– Photo by Jan Ketchel
Here is this week’s audio channeling. May you enjoy a few moments in nature. As is suggested, it will do you well!
Have a nice, calm week!
Tag Archives: spirit
Chuck’s Place: The Inflated Tire
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
If the tires are inflated, filled with air, the vehicle is free to move. Without air there is no movement, without air there is no human life. Air fills our lungs in the region of the heart. With this influx of air the heart is filled with the spirit of the heavens, that which comes from above. This is in contrast to the fiery, watery, earthy region below the diaphragm, in the abdominal cavity, the region of digestion and earthy excretion.
The region of the heart is where the rising sun is lifted into the heavenly sphere, as true light is shown upon all that is. In its heavenly rise the sun reveals the truth and invites us to live in its purity. With this we are lifted beyond our earthy murkiness and introduced to our spirit self. Our spirit self is ethereal. Though it operates within the body, it participates with the gods in infinity. Each breath of air is the commingling of body and spirit.
This communion of ethereal knowing and bodily existence lifts one beyond the bodily constraints with its rootedness in space, time, and gravity. Identification with the spirit self, dissociated from the physical, is the psychological condition of overinflation.
In a state of overinflation one is likely to forget to eat, or to eat so rapidly that digestion is compromised. Instead, one turns to the nourishment of a spirited idea, which now fuels life. A creative project might seize one, as sleep and food are completely suspended, as the spirit relentlessly commandeers the body with its cause. This ungrounded mania, though it may produce a spiritual masterpiece, might eventuate in physical collapse, as the depleted body eventually claims its needed rest.
The key with our spirit self is for it to remain associated and in balance with its bodily partner, rather than dissociated and manic. An automobile is like the body proper. With its properly inflated spirit tires it flows smoothly as it navigates life. The I Ching depicts this as the condition of peace, Hexagram #11, where earth rests upon heaven, their influences in harmonious union.
In energetic terms, this is the body self assuming its position as subordinate to its spirit self. In psychological terms, this is the ego self aligning itself with the intent of its spirit self. To be sure, the ego, for its part, is charged with determining the legitimacy of its own spirit’s intent. Too often the ego is vulnerable to “false gods” catering to its own ambitions, where it gets duped into flying in hot air balloons or taking wax-winged flights of fancy.
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
When the true self speaks from the heart center there is clarity and calmed emotion. This is ego and spirit in alignment. To be sure, a highly emotional spirit is not speaking from the heart, and is one that should be carefully explored before it is allowed to drive the automobile of self.
The voice of the true self simply speaks the truth. Its spirit is lifted above the compulsions of the wheel of life that constantly reconstruct “Groundhog Day” and instead calmly points out the true way forward.
Breathing,
Chuck
Chuck’s Place: Spirit & Soul
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Spirit and Soul are used interchangeably and though indeed they are of the same wholeness each reflects different properties. This same paradox confronts the physicist in the study of elemental particles. The question arises, is it a particle or a wave? The answer, it depends. Sometimes it presents as a particle, sometimes as a wave. The same wholeness is sometimes matter, sometimes energy.
Shamans and dreamers confront the same reality. The same human being in one form is solid matter, and yet in dreaming shifts into pure energy, instantly defying time and space, on sheer intent transversing the universe.
Spirit is associated with the bright sun of consciousness. Spirit is a mental state that brings light into darkness. Spirit thinks, studies, reflects, constructs, abstracts. Spirit is awareness. Spirit is not matter. Spirit discovers, manipulates and exploits matter. It was spirit that ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Spirit is psychically ego consciousness, that which consciously directs the course of our lives.
Soul is the moon, that which animates nature in all its varieties and changes. Soul is the deep instinctual knowledge that animates from the darkness, far from the blinding light of consciousness that chooses and directs. Soul is the knowledge of nature that directs the unfolding of pregnancy and birth, far from the clutches of spirit consciousness that thinks it needs to direct the show.
Spirit dominates the day. In the light, the deeper forces and powers of instinct disappear as the power of the light defines and makes everything seeable and doable. Yes, we can take charge of ourselves, define ourselves, and with orderliness submit to the routine we’ve created for our lives. But as we cross the boundary into dusk, into the growing darkness of night the energies of the soul, long forgotten in the day, animate the dreams and feelings of the night. And we wonder why we have trouble sleeping! We can see in our individual lives the imbalance of our world: spirit so dominates soul and soul strikes back with a vengeance.
Spirit is masculine consciousness. Soul is feminine wisdom. Together they are the Yang and Yin of wholeness, the masculine and the feminine sides of God. Though all human beings are both spirit and soul, women, so much closer to nature, have retained the dominant projection of soul, the irrational instinctive forces of nature. Men, less obviously governed by nature, have picked up the masculine spirit of rational consciousness. And it is this overarching rational spirit that holds the world in captivity right now.
The rational spirit presumes to assert its mastery over all the forces of nature. This rational bulwark worries not about climate change. The world is formatted into a global economy that the God of Reason will order and control. Reason advances more deeply into merging the human brain with the technical computer, the ultimate Frankenstinian creation of the God of Reason. All wars are technical affairs, to be expected and easily controlled, necessary byproducts of reorganization. This is spirit that has lost its way, so dissociated itself from its soul.
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
The energies of soul, as equally powerful as spirit, continue to mount their counteroffensive. The energies of soul are ruthless, indeed the rage of the Goddess Isis, mockingly exploding the hubris of spirit all around the globe. Just as we all must face the terror of the night, the human race, like the animals in the forest that sense the earthquake and the fire before they arrive, must contend with a subliminal anxiety, even at the height of the midday sun. The spirit in all of us feels the rumblings of the soul.
Spirit and soul are alienated from each other. Their bipolar battle is the backdrop of the times we live in. Like a married couple, spirit and soul presently find themselves in divorce court, though in truth they can never really be separated, for they are the two faces of God and they must find their way back to divine union. This is the positive aspect of our present chaos, for we are indeed finding our way back to balanced union.
It’s true that the world as we know it is undergoing major reformation, but spirit and soul will eventually reconcile and life will find itself in a new world order. It’s just how they work. But we must all take part in the transformation. It’s up to each one of us to face the imbalances of spirit and soul within ourselves and deliver to the present and future of our world a sustainable and more perfect union.
Little bit of soul,
Chuck
Chuck’s Place: Orgasm As Divine Encounter
You just have to see it!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
Orgasm is a physical, emotional, relational and spiritual experience. This blog focuses exclusively on the inner spiritual dimension of orgasm, that of union of Ego/Self at climax.
If the Self can be analogized as a whole diamond—all of what we are—the Ego would represent one facet of that diamond, the face that enters this three-dimensional space-time world with consciousness. In essence, the Ego is the child of the Self, born into the unique experience of life and death in a world of matter. The Ego takes the adventure of this lifetime and ultimately folds into its greater Self at death, into the Self that exists beyond space-time in boundless infinity.
As the Ego is launched into its life in this world at birth a veil falls, separating it from its greater Self. Much like Adam and Eve’s fate, the price of consciousness for the Ego is to go it alone, to develop and exercise its consciousness in the maintenence of life and in the adventures of this world.
This alienation from the Self is a great disadvantage and though the purpose of this life is for the Ego to learn to steer its own ship and make its own discoveries, it harbors a deep longing for unity with something greater and more meaningful. This longing is actually the desire and need to unite with its greater Self.
The greater Self is always there, but remains quite veiled because its full energy, that resides in infinity, is quite powerful and could easily overwhelm the Ego. Hence, the Ego must be molded to handle a direct encounter with the Self without suffering total dissolution. In fact, psychosis could be defined as the Ego’s unshielded encounter with that powerful energy of the Self, causing obliteration of Ego and consciousness.
The Self often comes in powerful form to the Ego in dreams. Many of these dream encounters are forgotten upon waking, though some are so numinous, like visions of the Saints, that they change the course of an entire life.
Shamans throughout the world have discovered that sexual energy is the energy of dreaming. The Shamans of Ancient Mexico, specifically, encouraged their apprentices to preserve their sexual energy so as to enhance their ability to find their energy body and travel with the Self in adventures in infinity.
Many religions have made similar discoveries, requiring their priests, monks, and nuns to shut down the physical experience of sexual orgasm to further the cause of spiritual union. Some of these traditions have gone so far as to cast the body as an evil, to be tolerated but vigilantly restricted lest it interfere with true spiritual advancement.
The fact remains, however, that orgasm is a direct encounter between Ego and Self, a highly spiritual affair. Ego, as consciousness, is completely psychic or mental, of spirit substance. The Self is beyond space-time, a very intense high level energy, and high spirit Ego/Self meetings are spiritual encounters.
Orgasm is a powerful energetic seizure that momentarily joins Ego and Self in a state of vibratory oneness. This ecstatic communion of Ego and Self eventuates in a profound, albeit momentary, state of contented wholeness that rejuvenates the Ego’s energy and partially satisfies its deep longing for the Self.
The energetic download of the energy of Self at orgasm is not without its fears and challenges. For one thing, the Ego’s energetic wiring may feel inadequate to handle the charge of the Self. Sometimes the Ego is so fearful of the tidal wave of the energy of Self that it defensively inhibits a sexual charge. Sometimes Ego will tinker with the connection through the use of substance to relax its fears, or use a forceful fantasy to override its own defenses. Naturally, the use of these titrating methods will impact the quality of union between Ego and Self at climax.
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
Sometimes Ego is receptive to Self but finds itself immediately and prematurely swept to orgasm, forestalling a deeper union. Ego may attempt to steel itself, through body rigidity or mental distraction, to avoid the immediacy of orgasm, which will as well impact the quality of union.
As with all channels of connection between Ego and Self, the road to orgasm is a work in progress. In general, as with advanced dreaming, the ability to deeply relax the mind and body allows the Ego to find its receptive place where it can enjoy a full orgasmic encounter with its deeper Self.
Orgasm is sacred encounter and is best treated as such, as a true religious experience. Though it can be entered into at any level, from sacred to profane, at its most sacred level it is indeed union with the divine.
Chuck
Chuck’s Place: Guilt
Guilt is the emotional consequence of knowing, on some level, that we are not the mask we portray ourselves to be in the world. We are guilty because we know we fail to meet the standard of perfection. We are aware of our inferiority and our darkness hidden within.
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
Actually, this knowing is a saving grace, because despite having to suffer the torture of guilt, we are owning the existence of our dark side. We encounter and suffer inwardly the dilemma that in a less conscious individual is only known through the disowned projection of one’s dark side onto a scapegoat that reflects the hidden darkness within. In projection, guilt is avoided because the real problem is projected “out there.” It can be eliminated and controlled by imprisoning or killing off the bad guy “out there.”
Our time is rife with mass projections of evil onto Muslims, Mexicans, African Americans, women, Democrats, Republicans, Jews, Palestinians; the list is endless. The world is currently completely divided into separatist camps that see themselves as morally superior to all others. They completely project their inferior dark side onto some other camp “out there.”
The preponderance of these polarized camps in our time is the surface repercussion of a more deeply brewing clash between the collective unconscious that contains all our darkness with the idealized moral superior values that our egos identify with in our religions and modernistic lifestyles. Would that the collective consciousness of the world could feel guilty, that is, own more fully and grapple with the true depth of its nature versus continually locating it outside where it destroys its neighbor and the world in order to be delivered from its own evil.
Unfortunately, though the world must arrive at this deeper truth to survive now, it is the individual that must lead the world in this task. The individual who faces their own shadow is the advance guard of a transformed world. On the other hand, how fortunate that every individual who faces the true depth of their own shadow advances the world on its path of survival. How empowering!
How do we own our shadow? How do we resolve our guilt? To begin with, as long as we only identify ourselves as light beings, or as beings who must be purified of or relieved of our own darkness, we will always suffer guilt. As Erich Neumann states:
“Just as light cannot be extinguished by the superior power of darkness, so too there is no evidence to show that darkness can ever be abolished by any superior power on the part of light.” *
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
Light requires the contrast of shadow to be defined; dark requires the contrast of light to be known. One cannot be separated from the other and be whole. The two are inextricably opposite sides of the same wholeness.
Human beings are beings of light in their spirit, as reflected in mental processes and consciousness. Human beings are beings of darkness in the depths of their instinctual, animal natures. Spirit beings could not be in this world without their animal bodies. Animal and spirit are inextricably linked in a partnership in this world, saddled with the challenge of developing a relationship which acknowledges and finds life for both animal and spirit.
If we identify with an ethic that says passion and pleasure are evil, we will suffer guilt. Our wounded animal self will torture, ad nauseum, our morally superior controlling ego with depression and “bad” fantasy. We must abandon this old ethic. Our new ethic must grant the human animal its basic human right: The right to pursue happiness. With this gesture, our spirit consciousness acknowledges its animal partner, though the challenge of true integration and reconciliation with the fullness of who we are is indeed the greatest human challenge.
Guilt can be relieved when we accept that the animal hungers, lusts, and rages. The fact that the animal has these experiences does not make it bad; it simply makes it a human animal.
Of course, it is equally appropriate for its spirit counterpart to require of the animal a bit of refinement and restraint. Once the animal energies can find satisfaction and expression, with conscious consent and collaboration that allows for a fuller expression of all that we are, we advance.
What ultimately will relieve us of our guilt, is to embrace a new human ethic: Integrated wholeness versus perfection based on suppression or repression of the animal—that which has led us to our current status: a crumbling civilization with its discontents!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
May we all herald in this new ethic, beyond guilt, as brave pioneers taking full responsibility for our individual wholeness in our interdependent one world.
Going beyond,
Chuck
* Reference: Erich Neumann, Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, p. 46.
Note: I am grateful to Erich Neumann and his book, Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, which has inspired much of this blog.