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Jan's Blog, Recapitulation

Recapitulation: Movement is Crucial

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Just Breathe… anywhere, anytime…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

There are many phases of a recapitulation, especially a recapitulation of childhood, especially a recapitulation of a childhood of sexual or physical abuse with its many layers of psyche and soma.

Each layer needs its own separate recapitulation time. Memories are multifaceted and multidimensional, like the skins of an onion, layer upon layer of thin veils of information that must be addressed one at a time. This is one reason that a recapitulation can take a long time. But we can facilitate a recapitulation by consciously attending to each of those layers with intent and awareness, paying attention to where we need to go next by what comes to guide us.

Recapitulation is guided by spirit, that of our body and that of our high self. Dreams guide us too, and we should pay attention to where they take us; our spirit speaking to us in its own language of symbol, myth, and possibility, tapping into other dimensions of truth and fact that we may be missing during our waking life.

During my own recapitulation, I discovered how the many layers of memory came. First there were visual flashbacks. Then those flashbacks fused together into movie-like scenarios, with sounds, smells, feelings, in both physical body and emotional body. Eventually each of those separate somatic experiences required their own recapitulation, so that in the end my recapitulation became a many-layered experience, as each part of each experience took its own time to show me what it had to show me.

The body holds just as much memory, or possibly more than the mind. This is what I came to discover, that the body holds its own memories, separate and yet connected to the memories that come from the deep recesses of the mind, that which is stored in the memory centers of the brain.

These body memories appeared as stuck in my body, energy caught in various places, causing pain and discomfort, anxiety and tensions, and they often acted out real physical disabilities, such as unexplained limping, numbness, swelling, rashes, etc. Often, just the remembering and reliving of a memory did not fully release it from my physical body. Such memories remained deeply embedded in my muscles and sinews until I did something physical to urge them out of me.

I found running, walking, doing yoga, Magical Passes and breathing, Embodyment Therapy® and energy work by an energy worker helpful in releasing these memories from the sinews of the body. Massage, making love, with a partner or alone (yes, masturbation is an excellent means by which to release stuck energy); physical work, gardening, creative endeavors like painting, dancing, singing, playing music, even taking lots of soothing baths. Don’t force; do what comes naturally to you. Anything that stirs the body is helpful in addressing the deep needs of the body to release what it has stored alongside the mental memories.

If physical activity is limited, pain and incapacitation will continue. Mysterious symptoms that no doctor can explain will continue. Illnesses of no origin will continue. So, I urge all of my readers to get up off the couch, out of the bed, and onto the yoga mat. Do some exercises that appeal to you. Put on some running or walking shoes, ride a bike, do something you enjoy in order to get moving.

If physical movement is difficult, even just lots of deep breathing will begin to open the passageways to release what’s stuck; either the recapitulation breath or any other deep breathing technique will suffice. Or simply breathe consciously, with awareness, paying attention to the gentle and natural in-breath and out-breath that your body makes on its own. Breath is life; breath is healing.

Whatever you choose to do, begin slowly, proceed at a pace that you and your body can handle, but be persistent. Ask your body to show you what it needs; this is often the best way to start the physical release of recapitulation. Your body will respond and show you what it needs.

Both your psyche and your body will thank you for getting in touch at a new and deeper level. Your recapitulation will get unstuck, and you will be better prepared to handle what it reveals to you.

It will make you stronger in mind and body, psyche and soma. And your spirit will be overjoyed.

Wishing you well on your continued journey of recapitulation.

Sending you love and support,

Jan Ketchel, Author of The Recapitulation Diaries

•Published simultaneously on The Recapitulation Diaries Facebook Page

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Repetition

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Repetition is a law of nature, but like the serpent we can shed our skin… and break away, renewed.
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Human beings are receptors. Human beings are natural hypnotic subjects. Suggestions rule our lives. Suggestions are intents that, if we attach to them, become our destiny.

The optimal relationship with intent is consciousness, to be in command of what one intends.

Many suggestions have become independent entities, programs that we inherit that determine our biology. The modern exploration of transgender beings speaks to the deepest reality that even these programs may indeed be altered.

Many programs have proven useful to human evolution. Our bodily systems operate efficiently due to their automatic execution. We breathe automatically. We can consciously influence our breathing, but we don’t need consciousness to breathe.

Beneath consciousness is the subconscious. The subconscious is the receptive center of all human beings. The subconscious does not think, it obeys commands. Like the Earth itself, the subconscious receives the seeds of suggestion and manifests them into life.

Our lives are truly lives of trance; determined by the automatic programs we have inherited as well as by the internalized programs we have been socialized by. Religious systems embrace practices to optimize suggestions to the subconscious to orient it to the intent of Spirit.

The Jew, at all comings and goings, touches the Mezuzah to orient to God’s will. The Catholic dips the fingers in the holy water and makes the sign of the cross to invoke purification of one’s link to God, as well as his protection. The Moslem call to prayer is the call to orient toward God’s salvation. The Buddhist turns the prayer wheel to stay on point to one’s spiritual advancement in the release of karma.

The key to all these practices is repetitive action, to reinforce commands and suggestions to the subconscious, to stay oriented to the ultimate Spirit, in whatever form it is dressed. Religious traditions provide a bulwark against the power of instinct, which manifests inherited programs, as well as toward the power of ego, with its tendency toward narcissistic commands.

The spirit currently dominating our time is one of dissolution. The complete interruption to modern humanity’s way of life is profound. Both the ancient Hindus and Toltecs point to now as the completion of a long cycle of time. Completion requires breakdown in preparation for new life.

The I Ching, perhaps the greatest embodiment of the cycle of time, states that the power of the cycle to play itself out is nearly incontrovertible, however, there exists the very real possibility that history needn’t repeat itself. However, for this to happen, consciousness must assume full responsibility for its link to intent.

How can this happen? Repetition. Consciously, perseveringly, without begging or marketplace motive, state your intent. Think to your heart’s delight, but don’t try to reason your way to intent. Intend by intending, over and over again. Finally, have no attachment to the outcome. Attachment makes it a business arrangement. Keep your link to intent pure.

Shamans, like many religious traditions, encourage that one keep one’s intent oriented to one’s Spirit. Ultimate Spirit is love, the glue that adheres everything together in its wholeness. To align with that Spirit might indeed create the possibility for overcoming the usual course of human history, in this most extraordinary time of dissolution.

Incessantly intend, with consciousness, and see what happens!

INTENT!

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Tempering the Warrior’s Spirit

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The calmness you seek is all around you… and within you…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The intent of the warrior’s spirit is freedom. COVID-19 is a predatory virus that has taken control of the world, vastly limiting freedom. The human spirit is currently gathering steam to blow through the bottleneck of this quarantine retort.

This is a natural reaction of spirit, to push beyond all limitations. Some explorers push beyond the limits of the physical body to explore their spirit potential. Others stay focused on transcending all supposed boundaries and limitations imposed by the physical world.

The warriors of Carlos Castaneda’s lineage discovered that the most valuable practice to obtain freedom was not in great feats of power in this world, or in any other. Freedom can best be obtained through the tempering of spirit, they discovered, through encounters with a formidable tyrant, such as COVID-19.

The first lesson in such an encounter is to willingly accept COVID-19’s power to infect us all. Our human self-importance has been greatly checked, in respect to the deadly power of this smallest of microbes. Our entire world’s familiar way of life has had to be tabled, denying us the basics of human social interaction.

Losing self-importance enables us to more objectively see what we are up against. To be offended by the predator costs us cascades of emotional energy, spent to no avail. The predator thrives on our offense, both in terms of the emotional energy we deliver to it, and in the co-mingling we may engage in, in defiance of necessary limitation, whereby providing potential new hosts to the predator.

Humbling of the warrior spirit equips the warrior to face the unknown, without the veil of self-importance. Freed of prejudice, the scientist in all of us is on the road to solution. However, great detachment is required to not fall prey to the battle cry of unfairness. In a predatory universe, unfairness is a dominant of reality.

The battle with unfairness is formidable. It is our core human predicament. We are all saddled with the reality that we must attach to this world to survive, yet we must fully release it in death. Where is the fairness in these diametrically opposed demands?

The greatest obstacle to our freedom is the emotional energy the predator can drown us in. When we become emotionally activated by the limits imposed by the predator, we may become possessed by fear, sadness, and rage. The warrior, on the other hand, becomes attuned to the triggers of these emotions and, while not denying them, actively refuses to attach to them.

Fear is a natural reaction to perceived threat. Fear, however, is generally greatly augmented by attachment to thought and imagination. The practice of taking charge of the mind, specifically where it exercises its focus and attachment, can keep fear in modest proportion. Thus, a warrior does not let fear take over the mind.

Sadness is a legitimate emotion, however, a bottomless pit of sadness is inhuman. One caught in this place is likely channeling an entity, such as an archetype, that seeks expression through possession of a human life. To dis-identify with such an archetype is to maintain one’s humanness. Thus, a warrior refuses to relinquish personal power.

Rage is the extreme of anger, often sparked by being overwhelmed by feeling offended. Beyond the affront to self-importance, it’s natural to want to take an action, such as setting a boundary, or acting in self-defense during an objective attack. A warrior strives always to act as fits a situation, devoid of feeling offended.

The world’s encounter with COVID-19 offers all warriors on the path to freedom the opportunity to temper their spirits, in preparation for a successful journey into the unknown. The pitfalls of self-importance and emotional extremes are tempered, as clarity, sobriety, and practicality guide the warrior’s  journey instead.

Use this opportunity to go with the flow, and restore the magic of being a warrior in this wonderful world at this awesome time.

Tempering spirit,

Chuck

Soulbytes

Soulbyte for Tuesday April 21, 2020

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Guard your energy like a miser. Like someone with a secret, keep it to yourself as if it were all you owned, for indeed, it is all your spirit does have to offer. Keep it safe from harm. Protect it so that it may grow and enable you knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, so that you may gather enough of it to adventure beyond the body and discover what it can really do. Your spiritual energy is as real as you are, and yet it is more than you are. It is eternal.

Sending you love,

The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Currency of Attention

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Sign of the times…

“Pay attention” is a frequently delivered command. Indeed, when we pay with our attention we deliver our energy to the object of our focus. Attention is a powerful energetic currency.

Notice, for instance, the impact on your personal energy when you tune into the news, or some form of social media. The impact can be either depleting or empowering. Either way, we spend our energy in our emotional reaction to the news. That expended energy is delivered, on a subtle level, to the person we are reacting to in the news.

Children, most dramatically, seek our attention. Child educators know that getting attention is the child’s goal, good or bad. Once the child has our attention, they thrive on the energy of our focus, as well as on our emotional reactions. Tantrums are energetic goldmines for the tantruming child.

Even inanimate objects can absorb our energy. A trip to a museum is a case in point. Though fascinating and educational, objects of art demand our attention and can deeply drain our energy. We could say that a sculpture at a museum is imbued with self-importance. Were it not so, it wouldn’t be on display. Be careful how much attention you give it!

Self-importance measures the quantity and quality of attention we are paid for being alive. The ego, as the orphaned ruler of the personality, seeks the attention of others to validate its worthiness. This extrinsic dependency is the consequence of the ego’s separation from its wholeness, at the time of birth into this world. A blank slate seeks the approval of others to find its worth.

Shamans have astutely addressed this energetic stalemate. The fragmentation from Spirit-self, that accompanies finite life in a physical world, has led to obsessive dependence upon the attention of others to replace one’s lost Spirit. This attention-seeking behavior is considered by shamans to be humankind’s greatest energy drain.

Shamans discovered that a shift in focus, like the social isolation the world is currently experiencing, can result in the accrual of vast sums of energy within the self. That energy, combined with the intent to reconnect to one’s Spirit, can result in a deeply healing, inner soul retrieval.

To be connected to the life of one’s Spirit is to become guided by omens, the synchronicities from infinity that guide and inform life; to be in the world but not of the world, at an attention-seeking level. Attention-seeking is then completely replaced by the pursuit of right action, the best decision to be made under the presenting circumstances.

To dance with omens is to feel constantly renewed by participation in a fuller life, one that includes one’s essence, at a cosmic level. Attention received is not attention sought, but it is attention provided to guide the way to right action.

Save the currency of your attention for that which truly guides you to your wholeness. This is the world we are morphing into, a world of interconnected oneness. Let’s attend to that!

Attending Spirit,

Chuck