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Chuck’s Place: Patient Waiting

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These days I allow myself but one minute a day to read the world news. It’s all I really need to stay informed. It’s not an act of avoidance; it’s highly pragmatic and necessary to ensure my energetic preservation.

Patient waiting…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

I came to this decision after observing the impact on my energy when I tracked the flow of news throughout the day. Repeated exposure led to spikes of reactive emotional activity that sucked the life out of me.

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico identified this as the impact of entities preying upon human energy. The shamans realized that the way to not feed these entities was to stop getting aggravated by them. When the shamans calmed their own energy the entities could no longer rile them. The entity then had nothing to feed off and moved on. That is what the energetic predicament on the world stage feels like right now and I feel it most imperative to guard my energy very carefully, to preserve the Self, and have the needed energy to act when it feels really right to do so.

Trump appears to emulate such an entity. It’s time to stop being aggravated by him, to stop expecting him to be different. It’s not going to happen. Give him nothing to feed off.  He can only be empowered by the emotional volatility that he incites. Starve him!

For objective guidance I have sought the counsel of the I Ching ever since the U. S. Presidential election was decided. The first reading I received was hexagram #54 Making Do, which I discussed in a previous blog back in November. Here is that blog: Making Do.

Last week I was compelled to consult the I Ching once again, as I felt the stirrings of a more extraverted response, as collective movements began springing up in response to executive orders. The I Ching gave me the exact same reading that I received in November, hexagram #54, Making Do. Once again it accentuated the first line of the hexagram and, in addition, the final line. I quote Richard Wihelm’s commentary on the first line:

“A man may enjoy the personal friendship of a prince and be taken into his confidence. Outwardly this man must keep tactfully in the background behind the official ministers of state, but, although he is hampered by this status, as if he were lame, he can nevertheless accomplish something through the kindliness of his nature.”

I think an apt example of this type of tactful influence is exemplified by an Elon Musk, a CEO chosen for Trump’s advisory council. Musk holds the value of addressing climate change, yet knows how to make money. Trumps respects him. He is one of only two CEOs on Trump’s CEO advisory panel of nineteen who challenged Trump’s order targeting Muslims.

The additional line at the top that I received in this second reading is abundantly clear: A marriage ritual is to be performed but neither the man nor woman is sincere; no real union is possible. The I Ching makes clear that though the outer forms of a democratic union may be observed, they are superficial. A genuine union is not possible. There is no genuine union with Trump.

This hexagram turns, in the future, into hexagram #61, Inner Truth. When the outer truths are overshadowed by fake news and authoritarianism, it is wise to send one’s attention inward and discover the real truth in one’s own heart and gut.

This morning, seeking further counsel, I once again consulted the I Ching for guidance to pass on. I received hexagram #3, Difficulty at the Beginning. This hexagram is about the chaos of birth. In one respect we are facing the chaos of the birth of a radical new world leadership. Additionally, we are at the beginning of the birth of a world movement seeking to respond to actions that many feel to be extremely dangerous to world survival.

The I Ching highlights the second line of this hexagram: a wagon breaks down, the horses run off; it’s a crisis, but someone immediately appears and offers rescue. The I Ching warns about a quick solution that appears to provide rescue. It points instead to patient waiting, that a cycle of time must first be completed which will prepare the foundation for a natural solution to fall into place. Strong guidance to avoid impulsive, precipitous action, however tempting it may be!

The future of this hexagram is #60, Limitation. Here the guidance is to accept the limits of what can be accomplished at this time and to place limits around the growing anxiety and emotional pressure within the self. A lake without borders can only flood, whereas a contained reservoir offers abundant nourishment when the time is right for sweeping action.

Each one of us must check in with our heart and gut and decide what action is right for us to take. Sometimes patiently waiting is the wisest yet most challenging action. That being said, it is the guidance for now.

Patiently waiting,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Human Infinity

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We are animals who know that we are going to die. Our animal compatriots who share the planet with us have no thoughts about life beyond life. Life beyond death, or infinity, is a human obsession.

Infinity is what the word says: the absence of finiteness, life beyond the limits of space and time. Though in today’s world this kind of “spiritual focus” is often downplayed as simply wishful thinking, certainly beyond reason, experiences with infinity appear everywhere in everyday life.

Portal to infinity…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Take for instance the simple act of going to sleep at night. All animals that live in a body, and for whom night is the natural time of rest and rejuvenation, go to sleep at essentially the same hour every night. Human beings, however, often suspend time and live in consciousness into the wee hours of the night, whether it be in reading, interacting with screens, thinking, playing music, creating, or fearfully refusing the dread of dying to the day and facing the darkness of the night. As the night progresses and one remains awake, one enters the altered state of timelessness, impervious to the needs of the finite body that must somehow function the next day.

Others make their forays into infinity through massive accumulations. This can take the form of hoarding where the limits of space are suspended and one lives with unlimited stuff. This can take the form of vast accumulations of wealth, wealth way beyond the realistic needs of many lifetimes. Such insatiability, an active pursuit to continuously possess more, touches the limitlessness of infinity.

Falling or being in love is a powerful suspension of space where lovers meet in the experience of oneness, a timeless union that touches the wholeness of infinity. So powerful is the nectar of this infinite experience that many simply cannot commit to a finite relationship because once limitation sets in, the sparkle of infinity dulls and one is prompted to go in search of it elsewhere.

The myriad of addictions of our time are actually spiritual attempts to reach infinity in material form. Take food. The pleasure of food intake without restriction, without boundary, gives entree into the limitless joy of infinity. To drink without limit, to suspend time, drinking through the night without limit, is to enter countless worlds of dreaming possibilities within the confines of a world that is still limited by the 24 hour cycle of day and night.

The preponderance of drug addictions in our time is directly proportional to the hegemony of reason over our lives, which so shuts down an active connection to explorative spirituality. Drugs in their many forms offer experiences beyond the limits of the body, in forms that range from euphoric stupor to access to superhuman abilities of physical prowess, from transcendent communication and creativity to energetic travel and experience unrestricted by bodily inhabitation.

Obviously, these many attempts to experience infinity in human form stress and can kill the human animal that contains the consciousness that seeks to experience MORE. They do demonstrate, however, the human spirit’s quest to experience its infinite potential no matter how spiritually impoverished our lives may be.

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico, appreciating this instinctual human need to realize  spiritual potential while in human form, squarely call out to and embrace their intent to experience their full potential. That spiritual intent naturally appears in dreaming and in magical experiences in everyday life.

If we can merely suspend judgment and open to what happens to us everyday, as synchronistically magical, we will indeed find our way to human infinity, safely, soberly, and fully.

Every moment is actually infinity,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: 17

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1 + 7 = 8 (Infinity) - Photo by Jan Ketchel
1 + 7 = 8 (Infinity)
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Jan references the archetypal imperative of the cicada’s seventeen year journey in her blog this week, a poignant exposition of nature’s hardwired programming. Our human species has toyed with its own archetypal imperative, seeking to escape from our boring repetition of the same old same old. So far have we strayed from our natural roots that we scurry about daily, reinventing the wheel of survival, while eons of inherited wisdom lies fallow at the intuitive core of our beings.

I sit on my deck as I write, the vibratory energy of infinity flowing into my ears and coursing through my veins. The sound of the cicadas lifts me into my energy body. If I allowed myself, and fully followed the call, I think I could leave now. I know the sound of the cicadas from my earliest youth, from my first encounter with infinity when I was certain that I would disintegrate if I didn’t find a casing to hold myself together. I remember my young boy self settling on the structure of a race car traveling at great speed, navigating the racecourse with me at the wheel and in control. Today, the call of infinity makes me calm and joyous.

So, what about 17, the limited cycle impervious to change? If you add 1 and 7 together you get 8—the symbol of infinity! 17 may signal limitation, but it houses infinity.

I am reminded here of the hexagram of Limitation in the I Ching that cautions us humans to respect the limitations of our own life cycle. We are beings who are going to die! At least in our human form! This archetypal program of living and dying is not likely to change anytime soon. The I Ching counsels that if we are wise, we will accept our limited time, acquiesce to our mortality. It is through acquiescence to our mortality that we, in fact, open the door to infinity. If we live the illusion that we have forever, we never take life seriously enough—in fact, we get caught in the spins of toying with the archetypes—creating some new fountains of youth for our eternal carcasses. In accepting limitation, we protect our energy and direct it toward our true task of fulfilling our lives as fully conscious beings, preparing to lift off into infinity with the cicadas in full awareness when it’s our time to leave.

Even with broken wing, the journey is the same... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Even with broken wing, the journey is the same…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

In her message on Monday, Jeanne spoke of birth being the hardest challenge. From there we are provided our own archetypal wings to complete our human journey. Like the cicadas, many of us are bruised at the starting gate and our subsequent journey must first detour to find and repair our lost wings. But, even then, the archetypes of the dream world and synchronous waking world are provided to guide the way. Jeanne’s guidance was to keep it simple; follow the direct knowledge of the archetypes. So difficult to hear sometimes, in a world that generates new guide books for profit each day.

As I finish writing my blog, my attention is drawn back to 17 again, to the vibrant and stirring song of the cicadas that drowns out even the loudest of manmade motors. Keep it simple, I think, how perfect that guidance is. Keeping it simple is listening to the knowing voice within, following its program, deepening the preparations to take that final journey in infinity with eager, joyful abandon.

Keeping it very simple,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Forging The Container

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Vessels of containment...

In Monday’s channeled message, Jeanne spoke of achieving balance through limitation. In her Wednesday blog, Jan wrote of the alchemical process of transformation through fermentation. The agent of that alchemical change is the limitation of a sealed container that sets the stage for nature to transform. Today, I focus on shaping and curing that sealed container. Like a ceramic vessel heated in a kiln, the container for our inner process of individuation must prove worthy of withstanding the many trials of heat that arise and serve our quest for wholeness.

Since waking this morning, the creative daemon has been stirring: fire energy, trial by fire. Already I’ve seen three people. The universe aligns with the creative daemon as I see its challenge reflected everywhere. I carefully channel it. Now, in an open space of time, it’s time to write my blog, but the creative fires are way too expansive. Everywhere I turn the world is ablaze. If I try to write now, I’ll be taken too far afield. The fire is too unwieldy, ungraspable except in its most gaseous intuitive sense.

The real trial is one of containment, and so I know I must find my way back down to earth, into the containment of the cool soil. I turn to the matter of my physicality, my body container as a form to regulate the fiery energy and expansive pressure of the creative daemon.

I’ve been gifted the images of the praying mantis and Buddha beneath the bodhi tree this morning. Images of stillness. Heeding these messages from the universe, I roll out my yoga mat and facing East, the direction of the rising fireball of the sun, I invoke the stillness of the Buddha and perform the Buddhist magical pass of prostration. Then I sit and engage in yoga pranayama breathing. The mind stills as the fiery energy begins to settle more into the rhythmic waves of the ocean. My awareness flows deeper into connection and regulation of the energy contained within my body. Deepening awareness of blockage and tension flow into softening and release. I move into yoga’s magical passes of asanas, working calmly with the creative fires still vying for my energy, my attention, my awareness.

“Not now,” I tell it. “Now is for forging the calm, preparing the container to channel your creation, your message, in a blog, soon to be undertaken.”

I finish yoga and choose to forego food or a magical walk. The body is calm and I know not to disturb it now. I’m ready to take on and be present with the daemon, to work together in the process of creation.

As I open the door, inviting the daemon in, the energy that greets me is intense. I remind myself to breathe, to unclench my jaw, to pause and release. My body has been forged as the container for this alchemical process of transforming the creative energies within me into a—hopefully—cohesive blog.

Eventually we emerge...changed

The body is our container in this world. The body is the vessel that connects us to the wellspring of our instinctive energies, as well as the infinitude of our energetic essence. When we walk, run, do yoga, golf, go to the gym, do magical passes, swim, exercise or meditate, we are forging our alchemical vessel to better serve our deeply sought after transformation into wholeness. Each time we are overwhelmed by the fires of recapitulation we are challenged to turn to the body container and engage in forging activity, just as I did this morning as I wrestled with the overpowering energy of my creative daemon. Eventually, we discover that out of the container a new calm, cured, self emerges.

Okay, now I can set this down, a message released through the alchemical process of containment. And now I may nourish my physical body in another way, with some fermented food, and then go off to a walking meditation, calmed and slowed by the midday sun for further curing of my vessel.

In calmness and containment,
Chuck

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: A Call For Limitation

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Seek fulfillment in deep inner work; in limitation, containment, respect and love for the self.

Limitation, in all of its forms, is a necessary component of a seeking life. Whether one is simply seeking balance in daily life, or one is seeking deeper meaning and spiritual fulfillment, limitation must be put to use, a most practical tool. For where would man (humanity*) be if limitations were not imposed?

Limitation requires the art of discipline, as well as the ability to know restriction, yet does it also require that one experience it as a balancer, for that is its main utilization in the context of a seeking life. For only in gaining balance in all things will one experience life and all that it offers, as well as the deeper issues within the self, to the fullest.

In studying the deeper self, one must acquiesce to the limitations placed on one by circumstances, yet one must also embrace those limitations, for they are leading one to fulfillment. Lessons necessary for growth are contained in circumstances of limitation just as they are contained in circumstances of excess. Excess—the virtual opposite of limitation one would think—is, in fact, as limiting as circumstances of limitation, for there are lessons to be learned in the circumstances of every life.

Begin anew to appreciate the circumstances, the struggles of life, for it is only in such experiences that one will discover deeper meaning in all things. Man, unlike nature, has the ability to control himself, though he may not at all be able to control that which is outside of himself. Alas, life takes one down a path that may be full of sorrow and woe, yet a man’s heart may know the value of such a path if he but listen to its words of wisdom. The heart does not lie, but without balance in thought, action, and inner and outer experience, a man may never know what his heart says.

Those whom have never known excess may struggle the hardest to achieve balance and that is their circumstance to struggle with. Keep in mind: whether you have lived a life of excess or a life of limitation, you have gotten what you need.

Allow the circumstances of your personal lives to lead you into a new phase of growth and recovery. Each man—as well as the very earth—needs such things in abundance now, for the time of excess has passed. Guided by your individual life’s path, each one of you are already upon a new path of growth, recovery, and indeed transformation. Perhaps you have never noticed it, but know that your life’s circumstances have placed you there.

Perhaps you did not want to notice? Perhaps you did not choose to view the limitations imposed upon you as binding you to your path for good reason? Perhaps self-imposed limitations will be the answer to reinvigorating you, allowing you to more clearly see that only in limitation, i.e.: balance, discipline, restriction and containment, will you achiever your next step.

Mankind is being asked by the greater universe at large, to curb his appetites. The destruction has gone on far too long. Now it is time for limitation, conservation, and deep respect for all life, most importantly your own, to guide you to universal change.

If you must judge, judge the self. If you must be angry, be angry with the self. If you must blame, blame the self. Seek the answers within in order to change what lies within, what speaks within, what hurts within, what refuses life from within. This is the new road to take, to change the self, to change your life’s circumstances, and to change the world.

Accept the challenges that appear to guide you today, for they are to be shared challenges, man challenged to be an evolving being now, on a deeper, broader, universal and innerly level. Let awareness guide you. Do right, and keep evolving!

Change the self by looking to the limitations you are challenged to accept. Utilize them to the fullest in an evolutionary way, first in changing the self and then in changing the world. Do right by the deeper self and you will do right by others; that it the first step in gaining awareness of the self as part of the greater, evolving whole.

Most humbly channeled, with love, by Jan.

Please Note: The word “Man” is used to refer to all of humanity; mankind; men, women and children alike.