Everything is possible, particularly if we become our fuller selves.
As in quantum physics, human beings are both particles and waves. As particles we are solid separate material objects, living in a material world. In our wave state we are energetic spirit beings, residents in a greater world of pure spirit energy. As Don Juan Matus put it, “Of course we are solid beings, but we are first energetic beings.”
The solid dimension of our being, the world of everyday life, is highly predictable. As physical beings, we exist in the Newtonian world of mechanical being, whose laws can predict our entire lives. Astrology charts, I Ching readings, and Human Design readings can predict, with a high degree of accuracy, who we are, how we will behave and, in effect, the course of our lives. However, they are not absolute. Consciousness enables transcending even the most basic programs, in an instant.
These readings tap into the programs, loaded into our subconscious minds, that run our physical being. Thus, for instance, one’s genetic history is given high ranking in the hierarchy of physical programs that determine one’s health. Thus, a history of heart disease or cancer in one’s ancestry may predispose one to an encounter with these diseases. This automatic unfolding of genetic programs may determine one’s physical life.
At the energetic level of one’s being, thought creates reality. Thus, as with placebo, if one doesn’t believe they will have a problem, they can potentially override the automatic unfolding of a powerful genetic program of disease. This Spirit directive then changes physical manifestation.
Similarly, if one’s ancestral history is replete with failed relationships, these inherited programs may influence one’s ability to engage in successful intimate relationships. If one is able to resolve or detach from these ancestral dramas, at the energetic level of their being, they are then able to suggest to their subconscious mind new programs that free their ability to experience relational love.
The energetic level of one’s being is the transpersonal dimension. At this level we carry our phylogenetic history (including animal and cellular), our past lives (in human and nonhuman form), and our relationships with energetic beings in infinity. The transpersonal dimension is also the true home of the mind, which connects to the physical brain that enacts its spirit intentions in daily life.
The transpersonal dimension is also the dimension that houses our greater Spirit self, of which the ego is a subset that manages the affairs of daily life. When we access our Spirit self we also gain access to the wisdom gained through an eternity of lives. Those lives are members of our soul group, which include all our past lives, and are interconnected in the hologram of all life.
We access this transpersonal dimension in dream life, as well as through other methods that allow the ego to connect with its greater Spirit in non-ordinary states of reality. These non-ordinary states are accessed through shamanic journeys, like recapitulation, through the utilization of brainwave entrainment practices such as Hemi-Sync, through yoga practices, visions, trauma, prayer, through the use of substances or psychedelic medicines (requiring proper clinical supervision), and through intent (by directly instructing the subconscious mind).
When we integrate our solid physical selves within our greater energetic Spirit we open to freedom from inevitability. At this level we can override—through resolution—all the programs that determine the course of our present lives. This is a formidable challenge, but it is possible.
Our world now is banking on us collectively reaching the energetic dimension of being where we can freely choose our destiny. Nothing is truly absolutely determined.
The deepest truth is that the future cannot be fully known, especially if we awaken to the power of choice beyond what every day seems increasingly inevitable. But for that to happen we must wake up to the fullness of who we really are!
Begin with the self. You alone can have tremendous impact upon the collective consciousness of our time.
Transcend the mundane by increasingly changing what you say to yourself. Notice your first words to yourself each morning. Are they negative? Begin anew. Speak new first words in a positive vein. Let positivity rule the mundane so that transcendence may happen and so that progress on a higher level of consciousness may take place. Become the catalyst to your own continued growth in the words you speak to yourself. Be loving in all you say, be open in all you imagine, be positive in all you yearn for. Transcend the mundane with intent. Shift into positivity and see what happens!
I walk along a country road… -Photo by Jan Ketchel
I dream that I’m walking along a country road. To the right is an old farm, sprawling along a flat expanse of land. There is a low white stucco farmhouse. The grass is very green, the landscape low rolling hills, a row of trees in the distance. As I look around and take in the landscape, I’m aware that this is an important dream. As I walk up to the farmhouse, I have an overall sense that I am going to learn something significant about myself.
Outside the front door, sitting inside a round pen, I find a small horse, the size of a Shetland pony. The horse is covered in mud, the ground it sits upon muddy too. It looks uncared for. I’m immediately worried about it, aware that it needs water.
I find a small white bowl and go into the house with the intention of getting some water for the horse. I walk into a long narrow room, somewhat like a throne room. Upon a dais sits an old great aunt, now dead, a person who had been pampered and taken care of her whole life. Adoring daughters, other relatives and family friends—all familiar to me—line the sides of the room and sit at her feet. I walk down the center of the room and up to her where she sits above everyone. I look up at her and tell her that the horse needs care, that I will come by every day to give it water and hay. I’ll take it for a walk. It needs exercise, I say. It will need a halter or leash, I say. I will also clean it, I say, because it needs to be brushed. Its back, I had noticed, was covered with clumps of mud.
After delivering my message, I turn and leave the room. When I am just outside the door I hear laughter, the people in the room giggling over my concern for the horse. It doesn’t bother me; I don’t take it personally because I know how important the horse is.
I go into a bathroom to pee and put water in the small white bowl, but when I flip the light switch there is no electricity. The bathroom is totally dark, with no windows. I find a flashlight on the counter and switch it on. It gives me enough light to see the toilet and the sink. I pee and then fill the bowl with water.
I go outside and give the bowl of water to the horse. I tell it that I’ll be back to walk it and take care of it every day. As I leave, I run into my brother, a builder. I tell him that the house needs some repairs, that the electricity in the bathroom isn’t working properly and that he should check it out. It isn’t really of concern to me, as only the welfare of the horse is of interest.
This is called “The Unicorn in Captivity,” a detail from the seventh tapestry in the series, The Hunt for the Unicorn. I think we are all hunting for our own unicorn… -Photo by Jan Ketchel
In the morning, as soon as I tell the dream to Chuck, I see the mandala: the horse sitting inside the round pen. Chuck, immediately thinking of the Medieval tapestry of the white unicorn sitting inside the round picket fence, asks me if the horse was white. I don’t think so, I say, it appeared to be brown in color, but it was covered in mud, so I don’t know for sure.
I decide that the appearance of my old great aunt, sitting above everyone, implies the ego, while the lack of light in the bathroom implies the conscious/unconscious. I’m aware that the horse is important, to me especially, but that’s as far as I get in my analysis. I let the dream sit for a while. Before long, however, greater meaning emerges, especially when I remember that Chuck and I had been reading about the Vedantic traditions of the kosas the night before. The kosas are the five sheaths that enclose the spiritual germ—the Atman—the spiritual energy that we all are. I begin to see the dream in the context of those sheaths, how everything in the dream was set up to lead me to the horse, what I see as the fourth sheath, the kosa of ancient wisdom. I did go back to an ancient place of family in the dream. The setting was not, however, my family’s estate as I had known it, but completely different, though in the dream I was aware that it was the family farm.
I begin to see that the dream had me encounter the first four sheaths or kosas: the physical, the breath, the ego/mental, and the ancient wisdom. The first kosa comes in the form of family members in their physical bodies, a lot of them overweight, but also ignorant as to why I cared so much about the horse. I am intent upon giving water to the horse. I see water perhaps representing the breath, the second sheath, the etheric pranamaya-kosa, which gives energy to the body. I then encounter the great aunt sitting upon her throne, representing the ego and the mental kosa, also represented by the dark bathroom which I light with the flashlight, the conscious and the unconscious. Finally, in the form of the horse, I encounter the wisdom sheath, vinjanamaya-kosa which I am intent on tending, bringing what it needs to live in health and harmony. Inside this last sheath lies bliss, anandamaya-kosa, the Atman. This is the ultimate goal of this life that I live, to experience my inner bliss, that eternal kernel of ethereal self.
I understand that the dream stresses all the things I’ve been doing for myself as I work on my physical body, as I do my inner work, my yoga and meditation, as I constantly realign and balance myself on my path. Lately, my personal process has evolved around bringing together all that I am, in harmony, in acceptance. I have been learning how to be the evolved person I had worked so hard to become during my recapitulation process, that assimilation also a process, as I always seek the next step that will take me into deeper and greater self-knowledge.
The dream stresses how to care for the ancient wisdom, how to exercise it and nurture it, while also allowing it to more fully live in my life every day. Just as I tell the horse that I will tend to it every day, so must I do the same in my daily life, tend to the wisdom of the ancients that I have learned about, that I channel and that I teach others about.
This is a very supportive dream, I conclude, in alignment with all that I am, with all the work that Chuck and I do, with what we talk about, write about, and are drawn to read about. It’s what we strive for. It’s about harmony, balance, and careful tending to all parts of the self. As Joseph Campbell says, we are constantly seeking to make ourselves transparent to the transcendent.
An hour later, something becomes clear and I reinterpret the dream slightly, but in quite an eye-opening way. I suddenly remember how important the little horse was to me in the dream, and that nothing was going to stop me from taking over its care. Now I see that the little horse actually represents the neglected fifth kosa—bliss. The dream itself, I realize, and the farmhouse setting represent the fourth kosa, ancient wisdom. I had a sense of this during the dream, as I walked toward the ancient farmhouse, aware that I was entering deeper into a dream of importance and significance.
Bliss is… -Photo by Jan Ketchel
The dream actually leads me to where my bliss has been silently and patiently waiting for me, inside the sheath of the fence, which is actually rather flimsy and couldn’t really hold back the horse if it wanted to escape. I see this as the truth about our bliss, that it waits for us to find it. And once we become aware of it, it’s not that hard to access, nor is it really held back by anything other than our own inability to see it for what it is, and perhaps our inability to allow ourselves to have access to it, as we are taught that to seek our bliss is selfish. In reality, however, it’s all that matters. And so I name my little horse, Bliss.
Only by properly caring for and nurturing my bliss/Bliss will I be able to bring it to full health and life. And rather than having to search for it outside in the world, I now know that I have it inside me. It’s been there all along, always with me, at the center of my being. How could it be otherwise? Perhaps it’s a little white horse after all, the innocent unicorn that lies at the center of who we all are. In innocence lies the magical, the utterly transcendent. We just have to free it from it’s sheath, tear down its flimsy fence. Thank you, dreamworld!
I most humbly express my thanks for being able to tell you this dream. Perhaps it will help in your own dream interpretations. I know from experience that those sheaths have a habit of popping up quite often, in dreaming and in real life. They are the veils we talk about all the time, keeping us from our truths, and from our bliss. In the end, they fall quite easily, once we see what they are really made of.
Taking down the fences, and the sheaths, and the veils, and whatever else happens to get in the way of going deeper still,
Jan
I was quite affected by Jeanne’s message the other day, Transcendence Through Fully Living, stirred to “inhabit my beingness in a fuller way,” as she suggested. Maybe I’ll get a tattoo or a piercing, something daring, I thought. Maybe I’ll cut my hair, make a drastic change, do something to reflect the energy I feel coursing through me, I thought. Then I stepped back and let the energy settle. No, I thought, that’s not what she means. She means own yourself, be yourself to the fullest, be who you truly are. She means live what is inside on the outside now, I decided.
I had a busy day. I selected the clothes to wear with great care. My energy was buoyant and that helped me decide. I wanted my clothing to reflect what I felt inside, my beingness, in a fuller way. I felt good as I left the house in the clothes I had selected. I was in many places throughout the day. I had to travel a bit. I listened to beautiful chanting as I drove, turning the volume up high. I noticed that the day was flowing along nicely.
Afterwards, as I headed toward home, I decided to play a little game with myself, letting the traffic lights guide me, leaving my return route open to guidance from the universe. I have used this technique many times. It was especially important when I was learning how to release my tight hold on controlling, obsessive behaviors, when I was doing my recapitulation and learning how to acquiesce to life itself. When confronted with which route to take, I’d simply let the lights guide me. “If the next light is a green arrow, I’ll take it. If it’s a red light, I’ll go straight.” I have had many transcendent experiences as I’ve played this game, like a virtual map suddenly appearing out of nowhere, a video game that I have never played before.
As I played this game on Monday, green arrows lit up my way, determining which routes I was to take. My energy was still good. I was still flowing along with my chanting music blaring. Suddenly a large shiny black raven swooped in front of my car, seemingly out of nowhere, from the left. Had I been going just a little faster we would have collided. I had no fear, I didn’t even brake, we simply crossed paths. He carried something round and red in his beak. I got a glimpse and then he was gone. Oh, I thought, that’s don Juan, Carlos Castaneda’s benefactor, raven/crow energy, an omen. My first thought was ominous, my second thought bright. I let it be a good omen.
I was on the approach to the bridge, crossing the Hudson, coming up to the toll booth. I let a car merge in front of me from the right, a little blue car much the same color as my own. I was patient. My thoughts went to the man that Chuck and I had met at a checkout line in a store the other day, jokingly suggesting that we pay for his small purchase. He used to be generous himself he said. He used to pay the toll for others crossing the bridge behind him when it was only 50 cents, but now that it’s $1.50 he doesn’t do it so often.
The man in the little blue car stuck his hand out the window and handed the toll collector two dollar bills. He seemed to be talking, taking his time. I waited. I saw him hand the collector another dollar bill. I wondered what he was doing. Can you buy a second passing? It seemed odd. Maybe he was asking for change?
I had my $1.50 in hand as I pulled up to the toll booth and opened my window. The toll collector, with a tone of wonder, told me that the man in the little blue car had already paid my toll. “Oh! Thank you!” I said, delighted, as he opened the gate and I sailed right through. I waved to the man in the blue car ahead of me, wondering if he saw me thanking him.
As I continued my drive home, I took note of the events of the ride, the decision to let the lights guide me; the raven bearing its gift, the merging car, the thoughts going through my head, the gift of the toll. All these synchronicities were significant, but they alone were not the message. They were just signs from the universe leading me to understand the true message. What was it? It took me a little while to get it. I had to recapitulate my experiences to grasp the deeper meaning.
There is always some kind of bridge to cross up ahead… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
I was back home when it finally dawned on me. I was about to cross a bridge, the symbol of connecting worlds, of bridging the disparate selves into a new self, to “inhabit my beingness in a fuller way,” as I had intended when I’d dressed in the morning. The energy of my intent was flowing, the gate simply opened before me, free access was granted, sending me over the crossing. Had I not set my intent to let the universe guide me, none of those things would have happened. In fact though, I had been on the threshold of transcendence all day, steeped in the intent of the channeled message from Jeanne.
We have all been on that threshold of change for a long time; it’s the times we live in. While on that threshold we struggle, just as our world struggles now. We see these struggles in so many areas. We must face our struggles, confront our challenges if we are to evolve. And when we are ready, when we know that it’s time to cross our bridge, if we let the universe be part of our process it makes the crossing a lot easier. I found this out. The next challenge is to keep going over all the bridges in the same manner, fully alert and aware, reading the signs and acquiescing to the journey as it unfolds. We must allow transcendence to become a natural and acceptable part of our lives. It’s not really that hard, and the magic of it is both invigorating and joyous to experience. As Jeanne says, let a little joy in!
Navigating,
Jan
P.S. Just a note to say that the next day I had to face all red lights! The message that day was: PATIENCE! And indeed, as the day unfolded, patience was required, but I found it was an effortless process, as I quite easily flowed without frustration. I read the sign and let it become important. In acquiescence, I have learned many great lessons. Be well. Be flowing.
