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Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: A Blip in the Universe

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In the middle of the night I woke up and my thoughts went to what I would write about today in this blog. I fell back to sleep and dreamt that I was writing fluidly and flowingly. The words “write like a shaman” were spoken in a voiceover throughout the dream. When I woke up I remembered the dream but could not remember any specifics nor come up with a theme for today’s blog. Usually, I just sit at my computer and the words flow, but today that was just not happening, unlike my dream.

Then something unusual happened. I’d been sitting here for about an hour struggling with several ideas and had just gotten something down that made some sense when a blip in the universe caused my screen to go blank and, not having saved my draft, I lost everything I had written. Now, as I sit here even more frustrated and quite deflated, that dream comes back to me and I wonder again what it was that I had written in the night that flowed so easily and what I am supposed to learn from the two worlds I am encountering, the dream world and this present reality.

I’ve been feeling scattered lately, not quite my grounded self, the outer world taking my attention. Even as I sit here now and write I keep glancing outside. We are expecting yet another snowstorm in the Northeast and to tell you the truth I’m getting pretty tired of it. Yes, the ice-coated trees do glitter fantastically in the sunlight, but I’m getting tired of shoveling and I’m really looking forward to spring.

On Monday, in the channeled message, Jeanne mentioned that we must not take things too personally and yet that we must reflect on what we are personally being shown as we navigate through our lives. Today, I personally feel that I have been humbled before the power of the universe and nature. It can so easily take over, taking away what I had struggled so hard to write, letting me know that I’m just not that important. The pending snow doesn’t care that I’m tired of shoveling or that I’m cold. That’s just the way it is.

The seers of ancient Mexico would totally agree with the universe and nature. We are nothing and yet we are here, part of the universe, part of nature, as Jeanne also mentioned in her message. So, today I acquiesce to nature. I turn this blog over to the blip in the universe and sign off to ponder just what it is that I am being shown.

May the rest of the day unfold differently now, as I give a nod to the energy that pushes us to change—or not—it doesn’t really matter, because I have already acquiesced. What comes will come and I accept it!

If you wish, feel free to share or comment in the Post Comment section below.

Sending you all love and good wishes,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

#743 Navigating a Path of Heart

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Written by Jan Ketchel and including a channeled message from Jeanne Ketchel.

Last week, in my conversation with Jeanne she established the importance of setting intent using two significant mantras: Everything is possible and Everything is meaningful. If we go the next step in learning to navigate life with those two ideas firmly embedded in our subconscious, simply through the practice of repeatedly saying them for five minutes each day, we open ourselves to experiencing reality differently.

For instance, if we look at everything that happens to us, comes to us, greets us, meets us and confronts us as personally significant we begin to understand what those two mantras can do for us in helping us expand our awareness. For that is the purpose of life, I believe, to expand our awareness beyond the issues of self, of poor me, of blame, and self-defeat, and to instead open to the universe, knowing that it provides everything we need.

I ask Jeanne: What would you offer as the next step in expanding our awareness, as we begin to more thoroughly practice the intent of navigating through life by becoming open, by setting our intent to more fully open to guidance from the universe?

Jeanne responds: The next step in opening to the guidance of the universe is emptying the self of all ego-related wants, desires, ideas and importances, and becoming a truly pure being. I do not mean pure in the sense of making the self over by force of any kind, but pure in the sense of emptiness, of being open without thoughts of personal gain, personal implications of any sort, but instead resorting to pure innocence of spirit, that which one is born with. This innocence involves no motives, no desires, no attention, no ego self, but is pure energy of curiosity, of love, of openness to truth of self and of the world, as it comes to greet you each day.

This pureness of heart, this innocence I speak of, does not find what it needs in that world, for there is nothing that it needs there. All it needs is permission to live. And this permission may only be granted by each individual.

As you begin to intend change in your life, you will find that you will be confronted with many feelings. You will question whether or not you are doing it right, or if you are indeed worthy of allowing the self to change. These questions, and many others that arise, must be viewed as attached to that world where your self-importance has had to play a part of utmost importance in your life. You have had to spend your life building up and supporting your ego, for that is the system you live under.

But, if you are reading my messages, and the messages of other guides, then I guarantee that you are no longer interested in upholding that system. After a while, such a system drains all of your energy, depletes your storehouse, and leaves you wondering what you have been doing your whole life. Who have you been living and working for, and for what reason? Is it simply because you have followed the ideas of the system? Is there another path?

Yes, I trust that you, if you are reading my words, do know in your heart that another personal path exists. It does not exist as a well-laid out system with rules and diagrams, for it is not that kind of path. It is a path that is, as of yet, not revealed. The spirit of it may have been revealed to you a long time ago, but you will not learn about it again until you tread upon it, taking one step at a time along its unknown route, following the synchronicities inherent in life, in nature, and in each one of you, as you open to a new way of living.

Learning to navigate along a path of heart requires that you be open. And that is what I suggest you study next. Find out what it means to personally open yourself to your innocence, to allowing your true spirit self to become your eyes, your ears, your voice, your intuition, your heart.

The first thing to remember is that, at all times, you must study and know who the old self is. Only in knowing how the old ego-based self works will you not be fooled or caught as you attempt this most significant change. The old self is full of habits, thoughts, ideas, judgments. The old self is fully ready to dismiss your innocent thoughts and ideas. The old self is not very open to navigating life in a new way. It is ready, at all times, to fall back into the comforts of the system it has grown up in.

So your first challenge will be to learn how it operates, studying how it reacts to life or does not, what it chooses to believe about the self, and what it most often desires. This old self is your most helpful companion as you seek your new innocent self. Use this habitual self to look elsewhere, to steadily tell it: “No, not that way. Let’s look for a new way.”

Look at the possibility that even the tiniest and most insignificant sign you receive may be the catalyst to change. What does that birdcall mean, the one you hear most noticeably today? What does the nagging noise mean, or the message from your boss, or the anger that arises when you feel rejected or ignored?

What else can you do or feel or take note of in your life? What other sign is available to point out or introduce a new way of thinking, feeling, perceiving, or navigating life?

When I say that life, that the universe, that nature itself offers you everything you need to change and grow, I put each one of you in the same categories. You are life. You are nature. You are the universe. Everything you need is inside you.

Set your intent to change. Be open to the possibilities that come to you. Know fully that everything is meaningful by studying your self and your experiences. Then take it another step and use what you now know to live your life according to a new plan of unfolding life. Allow your innocence to wake up with you each morning eager to explore the world, looking for the resonance of heart in all you do. That is how you will begin to more fully live with universal intent.

It is up to each one of you to do for the self what no one else can do for you. Seek guidance by all means. Seek help of those who have done the work and continue to face challenges, knowing full well that the best teachers will always set you to task, asking you to have the experiences that only you can have, that only you can enact, that only you can embrace.

You are the universe. Yes, that is true, but that will mean nothing and get you nowhere if you do not go and find out what that means. You are nothing until you do, though you hold always the possibility of that universe inside you. It is only in having personal experiences of the self as truly open, daring, and honest that you will discover what it means to have access to all things within.

The true path is to go within, to navigate the self, to become innocently empty once again so that you may truly be open, using the outer world as guide to finding the path of heart.

Learn what it means to navigate life and evolve, one step at a time. It’s hard work, but it is truly worth the effort!

Thank you, Jeanne!

Please feel free to post comments or respond to this message in the post/read comments section below. And thank you for passing the messages on!

Most fondly and humbly offered.

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Experience as a Path

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As I write today, we are again immersed in frozen winter weather in the Northeast, a time that offers a most singular experience, forcing us to curtail our activities and deal with its impact, which can suddenly and unrelentingly take over, causing devastation and undesirable change. It is at times like these that I realize how insignificant we are in the path of nature.

I find myself of no importance as I face the snow and ice, the downed limbs and power lines, and as I battle to clear our driveway, scrape the ice off our cars, and keep our house warm. We don’t really matter to nature, and yet we are part of it. This is, as I see it, the same message from the shaman’s world, the world of the seers that asks us to accept our insignificance, to lose our self-importance, yet to utilize and value our experiences. How do we reconcile that dilemma, the idea that we are insignificant with the idea that we are here in our lives to have incredible experiences? How do we make sense of this conundrum?

For the past ten years I have been immersing myself in the shaman’s world; specifically, but not limited to, the world of the seers of ancient Mexico as described by Carlos Castaneda. I came into the seer’s world by intent, I believe, intent that I set long before I was even conscious, nature at its most basic. But my life’s challenge was to gain enough awareness, by becoming fully present in this world, by becoming increasingly open to seeing that everything I experience in this life may not be what I, at first, think or perceive.

My true introduction into the seer’s world really began when I first met Chuck Ketchel, though, as I have mentioned in previous blogs, I had read and felt an intense resonance with the early books of Castaneda when I was in my early twenties. It was not until I was ready, however, that the seers’ world really opened up for me, or perhaps that I opened up to it.

In the beginning, I admit, I was somewhat skeptical about the seer’s world, though never reluctant to explore its meaning or the possibilities it offered. I was ready and I met the right person to introduce me to a way of viewing life and life’s experiences from another perspective. In learning about this world of the seers, I learned that the experiences I had previously had were the necessary foundations for taking a journey of intelligent and complicated growth. My continued experiences are equally necessary, if I am to lose my self-importance and face my own insignificance, as well as my death.

Of course, this is a very personally resonant journey that I am on, and I know that not everyone will find what they seek in the seer’s world. There are many other paths that run parallel to this experiential world of the seers and I have a strong connection to some of them, having also been deeply immersed in yoga and meditation, and having had paranormal and psychic experiences my entire life. But even those paths and strange experiences became clearer, began to make greater sense to me, as I continued my voyage into the world of the seers of ancient Mexico, for I found that the seers offered explanations for experiences and encounters that I could not find explanations for anywhere else. Other paths and modalities did not offer the fuller picture that I have felt so resonantly in the seer’s world, often dismissing or avoiding the deeper healing that I have gone through as I engaged in the processes of recapitulation. The seer’s world gave me a new understanding of life from the experiential perspective.

I was never a religious person, but I have always been a spiritual person. Although raised a Catholic, taught by nuns, I knew at an early age that there was no resonance in the rhetoric and teachings of the catechism or the dictates of that paternal organization. Even at the age of seven I knew I was a doubter, that I could neither uphold nor fit into the Catholic mold. Perhaps with that knowing I unconsciously set the intent for future experiences that went far beyond the world of parochial education and expectations.

I have learned more fully, especially over the past ten years, that our singular journeys hold all we need to evolve, in our experiences. Our experiences are showing us what we need to learn, as they provide us with exactly the challenges that will move us beyond our present incarnation. In the seer’s world, I have found indescribable release from the dictates of a world that never quite made sense to me.

I have also found that my years of discipline in yoga and meditation serve me well in the seer’s world, and are in fact deeply utilized in that world—though different terms are used, the principles and practices are the same. The Buddhist principles of the middle way, of detachment, and gaining enlightenment are also deeply entrenched in the seer’s world. In the seer’s world all of these things, and many more that I may not even be aware of, are given credence and value. Everything is given a place in the seer’s world, without judgment, yet at the same time we are constantly presented with not attaching to any of them. The seers expect us to fully live our lives, embrace our experiences, and yet never forget that we are going to move beyond this world.

As I look out the window now and see the cold white snow and ice, I understand this concept, this dilemma more clearly. For what the seers present to us is the truth of nature—it is what it is—and we can do nothing about it, except accept that we are here and be impeccable in how we choose to live in this world, how we choose to face oncoming time, winter included, death included, as well as all the experiences that nature affords us. For yes, we are beings who are going to die, but in the meantime we are forces of nature that cannot do otherwise than live in this world. And yes, I have more snow and ice to shovel!

If we choose a path of experience, perhaps we will not only advance ourselves, but offer a new kind of challenge to those around us: to advance and evolve as well.

If you wish, feel free to share or comment in the Post Comment section below.

Sending you all love and good wishes,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

#742 Begin a Practice of Navigation

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Written by Jan Ketchel and including a channeled message from Jeanne Ketchel.

It’s very early on a cold winter morning as I begin writing. The snow still lies deep and white after last week’s storm. The gutters are blocked with ice, in spite of all our efforts to alleviate the problems of ice jams and icicles, but our wood stove keeps the house warm. We have enough, as far as creature comforts are concerned. We are happy living a life of relative simplicity.

But, as Chuck wrote about in Saturday’s blog: there are no advantages or disadvantages. I carry awareness of death, yet I also choose to fully live, to each day more fully embrace this life I am in, to continually shed old burdens and become more fully myself. It is my choice to more fully open to where this life is leading me, into the unknown to be sure, but I know, from previous experiences, that if I remain open, allowing myself to be guided, that my life will indeed be fuller, with far greater experiential potential than if I chose to remain in an old state of suppression, repression, and depression.

In suggesting that I am open to being led or guided through life, I am speaking of being alert to and aware of the meaningful signs I encounter as I go about living each day. These signs often point out a direction to take, offering me a choice of one thing or another, leading to different outcomes, different experiences. In navigating through life in this manner the journey becomes partly personal intent, partly spirit-driven, and also partly universe-driven. As I engage in this process of navigation, I have come to rely on what I consider to be two of the most important mantras for living a life of constant growth. They are:

1. Everything is possible.

2. Everything is meaningful.

Jeanne gave me these mantras quite a few years back, as I struggled through a time of great personal conflict. I saw how important they were, strong supports, always ready to offer me the light at the end of the tunnel, the hope and optimism to keep going, as I learned to accept the signs and synchronicities that were indeed present to guide me. I just had to look for them.

Once I accepted these two ideas as the backbone of living a life of fulfillment, my world lightened considerably. By continually repeating and admitting to the truths of these two phrases, the darkness that I often found myself in began to lift. Eventually, I saw and perceived life and myself differently. And my life, seemingly of its own accord, began to change, as I allowed the intent of these two mantras to become my intent.

I know that many people give up hope of ever having a better life, a different life, a fulfilling life, not finding what they need, feeling overcome by the challenges and vicissitudes of life, electing to stay in a state of incompletion. But is it really easier? As Chuck and the seers of ancient Mexico state, there are no advantages or disadvantages because we are all facing the same thing. In reality, we are all facing the light and the dark. But we can certainly choose how we are going to face them.

Being in the darkness may be the only way that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And the opposite is perhaps also true: that it is only when we are in the light that we notice the darkness encroaching. Is it the light or is it the darkness that we fear? Both are present simultaneously. Facing both are necessary aspects of the personal journey.

Today, I ask Jeanne for guidance around this dilemma, as we all suffer at times in darkness. We all need a little light to guide us. We all seek something, and even a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel may be all we need to keep going.

Jeanne says: Look within where all of life lies waiting to be explored. In personal sifting, in explorations of the self, will all light and all darkness be revealed. It is not so easy to simplify this process to a few words, but I will try, for it is indeed a subject worthy of making available, so that all may journey inward, even as they journey outward.

I ask, first, that a process of sitting calmly alone, in quietude, be established on a daily basis. In order to begin to change one’s life, one must learn to slow down. Even if it seems that there is no time for such a practice, it must be arranged for and strictly adhered to. It is in such quiet times that one will draw upon the inner knowing that is necessary for taking a journey of change.

Find a time each day to sit calmly. It does not need to be any place special, but it should entail noticing the breath, using it to center and calm the self for a few minutes at a time. Your breath is always with you. You carry it with you at all times, so where and when you choose to do this practice does not matter. The only thing that matters is doing it.

You can do this calm sitting in the car after a drive to work, before stepping out into the workday. You can do it for a few moments at the beginning of the day, sitting in bed. The early morning, still drowsy from sleep, is perhaps the most beneficial time to connect with the inner self, before one steps into the outer self who must begin a day of outer doings.

By offering the self a few moments of quiet, by being open to the inner self and the mantras of possibility and meaningfulness, as Jan states, a new feeling about life in general will begin to take over. Without trying, simply by intending a rich life full of signs and synchronicities, one will begin to have experiences to support the changing self.

Begin this process now, this day. Sit quietly. Breathe calmly. Repeat the mantras: Everything is possible. Everything is meaningful.

Do this for 5 minutes. Breathe in and out slowly and deeply. Let the mantras erase the thoughts that preoccupy you.

Accept the truth that life, the universe, and the goodness that exists all around are there for you too. Do this now and begin the process of opening to the light and to the dark, for they ride side by side, within each one of you. And they are both ready to guide you.

Thank you, Jeanne. As I finish channeling, coming out of the dark tunnel that is my experience with her, I see that the light has come into the world, creeping over the snow, through the trees and into the house. I see the tracks of deer, fox, cats, squirrels and mice in the snow outside the window, life that is present in the dark, in the night, as well as in the day.

As I greet the light, I am thankful for this guidance on behalf of all of us, and I look forward to more experiences of these two dear mantras—everything is possible and everything is meaningful—for they have indeed served me well. I hope they work for you too. The third mantra that Jeanne gave me, that was so helpful and still is to this day, is: Everything will work out just fine!

Please feel free to post comments or respond to this message in the post/read comments section below. And thank you for passing the messages on!

Most fondly and humbly offered.

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Our Blizzardy Ways

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It’s snowing heavily in the Northeast today, the snow piling up as each hour passes, covering the remnants of last week’s storm, beautifying the world in a way that only snow can do. But what lies beneath that thick coating of winter white? Everything that is present throughout the year is still there, though it is hidden, unseen and so also unknown, in a sense. The psyche can work like a snowstorm at times, hiding from us the truth of what lies at our core, protecting us and even tricking us into thinking otherwise. When the psyche rescues us or protects us in this manner we can become so used to its covert operations that we end up relying on it when, in fact, it may be doing us a disservice, causing harm rather than keeping us safe. One day we may wake up and realize that it has been snowing for far too long and that it is finally time to dig ourselves out of our blizzardy ways, out of the muffling drifts, the cold coverings that have kept us from truly knowing our deeper issues, our truths, and our honest selves.

At times of such awakenings, as we sweep and shovel our way to the inner self that lies frozen, as the earth now lies frozen, we discover that beneath the cold outer covering we are soft and vulnerable, pliable and alive. It may take some probing, but eventually we discover that we have long buried feelings, that we are sensitive beings needing attention. It may be revealed that we are indeed seeking a means of evolving beyond the state we have existed in for so long.

Recapitulation is one means of carefully removing the layers of snow, the protection that we have used so successfully to keep us going. Recapitulation helps us to understand how we have survived the worst of the blizzard, how we have remained alive in spite of our long-term frozen state. Recapitulation, when fully embraced as a means of self-discovery is a process of scraping away the snow and ice that have kept us safe, but also kept us from fully living, from fully experiencing our true selves and all that life itself offers. During the process of recapitulation we may actually discover more about ourselves than we have ever really known or imagined we could know. We may find that we are truly a mysterious, unknown being full of surprises and wonder.

Beneath the heavy cold snow lies the frozen earth, and within the frozen earth lie the seeds of life to come. We are the same way. We too have seeds buried deeply inside us that are just waiting to be discovered. In undertaking a process of recapitulation, we offer ourselves access to not only our deeper selves but all the potential that lies within that deeper self, the potential that will not have access to life if we do not dig deep enough to uncover it. If we can allow ourselves to dig deeply enough so that we discover these seeds of opportunity, greeting them with light and nurturance, we offer ourselves access to far greater life on earth than if we continue to ignore them or pretend they don’t exist.

And what if we choose to leave them alone, to not to take an inner journey? That is our personal choice, but to be fair to the inner self it seems only right to make that decision in full awareness that we are choosing to leave those seeds untouched. Is it not far better to know of their existence and determine that we are not ready to unearth them in this lifetime, to be that truthful with ourselves, knowing that in another lifetime we will return to deal with them again? Can we do this and be okay with this choice? Will our spirit let us make this decision?

I believe that our spirit may let us go along with this decision for a while, letting us get comfortable with being in control, but then it will make attempts to jolt us. It will find ways to make us face the fact that we have these seeds of true life, natural life within us, seeds that are just waiting to germinate and grow. Just as nature waits so patiently for spring to come, so do the seeds of new life within us wait for the opportunity to sprout.

Our spirit is like nature in that way. It will return like the seasons, attempting to wake us up to our true potential, to warm us with awareness and offer us the light we need to see into our darkness. But I also believe that modern humanity has come so far from nature, so far from how truly close we are to the natural world that we have lost our connection to our own natures, our own cyclical awakenings, our own innate, instinctual natures. We have relied on other means of perceiving and valuing life, but really we are as natural as the earth.

In this winter season we may lie covered in snow too, but keep in mind that spring will come, it always does. The sun will shine, it will melt the snow and the truth of all that lies buried under it, right now, will be revealed. It is then that we will be confronted with the process of recapitulation, when we can no longer deny the facts that lie at our feet. And the real truth is that we don’t have to wait for spring to come.

We can become our own natural force of discovery. We can elect to acknowledge that we have indeed led frozen lives far from our true natures, and we can accept the stirrings of our spirit now, rather than wait for the natural disasters that are sure to come to shake us up. Recapitulation offers us the opportunity to become one with ourselves, our natural selves, flowing with and allowing nature to guide us, to show us the way to true alignment with the greater self.

As I have been writing this blog nature has been showing me how its natural course is in alignment with my intent to keep growing and expressing what I have learned. The world is changing as I write. The snow still falls, but less heavily. The sun has poked out a few times, the squirrels are running through the trees in the backyard, the birds are landing on the stark winter branches of the trees knocking snow to the ground. Life, nature, never stops; even though it may seem to be smothered and asleep, it is in fact very much alive, just as we are.

Nature is eternal and so are we, but just how energetically and deeply alive we decide to be is up to us. Our spirits reflect this eternal aliveness, letting us know that we are fully capable of awakening to our true selves, at any time. Do we dare to align with the natural self, the spirit, the body, the innate memory self who knows full well just how real and alive to be? There is more life available than meets the eye.

What is your spirit trying to tell you today? Look to nature and then look to the natural self where all the answers lie, within. In alignment with your spirit, throw your intent out to the universe and watch it present in nature, as it guides you through recapitulation to uncover your deepest truths and riches.

If you wish, feel free to share or comment in the Post Comment section below.

Sending you all love and good wishes,
Jan