Tag Archives: evolution

Chuck’s Place: Aquarius Meets Lucifer

Every 2,150 years the Earth tilts toward a different constellation. This repeats itself twelve times before it completes a full revolution on it axis for a total of 26,000 years.

Never too late for some flower power!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Astrologers assign to each of these epochs a different zodiacal sign. Earth is just completing its 2,000 year plus stay in the sign of Pisces. We are currently indeed at the dawn of the Age of Aquarius, the beginning of a new 2,000 year era.

“And now we are moving into Aquarius,” wrote Carl Jung in a letter in 1955, “of which the Sibylline books say, …Aquarius inflames the savage forces of Lucifer.”*

As with the ending of any epoch, new life is preceded by great destruction. Put another way, we are in the early contractions of a cosmic birth. Jung’s final vision on his deathbed in 1961 was a vastly changed Earth, some 50 years in the future. This vision is shared by many psychics. In fact, Jan channeled a similar prediction in which Jeanne suggested that the re-formation of earth mass may create a whole new orbit of the planet.

Whether these predicted changes will occur through nuclear engagement, currently threatening the world, or through the melting of the ice caps and the rising oceans, or some combination of both, it’s pretty clear that major change is already in motion. The saving grace is that all predictions suggest that, though deeply challenged, the Earth and life will endure.

Aquarius is the water bearer, and it is associated with all things water, from nurturance to flood. Aquarius is also forward looking, idealistic, bent on freedom and humanitarianism. These are the higher chakras in the human energy system, from the heart to the third eye, the mental and spiritual planes.

The period we are exiting, Pisces, was characterized by hierarchy and power, the chakra of the ego or solar plexus and its dominance of the lower chakras, particularly sexuality.

The religions of the Piscean era offered their guidance and garnered their power through insistence on belief and forced adherence to dogma. The Aquarian age, though highly intuitive, insists on proof, genuine experience as its spiritual path, to “know” rather than to simply believe.

With its insistence on fairness, Aquarius is in direct opposition to the  wily ego of power and control, a vestige of the Piscean age. This is the clash with Lucifer that Jung references from the Sibylline Oracle. We are currently witnessing such opposition on the world stage as narcissistic power motives clash with the true needs of the planet. It will be the challenge of the Aquarian age to reconcile narcissism with true freedom and equality.

Interestingly, Jung believed that even more fundamental to world survival was the issue of overpopulation. Even Tesla, the rising star of the electric car industry, though producing an intelligent energy solution to gas guzzling cars still aims to produce 10,000 vehicles per week, modest by auto industry standards but absurd in terms of the burden on the planet. The truth is that an ever-expanding human population will destroy the planet regardless of its attempts at energy conservation measures.

From the perspective of overpopulation, the humans of the Aquarian age will have to arrive at a new relationship to the sexual instinct if the planet and life on it are to survive.

Interestingly, don Juan Matus, Carlos Castaneda’s teacher, concluded that the only way for the world to survive and evolve was for human beings to access the energetic side of life, the energy body. Reaching the energy body and interacting on an energetic level require a refined use of sexual energy. Honing sexual energy for higher purposes has long been known and utilized in kundalini yoga, as well as Buddhist and shamanic practices.

Life at an energetic level offers completely transparent union. And connection at that level involves direct knowing and complete merging with another being; a more completely satisfying union than the physical copulation of our current permutation, where large parts of our beings remain hidden from our partners. At an energetic level all is revealed, all is known, all is accepted.

I am reminded of a young Jane Fonda as Barbarella, a 1968 movie about a futuristic woman who encounters a man from our time who wants to have sex with her. She is amused and grants him his wish, but sees it as an antiquated, limited approach to intimacy from a once physical, lower-chakra dominated time in human history.

Deeply satisfying union that transcends mere physical need opens a whole new possibility for achieving balance upon the planet in this coming age of Aquarius.

Though there are established practices to reach the energy body, such as Tensegrity, dreaming, and meditation, in my clinical work I have discovered that trauma often precipitates an immediate out-of-body jolt, introducing a person to the energy body, where they witness their physical body from a vantage point outside of the physical body.

Obviously, I am not advocating that people go out and engage in activities that will trigger traumatic jolts out-of-body. But I am suggesting that perhaps what we are going to be facing in this Aquarian age, in our clash with Lucifer and whatever earthly calamities result, may offer jolts that will collectively catapult our species out-of-body and into energy body states with all its evolutionary possibilities for harmony and understanding. Stripped of our current collective ego consciousness, the possibilities for a new collective consciousness, dissolved of ego dominated by narcissism, is truly a new age dream.

The true clash of the Aquarian with Lucifer is the clash between spirit (mental plane) and  body. This translates into the opposition and split between the lower chakras of the physical body and the higher chakras of the energy body. In the Piscean age regulation of this opposition was handled through romantic ideals such as courtly love, celibacy, or downright repression. This form of control burst apart with the freedom and ideals of the dawning of the age of Aquarius in the experimentation and free love of the 1960s.

Those new age ideals have transmuted into a cool detachment, deep intelligentsia,  and avoidance of human commitment in favor of abstract connection via technology in a multitude of forms of social media. That incredible new opportunities for connection and communication have opened via this channel, as they present new means of connection and mass efforts to effect change, is obvious. However, the shadow of this medium is a dissociation from real human contact and genuine feeling, which the liberated Aquarian may neglect in its idealism. This can activate the ire of Lucifer, the earthbound body.

On an individual level the reconciliation of spirit and body endures in new forms in this Aquarian age. As we allow ourselves to discover our new found energetic freedoms let us not neglect the true needs of our physical, animal, instinctual selves, which must be included fairly in our new selves, or meet them as inflamed savage forces as the Sibylline book warns.

To address the needs of the whole self, with full transparent honesty, is an Aquarian ideal. As this transparency extends beyond the self to others the door opens to greater energetic connection. As the wave of Aquarian energy more fully enters the world, a greater mass of human beings bent on evolution will embrace compassion, truth, and loving kindness, manifesting a newly balanced world.

Making it real,

Chuck

*From Letters Volume 2, p. 229

 

Chuck’s Place: The Transparent, Responsible Dream

When we enter infinity…
-Art by Jan Ketchel

By many accounts, when we permanently leave our physical body to embark upon our definitive journey into infinity at death, we enter an energetic state of pure transparency, no hidden compartments, the exact opposite of the most salient feature of life in the human form, the ability to keep secrets from self and others. Thus, the next rung of our evolutionary trajectory challenges us all to be and interact with all “others” as we and they truly are, a distinct advance from the vagaries of human interaction and relationship.

Human relationship, lived  within the self or interpersonally with others, happens mainly in the dark. Truthfully, we know little of who we are and little of the true nature of those with whom we interact. Such is the curse and challenge of life in this dimension.

Technological advances of our time have however greatly restricted the ability to have a hidden compartment. Chances are, there’s a camera or recording device of some sort that is creating a record of all forms of observable human behavior, no matter how discreetly life is lived.

The hidden identities of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico, right down to Carlos Castaneda, could never be maintained in today’s world. We don’t know for certain Castaneda’s real name, where he was born, his real date of birth, nor the place and date of his death. This would not happen in today’s world.

Carl Jung managed to conceal that he was sexually abused as a youth for his entire life, save one brief reference to it in a personal letter to Freud published years after his death. The fullness of that story would never be allowed to go to the grave in today’s world.

Donald Trump, though he still tries to conceal his tax returns, is perhaps the most transparent of all political figures of our day. We know he’s behaved like a lech, it’s recorded. He makes no effort to present himself as presidential. Whether we like him or not, with Trump we are treated to a very transparent leader, he simply can’t help himself.

The truth is, you can’t reconcile with yourself or with another person if you can’t reveal to yourself or another the fullness of who you are, however sordid. The absence of transparency gives rise to intrigue, deception, and hidden subplots in life, all the ingredients of fake relationship.

It appears that full transparency is our current evolutionary imperative. Of course, revelation of the shadow self, the hidden compartments, does not automatically lead to evolutionary advance. Trump’s current transparent behavior simply means that he’s acting out power-drives in the open versus acting them out covertly, as was typical of politics in the past. With transparency comes responsibility for what to do with one’s “outed” shadow.

Though we are moving quickly, driven by unstoppable technological advances toward greater and greater transparency, what has become abundantly clear is that we must reconcile all the formerly hidden parts that become transparently exposed. Full exposure is not reconciled wholeness. This is abundantly clear with the sexual abuse issue in the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church tried to repress sexuality in its clergy. Transparency revealed the results of that decision in perhaps the greatest institutional case of sexual abuse in history. Simply outing the perpetrators does not reconcile the opposition of spirit and matter/animal/sex. Transparency merely alerts us to the truth of all that we are. Any attempt at reconciliation that merely represses one side in favor of another merely creates a new shadow. Reconciliation means creating a stable personality that doesn’t require new prison compartments.

But how does one achieve responsible wholeness? Here are some suggestions:

1) Appoint your adult self to mediate the process. The child self or the shadow self must be included in the negotiation but only the mature adult has the stamina and objectivity to work with all the points of view and emotional states of the different factions of the self. An immature child self has neither the patience nor objectivity to see beyond its own needs. Maturity is critical. Maturity must be in charge.

2) Suspend judgement. We all have parts of ourselves that have powerful “unacceptable” emotions as well as “immoral” impulses. Regardless of our reaction to these challenging parts we must accept them as part of who we are. All parts of the whole must have a place in that whole. It is the challenge for the adult self to recognize its parts, listen to their needs and points of view, and find the best place within the whole self for each part to live. For example, perhaps there is a part of the personality that truly hates to deal with people and the outside world. Perhaps that part can be assigned to securing uninterrupted meditation time, both from outside influences and inside thoughts that would dare to intrude upon inner silence. Be creative.

Our challenge, with the imperative of transparency being handed down to us from the next rung of life beyond human life, is to reconcile with our wholeness. We must find a place for all that we are, light and dark, in the full light of day. I would call this responsible, transparent wholeness.

Transparency is coming into its own now anyway. I dream that we may find our way to responsibility too. Together, let’s dream that dream, the transparent, responsible dream.

Dreaming,

Chuck

A Message for Humanity from Jeanne: Life Is A Series Of Transformations

 

Every step is transformative, every decision, every day... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Every step is transformative, every decision, every day…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Good morning! Here is today’s audio channeled message. Perhaps it will carry some inspiring words for you as a new day and a new week begin. And don’t forget to check out today’s Soulbyte, posted earlier this morning.

Just passing on what comes through…

Lessons in a Life: Refuse Or Choose?

“Our only sin is to say no to evolution.”-Obadiah Harris, Ph.D.

Signs of change are so clear now... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Signs of change are so clear now…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

In the Tao all things are equal, all things have value, all things are necessary, and evolution is par for the course. Of course we will evolve, it’s natural. We see evolution in nature all the time. We see it now in the drastic changes that global warming has imposed upon us, that we have imposed upon ourselves. Even those individuals who refuse to change, who steadfastly hunker down and won’t budge an inch, are being forced to change because nature is always taking its natural course. In the process, change is being imposed upon us all.

Many people simply fear change, the great unknown frightening. There is the specter of death in change, and truly there must be sacrifice for evolution to occur.

The other day our backyard was bustling with activity. I could hear the sharp calls of several hawks piercing the quiet morning. KEE! KEE! I could hear a rush of wings. Going to the deck I saw what was happening. A pair of hawks was attempting to push their babies out of the nest. I had seen the hawks earlier in the summer and knew they were nesting in the tall trees in our yard. I’d heard them often enough, seen them circling above the yard, even occasionally swooping down upon our songbird neighbors.

The amount of noise and activity was astounding as the parents attempted to get the babies to move on! They had raised them so diligently, with care and protection, but today was the day. All that was over. It was time to move on!

There was an awful lot of shrieking going on! The babies seemed to be saying, NO! I watched as the large adults swooped in upon their smaller offspring, moving them along from one branch to another, pushing and shoving them away from the nest. Once out, they were not going to be allowed back in! It looked almost violent at times, but I realized how necessary it was.

If the babies didn’t go, the parents would be forced to leave them behind. It was time, and the idea of turning back was not part of the plan. The plan was set. It was a day of sacrifice.

The mother, especially, was faced with having to sacrifice, for whether her babies left or not it was in her nature to leave them behind. She could only hope that her babies would take the leap and fly off too. Finally, there seemed to be only one last recalcitrant child. The screaming intensified. Calls were coming from many different areas in the yard, both parents calling and calling, the other babies calling too. All seemed to be saying: Come on, you can do it! It’s time to go! Hurry, not much time left!

Sometimes it's just time to cross that bridge! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Sometimes it’s just time to cross that bridge!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

They gave it their all, but in the end, had it been necessary, they would have left without their child, sacrifice made, nature’s call to evolve too powerfully ingrained to refuse.

We humans are constantly called to leave the nest too, to move on into new life. A relationship ends, we lose our job, someone close to us dies, illness comes, we are forced to change by outside circumstances, or by inner decisions we make. It doesn’t really matter how change approaches us, the main thing is to recognize that it has arrived and that our moment of sacrifice is upon us.

We, however, have come far from our natural instincts. We don’t seem to have that powerfully ingrained stamp of nature in us anymore. Now we tend to make excuses for ourselves, choosing to pamper and baby ourselves when the truth is that our own time of sacrifice is trying like heck to get our attention, trying to reconnect us with the nature lying dormant inside us. And that nature knows how to act appropriately, for it is truly the Tao, just as the hawks in our backyard are.

Just as the hawks signaled to their young that “today is the day we are leaving the nest,” so does life tell us the same. Many times during our lives the calls come. If we don’t answer the call we won’t evolve. Our lives will stagnate and we will set ourselves up to become prey for other energies, entities seeking to live off our refusal. And then, as Obadiah Harris stated in the introduction to Elmer Green’s The Ozawkie Book of the Dead, we have sinned. We have decided not to respond to the call of the Soul of the Earth itself, telling us that we must evolve so she can evolve as well.

The hawks know they must evolve. Nature does not question that. Nature sacrifices and, without looking back, moves on. I could hear the franticness in the calls of the hawk parents. They did not want to leave their baby behind, but they would have. Nature is that direct.

The hawks finally gave their baby one last chance. I watched as one of them, perhaps the mother, rushed the baby who was sitting on a low branch. She crashed into it and knocked it off its perch. It worked! I watched as they both flew up and away. After that, the calls of KEE! KEE! echoed overhead more joyfully, until the whole family flew off, never to return. Mission accomplished!

Like the baby hawks we are all afraid of change too, but change is not afraid of us. It comes knocking at our door every day. We, unlike the hawks, have the power of choice and we can fend for ourselves once our parents are gone. Perhaps we choose to say no, to hunker down. And yet such a choice, more often than not, leaves us sitting alone in our nest, wallowing in the scent of past memories, thinking we are saving ourselves from the pain of change but in the meantime all we do is wallow in our pain. Our only saving grace may be that eventually we get bored with ourselves and our circumstances and opt out of the smelly nest and onto fresher air and wider skies.

Everything flows along nicely in the Tao... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Everything flows along nicely in the Tao…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Perhaps it is our lack of true connection to nature that keeps us wallowing. If we were really connected and in alignment, living in the sacred world of the Tao, flowing with what comes, we would move on when it was time, because we would be fully aware that it was time.

If we stay nesting in our fantasies we lose our connection to reality, and then we miss out on the real opportunities to change and move on into new life. We are often so immersed in our fantasies that we don’t hear nature calling as loudly as the hawks. KEE! KEE! KEE!

If we are to evolve the planet, we must evolve ourselves first. And that means we all have to sacrifice something, someone, some fantasy, some idea about ourselves, and embrace the truth that we are responsible for our own nest-leaving, while we still have a choice.

Nature is calling right now!
Jan