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A Day in a Life: Through Portals & Wormholes

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The portal presents itself... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
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
“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
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!

Dreaming all the time,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Seek The Divine Within

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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
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.”

Jan's Blog, Messages from Jeanne

A Day in a Life: Your Guts Of Steel

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Where do you turn for inspiration? - Photo of poster of St. Patrick's Cathedral by J. Ketchel
Where do you turn for inspiration? – Photo of poster of St. Patrick’s Cathedral by J. Ketchel

I look for inspiration for my blog. I’m putting all my energy into finishing my book, so I look for something to guide me. I pick up The Art of Navigation by Felix Wolf. I open it to page 141 and read the following: There was such beauty in intending impeccability and integrity. I believe, however, that the abundance and generosity of life that I was experiencing were not so much tied to the effort of intending and following principles, but rather the result of simply honoring and acknowledging the aliveness of life, every step of the way. Ultimately, looking life in the eye with recognition seems to be all that is truly necessary.

I like this quote, it inspires me, and yet I wish to save my energy. I look to Jeanne for another message today. When I channel, the words just flow out of my pen onto the paper before me. It’s easy on my brain, my time, and my energy. And so I break my attachment to my usual Wednesday blogging routine once again and go to the energetic source of life, as I experience it, to my spirit in alignment with infinity. And so I offer you the following channeled message that came through, as I looked the energy of life in the eye and asked: What message do you have for us today?

Here is what Jeanne replied:

It is of utmost importance that each one of you become fulfilled beings of light and energy, that you work through the issues that hold you in fear and regret, so that your energy may be used to benefit all of mankind. I do not say this lightly, but only because mankind is at such a turning point that good energy may be the only saving grace. The more people who free their energy—from greed and inflation, from sadness and petulance, from the insignificance of neediness and desire-of-no-benefit—the more hope will stir.

The world, as you all know it, is suffering. This suffering is largely due to the energetic component of man’s unstoppable greed. Where have all the good ones gone? Nowhere and everywhere, for all of you are the good ones. You know this already.

Do not get caught up in feeling one way or another about the self, but work to free the self from that which holds you back from fulfilling your true potential. And what is your true potential, you ask? Your true potential lies in your energetic self, your spirit self. Bound by the rules of the world, it is fearful. It holds back. It stays safe in its encasement. This encasement, however, will only last so long. In order to truly embrace the true self, it takes guts of steel. You know you have such guts—you all do.

Fear and worry are figments of imagination. They exist only in your mind. Your mind controls your body. Release the figments of mind and you release your body. Release your body and your spirit will find room, your energy will emerge from its encasement and give you all that you need in order to fulfill your highest potential.

Let life in. Let the encasements of an old world go so that the earth may finally be respected for what it is: a life giver! Let life give itself by aligning your personal intent with life today. Allow the self to take the first step in cracking the encasement that surrounds you and keeps you from your greater experiences of life and the world around you.

Seek the fire within... - Photo by J. Ketchel
Seek the fire within… – Photo by J. Ketchel

Sure, the world is a dangerous place. In many areas there is strife and evil, but do not look upon such devastation and disregard of humanity as someone else’s problem. Look inside the self for where you have the same strife and the same dangerous situations going on. The outer world is merely a reflection of the inner world and just as you all share the outer world, so do you all share the inner world. Do not think that your neighbor is not like you, equally holy and equally self-destructive, equally good and equally fallible, equally fine and equally exhausted by the need to uphold the insanity that life has become.

Find within that which you seek without, but also let life lead you and guide you to the answers you strive for within. Reconciliation with inner self will come from reconciliation without, but alignment will come from within. However, it is only in acquiescing to the non-specialness of the self—because all of you are equally special—that you will be able to access your guts of steel and forge a path to your inner self. Once that pathway has been secured, let it lead you into the world in a new way, in an energetically aligned way.

I cannot stress enough that in order to change your reality, you must dare first to change the self. How can you expect the world to change if you do not change your own habits and behaviors? How can the world change if the people who make up the world do not change? You are the first necessary agent of change. Be the agent of change in your own life. Grip your guts of steel and take the first step to cracking through your environment of encased energy and see what happens. Be open to life and life will meet you with equal openness.

Love to you all,
Jeanne

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Life Is Waiting To Receive You

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I set my intent to channel and here is what I got from Jeanne for us today:

Once my intent to channel was set, I let it unfold...this is what I received from intent meeting me in return... -photo of handwritten channeling by Jan Ketchel
Once my intent to channel was set, I let it unfold…this is what I received from intent meeting me in return… -photo of handwritten channeling by Jan Ketchel

Postpone nothing. Live your lives to the fullest. Do not reject or turn away from what comes to you as your next step, challenging you to progress. Be open to what life offers you. Know always that you are being guided. These things must be kept in mind if you are to learn how to leave your fears, your old self, and old places that are no longer nurturing, behind.

The time to move on has arrived. Please note that moving on means remaining fully adult, aware of life to come as more fulfilling than the life you now feel stuck in. Moving on requires maturity, compassion, and kindness to others. Moving on requires taking full responsibility for the self. Moving on requires impeccability in all that you do.

Strive for perfection in your daily lives. Such striving brings new energy. It makes you gain, in so may ways, crucial skills and attributes that you will need for your new life ahead. As you move on, new challenges will come to greet you. Life itself will come to your door. You must be prepared to receive it to your fullest advantage.

Impeccability is individually centered, an inner knowing that you are doing your very best in any given situation without inflation or greed for anything in return. To be impeccable is to do your best because there is no reason to do any less, ever.

Give life your all and life will give you all in return. Keep this in mind when you tire. Keep this in mind when fears arise. Keep this in mind when old voices from the past speak out against your more fully embracing life as it comes to you. Keep this in mind as you dare yourself to more fully embrace life and move on.

Life is unfolding, won't you too? - Photo of daffodils emerging by Jan Ketchel
Life is unfolding, won’t you too? – Photo of daffodils emerging by Jan Ketchel

This day is a day of newness, of energetic importance; a day of transition. Make the most of it. Make it be important on an inner level as well as an outer level. You may see it unfolding in transitory fashion in your outer life—one thing leading to another—but notice how your inner world responds as well. Let impeccability, maturity, detachment from the old, and compassion be your stability and your sobriety, as you take full responsibility for yourself and take the next step into your unfolding life.

Life is waiting to receive you. You just have to take the first step out of an old self and an old place, and into a new self and a new place. This opportunity is available every day, at all times. Sometimes it is more energetically apparent; at other times you have to work to discover it. Today, however, it is easily within your grasp.

Let yourself be open today. Look around you and you will notice that something is asking you to tend to it with impeccability. Go tend to it.

Be impeccable and life will meet you with equal impeccability and lead you onward. New life always awaits!

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: The Pragmatist’s Way—One Step At A Time

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Today, I asked Jeanne: What message is most important for us to receive today? Here is her answer:

Are you ready for the energy of spirit? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Are you ready for the energy of spirit? – Photo by Jan Ketchel

If you open to the world of energy you must be prepared for it. If you wish to invite intent into your lives you must be shored up with practical knowledge of how the world really works. You must be a strong pragmatic adult, but you must also be innocently open so that your experiences of a new reality will not be dismissed or denied.

In order to prepare, one must work hard to stabilize the self in the world you now inhabit. Determine within your own lives, My Dears, what this means to you and how you intend to go about it. Some things to keep in mind as helpful goals and objectives are the following:

Choose a path that will work for you, that is resonant with your inner spirit. This may take a while, but if you listen to your heart you will know when you have found it. You may even already be on it and not even know it. Keep in mind that life itself, your daily life and the life you were born into, is part of this greater path. The spirit’s path may be as simple as walking in nature or communing with a pet. It may suggest meditating, listening to music, breathing, dancing, just sitting quietly in calmness. In spirit will you know this path, for your spirit will be the communicator. Your spirit will take the path. Your spirit will guide you and speak to you of having found the way. This path will lead to others as you take it, each new path an off-shoot, but always resonant and connected to the original path—simply the next step. In spirit communication will you know where to go—your OWN spirit, by the way, not through or with someone else’s spirit. I speak only of your own inner spirit. No one can really make the connection with this inner self, except you. Someone else may provide structure, and this is good. The best guide is a good listener who will help you hear what you are saying, will point out the obvious, and will ask you what you want to do next.

Study the reality you are in... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Study the reality you are in… – Photo by Jan Ketchel

Know your present reality well. Study how it works and how you respond to it. Notice your habitual patterns of behavior, your tendencies, and your patterns of abuse, reaction, complacency, and inertia. Notice how you attach and how you reject. Notice how you allow and disallow; how you follow and refuse to follow. Know your strengths and your weaknesses, your inflations and your follies. Above all, be perfectly and ruthlessly honest with the self. Notice how quickly you lose all that you gain. Do not be discouraged, just keep going.

Absolve the self of so-called sins. With compassion for the self and others move forward. With love allow yourself to take your journey, even while you allow others to take theirs. Be responsible for those in your care and learn from them. Whether they are lovers or foes, whether you are duty-bound or acting out of love and compassion does not matter—they all have something to teach you.

Be impeccable in how you treat others. Treat all beings equally, with love, kindness, and compassion, with respect and understanding that all are on journeys of evolution. All are great. All are fallible. Even you. Even the most lowly creature and the most profound of scholars are innocent beings—some aware, some not, and which ones are aware you may never know, so treat all equally.

Guide those in your care with gentleness and awe, awe for their journeys. Be non-judgmental, even as you wish to be free of judgment from others yourself. Allow the self and others to fail, this is how you learn. Allow the self and others to struggle. Allow the self and others to go off the path when necessary so that the way back may be discovered. Allow the self and others to embrace results and advances, but do not get caught in inflated ideas of the self. Encouragement is always good.

Maintain a positive outlook. If you are naturally pessimistic, find out why and what that means to you and use it to your advantage. This same kind of examination for all energy types must be explored. Find out what energy type you are and use it as both your challenge and your catalyst. Find out where your talents lie and use them until you find some new ones.

Each day dawns anew... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Each day dawns anew… – Photo by Jan Ketchel

Always advance. Even if you cannot see the road ahead of you, know that it’s there waiting. Each step into the darkness is just like a step into the light—in both cases you are blind. Allow your inner vision to guide you. Hold fear in check. Hold the big baby inside you in check. Hold the ego in check. Find your way through practical navigation of the life you find yourself in. This is where you are. Begin there. Look around and discover something that you did not notice before.

Do a reality check several times a day. Say: Okay, where am I? And then decide what to do next based on your reality and your spirit’s intent. Don’t know your spirit’s intent? Don’t worry—just follow the path that opens before you. Eventually you will know that your spirit’s intent is to evolve. Just what this means for each of you will be unique, and how you discover it will be unique as well. How you experience it will be unique. How you grow will be unique.

If you are truly ready for the journey of your spirit, or even if you don’t know if you are ready but you hear the call, I suggest you pay attention. Heed the call and begin your journey with one step today. It will be the first step on a journey of greater fulfillment. One step at a time is the pragmatist’s way.