We are challenged every day by forces that want our time, money, attention, and emotion. Jung focused on the inner culprit—the shadow, or unknown self—as the force that consumes a great deal of our daily energy and actions. The shamans of Carlos Castaneda’s lineage focused outwardly on the flyer, an entity that preys upon the tumult of human excess for its own sustenance and survival.
These are two descriptions of reality that coin metaphors to capture the predatory dimension of life. If we can acknowledge, that is, suspend judgment about this dimension of life, both within the self and in the world at large, we are freed to benefit from this relationship. The function of the shadow/flyer is to show us all of who we are. With this knowledge we can choose who we might become.
As we exit the season of excessive consumption we are shown our proclivity for sensual delight, whether we indulge or refuse it. Encounters with shadow/flyer may result in nausea, guilt, depression, insatiability, out-of-controlledness, and defeat.
Make no mistake about it; these are powerful entities with completely self-serving agendas. They can wreak havoc on our physical and emotional selves. However, their power lies solely in our ignorance or refusal to know the full truth about ourselves. If we can accept that we are sensual, emotional beings that need to find fulfillment in all that we are, we can begin to make room for all that we potentially are, in new balance.
Sometimes, we engage in excess to numb ourselves from parts of the self too painful or frightening to know. This is a defensive strategy that has its temporary value, however, it cannot hold back the deepest need to know and realize the full self. This activity points the way to recapitulation.
When we find ourselves caught in the daily round of repetitive Jekyll/Hyde behavior—fully convicted and repentant with the rising sun, only to be swept away again and again with the rising moon—we are awakened to the power of the shadow/flyer to control our lives in the absence of self-knowledge. As we awaken, we are freed to find new balance in our lives, perhaps a middle way; and with this awareness we are able to release the predatory entity of excess.
Mosquitoes are predatory flyers. However, they will move on to other prey when the stagnant pool that breeds them dries up. If we remain in stagnancy, we invite the shadow/flyer into our lives. It will feast upon us in our stagnancy, however, with the discomfort it creates we are invited to change.
Such is the nature of this symbiotic relationship between predator and prey. The predator becomes the beacon or instigator of change. Nonetheless, we must use this provocation to our advantage. That is, we must wake up, face the fullness of the self and move toward balance and fulfillment in life. Once we begin this process of change we release the predator because it no longer serves us. And we no longer serve it!
Moving on, into a new space. We have literally moved our office to the end of the hall, beyond our former location. See you there!
Chuck
We are in a time of extreme imbalance. Imbalance is the result of accumulation in excess. Accumulating in excess is the precursor of change. When a river swells to excess with accumulated rains, it must, of necessity, overwhelm its banks and flood the lands—a time of great change indeed!
The accumulation of angst through decades of stagnant repression has broken through to revolution in the Middle East Arab Spring. The accumulation of excessive wealth in the hands of the few has sprung another spring of protest upon the “wall” of Wall street.
The excessive stranglehold upon the economy—from whatever tainted, purist, or natural source—presses now upon the spirit to relinquish its attachment to materialism in excess as a source of meaning in life. The flood of deprivation drowning the planet is pressing human life into a new, sustainable balance.
There is no restraining the floods of change currently unleashed upon us. No corrective action can shore us up or return us to an old world balance.
We are in a different world now. The environment is rapidly shifting, the masses are wiser, more interconnected than ever, and the ruling platitude of unlimited growth and expansion has proven unsustainable.
We find ourselves truly at a major evolutionary juncture: Accumulation in excess as a way of life, as a planetary economy, is unsustainable. What will come next?
What is called for is a new paradigm that separates true needs from want, hunger from appetite. Accumulation in excess derives not from true need and hunger but from want and appetite. Want and appetite are abstractions, projections of value attached to things. From this projection derives the equation: more things = greater value. This is the equation of addiction. Addiction is accumulation in excess. Addiction is the human condition at this current evolutionary juncture.
The ethereal impulse behind addiction is spirit. Spirit seeks greater life, greater possibility. Spirit projected onto matter always seeks more for completion: more love, more alcohol, more numbness, more freedom, more adventure, more sex, more intensity, more money, more food, more, more, more.
Material balance
If we are to find safe passage through this time of great change we must satisfy spirit in spirit terms. We must lift our spirit’s longings off our material world and allow our beleaguered planet to restore its balance.
We are energetic beings. Energy is the home of spirit and spirit longing. The ultimate adventure that awaits us is our energy body, the body that lives on beyond the material world, the body that journeys in infinity. We all have access to it in this life, but only if we shift. The more we cycle in excessive accumulation of material things, the longer we remain in avidya—ignorance—yet to discover that all that glitters is not gold.
Fulfillment in this life requires us to explore and meet our deepest needs: material and spiritual. But if we refuse to recapitulate—where we free our spirit from our material experiences—we remain frozen, unable to find fulfillment in spirit or body. One cannot substitute for the other. A spirit being who shuns the body—a spirit in excess—results in a being in need of reincarnation. Likewise, a physical being who shuns the spirit will find itself steeped in addiction, bound to the spirit, projected onto matter.
With spirit soaring
Such is the condition of now. Accumulation in excess—unsustainable and uncontainable. The walls are coming down in floods of revolution. May we find safe passage as spirits soaring in material balance.
In dedication to the soaring spirit of Steve Jobs,
Chuck
I dare to evolve, to take the next step. The reason I am writing this blog today is that my personal next step involves what I have been writing on this website, as myself and as a channel. I have been in training, as I see it, for the past ten years or even more, depending on how you look at it. I accepted what was presented to me and began a journey of a lifetime, which has led me through the past several years where I communicate with an entity and publicly post her messages, that entity being Jeanne.
Over the past month or more I have struggled with intense restlessness. All of my personal inner work has been focused on achieving balance between my two selves, my inner self and my outer self, and getting them in better alignment, fully accepting who I truly am now and being always open to who I might become. It’s a lifelong process as I see it, leading always to deeper experiences and deeper meanings. Why am I in this life and who am I supposed to become? This is a question I ask myself constantly because, as I see it, I have so much more to do.
I’ve always expected to live a long life. The women in my family live into their nineties, in full mental awareness, and I expect I will too. That means I have thirty plus years still to live upon this earth. My question to myself every day is: What am I supposed to do with those thirty years? Many answers have come through. One of them is that I must clarify who I am and continue to evolve to my fullest human potential, which involves evolving to my fullest spiritual potential as well. So that is what brings me to this day in my life when I declare that I am taking the next step on that thirty year journey.
Steppin' out
My recent period of restlessness has led to a breakthrough in my personal inner work. I have discovered that my spirit has been pushing me to take the next step in my spiritual development, daring me to go beyond the place I now find so comfortable. Yes, this is all about allowing restlessness and discomfort to guide in an ever-evolving process leading to fulfillment of greater potential. Here is the present challenge: Can I accept the role that I find myself in, as spiritual guide?
Jeanne and I have had quite a history together. She came to guide and teach me. The first thing she taught me was learning how to trust, which involved challenging myself to let in what was appearing in my life: people, signs, and her own guidance. I elected to pay attention and that was my first big lesson in understanding the universe, infinity, and the greater interconnectedness of all things. Throughout that process I learned to detach from the old and allow for the new, old worlds, old habits, old expectations of self and others being shed along the way. Jeanne’s position has been one of master teacher, mine as student.
Jeanne told me, about a year ago, that I didn’t really need her anymore, but at the time I still felt quite dependent on her guidance. I also felt that I had to uphold the expectations of others, many others, by being her channel. In essence, I was upholding an old world, one that I knew would have to change.
She told me that when I was ready I would let her go, that the time would be right for both of us and everyone else involved as well. I’m electing to pay attention now to what Jeanne told me last year, my spirit in alignment with her prediction that I would, in essence, go solo, take the solo journey as a spiritual guide.
This is not an ego thing, I have very little ego invested in what I do. I am bent on finding ways to use what I’ve learned to help others, and that’s why I’m daring myself to declare this personal challenge publicly. I’m not leaving Jeanne, nor is she leaving me, but I am facing the challenge of mergence now, moving more fully into being a reader of infinity without needing the master teacher constantly by my side. I am electing to take the next step alone. It’s what we all have to do.
I have already long been practicing this merged self. When I meet with clients for hypnosis or just to talk, as many request, I don’t go as Jeanne’s channel, though I have also done that in the past. I go as myself and seamlessly flow with what comes through me; whether it comes from one entity or another makes no difference.
The master, Jeanne, has been waiting for me to take up the greater challenge of becoming me, a spiritual being who is fully aware that she has access to infinity. It’s what she taught me to understand and practice so well. It’s what she dares me to accept now and fully live. I feel that I have no time to waste, thirty years or not, it can all go by in the blink of an eye.
This is an evolutionary thing. And I say that because, as readers of this blog, you know that we are all readers of infinity. This is what Jeanne has taught us all. It’s what don Juan taught Carlos Castaneda and his cohorts. It’s what anyone with a spiritual practice or bent on having experiences beyond the body discovers: We all have access to everything, ancient wisdom, and the ability to read the present and predict the future.
If I am in fact going to live upon this earth for thirty more years I must, because I am me, keep evolving. I must leave the last vestiges of an old world and an old self behind and find out what else I can do. I want the next thirty years to be as spiritually driven as possible for reasons I have yet to discover, but I guarantee will be pretty exciting as long as I keep challenging myself. I also know that, by my example, others may dare to challenge themselves to live lives of meaning, spiritually seeking greater possibilities for themselves and others as well.
We all have a voice. We must discover how to use our own voice to change the world. That’s where I’m challenging myself, declaring myself as an evolving spiritual being capable of reading infinity, just like everyone else.
So, in the future there won’t be messages from Jeanne posted on the website. Instead I’ll be taking over in a new blog called Readers of Infinity. I’m accepting the challenge. I look forward to taking all of this to a new level. Let’s see what happens!
On behalf of Jeanne, I want you all to know that she is there for you, just as she is and was for me. Call on her for help anytime. She has not left any of us. She’s carefully watching as we take our first steps.
Love to all of you as we take those next steps,
Jan
Written by Jan Ketchel with a channeled message from Jeanne Ketchel.
I asked Jeanne for guidance this morning and this is what she advises for this week:
Get in alignment. Find out what that means for you at this time in your life and seek to maintain that alignment, balancing heaven and earth. For greater awareness of self tune into your bodies, My Dear Ones.
Your bodies are your vehicles, carrying all your needs but also all your issues. In knowing the body self in the deepest way, but paying attention to its messages over all others will one find the answers one seeks. The body must be the first aspect of self that seeks alignment for if body self is not in balance then spirit self will find no habitat in which to grow and mature, in which to reside and live out life to the fullest.
Seek balance
Find balance each day and each night. Find body self. Listen to what body self speaks of. Go deeply into its demands and ask it why. Do not fear the answers, for they are but your spirit asking you to find it. Go beyond the physical by paying attention and tending to the physical self first, so that spirit may take up residence in a well-tuned and well-prepared vehicle in which to take the journey that truly lies ahead.
You are all on journeys of meaning. Just what that might mean for each of you will be perfectly clear as you do your inner and outer work. Do not hesitate to be what your spirit self desires you to be. In the right circumstances you will be met with gratitude.
Be open, loving, compassionate and kind to the self and you will have conquered your greatest obstacle. Begin with awareness of self as the perpetrator and the healer, holding all you need. The only thing to work on at the moment, as I said, is to constantly maintain balance in all things.
Watch what you eat and drink. Get plenty of rest and relaxation. Find moments of quiet and moments of entertainment. Beware of rigidity and too little but also beware of too much. And yet, if you need to have too little or too much of anything, you will find that out. All must struggle with what life throws in front of them, but keep in mind that life does not wish to halt your progress, only to challenge you to keep going.
So, I say: Keep going, finding the balance that is right for today. And then seek new balance tomorrow. Eventually you will understand and know the feel of right alignment. Keep always in mind the most important goal: Finding the true meaning of your personal life in balance with the true purpose of all life, which is to discover the true self, the spirit, energy self in balance with physical self as you learn all you need in order to evolve.
Your life now offers you everything you need to take the next step in your journey. You will only know what that is and where it will lead by taking it. You will learn what you need.
Quiet daily beginnings will aid in alignment. Find centering time each day and reassert that centering throughout the day. Pause often to remind the self to get in alignment, balancing heaven and earth in calmness, no matter what else is happening in your life to teach you how to live. Always find the next best thing to do to grow. Seek that!
Written by Jan Ketchel with a channeled message from Jeanne Ketchel.
My Tattered Peace Sign—reminds me of the inevitability of constant change
Dear Jeanne,
Today, I ask for guidance that all of us may navigate the coming week with awareness, that we may not get caught, but that we may flow—the energy within and the energy without synchronized, in balance, yet still moving forward in growth. I ask that we may all learn something transformational as we go through our week and that we are aware enough to grab onto our moments of enlightenment and ride them into a new place. I ask that you guide us all throughout the week, answering the calls of the many who seek you out and trust you, and the many who are learning that we are indeed guided through life. I ask that your readers not be too hard on themselves or full of blame, but that they look inward at why they are the way they are and find greater understanding of themselves through your guidance.
In general, I ask that you continue to stay beside us all as we continue our journeys. Our intent to grow is already firmly set—I believe we all made this decision a long time ago, before we were conscious of our present life’s journey. I ask that you offer each one of your readers a sure sign that they are on the right path as they go through their week, and the assurance that they will find what they need in whatever way is most meaningful. I ask all of these things on behalf of all your readers, as we enter another work week in a world that is spinning out of control, so far from connection with the true nature of kindness, compassion, and love for all, including self.
Here is Jeanne’s response:
My Dearest Ones,
Find solace in your own seeking hearts. Remain deeply introverted during this time of recapitulation, for this is indeed a time of questioning, of controversy, of falling into an old familiar place. Yet is it also a waiting period for a new phase of growth, for self, and for humanity as a whole.
In such times, the best process to engage in is the inner process. But the inner process must be clearly stated and clearly utilized for a final sweep of old issues. Rather than getting trapped in old places, as many are apt to do, this time of return to the deeper issues of self must be done with awareness.
Do you find yourself stuck, spinning your wheels, rehashing the same old issues and finding no resolution in your old methods of attack? If so, then you are caught.
In that case, step back. Look at the process you are engaging and note that it isn’t working. Don’t repeat it nor return to the same old self-judgments, but tell the self: Enough!
Shift away with awareness!
Ask the self to look in new directions for new answers. Pry the self out of the doldrums with heart-centered breathing, asking the self to breathe out the old stale air of familiar self and breathe in new air of change and enlightenment.
Do this throughout the day, as soon as you find yourself slipping onto an old habit, an old place of remorse, regret, resentment, anger, fear, judgment. Immediately shift away—literally turning your body—abruptly shifting and breathing out the old self and breathing in the new self. This is my guidance for this week.
As you breathe, you will discover exactly what you need. You will be tapping into the underlying intent of the energy of the world you now live in. Though it may seem out of control in so many ways, the truth is that it’s so necessary for change to happen. Your decisions, personal and otherwise, must now be in greater alignment with that ancient intent if you are to shift out of the places you have been stuck in for so long.
Align with the underlying current of inevitable change and begin to see progress. This means taking the personal inner journey of change, flowing along with the outer energy of change. The truth is that it is unstoppable.
The secret is that the inner energy and the outer energy are already in synch. You really have to do very little except wake up to the fact that this is true and get on board. In some way, everyone is being pushed now to change. Can you do it? Can you flow with the inevitable? Can you bear the tension of letting go of the old and flowing with all that is already in motion?
You just have to acquiesce to the available potent energy and take the ride it offers! With Awareness!
