Tag Archives: recapitulation

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Further Explorations In Channeling & The Issue Of Trust

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Like the spreading branches of a tree we are all interconnected... in all worlds. Art by Jan Ketchel
Like the spreading branches of a tree we are all interconnected…
in all worlds.
Art by Jan Ketchel

I’ve been channeling Jeanne for more than ten years now. The process began during my recapitulation when she appeared to me and told me to trust her and to trust Chuck. She told me that everything would be okay and that after a three-year-long period of intense inner work I would arrive at a new place, that my life would make sense to me and my purpose be more fully revealed. Everything that she told me then and as the years unfolded has come to pass.

The issue of trust, specifically lack of, was the biggest challenge I had to face. It was at the core of my recapitulation process, the blockage that appeared again and again, pointing out just how deeply wounded I had been by what happened to me in childhood. It had controlled me and every decision and choice I made and I knew I could not let it stay in control. Jeanne pointed this out to me on the first night she appeared to me, stressing that the key to my success would be in learning to trust. She was absolutely right.

I soon discovered that trusting meant learning how to be okay in the world, how to not only trust others but myself and my experiences as well. It meant being confronted with issues of trust over and over again as my defenses slowly chipped away and as I let go, sometimes quite fearfully, of all that had once held me up and together. Without my defenses how could I possibly survive? How could I possibly trust anyone or anything when it had been ingrained in me at a very young age that I could trust no one?

The world was not a safe place; that was a given. Nothing and no one in the world offered safety. For most of my recapitulation I battled my inability to totally trust Chuck, who was by my side, taking the journey with me, and showing only the deepest respect and kindness toward me. Yet even into the third year of deep work the issue of trusting him would arise.

I would hear Jeanne telling me to trust him, to trust my experiences as being real, and to trust that all would be fine in the end. Her messages never changed; she patiently delivered them over and over again, whenever my fears and insecurities arose. Whenever I thought I was going crazy or having hallucinations she would tell me to trust them, that they were meaningful; they were showing me the way to healing. There I was talking to a discarnate being, going out of body while the world was cracking open inside and outside of me, revealing its intricacies and secrets, and yet as soon as I heard her soothing voice I would return to the new normalcy that was slowly constructing, a new life full of trust.

My channeling chair... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
My channeling chair…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Once the recapitulation of my childhood was complete a new kind of trust became the challenge and the focus. I was challenged to trust my channeling connection with Jeanne and to take it forward, first to Chuck and then into the world as we struggled to figure out how best to use it and for what purpose. We sought meaning and value, nothing for ourselves, only the means to pass the messages along so that others might hear them.

Neither of us had read Jane Roberts back when her Seth books were all the rage in the 1970s. I didn’t even know about her and Chuck wasn’t interested. Funny that now we find our way to her through a series of synchronicities. So similar are our explorations to hers and her husband Rob’s, as they interacted with Seth and found the best way to meet him more fully and profoundly, that we could almost be reading about ourselves and this process that you are all part of.

Once again, trust comes into play. Can I let myself be completely open and just see what happens as we explore new methods of channeling? I lower myself into the mystery and wonder of it with slight trepidation, much as I lower myself into the cold swimming pool. I don’t hesitate too long though. I always know I’m going to go in, and so I push myself to let go of my fears, real or not, and join the cold water in a delightful embrace. Just as I throw myself into the cold water, so too am I pushing myself to dive into new explorations in channeling.

Those recent explorations have taken us to meet Saleph, River of Consciousness, the name of Jeanne in her wholeness, all her lives joined. She left it up to us to call her that or not and so we have been channeling Saleph for a few weeks now. Last weekend we had a personal conversation with Saleph that was very revealing. We discovered that Saleph delivers different messages from Jeanne.

We talked back and forth to each of them and discovered that Jeanne, being modern and known, responded with greater insight and connection to this world, while Saleph—whom I had felt was far away—responded with more esoteric responses to our questions. All of this made us realize that not only should we be channeling both of them, but also that I, my channeling self, had easy access to both of them simultaneously. I also discovered that I could switch in and out of trance rapidly and easily and that I too, Jan, could engage in the conversation. I don’t have to just be a channel. Once I realized that, it felt as if I had broken through a final barrier.

These explorations are broadening our understanding of what it means to channel and also how to embody it naturally all the time. This takes trust! I am not so bold or confident, I guess, as some channels. I have had to overcome my shyness and I care deeply that the messages be helpful and meaningful. I would never intentionally cause harm, and so I have been slightly afraid to be so open, afraid of what might come out, but I am trusting that in some way the words will always be right. I also know that I am safe too; I have been well trained to guard my energy and only use it when appropriate.

We are excited by these new discoveries and hope to involve you all in the unfolding process, bringing you new messages from both Jeanne and Saleph, in conversation with us too. The funny thing is that all we had to do was try out a few simple changes and be innocently open and trusting. Trust, it’s that important!

The evolving self will naturally rise to the challenge... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
The evolving self will naturally rise to the challenge…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

I trust that all of you, our readers and listeners, will put trust to the test and see what happens in your own lives too. Releasing blockages through recapitulation enables for the process to flow, but keep in mind that setbacks are part of the process and should be respected and taken seriously.

Be gentle and firm, daring to dive into the cold water of recapitulation knowing full well that in that water you too will be safely embraced and given all that you need. In so doing you will learn what it truly means to trust. It’s all about trusting the self, finding safety in the world of the whole self, learning to trust all that you are and all the gifts you are given every day. Whether you view them as gifts or not upon receipt, as life unfolds you will eventually realize that they are gifts indeed! Trust that!

As Jeanne always says, “Everything will be fine!”
Jan

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Energetic Freedom

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Painting by Jan entitled "String Theory 1" Notice the cords of attachment dragging down the energy, blocking what lies behind... - Art by Jan Ketchel
Painting by Jan entitled “String Theory 1”
Notice the cords of attachment dragging down the energy, blocking what lies behind…
– Art by Jan Ketchel

Freedom is the ability to journey onward, no strings attached. Strings are projections of our energy that intertwine and attach to outside energy, whereby limiting a portion of our energetic essence’s independent movement. There is no negative judgment about attachment and commitment intended here, it’s simply a statement of energetic fact.

In an ultimate sense, freedom to not reincarnate requires the cutting of all energetic cords to attachments in this world. It’s the only way we can feely move beyond this world as a whole energetic being, releasing all outside attachments and retrieving our full energetic essence to journey freely.

Life in this world insists upon energetic attachment. The human playing field requires energetic attachment outside the self for survival and fulfillment. Refusal to attach while in human form is its own seed of reincarnation. We must have fulfillment in attachment in this world to be freed of our need for that human attachment, the prerequisite to end reincarnation.

The challenge throughout life is to take conscious responsibility, to keep inventory on our energetic attachments. Decisions must be made about the efficiency and value of our energetic investments.

We must examine the contents of our attics and cupboards, where we store our projected energy in the densest and heaviest form—in objects. As we sift through our accumulation of things, we must ask ourselves, why am I holding onto this? Do I ever use it? Do I ever look at it? Do I need it? Where did it come from? What outside energy is attached to it? What would it mean for me to get rid of it?

As we take the journey with these questions we are led into recapitulation. We experience the energetic history intertwined with our own energy, once projected into these dense objects. If indeed the object has no value to our current journey, it may be time to shed the weight of this attachment and free our energy that remains bound to it as long as it remains in our possession, hidden in the attic or otherwise. It’s not enough to simply find a new safe home for an object either. We must release our energy from it, truly let it go if we are to recapture our energy from it.

Do I really need all these things gathering dust and cobwebs? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Do I really need all these things gathering dust and cobwebs?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

If we give away an object that we are still attached to we are merely transferring the care of our energy to another caretaker. To release an object fully is to have no attachment to the fate of its outcome once we send it off. We will know that we have truly recapitulated when we can honestly walk away in lightness, granting the object full freedom to take its own continuing journey.

In more subtle form, we must take inventory of our digital energetic commitments too. It is rare that I see a dog being walked or a car being driven where eyes are not cast intermittently downward at incoming digital information. Facebook has become the largest human marketplace, or mall, where energetic strings of attention are deeply embedded.

Where is the freedom to move about fully in this world for 5 minutes unencumbered by the ping of the prison walls of an incoming text or posting that demands immediate attention and energetic commitment? How are we ever to discover and develop to the fullest potential our own energetic capacities of telepathy, clairvoyance, intuition, out-of-body exploration if our energy is completely captivated by digital dependence and servitude? Where is the freedom in such technological advancement if it binds the lion’s share of our energetic attention?

If our intent is energetic freedom, we must be frugal in our energetic attachments. If an object or energetic device binds our energy and evokes fear in us at the thought of letting go or being without, we must face the true condition of our servitude and release any illusion of freedom that the device purports to deliver.

Finally, in the area of relationship, we must be ruthlessly honest with ourselves as we inventory our commitments. Are those we journey with truly traveling companions, also energetically intent upon freedom? Are we holding onto sentimental relics or obligations that bind our energy and refuse to allow us to change and evolve? Have we met our archetypal obligations as parents and caretakers? Do we bind our energy to past roles that no longer really exist, and in so doing hinder the resumption of our own journeys to freedom? Do we need to challenge ourselves to go into the world and experience deep emotional commitment, a requirement to fulfillment? Only if we face these energetic facts squarely can we plot our energetic course to fulfillment and ultimate freedom.

In "String Theory 2" release is happening and the way is clearing... - Art by Jan Ketchel
In “String Theory 2” release is happening and the way is clearing…
– Art by Jan Ketchel

As we journey through this life we must attach. Recapitulation allows us to disentangle our energy from attachments that have completed their course and now require deep release for completion. Having our vital energy recouped in recapitulation, we can then apply it toward fulfillment of our potential and, when the time is right, for releasing all the strings as we journey deeper into the unfolding mystery, fully energetically present for what comes next!

Releasing strings,
Chuck

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: The Bardos & The Reality We Create

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The consensus reality we all uphold... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The consensus reality we all uphold…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

“The earth will never be destroyed,” said Chuck to me last night. “It’s a consensus reality.” What he meant was that there are millions of people upholding the idea of earth and everything in it as real. Each person now alive would have to drop their projections, lose their belief systems, free their minds, and release their attachments for the earth to suddenly fade from sight. It would be like taking a mass psychedelic trip or a giant thick fog rolling in, hiding from view all that we consider reality.

Does that idea send shockwaves of fear through you, the idea of having nothing to hold onto, nothing familiar in your life? Personally, I find the idea utterly freeing, the notion of all of this disappearing and there being nothing but the ethers: defined as a formless, infinitely elastic medium, also known as the space above the atmosphere of earth, the heavens composed of the moon, the stars and planets. Imagine the energy we’ve all projected into creating this reality, that we’ve spent our lives upholding, finally released, to be used for something far greater.

The bardos, negative emotional states, beliefs that we project within the consensus reality of this world, are always right next to us, ready to snag us and pull us back, away from such ideas as the one I postulate above. The bardos make up not only our consensus reality, the world we inhabit, but the world within as well, the world of thoughts and ideas that keep us caught in the repetition of our behaviors, habits, beliefs, stuck in the core issues that keep us from evolving, such as rejection, abandonment, entitlement, victimhood. The bardos are where worry, fear, indolence, strife, and negativity reside, popping up to defeat us in endless battles with the projections of this world. We turn to them more often than we turn to our spirits, which seek to be freed of all that is in this world so that we can enjoy “All That Is” in the ethers of infinity.

Our projections keep us bound to the bardos. I create my reality by that which I project. My needs, fears, and worries create my reality. If the consensus reality says that my symptoms indicate a certain condition, then I get sick. If I project my fears into the world, those fears come to haunt me. If I am certain that something bad will happen, then it will happen. In the bardos of my projections, in the thoughts I create, the ideas I uphold and the fears I hold onto, my world is created. If I am aware that I am doing this, however, I can change how I attach to the consensus reality. I can decide that no, I am not sick, I am not afraid, and only good things will happen to me. Suddenly, my reality shifts.

Detail of the Indolence card, the 8 of Cups from the Thoth Tarot Deck...
Detail of the Indolence card, the 8 of Cups from the Thoth Tarot Deck…

I also know that if I project my needs, fears and worries outwardly onto others then other people in my life will not advance either, even if I hold onto them with my deepest love. My sense of owning or entitlement to another human being only holds them back. We must let all beings go. Others will not move out of my sphere if I hold onto them with negative thinking either, with jealousies, hatred, or even with perceived brilliance, with adoration or worship. I must own and learn from all my projections if I am to free myself too to move on.

We have the power within us to change our reality, but do I really want to see the world obliterated? I don’t believe, as Chuck suggested last night, that it will ever happen at this worldly level, but it is what we are all charged with doing at an individual level. We must accept also that the world we have created is here for us to fully engage and learn from. We must fully live in this world—do our time so to speak—if we are to be at a point of detaching from it for the last time.

To fully live means that as we grow up and seek to make a mark in the world, we must encounter all that we project, all the challenges that belong to us in this lifetime. It’s so easy to fall back into the slumber of the bardos, but the true work of individuation is to journey through life becoming increasingly awake and aware of how things really work, and that takes work.

As we do our deep inner work, as we attempt to free ourselves of our personal projections and issues—in a process such as recapitulation, for example—we do free ourselves of this consensus reality in a step-by-step process of eliminating from our psyches all that once held us bound to the bardos. In the bardo states of this world we churn away overdoing, over indulging, over eating, over drinking, over stimulated to the point where our energy reserves are depleted and our spirits sunk to the depths, far from contact. In this depleted energy state we no longer contribute any energy either to the advancement of this world. As our own energy flags, we become nothing more than entities draining the energy that others contribute to a changing world.

Do I really want my world to disappear? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Do I really want my world to disappear?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

If we are to be part of a changing world we must constantly contribute new energy to that change by changing ourselves. It is not healthy to stay in the bardos, dulling our energy and the energy of the world. If we are challenged to do anything during our lives, it is to keep the flame of change burning by adding to its potential by challenging ourselves to constantly shift into states of higher awareness.

Just as the bardos are there always ready to grab us, to sabotage our progress, so too are our spirits right there too, ready to connect with us. Our true work of individuation is the work of gaining knowledge of our spirits, of learning to trust them as we allow ourselves to drop our projections and have experiences of the ethers, of our energetic selves, even while we are living in this consensus reality. It is the work of the human being who is aware of reincarnation to live up to the challenges of each lifetime and gain the momentum to move beyond continuous cycles of reincarnation.

In pulling our heads up out of the bardos long enough to grasp the possibility of the disappearance of this consensus reality as we know it, we offer ourselves new energy and new momentum. Without fear that we are missing out or losing something, as we grow into later adulthood we must learn how to let go of our attachments to all that is in this world, knowing full well that each of us, even those closest to us and whom we love the most, are on the same journey.

Each individual is challenged to move out of the bardos and advance to a higher level of consciousness. In so doing, at our death we do not leave this world a more depleted place but a brighter place, our evolving energy feeding the fires of change. I feel this kind of vibrant energy every time I communicate with Jeanne. Her evolving beyond this consensus reality has left a brightness in my own life, and I have learned more from my connection with her than had I not dared myself to trust her and take up the challenges she gave to me during my recapitulation.

We are all as separate and individual as each drop of rainwater on this leaf... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
We are all as separate and individual as each drop of rainwater on this leaf…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

And I am aware now too that my true purpose extends far beyond this life and this reality. And so I am not afraid to imagine the world disappearing and all that is in this reality releasing—as it will upon my own dying—because I know that all of us are part of something greater, just as Jeanne and her soul group are.

Just trying to add to the energy flame of changing consciousness,
Jan

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Life As Art Form

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I seek to achieve balance, all the time... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
I seek to achieve balance, all the time…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

As an artist and writer I fully experience my creativity. When I am creating something I am totally focused on what I am doing; I am in the zone. Everything else slips away and life is just me and what I am working on. Creative energy runs through me and I willingly go along for the ride.

I have a deep need for creative perfection, but I’ve also learned over the years to recognize when a piece is done, to instinctively know when it’s time to stop, to put down my tools and release myself from the creative surge and to also let go of my attachment to the work I have done. There is deep satisfaction in both the creative time and the release from it; there is balance.

I recently listened to a segment of The Moth in which a New York Times reporter ventured to Afghanistan after the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. He went in search of art. All forms of art had been banned while the Taliban ruled, everything from painting to poetry and music. For five years no one was allowed to produce art, to sing, to act, or even own a musical instrument; to do so would have meant arrest or even death.

By a series of synchronistic events the reporter met a man who was painting miniatures in the traditional style. He asked him why he wasn’t painting something new, expressing the energy of now and the future that was looming before him and his people. The artist told the reporter that he could not paint the future until he had completed the past, that his people were not free to move forward if they did not fully know their past. It struck me. The artist knew the value of recapitulation; only in fully knowing where he had been could he go forward with any sense of release or contentment. He knew he had to recreate what had been, as perfectly as possible, but he also knew that a time would arrive when he would leave the past and move on.

I have recently been pondering my own process of creativity. I notice how that need for perfection is so honed that it takes over. I become totally focused on what I am doing and often the rest of my life goes unattended. I do the minimum, but only what absolutely needs doing. I am often reluctant to stop at the end of the day, to have anything interfere. There have been times in my life when I was able to totally live the creative life, but as much as I loved it I now know that it was a life out of balance.

Needling thoughts that I must attend to the piles of clutter, to the unattended that gets forgotten after a while, had been stirring all through the winter months. I’d look around and tell myself that I had to attend to this pile of stuff and that pile of stuff. When I’m done with this, I’d say, when I’m done with that. Now it’s almost summer. I’ve been making inroads into clearing the clutter, into clearing also the energy stuck in that clutter, making a concerted effort to get rid of what I no longer use or need and to organize that which has value so that my life can flow better. My need for perfection is seeping out of the dedicated creative time into all the time now. Life, I have decided, is my new art form.

I still seek a certain kind of perfection, not to be perfect because I know I am not, but to achieve the impeccability that I have mostly assigned to my creative endeavors. Where before I might leave dishes in the sink to do later while I head off to do something creative, I now finish the kitchen clean-up before I turn to something else. I do it with impeccability. I want to walk into a beautiful kitchen later in the day, to feel good in my home, to experience a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that is energetically fulfilling. In so doing I learn the value of completion of one task before beginning a new one. This is what the Afghani artist was telling the reporter; one must fully complete if one is to be fully energetically available for new creative endeavors.

I saw this heart shape in the floor tiles, an almost birdlike and beelike form flying past like freed energy... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
I saw this heart shape in the floor tiles, an almost birdlike and beelike form flying past like freed energy…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

I’ve noticed that even in clearing out my cluttered closet I achieve a sense of renewal. The more I clear, the more space I create, space in which energy can finally flow freely and naturally without obstacles or blockages.

In clearing, I create a new reality for myself, more balanced and in alignment with the energy of the universe. Each time I clear something I feel myself become more energetically alive and available for what life has in store.

Try it; it really works,
Jan

The story I heard on The Moth: A Time of Hope

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Nature Of Defense

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Nature's defenses in control, oppressing life... - From the Thoth Tarot deck
Nature’s defenses in control, oppressing life…
– From the Thoth Tarot deck

The core intent of defense is to protect. Defenses are the actions of the survival instinct; they are nature at work. Both Freud and Jung agreed that psychological defenses originated beneath consciousness, a product of the instinctual or archetypal psyche.

We do not choose our defenses; they are the automatic compulsive actions the deep psyche employs to protect the self against real or imagined threats. Two of the most powerful and deeply-rooted-in-nature defenses are projection and dissociation.

If we feel uncomfortable within ourselves about something we’ve said, done, thought, or felt, our protective psyche might assess this as a threat to our self-esteem or ego integrity. Its response might be to employ the defense of projection whereby it literally projects blame outside of the self, rearranging our conscious perception of reality to keep the culprit at a safe distance, securely planted in someone else. On a grand scale this is how America keeps itself safe from facing its own deviousness: the bad guy is always the devil somewhere else, who we have to eliminate, thus our moral superiority is preserved.

Dissociation is perhaps nature’s most powerful defense. When we are confronted with a danger inwardly or outwardly—that our unconscious deems potentially lethal—dissociation will save us by splitting us into pieces, preserving our most precious and vital self by submerging it deeply within the safekeeping womb of the unconscious. Outwardly, parts of our ego self remain at the surface as an adaptive or survival self, functionally charged with navigating life disconnected from its wholeness. The English psychoanalyst Winnicott called this self the false self because it always senses that it is just functioning or pretending to be engaged in life, secretly knowing that its most vital parts no longer participate in outer life.

Projection and dissociation are archetypal defenses of the instinctive psyche. These are the default settings of our self-preservation. Unfortunately, when life is governed by these defenses it may be safe but totally unsatisfying, as life’s deepest needs go unmet. If the adult self attempts to raise its vulnerable parts and bring them into life, the instinctive psyche frequently opposes this action and sabotages the effort using negative thoughts, guilt, or shame. The instinctive psyche is invested in survival; wholeness threatens survival, as we are challenged to own fully our projected and dissociated parts, which may be laden with traumatic experience that could threaten ego integrity.

The solution to this dilemma lies in recapitulation. In recapitulation the adult self takes 100% responsibility for healing, releasing the instinctive psyche of its automatic protection. As the adult ego bears the full tension of encountering and integrating its parts, the instinctive psyche simultaneously tests the adult self, confronting it with all that has been projected and dissociated from and all of its accompanying terrors of disintegration. This testing process of the adult ego’s ability to manage the fullness of the self is a necessary interaction between archetypal defense and conscious ego. This may result in a one-step forward two-steps back kind of process for a while, but ultimately, once the instinctive psyche sees the ego’s ability to manage its own healing, the higher self is freed to support the ego in the recapitulation process through increasing synchronicities, dreams, and visions that lead to retrieval of its lost wholeness.

The ego unfettered and assuming full responsibility, in alignment with the grail, the true self... - from the Thoth Tarot deck
The ego unfettered and assuming full responsibility, in alignment with the grail, the true self…
– from the Thoth Tarot deck

Evolution is really about assuming full conscious responsibility for our lives so that we may be available for all else that is. If we allow our unconscious nature to merely keep us safe, it will, but only through its compulsive defenses and at the expense of our wholeness, our fulfillment, and our evolutionary potential. Is that really satisfying? Or are we ready to do the work to free ourselves from the divisiveness of our instinctual defenses and claim our true wholeness?

Recapitulation is work that is evolutionary for the individual—know thy self—and the world-at-large too. In moving beyond our personal projections and dissociations we open ourselves to more fully experiencing and participating in life in ways that we are unavailable for while under the control of nature’s defenses.

There exists another aspect to nature as well, the interconnected oneness of everything, and that’s really the nature our evolutionary self is striving to discover and cultivate. In fact, the collective charge of our time seems to be pushing us all to go beyond the self. That is really our greatest evolutionary endeavor.

Going beyond, with love and gratitude,
Chuck

Note: We pulled these two cards this morning, certainly in alignment with the publishing of this blog and our pursuit of truth and spirit.