Tag Archives: transition

Chuck’s Place: The Caldron Of The New

Please Note: My next weekly blog will be published on July 8th, as I am taking time off from my writing schedule. Jan’s Soulbytes, however, will continue to be posted daily.

Do the good work of the caldron…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Recently, I consulted the I Ching to provide clarity and guidance for my readers as they navigate the next couple of weeks of these uncertain times. I was presented with hexagram #50, The Caldron, with a moving line in the second place. The future of this configuration is hexagram #56, The Wanderer, or the state of being in transition.

A caldron is a cooking vessel used to prepare food over an open fire. In ancient China, huge metal or ceramic caldrons were used in temples to prepare food offerings to honor the ancestors, as well as heads of state and those of wisdom, who contributed their guidance on such an important occasion as the birth of a new dynasty. This huge cooking vessel served the spiritual transformation of a nation, a metaphor quite apropos for our time.

The Caldron is also an alchemical vessel that contains and transforms a volatile mix of opposing energies into a delicate balance. The elements that build the pictogram of The Caldron are fire beneath water. Fire is the active, heated masculine energy that is absorbed and tempered by the calm, receptive feminine energy of water. This artful womblike handling of polarity gives birth to new life in the form of steam.

Steam is the resultant transformation of water into a new state of energy that can  power an engine or provide cleansing in purification practices. Psychologically and spiritually, the water of the subconscious mind, heated by the fire of suggestion—coming from the masculine ego of the conscious mind—provides the energy and construction materials for new life.

The Caldron is an apt symbol for the subconscious mind. All knowledge and wisdom is contained in the subconscious with its additional ability to divinely manifest into the flesh any suggestion it absorbs. The collective caldron of now is manifesting extreme volatility, at the behest of the dominating masculine ego, whose powerful suggestions it absorbs and dutifully produces.

But these manifestations cannot cancel the karma they generate. Regardless of how things play out on the surface, the karma of now is irrevocably to become the greater good for all, the absolute consequence of the unbounded narcissism and one-sidedness of now.

The existence of this karmic shift is fully formed at the subtle, purely energetic dimension of reality. Physical reality is always preceded by mental activity that, when fully complete, delivers its dictum to the subconscious mind for physical manifestation. The transient revolutions and chaos of now are simply the later stages fueling the coming karmic shift.

The moving line that presents in the second place of The Caldron, as well as its resultant hexagram of The Wanderer, contains powerful guidance for now: While we are in a fine position for good and necessary change, we must exercise caution and avoid arrogance. Humility and proper conduct cannot be overstressed.

The Wanderer depicts the state of a journeyer who arrives as a stranger in a strange land. Firstly, the journeyer should maintain integrity and clarity in interactions with others. Humility and modesty dissuade distrust and aggression. The journeyer does well to suggest to the subconscious mind that it be provided signs to direct right action, which enables the journeyer to be adaptive and go with the flow.

The journeyer has clear thoughts and the resilience to patiently wait for the world to transform for the greater good. The journeyer is nourished by the wisdom provided by The Caldron, and submits willingly to the containment and refinement of heated transformational processes that must be endured for transformation to complete. The Wanderer maintains loving compassion for all as the world is born anew.

In summary, take solace in knowing that the stupendous change toward the greater good is but a step away. Of course, cosmic time is a bit more relative than our earthly clocks! Be patient, humble and full of gratitude. Believe, believe, believe! Throw your intent daily behind the absolutely inevitable karmic shift to the greater good destined to befall us all.

Let go and know,
Chuck

Soulbyte for Thursday May 8, 2025

-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

An explosive time is now upon you. Keep in your heart and your mind that this is the time of change and evolution that you have longed for. The time of change that has been waiting for its moment is now here. Get to know it and how it feels. Get to understand its meaning and its purpose. Get to know why you are going through this great time of change and be open for what is still to come.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Wednesday May 7, 2025

-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

From the crumbling of old life will come forth new life, as is the magic of the Universe in active creation. No new life ever came that did not birth forth in a violent manner, for life itself comes out of pain. Pain accompanies newness. Nothing is born that does not first go through the pain of birth. All things suffer during emergence. Creativity is suffering until the idea, the spark, is finally born into existence. Notice how hard it is in your own life to birth something new. You experience it every day.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Tuesday May 6, 2025

-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

As regards the chaos, remember that chaos is at the root of all creation. Nothing comes forth out of order. What is new will only come out of the chaos of the old that has crumbled, the past that has departed, from the rubble of old life. Let the chaos do its work of preparation for new creation. Stand by and wait, keeping always an open and grateful heart.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck’s Place: Squeezed In The Time Of No Exit

Eventually we exit, we birth…
-Illustration © 2022 Jan Ketchel

Earth is birthing. Humanity is birthing. The human psyche is birthing.

At the current stage of the birthing process contractions have begun; we are in active labor. The fetus is tightly encased in the birth canal, with no possibility of exit, as the cervix has yet to dilate enough to enable the birthing journey into the light of this world. Stan Grof has named this stage of the birth process Basic Perinatal Matrix II (BPM II).

Nature’s hurricanes, massive flooding, erupting volcanoes and earthquakes, and worldwide conflagrations are all part of Earth’s contractions, closing in upon all life on the planet. Gaia is rebirthing herself into a new configuration of life, which is currently sealed in, like a fetus, in her alchemical pressure cooker of a womb, planet Earth itself.

Humanity finds itself squeezed by drought, tidal wave and famine, as it migrates, seeking safety and new life. Borders are closing. Nationalistic impulses are squeezing in upon sovereign nations, as greed and violence expand, seeking to stave off the stage of no exit.

Political heroes have emerged who promise to restore a former paradisal time of Shangri-La in the midst of this time of no exit. These so-called saviors intend to ignore, defy, or totally control the feminine. The entire world awaits the outcome of the American Election Day to determine how humanity will choose to position itself in the midst of this active labor.

Within the psyche, the ego finds itself squeezed by anxiety, terror, hopelessness and helplessness, as totalitarian archetypes threaten possession from within. Conversely, many people experience religious ecstasy and fervor, as they bathe in numinous identification with the masculine gods of war, certain to fully rein in and control the feminine birth process, within and without.

The fragility of ego muscle, no matter how well armed and defiant, is no match for nature’s current squeeze upon human emotion. The random violence of our time is ego’s impotent attempt to forestall the birth of a radically new world. What then is the correct attitude for ego to assume in this time of no exit?

Ego must face its pending death and rebirth, the story of all new life in this world. Our first breath in this world is also the death of our former life as aquatic beings, who were passively fed oxygen and nutrients in our symbiotic life as one with mother. The end of life in paradisal union with another requires letting go of hoarding our former material security, as we must meet the demands of changed conditions.

In the time of no exit it is possible to get calm. If we can’t escape the claustrophobic squeezing of ego by tumultuous emotions, ego still retains its existential ability to choose the attitude it will take toward the inevitable. Ego can breathe, however constrictedly, and instruct every cell of the body to go calm.

Just as ego knows that the numinous experience of body orgasm will result, if it can calmly let go of resistance to the higher power of instinct, ego can cognitively know that there is light at the end of the tunnel, as it lets go to the inevitable birthing of new life. And what does that new life look like?

Glimpses of new life are evident in the current psychedelic trials that activate the healing forces of the transpersonal dimension of the psyche. During psychedelic experiences, many individual’s hearts are opened by their recapitulation journeys through old traumas, with the resulting inner experience of total love and acceptance.

Others encounter past lives, ancestral trauma, and spirit encounters that break down old ideas and neutralize emotional intensities, while they simultaneously experience their death and rebirth into a broader, interconnected knowing of life.

I am neutral with regard to the coming renaissance of psychedelics as facilitators of healing and rebirth. Carlos Castaneda, mistakingly identified as the father of psychedelics and the New Age, was adamantly averse to their use.

Personally, I know that the mere invoking of intent is all that is needed to reach the holotropic powers of the transpersonal psyche that both break down and refurbish the ego with broadened and truthfully driven agency.

Know that the time of no exit is transitory. No matter how tight the squeeze, the opening will eventually appear.

Be patient, be calm, beware the false prophets and redeemers. Trust your innate ability to find the true light.

Taking the journey,
Chuck