Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Change? What Do You Mean?

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This view is different every day… So is all of life, if we care to see it that way… - Photo by Jan Ketchel
This view is different every day…
So is all of life, if we care to see it that way…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

What does it mean to be the change you want to see? When I was a child one of my favorite things to do was to hang upside down on the monkey bars or from the branch of a tree. Suddenly the world was different! The same thing happened inside when I’d hang my head off the side of my bed or the living room couch, my hair brushing the floor. Suddenly everything was different. Doorways had trestles to step over, furniture clung to the ceiling and my mother sitting nearby was capable of the most extraordinary feats. I’d watch her get up out of her chair and walk upside down! I’d imagine being a fly, able to walk up the walls and across the ceiling all the time.

I’d often climb high into the branches of my favorite tree and see the world from a different perspective, like a queen on her throne, ruler of all I surveyed. Sometimes someone would walk by on the path beneath the tree, unaware that I was above them, watching every move they made. During such times I experienced a unique and unusual sense of power, power that in my normal life simply did not exist.

It took me a long time to realize that I did in fact have the power to change how I perceived the world, my child self innocently showing me just how easy it really was. From a different perspective, the world was new and different and I was new and different as well. How could I not be when I’d suddenly find myself in such an extraordinary position, capable of changing the world as I saw it?

Most of my childhood was spent in deep depression. Not that I was aware of what depression was, as it’s only in hindsight that I know that it was a symptom of my life circumstances. As a result, I shut down, my inner fantasy world much more interesting that the everyday world I inhabited. The outer world paled and became dull in comparison. It became routine, boring, and uneventful. I never imagined it would be otherwise. The thing that changed all that was really getting fed up with that boring world, and with myself as well. I had to find out what else there was out there!

And so I got up and got going. I looked for signs to show me what to do. Signs appeared, which led to a series of changes as I dared myself to follow them. I moved, a lot. I married, divorced, and then married and divorced again. I filled my life with children and work, with keeping active and busy, with creative endeavors. I instigated change all the time—I became a person of action! But it wasn’t until I realized that with all the changes I was making, nothing had really changed at all, and I was still the same depressed person I had always been. Something was wrong with my approach.

It was then that I realized that all the changes I’d made had been related to the world outside of me. I was constantly changing my circumstances or the people in my life, or trying to. It was then that my spirit spoke to me. It was dying. It was worn out with the boringness of the life I was living. It gave me an ultimatum, change or I’m checking out. I sensed a spiritual death was about to happen, and in fact that it meant a physical death as well. Only then did a different kind of change start happening. A series of events began that instigated the real change I had always sought. As most of you already know, that was when I began to discover another, deeper self, and the reason for the deep state of depression that had plagued me my whole life. I met Chuck and began a three-year-long shamanic recapitulation.

Suddenly the world looks sugarcoated… It's changed! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Suddenly the world looks sugarcoated…
It’s changed!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

My recapitulation brought me right back to my child self and her ability to perceive a changed world simply by hanging upside down from the monkey bars. I discovered that all I really needed to do to change myself and my life was to look at the world and myself from a different perspective! Sounds simple enough, but it took more courage to do that than any of the other things I had ever done in my life.

By my own volition, I entered a new world. Suddenly, everything began to make sense. Pieces of the mysterious puzzle of self began to fit together, the events of my life interlocking in a way that made perfect sense. I wasn’t incapable of change, I just didn’t know how to let real change into my life. It involved taking action on my own behalf. It involved not looking outside of myself for the change as I had always done—filling my life with so much doing that I had no energy left for anything else, nothing left for myself—but by looking inside. The old frantic, neurotic self was an attempt to keep the truth at bay, but it wasn’t until I turned inward, away from who I’d become in the outer world, that things changed. My perspective on everything changed, just as it had done when I was a child. From a new angle the entire universe suddenly took on a new look and new meaning. Suddenly, nothing was impossible!

So, how do we become the change we want to see? We take action. We change ourselves, from the inside out. Instead of looking at everyone else, blaming, resenting, regretting, whining and moaning about how bad we have it and how everyone else is against us, or doesn’t notice or respect us, the best thing we can possibly do for ourselves is to shut down all of that and be okay with finding out who we really are.

Are we really powerless? Why do we feel so entitled? Who says we’re not capable or worthy? Who says we’re hopeless failures? How did we get where we are? Whose voice rattles through our head, putting us down, keeping us safe and contained? Is that how we want to live? Can we let go of our resentments? Can we free ourselves of our old ideas? Can we take full responsibility for our own life? Can we think for ourselves?

I continue to seek new perspectives, to do things differently, to consider different ideas and to take action to change myself. It’s not that hard. Read something new. Take a walk. Movement alone can bring in much needed energy, offering new fresh air into the brain and body, opening up long dormant synapses. Learn to play, sing, take up a musical instrument. Eat differently. Think in a new way. Look at life from a new angle. Hang upside down every now and then and get a new perspective on the world. Be the change you want to see by changing yourself!

Eternally in metamorphosis,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Remove The Blanket!

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Here is this week’s channeled message from Jeanne and Jan. Hope it’s helpful!

Sometimes a shift happens so naturally… just in the waking up to a new day! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Sometimes a shift happens so naturally…
just in the waking up to a new day!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Argumentation accomplishes nothing. Tuning into others, compassionately withdrawing Self and needs of Self, will lead to understanding that argumentation is driven by fear. Fear resides now like a blanket over the whole earth. It is not a good blanket, not a warming blanket, but a darkening blanket. It will not lead to good, but only perpetuate fear.

In order to lift this dark blanket of fear, all who reside now upon that earth must resort to heart-centered awareness, acquiescing to the truth that you are all beings put upon the earth to solve the problems of the human race. You are all, in some fashion, charged with bringing humanity out of the darkness. In your own small way you must begin to change the world. In your own small way you must begin to lift the blanket of darkness that now grows heavy with fear and ignorance. To do so, you must first accept that all other people, in all nations, of all religions and political persuasions, as the same as you.

All who reside upon the earth are one—one energy, one awareness, one light—and yet few are aware of this oneness. Most have become immune to the truth of this oneness, so isolated and distant from the real truth of human consciousness and possibility that they cannot see more than the fibers of the blanket they live under. Beneath the blanket life goes on in a powerless fashion, one day much like the last; the unfolding of life as it happens under the metaphorical blanket not very exciting.

Yet, there is so much more beyond the confines of the blanket! Many have had experiences of this other, blanketless world, yet there are many more who are so afraid to experience the bliss of life outside of the blanket, afraid even of the light of consciousness! Is the blanket of fear really so comforting?

Now is the time to ask the self to take personal responsibility for removing the blanket that lies so heavily over you, to come out into the light and experience a new reality. It’s time to remove your personal blanket of fear, within your own life and your section of the world, and trust that the universe will greet you with open arms and take you on your unfolding journey into new life. Trust that the universe is genuinely positive and energetically prepared to guide you in a new direction as you ask yourself to step outside of your uncomfortable comfort, as you seek a new and changing self and a new experience of life upon that earth.

Ask the self to be open to something new today—even if it’s just a thought or an idea, a possibility, an adventure, a door that might be opening, a book that might lead you in a new direction. Dare the self to make a move in a new direction; take one small step toward embracing that oneness of everything. Today!

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: You’re Never Stuck!

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At the center of all of us lies the jewel… It's even in those we dislike the most… - Photo by Jan Ketchel
At the center of all of us lies the jewel…
It’s even in those we dislike the most…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

We use projection as a defense when we find ourselves disliking or hating another person. We see in that other person qualities or behaviors that we find threatening or distasteful in some way. In disliking the other person, we keep such disturbing energies at a distance from ourselves, even if we must interact with that person on a daily basis.

The negative emotional state of disliking or hating another, though often unconsciously, protectively established, creates an inner toxic state of cynicism, depression, and powerlessness, leading to an equally toxic obsession with the disliked person.

We also encounter powerlessness in being unable to make the other person change in a way that would make us feel relief and comfort. In our powerlessness we also feel that our own deepest needs are not being met. If, for example, I experience someone close to me as being completely self-absorbed and unable to be present for me in the way I desire, I will likely feel angry, unloved, rejected, and unvalidated, as if I exist only to serve the other, with no consideration of my own right to be in this world.

In this scenario, I am powerless to find peace and happiness within my own being, as this rejecting person can’t even see me. I blame the other person for my unhappiness. I might feel stuck in this relationship that I see no escape from, or I might dream about a new life, freed of the prison I find myself in.

In order to turn such a scenario on it’s ear, in order to shift out of a place of blame and rejection, we must search for redemption within this situation and within ourselves. But how can I possibly find freedom now, you might ask, in the midst of what I consider a lifetime sentence? How can I save myself from the darkest of dungeons, from which I see no viable escape? Can I assume full responsibility for being in the situation I’m in, acknowledge that it is completely tailored for my growth? And at some deep level, can I accept that I’m in it to solve it? Can I face it without blame? Can I accept that the pain is part of my gain; it just is?

To begin with, we might look upon our perceived jailer, the rejecting other, as a being equally captivated within their own story, their own prison. Can we step back and appreciate the depth of the other’s drama and pain, how it limits them too from being fully present to live their own life to the fullest? Can we grant them the freedom to solve and resolve their own mysteries, to find their own way to salvation, to allow them the freedom to work on becoming a new person, capable of being present in the moment? Can we see that we can actually choose whether to be offended or whether to release ourselves from an expectation that doesn’t match up with current possibility? Can we accept the reality of where things are, without blame or regret?

Can we turn inward and validate ourselves, our own right to exist? Can we become the mother and father to our own evolving self? If, by the circumstances of our birth, we’ve been caught in an unloving world, can we become the lover of our own possibility? Can we fully assume responsibility for our birthright to evolve from wherever we began, taking control of our right to take life forward in a new direction? Can we validate our right to existence and open ourselves to possibility? Can we support and guide ourselves through the change we so desperately desire and seek? Can we allow ourselves to flourish?

Can we allow ourselves to take back our projections, becoming the change that we wish for, opening the door to the true magical mystery tour of life in this world?

Be the change you wish for!

On the tour,
Chuck

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Intent—Uh-oh, It Really Works!

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Be careful in the shaman's world! What may look enticingly beautiful could be deadly if not used cautiously and knowledgeably. - Photo of datura by Jan Ketchel
Be careful in the shaman’s world!
What may look enticingly beautiful could be deadly if not used cautiously and knowledgeably.
– Photo of datura by Jan Ketchel

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico suggest that we state our intent and then let it go, that we send out a call to intent and then let the energy of intent find us, letting it bring us what we need or take us where we need to go. Sometimes our call to intent may be innocently misguided and then we can get into trouble, but if we are working on our personal growth in a sober and balanced manner we tend to be cautious and careful as we tread into unknown territory. It doesn’t pay to be inflated or foolhardy in the shaman’s world; there is too much out there that is eager to hook us and hook into us, desirous of our tasty energy. And so, when setting intent, it is best to be stably prepared for what may come.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve written about entities in my blogs, beings who seem to have come into my dream world for a reason. They’ve been absent for a week, at least I’ve had no recall of them. In fact, I’ve had little or no dream recall at all for the past week. As a result, last night, I decided to use intent to both dream and to remember what transpired in my dreams. To enhance the experience I decided to sleep with Carlos Castaneda’s book, The Art of Dreaming, on top of me. I lay in bed on my back, placed the book over my lower abdomen, and set the intent to absorb the contents of the book, to dream, and to remember what had transpired upon awakening. Perhaps it was a lot to ask.

I got the idea for the experiment from a conversation Chuck and I were having. He remembered that this was how Carlos would read books. He’d lay them all over his body as he slept and when he woke up he’d know the entire contents of the books he’d slept with. Chuck also recently read that Edgar Cayce, the American mystic and medical intuitive had done the same thing. “Yes,” I said, “I remember that’s how he read the Bible when he was a little kid. He became quite an expert interpreter of the Bible at a young age. He’d absorbed the entire book, but also the deeper meaning as well.” This gave me the idea to try it myself, mostly to see what would happen, if I would have an experience.

I already know that Carlos’s books are imbued with the intent of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico; he said this often enough. If you pick one up you are sure to be taken on a ride! The Magical Passes are imbued with that same intent too, not the least of them the Magical Pass of the Recapitulation Breath. This I am personally well aware of, as I discovered during my recapitulation. Once I began the journey, the entire universe seemed to be there with me, fully present, involved in my life 24/7. It was quite a thrilling ride! In just picking up a book about those shamans a strange and wonderful energy flows into the reader, absorbed through the words on the pages of the books, imbued with ancient intent. So, electing to place a Castaneda book over my abdomen had the potential to produce something!

Entities are everywhere, just waiting to hook in! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Entities are everywhere,
just waiting to hook in!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

I had actually placed the book on top of the covers, telling Chuck that if it fell off me during the night, perhaps he’d have an experience as well. “Okay,” he said, clearly curious. And then I drifted off to sleep. Within seconds I was startled awake by the faces of entities, black, gnarly, weathered faces, treelike, intricately carved, as if they had lived for thousands of years. “No,” I said, reasserting my intent as soon as I saw them. “Not you guys,” I said, dismissing them. “I want to have dreams!”

I fell into deep sleep. I also fell into a dreaming intensity that I have never experienced. I woke with a start after three hours of tumbling around inside nonstop dreams that were grippingly engaging. As soon as I woke up, I could not recall a thing, but boy were they intense! I decided it was enough, perhaps too much, and besides the book, which had slipped to my left thigh, was now burning my skin. Heat like I had never felt before was burning through two heavy quilts right into the skin of my thigh, which felt red hot! “I’d better stop,” I thought, and I put the book aside and fell into heavy, deep and dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.

Upon awakening, I told Chuck of what had transpired. It was a mysterious and thrilling experience, but I’m a careful treader into the unknown, and so I intend to go slowly into dreaming with intent. I do have to say though, that I woke up with great energy, more energy than I’ve had in a long time. So, something imbued in that book affected me while I slept. I’m curious to read it again and see what it might be, what might stand out. Perhaps it’s just the energy of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico as they intend it to be experienced, and if so, that’s fine with me!

On the other hand, I do know that my entities appeared for the first time in a week—those gnarly tree faces—and I abruptly dismissed them. Perhaps that gave them license to play with me a little. Maybe they were the ones who took me on a ride last night, proving to me just how much power they really have! I know they are in my life for a reason, and that I’ll have to continue my excursions into the unknown with them as my companions, for better or worse; for the time being we belong together. Whatever really transpired, it was just the right energetic experience I needed, and I’m thankful for that!

On the ride,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Air Of Change

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Here is a substantial and very practical channeling message, compliments of Jeanne and Jan, to start off the week!

The signs of change are all around, breathe them in… - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The signs of change are all around,
breathe them in…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Wherever you look, there will you find what you need. Let your heart lead the way now, as you move forward into deeper life—deeper spiritual life, deeper inner life, and deeper physical life. Be present with your whole self now and you will more certainly notice the signs that abound and that surround you on a daily basis.

I speak of inner matters as being of the most importance, so do not shy away from addressing them. Do not turn your back on either the innocent self or the fearful self. Do not hide from the ignorant self or the bashful self. Do not dismiss the lost or the unfeeling self, but strive for connection at a new, deeper level with all of the selves. In this manner, your wholeness will be achieved. In this manner, your life will begin to interweave a stronger, more determined intent, with spiritual prowess and focus your main purpose.

People look outwardly for purpose and meaning, and yet I say that all you need is already within. It seeks uncovering, acknowledgement, and life. To evolve, one must let the self be humble. One must accept all that one is and, without critique, explore the meaning of the deeper issues of the self. You are enough.

Yet, you must also live upon that earth, and so I say, do it with impunity. Live impeccably, yet do not deprive, starve, or deny, for such restriction will only induce craving and resentment. Balance must be firmly established and adhered to, however, for change and advancement to take place. In the beginning, this may cause difficulty, and so, a call to discipline is of the utmost importance. Once discipline is established, balance will be easily maintained.

Balance requires physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, so strive first for these important aspects of overall health. This healthy balance requires that you do inner work while you also live in the real world. Your human situation requires this of you, and so, you must achieve balance in the situation you find yourself in, in the world you presently inhabit, if there is to be growth in a new direction. In other words, accept your life; begin where you are.

Do not berate the self, but do require adherence to certain principles of health and healthy living. Do not regret or resent the self for past or present behaviors, but take one step in a new direction each day. The simple intent to change and grow is of the utmost importance. Once better balance is achieved, once you are shorn up and feeling strong and committed, then one is prepared to turn and face the old self. In balance, it will be possible to both review and aid the old self while continuously moving forward into a new self. This is how to grow.

Create a new structure to abide by. As the world turns and the planets realign, your progress will be well supported. As earlier mentioned, the signs that will guide your progress and light your way will appear more readable, and more frequently, as you work on the self, simply because you will be in better balance with all of life. Look for these signs as you proceed on your personal journey toward balance. Define balance in your own life, to suit where you are, keeping in mind that balance will be different for each individual. Every human being must discover and enact their own set of impeccable disciplines and strategies. You are all unique, and only you will truly know what balance means for you.

Pretty soon there will be only the open road before you… and smooth sailing ahead! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Pretty soon there will be only the open road before you…
and smooth sailing ahead!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Proceed with the intent to change—this is the key to everything. Once you are well on the way, nothing will hinder your progress. The only thing that will get in the way is old behaviors, fighting desperately to retain dominance. Old behaviors are the greatest enemies any human has to face. But once your momentum is humming along at a good pace, there will be little or no interference from those old enemies, for you will provide nothing for them to attach to. Your speed and your intent will have taken over, and your future will become much more interesting than your past. That is when you will know that you have succeeded in attaining good balance, both innerly and outerly.

I wish you all well in this turning time, in this time of opportunity for real forward progress that is now upon you. Remain aware of it at all times and utilize it to your fullest advantage! Remember: Change is in the very air you breathe, so breath deeply, filling your lungs and body, knowing, at every breath, that you are aiding yourself in changing at the deepest, healthiest level.

The air of change is ready to take you deeper and further into fulfillment now. Bon voyage!

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR