Tag Archives: inner work

Chuck’s Place: Faith As Creator

Have faith in your suggestions…
-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

Shamans call faith unbending intent. To have total belief, confidence and trust in one’s intent brings it to life. However, without faith, dreams are stillborn.

Christ stated that even he, a great healer, was unable to heal someone who lacked the faith that they could be healed. In this case, not believing it’s possible to be healed becomes one’s inevitable manifested intent.

At an elemental level, quantum physics demonstrates the role of human thought upon physical manifestation. In the famous double-slit experiment, a light is shone through two openings. When unobserved the produced result is a wavelike pattern. Under human observation the same experiment creates a particle pattern. Human thought impacts matter.

Modern consciousness is burdened with a rational bias that dismisses outright a suggestion that does not conform to logic. Rather than adhere to a more scientific stance that holds that anything is possible, until proven otherwise, the tendency is to attach to a blocking belief and dismiss further consideration or experimentation with a possibility deemed to be not rationally possible.

The well-worn adviso, don’t attach to the outcome, or the shamanic dictum, suspend judgment, frees the energy of creation and allows it to run its intended course unimpeded by constricting beliefs. Though we can imagine our intent, and call it forth with words, we need to completely surrender to an aloof, detached tracking of the course that creation will take, accepting the time it will take to manifest.

Our intent is like karma; once established it must be realized. Suppressed intent eventually surfaces. The world is currently grappling with political leaders, attitudes, and issues dating back to WWII. The collective unconscious demands new resolution of perennial conflicts that interfere with achieving a sustainable peace. The world’s collective consciousness must refine its conflicting intent and have total faith in the possibility of peace.

At an individual level, we may hold blocking beliefs in the habitual depths of our personal psyche. Spontaneous comments like: “I’m not worthy; that can’t happen for me,” or “That’s not possible,” might surface from one’s internal dialogue.

Don’t fight with such thoughts. Fighting is attaching, a reinforcer of blocking belief. Alternatively, use the intrusive thought as a trigger to remind oneself that anything is possible, and then restate your intent.

Intent, like hypnotic suggestion is a direct appeal to the subconscious mind, the true mother of creation. Realize, however, that all intent is not necessarily healthy intent nor in alignment with your soul’s true mission in this life. Negative intent, delivered with strong faith, may manifest just as often as positive suggestions. We all must deal with the karmic consequences of our choices and actions.

Doubt can be a blessing to consciousness. It can spur one to refine the appropriateness of one’s intent. The nagual, don Juan Matus, advised that one have a romance with knowledge, engaging thinking and doubt before forming an intent. However, once one has arrived at the appropriate intent, embrace that intent with total faith, with unrelenting, unbending intent.

Some intent may not be fully realized at the human life stage if the timing conflicts with our deepest soul’s intent. In this case, the fuller maturation and completion of the intent will be realized in a future form. Though destiny in human form is unavoidable, this does not void the fact that anything is possible, and that ultimately everything is possible.

Ancillary practices are part of unbending intent. An intent for healing, for instance, is best supported by healthful practices that reflect one’s absolute faith in their ability to fully heal. Attention to deep care and rejuvenation of the body embodies one’s intent to heal, with a powerful suggestion to the subconscious mind. Mental practices that tone the nerves, and transmit calm, deepen the conscious mind’s channel to the receptive subconscious mind.

Find your faith in possibility. And with focused, patient knowing, load your suggestion on the wings of intent. See what happens.

In good faith,
Chuck

Soulbyte for Tuesday October 24, 2023

-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

Conflict, in order to resolve, requires compromise, but compromise is often impossible if there is not acceptance of the other side, if there is not an ability to see all things in the same light, if there is not the ability to gain a new perspective and give full heart and soul to seeking balance that benefits all sides. Conflict goes deeper than is observable, for deep feelings, often unknown, are at the base of all conflict. Until feelings are felt conflict will continue its reign. Allow the heart to fully feel, the soul to speak and the energy of change to have a say. From a place of deep truth, let your own conflicts be fully known and may your honest findings lead to new beneficial change, for your own greater good and the good of all.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Friday October 20, 2023

-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

When difficulties arrive step back from the turmoil and contemplate right action. Not all action is right, though the reaction to lash out, to confront, or to retaliate may first arise as the only recourse. Step back into your heart center and wait patiently for calm suggestion. When the heart is allowed to speak its truth you may wonder at what it has to say, but over time you will discover its wisdom. The wisdom of the heart is hard to ignore.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck’s Place: The Greatest Love Affair Of All

The subconscious becoming conscious…
-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

The ultimate love affair, in Hindu cosmology, the union of Shakti and Shiva, takes place within the human body. Shakti, in her energetic form, as Kundalini, rests in the coccyx, at the base of the human spine. Kundalini is the divine manifesting substance and force  of all creation. Shiva, the God of pure consciousness, resides at the crown of the human head.

These divine consorts, situated at the opposite poles of the spinal column, are also oppositely charged. Shakti is negative and Shiva is positive. The resulting magnetic force of attraction of these opposites draws this divine couple irresistibly toward the goal of union.

The union of Shakti and Shiva is the union of Spirit, which is consciousness, and Matter, which is the creative energy of all material manifestation. The progeny of their union is the  world we live in. This dynamic union and creation is expressed in Judeo-Christian cosmology in John’s Gospel, “in the beginning was the word (Spirit consciousness) and the word was made flesh (Matter).”

Upon awakening early one morning, I was contemplating Shakti and Shiva’s relationship when Jan abruptly woke from a dream. She told me she had just been in India, where a very tall ladder that had pointed vertically into the heavens was brought down and positioned horizontally, both balanced and secure, across several buildings.

Jan reflected that the roof is the highest spiritual point of a building that is grounded in the earth. The message of the dream: the spiritual journey that is needed now is not a vertical rise, out-of-body into the heavens, but instead a horizontal in-body journey, as one traverses the challenges of their human life, with all its relationships upon the Earth.

These challenges are neatly laid out in Hindu science, as the path that Kundalini traverses through the chakras, or subtle energy power stations along the spine, en route to Shiva. Actually, each chakra entails its own horizontal journey, which requires mastery as we move toward greater fulfillment in life.

The base of the spine center asks us to find grounding, safety and security. The genital region introduces us to sexual and creative energy, which entail their own developmental processes. The solar plexus introduces us to I, as ego, and the mastery of personal power. The heart introduces us to our connection to our Spirit and deepest truth. The throat is about finding our voice. The third eye brings forth intuition. As Kundalini reaches Shiva, at the crown, consciousness unites and becomes one with all creation. In a human life, the fulfillment of this state is experienced as we relax increasingly deeper into ever-widening equanimous love.

The duality of Shakti and Shiva is also expressed in the two minds of the human psyche: the subconscious mind and the ego.

The subconscious, Shakti, is feminine in its receptivity to suggestions. The subconscious has access to all knowledge and creative possibility, as well as the substance to birth new life, but, without union with the novel suggestions of consciousness, is governed by instinctual programs and habits.

The ego, Shiva, is identified with life in the physical body and is the seat of consciousness. Regardless of gender, ego is masculine in its active thinking capabilities. It is the seat of free will and decision making.

The human ego has many developmental challenges it must master, similar to those identified with the chakras. Ego must establish safety and grounding; be introduced to and master sexuality and its animal self, as well as exercise its own capacity to intend creation; become autonomous and have the power of self-assertion; develop humility and acquiescence to truth and its High Spirit Self; use its voice; see beyond its narcissistic shell; and, ultimately, become one with everything.

The subconscious faces no developmental challenges because the subconscious is completely fluid, it can be anything. In contrast to the ego, the subconscious is attached to no identity; it simply responds to the suggestion it entertains at the current moment.

The challenge in human development is for ego to be in the correct relationship with the subconscious mind. Essentially, the ego is the creator, issuing forth the word or image of intent, whose suggestion fertilizes the subconscious, which then galvanizes its substance to manifest new life. The subconscious, in all of us, is the true mother of creation.

If ego does not master safety, it suggests danger to the subconscious, which then manifests an anxious, vigilant personality. If ego suggests inadequacy, the subconscious may manifest a tightened voice. If ego suggests superiority, the subconscious may manifest a pompous, condescending posture and attitude. If ego suggests entitlement to the subconscious, it may manifest a tendency to violate boundaries.

If, on the other hand, the ego aligns with and suggests the truth, the subconscious will open the eye to greater truth and perception. If the ego suggests true love to the subconscious, it activates an energy that draws to us resonant energy. If ego suggests it stay in alignment with its Spirit’s purpose, the subconscious will synchronistically manifest that yellow brick road.

The guidance here is to remain quite protective of the suggestions one both exposes oneself to, as well as personally presents to, the subconscious mind. We live in a time where highly suggestive messages are bombarding both our thinking and subconscious minds at an unprecedented rate, largely due to our attachment to devices, the self-importance of dings, and well-coordinated efforts to infiltrate and influence our subconscious minds.

At the most evolved level, the relationship between ego and subconscious is equivalent to the love affair between Shakti and Shiva. Ego, acting from the insinuation of its Spirt, joining with the magic of the subconscious, is truly the greatest love affair of all. May we all participate in birthing that dream.

With consciousness and infinite possibility,
Chuck

Soulbyte for Monday October 9, 2023

-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

Don’t get caught in useless arguments that won’t further your spirit’s journey. Where does your purpose lie? Not in the mundane, nor in the banalities of competition or ego but in the depths of your Soul. Purpose is directly related to the life you are in. There is nothing more important than the life you are in and the unfolding of each moment of each day, the only mundanities to pay attention to, for it is in your daily life that your purpose is spelled out for you. What is going on inside you that keeps you from your purpose? Is it fear? Anger? Resentment? Can you let all that go and just be with your pure and innocent self? For that is where your truth and your purpose lie, with your pure and innocent self, who is just waiting to explain it all to you. There is no argument, fear or resentment there. There is only truth.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne