Be not afraid to speak the truth, to act truthfully, and to be true. At all times act from your hearts.
Even as I repeatedly suggest acting always from your heart, allowing it to guide you, so do I suggest that it become your most trusted guide. For heart-centered goodness must become the new norm.
In honest appraisal and in honest conversation will change that is truly good arise. In being honest with the self first will honest interaction be possible between partners and beings of acquaintance alike. Only in truthful and honest interaction will a world change be possible, as well as change in the lives of those closest to you.
It is time now for honesty with self regarding the deepest issues that plague you, My Dears. Whether they are simple and fairly inconsequential or quite profound and confusing, if you do not face them your progress will falter and you will struggle needlessly. Remind the self always that you carry within all the answers you need. Remind yourself also that you carry within all the problems you need too. Attend within and then carry without all the goodness you find there, for you will indeed find goodness within.
Is this the way?
The way to goodness and light resides in your daily process of self-discovery, change, and growth. Set your intent to seek always the light within. Ask it to guide you to discover your heart, your goodness, and your truth. Light the way to your future with that light from within. Through your darkness it lies, always waiting for you, with open arms, full of love and light.
Look within and without for your answers. Seek balance. Seek your heart’s truth. Ask it to guide you so that you may find your way to happiness and a long life full of goodness. Yes, it does exist! For each of you!
Most humbly, and with love, channeled by Jan Ketchel.
The gift of the movie Shame is the clear and brutal exposition of a path deeply hidden yet commonly taken, the path of sexual addiction.
At its heart, sexual addiction shares with all addictions the expropriation of an instinct, in this case the sexual instinct. Other addictions, such as food and chemical dependency, are more associated with the hunger instinct. Addiction numbs, soothes and keeps at bay the underlying challenges of self-knowledge, self-acceptance, integration, and true intimacy.
The sexual instinct, fully wrestled with and realized in maturity, brings in its wake bonding, union, love and new life. In addiction the sexual instinct is choked into compulsive release, offering little more than deepening alienation under the ever-present shadow of death.
Choked in shame!
The storyline of the movie gives us little history, but enough to know that life lived must be kept at bay, frozen and unprocessed. Human contact—seemingly at its most intimate in the sexual act—must be completely devoid of connection and feeling. Sex is completely severed from even a hint of love. The slightest hint of feeling renders the phallus flaccid, plunged into yet deeper shame.
And with shame comes the opportunity to be with the pain, to find the tearful circuits to emotional release, to begin to melt the frozen islands of fragmented self. But, as with all paths, sometimes the shock and pain of knowing the truth, and feeling it fully, sends us back into addictive behaviors and release, the wheel of groundhog days. Though this repetitive cycle appears to offer little resolution, in actuality, it allows us to engage in a truly instinctual/spiritual process, as we return to accrue more energy in the form of frustration and discontent, energy that one day will help us awaken and realize that we no longer need to stay on that wheel. We are fully prepared then to step beyond the path of shame into deeper connection and fulfillment.
The movie leaves us hanging, in an unresolved land with some painful truths revealed and many still deeply hidden. It leaves us uncomfortable, confronted with accepting the fact that we all face addiction of some sort in our lives, as well as some sort of shame.
Though addiction comes in many guises, at its core it nonetheless asks us to face the same things within ourselves as the protagonist in Shame is asked to face within himself: the uncomfortable truth.
Can we enter that land of truth? What do we stay addicted to that keeps us from not only facing our deepest pain but from going deeper into where it is instinctually guiding us? Can we allow ourselves to accept that in facing our truths we really will step onto a path of change? Can we bear the tension of that journey of change that seeks to lead us to true union?
Jan: Self-portrait at age 18—still asked by spirit to face truths in the light of day
Lift the veil of shame and see what’s beneath it. The ultimate realization is that we’re all on the same path; we’re all beings on our way to dying. Choosing addictions equals choosing attachments. How long do we really need to hold onto them? How long do we need to keep at bay the real truths of who we are, the truths of our lives lived and the truth of our lives yet to be lived? Can we stay open to our fullest potential—fulfillment in a life we can’t hold onto anyway? Because we do have to die.
The real question is: How do we want to live?
And the real crux of sex and love is: Can we allow ourselves to fully open to love in a life that will one day end? Can we join the spirit of love and fully merge with another human being? Can we love someone who may leave us and someone who surely is going to die? If love is spirit and sex is matter—which is transitory—can we allow ourselves to drop all addictions and attachments, and all our shame too, and truly merge the two?
Full union of spirit and matter is letting love in. There is no shame in that.
Chuck, with love and thanks for some expert editing by Jan.
I go deeply quiet, into my inner space, into the familiar silence of my inner world. I open to guidance, to hearing the truth, asking only for that which is most important at this moment. I receive the following guidance, which I share with you:
Who is the shadow self? This too is the truthful self.
Go calmly forward now; planting each step firmly, taking the journey that unfolds. It is not enough to be determined and ready. One must also be calmly anchored and aligned with the truth of why one takes the journey that one elects to take.
Remind the self to take full responsibility for the personal journey. There is no room for blame. There is no room for sadness. There is only room for truth in the reality of now. This is the journey now before you.
Investigate the self deeply. Allow no other to enter or find anchor in the inner process of exploration. Inhabit the inner process alone, only the truths of the self present. Without judgment or condemnation of self or others, turn to the true knowledge that this is indeed your journey to take.
Reaffirm your commitment to self, to growth and change, but above all to completion of this journey. When it is done, you will find a new path, a new journey awaiting your first step, waiting to receive you with open arms.
You belong where you find yourself today. Be open and aware, aligned with what is right. Anchored firmly to inner truth, you will find the guidance you need. The answers lie within, calmly waiting to receive you.
Like one pool of calm water flowing into another, receive and merge with the knowledge of self as a journeyer without end. Embrace the rightness of the journey you take today and look forward to tomorrow. Each day offers greater awareness, and that is good!
I have to make a decision. Before I fall asleep I ask for guidance. I dream. Guidance comes in my dream, repeated over and over again. I can’t deny its rightness.
Nonetheless, in the morning I struggle, so I turn to another oracle, the Tarot. I ask for guidance as I shuffle the deck and, spreading it fanlike over my heart, I pull a card. The card I pull succinctly and powerfully corroborates the dream guidance I’d received the night before. I know what to do; yet I still hesitate.
I must make a major decision that I know will impact my life, perhaps more than imaginable. I cannot help myself. I turn to yet another source of guidance. I ask my question as I flip through the pages of the I Ching. I let the book fall open. Once again, there is my answer, the same one.
Now I know I must go the next step, but before I do I take my three answers, the same and yet from different sources, and I meditate until they sit inside me, firmly planted, my intent set. It feels right.
Into the fire
Without planning to I make my move at the moment of shift from one astrological sign to another. I climb out of the deep well of contemplative Scorpio and step onto fiery ground, into the sign of Sagittarius, into the unknown. I must continue my earthly journey, on a quest for greater knowledge, awareness, and meaning. It’s all that matters. It’s right.
We all have much to deal with as we take big steps in our lives. But once we know the undeniable truth we cannot sit quietly. Our body, psyche, and spirit will not leave us alone until we face what we must, and they will not desert us either. They will bring us the gifts we need to take our rightful journeys.
We live in truth-speaking times. We must all dare ourselves to seek our own truths and then take them to a new level. It isn’t enough to simply know the truth. The energy of now asks us to act on what we know, to dare ourselves to transform our inner world and our outer world. That’s what I’ve done with an important issue in my own life.
I am calmly present now, though I sit in the fire. Fire is energy that will not stop. I wait for what comes next. It will be what I need.
As I watch the students on the campus of UC Davis getting pepper sprayed I am sick to my stomach, and yet I personally know what horrific things people can do to others. And yet I also know that the intent the students have set and act upon is so right. They too are making radical yet deeply significant decisions. The night they silently sat and watched as the UC Davis chancellor walked out of a meeting was chilling—their silence more powerful than the aggressive, abusive action of the campus police. This is the energy of now. It asks us all to be as brave as those young students, to calmly act on what is so right.
As we head into the Thanksgiving weekend, I offer thanks to the movements that will not stop what is right, no matter what comes to thwart the truth. I experience deep gratitude for those who dare to face their personal inner struggles, and a prayer that they may find the certainty that their journey matters as much as the journey the world now takes, for they offer energy to the entire movement of change. I salute my fellow human beings who dare to face the oppressor and say, no, not anymore.
We live in times of great change and I am thankful that I get to be a small part of it. I am thankful for the three signs I recently received that offered me the vision of certainty that I most needed at the moment. I wish that all may receive such visions of certainty and dare to take the next steps on their personal journeys.
It’s the time of fire. Let it burn through all doubt and denial, through the blockages and obstacles that will invariably appear. Let it clear the way for new growth. Even as we head more deeply into this season of change, we are not lacking in energy. It’s not really asleep; in fact it burns quite brightly.
The signs of change are all around us. Happy Thanksgiving!
