Tag Archives: karma

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Chuck’s Place: Act Only From Love

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Waiting patiently for the right time to push…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

I was struck by an allusion to the current state of the world as Gaia’s late-stage pregnancy, in a podcast with defrocked priest and spiritual master Father Sean O’Laoire. Ten years ago, I co-wrote a blog, with Jan, about the state of the world, suggesting then that Gaia was in the early stages of Her pregnancy and that we, as a human race, were best served by the utter stillness of patient waiting.

Father Sean, fully acknowledging Gaia as the feminine face of God, speaks to Her matured state of pregnancy now. The guidance continues to be one of continued patience, but also one of attunement to Her real contractions.

Gaia’s contractions are Divine actions that will bring forth new life. Gaia can be likened to the High Self, the Divine spark in the human personality. When the call for action issues from the dimension of the High Self, it represents the truth of the heart and signals that it is indeed time for the ego to join with the High Self in a mighty push to bring forth new life.

The challenge for the ego is to distinguish the true High Self from the false gods that preach their wares. These can take the form of powerful emotions that demand retribution. If action is motivated by less than love it is simply not right action. Act only from love. Even powerful reactions of self-defense should issue from love alone—love for all thy neighbors.

Actions that issue from the mental plane are equally suspect if they are not in alignment with Gaia’s contractions. If we push without nature’s affirmation we act from our own free will, but we may not be aware that we are under the sway of our own shadow, or the manipulative suggestions of others.

How often when in the grip of desire or inspiration do we get calm and ask the heart, “Is this the right thing to do?” If the heart answers, “Yes,” and Gaia’s Nature responds with synchronistic affirmation, then it truly is time to push, to take action. Nonetheless, the ego must assume sole responsibility for its decision.

Free will should only acquiesce if it knows it is right to do so. It is not right to act if we are truly uncertain. Sometimes we have to go it completely alone. Such is the trial of human existence.

The quickening of events in outer reality now are hastening the breakdown of the world as we knew it. What I labelled a miscarriage, in our blog ten years ago, has proven to be an enduring, disintegrative phenomenon that America and the world were destined to experience.

The karma of America’s shadow has come home to roost. World leadership has fallen from high ideal and devolved into ugly meanness. In full transparency, and with heated passion, America is now living out its shadow of entitlement and primitive instinct.

Tragic as the consequences of this breakdown are, they are truly necessary. Unless we openly encounter the full breadth of our shadow we won’t find our way to responsibly act from the light of truth. As Socrates stated, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Nonetheless, there are many entities in this world, and beyond, that luxuriate in the suffering of others. I encourage that we use these petty tyrants as opportunities to lose our self-importance so that we may be fully energetically available to parent the coming New Age of spiritual advancement.

The wars and battles of now are materialist last stands of souls competing for world dominance. They are powerful and destructive, but they serve the completing of karma from human history. The human race must reconcile with its shadow before it can truly be born as an awake spiritual being.

I have written many times that responsible use of the subconscious mind is the spiritual awakening that is heralding the birth of the New Age. This awakening is intimately associated with Gaia, as it is only She who can create that which we intend to manifest.

The true warriorhood of now is to fully reclaim and refine the masculine side of God, that which plants the seeds of suggestion into the subconscious mind.

When those suggestions are for the greater good of all, you can be certain that Gaia will fully contract and bring forth a world powered by love. That’s the contraction to truly push for.

Act only from Love,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Transmogrifying Default Karmic Reactions

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Take me to the Oneness of it all…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

At the level of the physical body, karma is simple cause and effect. For instance, if, during dental work, a nerve is touched, pain is the default effect. I discovered, however, that pain is only one interpretation of energy, and so, during dental work, unaided by anesthesia, my mind interprets pain as a sensation that signals me to go deeper into calm. The typical karma of pain associated with dental work has transformed the once dreaded treatment chair into a place of deeply calming meditation.

The ability of breath guru, Wim Hof, to sit in an ice bath for nearly two hours is a very similar phenomenon. Wim visualizes an inner fire, which he then directs to different parts of his body to arrive at warmth rather than frozenness. The default karma of freezing, in response to lying in a tub of ice, is transformed into warmth and comfort by a strong mental impression delivered to, and manifested by, the subconscious mind.

These experiences validate that the threads of karma, which we have generated through beliefs and actions, can be fully transmogrified into positive outcomes. Typically, we manage the discomfort of karma through suppression or repression, which results in the physical body storing a charged experience by restricting the muscles or the breath. Many physical conditions we suffer with are karmic conditions, held in the body, restricting the free flow of our vital energy.

We can unravel these energetic knots through the conscious mind’s imagining, feeling and believing that its intent to heal is possible, as it delivers it to the subconscious mind, for manifestation. Of course, one’s suggestion must be directed toward the purest and highest good for self and other to truly balance out a karmic thread. Suggestions that merely silence a symptom, but don’t address it, actually continue to store it in the physical body with its original karma perhaps more remote, but remaining charged and intact.

Many spiritual practitioners, such as Buddhists, focus most of their days repeating positive suggestions such as loving kindness and compassion to constantly generate positive karma and release negative karma. Such a practice enables instinctive reactions, such as anger at a transgression by another, to be quickly transmuted at a higher energetic chakra, such as the heart center, into genuine compassion for a fellow flawed human being.

The instinct of the heart is to tell the absolute truth. The ultimate truth is that we all share in the oneness of everything. Such a genuine compassionate feeling unburdens one from mentally and physically carrying a charged karma of hatred. One’s vital energies flow freely and radiate a loving energy, to the benefit of self and the greater world.

Of course, if we are fearful of feeling and expressing our instinctual reactions, we must thoughtfully and creatively allow these primal karmic reactions, imprisoned by the body armor, to be safely expressed. Primal screams in the ocean or forest might serve such a need. However, as the energy lodged in these lower chakras is released, our vital kundalini energy moves up the spine to higher energetic chakras for spiritual processing. Our soul is released from the karma of negative emotions by the dissolving power of love and acceptance of All That Is at these higher subtle energy centers.

Though the conscious mind has the power to suggest, it has no power to direct the healing strategy that the subconscious mind will choose to employ. The expression, “let go and let God” is particularly relevant in this context. The conscious mind must have no attachment to the outcome; it must completely surrender control to the wisdom and way of the subconscious mind.

To transmute karma beyond the default effects of karma, the subconscious mind may take us through an energetic journey of squaring with memories we have avoided, or old habits we still cling to. The way of the subconscious mind may take much longer than we desire. We are challenged to remain positive, truly having faith in the power of the subconscious mind to manifest the intent we suggest.

As we master the challenges presented to us at various chakra centers, our energetic viewpoint is broadened widely as we approach the greater truth of our interconnected oneness with all things. From this position we are likely to accumulate mostly positive karma. Negative karma usually stems from stuckness in the polarity of the lower chakras that leaves us feeling offended, victimized and entitled.

Ultimately, we arrive at the awareness that there is nothing to forgive. We take full responsibility for all we have experienced in this life and  appreciate fully all those who have accompanied us on our journey, with equanimity. The karma of such a perspective is total freedom, particularly from old default karmic reactions.

Transmogrifying,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Caldron Of The New

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Please Note: My next weekly blog will be published on July 8th, as I am taking time off from my writing schedule. Jan’s Soulbytes, however, will continue to be posted daily.

Do the good work of the caldron…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Recently, I consulted the I Ching to provide clarity and guidance for my readers as they navigate the next couple of weeks of these uncertain times. I was presented with hexagram #50, The Caldron, with a moving line in the second place. The future of this configuration is hexagram #56, The Wanderer, or the state of being in transition.

A caldron is a cooking vessel used to prepare food over an open fire. In ancient China, huge metal or ceramic caldrons were used in temples to prepare food offerings to honor the ancestors, as well as heads of state and those of wisdom, who contributed their guidance on such an important occasion as the birth of a new dynasty. This huge cooking vessel served the spiritual transformation of a nation, a metaphor quite apropos for our time.

The Caldron is also an alchemical vessel that contains and transforms a volatile mix of opposing energies into a delicate balance. The elements that build the pictogram of The Caldron are fire beneath water. Fire is the active, heated masculine energy that is absorbed and tempered by the calm, receptive feminine energy of water. This artful womblike handling of polarity gives birth to new life in the form of steam.

Steam is the resultant transformation of water into a new state of energy that can  power an engine or provide cleansing in purification practices. Psychologically and spiritually, the water of the subconscious mind, heated by the fire of suggestion—coming from the masculine ego of the conscious mind—provides the energy and construction materials for new life.

The Caldron is an apt symbol for the subconscious mind. All knowledge and wisdom is contained in the subconscious with its additional ability to divinely manifest into the flesh any suggestion it absorbs. The collective caldron of now is manifesting extreme volatility, at the behest of the dominating masculine ego, whose powerful suggestions it absorbs and dutifully produces.

But these manifestations cannot cancel the karma they generate. Regardless of how things play out on the surface, the karma of now is irrevocably to become the greater good for all, the absolute consequence of the unbounded narcissism and one-sidedness of now.

The existence of this karmic shift is fully formed at the subtle, purely energetic dimension of reality. Physical reality is always preceded by mental activity that, when fully complete, delivers its dictum to the subconscious mind for physical manifestation. The transient revolutions and chaos of now are simply the later stages fueling the coming karmic shift.

The moving line that presents in the second place of The Caldron, as well as its resultant hexagram of The Wanderer, contains powerful guidance for now: While we are in a fine position for good and necessary change, we must exercise caution and avoid arrogance. Humility and proper conduct cannot be overstressed.

The Wanderer depicts the state of a journeyer who arrives as a stranger in a strange land. Firstly, the journeyer should maintain integrity and clarity in interactions with others. Humility and modesty dissuade distrust and aggression. The journeyer does well to suggest to the subconscious mind that it be provided signs to direct right action, which enables the journeyer to be adaptive and go with the flow.

The journeyer has clear thoughts and the resilience to patiently wait for the world to transform for the greater good. The journeyer is nourished by the wisdom provided by The Caldron, and submits willingly to the containment and refinement of heated transformational processes that must be endured for transformation to complete. The Wanderer maintains loving compassion for all as the world is born anew.

In summary, take solace in knowing that the stupendous change toward the greater good is but a step away. Of course, cosmic time is a bit more relative than our earthly clocks! Be patient, humble and full of gratitude. Believe, believe, believe! Throw your intent daily behind the absolutely inevitable karmic shift to the greater good destined to befall us all.

Let go and know,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Karma Is The Active Side Of Infinity

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Shift the wheel of Karma toward the greater good….
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

“Only on the wheel of karma is there inequality; within eternity we are all the same, all One.”*

Karma is a term that depicts the universal law of cause and effect. All actions cause definite effects. The underlying principle that governs all consequences for actions taken, is balance. That imperative of balance is expressed through Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

When we enter the active side of infinity we take a ride on the wheel of karma. When a soul separates itself from the inert state of oneness with everything, in infinity, it loads itself upon the wheel of karma and is delivered to a specific identity, which will unfold in a specific way, as contrasted with its former state of identity with the utter wholeness and oneness of everything.

When we are born we go from a state of oneness with mother into the powerful perinatal stages of birth trauma. This violent disruption of total care and containment eventuates in a state of total dependence and relative powerlessness, as a small separate being in a huge, unfathomable world.

This action of separation alone defines the primary karma for all life: to find its way back to its original wholeness. The wheel of karma is that journey homeward. The wheel depicts the cycles of actions and reactions we live through as we accrue the knowledge to ultimately find our way home.

Karma forces us to attach to a specific identity, which influences our actions and their consequences. For instance, if I am born with dyslexia, I may learn to compensate for my difficulty with writing, spelling and reading with enhanced intuition and explanations of written works provided by ChatGPT. I might learn to hide my spelling challenges with an eccentric handwriting that no one can read.

If I am dealt the hand of poverty, I might compensate with envy, a life of crime, or a powerful intent for an abundant life. Each of these options are equal energetic options to bring balance to the action of poverty. The wheel of karma might have me explore countless compensations in my journey with poverty before I find my way back to wholeness.

The key to my ultimate release from my impoverished karma is detachment, detachment from my identity as an impoverished being who must take action to feel better about his lowly self. Total acceptance of the experience of an impoverished state, without identifying as a poor being, restores my wholeness. I am now a being with intimate knowledge of a facet of all of wholeness, that of poverty.

Detachment does not deny the full experience of an impoverished life. To the contrary, the suffering attendant to a life of poverty is fully explored with all its karmic consequences. Detachment does, however, allow one to lift the veil to one’s greater wholeness, of which poverty was the chosen facet to be explored in the taking on of a human life.

Thus, the reality of inequality, injustice and victimhood are valid descriptions of the experience we enter when we enter the active side of infinity, in physical form, to explore a facet of the jewel of all that is and all that we are. To fully know the self we must fully explore and know our shadow. To know our infinite self fully there are infinite adventures to be taken, many of which include journeys into the karmic dark side of infinity.

Growth is the imperative of the active side of infinity. To grow we must fully know every facet of all that we are. Ultimately we must experience everything. That’s our infinite destiny.

Fear not and judge not the fullness or unfairness of the life you are in. All lives are equal and valid facets of all that is. Our differences are merely the current seat we occupy on the karmic wheel of existence. It’s a relative, not a permanent, seat.

No matter what life circumstance you are currently in, free yourself from total identification with it. See it as a necessary stop in your infinite journey of exploration of all that is. Furthermore, wakeup to the power  of suggestion in your subconscious mind. You can direct the energy of karma into materializing consequences for your greater good.

The thoughts you most often entertain will be compulsively manifested by the power of your subconscious mind. Take control of your thoughts and enjoy their resulting karma. The equal and opposite reaction of a thought is its manifestation in physical form. From the spirit of thought comes its opposite, its physical birth in matter. Spend your karmic thought wisely, for the greater good of self and other.

Beneath it all, we are all one,
Chuck

* Sam Reifler, I Ching: A New Interpretation for Modern Times, p. 238.

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: How Are You Living Your Wholeness?

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What’s the balance in your wholeness?
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

We are always whole. The question is not whether or not we are whole, but rather, how are we currently living our wholeness? Our lives might currently reflect balance or chaos. Each alternative generates its own configuration of our same inherent ingredients of wholeness. Whether in balance or chaos, we are always whole.

If I long for something that I don’t currently have, the suffering I feel, whether as sadness or anxiety, holds the emotional place for the wholeness I seek.  A depression might hold the place for a missing or lost relationship.

The law of compensation is nature’s law of wholeness. Elsewhere known as karma, compensation insists that we fulfill our wholeness by living the natural consequences of our actions. If, for instance, we attempt to keep a trauma at bay through repression or willful suppression, the compensation may express itself in physical symptoms or triggers, which now serve the function of holding space for the unprocessed experience.

Many communication issues in relationships reflect this imperative for wholeness. If one partner presents their interpretation of reality the other partner might automatically see and feel compelled to express the other side of the argument. Wholeness insists upon both sides being represented.

Of course, often couples, or friends who share one’s point of view, will need to project the opposite point of view upon a person or group, outside their personal circle, whom they fervently dislike. In some form, wholeness insists that a one-sided point of view be compensated for by its opposite, which is then lived and owned inwardly, through emotional attachment to one’s projected antagonist.

Hate is a powerful expression of emotional attachment. It’s often very hard to not be obsessed with thinking about someone one hates. Once we can accept that these projections actually reflect aspects of our own wholeness, we can take the first step in shifting the volatile state of balance that our wholeness is in.

Wholeness includes everything. We are riddled with pairs of opposites that comprise our wholeness. Once we outwardly withdraw and take ownership for a hated projection, we can begin the process of reconciling the oppositions that comprise that opposition within our wholeness.

First we must bear the tension of holding this opposition within. Once contained, we can appreciate the value of our formerly hated other. Perhaps, for instance, this hated other reflects our own disdain for the limitations authority figures have imposed upon our lives.

By acknowledging this part of our wholeness, our heavily rational prefrontal cortex can come to appreciate its aggressive limbic  counterpart, and those two parts might come to accept their complementary roles and find acceptance and room for each other. This is how we shift the balance in our wholeness.

Accepting and finding room for all that we are allows for a more fulfilling wholeness. When the Rainmaker went into his hut to restore the Tao in the village riddled with drought (see last week’s blogpost), his effort reflected a rebalancing of the oppositions within himself, which then triggered greater balance in the outer world.

Wholeness is the same wholeness, whether it be in drought or rainstorm; the difference is in how we do our wholeness. Finding a compatible relationship between the opposites within ourselves is the key to balance.

The difference in personalities among us is simply that which is emphasized within our wholeness that then results in the state of balance we live with. That which is not emphasized is still part of our wholeness and must still be lived in some form.

If I am a true introvert my wholeness requires that I include extraversion  somewhere in my life, even if it is only fulfilled by obsessively hating what I judge to be shallow extraversion in others.

Our journey in infinity, beyond this life, may comprise many lives, where different aspects of wholeness are emphasized. This allows for an ever-deepening knowing of wholeness by exploration of it from many different perspectives. In fact, this is how we truly change the past, which completely shifts the balance of our present and future selves.

Trauma freezes our perspective in the past. Beyond the release of previously frozen emotions in processing trauma is the greater perspective of the present self that frees long-held limiting beliefs and definitions of self. Our wholeness then has the opportunity to come into new balance, which allows for greater exploration and expression of our innate potential in the present.

Ultimately we are all part of the same wholeness. The separateness we experience in this life is all a journey to truly know the self and advance our personal and collective evolution through the achievement of a broader perspective, which can’t help but result in the attainment of refined love, for all.

In wholeness,
Chuck