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Messages from Jeanne

#753 Who Is My Teacher?

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

Recently, while reading one of my favorite books, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, one that I dip into quite often, I came upon the chapter regarding the need for a teacher or master in order to maintain a proper spiritual practice. According to Buddhist tradition everyone needs a teacher, for how can you know you have reached the true nature of mind if you are not guided in some way by someone who has gone before?

I have never liked the idea of a master and I just could never personally accept the idea of a guru. But as I read this chapter I began to worry that I might not actually be doing my studies to the fullest. As I read a little further, however, I learned that the Buddhist teachers would often speak to the old masters who appeared before them in visions. They sat and spoke for many hours on end, listening to these masters who had lived in ancient times, in one case described as the second incarnation of Buddha. Eventually, these teachers begin to sound like the masters. They channel them. The author describes his own students coming up to him after a talk, telling him he spoke with the voice of his own teacher, long dead.

I laughed when I read this, my worry about having a teacher immediately melting away as I realized that I have had a teacher for the past ten years, a very good one: Jeanne! She has been most present—receptive, challenging, confrontational—pushing me to evolve. I have indeed been her pupil and gone through many stages of growth with her gentle and sometimes not so gentle prodding. I suddenly felt so much better, experiencing a real aha moment. For some reason, I had not fully grasped this idea before. Although I have always called her my teacher, in this moment I got it. She is my guru and as much as I have never liked that term, as much as I could never imagine myself aligning with a guru per se, I now acquiesce to the fact that she is indeed my master teacher.

I began to ponder the idea that we all have a master teacher or guru somewhere in our lives. We may not recognize this teacher in those terms, because the terms themselves don’t really matter. But what I also finally realize is that I did indeed need a guru of some kind to help me get where I am now. I was so caught in an old world that it seemed it was the only one that existed and I could not have gotten out of it without some help. And, I still need a guru to teach me how to continue evolving.

In The Tao of Physics Fritjof Capra writes on page 88: “A Bodhisattva is a highly evolved human being on the way to becoming a Buddha, who is not seeking enlightenment for himself alone, but has vowed to help all other beings achieve Buddhahood before he enters into nirvana… not simply to enter nirvana, but to return to the world in order to show the path to salvation to his fellow human beings.”

When Chuck read this statement to me the other day we both immediately recognized Jeanne as a Bodhisattva. Her messages from the very beginning have stressed that she is present to help others to awaken to the truth that all things are energetically interconnected and alive. This is her mission and that of her group.

Today, I explore with Jeanne this realization that struck me as funny at first, but then as fascinatingly true, that she has been my guru for the past ten years, and an excellent one at that. I am deeply grateful for all I have learned as her pupil. I have stayed connected to her through many uncertain and painful moments of self-discovery and awakening. Through it all, she sat calmly as I made my way back to her again and again asking for help. Over time I learned that she always had the answer, in some form. And indeed, as I evolved, I learned to channel and now her voice flows through me quite easily, though I had to go through many seasons of doubt.

I truly believe that she is available as a Bodhisattva to others as well. Several people have told me that she guides them and I am so happy whenever anyone reveals this. I know how good a teacher she is. And since it is her mission I can only hope that others will find the strength and innocence to reach out to her too.

So, I ask all of you to investigate the possibility that you may already have a teacher in your life. Perhaps one that is very much alive, or perhaps one you speak to as I do Jeanne, in quiet moments of inner work and study.

The Buddhists, Hindus, Shamans, Quantum Physicists, and others agree that what we consider reality does not, in fact, exist; that it is illusion created by our needs, desires, and fixations, and that true reality is an interconnected web of energy. We are all part of this interconnected web of energy, one nature. Within this framework we all have access to the masters, teachers, and gurus who are just waiting to guide us to understand energy and the oneness of all things; the Bodhisattvas who are ready to help us understand also how everything we perceive as real is not really there.

I have learned through my work with Jeanne to dissolve the world of solid objects into flowing energy. Through the practice of meditation I have more deeply grasped what I have learned over the past ten years as her pupil. And each week, as I write this blog, I am challenged once again to accept Jeanne as a Bodhisattva and appropriately express what she teaches.

Today, I ask her to offer us a teaching along the lines of recognizing or finding a teacher. I know that we all have access within; that we don’t have to look too far outside of ourselves. So, I ask Jeanne: How can we all recognize the voice of our true teacher? Can you also offer some guidelines on setting a practice in place with the teachers we already know and trust? As our world changes rapidly now, I believe we need to connect with our inner and outer teachers and guides more than ever. There is a pressing need for spiritual practice based on energetic interconnectedness. Because the truth of nature is that we are all the same.

How can your readers recognize their teacher? How does one begin to listen?

Here is what Jeanne says:

As you know, Jan, often the best moment to access your spiritual advisor is at a moment of despair, collapse, calamity, at the moment of breakdown when an old self is breaking apart. At such a moment, when the old rules you have set for yourself just cannot uphold your world any longer, you are open and ready for contact. However, breakdown or abruptly painful moments are not the only time one has access to the beauty of true life. In a moment of joyful enlightenment the way is cleared as well. In moments of clarity, in brief seconds of “getting it,” whether it be a personal issue finally falling into place or a universal issue finally making sense, at such moments the energy of each one of you is attuned and in alignment with all energy.

These moments of enlightenment are brief, so fleeting that it is almost impossible to hold onto them, profound though they may be. It takes a whole string of such moments, for the most part, before one learns to grasp onto them as the most meaningful moments in a lifetime.

How often, I ask each of you, have you had such moments of clarity, whether blissfully delivered or painfully presented? And how have you dealt with them? Have they faded away, been forgotten as you have gone back into reality? I ask that you each make a note, mental or otherwise, of all of these moments in your life, the moments of magic, of mystery, of clarity and of enlightenment. How many times have you, in fact, already been prodded awake in your life?

I guarantee that everyone has had more than a few such moments. However, so used are you to sleeping through life that the cloak of slumber quickly snuggles you back into the illusion of normality and you forget that you have experienced oneness with all things.

The first challenge to the self in your quest for a teacher is to become alert to your wake up calls. Become a student. Note how these wake up calls come to you and how you have received them in the past. Recognize them as wake up calls and train your awareness to become more alert by reminding yourself throughout each day, to remember, remember, and remember this: I am a being who is energetically connected to all other energy; alive or dead we are all the same. Remember this always: We are all the same energy.

In putting together your moments of awakening to the greater picture of the self as energy you will eventually string together enough moments to build a practice upon. A practice must be in tune with your everyday world. No matter what your situation you can begin a practice, because the practice is within. You carry the tools of your practice always with you. The first tool is awareness. And this is what you will hone as you remember. But you will also hone it by utilizing it daily to gain new moments of enlightenment. Even a simple instruction to the self to notice how the events and signs in your world seem to line up is a way to begin. What are you being shown each day that you have been missing?

Placing your attention on a new means of being in your life, by remembering your moments of awakening while asking yourself to stay awake for a little bit longer each day, should work to further you on your path.

Do not worry so much about who your teacher may or may not be. A teacher will not reveal him or herself as such. It is not how a true teacher works. He or she will never say: “I am your teacher.” This is something that you alone will discover when you are ready to realize it.

I interrupt the channeling as a moment of enlightenment occurs!

Yes, I concur with you Jeanne. Although I have spoken of you as my guide for ten years now I have sort of relegated you to an inner place, a guide related to my inner work, but now I more fully recognize you as my master teacher. I have achieved a big moment of enlightenment today, at this moment, as you help me to more fully grasp that my inner world and outer world are one. You have been asking me to more fully integrate them, to awaken to the fact that I must live outwardly what I have learned inwardly. This is another big aha moment. I thank you and ask if you have anything else to teach us today.

Jeanne continues:

A teacher will be of your own discovery. Only you will energetically be able to align with and determine the process and the teacher that will awaken you. This may take some trial and error, but the end result will be enlightening!

I ask that you begin to more fully accept yourselves as energetic beings. It is difficult to face your death if you consider it the end of the self, if you consider the self only as flesh, blood, bone and organs. But, if you consider the self as only energy you will have a far greater opportunity to push ahead to accepting death as life. They are one and the same. Keep in mind that you all die a little each day as you forget those moments of awakening; you die energetically.

In pulling yourself into alignment with energy you gain life; you gain the awareness you need to navigate through the lifetime you now inhabit with far different insight than in past lives. If you are truly ready to evolve, the concept of the self as energy will not puzzle you for long because you will experience it. Then you must be open to the truth of such an idea as the one true fact of life. That is how you will discover who your teacher is.

In conclusion: Practice remembering. Practice remaining aware.

Do not be angry or disappointed if you can only hold onto a moment of awareness. It is enough for that moment. But then ask the self to notice the next one. Do not give up. Eventually you will wake up more fully. And each day, and even each night, you have the opportunity to do it again!

Stay connected to the idea of everything as energy and you will have learned the beginning teachings that all Bodhisattvas must learn. Start with that!

Thank you to Jeanne for this lesson today.

Most humbly offered,
Jan

Please feel free to post comments or respond to this message in the post/read comments section below. On our Riverwalker Facebook page we post daily quotes, comments, and photos, and invite discussions on the discussion board. You can go there by clicking the Facebook badge in the left sidebar. Please feel welcome, and thank you for passing the messages on!

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Crow Energy

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I set my intent a long time ago to become psychically aware, not to become a psychic per se, but to become aware of the signs and synchronicities in my life that were showing me things I might not have noticed without this intent uppermost in my process of transformation. Today, I write about the significance of the crow as a sign of this intent manifesting in the world. As Jeanne mentions in her message on Monday, we must use the outer world to the fullest in order to grow, and I have found this to be one of the truest statements and especially useful in doing inner work.

In his book Animal Speak, Ted Andrews says this about the crow:

“The first noticeable characteristic about this bird is its striking black color. Sometimes it will have hints of deep blue and purple on the feathers as well. Black is the color of creation. It is the womb out of which the new is born. It is also the color of the night. Black is the maternal color and thus the black night gives birth to a new day. Although the crow is a diurnal or daytime bird, it reminds us that magic and creation are potentials very much alive during the day. The crow, because of its color, was a common symbol in medieval alchemy. It represented “nigredo,” the initial state of substance—unformed but full of potential.”

As I wrote about last week, in recounting our experiences with the death of our dog in On the Wings of the Crow, a crow made repeated passes over the house, a sign I noted as the energy of our dog moving on to new life, the transformation from one state of being to another. Had I not been deeply immersed in the process of my original intent—to become more aware—I might have missed the opportunity to round out the experiences of that day in such a satisfying and transformational manner.

The crow has continued to show itself. In fact, in our rural neighborhood, crows are some of our most vocal neighbors, posting themselves as sentinels for other crows and birds, but for their human neighbors as well. I have learned to pay attention to the noisy crows. More often than not, if I hear a racket of crow energy I can be pretty sure that something of interest is happening in nature. If I am alert, I know I will be treated to a little magic. Paying attention to the crows has become one of my personal educational processes as I seek to train my awareness, so it was not unusual for me to take note of the cawing crow outside the window on the day of Spunky’s death.

It was lovely to have the warmer weather over the weekend, rainy though it was. The twenty-four inches of snow still covering the ground, having accumulated since last December 26th, melted away as we watched the winter weary lawn reappear and the first green tips of the daffodils peak up from the cold ground, letting us know that spring was not far off. It was drizzling a little on Saturday, though warm enough to be outside for a nice long walk, but then, on Sunday, it rained—torrentially. The wind blew all day and all night, and then the rain changed to freezing rain and then it started to snow. In the middle of the night I heard the loud cracks of branches breaking in nearby trees and ice crystals pelting against the windows. Up at five-thirty we were astounded to see the ground covered, blanketed in snow again, our hopes of an early spring dashed.

Once again I armed myself with my trusty snow shovel and headed out late in the day on Monday, after a full day’s work, to clear what snow remained on the driveway and pathways. It was still cold, only the top layer of snow had melted during the day and I was left to remove the thick layer of ice I had heard falling through most of the night. I was not feeling especially happy about undertaking this task yet again, now getting quite tiresome after a full winter of weekly snowstorms. But the sun was shining and when I looked up into the branches of the oaks and maples the late afternoon light coming through their ice-covered branches was beautiful against the still blue sky. Squinting into the light, the glistening branches turned into thin fingers of refracted light and rainbows of color danced before my eyes, and this lightened my mood considerably and the work wasn’t so hard after all.

A big black crow flew overhead, cawing loudly, as I shoveled and I noted its presence and once again thought of our dog Spunky and an incident that happened just a few days after her passing. I had gone to the woodpile to get a load of wood for the woodstove. Stepping out the basement door I heard something scrambling on the other side of the woodpile, out of sight. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it sounded big. I thought an animal was most likely rooting through the compost pile, taking frozen bits of food scraps, scrounging for something edible. I surmised it had been a hard winter for the animals with the thick frozen snow cover and so I did not want to disturb whatever might be feasting on whatever our frozen scraps could offer.

I quietly crept up to the woodpile, but whatever it was must have heard me coming, for I heard a quick scurrying. Not knowing what to expect, a little wary, I waited to see what might appear. Suddenly, I heard a heavy shuffling and a loud bark, as a large crow spread its heavy wings, staggered off the compost pile, and flew into a nearby tree. It landed on a branch, turned and looked back at me, cawing loudly, almost barking, its body bobbing up and down, looking and acting very much like a dog vigorously barking an excited greeting.

“Oh! Hello there, Spunky!” I said, without hesitation. “Nice to see you again. I see that you are well.” The crow responded with more happy barking caws as it watched me load up my wood sack with logs and, as I turned and headed back into the house, I noted that one of Spunky’s favorite little outings was to sneak off to munch at the fresh compost, rotting banana peels one of her favorite treats.

As I shoveled the driveway, I noted again the large crow, and acknowledged its presence as that of the energy of Spunky: energy transformed, still viable, still present, still seeking connection. I also noted that I no longer feel doubt creeping into my experiences as I did in the past. For the longest time doubt was the greatest petty tyrant and I was forced to deal with it again and again. In my interactions with Jeanne, in my personal encounters with phenomena of energy and magic, it would immediately sweep in and hurry me back to the world of solid reality, asking me to test my experiences against the rational mind, what the seers of ancient Mexico call the foreign installation. It took a long time and many battles against the foreign installation, against the world of solid objects, before I was able to suspend judgment and fully release my attachment to an old perception of reality and fully embrace a different reality, different means of perception, and finally to release myself from my ego’s embarrassment and dismay at the birthing of my psychic abilities.

Now however, after having dealt doubt so many deadly blows, it rarely creeps up on me. Now freed of its heavy depressing cloak of reality I can fully enjoy the magic of the world I elect to live in, the world of all nature. I can look into the magic of light dancing through the ice-covered branches of the trees and hear the barking crow and connect to the energy of all things, myself included.

Every time I go outside now there seems to be one large black crow calling more loudly than the others. I greet its energy and thank it for showing me once again that my intent to notice is working for me, my desire to understand the interconnectedness of all things is being given priority within that intent and that desire, and I thank my innocent self for taking the journey that has allowed me to get to this place. For I feel free now, open to life in a very different way. Without the petty tyrant of doubt I am indeed free to experience the magic, but I am also free to keep taking it one step further, into deeper awareness.

Open to learning more about how the world of energy works, I look forward to each moment of each day, taking note of what I read, what I hear and see, and how in alignment with nature I am becoming. In noting how synchronicity works, in paying attention to what comes to greet me, I continue training my awareness, my psychic abilities; the ability inherent in all of us.

I take the sign of the crow as meaningful and I listen to what it has to tell me. As Ted Andrews also writes about the crow:

“Wherever crows are, there is magic. They are symbols of creation and spiritual strength. They remind us to look for opportunities to create and manifest the magic of life. They are messengers calling to us about the creation and magic that is alive within our world everyday and available to us.”

Be open to the magic, and without doubt embrace your own psychic abilities; take note of what life presents, and without fear embrace the energy of interconnectedness.

If you wish, feel free to share or comment in the Post Comment section below. And don’t forget to check out our facebook page at: Riverwalker Press on facebook. And you might also note the synchronicity of the quote for the day on our facebook page that Chuck selected, quite in alignment with what I have written about today, unbeknownst to both of us. Synchronicity in action!

Thanks for reading and passing these blogs on to others! Sending you all love and good wishes,
Jan

NOTE: Animal Speak by Ted Andrews, and many other books of interest are available for purchase through our STORE.

Messages from Jeanne

#748 The Undeniable Energy of Now

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

Once again I humbly accept this role as channel as I sit down with my open notebook. My intent today is to pass on the message I receive from Jeanne as clearly and straightforwardly as possible.

I have been feeling the intensity of the energy that has been sweeping the world, aware that it is a time of great and volatile change and that we humans cannot stop it. Our choice, it seems, becomes one of whether or not we flow and change with it or whether we choose to continue denying its existence and refuse the evermore pervasive and apparent call. The call is no longer in the distance, a mere whisper on the shore, but a loud shout blasting in the ear. Though, I admit, even in the presence of this undeniable shout, it is possible to hunker down and resist, living as if nothing is happening, yet, as we do, the old structures just keep crumbling. We feel this both inside and outside. Can we allow ourselves to resist the old and ride this new wave of change? The tide has already come in; this is the undeniable energy of now.

Even as I have personally struggled with my attempts to stay in the moment, the world outside has constantly called me to notice. “Notice this moment,” it says. “Note this, it’s important.” And I cannot deny that those moments of note have indeed proven to be more than simply moments of heightened awareness or scribbled notes on a page, they have been cataclysmic.

It is indeed a time of forceful energy, a time of change that I feel will not let up. And we are being asked, simply because we live now during this time on earth, to not only take note and warn of this energy, but to actually enact change, to ride its power, beginning with our own lives. I, personally, cannot accept the status quo nor pretend that life will go on as it has in the past, or uphold old lies, for whatever reason. It is no longer possible for me to do so.

Are you moving forward with the energy too? Or are you going to be buried under the sands of the old times? These are the questions to ask. I truly believe that this is what we have to face now. Personally, I am being forced to accept the truths that are daily revealed to me, and to keep moving at a sensible pace, in step with the times. I feel it is the only thing to do. I must gather my fears and move forward. I have experienced cataclysmic changes in the past and I now go forward with the lessons I have learned; number one being that, in the end, I will be forced to go anyway. I would rather go forward with awareness, alert, actively participating in the unfolding of a new world than wake up one morning not knowing where I am. I like awareness better than oblivion.

I ask that Jeanne speak of this inevitable and incredible change that is being forced upon us all. How do we deal with this energy? How do we accept our vulnerabilities while also allowing ourselves to fully embrace our talents, strengths, and the life lessons we have learned, so we can make good choices for our personal lives, in alignment with the changes sweeping the entire world?

Jeanne responds:

Each one of you must look inwardly and decide what you can handle at this moment in your life. Your immediate reactions may be to either be too soft or too hard on the self and this may not aid you in your search for guidance. I suggest a modest and honest assessment of the self be given some attention.

The task then becomes to pull out both your strengths and your weaknesses and lay them side by side. Pick up what strengths you are most comfortable utilizing, in both innerly and outerly activities, and walk on with them in hand, and put the others in your pockets for future moments when their time of utilization will become apparent. Having noted your weaknesses, do not attach to them, for they will no longer guide you forward. But, be fully aware that they will follow after you, seeking to pull you back.

This is a grand time of transition. As Jan notes, the energy is not going to baby you but push you all to honesty, to self-exploration, and toward growth that is unprecedented. It is a time that will catapult, if allowed to become the fuel of forward movement rather than the fuel of grinding halt. Do you wish to fly now? Or do you wish to be buried deeply in the old world of stagnancy?

A new wind is blowing and it may be almost too much to bear. It may be difficult to breathe in the face of its tremendous force, but when all is said and done, it will have changed everything, and this is what you must all keep in mind. The truth is: the world itself is changing and there is no stopping it.

It takes great courage to pick up your weapons of strength and move on. You may not be well acquainted with these weapons. They may have been kept modestly hidden and little used. But it is time now to learn their worth. I do not speak of weapons of strength that have thus far proven useful in the world. I do not speak of ego-related or personality strengths, but only of inner spiritual strengths. So that is your first priority: to figure out your spiritual strengths and bring them to your hands and tongue and utilize them. Speak from your inner voice of truth, keeping your actions in alignment with this new voice.

Here are some questions to ask that may help in this process:

What is truly necessary in your life now?
What change are you personally being confronted with?
Where is your current direction taking you? Is it right, in alignment with the inner spirit that seeks to utilize and act on its true strengths?
Where are your weaknesses, and how can you fight against them when they intrude on your progress?
How can you get your mature inner spirit self in the place of guide now?
Can you dare yourself to live from a new and deeper inner self?

These are questions to ponder personally, even as you ask these of the world around you. As you see the toppling of old dominant attitudes and conventions—whether they have worked or not—note, truthfully, that they are coming down. So what comes next? More of the same? I don’t think so. The energy of now is not conducive to more of the same. It will simply knock down the flimsy attempts at reconstruction; for the old structural dynamics hold no inner strength against the forces of such change.

I do not mean to alarm with my use of such stark metaphor, though in actuality the truth is there: change is tumbling the old status quo, and is more in favor of continued toppling than reconstruction of the same.

Place yourself in the middle of that change. Accept that it is change at all costs, unstoppable, inevitable, necessary. And then decide how you want your future to unfold. You have the power of choice and there are really only two from which to choose.

First choice: Keep trying to rebuild, uphold, reconstruct an old life after each storm.

Second choice: Follow your heart and go for the true personal and spiritual life, unendingly unfolding before you.

For, in truth, life will go on no matter what happens. You must decide what you want that life to look like. What is most important, and how do you see the world around you unfolding over the next few years? Can you keep up with it? That is the challenge: Can you keep flowing, remaining modestly and humbly in alignment with your inner truths and strengths?

Do not be too soft or too harsh, as I said. Do not either be too lenient or too critical, too naive or too rational. There is a way to be pragmatic and yet in balance with the deeper truths of the self and the times you live in. It takes awareness and a heightened sense of alertness to the energy. It involves remaining aware of trends that are not conducive to true growth, getting to the moment when you make the ultimate decision of whether you want to be further enslaved or be free. Either way, change is coming. And I can guarantee, it will not be as you want, but it will be as you need: transformative.

Thank you Jeanne and all our guides in the universe! She is letting us know that challenging times are inevitable and no matter what we choose to do we will be confronting some scary stuff. The outcome will be pretty much the same however, so how we opt to ride the changing tides is the only choice we really have. Do we flow or do we flounder?

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.

Messages from Jeanne

#747 I Set My Intent

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

I set my intent to channel a message from Jeanne for all of her readers. Let this message be personally and universally significant for our times. I ask that those who read it receive a deeply personal experience from the words and the meaning they imply. Let this message convey a profound and enlightening insight for each reader and let them see its personal significance reflected and synchronistically repeated throughout the day and the coming week. I ask that this message from Jeanne be imbued with the intent of the seers of ancient Mexico, that it catapult those who read it into deeper awareness of themselves as beings comprised of energy and that they see this and know this more deeply than normal. I ask that this message also be imbued with the reminder to all of us to stay in the moment, to retain what we learn, and to give ourselves permission to act differently from this day forth. I ask all these things of Jeanne, of the universe, and of the seers of ancient Mexico and any other enlightened energy that wishes to partake in the greater effort to move us, the human race, on our journeys to awareness and change. Thank you.

Jeanne once told me that we channel through our heart chakra. I do heart-centered breathing to open my heart chakra. I feel it slowly cracking open, widening like an aperture, as I set this intent and wait for the words that I am sure will come to guide us today. I wait.

These are the words I perceive:

There are many beings capable of guiding you, My Dearest Ones, but the most important one is you. Each one of you is set with all you need. Your main job as a human being is to find your river of energy, the wellspring from which your energy flows. It is within and without.

You will tap into its source deep within the self through your greatest organ that pumps your life blood, that sends all your energy pulsing through your body: your heart. As Jan says, this is where we channel. From beyond place and time, I access this scribe who so faultlessly passes on my missives, through her heart.

I encourage on this day that a concerted effort be made, in the name of all true human potential, to access this vital organ of significance. Do not ask for more than awareness of its potential at this point; it is all you need to begin. Find its personal meaning.

Is your heart indeed your wellspring? Is it your pump, your river, your flowing energy button? Can you push this, prod this, or nudge open this central place of life and awareness, asking it to awaken?

Yes, you can. Try it. Ask the self to simply place a hand of intent upon your heart and feel its beating, its efforts to alert you to the truth of its energy source. Your heart is your source center, your beat of life, your grand cheerleader that nudges you along and allows you to exist in that form, but in all forms as well.

This is your center of energy. You can accept this idea or not, but if you wish to be part of the intent of this message I ask that you become acquainted with this truth. Your heart beats your greater truth, your awareness of connection to all things.

Find this center of self. Notice how it personally communicates with you and begin to ask it to remind you of its importance in your life, not only as the place of flow of life blood, but as the place of flow of all life energy.

Listen to your heart. Place your attention upon it today and in the coming days. Make this your personal intent. Ask your heart to speak to you, to guide you to awareness of the intent of both this query and this response. Ask it to tell you what you must truly know about the self, at this moment, in order to advance another big step upon your journey.

Ask it to remind you to stay connected to it and your personal intent. Find that it answers you in many languages: in spoken language, the language of visions and insight, of seeing and knowing, of interplay with mind, body and spirit reflected all around you. Ask it to keep you on the path that is right; on the path that may not be clear but that is clearly your path to change.

I ask, as Jan does, that this message carry forth its purity of intent to purify your heart of all negativity, judgments and condemnations alike, forced upon you by others or personally accepted though no longer right or necessary to bear. I ask that your heart grow soft and open to new awareness, insight, and experiences that only you may understand.

Do not fear your heart’s own intent, which is that your personal journey be transformative without restrictions; energetically enlightening, so that you may all suffer through your issues of contentment and disturbance, brought on by your restless spirits so that you may no longer suffer ignorance or fear of the true journey you have before you.

Open your hearts to yourselves first, My Dears. Accept your path. Listen to your truth-speaking heart. Be guided by the significance of your present life. And do not fear your journey.

This is how you will learn what awareness is, what intent is, and how it is present at all times to guide you. Ask it to come forth from the self, to meet the greater intent outside of you, greeting you on your path.

Look with optimism and joy for your true awareness of self as an energy being, and take your next step forward from that place. And don’t forget to look at the world around you as you go into each moment of your day. You may indeed experience a new kind of self in a new kind of world. Welcome to the magic!

Thank you Jeanne and all our guides in the universe—ancient and wise—as well as our own heart-centered personal energy, ancient and wise as well!

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: Dreaming Intent

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To follow up on Jeanne’s message of the other day, Navigating the Mystical, I decided to practice intent last night. Right before falling asleep, when I was already drowsy, I set this intent: I intend to know the moment I am falling asleep and remain aware of dropping into a dream. I want to know the moment this is happening and retain the experience. Immediately, I closed my eyes and was aware of literally feeling like I was dropping into a dream.

This is what I experienced: I felt as if I were more than one being or awareness. I was the dreamer in the dream and a dreaming observer as well. I saw my own hand reach out from the left, palm open and facing upward. “Oh look, there’s my hand,” my dreaming self thought. Then almost immediately another hand appeared on the right holding a red flower in its palm, as if showing it to me or offering it to me. I felt I should look at it closely. My dream observer, aware of also being the owner of the hand said, “Oh, look at that, two hands, and look at that beautiful flower.” At the same time, my awareness as the dreamer in the dream concentrated on looking closely at the flower. It was as if I were looking through a microscope at this close up scene of the two hands, and I was both inside the scene with awareness and I was also the outer observer looking through the microscope. I woke up immediately and thought: “It worked! My intent worked!”

Enthused by this experience I decided to try again. This time, I set a new intent, which was: I intend to see everything in my dream with crystal clarity. Again I felt myself dropping into dreamland. This time I landed in a small rowboat. I appeared to be on an arctic lake formed by a melting glacier. It reminded me of hiking up Svart Isen, a huge glacier in Norway that I once tramped up and had a most amazing experience on, as I watched and heard the rumblings and shiftings of this massive ice flow, its colors almost Caribbean blues, a contrast that, at the time, I found remarkable. There on top of the northern world were the same intense blues of the waters of the Caribbean Sea; fascinating.

Anyway, in my dream, I am in this tiny boat floating without oars into the center of this huge glacier. Everything is crystal clear! The word “Crystalline” was repeating throughout the dream experience, in a sort of voiceover, though I knew it was my own voice. I floated further into the glacier and was soon surrounded on all sides by this crystalline world of ice. It was not blue as in my experience in real life, but absolutely “crystal clear,” just as I had set in my intent.

Again, I woke up out of this experience quite fascinated by the literal quality of my dreaming self and the response of the universe, as it so nicely allowed me to have these experiences. This reminded me of what Jeanne had said in the message on Monday, that you must remain aware of how your intentions or requests are answered, that they may not be as clear or straightforward as you desire. However, I thought my dream experience was humorously playing right into my intent to have an experience of crystal clarity. It literally gave me an experience of just that!

I find this process fascinating, the way the psyche and the universe, the dreaming body and awareness, do work hand in hand. I got what I asked for! In this case, I received several gifts: proof that intent does indeed work because I fell into a dream, I retained the dream experience, and I got crystal clarity, all the things I desired. And, in addition, my intent from the first experience “to remember” carried over into the second experience, thus showing that intent, once set, is planted for future use.

Perhaps my recitations on these experiences may add to your own personal incentive to try dreaming intent or any other intent. As subtle as these experiences may seem, they were in fact just what I asked for and I felt quite satisfied with the night’s work. The rest of the dream night proceeded from there. As I fell back to sleep the third time, I simply set my intent to keep going along the same lines. As I went deeper into sleep and dreaming, the word “crystalline” kept popping up, my awareness reminding me to look closely, very clearly at my dream world, which I was aware of doing.

See if this conversation that Carlos Castaneda had with don Juan, from pages 22 and 23 in The Art of Dreaming makes any sense in how dreaming intent works:

Don Juan explained that there are entrances and exits in the energy flow of the universe and that, in the specific case of dreaming, there are seven entrances, experienced as obstacles, which sorcerers call the seven gates of dreaming.

“The first gate is a threshold we must cross by becoming aware of a particular sensation before deep sleep,” he said. “A sensation which is like a pleasant heaviness that doesn’t let us open our eyes. We reach that gate the instant we become aware that we’re falling asleep, suspended in darkness and heaviness.”

“How do I become aware that I am falling asleep? Are there any steps to follow?”

“No. There are no steps to follow. One just intends to become aware of falling asleep.”

“But how does one intend to become aware of it?”

“Intent or intending is something very difficult to talk about. I or anyone else would sound idiotic trying to explain it. Bear that in mind when you hear what I have to say next: sorcerers intend anything they set themselves to intend, simply by intending it.”

“That doesn’t mean anything, don Juan.”

“Pay close attention. Someday it’ll be your turn to explain. The statement seems nonsensical because you are not putting it in the proper context. Like any rational man, you think that understanding is exclusively the realm of our reason, of our mind.”

“For sorcerers, because the statement I made pertains to intent and intending, understanding it pertains to the realm of energy. Sorcerers believe that if one would intend that statement for the energy body, the energy body would understand it in terms entirely different from those of the mind. The trick is to reach the energy body. For that you need energy.”

Intend by intending? Find the energy body? Does it all sound too idiotic, as don Juan suggests? So what, just try it, set your dreaming intent and see what happens. These are the means to beginning a process of navigating the mystical, as Jeanne suggested. It works. Good luck and good dreaming!

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Thanks for reading! Sending you all love and good wishes,
Jan