Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Something Different

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Here is the channeled message from Jeanne, beginning a week that she indicates is set to be full of surprises, if we are alert and open. Good Luck!

Changing time. Drying calendula and marigolds, at one season's end… But another's beginning… Photo by Jan Ketchel
Changing time.
Drying calendula and marigolds, at one season’s end…
But another’s beginning…
Photo by Jan Ketchel

Progress must become a key word in your work, progress toward an evolving self being of the utmost importance. Please note that progress can only be achieved as you allow the self to change, to accept that you may not always have all the answers, and as you soften and allow new ideas to seep into your awareness and offer something different.

As the world shifts into a new phase this week, allow the self to experience something different. This can be a deliberate decision on your part to act, partake, or be involved in something new, or it can be a subtle intent to be open to that which comes to you unbidden.

In being open, one must learn to relax the body and mind. One must release the self of the normal judgments, the habitual thoughts and behaviors that one automatically engages in without thought or discrimination. One must stop the rote activities of living and live with greater awareness. Even the slightest intent to be alert may be enough to open the self to greater awareness of how you think, act, and react. When the old self calls out, asking for things to stay the same, turn away from that old self and look in a new, different direction. With open heart ask the self to trust the universe for a change, to trust that life itself has enough to offer you to guide you along. And then see what happens.

See what pops up in your life to show you the new direction you must take. It may be a subtle suggestion, a hint of something new, or it may be a hard knock over the head. But all of you, if you are to take advantage of the new time of renewed energy and spirited evolution, must be open—and being consciously open and expectant helps a great deal.

Awareness that a shift is already in action will, I hope, aid you in your endeavors. All you need is one tiny suggestion of hope and change, of shift in energy, and you could be off and running.

Let the energy of now guide you. Be open with discernment, knowing your heart’s true intent. For if you skip that part of who you are, your endeavors will be futile. This is not a time for foolish ignorance, nor hasty leaping, but a deepening of your innermost process in a flowing manner that is right, that is gentle, loving and kind to the self and others.

I am asking all of you to let your hearts guide you now, to really listen and pay attention to that which is truly right for you, at the deepest level. Who are you? Perhaps that is the first question to ask as you begin your entry into the energy of now. Who are you really? What do you most desire—in alignment with that true self—for yourself, in your evolving life? Begin there.

Be soft and open. Greet the day with gentle breaths, and then wait and see what comes.

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Reconciliation Of Retrograde

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Trickster energy… - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Trickster energy…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

It’s 6:21 AM. I’m driving slowly along the windy hilly roads to work. My mind is preoccupied with the experience Jan and I had last Friday at the VA Hospital in Albany. We’d been invited to present on PTSD. We decided to give an experiential presentation for which I’d brought my EMDR light bar. There was a delay getting into the conference room, as a prior meeting was spilling over into our time. Our presentation time was compromised, as another presenter was to follow immediately after us.

Once we finally entered the room, I quickly attempted to set up the equipment. Suddenly we entered a cartoon-like dream. Everything we touched, although meticulously packed, fell apart. The tripod literally fell into pieces, impossible to reassemble.

“Okay,” I resolve, “I’ll hold the light bar without the stand.” As I go to clip the control switch into the bar I discover that the clip is broken. There is no salvaging the equipment now! That’s it, I decide, the trickster shaman’s world trumps. The Magical Breathing Pass of Recapitulation will have to be the main experiential feature. And so, about 25 people learned and experienced this ancient Magical Pass and it’s application to PTSD.

As I continue to drive to work, I recall that the time crunch of the presentation also precluded a brief group hypnosis that Jan was to give at the close of the talk. Suddenly, my awareness is abruptly drawn back to the present moment: a young deer is staring at me, frozen in the road. I slam on the brakes—a near miss!

The symbol for Mercury...
The symbol for Mercury…

What does it all mean? For the past several days, I’ve been experiencing and observing opposition and retrograde. We exist and are composed of fields of competing energies. Mercury, the trickster energy, is indeed in retrograde. At the VA we experienced the ancient shamanic energy opposing and trumping the modern mechanical/technological world. At the moment I recalled the opposition of time and trance—no time for a group hypnosis—I was awoken from my own highway hypnosis to not kill a deer. Here was the opposition of time and timelessness: being present in this moment to not kill a deer vs being lost in the timeless world of the mind’s meanderings.

We all struggle with oppositions within the self. Carlos Castaneda relates in Magical Passes how don Juan Matus explained this in a metaphorical sense: “…that we are composed of a number of single nations: the nation of the lungs, the nation of the heart, the nation of the kidneys, and so on. Each of these nations sometimes works independently of the others, but at the moment of death, all of them are unified into one single entity.” (pp. 103-4)

Our challenge in this life is to reconcile those oppositions within us, the trickster included, into an integrated whole, in a process that Jung termed individuation.

Sometimes the nation of the stomach craves that which the other nations of the body reject. Sometimes the neocortex—our rational brain—rejects the impulses and needs of our limbic system—our animal brain.

When my neocortex confronted the frozen limbic response of the deer in my headlights, it managed to direct my body to hit the brakes. My own limbic system worked in concert with my neocortex to supply the rapid response to react physically to the crises at hand. This is an optimal response—nations of the self unified, acting in concert.

In times of retrograde, Mercury, the trickster, can confound all attempts at collaboration. Mercury laughed as I fumbled with the equipment at the VA. Rather than fight, I read the signs and immediately shifted. Acquiescing, I flowed with the energy of the moment and instead taught deep bodily knowledge.

Opposition is within us all...
Opposition is within us all…

When I asked the I Ching for guidance regarding this period of retrograde, it once again, not surprisingly, produced the hexagram of Opposition, #38. The moving lines—in the third and fourth places—depicted a wagon with oxen being dragged backwards. Now there’s a retrograde image! The guidance reads: though humiliation might occur, sit tight, wait, align with a likeminded person who can be trusted. In the case of the faulty light bar, I turned to my neocortex, which acted in concert with spirit: Go with the flow, trust the Magical Pass.

In shaman’s terms, the guidance is to suspend judgment, to look beyond the impasse. Reconciliation lies in the deeper meaning of the trickster’s intent—to reveal a deeper truth: The ancient Magical Pass of Recapitulation is all you need to be freed of PTSD.

We can reconcile with all our retrograde energies if we accept their opposition with patience and perseverance, not falling for the trap of self-blame. The deeper meaning of Mercury’s retrograde lies in the wings of Mercury—our freedom to fly—achievable if we don’t get caught in the heaviness of opposition.

Flowing on the wings of Mercury,
Chuck

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Inward Turning Time

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It's dark in the evenings now, time to go inward… - Photo by Jan Ketchel
It’s dark in the evenings now, time to go inward…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The first deep frost has come. The last flowers that had been staunchly holding on, that had still brightened the garden, have lost their energy. They are wilted and browning, their stems dipping to the ground. Time to trim back and prepare the beds for next spring. Time to prepare for winter.

This is inward turning time. Usually I look forward to it, but this year I sense a sadness that I haven’t experienced before. Maybe because the fall has been long and mild, the days sunny for the most part, the nights cool, but still warm enough to keep a window open in the bedroom. I like listening to the sounds of the night, the coyotes, foxes and owls, the animals that scurry past the house in the night. One night we heard something chewing voraciously at a large cardboard box we had stowed beneath the deck. Soon after we discovered that a hole had been chewed into the side of it and that a nest of bees had taken up residence. The animal we’d heard, probably a opossum, had gone after the bees.

Another night we heard a cat being attacked, fighting wildly for its life. We could barely stand the excruciating sounds of its cries. We thought of going out and yelling, of scaring off the predator, but knew that it was not right, was not in alignment with nature. One animal eats another. It happens all the time. Look at us humans, we do the same. None of it is pleasant to ponder, especially when you actually hear death approaching, when you hear the last cries coming from the strangled animal’s throat, but death is a fact of life. Winter closing in is a fact of life too.

And so I face the inevitability, making the final preparations for its coming. I accept that I must be in alignment with nature; I can’t escape the truth of winter! I can’t imagine shoveling snow just yet, but the snow shovels are ready. The snow blower has been cleaned of the acorns stored in it by mice in the shed. The leaves are being raked and mulched, the wood and pellet stoves already in use and the daily hauling of logs and pellets begun.

With the end of daylight savings time—which I hate, by the way, as it interrupts the flow of spring’s awakening each year, forcing us out of a most natural alignment with nature—fall ends. The darkness, which we had been staving off is really here now. We noticed immediately how natural it felt to be back on nature’s time, the extra hour of sleep readjusting our inner clocks to nature’s clock, the only clock that we should be attentive to. We once spent time on an island, away from civilization, the lone inhabitants. We naturally lived by the rising and setting sun, and it felt so right. Without the constraints of the world, it’s easy to live that way, but I feel compelled to live in alignment with nature as much as possible, and so I am paying particular attention to this time of year now, especially as I’ve felt such resistance to it this year.

The outdoor chairs are abandoned for the warm fire... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The outdoor chairs are abandoned for the warm fire…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

In stark contrast to evenings spent on the deck, we’ve had to be inside now, before the fire or at the dinner table. Rather than watching the sunset, feeling its last warm rays, or taking a walk on a warm evening, we must adjust our habits. It’s a good time to make some changes, to prepare to face this winter differently from other years. It’s a good time to take up those creative endeavors, or those things we’ve been meaning to do, but just haven’t gotten to yet.

In inward turning time we can turn even deeper inward, as well, into ourselves. We can opt to study ourselves and our behaviors on a deeper level, asking ourselves to make some beneficial changes, whether in diet, sleep patterns, exercise, or at the deepest inner level, in how we act and react, how we behave and how we expect others to behave towards us. We can confront our projections and ask ourselves to be responsible for ourselves in a new way. We can go inward and ask ourselves to change something that needs changing and give ourselves the task, this winter, to finally make it happen.

It’s a good time of year to let the changes happen that have been brewing for a long time, to acquiesce to the inevitability of life moving on, of life in constant flux, just as nature does. As I listen to the cries that come from outside during the night—the owl catching a meal, the coyote on the scent—I must keep myself as alive and hungry as those creatures of nature do. I must remain alert and aware, always on the lookout for where my spirit wants to go, to where my inner world is pointing me.

I must not fall into slumber or into the complacency of the season, into the routine of holidays and events as usual. It’s time to do it differently, because the entire world is doing it differently now, the seasons have changed! And so should we!

Heading into winter with awareness,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Inner Revolution = Outer Evolution

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Here is today’s channeled message from Jeanne. May you all have a great week!

You never know what might be waiting for you just over the horizon! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
You never know what might be waiting for you just over the horizon!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

My Dear Ones, look not outside of yourselves for the answers, but look only inward. Your issues and desires reside inside you. To confront and resolve them will only be achieved in inward turning. Face your fears and your joys alike by allowing the self full access to the truths that you keep even from yourself.

It’s perfectly okay to admit your fears and your desires to the self, to accept them, but the way to evolve is to transform them into a new kind of freedom that will carry you forward. Fears and desires hold you back, keep you bound to habits, behaviors, and routines that in the long run are not beneficial. Yes, many behaviors are stabilizing—they keep you rooted and functional—but I am talking not only of evolving in your everyday world, but of evolving in your inner world as well.

Inner world evolution involves an inner world revolution, and you are the only one who can instigate such a revolution. You are the only one who knows your deepest issues, or you will soon enough if you take back your projections, your fears, anxiety, your desires and competitiveness, and go into your inner world and face just why you are the way you are.

Who do you truly wish to be? Can you allow yourself to be the calm and easygoing, grounded person you know you have the potential to become? Inner revolution involves inner confrontation, but evolution involves acquiescence to truth, to life, and to possibility.

Be open and daring with the self. Do not be afraid of what others might think, but do your inner work—your private work on the self—as often as possible. Accept who you are. Release old ideas of the self gradually as you allow your true self to fill the void. It’s a natural process, for, as you make room inside, your natural self will automatically find its way into your inner world and then into your outer world.

Set the intent to revolutionize! There is no greater task, no grander life, no more fulfilling purpose, for all things will resolve as you resolve the inner you!

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: It’s All In Body

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We must go down into the murky depths of our own reservoir if we are to experience wholeness... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
We must go down into the murky depths of our own reservoir if we are to experience wholeness…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The clinical wisdom of our time highlights the role of the body in psychological healing. To resolve our deepest issues, we must go down into the depths of the body to discover our hidden truths and restore a fluid connection to the wellsprings of our life energy.

For many years, I have spoken about out-of-body experiences and energetic life beyond the physical. Soul retrieval journeys, such as the kind taken in recapitulation, are in fact intimately connected to our in-body reservoir.

When we reenter the scene of an earlier experience in life, we utilize the sensations in our bodies to lead us to the actual event. The body stores all experiences and once we arrive at their gate, in recapitulation for example, we are thrust full-body into what happened to us in the prior experience. In traumatic recapitulation, we may have a full in-body sensation and complete reliving of a long-forgotten experience.

Many visits to hospital emergency rooms actually result from unknown, unsupported, tripping into stored bodily memories of trauma, inadvertently triggered by some associatively related current life experience. Often, after exhaustive testing, physicians are clueless in diagnosing the disturbance, often assuming panic attack. For the patient, the physical experience has been so real and in-body that this explanation seems highly dubious. Nonetheless, what ensues is perhaps a trail of treatments to control panic, which misses the true nature of the symptom: the triggering of a dissociated life experience stored in the body seeking re-association through reliving and resolving the turbulence it holds.

Modern clinical wisdom and ancient shamanic wisdom point the way to the innate, archetypal bridge of bilateral body movement to enable the grounding needed to experience and integrate dissociated parts of the soul that lie in wait in the body reservoir.

In dreaming, we naturally experience bilateral rapid eye movement, commonly called REM, that clears and processes the remnants of the day just lived. In nightmares, we experience failed attempts to naturally resolve traumatic moments. When no resolution occurs, these traumas end up stored in energetically volatile and incomplete states in the body—often a cause of physically distressing symptoms. Chronic pain and debilitating symptoms, even anger and fear of intimacy or conflict, may in fact be trauma related.

Francine Shapiro advanced the instinctive bilateral physical movement that we all use when we dream, incorporating it as a direct method to facilitate the integration of traumatic experience, in a waking state, through the protocol of EMDR. The Shamans of Ancient Mexico discovered the bilateral recapitulation breathing Magical Pass millennia ago, as a means to enable reintegration of lost parts of the self. These inherent and consciously facilitated practices provide the bridge to safely encountering and putting to rest the stored energies of unresolved traumas.

The body stores that which is incomplete, awaiting resolution when the time is right. The body equally holds the key to safely resolving that which it holds, through bilateral movement, whether exercised consciously with recapitulation or in EMDR, or unconsciously in dreaming. Only through fully accessing and resolving all that the body holds will we acquire the energetic wholeness to launch, with completion, out-of-body when it’s time to pass on into new life.

In body,
Chuck

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR