#443 In the Throes of Recalcitrant Energy

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
What message do you have for us today?

Today I speak of attachment and learning a process of detachment. During this time of energetic activity upon that earth, which calls for reminiscence and learning to observe the self objectively, so must you also be aware of the possibility of becoming entangled in a web of your own creation. By web, I do not mean the web of interconnectedness, but I mean the sticky sort that will soon have you wrapped up and helpless the longer you struggle to disengage from it in your old manner. Such sticky energy is now apparent and eager for your participation in its game of cat and mouse.

Understand your own process of attachment, as you observe your self over the next few days, by taking care to not only remind your self to be careful of falling into your old traps, but I also suggest that you keep a journal going, at all times, of Observations of Self in the throes of recalcitrant energy. Such energy would be very happy for you to engage in it in a foolhardy manner. It would love to feed off your endless supply of tasty energy. It is up to you to turn your tastiness into a bitter experience for such feeding/siphoning exchange. You do not want to give even a taste of your delectable self-awareness, not ever, but especially not now, for this is a very potent time and the feeders are out in full force now. So it is not only a time to be very aware, but it is a time to use your awareness to your fullest advantage by shifting your perspective on everything you encounter.

Remind your self often to look at everything in another way. You will learn the first lesson in detachment by observing your initial, old, and well used reactions, and by then allowing the self to slow down and say: Wait a minute! What is another way of seeing this situation? What is the opposite extreme?

If you are suffering a pain, for instance, do you immediately think: Oh my God, I’m sick, I’m injured, I’m going to die? Well, perhaps you could instead say: I wonder what my body is trying to tell me? Perhaps it is telling me that I am encapsulating my fear and it is bringing my awareness to it in this manner?

If you can understand your sore throat as your body asking you to investigate the way you speak to others, and your self as well, perhaps you can ease your focus on sickness and place it on healing your attitudes, judgments, assumptions, and dismissal of others or even your self. Perhaps the pain in your leg is just telling you to remember something from your past? Perhaps your difficulty in breathing is reminding you to slow down and face an old fear? Perhaps your sore heart is asking you to love your self?

I do not mean to disregard pain as real illness, sore throats as indications of being in the throes of some disease, but I do mean to point out to you that all illness hides true secrets of the self, as yet unrevealed or thoroughly dealt with.

During this time of energetic convergence, with energy that desires your full participation and energy that pushes, so is it up to you to decide how you wish to deal with it. Are you going to elect to succumb to the energy that would love you to fall into old behaviors and habits so that it may suck your energy off you? Or are you going to accept the possibility that your path has placed before you some very important signs of who you are, who you have become up until this point, showing you where to go and how you can change?

In order to begin to learn detachment it is very important to become aware of how you attach. How do you attach to what comes to greet you in your life? Are you immediately stuck in an old place, so easily slipping into an old role that you don’t even notice? Or are you able to stop your self, at every step of the way now, and ask: Hey, wait a minute! What is this all about? Why am I feeling this way?

Then your task becomes to relate these questions to whatever else is going on in your life. By doing this you are well on the way to allowing a new perspective to open the door to understanding deeper issues of the self. As you pose new questions to your self, based on where you are right now in your life, so do you open your eyes too, because the next step is to observe your outer life, looking for signs and synchronicities that are showing you what is going on inside you. Your inner turmoils, even those of the deepest self, will be reflected outside of you in some manner. Where are your inner issues being shown to you outside of you? In your reflection in the mirror? In the aches and pains in your body? In the antics of the politicians? In the struggles of those nearest and dearest?

As you observe the world outside of you, the first inclination is to judge; to judge the process of others, for it is abundantly clear that they are doing something wrong. What is it that you see they are doing wrong? Now apply that observation to the self. What are you supposed to learn about this observation, this judgment that is so easy to see in others? How does it fit into you and your life?

Suspending judgment is learned by asking the self to take that judgment back and use it to investigate the self. For judgments, placed outside of the self, mirror some discrepancy within the self. To suspend judgment about others is to take back that judgment that so easily flies off the tongue and say: Why do I criticize others? Can I ask myself to do what I ask of them?

Your inner self is asking you to turn your judgments innerly now. That is how you will learn detachment, compassion, and non-judgmental love. It is also how to manipulate the sticky energy of this time to your best advantage.

I continue, respectfully, to offer these ideas to you, for they may help greatly, as you proceed on your path: Slow down. Question your self in a new way, from a different perspective. Observe your reactions, judgments, physical attunements, and use them all as your guideposts, showing you where you need to turn your attention, not in an old worrisome way, but in a new enlightened way. Find a new perspective, by tilting your mirror slightly, so that you are not always looking at the self in the same way. Catch a glimpse of a new self, a future self. And with that new view, may you proceed into this energy fully acquiescing to your abilities to stay in alignment with your spirit, who is only trying to show you where to go, how to view your self differently, innerly and outerly, so that you may notice all the gifts you are being given, even in these times of turmoil.

Good Luck! I look forward to being available as you light your way into the stale old darkness with a new inner light, full of awareness, and eagerness for the tests ahead. Use the light of new ideas, new viewpoints, and the underlying guidance of your own spirit truly showing you the way, with the light of your past, present, and future. It is already showing you where to go, how to go, and why you are going in the direction you are going in. You just have to see it. You see?

The light may not be in the form of light that you would like, but it is definitely there in your life. You just have to allow your self to reveal its secret to you, then you will be fine. But it takes courage to dare the self to tilt the mirror and upset the familiar cart of old habits, ideas, and progress, in order to observe the self and others from a new perspective, and to turn your outer difficulties, observations, and judgments inward, knowing they are meant for you in the deepest, most meaningful way possible. Do this with the utter calm knowing that life is a journey, full of offerings for growth and enlightenment, and, no matter how difficult the terrain, there are plenty of gifts along the way. Good Luck again, as I sign off now!

#442 Inner Balance & Outer Awareness

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a brief message of guidance for us today? It feels like we are in the midst of some kind of energetic whirlwind. What’s going on?

My Dear Ones, yes, a whirlwind is a good description of the energy of this time in your lives. Just as a coin has two sides, so is there always another side to what you experience energetically. I continue to call for balance and for your careful study of your own energy, even while you remain caught in a whirlwind. Do not, however, dismiss the whirlwind. Do not ignore or pretend it does not impact you or offer you something, for it does, in more ways than you can know at this time.

Continue to write down your feelings and your discoveries about the self. Continue to study how you react, during the day, to what is presented to you. Observe your self and your energy from the aspect of the two sides of a coin. What are you noticing? Are you drawn to extremes of energy, from exhaustion to heightened alertness, or are you more stable, as if perched and balanced, yet still on edge, like a coin sitting on its end?

The energy outside of you will produce tension. It will introduce foreign substances that may interfere or seek to interrupt your self-study and your desire to proceed on your journey. It is essential to be aware that, even though you may have many inner decisions to contend with, you are also being affected by the outside energy.

As always, I advise inner balance and outer awareness in order to navigate such turmoil. Your place now is as commander-in-chief of your own vessel. Make mature and growth oriented decisions so that you may remain upon your course of growth during this time of stormy weather. I know that this always presents additional problems, because whenever the adult mature knowing self asserts command the big baby notices and wants something from the adult self, and other aspects of the self may also come forth when they see that the ship is quite stable and things are being taken care of. So this may be an additional point of contention within.

In order to remain stable, I suggest that you ask everyone to be personally responsible for them selves at this time. You, the adult, can hold everything steady, focused on direction and providing what is needed, but everyone has to do their own work now too. This process should be done inside you, as you speak to your inner selves, your little archetypes asking for attention, but also outside of you, in your world of family, partners, companions, children, etc.

Ask for trust and responsibility from all, inside and outside, as you maneuver through this time of energetic storminess. It will soon be over, but you have a few more days of turmoil to contend with. Good luck, My Dear Ones. Don’t forget to give the self some much needed compliments on how well you are doing. I extend my congratulations to you all!

#441 This is the Correct Path to Take

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a message for humanity today?

Abide by the laws of common sense and courtesy, even as you seek balance in your personal lives. Do not dismiss your life’s necessities nor your position as a human being upon that great earth. Do not falter on your path to attain connection with spirit either, but gain and regain your balance as is necessary. With daily reassertions of your grounding upon that earth, and your inner focus on spirit growth, may you find your equilibrium. May it serve you well to attain and maintain this daily practice, for without it will there be delayed success.

I speak today of keeping your footing upon your chosen path of growth. Though you may, at times, be greatly tested, teased, and taunted, as you proceed on your journey, do not turn your back on this seeking self, but stay in close contact, close enough that whispered words of encouragement may be bantered back and forth. Though your path may not be as clear as you would like at this moment, be assured, by your resonance and your footing, that this is the correct path to take. For your inner self knows that the only way to progress is upon a path of spirit, whether it be difficult and narrow, or wide and joyful. So must you pass through the prickly grasses, make the steep climbs, and go beyond the sloping cliffs before you achieve your equilibrium, for that is the meaning of a journey. Your lessons remain tucked into the crevices and caves in the mountains, and in the rocks at your feet; in the wind at your ears and in the sun in your face; in the rain and sleet upon your hair. With the joys and sorrows of life may you find your way forward.

The energy of today does challenge one to be fit and balanced, to be solidly firm, and pointed in the right direction. Even if you have not quite honed in on your purpose, or your outcome, so must you find your resonance. Find what speaks to your soul. Find what feels so right that you cannot deny it. Find what needs voice and expression, and speak it. Find what feels like life itself, born anew in you, and in so doing find your resonance. Even if it is but the bud of an idea, the taste of a new thought, a far away dream, or long lost spirit joy, rekindle it or discover it today within the self who knows that life’s journey is meant to be special, to be fully explored, unafraid, fearlessly. For what awaits is not dependent upon your fears, but upon your detachment from the fears that hold you back. Do you wish your fears to be the reason you do not dare to fully live? Do you wish fear to be the basis of your life, yet again?

Each day do you have the opportunity to change, to shift, to begin life anew. Each day do you have the opportunity to start over, to finally pay attention to your spirit, which speaks so truthfully and daringly to you. Each day, you have the opportunity to discover what really matters. But your shift and your change to new life must be instigated from your balanced and knowing adult self who is capable of pushing aside your fears and your old habits, childish or otherwise. This balanced adult self must truly dare to step out into a new day of life, and a new life each day.

Today is a day of instigation, of testing balance, of calling forth the adult self, the balanced spirit self, for a talk about the next step, the next determinant, the next daring move. Falter not, nor think upon failure, for such is not the energy of now. It is instead positive, yet also asking to be released by your opting to open the door to it. Your own actions now will catapult you. But they must be right actions, in alignment and balance with truth, reality, and fearless spirit.

Stay calm. Stay balanced. Remain upon your adult feet while your spirit self accompanies you upon your journey. Lift your eyes to look around you. Lift your ears to listen. Lift your voice to speak and your hands to feel. Seek direction. Seek right moment and right actions. Ask for help too. You will receive it. Your answer will come to your resonant spirit self, so it’s a good idea to keep it awake and alert.

#440 Chuck’s Place: Possession

Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences!

So what does it really mean to be possessed? Remember the Greek myths, with all the Gods playing chess with mortal lives? Why so necessary to manipulate, impregnate, and have adventures with mere mortals? Those Gods, sitting upon their thrones, are absolutely dependent upon human life for their own experience of adventure and life. Otherwise, they remain dormant, eternally waiting for the opportunity to partake in, and find living expression in, human life. Furthermore, each of the Gods has its own personality, with its own distinct interest. Hence, the Gods compete with each other for their own unique dramas to be experienced and lived in human life. Let us define possession as one of the Olympian Gods seizing a human life, forcing upon it the energy and drama that this God seeks to live. From the human side, an individual experiences a taste of the divine while possessed, which can take the form of numinousity, an intense spiritual experience, or overwhelmingly powerful feelings of love, rage, ecstasy, etc. Today, we will explore possession by Eros, the God of romantic love.

Eros enters human life by piercing the heart with his arrow, invited or uninvited. I speak of falling in love, “the thunderbolt,” as demonstrated in The Godfather when Michael Corleone retreats to Sicily and, with one glance, is struck by the arrow of Eros. When Eros strikes there is no need to communicate in words nor, as in Michael’s case, even share a common language. A simple glance, a meeting of eyes, and it’s over, Eros takes total possession. No longer mere mortals, we are energetically transported to Olympus to partake in divine romantic love. This is communion, union with God, the heart of the Christian Eucharist, which, for some, opens the door to divine connection.

Once Eros strikes, a divine play unfolds, a play so played out that most onlookers smile and knowingly laugh at the hackneyed old drama of almost comedic proportions. But, for the humans possessed, the experience is utterly personal and unique. The energetic fullness, calm, and union experienced become the deepest, most meaningful reasons for being alive. Onlookers will recognize this divine possession. There is no point in commenting. No amount of mortal reason can break the spell of this divine play. Those more experienced with Eros’ “visitations” know that as quickly as Eros enters, he will leave, as the details of human reality, such as snoring and morning breath, gradually intrude upon the playing field of romantic love. When Eros leaves, mortals are abandoned, alienated by their God, thrust into bewilderment, depression, and left with an unquenchable thirst for another sip of immorality.

How can ordinary life ever be enough once we have partaken of the divine elixir? Relationships are cast aside, marriages ended, as some go in search of another to recast in the role of the beloved in the romantic play written, directed, and produced by Eros. After all, they reason, are we not entitled to “true love?” Others shut down to any possible return of Eros, so great is the pain of loss and the shame of having been so vulnerable, allowing themselves to be so deeply, fooled, taken, or had, by a God. Ironically, this wall, constructed to keep love at bay, becomes its own state of possession, as one becomes miserably reasonable and controlling, shutting down all possibility for joy.

Jung understood the interdependence of the Gods and mortals. In fact, he brought the Gods down from Olympus and installed them deeply within the psyche of each individual, in a region he called the collective unconscious, in the form of the archetypes. The Gods, the archetypes, then, are part of who we are and, yet, are utterly impersonal and universal. Human life requires a reconciliation of this paradox; on the one hand we must establish our individuality and, on the other, partake in the divine dramas that lend power, depth, and meaning to our human lives. If we allow ourselves to become too intoxicated by the energy of the Gods, and identify with them, we sacrifice our individuality, and our human life is consumed by the Gods, living out their dramas. If we shun the Gods, for the sake of our precious egos, we anoint the ego with the status of God and are subjected to the wrath of the Gods in the forms of psychosis, or deep depression, a veritable barren wasteland of existence, a loveless life.

The challenge is for the ego to find the correct relationship to the archetypes, or, put another way, for the ego to be in the correct relationship with spirit. That relationship requires balance, humility, and awareness. The ego must have the strength to withstand the energy of archetypal encounters, learning to not weaken itself or expose itself to energies that it cannot mediate or funnel safely into human life. For example, the ego must be able to confront an archetype, such as the nanny goat, which seeks to dominate life in a negative way. The nanny goat is an archetypal energy, which might have value in a human life, but the ego, as hero, must first defeat the controlling dominance of its influence. After this encounter, the nanny goat may transform into a nurturing, loving support to the personality in the process of individuation. With respect to the archetypal encounter with Eros, how can we ever find our way to completion, which is another form of individuation, without experiencing the fullness of love? This condition would indeed warrant reincarnation in order to attain completion.

In human life, the experience of Eros is a gateway to the potential for real love. When Eros possesses, our humanness merely acquiesces to a pre-programmed drama; there is nothing individual or truly related about it. We experience our partner as a God or Goddess, yet we truly know nothing about their human form. We are blinded by the glowing golden light of the divine. That is not true love, despite its overwhelming energetic experience of oneness. True human love can only happen with knowledge of, and connection to, all the details of the real human being sitting before you. Taking up the long journey of truly knowing and accepting another is the pathway to love and, yes, Eros can be a vital part of that relationship. The challenge is to integrate both the divine and the human in the proper balance. If Eros is allowed to take possession of the relationship, human relatedness ends and real love stagnates. If Eros is denied entry into the relationship, the relationship may drift into a stale mechanical habit. Once again, our challenge is to use our awareness to accept and integrate the fullness of who we are, both human and divine. Perhaps the term conscious possession might best capture the resolution of the paradox of human/divine, ego/archetype, leading to individuation and completion.

Until we meet again, I send you off with my love,
Chuck

#439 You are Many Layered Beings

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
What message of guidance do you offer us today?

Undertake your next step on your journey with calm propriety, owning all that you have done and experienced in the past, and accepting all that you now must face. Your time upon that earth is meant to be fully embraced as a time of growth, awareness, and potential. I know that each day do you seek enlightenment of some sort, yet do you often feel neglected or left out of the cycle. You may feel that others around you find enlightenment in the simplest of activities and in the most common of episodes. You may feel that life is just too worrisome and difficult, too complicated and confusing to hold any enlightenment. You may feel burdened and saddened with too much to bear for enlightenment to find any room in your life.

Well, My Dear Ones, perhaps your quest has not been allowed to be a part of your life. Perhaps you are so taken with the world you live in that you have not, in fact, allowed anything else to occupy your time upon that earth. Perhaps you find your self wrapped up in your problems and your misery because you need to be there, caught in a vicious battle with your evolving self who asks you each day to reconsider your approach to life. Do you not weep and say: Why does my life have to be like this? Why must I have such problems and such misery? Why me?

Why me, indeed. Do you not realize that your spirit is requesting that you look at your self in a different manner, as each daily question is posed? Do you not hear the underlying truth of those questions you ask your self? Your inner you is asking for inner contemplation, seeking answers to your questions, not by asking those questions out loud, but by asking them innerly.

I know that you do, in essence, ask them of your inner self. I know that you find it such a difficult task to face the deeper self, yet must I request that it is necessary to ask again and again, and each time to go deeper and deeper inside the self. This is the greatest challenge to undertake as you look into your mirror of the self. It is time to look past the reflection of the self, beyond just the outer person you see looking back at you, the one who smiles and thinks you look okay, that you are presentable, clean and neat, and ready to take on the world.

But what about the self who sits just below that layer? What if you were to peel away that outer self and expose the next layer, revealing the more tender, fearful self who you have been protecting with that outer facade? What if you went even further and peeled away that very tender layer and discovered the next layer of self, even more tender, more frightened, perhaps a very vulnerable self, and asked that self to talk to you? Do you see what I am saying? You are many layered beings. You are complicated and intricately built, with many layers, many issues, many emotions, feelings and, most of all, many closely bound selves waiting to be exposed, so that you may grow.

I do not mean that it is appropriate to expose these tender selves to the world, but I do urge you to expose them to your self. For only in discovering your multi-layered self will you be able to fulfill your potential in that life, as well as in your spiritual life. As you peel away your layers, you will indeed begin to ache, to feel more deeply, perhaps to be in such pain that it may become unbearable. But I would like to remind you of my interest in your growth and of my suggestion to not allow the pain to consume you, for then will you be caught. I urge you, instead, to use the pain to ask your self why.

Why am I in such pain? What is it that I am using my pain to shield myself from? What am I hiding from? What is it that is so painful that I would rather wallow in the pain than discover the truth of?

If you feel loneliness, you must ask your self the same questions. Why do I hide behind my loneliness? If you are sad: Why do I hide behind my sadness? Peel away your outer layer of present ego self, your spiffed up self, and ask the self who waits, painfully, lonely, and sad behind that facade, for you to come and ask the questions that will begin to lead to real growth.

In order to have real growth must you be able to allow your self to be real with your self, real with your questions and, most importantly, real with your answers. Now is the time to finally get real. It is time to put aside your old patterns, your old behaviors, your old props and costumes that you have indeed made good use of. Your spirit is asking you to look deeper now, to push aside the old ways and means, and look at what your physical self has been trying to tell you. For if you begin first with your physical self, so shall you begin with that which is most apparent and most pressing.

Begin by asking your self: Who am I? When you receive your true answer, write it down. Then ask that true self another question that seems appropriate. Perhaps you will ask that self to speak to you about a feeling or emotion. You might say: Okay, so why are you so sad? Or: Why are you so angry? Or: Why are you so confused? Write down the answers you get.

Can you allow the truth to not only be spoken, but also listened to? Can you peel away the layers of self by really accepting the truths as they are revealed? They may be thin, almost transparent and easily acceptable truths at first, already known truths. Do not dismiss these truths, but really accept them, and then go deeper into them. Find your way into your tenderness, My Dear Ones, for that is where you will discover things about your self that you may not even be aware of, or that you have forgotten about, or been too scared to experience.

This is the process that must go on inside each one of you. This is the process of deep self-examination that you see going on in the world around you too. Do you not see the political, economical, and sociological questioning that is permeating your outer realities? Do you not see the environmental, as well as spiritual and natural phenomena that require such deep introspection, in order for change to happen? Do you not see that negativity, evil, and warring and disturbing truths must also become a part of your confrontation in order for growth to happen, both inside you and in the world around you?

I am asking you to go into your shadows, into your deepest selves, and rediscover your darker sides, but also your hidden treasures. I say rediscover, because that is what life is about, you know. It truly involves a deep excavation of the issues of the self, of issues already lived, that have been a part of your life all these many years.

Many of those issues have been your companions on your journey, even though they have felt like burdens. You know them very well. You will recognize them as you rediscover them, and you will know that, yes, you have carried them with you for a long, long time. You will rediscover aspects of the self that may have been buried for centuries, waiting to be dug out, released to a fresh new life, a companion aspect of self that is ready now to participate and evolve.

So, as I close my message for today, I ask you all to resolve to allow your inner selves, multi-layered though they may be, to speak to you, one at a time, with your hearts open and accepting of the tender truths these inner selves bravely dare to speak to you about. They trust you, you see? They feel safe with you. Your inner self, each layer, is asking you to accept that fact, with gracious humility, and to make them feel welcome, like a small child in your arms, as they whisper to you of their fears, their sadness, their pain, their sorrows, their questions, but also as they express their hopes and joys and desires for a new future with you, on your journey.

Meet your self today, your mature adult self, who is truly ready to hear, accept, and process the truths of the tender inner self, and to proceed on your journey. Good Luck!

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR