What are you keeping from yourself in the shadows of your mind? – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Examine the self. Find out who you are, who you have become, and who you want to be. Follow no protocols but your own. Discover what you need as you journey through life, trying out what might work for you, dismissing that which is not amenable, acceptable, practical, or fulfilling to your spirit. In order to know what is fulfilling to your spirit you must know yourself very well. This is what is most important in life—to know the self fully.
Use all the tools of awareness and inner work that you have at your fingertips and go to work on deeper examination of the needs and wants of the self. I do not speak of the needs of the child self, though they must be taken into consideration and seen for what they are. No, I mean the needs of the evolving human self, inhabited by an evolving spiritual self. These two parts of you must come to some agreement that is fluid and accepting of each other, not compromise but cooperation, with evolutionary growth in mind.
After all, what do you really want to accomplish during your time in this life, in this body? Think about it in the context of the self as an energetic being full of life and vitality yet stuck in human form. The body must get in alignment with the energetic self so that these two parts may fluidly navigate through life, learning about each other in the context of everyday life.
What do you want out of life? Ask your two selves. They already know, but perhaps they haven’t told you yet. The answer lies within, in the context of you as a spiritual human. It’s a great way to be! The answer to your question must begin with accepting this self as a most amazing being! You are a most amazing being!
Look for ways to shift your present outlook and your present perspective on yourself and your life. It’s not that hard to do. Find one thing that you consider a negative and turn it into a positive. Go ahead, I dare you! Then do the same with another aspect of self. Notice how your two parts learn to speak and communicate on a new and different level as you dare yourself to practice this exercise. A most amazing being indeed!
As I finish channeling, I hear the raven that lives in the woods nearby calling loudly in its crackly voice. “Heh-Heh!” it says, “laugh at yourself a little too!” And so, I end this channeling on a happy, laughing note to you all. Sending love, Jan
I have had to remind myself lately to not forget the experiences of awe that I have had in the past and constantly have in life. I get so caught up in the mundane, in this world, that I often lose track of where I’ve been and all of the amazing things that have transpired in my life. Jeanne suggests some useful guidance around this issue in her latest message.
Life in this world can drag us down. We become so fixated on things that are wrong, things that offend us, things that make us angry, resentful, hurt; feelings that leave us shamed, blamed, helpless and lost. The Shamans of Ancient Mexico would call all of those things issues of the ego, issues of self-importance. Lose your self-importance, they constantly suggested.
I try to be impeccable, but I am not. I try to be balanced and in perfect alignment with my spirit’s intent, but I am not. I try to be selfless, kind, and compassionate at all times, but I am not. I like to think of myself as on top of things when in reality I just am not. I’m often lazy. I had to face my imperfect, lazy self over the weekend when the hard drive on my computer crashed. I also had to face my psychic self, who kept warning me to do things that I ignored. “Make a copy of this, back this up, notice this sign and this sign that things are just not working right,” she warned me. But did I pay attention? No. And so I had to suffer.
We took my computer to the Apple Store and when they ran the diagnostics on it, a large red banner appeared that read: FAILED! Immediately, I felt like a bad person, because I knew I had not backed up at the end of the work week as I normally do and I wondered how much stuff I had lost. I did attempt a backup as soon as I noticed something was seriously wrong, but did it take? Only time would tell.
My MacMini is happy again… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Back home again with a new hard drive, I had to face the truth. Not only that, but I had to face it with other people looking over my shoulder, my techie guy and Chuck. “Seriously,” my techie guy said, “you didn’t back up like I told you to do?” “Once a week,” I said, meekly, “but I didn’t do it last week.” “ARRGH!” This is something like what the conversation went like and boy did I feel bad, and really really stupid. “So much for impeccability,” I thought. “Jan, you suck!”
As time wore on it became clear just how much stuff I had lost. The hard drive was so corroded that my last ditch backup effort had failed. I got more depressed, felt more stupid, admitted I was a real jerk and got depressed. By the time Monday morning rolled around I wondered what I would find when I looked at the last revisions I had made on my book, had I saved them? Uh-uh. Nope. More depression. Then along came a different me, the fighter/warrior, cut-your-losses and move-on person that I can be and she said: “Get over it! This is meaningful. It’s not so bad. It’s teaching you things you need to learn about yourself.” How could I argue with that?
I have my backup machine plugged in all the time now. I backup to DropBox as well now. I found that once I let go of trying to recall the changes I had made to my book, the editing of Volume Two of The Edge of the Abyss ran smoothly, with a new precision and conciseness that had been lacking for the past month. I had gotten so bogged down in trying to finish that I was forgetting to enjoy the process. I got so caught up in the mundane that I forgot about the awe that comes along even in the most trying of times. I forgot to really savor the people in my life, and life itself.
In awe… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
“I want to laugh more,” I said to Chuck the other day, and then someone showed us a funny video and we laughed so hard! I forgot that you just have to ask and you receive. I forgot to lighten up and enjoy where I am. I forgot that there is awe in life every single day, you just have to see it that way. I forgot to lose my self-importance and just enjoy every moment.
There is awe in my computer crash, there is awe in my depression, there is awe in my stupidity, if I so choose to see it that way. And yes, I do choose to see it that way, thank you very much!
Find your intent and stick with it… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Hold to the fine line of intent, the intent for your life, the intent which you personally have set in your conscious state of being, as well as the bigger intent of your spirit in alignment with universal intent. What this means is: Do not lose connection to yourself as a being who is seeking greater purpose in life, with the far greater intent to evolve as a spiritual being comprised of energy.
Shift focus away from the mundane tasks of life throughout the day. Even as you must deal with mundane tasks, constantly return to that fine line of spirit intent. Reconnect with it and then go back to your daily life. In this manner will your unconscious awaken further, and your awareness will gather to you the strings of your intent that have been flustered and frayed by life and reweave them back into that finely honed sense of self as an interconnected, whole being on a journey of the utmost importance. Keep that always in mind too, that you are on a journey of the utmost importance. Let it unfold as it will.
Your job is to maintain awareness so that your travels through life may be synchronized with your spirit’s intent. You will get there, to that place of easy alignment, by acquiescence to the truth that you really have no control. Once you arrive at that insight it’s pretty easy to take the journey along that finely honed line that I speak of. I do understand that that is the hard part, acquiescing to your journey, especially if it’s been a pretty rough one. Keep in mind that all beings have rough journeys. It’s the nature of life; it’s how you learn the lessons you need to learn. You are not alone, nor are you special, you simply are. There are plenty of things to do to get you to that place of acquiescence.
Begin by forging a new self constantly. Make the decision to change and then do it daily. Each time you visualize your fine line of intent—whatever that line may look like to you—see yourself shifting into position, equally honed, alert, impeccably pointed in the direction you know you need to go in. It’s not that hard to do once your begin the process. You just have to keep reminding yourself that you are on a journey of change and evolution; you have to say: Yes, I’m ready. Let’s go!
And then you have to act on your own behalf by taking full responsibility for yourself, for your actions and decisions, for your internal dialogue, for the journeys you have thus far taken, and for the things that keep you stuck. Constantly shift body and mind throughout your day, and begin to notice the changes you yourself enact simply by being fully aware of yourself as an impeccable being on a journey of fulfillment.
Travel onward with your own intent as your guide now. Let it lead the way.
I notice this happy face smiling at me when I open the milk carton…another good sign perhaps? – Photo by Jan Ketchel
I wake at 3:45 a.m. to wind gusts that shake the house and rattle the furniture on the deck. I wonder if the umbrellas will blow over. I try to fall back to sleep but another gust comes along. I see the trees against the night sky bending low, pushed to breaking by this sudden shift. The night has been calm. We have our bedroom sliding door open wide to the deck and the night air. We love to watch the sky at night and awaken to the sounds of the birds, the phoebes and cardinals especially. They are our alarm clock. Another gust comes through, and another and another. Now I can’t fall back to sleep. I wonder what’s coming, for I sense that these are winds of change.
Later, as I’m drying my hair, the hair dryer goes on the fritz. In fact, it totally blitzes out, shoots a flame, smokes and fizzles out. It’s fried. Change, I think. Yup, change is coming. Am I ready for it and what will I do with this opportunity?
Astrologically, I read that we are in for some interesting energy, so my sense of change feels in alignment with the planets. I look forward to change, to new possibilities, to the challenge of doing things differently and of becoming someone new. I wonder what else, besides the wind and my hair dryer, will be the catalyst. Something else is sure to come along to support me today in my quest and desire for change. I know for a fact though that I must be my own instigator of change. I must be my own arbiter, my own catalyst, and yet I am thankful for the signs that show me that the time for change is now.
The fact that the cicadas are here this summer is right in alignment with the idea that it is high time to make some big changes. They have been singing their way through the days, letting us know that we don’t have much time left. And it’s true, we don’t, they don’t, none of us do. As the Shamans of Ancient Mexico like to say: We are beings who are going to die.
Here it is, trying like heck to turn over… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
I thought about those shamans yesterday. I was just about to check the hot tub water chemistry when I noticed a large bug on the hot tub cover. It was on its back, trying desperately to turn over. A cicada. I watched it for a while, remembering how don Juan had once told Carlos not to interrupt the progress of some critter crossing the road, a snail perhaps. He told him that he had no right to interfere, for he did not really know the snail’s story. I tend to not interfere with nature myself, knowing that nature can pretty much take care of itself. However, it was taking the cicada a long time to flip itself over and I was getting impatient. Of course, I could have come back later, but I wanted to test the water now.
After a while, rather than actually touch the cicada, I blew at it hard enough that it was able to flip over and fly off the hot tub cover. Satisfied I opened the lid and went about my business. A few seconds later as I went to the other side of the hot tub to turn on the jets, I stepped on something that went CRUNCH under my clog. UH-OH! I looked down and in a moment of horror realized that I had just killed the poor cicada that I had tried to help! I was devastated. I had interfered and had caused a death. On the other hand, that cicada, as far as I knew, had been singing its heart out for days that it was going to die. It was right. We are all beings who are going to die. However, I couldn’t help wondering how it would have fared had I not interfered.
Chuck mentioned this morning that as long as we keep the thought of our death uppermost in our minds then no moment is any more significant than another. At the same time, every moment is precious too, but all the moments really carry the same message, letting us know that time’s a wastin’! What have we been putting off? What do we want to accomplish in our lives, in our next moments? Why wait?
I sense that new opportunity arrived on the wind in the middle of the night. It loudly proclaimed its presence. It said, stay alert and grab this opportunity to make those changes that are so badly needed. This is a personal challenge as well as a universal challenge. We are all being asked to go deeper into our inner world and make changes there, while we are being pushed to live differently in the outer world as well.
Doesn’t this cloud look a little monsterish? – Photo by Jan Ketchel
The wind is not always good, the shamans like to warn, but it does suggest a stirring of energies. This one, by all accounts, is a good wind of change, bringing us to a new level of awareness. If we are ready to grow, it’s time to latch on, dig in and go with it. Change! It’s the kind of wind that will take us far and we could all use that kind of help in our efforts to evolve and grow, individually and as a human race.
It’s time, the wind shouted in the night. In the most bone-shattering way, it said: This is it! This is the time of your lives! This is what you have been waiting for, so don’t miss the opportunity! Go with the flow of it. Acquiesce to what you know is right, to what must be done to move you beyond the pale, beyond the horizon, beyond the old self.
I wish you all well in your inner work and your outer work. It feels like they will now come into greater and more fruitful alignment. The winds bode well!
Here is this week’s message of guidance from Jeanne, channeled most humbly by Jan:
Don’t ask why, just take it in and enjoy… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Underneath everything and everyone flows the same current of energy. You see differences with your human eyes, but in energetic reality there is no difference between one being and another, one thing and another, one life and another. If you can find your own source of energy and life you will be able to experience this current that I speak of.
Stay connected to your path of growth. This is the best advice I can give. Stay focused on changing, growing, and discovering the self on the deepest levels. Only in working deeper inward, into the self, will the energetic truths that I speak of be more fully revealed and acceptable to you.
Many of you know what I speak of because you have had experiences of energy that you could not otherwise explain. My advice is to not question but to accept and discover the gift that you are being asked to receive. Learn to block the unanswerable questions so that you may be open to the energy—that is what all of your questions are about anyway. If you stop asking them and pause long enough to enjoy your own energy you might begin to discover just how exciting and life-affirming your energy of self, as a being of infinite possibility, is. Be open to that and then see where it takes you!
Experience the self as an energetic being and then discover the current that flows through all things, all life, all that your eyes see. You must “feel” energy, perceive energy, so your eyes are not necessarily the right organs to guide you. Seek heart connection instead. Start there.
