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Chuck’s Place: The Essence of Attraction

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Like attracts like…
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

The energy of attraction is magnetism. Our subtle states of mental and emotional desire generate a magnetic charge that draws toward it like energy that both reflects and interacts with it. If one is in a joyful state of positive radiance, its impact is infectious. Even the most somber person will experience the activation of its radiant joy within themselves.

When we think of magnetism we generally think of the attraction of opposites, not like poles, as expressed in the principle that opposites attract. To understand the true essence of magnetic attraction, we must look to the primary relationship between the supposed opposites of Spirit and Matter itself.

Spirit, for instance, is a substanceless essence that produces subtle blueprints that draw matter to them, to give them material expression in physical form. In the beginning was the word, and the word drew to it the matter that organized into flesh, according to its design.

Thus, though Spirit and Matter appear as opposites, their attraction is actually one of joining their different states of sameness. Matter without Spirit is void of form. Spirit without Matter is void of expression. Creative expression is the mirror of Spirit as Matter and Matter as Spirit, permutations of states of sameness.

Life itself is an evolutionary process. Life in human form hastens evolution because Spirit, as expressed in incarnate, material form, has a beginning and an end. Evolutionary changes are dramatically, physically expressed through the course of a lifetime, from infancy to old age. Discarnate Spirits lack a material playing field for their discovery process. Spirit form does have its material limitations!

Spirits in discarnate form are empathically drawn to the physically alive to act as both teachers and guides. We attract the spirit guides and teachers that match our energetic essence. Thus, in my work, I might attract the guidance of a Carl Jung or Carlos Castaneda, as I explore and practice their teachings, to clarify and deepen the depth of my own understanding.

In exchange, my research and experience in physical form constitutes a physical playing field, an actual physical laboratory, for resonant Spirits outside of human form to deepen their own knowledge in areas of their own interest, as well as karmic challenge.

As well, I might attract a trickster entity interested in vicariously living and encouraging my many vices. Thus, we can’t blame entities for our troubles, they merely piggyback on our own growth process, slow as it may be, to bathe in and resolve their own issues, latent karma from their own sojourns in human form.

Indeed, our guides and teachers contribute greatly to our potential spiritual advancement as they share their wisdom from a higher, more refined subtle plane. Of course, free will is the essential factor in spiritual advancement. We can only advance ourselves spiritually through our choices, whether in discarnate or incarnate form.

If I choose to live in my vices, the trickster entities I attract are actually reflecting to me the intent I am manifesting, which I might not even be aware of. The shadow of the personality houses many desires that our consciousness may be blind to.

Rather than project blame toward others in our lives, we might do well to discover how we have magnetically drawn them to materially reflect our hidden—especially from ourselves, though generally not from others—motivations.

The subtle energy connection points of the human body, called chakras, rise from the base of the spine to the crown of the head in ascending spiritual subtlety. While the base chakra is concerned with physical groundedness, security and safety, essentially the core needs of the human animal, the crown chakra is the opening to one’s highest spiritual essence.

As we focus on different chakras, according to our spiritual and material unfolding and realization through life, we send out energetic signals of attraction that bring forth guides, teachers, and companions, in both incarnate and discarnate forms.

May we appreciate the guidance they provide, as well as the service our lives offer in exchange, as we all advance through this particular journey of infinite discovery.

Indeed, the ultimate spiritualized essence of attraction is love, total love for all. May the force of your attraction bring deep fulfillment.

And may the force of attraction issue from the most refined love in all of us,

Chuck    

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Chuck’s Place: Innocent Ignorance

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I want to take you higher…
– Artwork © 2022 by Jan Ketchel

The Garden of Eden myth imagines the birth of human consciousness.  Adam and Eve chose to break the law by eating the apple. Consciousness is the awareness of having a choice.

Nature’s laws do not require consciousness in order to be obeyed. They come in the form of archetypes, the programs that automatically determine the actions of sentient beings, and the entire cosmos, without any need for conscious deliberation in order to activate.

The archetypes are nature’s commandments, constructed through many painstaking trials of evolution, that become encoded in the genes and developmental patterns that govern a species. The introduction of the possibility of choice in the Garden, prompted by the snake offering the apple, was the birth of the ego, a center of consciousness having the power to override instinct, as it thinks and chooses for itself.

As a consequence of their disobedience, Adam and Eve were banished  from the Garden and thrown into the desert, left to fend for themselves, with their naive and inexperienced egos in charge of making decisions that would impact their survival. This predicament forced the ego to become an imposter of competence, as the responsibility for leadership fell upon an inadequate ego, which had to pretend to be competent.

Before we get too down on the ego for all its inflated pretense of ability or disability, perhaps we should have compassion for this little prince, abandoned in an unknown world. What other choice is there really but to fake it until you make it? The ego never asked to be born without knowledge; it truly is the recipient of its ancestor’s original sin of skipping over nature’s laws and acting through conscious choice instead.

Ironically, the birth of the ego, with its ability to make decisions, was actually nature’s plot to advance humanity to consciousness, an evolutionary trial to improve on nature’s decision making speed and efficiency. After all, Jung would often ask, who put the snake in the Garden?

The coldblooded snake of Eden is indeed kundalini at the root chakra of the human body, pushing itself upwards toward union with higher consciousness at the crown chakra. To be in human life is to experience the trials and tribulations of growing consciousness as it journeys back to the Garden, the crown jewel. The ego is kundalini’s plaything, companion and student on this adventuresome path called human life.

Currently, the ego has become the number one culprit in planetary mishap. The ego is currently mired in narcissism, caught in the lower chakra dramas of self-importance, possession, competition, and domination. This is mirrored in our polarized world with its charismatic leadership.

Within the individual the ego struggles with nature in the form of powerful needs and emotions, as it worries about survival. The higher spiritual chakras of refined love and interconnectedness are far from the consciousness of the needy ego at this stage, consumed as it is with the challenge of its own survival.

Nature, at this current time, is depositing new snakes in our messy garden, in the forms of viruses and climate crises, to prompt the world ego to rise to new heights, particularly to the heart center, where it can shed its narcissistic wrappings through the fire of love. The ego’s work, at the heart center, is learning to make decisions of right action that then rise to expression through word and deed at the throat chakra.

If nature’s experiment of making the conscious ego the agent of prudent decision making is to advance planetary survival, the ego must arrive at a place of humility, able to acknowledge both its innocent ignorance and its narcissistic leanings.

Fortunately, higher levels of consciousness are readily available to guide a humble seeker. Our time is replete with ethereal bodhisattvas, channelled by earth angels throughout the world, sharing their wisdom and guidance to receptive heart-centered egos.

In any moment, ego can ask spirit guides for signs and affirmations in nature, as it contemplates the right direction of a decision. This includes asking the body for guidance as well, where sensations of all kinds might suddenly respond to a thought, offering either affirmation or cause for deeper reflection.

The body also presents itself as nature, ready to evolve under enlightened leadership. An ego that has lost its self-importance, and incorporates the principles of right action, can suggest to the body new rules of functioning that both heal and lead toward deeper fulfillment.

Acknowledge not-knowing with awe versus shame. Assume full responsibility for leadership despite innocent ignorance. Humbly ask for guidance from the crown, then act in full consciousness with refined love.

Innocently ignorant,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Soul of Winter

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Heading into the light…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Today marks the first day of rising above our deepest darkness. With the completion of the passage through the Winter Solstice we begin the daily incremental lengthening of the light. Despite the barrenness of winter, the light will continue to support us .

Light is the essence of pure Spirit, which is our Source, without body. Before we arrive at this ultimate destination, Spirit is housed within the various soul bodies we inhabit, beginning with the densest, the physical body. Thus our soul resides within the physical body for the duration of our earthly tour, generally only sneaking out in our nightly dreams in infinity.

When we depart this dimension of life our Spirit moves on, housed in the soul body, also called the astral or energy body. We remain in that body until we have fully squared with the issues of the physical life we just lived. This region is variously called limbo, purgatory, or bardo states.

Upon release of these denser attachments, the Spirit rises into finer soul body states, as it proceeds on its definitive journey toward its Source. This progression toward the final merger with Spirit, in pure loving light, is wholly dependent upon the release and fulfillment of issues encountered in the denser regions of soul existence.

Winter is the densest season of the earthly cycle. Matter becomes thick, rigid and immobile. In human winter we experience depression, disconnection, and alienation from the light of Spirit. Some people sit beneath or wear light boxes to reconnect to their Spirit, as they rise above their heavy mood into the lightness of being.

Religious traditions, from pagan through Christian, celebrate the Solstice with the birth of the light, a connection to Spirit in the dark night of the soul of winter. Regardless of one’s weighted emotional state, hope is kindled in that which only increases the Spirit in the light.

The human body is innervated with energetic connections to all its finer soul body states through the seven chakras. Chakras one through four—which include the perineum, the reproductive organs, the solar plexus and the heart—deal specifically with life in the physical world, which covers survival, relationship, emotion, and ego concerns.

Thus the densest issues in human life are encountered in these chakra areas. The work of these chakras is in the challenges of physical life, as  experienced through developmental processes that render one progressively capable of autonomy, self sufficiency, and love.

Thus, for instance, the solar plexus serves as the birthplace of the ego that becomes a willful human being with intense emotion. Though largely steeped in dense narcissism at its earliest stage, it must be refined in the furnace of the solar plexus to rise to the lightness of the heart chakra, where it first encounters Spirit and the possibility of true love of another.

The heart actually presents its own furnace of transformation, as love must suffer its own journey from naive innocence to mature innocence in the vicissitudes of fantasy and relationship. Before refined love can rise to the higher Spirit chakras it must release the density of pain and blame.

Many a denser emotion is clamped down upon in the throat chakra. Such stuck energy is sent back down to the heart and solar plexus for further processing before its refined energy can comfortably pass through the throat chakra to the third eye and crown chakras above.

Thus, in human life, much time is necessarily spent in the lower chakras, working on and resolving core issues. In this respect, much of human life, regardless of actual season, can feel like the dead of winter. No blame here; it’s our karma, our core reason for choosing the life we are in—to come to Earth School to refine and rise above a specific issue.

The soul of winter reminds us that at anytime of year, at anytime in life, we do have access to our highest level of Spirit, that burns bright regardless of the darkness of our mood. The light of day, the stars and moon of night, the mere clicking on of a light, are all instant connections to this Source in light.

Inwardly, ask for help and guidance from all the light beings who watch over you and await your call. Ask and you shall receive. Just be mindful that ego must surrender to the Tao of Spirit, that has its own knowing way to truly answer our call!

Honoring the Soul of Winter, with love to all!

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Emotion, Thought & Chakra

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The intricacies of reflection and refinement…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

Emotion and thought are often experienced as polar opposites, warring Titans vehemently struggling for supremacy in human life. This is often illustrated in standoffs between thinking people devoid of emotion versus emotional people devoid of thought.

Interestingly, in both Hindu and channelled descriptions of the multiple bodies that comprise the full human form, which includes the physical, etheric, emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies, the mental body is depicted at a finer or higher level than the emotional body, as one moves up toward the coveted spiritual dimension.

At first glance this would appear to cement the argument that thought is of superior value to emotion. However, if one observes such a clash of ‘opposites,’ in the form of an argument, one will be struck at how powerful emotion accompanies the ‘thinking type’ in their defensive argument as to the superiority of pure reason, as well as the amount of mental programs that defend the ‘feeling type,’ who digs in firmly behind the value of pure emotion.

Thought that lacks distilled feeling is not grounded or related to real life. This is like intellectual philosophy that dismisses spirituality on purely rational, non-experiential grounds. Intense emotion, driven by unprocessed experience or unreflected thought, overwhelms the circuitry of the central nervous system and also precludes spiritual advancement. To arrive on the spiritual plane, one must refine both emotion and thought, as they become companions on the journey toward wholeness.

Emotion is an energy that comes into prominence at the level of the solar plexus in the human body. This is the coming of age chakra for the ego, which establishes its separate sense of self by creating a moat out of defense mechanisms. Projection is prominent: It’s your fault, not mine. Denial is clear: I didn’t do it. Grandiosity fuels the ego’s narcissism at this early stage, as it takes its first solo steps on the human stage.

Tremendous emotional energy attaches itself to these defensive structures as one vehemently protects the sanctity of the ego. The ego, thus empowered, feels the necessary strength to hold its own as a separate being. As well, the will is established as the ego develops the ability to achieve and create, channeling its energy toward the satisfaction of its own goals and desires.

For emotion to rise to the level of the heart chakra one must first burn off the impurities of unregulated emotion. Rages, tantrums, and moods are heavily laden with disappointments stemming from the ego fixated at the early stage of narcissistic entitlement. This ego must first go through the refining process of controlling its outbursts and safely releasing its emotions. This develops a rudimentary respect for acceptance of the needs of others.

Arriving at the heart chakra with this control, one is impacted by the call to greater connection with self and others. This also manifests as the concretization of the spiritual drive, perhaps in the seeking of relationship or discovering of one’s soulmate. Both ecstatic and sad emotions accompany this pursuit of wholeness through relationship.

The distillation of emotion at the heart chakra—that arrives at pure love for everything and everyone, including oneself—allows this emotion to smoothly proceed to the throat and third eye chakras, the home of the mental body. If the throat becomes constricted as emotion rises, that emotion must return to the heart and solar plexus chakras to process what it is attached to. Until it is released, love cannot rise above its fixation.

Thoughts issuing from the mental body chakras, imbued with love, will act from right action and for the greater good of the interdependent whole, within and without. Thoughts lacking love are either dissociated from the human form or may be serving the wants of emotion at the level of the solar plexus that have circumvented the heart.

To develop the mental body, the home of thought, one must learn control of thought. Here meditation practices can help one develop the ability to control the randomness of thought and the ability to focus attention. Thought, like emotion, is a powerful energy, that must be regulated to journey into the spiritual dimension.

The spirit requires truth and total transparency to navigate freely. Uncontrolled thought lacks the steadiness and sobriety to ground one in spiritual discovery. Unbridled emotion is likely to waylay one in bardos of discontent or illusory worlds on one’s spiritual journey. These are the fantasy worlds that accompany elevated emotional states that end in empty imaginings.

Refined thought and emotion are able to merge at the spiritual dimension, the crown chakra, as one ventures into greater connection and discovery within and beyond the human form. Thought and emotion at this level are hardly warring Titans but true loving companions on their journey in infinity.

Sending loving thoughts,

Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: Finding Harmonious Balance

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Homeostasis!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

All systems seek homeostasis. There are countless permutations of homeostasis. For instance, if one part of a system rises to an extreme, other parts of the system compensate by moving to the opposite extreme to restore balance. A system of extremes, though a volatile and unstable balance, nonetheless can take possession of the world, as well as the human personality, with dire consequences.

Democratic governments have evolved systems of checks and balances to ensure stability of governance. Elected representatives bring their varied, opposing beliefs and individualistic concerns to their meeting halls and, ideally, attempt to harmonize their decisions for the greater good. Often, however, special interests seek to stockpile power to advance their agenda unsullied by a democratic process, which generally requires compromise.

Some issues, such as a threat to national security, evoke a primal unity that can advance a generalized acceptance of war. This falls under the category of nationalism.

The world is dangerously close to such an eventuality, particularly in a time of deluge of fake news, geared toward advancing special interests, especially for those who advocate war to eliminate unwanted parts of the world system.

These are like the times in world history where a savior is sought to bring a peaceful reconciliation of opposites and restoration of world stability. In modern terms, the world seeks a mature adult leader to restore order.

In the human personality, the adult self is the “savior” charged with bringing sustainable homeostasis within the system of the human psyche.

The adult self is the conscious president of the personality. The chakras of the human energy system are the major energy centers of the personality that reflect different needs within the self. Thus, for instance, the first chakra is the representative of core security and safety. The second chakra is concerned with procreation and continuance of the species. The third chakra is concerned with the power of individual needs and wants, the true coming of age of the human ego.

The fourth chakra is the meeting place of the spiritual self, where the individualistic ego is introduced to the truth of its place in the larger interconnected system of the greater self. The heart chakra teaches the ego right action for the needs of the greater whole.

The final three chakras are greater refinements of awakening to the transpersonal dimension of being and to life beyond the physical self.

The adult self is charged with managing the needs of the total self in space time, that is, daily human life. The adult self must bring to the meeting room the unique concerns of all the representatives of the various chakras. Decisions must be made, and checks and balances employed, to insure good management of energetic resources in the behavioral fulfillment of everyday life.

Unfortunately, the adult self must undergo much maturation before it arrives at the adult ability to govern for the greater good of the personality. Here, checks and balances appear in the form of psychosomatic symptoms, emotional and cognitive reactions, as well as dream experiences and synchronistic manifestations that bring influence upon the homeostatic balance of the personality.

A basic example: at the core chakra level, we must eat to survive. The second chakra, with its primal concern of mating, might negate the need to eat in order to attract a mate. The third chakra, in a state of grandiose entitlement, might insist upon unlimited treats. The fourth chakra might give the message that food is necessary in moderation, and hold out that a true mate would be attracted to a person who lovingly cares for the true needs of the whole body.

An immature adult self might find itself easy prey to the special interests of one or another chakra, resulting in either under or over eating. An adult self that has undergone the trials of the lower chakras, and reached the heart chakra, would be able to avail itself of the wisdom offered at the heart chakra. This would mean eating an enjoyable, moderate, truly needed meal.

Again, all systems must achieve homeostasis. Homeostasis could actually look like an indulgent attitude, compensated by severe somatic and emotional symptoms. The goal is to achieve harmonious homeostasis, which provides enduring sustainability. All individuals have the opportunity to be saviors of themselves, in their intent of achieving mature adulthood.

Let us intend that world leadership follow this example.

Pursuing the path to heart,

Chuck