great listener and interpreter of all things, will tell you when it’s time to accept your new direction and your greater self. Whether you journey alone or with another, always use your heart as your guide.

In this time of resolution and change, in this time of movement and decision making, seek always the feelings of your heart, the knowledge of your inner being, to stabilize, aid, and ground you. Keep in mind that always your journey is endless—there is always new life to come.

Keep all doors open ahead of you, even as you close those behind you. And know that you will, by the guidance of your inner you, if truthfully accepted, find your way forward.

Do what you have to do, but do it with love and compassion, with gentleness and caring. Treat all people as you wish to be treated. Be brave and daring, but be cautious and concerned too. Be strong, but also be soft. Be disciplined and resolute, but also flowing. This is how your changing self, in your changing world, will manage this transition time with aplomb. Happy journeying!

Grab onto the energy of now and use it to your fullest advantage—to change!