Tag Archives: as within so without

Soulbyte for Wednesday August 2, 2023

-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

Begin today by stating your intent for the day. Let the Universe know your wishes, dreams and desires. Let your guides know what lies in your heart. Let your High Self in on the secret that is your deepest desire. Share your vulnerability and allow your heart to speak its raw truth. Only in asking will you receive. Only in exposing your innocence will you be available enough to welcome that which is, at your core, your greatest need in this lifetime. Be equally as open to giving as to receiving and your state of reception will have the perfect balance.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck’s Place: The Art Of Wholeness

Transformation from within…
-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

Inner alchemy is the art of creating a fulfilled life that encompasses, unites and transcends all the polarities within the Self. This state of unified wholeness requires several steps to achieve.

The first stage involves the breakdown and dissolution of our current state of being. Truthfully, we are always in a state of wholeness, as we are always all that we are. At issue is the state of balance our wholeness is in.

For example, suffering a painful backache could be a displaced psychosomatic exchange for repressed feelings of sadness. Here, balance is achieved through the experience of emotional pain converted to physical pain.

Caroline Elliot’s Existential Kink playfully explores the many personality kinks hidden in the shadow of the self, which serve to balance the dominance of one-sided conscious attitudes. I recommend exploring her work to reveal the kinks that might be disrupting personal balance.

The current state of our world reflects extremely volatile states of balance that are serving the breakdown and dissolution of the world as we have known it. The primary elements of fire, water, earth and air are all engaged in environmental extremes that are insisting upon a new way of living that can usher in a sustainable balance. This breakdown of what has been is the essential first step toward new life.

Inwardly, breakdown of the ruling attitude in the psyche is the essential first step to new life. Often this can take the form of an immobilizing depression that refuses to fund our ability to experience ourselves, and life, in our familiar comfort zone. Such a withdrawal of life energy prompts the need for a soul retrieval; that is, a journey into the unconscious to discover and recover unknown or lost parts of the self, the building blocks for new life.

The second stage in the art of wholeness is the untangling and separation of opposites within the self. This is the stage of know thyself, with detachment; that is, not identifying with a one-sided feeling, attitude or judgment that precludes a broader inclusion of all parts of self.

The separation phase is dramatically reflected in the absolute polarization of citizens throughout the world into black and white one-sided attitudes. This stage of separation is still heavily intertwined with the breakdown phase, as people are blinded by projections that would have them resolve imbalance through the elimination of those who oppose them. This was Hitler’s final solution to the challenge of opposition.

Inwardly, this state of separation can result in a state of mental cruelty, with negative critical thinking constantly judging and putting the self down. Nonetheless, if one can hone this reflective impetus into objective introspection, one can arrive at a state of clarity that prepares the way for new union.

Dispassionate knowing and acceptance of the truth offer preparation for a new union of elements within the self, the third stage, in which a new worldview or ruling attitude achieves a durable balance.

This stage is represented symbolically in the conjugal union of the opposites of man and woman. The mixture of these elements will ultimately result in the creation of a child, which presents a life that has incorporated the opposites of its parents into its own unique wholeness. As I discussed in my blog last week, a child in dreams often reflects this alchemy within, seeking to find its way to birth into life.

Hold the perspective that the chaos and separation both within and without are necessary stages in the art of wholeness. Ancient alchemists performed their operations within a sealed retort, allowing the contained energies themselves to facilitate the process of transformation.

In our day and age, containment socially would mean not engaging in heated interchange, but striving to arrive at detachment and truth within.

Similarly, containment within is best served through detachment from mental cruelty, as the point is to transform the old attitudes and thoughts into a newly sincere commitment to know and serve only the truth.

Contained within,
Chuck

Soulbyte for Friday July 28, 2023

-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

Find your calm center and get to know how it feels. Curl into its calmness and learn its possibilities. Retreat into it during stressful times, when fears arise, and when you feel lost. The world around you is rapidly changing and more changes are on the way, but don’t give up hope and don’t lose yourself in the chaos. It’s extremely important to hold a strong center within yourself, a peaceful and determined heart, and an attitude of responsibility, gratefulness and determination. Your own personal inner stability during times of outer instability will make all the difference.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Friday June 30, 2023

-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

Concern yourself with what is going on inside as you weigh choices, make decisions and begin each day of your life. What is your body saying to you today? What is your heart implying as you pose your questions? How does your central nervous system react to your ideas? Tune in and listen closely to your body; it will tell you a lot. Learn how it responds as you ask it to guide you. It’s easy to let thoughts override how your body speaks to you, but it may not be wise. When in alignment, heart, mind, body and spirit, the four parts of the conscious self, will speak the same language, and that language is harmony. Harmony breeds happiness, contentment, and satisfaction that is deep and grounding, aspects that a healthy you will recognize instantly and want to seek again and again. Seek harmony first within, then radiate harmony out into the world around you. In harmony there is a balance that is unmistakably right.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Tuesday June 20, 2023

-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

Things are changing all the time but that doesn’t always result in change. Just because change is going on around you doesn’t mean it will effect you. The only way to enact change in your own life is to change yourself. When you change, suddenly everything is different. When you make an effort to be more loving, suddenly the world is more loving too. When you change something in your own life it feels as if the whole world is different. It’s not everyone else around you and everything else in your life that needs to change, it’s you.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne