Tag Archives: recapitulation

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: I Am More Than My Ego Identity

Leave a comment
Time for transformation…
– Illustration © 2022 Jan Ketchel

In a dream, my son is my friend. I have no memory of him as my son. Upon awakening I am fascinated at this absolute lapse in memory of such a prominent waking life relationship. This is a glimpse of life beyond the veil.

“What veil?” you might ask. The veil of ego identity. Ego is the part of our soul identified with waking life in the physical body. Ego is the main player in the waking life drama we are fully engaged in. The ego’s veil is its narcissism, though not necessarily pathologically so. It simply only knows itself as all that it is.

The ego is also quite prejudiced with material bias. The physical world is its oyster and all that really exists. This in-body perspective has been critical to keep the focus on the intent, the fated karma of this current life adventure. However, as is more than evident in current world events, Mother Earth is in labor. Her water has broken and full-on contractions have begun.

Birthing is our first rite of passage in this life. The journey into life is a solo voyage fraught with breathlessness, volcanic eruption, violent collision and claustrophobic containment. Arriving into our separateness, at birth, requires surviving the perils of these initiation challenges as we push out into new life. Currently, Earth’s initiation challenge requires us to navigate her violent changes as, once again, we find our way to new life.

New life on this planet is the discovery and integration of life beyond the confines of ego identity, life beyond the veil. Our materialistic focus, with its land-grab mentality, has saturated Mother’s nurturing capacity. She requires now a greater soulful human presence, a maturity beyond the childish dependency locked within the ego’s veil. To achieve this we must expand our knowing of all that we are. To achieve this we must venture into the transpersonal dimension of our being.

My amnesia of my son, as my son, was such a transpersonal journey. The more we cling solely to our relationships of familial association, as our definition of who we are and how we should live, the more we remain separated from the overall needs of the greater whole world. We are birthing into a consciousness that extends family to all, with equanimity.

To experience my son as friend, with no proprietary rights, breaks the illusion of special connection. Yes, of course there is special connection in the drama of this life. That can’t be erased. But to wake up to the greater reality, that all that is is part of that same whole, extends love to all; we are all simply inseparable. With this knowing, we are fully poised to grow beyond the limits of ego narcissism.

This journey to our transcendent selves, as we navigate the violent contractions of now, does require that we suffer the full knowing of our suppressed and repressed selves, what Jung called the shadow of the personal unconscious. This is the work of recapitulation, fully exploring the triggers of daily life, which bring forth our inconvenient truths.

We are aided in this journey by guides and by our Higher Soul, which resides in the transpersonal dimension of our being. Our ego soul becomes our left brain navigator on our voyage of recovery and discovery. Though still engaged in material life, our needs become more soulful and refined. The spirit of a gift outweighs the material gift.

Bob Monroe left us with a set of tools to discover that, yes, “I am more than my physical body.” As we traverse that non-physical reality, the ego discovers that it is part of its greater Soul. Indeed, that I am more than my ego identity. And with that we are truly birthing into new life.

I am more than my ego identity,

Chuck

Soulbytes

Soulbyte for Thursday April 21, 2022

Leave a comment

To learn from mistakes made you must be willing to delve into why you made the mistakes to begin with. It is good to move on from mistakes without regrets but far better to understand the self and be able to move on with a better concept of who you are, taking with you new knowledge of the self so that your future may be better understood as well. Know yourself in a deeper way and you will indeed have no regrets.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Befriend the Jackal

Leave a comment
Befriend the Jackal…
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

In Egyptian mythology, Anubis, the guardian of souls and lord of the underworld, appears with a human body topped with a jackal’s head. The jackal, in physical reality, is an earthbound wild dog who, like a vulture in the sky, feeds off the flesh of the dead. This is the likely root of Anubis’ symbolic and solemn association with death.

The jackal, in the tripartite human being dimensions of mind, body and spirit, is the physical body, the mortal component of this human trinity.  The physical body is also the subconscious dimension of the human being. The subconscious houses the raw materials of all that we are, as well as all that we have ever been.

When the superconscious dimension of our Spirit decides to incarnate in human form for a particular mission of self-actualization in time and space, it must forget its immortal existence to accomplish its goal. If we were to be born with a distinct knowledge of our soulful existence beyond death, it would trump the experience of mortality, which is crucial to creating the necessary growth environment, or experimental/experiential conditions that our Spirit requires to advance its mission.

The jackal, as accomplice to Spirit’s intent, is the  guardian of Spirit knowledge housed in the shadowland of the subconscious and stored in the human body. The paradox of this contract is that the jackal becomes Spirit’s greatest opponent in life. While Spirit seeks the spiritualization of our sojourn as material, mortal beings, jackal seeks to consume all of our spiritual stirrings that threaten to bring into the light of consciousness the truth of our hidden potential and immortality. The psychological tool to keep things hidden is suppression.

The jackal accomplishes its mission through preoccupying us with concerns of physical survival. We become obsessed with our income and resources to assure food and shelter. Our preoccupation with creature comforts renders us inert, as we sink into the malaise of semi-conscious existence. Ultimately, these obsessions evoke anxiety and fear and breed selfishness.

The world is currently caught in such a survivalist drama, as fears of scarcity fuel war and hate of neighbor. These fixations lack the deeper spiritual knowing of interconnected life beyond mortal existence. The challenge for the world now is to ascend to this spiritualized position of love and care for all of life. This is indeed the Great Spirit’s intent for the entire human race in its current incarnation: to ascend to love amidst threat to mortality. But how to accomplish this?

The shamans of ancient Mexico reminded themselves each day that they were “a being who is going to die” to counter the jackal’s distracting efforts to mire their Spirits in materialism. With death as one’s adviser, one is mindfully present, with Spirit, to the opportunity for fulfillment in each mortal moment.

Between the superconscious domain of Spirit and the subconscious domain of the jackal—the body—is the mind. The mind is actually another orphaned dimension of Spirit, known as the ego. Like the body, the mind is a victim of brainwashing, that is, amnesia of its true origin: Spirit.

However, despite its ignorance, ego stumbled upon the tree of knowledge and free will. On the downside of this discovery is ego frequently colluding with the jackal, advancing its power aims and survivalist agendas. On the upside, ego has the potential to calm the jackal, whereby opening the channel to Spirit’s guidance and resource in its Earthly mission.

When ego chooses to meditate, it calms the body with positive suggestions, which in turn provide reassurance. This is where ego learns voluntary control over the jackal’s autonomic nervous system. When the jackal gets anxious, the ego can lead it to the calmness of its safe place. Once the jackal feels safe, and sees that its true physical needs are being met, it allows its hidden treasures to come into the light of consciousness.

This allows ego to recapitulate the repressed traumas of this life, or the issues of past lives, previously hidden and stored in the dark storage of the physical body. This allows access to one’s true karma, one’s mission in this life, allowing it to be revealed and fulfilled. Ultimately, this spiritualization process allows for the full merger of mind, body, and Spirit in love, the collective Spirit intent for the lifetime we are all in.

Interestingly, it is Anubis who presents the human heart to Ra at the time of human passing, as the actions of one’s just-lived life are weighed and future karma assigned.

We begin our journey of spiritual return through befriending the jackal, who in turn opens the door to the gems of our true heritage, presenting materials for advancement. And, ultimately, as our worthy opponent through life, the jackal returns us, upon passing, to our full-fledged Spirit in infinity.

Loving the jackal,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Magical Pass of You

Leave a comment
Change your movements, change your self…
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico discovered that by performing a specific sequence of physical movements, which they entitled Magical Passes, the embodiment of an intention could be supported and realized. An example would be achieving a state of Inner Silence, through performing a specific set of shamanic bodily movements.

In actuality, all of our physical movements are dense energy constructions of intents we may or may not be aware of. For example, if we approach a social encounter with mental trepidation our bodily movements will express this mental/emotional state. Sensitive people will easily detect someone’s true inner state by reading the physical energetic configuration they enact.

Ultimately, all there is is energy. Hence, the physical world is made up of infinite, unique patterns of flowing energy that give structure and movement to all objects in the world. One of those unique patterns of energy is you.

Did you ever notice that you need only the slightest hint of a person’s movement to recognize them? Each individual has their own unique pattern of energy, which is reflected in all of their bodily movements.

Though we cannot alter the unique energetic essence that we are, we can shift its configuration. For example, the psychoanalyst, Wilhelm Reich, discovered that people’s emotional defenses resulted in a character armor, which physically embodied in postures of rigidity and muscular tension.

Through the practice of a prescribed series of physical movements, called bioenergetics, patients are able to change their defensive energetic configurations to experience joy and pleasure.

The magic of a magical pass is being able to stir our latent ability to re-assemble our energetic essence in new, creative, and fulfilling ways. This is the true definition of change: having the fluidity to shift our energetic essence into new possibilities. The challenge to achieving our coveted changes lies in our habitual attachment to our familiar, energetically encrusted, state of self.

An alternative to focusing on the rigid mental definitions of self, to break up this energetic encrustation, is to change the current magical passes one performs on a daily basis. For example, rather than conform to a specific sleep/wake routine, break the mold. Go to sleep one night at 8 pm, the next at 11 pm, etc. Rather than type the usual texts to friends and family, withdraw into reading a book. Notice what new possibilities of feeling and creativity present in this void of routine.

If you have a breathing practice, do it many times throughout the day. The alpha breathing pass of a count of 8 inhalation, 8 holding, and 8 exhalation, followed by a no-breath pause of 4, can be introduced spontaneously throughout the day.

One may come to observe that interrupting the habitual shallow breathing pattern, or holding of breath for long periods of time, shifts one into a deeply calm reset of the central nervous system. This might actually generate its own trepidation, as the familiar definition of one’s self as a nervous person is severely shaken. We discover why we tend to cling to what we call bad habits, as we understand how they fortify our security in an unchanging personality, with known bodily movements that rigidly uphold that unchanging self.

To really become the full magic of you, observe the habitual patterns that have defined you. Focus especially on the physical movements that actualize these patterns. Change the movements, change the self.

No attachment to outcome, just persevere with light abandon. As Carlos Castaneda would excitedly express, “See what happens!”

From the magic of me, to the magic of you,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Intend To Ascend

Leave a comment
Breathe the breath of  inspiration…
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

To ascend is to realize one’s higher ideals in everyday life. To ascend is to invite Spirit into expression in the temple of the physical body.

The highest ideal is just to love. What blocks love is selfishness. Selfishness is living within the narrow confines of self-interest, essentially focused upon one’s physical comforts and physical survival needs, to the exclusion of the needs of others, as well as the intent of one’s own Spirit.

The physical body is the playing field of the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind expresses our karmic load in the features and workings of the physical body. The subconscious also houses our suppressed memories of experiences in the life we are currently in, in the organs and conditions of the physical body. The subconscious also holds the primal heartbeat of Spirit’s intent, seeking movement in physical expression.

However, the physical body is also the being who is going to die, therefore, from it issues the anxiety, worry, and preoccupation with survival. The physical body is our Earthly animal self, largely preoccupied with food, shelter, and comfort. Like our cherished pets, the physical body asks for tenderness and security to calm its panic around daily survival needs.

The physical body is the child within the self who seeks the reassurance of the parent, the ego mind, that everything will be OK, so that it can relax into a calm state of safety and expression. Short of this, the physical body remains tense and restless, riddling the parent mind with its fears, that generate obsessive thoughts of impending doom.

Frequently, the ego, as parent, becomes preoccupied with securing safety for this child panic state by piling up physical resources to placate its survival fears. This is where the ego is constantly obsessed with money: making, obtaining, or miserly coveting its accumulated reserves. This can also manifest in eating disorder issues, where the survival need of hunger dominates ego decision making.

Currently, we are witness to a war whose perpetrator’s intent is to devour and hoard a country to strengthen its own resource and personal defense. This is the child whose fears have become the parent’s mission to soothe, through the stealing of another’s property, with the justification of self-interest and survival.

Interestingly, the world is divided over the primacy of self-interest that expresses itself in indiscriminate human slaughter versus sacrifice and service, for the greater good of all. The former attitude can be characterized as a refusal to ascend. The latter attitude, the intent to ascend.

To ascend means ego opening and acquiescing to the promptings of its Godparent self, its High Spirit. Spirit is the home of that higher order of love for all, neighbor and self. Though ego was born to be housed in the temple of the physical body, its true parent is Spirit itself, who gave it life to perform its mission, from Spirit.

Typically, ego feels orphaned from its true Spirit. This is the side effect of being born with a blank slate, an imposed loss of memory of its divine origin. This is necessary for it to truly take on its assigned mission in the playing field of time and space, life and death in a physical body. Lacking the memory of its divine origin, ego becomes the little prince/princess of the personality, its Earthly domain, which includes the physical body.

Cynicism, the rational cornerstone of narcissism, is the worldview of an ego that lacks connection to, or completely denies, life beyond the physical body, in Spirit. Cynicism cannot rise above attachment to material love, as, from its perspective, matter is all there is. The only playing field for cynicism is love for one’s material conquests and acquisitions.

For egos ready to ascend, a loving, caring attitude of parental responsibility for the true needs of the physical body temple is primary. This can be achieved through many methods of breathing, meditation, chanting, and dance that calm the worried, mortal, physical body through direct contact with and expression of Spirit.

With the child of the body in its safe place, the ego is now free to open to the promptings of its own true parent self, its High Spirit.

Spirit sends dreams and synchronicities to nourish the spiritual needs of the body and the mind. Spirit sends visions and channels to teach the workings of higher love, as well as bathe the ego and body with the energy for loving movement and fulfillment. This is true inspiration: in-spir(it)-a(c)tion!

Our world is slowly coming around to intend to ascend, as we suffer the atrocities of loveless actions. As individuals, we can hasten this collective inertia by intending to ascend through the responsible parenting of our bodies and to receiving the loving guidance of our Spirits. This work is our personal contribution to the world’s necessary intent to ascend.

With full intent to ascend,

Chuck