Tag Archives: change

Chuck's Blog

#697 Chuck’s Place: Independent Action

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In the last year of his life, Carl Jung took on the project of expressing his core ideas and discoveries at a level comprehensible by the general public in his final book Man and his symbols. Ten days before his fatal illness, he completed his chapter to this work, which includes chapters written by his closest associates. In what were perhaps some of Jung’s final written words, he states:

“As any change must begin somewhere, it is the single individual who will experience it and carry it through. The change must indeed begin with an individual; it might be anyone of us. Nobody can afford to look around and to wait for somebody else to do what he is loath to do himself. But since nobody seems to know what to do, it might be worthwhile for each of us to ask himself whether by any chance his or her unconscious may know something that will help us. Certainly the conscious mind seems unable to do anything useful in this respect. Man today is painfully aware of the fact that neither his great religions nor his various philosophies seem to provide him with those powerful animating ideas that would give him the security he needs in face of the present condition of the world.” (p. 101)

Last week in my blog, Why BP?, I suggested that the core conflict expressed by the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico is the battle between two primary instincts: hunger and self-preservation. Reason, the hallmark of consciousness, is colluding with and actually possessed by the unchecked, insatiable greed of the out-of-control hunger instinct in all of mankind. Esther Harding states, reflecting upon the hunger instinct, in her book Psychic Energy:

Modern man has sought to compass the whole of life with his conscious intellect, only to find that the power of the irrational life force has not been overcome, but has retreated to the unconscious and from that hidden stronghold exerts a powerful and often baneful influence on his life. The power of his primitive greed bursts forth in wars of aggression and manifests itself in asocial business practices, while the exclusive concern with outer satisfactions leaves his soul hungry and starving. For man cannot live satisfactorily, cannot be whole, unless he is living in harmony with the unconscious roots of his being. Yet, how can he be at one with himself while the barbaric impulses of unredeemed instinct continue to hold sway in the unconscious? It is just because the ideals we hold up before us do not represent the truth about mankind that the hopes of peace and progress they embody so constantly elude us. Yet we fear to admit this obvious fact and to relax our efforts at self-improvement, lest we fall again into chaos and barbarism.” (p. 84)

Bringing Jung’s challenge to the “single individual” to change and solve the problem of greed, requires that each and every one of us identify our own relation to greed within our psyches and in daily functioning. If we understand hunger broadly, as the instinct to consume, especially in great quantity, we might automatically associate it with the addictions: food, drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, shopping, etc. I suggest that we extend this energetically and ask ourselves, how do we spend the bulk of our energy? From this vantage point, we might ironically look at an obsessional disorder, such as anorexia, as an out of control hunger instinct, considering how much life energy is consumed by not eating.

We might view a fixation on reading as an insatiable hunger to consume words, facts, or fantasies to the exclusion of all other needs in life. Similarly, the insatiable attachment to constantly checking facebook, email, text messages, etc, is an addiction to consuming electronic connection, a barbaric dominance of the hunger instinct. We might view preoccupation with our physical appearance as a greedy monopoly on our daily energy for life. We could view dominating habits of complaining, being cynical, or judging, as acts of avarice feasting upon our energetic storehouse.

The possibilities for greed in our daily functioning are endless, and it requires conscious reflection on our part to take an honest energy inventory and face the truth of how we allow greed to dominate and control our lives. If we can reel in our attention from the greedy mirrors around us and tackle the shadow of our own greed, we can energetically change the world. This is the essence of Jung’s final guidance to us in how to change the world, which he acknowledged was in a very dangerous place. From the same chapter in Man and his symbols, he writes:

“Our intellect has created a new world that dominates nature, and has populated it with monstrous machines. The latter are so indubitably useful that we cannot see even a possibility of getting rid of them or our subservience to them. Man is bound to follow the adventurous promptings of his scientific and inventive mind and to admire himself for his splendid achievements. At the same time, his genius shows the uncanny tendency to invent things that become more and more dangerous, because they represent better and better means for wholesale suicide.” (p. 101)

As I stated last week, Mother Nature has taken the lead to restore balance now, and there is inevitable and obvious destruction in this healing process. If we can cap the greed in our own lives, we put ourselves in alignment with nature’s cure, and change the world!

If you wish to correspond, please feel free to post a comment below.

Until we meet again,
Chuck

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Memorable Events

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In the introduction to The Active Side of Infinity Carlos Castaneda writes that don Juan Matus encouraged him to prepare a special album, a collection of the memorable events in his life, an album that “reveals the warrior’s personality, an album that attests to the circumstances of his life.” (p. 6) Eventually, The Active Side of Infinity became that album. In the recounting of his conversation with don Juan, Carlos has a hard time understanding just what this might mean. At first he protests that every event in his life was profoundly significant. Don Juan retaliates by suggesting that, in reality, there may only be a few events in a person’s life that actually change things for them, that illuminate the path before them. “Ordinarily,” he says, “events that change our path are impersonal affairs, and yet are extremely personal.”

In last week’s blog, I wrote about an out-of-body experience (OBE) that changed my life. It was a memorable and momentous event. This week I pose the questions: Why do we have these moments and what do they mean to us personally?

In Black Elk Speaks, Black Elk recounts a vision he had as a nine year old boy. The vision begins when he hears a voice calling to him: “It is time; now they are calling you.” (p. 21) He elects to follow the voice. Over the next few days he becomes very ill. For twelve days he lies sick, as if dead, but meanwhile he is in another world, receiving a vision. In this vision he is shown that he must lead his people through four ascents, or times of great difficulty. When he returns from this vision he is afraid to speak of it for fear that he will be considered crazy.

Over the next eight years, he receives many messages and he increasingly realizes that he must pay attention to them. He follows the guidance offered; training himself to trust the messages he receives, saving his people and others from death, devastation, and starvation many times. Although he does not speak of his vision, others notice that he seems to have a certain power and it is only when this power can no longer be held back that he dares to speak of his long-ago vision.

This time comes when he is bombarded with calls from the Universe itself, calls that he cannot ignore. The thunder beings from his vision call to him from the clouds. The stars call to him. The crows call during the day and the coyotes call at night. And what do they say? They all say the same thing: “It is time! It is time! It is time!” (p. 164) This goes on for quite a while, until he thinks he must be going crazy. He begins to fear everything. He becomes withdrawn and isolates himself. His parents, noticing his distress, call an old medicine man to their tepee and ask him to see what he can do for their son. By now, Black Elk is so afraid of everything that he cannot hold back any longer; he fears he will die if he does not speak. He tells the medicine man about his vision and everything else that has been haunting him.

The medicine man says: “Nephew, I know now what the trouble is! You must do what the bay horse in your vision wanted you to do. You must do your duty and perform this vision for your people upon earth. You must have the horse dance first for the people to see. Then the fear will leave you, but if you do not do this, something very bad will happen to you.” (p. 165)

Now that his secret is out, the vision can be shared. While the vision is being acted out by members of his tribe, Black Elk looks up into the clouds and sees his vision once again, as he had seen it the first time. He says: I looked about me and could see that what we then were doing was like a shadow cast upon the earth from yonder vision in the heavens, so bright it was and clear. I knew the real was yonder and the darkened dream of it was here.” (p. 173)

What Black Elk discovered was that our fears are leading us. Carlos also discovered this, for when he related a fearful experience, don Juan pointed out that it was indeed a memorable event in his life and worthy of being included in his album.

Jeanne wrote on Monday that this is the time for us to change, that it is here. Later that evening, as I read this account of Black Elk’s confrontation with the Universe telling him it was time to reveal his vision to his people, I could not help but feel that it was a synchronistic, momentous moment, worthy of passing along.

So why do we have these momentous moments in our lives, whether they be synchronicities, experiences, visions, OBEs, voices, animal messengers, or simply our own fears calling to us? I believe, and this has been my personal experience as I have heeded the calls from Jeanne to pass along her messages, that we, as we listen and follow the guidance given, are offered the opportunity to experience that other world, the “real” world, as Black Elk refers to it. By facing our fears we offer ourselves greater access to our own energy too and this, in turn, allows us the confidence and trust to keep opening ourselves to more experiences.

And how do we face our fears? Sometimes all it takes is finding someone to talk to. We work so hard to fight our fears, as Black Elk did, but one day we just know that it is time, and instead of turning away from them again we make the momentous decision to find out where they have been trying to lead us all these years. I know many brave people make that decision every day. And I also know other people, equally brave, who elect to keep the fear in their lives; for whatever reason, it has its purpose for as long as we need it. Either way we are challenging ourselves to have energetic experiences, one of which can be energy-giving, allowing us access to the unimaginable; the other can be energy-robbing, and often we do feel that we might die if we do not find some form of relief from our issues. Black Elk went on to see his vision unfold in reality. Carlos went on to write about his experiences. Both of them changed their personal worlds.

What does life have in store for us and how can we make this lifetime meaningful? Personally, I elected to face my fears, to recapitulate and relieve myself of sometimes crippling habits and behaviors that kept me from listening to the truths of my inner world, rejecting my own visions for many years. Now, I’m allowing myself to take a different journey. I still must face what arises to lead me, but the more experiences I have with Jeanne and my other forms of guidance, the more easily I flow.

I most humbly offer this essay and my own experiences as examples, but also as incentives to keep going. There really is so much else to experience. That other world truly is real, and it is attainable now, which is really what Jeanne, Black Elk, don Juan and Carlos are suggesting. We have access to it; we just have to get beyond our fears. Is it time? If you wish, feel free to respond in the comment section below.

Until next week, wishing you all love, dreams, and visions,
Jan

NOTE: The books mentioned in this blog are available for purchase through our Store.

Messages from Jeanne

#694 Don’t Hold Back

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Today’s weekly message falls on what was once a special day for you, your birthday. I extend birthday wishes, though I know you are far from this world in that sense.

Several people have forwarded us channeled messages regarding what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico, to our earth, to the animals, to ourselves, to life itself. All of them contain the same messages that you have been sending out for all the years that I have channeled you, the messages that we humans have come far from our true energetic roots and lost our connection to nature, earth, and spirit. At the same time that such messages are traveling around the globe, and the messages for all of us to awaken are stressed, I detect a new sensitivity and desire for truth, realness, and for connection to what really matters. I, personally, have always felt that most people, behind their fears and facades, are spiritually hungry and driven, but it has not been conventionally acceptable to be so. As the world became more technologically advanced and plastic we have further neglected our inner worlds.

I also feel that there is a big shift taking place, and whether it is intentionally set by our deeper yearning for connection to nature and spirit or not, it is happening anyway. This is the message that is being spread: change is being forced upon you, so are you going to take up the challenge and change as well?

We have conversed on this topic many times. Chuck has also written extensively about it in his blog. Is there anything new you would like to say on the subject? Or is there some other special message you would like to express on this once special day? Happy Birthday, Jeanne!

The messages of change and alarm must continue to spread, for although you may intuit a slow demise of earth’s resources over the past century, so must you now all take note: this disaster is of far greater consequence than you can imagine. Your time upon that earth must now become an era of full consciousness, your masses awoken with bitter truths, as the blood of Mother Earth does spill upon the shores. But of far more consequence is the impact upon the balance of nature that has thus far been heavily compromised and contaminated, left far too long. Balance no longer knows its own definition for it has long tilted into decay. The resulting heaviness of such poor attention to the balance of nature shows how powerfully mankind effects his environment.

This is an environmental disaster that has long been pending so do not make it into what it is not. Nor is this a spiritual disaster alone, but a far-reaching reality of your world. Your world is utterly compromised in that region, in the Gulf of Mexico, where there is, as of yet, no true knowledge to either describe it or to halt it. The fact is that greed is destroying the very earth. Earth, in its far superior mode of reaction to cause and effect, will not cease to spill its contents upon the waters and the land.

The biggest truth is that shift has already happened. Do you not see that it is no longer pending? Do you not see that the time of waiting for something to happen has passed? The thing that once seemed so far off and remote has already taken place. You are all living in a new world now. That is what you must wake up to. The world is different now.

Did you miss the moment of shift? On this day that I once celebrated as my own moment of shift, I suggest that you, each one of you, look at where shift has occurred in your own life; for something has changed now, and you are forced into acting and reacting differently in all aspects of life as a result. Notice that you have been pushed to change for a long time now. Accept that this is true for you, but also accept that this is true for all human beings.

Begin now to speak of this shift, of this push to change and awaken to the inner self. Your comments will be fully reciprocated, for there is a new language of intent spreading like wildfire upon that earth. It is the fire of new energy boiling up out of the Gulf of Mexico, burning back the times of greed and exploitation to reveal the utter truth of what life upon that earth is really all about: growth, transformation, evolution, respect for all living beings, love and compassion, and, above all, a time of shift to a level of higher awareness and to knowledge of that which lies beyond.

Take into consideration the gifts you are now being offered to truly shift your own awareness, to see what you could not clearly see before, to seriously consider that your time there is more meaningful than you have allowed yourself to believe, and that now you are being forcefully urged to embrace it to the fullest.

Do not hold back. I urge all of you to fully express your spiritual energetic selves. The earth itself is showing you how, without attachment to the resisters or the pretenders or the fearful ones. Go for it. Be one with the energy of your new times. Energy is abundant, but it must now come from within. The answers lie within.

Messages from Jeanne

#692 Choice Matters

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Personally, I have noticed an increase in experiences of energy. About a week ago I had a profound out of body experience (OBE). I have also noticed that energetically speaking, in the outer world, there has been a lot of activity. There have been days when everyone seems to be angry. Other days everyone we meet seems caught in an old place, and other days everyone seems flowing and full of awareness. It feels as if this particular time in our lives, and in the history of the world, is offering us such power to change, to do things differently, and yet we hesitate. I am speaking of personal issues that arise to remind me to keep changing, but also of the issues of our own country and the signs of change that all of us are constantly facing. The main realization that I experience, energetically speaking and otherwise, is that we are not in charge, that a far greater force is asking us to acquiesce and flow with the true awareness that we are all energy beings. I believe this force is inside each one of us. When we slow down and experience it, as I did in my OBE, we feel enlightened, but then we go back to our daily lives, seeking to join that world of energy with the state of our crumbling world and we come up against so many impenetrable walls, walls of self-doubt, of judgment, of the need to be human, as well as the visceral memory of the experience and wonder of it all, of the magic.

I understand that acquiescence to energetic reality takes time. But I also wonder, are people really understanding that our energy experiences, such as an OBE, are the true reality that we seek and must turn to now? I don’t think I am making an uninformed assumption. I fully feel that not enough people are getting what it means to be energy beings, that which you speak of so often, what don Juan, Carlos and the women seers teach about, what quantum physics is about, and what the religions of the world sprang from: the fact that we are all energy beings caught in a fixed reality and that it is up to us to dismantle that fixation, whether by fault or on purpose, in order to “see” better. I believe we are now in the midst of that process of dismantling and it does not matter to God, or Mother Earth, or the energy of intent how we go about that. Our awareness must now shift so that we do not lose this opportunity to evolve, to flow with the earth itself, as change is more fully brought upon us. It is now imperative that we all make some drastic changes in our personal lives.

Can you comment on my feelings that, each day, we are being confronted with powerful energy alerts? Some days, we are asked to fight through them, to express our anger and discontent. Other days we are asked to gently flow, but, at all times, we are being asked to be aware of the energy around us and how it affects and guides us to evolve. We are, I believe, being shown, each day, what we must change about ourselves, whether those things are inner aspects such as judgments, prejudices, fears or denials, or whether they are how we choose to live in the world. I feel that it is time for all of us to face what we have created, both inside us and outside us. Can you offer your comments and guidance as to what we have become and where we should go now?

My Dear One, the world you inhabit, the world of everyday life, is but one reality, yet it is the playing field for your evolving self. I do not like to speculate because, as you know, choice matters and that is really the crux of everything that you speak of today.

Each one of you must choose how you will live. Is this lifetime dedicated to building a nice ego, to engaging in self-important behaviors of inflation, bullying, self-aggrandizing—all necessary aspects of learning what it means to be human? Is this lifetime dedicated to victimhood, to eternal big-babyhood, to sucking off the lives and energies of others? Is this lifetime a predatory life or a simple life of deflation and self-loss, or are those aspects simply building blocks to an evolving self in this lifetime? Have you presented your self with challenges that require you to take abrupt and mighty steps out of an old world and into a new one?

You see, you must first address your personal challenge. What is your personal challenge? Where are you caught? Then the next challenge is to discover the means of taking that giant step to a new level of self and awareness. You see, your assumption, My Dear Jan, that you and the world are one, on a similar journey, is correct. You would not be living at this time if the world did not reflect the challenges that you each, as individuals, face. Your world outside of you is your inner world vividly reflected, staunchly produced and accessible. It can be so easy to see how to solve the issues of that world and how everything is being done wrong, going too slowly or quickly, in the opposite direction from what you know is right, and, yet, can you turn your frustrations with that world innerly and accept the energetic consequences of the decisions you personally make each day?

Energy is energy. You are, each one of you, energy. What flows outside of you has the ability to flow inside of you and affect you greatly. You are in control of your own energy and everything about you is set up for you to learn this fact. You may not feel or admit that you are, though you so easily may see that the world outside of you is all set for change, and perhaps for total collapse. Energetically speaking, whatever happens to your outer world is good for it. Energetically speaking, the flow of life is being directed by the choices that have been made in that world. Your own life is flowing according to the choices you make.

I do not judge or hold attachment to that world or the choices of individuals, except to point out your teaching tools and your learning process. Abide by the laws of energy and you will learn about awareness, awareness as clear-seeing. Perhaps this may come to you in intuitive knowing so that your choices may be clearly shown to you. Perhaps your awareness may come in the form of puzzling experiences that you must need in order to better understand what you need in life. Perhaps you will only have full understanding by incremental learning, rather than bursts of knowledge too big to hold onto and fathom. Most humans need to learn in this incremental manner, for true energetic reality is too much to take in.

In answer to your queries about the energy around you in your world and the intensities you now feel, I suggest that you attempt a new measure of attention to what is happening around you, because it is indeed a significant time to be alive. But in your personal world, what are you supposed to be learning? What is your personal growth challenge at this moment? How can you change with the changing world?

Change is inevitable. Are you going to flow with it, or are you going to perish in the vast sea of darkness? Really, the choice is simple. You must ask yourself: What do I fear most, the energetic unknown or the old familiar darkness? In order to change, one must enter the darkness, but you must elect to take the journey. Oh, and by the way, no matter how you answer that question, the journey will be the same. You must face your fears and learn that they too are but energetic realities to be confronted and passed through on the way to the next level of awareness.

You must confront everything you need to confront, whether you elect to go willingly or kicking and screaming. Don’t you know that you are all going anyway? What else is there? You are all beings who are going to die. How do you elect to experience death? That is the next question to ponder. And don’t wait too long to decide. Get right on it; there is no time to waste!

Messages from Jeanne

#684 The Simple Road to Growth

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a lesson for us this week, some guidance that might be especially appropriate for where we are right now in these changing times? I communicate with you through my heart center.

Look into the self now, into the pool of stillness, into the utter calm of knowing clarity inside you, and listen to my words of warning and of knowing, for you are all sentient beings, full of awareness, though you may not want to realize this. Your progress upon that earth, both personal and collective, is garnered upon knowing the inner self more intimately than you know any other. Your progress, as human beings in a world that does not wish to sustain its own destruction, hinges upon your ability to go deeper inside the self and find connection to all of nature, the natural world, the planetary systems, the energy of the universe that you are part of.

The world around you, and your own world, may at this time appear to be in quite dire straits, but I beg of you, as energy beings, to utilize this time for inner work. This is the energy that is needed for shift on a universal scale and it is coming to greet you in profound ways, asking you to use it to grow, to change, and to pursue new options based on old ideas of humanness. The ancients lived with the earth, with and in alignment with nature, with the natural flow of life as it proceeded around them, learning from its cyclical unfolding process what they themselves required. They lived in synch with the flow of all energetic life. Modern man has departed from his natural roots, from his nurturance based on the earth, and plasticized his life. Life is now based on finding the next step away from what the earth itself speaks so loudly as the true steps to take for recovery and renewal.

Although there is great greed upon that earth, the greedy ones do not own the power of nature. This is what must be accessed by the multitudes, who do know that energy unseen is more powerful than the gold spilling out of the coffers labeling one man rich and another poor. There is no poverty if inner energy is fully discovered and utilized, if nature is accessed and given its power again.

If each one of you turns inward and walks the earth with slow and measured steps, taking in the energy of the earth through the soles of the feet, the deeper secrets of the earth will be revealed to you. Meditate not upon the desires of the ego self, but upon the desires of the hungry inner self, thirsting and striving for sustenance that cannot be bought, but can only be nurtured from within. What is that desire inside you, My Dear Reader? What inner desire is your greatest? And why are you not pursuing it? Why are you not following your spirit and the energy of your inner being? Why do you insist on playing old games when you so clearly know they do not sustain you?

Even though you cannot see the new path before you clearly yet, you know it is there. I ask you all, My Dear Ones, to consider the darkness of the unknown as the light unrevealed. It is not dangerous or frightening, but only the place of the inner self, known and familiar, though it has been a long time since you visited.

In the next few weeks, I would advise turning more intently toward nature. Watch how the earth itself instructs, how it shows you at every moment of every day the proper path to take. There is great satisfaction in taking the simple road to growth. You need few things for such a journey: your physical self, your spirit self, and your intent. That is all. Align those three aspects of life and you will learn what it means to flow with the energy of the earth and of all things, interconnected and whole.

Do not look so hard for answers. The answers will come when the time is right. Ask for help. Be open to what comes to guide you and dare the self to act upon the guidance offered.

Wake up to the fact that the energy of life is all the riches you will ever need. The energy of life is what you seek, in its pure state. And that, My Dears, is readily available, inside each one of you in infinite amounts. In sustainable terms this means that you are energy itself. Tap into that and you will know what I am talking about when I say that you are life itself, in all forms, capable of everything.

Seek connection with the truth of what the earth offers and allow your energy to align with that. Find the peace you seek in nature, but find it also inside you, already waiting for you to open the inner door so that the proper connection may be made to awareness and knowing, to truth and growth, to change in the natural flow of life. This is your true challenge. By your intent, in alignment with self, may you accept this challenge and see where it takes you. Your true journey awaits.

As you grow, at each step toward wholeness, there awaits a new journey. Each day that you accept the challenge to change who you are in that world, you accept the challenge to keep going, to keep changing. This is what infinity is, the unending ability to change, to evolve, to keep going, to keep accepting your fate as it unfolds before you, to keep moving forward, guided by your true inner spirit, always in alignment with what is right! And what is right at this moment?