Here is this week’s channeled message from Jeanne.
A spider bit my foot and then I found this logo on the bottom of my shoe…What did it all imply? I had to go inward to figure it out… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Seek change. What use is life if one does not use it to grow? If all you do is repeat the same mistakes, boredom will ensue. Boredom offers little resolution or explanation. For what true purpose do you exist upon that earth? One will never know if one does not pay attention and constantly ask the self to evolve. Why do you exist? Don’t you want to know the answer?
Utilize your experiences to help you grow. Pay attention to what comes to teach you. Everything—from your encounters in the world to your dreams and revelations—are there to lead you, but you must do your part. You must do inner work to put everything together. You must give yourself permission to be a little selfish each day, in an introspective way. How else will you figure things out?
Empty the mind and listen to your body and your spirit. These are your greatest resources of knowledge—the physical and the spiritual being the two most important aspects of life upon that earth. Let the busy, conjuring mind be silent and empty. Let the physical body and the spiritual body feed your mind with their innate wisdom. This is how to gain balance and attain the evolutionary path.
If you only live in the outer world, you will miss one of your greatest resources and assets: the true self and all that resides within. Go inward today, and each day from this day forth, to resolve your current difficulties. The answers are to be found within, in the alignment of the only true selves that matter: the physical self and the spiritual self. Meaning will come from within this union. Then go without, taking your daily inner lessons with you into your life. In this alignment will your way evolve naturally, and your balance will be assured.
Jeanne seems to be implying that we will only evolve as we let go of the mind—the busy, obsessive, judging mind—and as we drop into the deeper mind, getting to the real crux of our life’s intent here on earth, which she suggests is to get body and spirit in alignment so they can take the evolutionary path that is ready to receive us all, the real intent of our lives. At least, that’s how I interpret it, and it seems significant in terms of where our world is right now, on the brink of decision.
-Jan, channeled most humbly.
I pull this card a lot… It’s always deeply meaningful… From the Thoth Tarot Deck, the 2 of Disks.
I go to the Tarot for advice and guidance. “What is the most important thing to write about in my blog today?” I ask. I shuffle the deck. Holding the stack of cards against my heart, I pull a card, the 2 of Disks: Change. I read that this card represents external change. It’s about achieving external balance by remaining always fully aware that change is constant, cyclic, unending. The number 2 is also significant, implicating that we must change now, within a matter of a few minutes, days, weeks or, at the most, months. There is no time to waste.
Change comes to aid us on our journeys, to help us evolve, to spur us out of our inertia. And so I must ponder what this card is trying to alert me to on this day especially, as I am poised to write something that others will read. I say that not in self-importance, but only in humility, for I am aware that words have power. Even my own words have power; all words do. They can inspire or they can hurt.
In the wake of the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday, I am aware of goodness, selflessness, courage, heroism. I am also aware of evil, hatred, fear, anger. This is a sensitive time for us. We are hurt, confused, afraid. We want to blame. We want there to be a bad guy, a villain. We ask why, why would someone do such a thing? We feel the pain of others, the maimed, the lost, the grieving. We want answers and yet the answers are slow to come. We might even ask: “What would I have done?”
The 2 of Disks asks us to change ourselves, to get ourselves in balance with nature. It asks us to enact external change that will be lasting, based on what we know about human nature and the cyclicity of nature itself. It asks us to become responsible for change in our lifetime—now.
The symbol on the Tarot card is the oroborus, the snake eating its tail, the figure eight, representing infinity. It also represents the repetition of behaviors and habits internally that keep us static externally. The card suggests that it’s time to question our deeper selves as to why these things keep happening, the mass shootings and bombings as well as the other horrors: the raping of woman and girls, the starving of children, the insatiable greed. Why do we keep hurting each other? Why are our ideologies more important than our truths? Why will we not stand up for what is truly right? These are the questions from the oroborus.
From the reactions of people at the bombing scene it’s apparent that we care deeply about each other. Who knows, perhaps one of the injured was the bomber, unknowingly aided by a good samaritan, simply because it’s in our human nature to help one another. No one questioned if the injured were worthy of saving, they simply acted to help other human beings in pain. On that day there were many actively engaged in enacting the oath of humanness that we all took upon entering this life, the oath of affection.
I must look for myself reflected in this image… I know I’m there somewhere… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, the Golden Rule says. It’s good to see that it’s still alive. But why do so many of us turn our faces and run from horror, rather than look it in the eye, take in the gory details, knowing that we too will suffer and die one day? Why are so many of us afraid of truly living our lives to the fullest? Why are we so afraid to meet our fellow human beings face to face? Why are so many of us afraid to look at our own deepest fears?
I think these are some of the things we are being asked to confront today. As the Shamans of Ancient Mexico state: We are beings who are going to die. Why is this so hard for us to think about? Why do we pretend that we alone are invincible when we are shown every day, from around the world and in our own country, that death will come. We must use death this time as an advisor, this is what the 2 of Disks is saying.
We must dare ourselves to take in the grisly truth. We must look at what has happened, knowing full well that we are not immune, and let it shake us awake. The pictures of horror must burn holes in us so that we do not forget what we human beings are capable of, both the good and the evil.
Perhaps we have come so far from our true humanness that we must be shocked awake before we will change how we perceive the rest of humankind and the world we all share. If we Americans are to change, we must first recognize that we are the same as all other human beings around the world. We are no more or less than the good and evil that resides in the people of the Middle East, India, Africa. We are no more or less human than our staunchest opponents, our perceived enemies, than those who wish to destroy us. We all have some aspect of aberrant behavior that rules us. We are all in need of balance, and external change is what brings that to us. Just as the seasons change, bringing the balance that nature needs in order to regenerate, so do we need external shocks in order to change too. This, I believe, is what the 2 of Disks implies, that external change will come to rock us back into true balance.
We are all both light and dark, yin and yang, good and evil, etc. – Photo by Jan Ketchel
As the 2 of Disks implies, we are all the oroborus, cyclic beings, endlessly eating our tails. We must accept this. We are all going to die. And so we must accept what comes from without to help us change within, so that change can happen without that is lasting and good. We must once again retake the oath of humanness and truly live as affectionate beings, without self-importance, knowing that we are all capable of the most horrific of deeds, but also the deepest affection. This is the balance of the 2 of Disks.
We must seek balance without, in all ways, now. But we must also constantly deal with the evil bombers within. The shamanic practice of recapitulation offers a method of deep self-investigation that leads to selflessness and true affection. As we constantly recapitulate, we shed our fears and lose our personal self-importance. If we do this as individuals, our nation may lose its fears and self-importance as well. If we recapitulate until we are nothing more than beings who are going to die, when it comes our turn to act externally, only the affectionate beings that we truly are will immediately respond.
Offered in humility, with thanks to the guidance from the universe, today in the form of the Tarot,
Jan
Here is this week’s channeled message from Jeanne:
Jump into a new groove!
Relax into your life. Accept what is, yet strive always to shift the self out of complacency and inertia. Find a new groove in which to proceed as you awaken each morning.
Each day is different. Each dawn offers a new possibility for you to be a new you. Do not fall for the old rhetoric of “can’t” but seek instead new phrases of energetic inquiry. Seek always to change the self in all manner of speaking—in inner dialogue as well as in outer action. Be a new self at every opportunity.
Today is a new day. Nothing is as it was yesterday. A fresh start awaits your enacting it. A new day awaits a new self. A new self awaits the first step on its new journey. Welcome yourself to the world each morning by asking: “Who am I today?” And then begin to find out.
That is how to live in each moment. That is how to free the self of old ideas and habits. That is how to begin really living.
The portal presents itself… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
“We just went through a portal,” I said to Chuck, after an unusual weekend about a month ago when everything seemed strange and different, when we’d lost all energy and all we could do was lie around in a daze, moaning about our inertia. Suddenly, everything became clear. “This is just what we asked for!” I said. “This is exactly what we need!”
Indeed, we had set the intent to shift. With spring on the horizon and so much left undone, it was time to rev up and face the truth: we were bored. We were suffering from the winter blues. Boredom became our catalyst, but there was something even deeper that was stirring, our spirits calling out to us from beyond the veils of everyday life, calling us to keep going, to not forget that we are beings who are going to die.
“Make this time in this world extraordinary,” Carlos Castaneda said to his audience on August 7, 1995 at a workshop in Culver City, California. “Make this time in this world extraordinary.” Such simple and yet such provocative words! What more could we need to jolt us back into truly living!
Just what was it that had gotten us into such a bored state to begin with? The answer is: “The encumbering weight of Me,” wise words also spoken by Castaneda at that same workshop. “We have let something win by default and we will never actualize our possibilities,” he went on to say. “It’s worthwhile to get rid of this encumbering weight.”
And so began a great unencumbering. Weighed down by all we carry within, recapitulation was the necessary and effective antidote. In the weeks that followed our portal weekend, the portal itself seemed to narrow. Holding us in its tight embrace, we faced what we needed to face. Such were the inner workings of our intent to shift, while on the outside our lives flowed along, the energy of our intent and the honed energy of being in the portal keeping us focused and alert. Suddenly it was time to shift again.
“Make this time in this world extraordinary.” – Photo by Jan Ketchel
We spent the weekend in Manhattan. Quickly planned for, almost spur of the moment, we arranged for a couple of key events. The rest of our time there was spent on the Upper West Side, in the dream that is New York City, in the vastness of energy that only a big city can provide. We entered the flow of that energy for the time we were there. By the time we were heading home on Sunday night, our energy had honed to accomplish the return. With little attachment, we left the city and all of our experiences behind. We entered the next dream. Chuck drove us out of the city and then I took over the wheel. My intent now was to seamlessly flow northward along the energy lines that led back to Red Hook where we live. The empty Taconic Parkway stretched before me. We were the only car on the road.
I made the decision to speed up. I have a perfect driving record. I’ve never gotten a ticket, not even a parking ticket. Well, maybe one $10 parking ticket back when I lived in Brooklyn in 1983. I thought St. Patrick’s Day was a federal holiday, and so I decided not to put a coin in the meter. It was only a ten cent fee, and something told me to do it anyway, but I didn’t. When I came back to my car there was a ticket stuck to the windshield. But on Sunday night there was no uncomfortable feeling to accompany my decision.
“I don’t want to get a speeding ticket, but I just cannot let this opportunity go by,” I thought. “There’s no one on the road. This could be fun!” And so I sped up, not enough to risk being pulled over, but certainly enough to enjoy the ride, the thrill of the open road.
After a while, I noticed my mind starting to wander, thoughts of the weekend seeping in, one dream overlapping another. I had to stay focused. “Okay,” I said to myself. “You are in a new dream. You have to wake up and stay awake in this dream.” And so I dreamed within my dream. I entered a video game dream, with the intent to maneuver past all obstacles. Keeping my attention honed, I played to perfection. Following the narrow beam of the headlights, I sped along, into the ever-narrowing portal of the night.
The next morning arrived, the intent of my video game dream still operative as we began our week with a similar intent: to flow seamlessly and without distraction, to make each moment important and fruitful, to, as Castaneda said, “Make this time in this world extraordinary!”
Time to pop out of the video game dream… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
The week progressed. Energy and attention honed to work. By the middle of the week I began to feel as if I were in a vise; my energy felt like it was being squeezed out of me. “Oh my God, I never left the video game; I’m still driving down the Taconic!” I thought. “I have to wake myself up and dream a new dream!”
With that intent, a new dream began. Instantly things shifted. I felt myself pop right out of the video game and land with a plop, my energy released, my mind suddenly clear. “I just escaped the wormhole I’ve been in all week,” I said to Chuck. “You were there too! We were dreaming the same dream. We were stuck on the Taconic, still driving in my video game dream. Welcome to our new dream!”
And what is the new dream? Well, it’s really pretty simple. It’s just what Carlos Castaneda said to his audience that day in Culver City: “Make this time in this world extraordinary!” Keep dreaming a new dream. Set the intent and let it happen. It really works!
Here is this week’s channeled message from Jeanne:
This is what greets me when I step outside—a crow feather and a pistachio shell—a thank you gift from the critters I invite into my energy space… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Watch your energy. Study how you use it during the day. Study how you tend to end your day, your habits and proclivities. Study how you acquiesce and how you pander to your desires over your true needs. Guard your energy so you may use it for personal growth and instruction. Learn to take it back from that which offers no knowledge or instructional proclivity in return.
The point I make today is that your personal energy, uncontaminated, is of the utmost importance. Be concerned, therefore, in how you use it and in how it gets used without your awareness. To become an enlightened being one must study the self in many situations in order to understand the self, in order to retrieve lost energy for deeper inner work.
It is not enough to pray for guidance. One must enact one’s own guidance, from within. One must become one’s own guru, one’s own teacher. Seek knowledge within, for it is only in studying and knowing the self, without judgment or self-importance, that one will be able to know more. In studying one’s energy usage, one has the opportunity to retrieve lost energy, protect energy, and utilize energy for the inner process. Knowledge and foresight, deeper intuition, and greater awareness will come as one returns one’s personal energy to the personal inner source.
In inner contemplation comes clarity about the world, the self, and the use of energy—how it works to both benefit and harm the self and others. Positive energy vibrations exist and these positive vibrations are worthy of attention. Prepare the self to accept such positive vibrations from without by preparing for reception of them from within.
Inner work is the key to contentment and full realization of life and energy. Awareness is the tool. You hold it within. Wake it up a little bit more each day by studying the self on a deepening level. Don’t be afraid of what you hold within. It is mere illusion, blocking you from your deeper truths. Once you let it go you will experience the divine within. This is what you seek, inner divinity and inner peace, without attachment or self-importance. You simply seek what already exists. In this way will you change the world.
Seek the means of change within. In humbleness and simplicity, ask the raw self, the real self, the divinely pure self to guide you as you take your inner journey. Know this self and you will be halfway there.
“Halfway where?” you might ask. The answer to that is: Halfway to eternity, halfway to completion, halfway to the wholeness you seek, halfway to inner peace.
Love yourself. That is how to begin. Just love yourself enough to start a new process of energetic study. Go halfway to meeting that self—halfway each day—and pretty soon you will be meeting and greeting yourself like an old friend.
“Nice to meet you again! How’ve you been? We’re halfway there! Let’s keep going!”
Let yourself reconnect. Let yourself be okay with what is. Let yourself be okay with “me.”
