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Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Intending Change

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I have been practicing intent as prescribed by the seers of ancient Mexico to enact change. Every day I state my intent and let it go out into the universe. I shout out or silently speak the word: INTENT! Sometimes I don’t even feel that I have to keep repeating each personal intent that I have set, I just shout the word INTENT and ask that my already prescribed intent bind with the intent of the seers of ancient Mexico, with the intent of the women seers, with don Juan, and with the intent of good, because I feel that it is important to imbue my intent with pureness of heart.

In the old days, before I did a recapitulation of my childhood and learned about the seers of ancient Mexico, I would take drastic measures to force change in my life. My favorite method of enacting change in those days was to move, sometimes across the country or even sometimes across the ocean to another country. I once counted eleven moves in seven years, from state to state, city to city, apartment to apartment. Sometimes I moved alone, sometimes with a partner or with a husband. When it was impossible to move house I would rearrange the furniture in every room, shoving and pushing sofas, beds, dressers, bookshelves around until I got just the right feeling that I was seeking. Often I was seeking a sense of contentment, peace of mind, inner quiet and if my outer environment could reflect that I could calm down.

Restlessness was more often than not the catalyst for these moves, a restlessness that I bore my entire life but never quite understood as a deeply inner restlessness. I thought I just needed to keep moving all the time, that I was innately a person who sought experience and adventure, but it wasn’t until I sat down with Chuck and began to explore that restlessness that it revealed itself as something else. It took a while for me to fully grasp that with all of that moving and rearranging I was trying to run away from none other than myself.

During the recapitulation of my early childhood I understood just what it was that I was running from, devastatingly frightening memories of experiences of near annihilation that would have sent anyone fleeing. I learned to sit in one place and bear the tension of those memories as they reappeared, not to haunt me this time, but to teach me something about myself. I learned that, even though I wanted to get up and run, sell my house and move to another town, another city, another country, I did have the courage to stay and face the demons, as I had once done so strikingly well as a child.

In facing my demons, both my old abuser and my personal inner demons who had stood by me for the first fifty years of life, becoming increasingly more familiar as each year passed, I learned not only about how useful they had always been to me, but also how well I had utilized them to keep going, to stay not only alive but to grow up and eventually be ready to recapitulate. I learned that my inner demons were not all scary beings, that many of them helped me, that in fact I controlled many of them for my own purposes. I learned how powerful I had become, mostly in order to keep them quiet and to feel safe.

Now after having learned the lessons of recapitulation, one of them being that we hold everything inside us, I no longer feel the urge to run when I feel the need for change in my life. I know that in simply sitting, by intending change on an energetic level, I can profoundly impact my life and the lives of those around me. When restlessness hits me these days, I acknowledge its powerful intent. I thank it for alerting me to the fact that I am perhaps stagnating again and that, yes, I do indeed need to shift, but then I sit with it. I ask it what it wants, why it came at this moment, and I look for the deeper meaning inside myself now, rather than focusing it outside of myself.

When the universe sends me a sign asking me to change I know that it means I must re-examine where I am and why I am here. Perhaps it indicates that an inner course correction is necessary, or that I am not fully present each day, or that I have slipped a little too far from what is most meaningful in my life. Perhaps it indicates that I have fallen back into an old pattern of behavior that no longer works for me, that I am doing something to myself that is harmful or just plain old boring. Perhaps it is pointing out something as simple as an old idea or judgment of myself that is simply not true, but perseverates along an old path of thinking, a trench long ago traversed and worn deep, a trench that I actually got myself out of a long time ago.

Perhaps when restlessness arises now it is time to reenter that trench one last time and look more closely, with eyes wide open, at the false images and ideas of myself that I once had, to now fully grasp how wrong they were and are. Then it is time to turn my eyes upon the truth of where I am now, who I am now, and more fully embrace that changed being that I have worked so hard to become.

Perhaps when restlessness comes knocking now it is just telling me that it is okay to be me. It is okay to intend change, to keep going, to want to grow and to evolve. It is okay to leave the past behind, but only when it is fully revealed and done. It is perfectly acceptable to move into life more fully whole and present, truths accepted, self accepted. It is perfectly acceptable to fulfill even more of my personal potential in a more meaningful way, without fear that someone will be offended or that I have to carry old burdens or demons that are no longer useful.

Intending change, by sending our intent to the universe that is so ready to help us, is perfectly all right and perfectly right. It is perfectly acceptable to keep seeking to be all that we can be. After all, what else are we here for?

INTENT! INTENT! INTENT!

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

Sending you all love and good wishes,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

#731 Free the Mind. Free the Fear. Free the Spirit.

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a message of guidance for your readers today?

Today I speak of detachment and learning to allow others to take the journeys they must. Remember: All human beings are upon that earth to learn lessons in evolutionary growth, but how can one grow if one is not allowed to have experiences in life?

Learning to detach from the sorrows or difficulties of others may enhance a personal journey and may also lead to a greater understanding of compassionate living. In learning detachment may one be granted the means of gaining a fuller awareness of life’s meaning and life’s purpose. In learning detachment may one grant the self, and others, the opportunity to have vital experiences in life. Only in having such experiences will one learn anything of use. For life is meant to be played out on the fields where all energy intersects, coincides, and greets all other energy, on the fields of life.

Allow the self a little freedom today and you will allow the self access to a deeper sense of detachment from the lives of others while also gaining a deeper sense of what it means to be human.

Can you explain further?

In allowing the self a little freedom from the worries that one carries for others, by releasing the mind from its conjuring play by play, its repetitive swirl of emotional attachments, one may find a sense of peace and freedom reigns, so that the work of the self may become the most important aspect of life. In detaching from the worries of others, the self is allowed attention, and this you must understand is most important. For how do you expect to be of aid to others if you do not allow the self to be free, to evolve, to learn what life is about, and to change?

Only in healing and changing the self will freedom from that which plagues you be achieved, but such a process takes attention. Focus must be paid to the self in the world. So the first step in learning to detach from the sorrows and worries of others involves freeing the self from one’s own sorrows and worries. In essence, detaching the self from personal issues by thorough examination of repetitive actions is a good way to start a healing process. Find out why you do the things you do over and over again, to the detriment of self and others, including worrying, avoiding, resisting, and hiding from life, and you will have begun a true journey of change.

So today, on this most auspicious of days, offer the self a new method of living your life by taking a few steps in detaching from that which has kept you bound, ill, worried, confused, in denial, or simply frustrated. Free the mind. Free the fear. Free the adventuresome spirit self to have experiences in life without so many attachments, real and unreal. For what is it that you are so attached to to begin with? Is it something that is real? Or is it simply something in your mind?

Learn to let go of things that do not belong to you, that do not help you grow, that do not allow you to experience the true self. For that is why you are there, to discover the true self, the truthful self, the truly real self.

Why did you call this a “most auspicious day”?

Because it is! But you will only truly understand what that means by offering the self some changes, by detaching from the strict and forbidden, from the rules of old that told you a long time ago that you were not worthy of this life, yet does your spirit seek always to show you otherwise. Follow your spirit and discover why this day is most auspicious for you!

Thank you, Jeanne!

Please feel free to post comments or respond to this message from Jeanne in the post/read comments section below.

Fondly and most humbly offered.

Messages from Jeanne

#715 Are You Being Urged to Awaken Now?

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
This seems to be a time of transition for many. Whether by choice or fate it seems that many of us who now reside upon this earth are being asked to confront deep issues, to become unanchored from our habitual tendencies, to flow without resorting to the familiar, to choose to be groundless. I see this time as not only transitional but transformative. I feel we are being asked to change, though not to simply settle down again into new habits but to keep changing.

If we are indeed to transform we must accept that transformation never ends, that it is an ongoing, eternal process. I feel that this is a time when most of us are being asked to choose acquiescence to our truths and face the unbending intent of nature, which is infinite in its evolutionary tactics.

Can you offer guidance as we struggle with disciplining ourselves to bear the tension of our choices to change, as we struggle with still wanting the familiar while we know full well that we are going on this ride of transformation?

You are always in this position, My Dears. You are always being asked to evolve, though through much of life the moment of awakening leads to naught. For many people now upon that earth, for those who are ready to gather their energy in a new way, acquiescence is a tenable process. For others it is not so easy. And for yet others it will not be the goal of this lifetime.

If you are being pushed in a new direction and you choose to allow the energy of that direction to guide you, you will be well placed for growth. Keep in mind, however, that you must allow yourself to be guided as much as possible. You must allow your path to appear before you each day. In some manner you must allow your world to open up before you without your say so, without your control or your decision making to factor in. In other words, you must allow yourself to be led.

This will of course not be easy. Your fears will arise to caution you, to hold you in place, to convince you that you must maintain the status quo. Just remember, the status quo will still exist even if you depart from it for a moment or two.

Your world will change if you want it to—and it may change even if you don’t want it to—if you are in a position of transformation, if you are at a juncture in your personal life, consciously so or not. You may be presented with a life changing choice at this very moment. You may be frightened of taking the first step that will change your world. You may be wondering if you are crazy to dare such a step.

Keep in mind that the world outside of you will still exist. It will go on as it always has. But the difference will be you. If you choose to acquiesce, to allow yourself to flow with the changes being presented, you will not only be different in the world, but you will enter a parallel world that will exist alongside the status quo, the old world. You will be riding upon a new vehicle of energy that will allow you to perceive differently. This is when you will notice that, although you still live in that known world, you are also in quite another.

The first step is the most difficult to take. This is when the pull to return to safety and complacency will attempt to overshadow your awakening moment. This is when you will have to fight the old comforts. This is when you will have to keep throwing the old blankets aside that will be tossed at you in an attempt to bed you down again with your old fears.

Remember that fears are just that, fears existing only in your mind and ready at all times to sabotage your awakening. You must be in a strong position to face them. You must not do anything foolhardy. You must choose wisely, intelligently, and pragmatically, even while you must choose daringly to change. You must remain focused on changing the self, taking your attention off others, asking the self to allow for growth that will transform you and unite you with your spirit.

It is now a time of spirit, of creativity, and unbridled energy of evolutionary potential. This means many different things to many different people. If you are restless in your work, it may mean it is time to finally change your job, your work environment, your office, or even simply to change your desk and chair.

If you are struggling in your marriage, partnership or relationship, it may mean that you must look to your inner self for the truthful answers to what to do to change your situation, for how to make it better, for how to make it work or for how to transition with grace, patience, loving kindness, and compassion for yourself and your partner.

If you are facing a great challenge or life threatening situation the energy of now asks you to slow down, to feel your way through your situation with quiet mind and quiet heart, to listen calmly to your truths, to not act hastily but to allow for right action to come from your heart-centered self, to allow your inner awareness to guide you.

To bear the tension of transition is what life is always about. You could not have even entered life if you were not well prepared to undertake the tension of the moment of birth, for you would not have survived that initial onslaught. One must accept the journey as it comes, in little awakenings and big ones as well.

Are you being urged to awaken now? If you feel the push, the pull, the needle pricking you, if you hear the knock on the door, the call from the outer world or the call from the inner world, it is a good time to slow down and pay attention to what you are being shown or asked to do.

Is it right for you to take this step, to make this change at this time? If you choose not to, when will you have this choice again? What does your spirit want to do? What do your fears want to do? And who do you want to listen to this time?

Your question, My Dear Jan, proposes that positive energy is available now and this I advise is so. But I also advise patience, thoughtfulness, practicality, and planning, knowing full well that change will institute a whole host of other changes, many of which will not be known and this is when you will be confronted with the old fears and desires to return to the comforts of the old self and the old way of life.

If you elect to glibly step out into a changing world be ready for the turmoil that is sure to come, for change does not happen easily or lightly. It comes with force and it asks you to stick with it, to, yes, bear the tension, to be patient, to be wise, to be focused and disciplined in action, thought, and deed. It also asks you to thoroughly commit to the path that leads you into the unknown, for that is what is ahead. And what is the unknown but the vastness of potential, of possibility, and of self. This is where you are all headed in the end anyway, into the unknown.

Messages from Jeanne

#713 Understanding Change

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Today I ask for guidance for everyone, as we continue our journeys and whether we notice how we are affected by the outer energy or not. What message do you have for us?

Do not forget why you are there, why you live now upon that earth. If you feel you have not discovered your purpose, I can give you an inkling of what it might be: You are all there to grow and evolve as energy beings. You are there to change. You are there to push the self constantly to change.

So, how can you change today? Look at your life with clear and truthful eyes. You do know what, and where, needs immediate release and shift in your life. This is where you must start. And in order to start you must confront your fears as they arise. In order to confront your fears you must dare the self to move in a new direction, incrementally if there is no possibility of great change at the moment.

If you are in a position to both foresee and precipitate drastic change, I ask that you remain calm, deliberate and slow in your progress. If you are not in a position to enact drastic change at this moment, I ask that you also respond to the urgings of your spirit with slow, deliberate and thoughtful steps.

Change, in order to have an effect in your life, must be undertaken with conscious and calculated actions, based not on fear of confrontation, or on the need to flee, but only because it is right.

A determination that change is necessary must first become acceptable in order for enactment of change to be right. If you are not yet of the mind that change is indeed what life requires then it is time to stay only with inner work. Inner work will lead to outer action, but until the inner self is in alignment with words of great meaning and impact—that will result in taking action—it is not possible to truly change.

You see what I am saying? No matter what you read or hear, from my words or from others who seek to guide, your personal journey of change will not proceed if you have not come to an inner understanding of what it means to truly change.

I, and others who speak of spirit, of energy, and of evolutionary growth, do not propose that an individual react simply to advice as it is spelled out. My words are presented merely as thoughts to propose to the inner self, thoughts that may provoke an awakening. No awakening or deeper activity will happen, however, if you have not allowed your inner process to guide you more than what you hear outside of you. Your personal inner work is really all that matters and all that you must pay attention to.

Although the outer energy may propose that change is necessary, it is only by sitting in stillness with the inner self that you will know if change at this moment is right for you. Take time to be quiet and thoughtful, but most of all be patient with yourself, both your inner self and your outer self.

Your outer self may be restless and urging you to do something that your inner self is not ready for, or that your inner self knows is not right. Only by allowing these two selves to interact will you be in a position to know such things.

If you are looking to change the self today, this is the first place to begin, by changing how you interact with the two selves. That will be work enough!

I do not mean to suggest that outer activity requires much attention, except as it may guide to inner exploration. As you grow and feel that the world outside of you is less interesting, as your ego fulfills its duties and shows you the importance of spirit, so may you discover that inner work is where change may be enacted. This is a lifelong process and one that deserves attention.

Messages from Jeanne

#711 The Groundhog is Dead!

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Thank you for those words of insight regarding my first question for today. Sometimes I feel that I get caught up in feeling the energy of shift but then I fall back into complacency, almost there before I know it. The other evening, Chuck and I were sitting in our yard talking and enjoying the breezes, unwinding after a busy day. I kept smelling something rotten, and in fact pretty soon it was so overwhelming that I said: “We have to go inside; I just can’t stand the smell anymore!”

I was determined to find out where the stench was coming from, certain that a dead animal lay nearby. The next morning I looked all over the yard but found nothing. Even Spunky the dog, sniffing and restless as all heck, could not locate the animal. Every time she went too far her old legs gave out and I had to lift her back up and lead her into the house, for I could not leave her outside to sit calmly, as is her habit, for she was too restless. Later that morning, my son called to me, he had found the culprit! “A half of a rotting groundhog is lying next to my car, the top half!” he exclaimed. And there it lay, just where Spunky had been heading every time she stumbled and fell, a dead top half of a groundhog, neatly severed mid-torso, its arms and head lying in a pile of pine needles. It was quite a strange sight. I shoveled it up and tossed into the woods in the backyard and then called Chuck to tell him I had found the smell, a dead groundhog! “The groundhog is dead?!” he asked in wonderment, for he has written extensively about “groundhog day” habits. “Half of the groundhog is dead,” I specified, for I had no idea where the other half was and though I searched and sniffed around the yard, it was not to be found.

We surmised that this was still a very good sign, that something meaningful was being presented to us, and that we are indeed evolving if even half of the groundhog is dead! Jeanne, can you shed some light on this most intriguing sign?

Yes, My Dear One, I can certainly expound upon your summary, for it is indeed a precipitous sign, if you take it personally, as you do, and not just as an annoying stench.

First, you must note that it is the top half, or front half, of the groundhog, the consuming end: the mouth, eyes, nose, ears, and the digging paws with their sharp claws. It is the end that sniffs out life, but that incessantly digs in and wallows in the ground, for it cannot help itself. It must burrow into the earth. It is the desirous senses, the busy ego self, who digs so diligently to set up a life that is safe, secure, and patterned after the familiar. All groundhogs act this way. No groundhog has ever done otherwise. This is the truth of this creature: it is a creature of nature and it will do what it does until it dies. It is only when it dies that it changes, otherwise it follows its nose and its digging compulsions. It can do nothing else.

Humans, on the other hand, may look upon such a creature as cumbersome, unenlightened, rather boring. However, this is a perfect reflection of the ego in the world, for, in truth, it only does so much before it has utilized all its skills and it can go no further. The bigger the ego, the bigger the burrow, but it is still a burrow.

Look now on the fact that the ego aspect of self, the front half of the groundhog, is dead and rotting in your yard, next to a vehicle of travel no less, its stench so overwhelming that you could not rest in its presence! The habits of the ego—doing what it does so naturally—are now compromised, because the truth is, that in your world, the time of the ego in compulsion is dead. It is a time now of spirit, that which has been missing. But note, it is not likely that spirit has been totally absent from even the life of the groundhog, for its energy did exist in its very life force, though it was unconscious energy. Humans, however, have conscious awareness in every moment of life, yet do you push it away in the same manner that you attempt to push away the stench of decay.

In conclusion, I suggest that half an ego is enough, enough to navigate the world, using it to digest what you must, while at the same time accepting your most necessary inner awareness as your main guide in life. Can you allow your burrowing to become energetic exploration now, going deeper into new habits, while you allow the old ones to remain as compost upon the past, nurturing your future? Can you, My Dear Ones, use your spiritual drive and awareness to continue your digging toward fulfillment?

This is a time of great shift from the old to the new, from old habits to new means of growth. This is always what life is about, but as usual the choice is yours. However, it is very clear that, for all of you, over the past few weeks some old part of you has been creating quite a stench, and you all know that it is time to let it go. It is time to find a new method of digging and tending your gardens, My Dears. All of you have the tools within and that is where you must look.

Remain aware of what comes into your world to show you the means of growth. Life is all about growing and evolving and it will guide you energetically in signs and by all means available in nature and otherwise, so be alert. Take the signs to heart and ask to be shown your new path. Ask to be freed of your fears by facing them. Even as your fears lead you in the direction your life must take, even as they may force you to turn from the decaying remains of an old self, so are they your greatest guides.

We have no idea where the other half of the groundhog is, but I gather that it is not important. I see that enough has been presented to us and I accept the challenge to keep growing, even though I may have to do it differently.

Yes, that is what you are being presented with now: to keep going, using new tools, doing life differently on all fronts, without fear of the old catching up. For, after all, the groundhog is showing you that it is dead. The other half of the process is up to you.

Is the groundhog half dead, or half alive? Which way do you see it? And which half do you elect to use as your catalyst? Still need some groundhog in your life?