#720 Chuck’s Place: Huan

September 25, 2010 Chuck Leave a comment

I stood upon the deck in the early morning and observed the elements. The wind was quite prominent, separating the dry leaves from the trees. “I Ching,” I ask, “what is the guidance at this moment?” The answer: Hexagram #59. Huan/Dispersion [Dissolution]

This hexagram is built by the trigram Sun, which represents wind, over the trigram K’an, which represents water. The wind gently disperses the water, in ripples upon the surface. The wind also takes the leaves from the trees and disperses them upon the earth. Elements that once gathered together in the spring to produce discrete forms in flowers and trees are now dispersed, dissolved and returned to a greater unity of elements out of which new life will eventually come.

In human nature our trees and flowers are our attitudes that guide and direct our decisions, behaviors, relationships, and undertakings. To form these attitudes we gather our energy together in definite ways to direct our lives. But in the time of Huan we are asked to allow for dissolution of rigid beliefs or attitudes that have guided our actions but may in turn have created divisiveness, prejudice, and the setting of veils within the self or within relationships.

Huan calls for a deeper unity, a greater communion with spirit, a connection that transcends divisive egotism, a dissolution into pure truth. Only from this place can the raw materials of life gather together again to bring forth change and new life.

In this reading, two lines were highlighted for specific attention: the yin lines in the first and third places of the lower trigram K’an. The yin line in the first place states:

He brings help with the strength of a horse.

Good fortune.

Being the first line of the hexagram the importance of the time of the beginning is emphasized. The guidance here is to bring attention to the divisive forces that would thwart any effort to change, let go, or release a long held or staunchly held position. Beware that the attitude in question might act as a repressive force upon any attempt at reflection. It might reassert itself at the first sign of our attempt to soften, as we honestly and objectively contemplate our position. We are advised to bring the energy, the strength of a horse, to bear at the beginning of our contemplative process. Stay with it. For example, when we begin to meditate we are assailed by the thoughts of the conjuring mind. Often this can have the effect of weakening our resolve and we abandon the effort. If we can remain nonjudgmental and gently bring ourselves back to our intended focus, over time we will arrive at a place of deeper meditation. The strength of the horse to stay the course in the beginning is crucial to ultimate success.

The yin line in the third place offers this guidance:

He dissolves his self. No remorse.

This guidance is emphatic that we go beyond the felt personal needs of the self and ask: What is truly right in this situation? What is the truth, not my personal truth, but objective truth? This process requires a real dissolution of the prejudices of the needy personal self. This dissolution opens up a direct line to spirit, as the ego throws its intent on spirit truth.

If we follow the guidance of these two energized yin lines this hexagram will shift to a future state, depicted by hexagram # 9. Hsiao Ch’u. In this future hexagram the upper trigram for wind remains constant, but the two charged yin lines below become yang lines, giving rise to Ch’ien, the trigram for heaven. Hence, we have the image of wind driving across heaven.

This hexagram is comprised of five yang lines with one yin line in the middle, which acts as a restraining force upon the preponderant yang energy. Thus we have the English translation of Hsiao Ch’u, The Taming Power of the Small. Of what power really has the wind in relation to heaven? Yes, it might bring the clouds together, but can it make it rain? The rain comes in its own time, completely independent of the wind.

Viewing this hexagram as the outcome of the unique set of circumstances from which it came, Huan, the counsel here is that the attitude we need to dissolve is quite strong, in fact it has the potent energy of five yang lines grouped together versus one weak yin line. That yin line, at best, can have a restraining influence upon the yang energy but is not in a position to overtake or dissolve it. We must be content with restraining our controlling attitude, as we have not yet the power to release its grip upon us. The only thing we can do at this time is to be patient and content to bear this tension. This is not the time for bold moves. Nonetheless we shouldn’t underestimate the value and necessity of being able to restrain ourselves.

With patience and gentleness towards ourselves, as we suspend judgment and slow down, we can be assured that the gathering clouds will eventually release the rains that will have the power to disperse and break apart that which requires dissolution. This is Hsiao Ch’u, The Taming Power of the Small. The patient act of restraining ultimately completes Huan/Dispersion [Dissolution]. Don’t underestimate it!

If you wish to correspond, please feel free to post a comment below.

Until we meet again,
Chuck

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Recapitulation & The “Not I”

September 22, 2010 Jan Leave a comment

Once again I take up the subject of inorganic beings. Last week, in Recapitulation & Inorganic Beings I stressed the importance of familiarizing ourselves with our own energy and being able to recognize the good inorganic energy that is present in our lives, such as my own connection to Jeanne, an inorganic being on a mission of aiding those of us who are seeking to evolve, whom I am energetically compatible with. I also stressed the importance of recognizing the incessant chatter of the mind as inorganic energy. Today, I write about another type of inorganic being from the seers’ world of ancient Mexico, energy that wants something from us. Though it also wants to teach us something, its main intent is first and foremost to find a means of attaching to us, the ultimate goal being to siphon our awareness, our energy, for its own survival. However, our ultimate challenge, in all of these cases, is to train our awareness so that we may be in a position that is energetically strong, grounded, utterly sober and pragmatic, so that we may be able to navigate all worlds.

In The Active Side of Infinity and The Art of Dreaming don Juan teaches Carlos Castaneda about the power of inorganic beings. He tells him that they exist as outside forces, predatory beings that seek control of human awareness. He calls them scouts, probes from the universe looking for awareness. They are always present in some form. As I wrote about last week even our thoughts are considered, by the seers of ancient Mexico, to be inorganic beings, which they call Flyers and when they are busy chomping away at us, our thoughts swirling and driving us crazy, they refer to us as being in the throes of the Flyer’s Mind. The only recourse we have is to learn how to manipulate them to our best advantage, but this takes work in strengthening our awareness. On page 217 in The Active Side of Infinity don Juan says:

“There are scores of outside forces controlling you at this moment,” he says. “The control that I am referring to is something outside the domain of language. It is your control and at the same time it is not. It cannot be classified, but it can certainly be experienced. And above all, it can certainly be manipulated. Remember this: It can be manipulated, to your total advantage, of course, which again is not your advantage, but the energy body’s advantage. However, the energy body is you, so we could go on forever like dogs biting their own tails, trying to describe this. Language is inadequate. All these experiences are beyond syntax.”

During recapitulation we are given the opportunity to train our awareness through re-experiencing our pasts. This is the ultimate gift of doing a thorough and fearless recapitulation; our awareness not only grows, but eventually becomes a seamless and natural accompanist as we navigate our lives. During my own recapitulation I often met inorganic beings in dreams, often frighteningly odd creatures that captivated my attention. One day when I mentioned them to Chuck he told me not to focus on them. “They are the scouts in the universe looking to grab your awareness,” he said, “and take you back to an old place, attempting to usurp your energy for their own use.” I took this very seriously. Don Juan basically tells Carlos the same thing in The Art of Dreaming. On page 28 he says:

“…Dreaming has to be a very sober affair. No false movement can be afforded. Dreaming is a process of awakening, of gaining control. Our dreaming attention must be systematically exercised…”

Lately, perhaps because I have been reading and writing about them, inorganic beings have been appearing in my dreams. In one dream, Chuck and I travel to a Mexican desert town by car. Upon arrival at a crowded bus station we come upon two strange men covered from head to toe with yellow dirt. I know that they have been fighting and that we are in the midst of drug-related gang territory, that everyone at the bus station is somehow connected to a drug cartel. Chuck tosses them a towel from the car so they can wipe the sand off. At this point my awareness kicks in and I am immediately cautious. It is then that I begin to notice that everyone in this town is odd in some way and many of the people have large pumpkin shaped heads on skinny bodies. I thwart my gaze so that I do not look at anyone directly. The dream goes on, but the point I am making is that my awareness took note of the oddness of the situation and without hesitation took appropriate action to protect my energy. As opposed to earlier dreaming during my recapitulation when my awareness would speak to me, saying, “Don’t look!” at such times (essentially warning me, as Chuck had, to not get caught), now my awareness and I are in synch.

In a second dream, a tiny naked man, about a foot tall, appears several times, crossing slowly and suggestively back and forth in front of me, obviously trying to get my attention. He looks like a tiny skinny naked Waldo from the Where’s Waldo series of books. Once again my awareness takes note and without hesitation, my guard kicks in and I shift my gaze. I do not focus on him, though at an earlier stage in my awareness training I might have been very drawn to his comical appearance.

In a third dream, my mother appears, looking very odd, her head large, her features distorted, acting in an uncharacteristic manner. I immediately know that the inorganic beings are trying to trick me. They know that we are drawn to attach to those who are most familiar, yet my awareness is immediately aroused by this strange version of my mother. I do not fall for the attempted trickery. Again, I turned my gaze downward and watch sideways through my eyelashes as this odd being does some exceedingly strange things, not at all like my mother in her true form. Eventually she meets up with two strange looking men whom she links arms with and the three of them go wildly dancing and skipping down the street, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz prancing down the yellow brick road with the lion and the scarecrow. Without attachment I turn away and go back into the dream that had been unfolding before I was interrupted.

In these examples, I stress the importance of being aware, of training our awareness. And how do we do that? The first thing is to understand the “Not I” of our dreams. Jung suggests that everything in our dreams is us, but he also cautions that we must learn about archetypal energy so that we do not get caught by it. In essence, he warns us to not engage the collective unconscious, inorganic beings, until we are ready, even though archetypal energy seeks us out all the time. As don Juan suggests to Carlos regarding inorganic beings: they exist all the time and they are trying to control us; which is equally true for the archetypes that exist in the collective unconscious.

So, by questioning what is “Not I” we begin a process of inner work that eventually will lead to recognizing the scouts, the inorganic beings that come to us in whatever shape or form they may use. Their attempts may be very personal, they may come in the form of our biggest fears or they may be comical, clownish attempts to attract our attention. We can begin training this aspect of recognition by intending this step before we dream or even before we begin our day. Perhaps a simple mantra will do: Please help me to recognize and be aware of that which is “Not I” in my dreams and in my life, or something like that.

The next step is to decide what to do about these inorganic beings once we do recognize them as “Not I.” Don Juan says that it is always an individual’s choice what to do with them, but he also cautions not to engage them until we have enough energy and awareness or we risk getting into trouble. As Jung suggests, engaging the collective unconscious without doing our homework can lead to psychosis. The dangers are that we might get fascinated by them, that we might get inflated and think we can handle them, or that we might underestimate them, seeing them as harmless and funny. It is equally important to not get frightened by them and run away. If we are indeed to gain awareness, we must learn to stand our ground. Here are some practical precautions, as inorganic beings approach in dreaming and perhaps in real time as well:

Don’t play with them.

Don’t stare at them.

Don’t draw them to you.

Don’t engage or speak to them.

Don’t throw yourself at something you don’t understand.

Be suspicious and cautious.

Protect your energy.

Learn to use the inorganic beings that appear in dreaming and in life to strengthen awareness. In strengthening our dreaming awareness we eventually arrive at a place where we can begin to engage what appears so strange and mysterious in our dreams, but from a place of power, just as we train our awareness to recognize the Flyer’s Mind in our everyday reality. This training leads to appropriate detachment and new stores of energy that we can then use for ourselves alone.

When we get to this place of strength, with enough personal power to navigate the world of the inorganic beings and the collective unconscious, when we are naturally more aware, acting from instinct and knowledge, our journey becomes fascinating rather than frightening. When we have worked with our personal energy, successfully contained and trained it, then are we ready to find out why the inorganic beings are present and what they are trying to tell us. For they do in fact have something to teach us, they come to challenge us, but they also want payback. They give, but they also take. There is always an exchange and until we are prepared and strong enough, we may get ourselves into trouble, caught in energy draining unawareness.

I have been aware of the inorganic beings in both my dreaming world and my everyday world for a long time now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get caught by them. Again and again we fall for their trickery, we let them entertain us, and we get caught in old habits of repetitive behavior that keep us stuck. There is always the opportunity to learn from them, but the first challenge is always the same, and it resides in the choices we make. For even though we may have learned to recognize the inorganic beings in our lives, we are still apt to engage them, inflatedly thinking that we can outwit them this time. Or even, as I have been doing in my dreams, avoiding them, perhaps because of an underlying fear of what they might have to tell us about ourselves, or because we fear they may take us into unknown territory.

Fortunately, being the seekers that we are, we eventually get the message that it’s time to confront our nemeses and take our awareness to a new level. And that is what I intend to do next in my dreams. At least I think I might do that, but of course I may decide at the last minute that I’m not ready yet, and that’s okay too!

If you wish, feel free to share or comment in the Post Comment section below.

Sending you all love and good wishes; and watch out for those inorganic beings!
Jan

NOTE: Books mentioned in this blog are available in our Store under the Shamanism category.

Messages from Jeanne

#719 From a New Perspective

September 20, 2010 Jan Leave a comment

Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Although I felt that a culmination of sorts had been reached a week ago, energetically speaking the past week seems to have been a time of brewing and stirring up of old energy. It feels as if, yes, we have certainly reached a new plateau from which we are getting a better picture of all the stuff that lies in the valley behind us and all around us, all that we have been sifting through recently. We still have to deal with the same stuff, though perhaps now from a new perspective. The past week seems to have given us the opportunity to gain clarity on many issues, personal and otherwise. What can we expect now?

As I mentioned last week, a step up to a new level will always afford new challenges, but, as you suggest, a view from a higher plane may also afford the thoughtful and aware the opportunity to learn from the past.

This is perhaps what you are always being granted as you move through your life: the opportunity to learn not only from your own past but from what lies most significantly in your path; owned by the self or owned by others, it does not matter, for if you are confronted by something so that you notice it, if it effects you in some way, then it is purposefully placed there so that you may learn from it.

How do you intend to live your life? Are you contented to ignore the truths being shown? As you propose in your question, Jan, in looking around from your plateau you are more clearly able to see the truths that before were unclear. Often when in the midst of life one does not quite “get” what one is being shown.

Yes, I agree. Often it takes a long time to understand the meaning of events. In looking back from a new perspective a bigger picture is taken in and things form a sort of pattern that makes sense.

It is the fate of all mankind to live through the muddled times, for it is only in emerging from them that clarity and newness of life may be experienced. Though one may be lost in the muddle for a long time there will come opportunities to shift the eyes and look around with the head above the clouds. These moments must not be squandered or rejected, for they are crucial learning times.

Are you saying that we are at one of those moments now?

Yes, this is a crucial learning time for many; especially those who have been struggling to get the self beyond a certain point. The blockages that have been in place for a long time now have the opportunity to be dismantled, crawled over, barged through, or totally annihilated by sheer force of determination and dedication to living a life of truth. One must begin to have this heart-centered purpose—to live a life of truth—in order to cross into new territory that not only offers a wider perspective and the opportunity for reflection but that also offers the reason for departing from that which is no longer working for the self.

Truth is the only thing that matters in life, but until one reaches this conclusion one must wallow in that which is untrue, false, hidden, and deeply disturbing. Pushing away the dark side of the self, by attempting to lead a happy-go-lucky life, pretending that all is well, cannot be sustained for long because the truth will always some knocking at the door of the heart, asking for recognition, acknowledgment and acceptance.

Today, I suggest that an accounting of the self as a truthful person in both the outer world and the inner world are in alignment with the energy that affords clarity and perspective. To observe oneself in operation is actually a good idea at this point.

To look at the self truthfully and honestly one must dismantle the self—strip the self down to utter truth—without ego inflation, ego deflation or wounded child interfering. One must know the essence of self and use this sober, pragmatic, and honest energy to probe into how you act, think, calculate, and plan in order to survive.

Life is not about survival, so that is the first thing to move beyond. You are not there to survive, though that instinct is in you. You are there to grow, to face life and be aware of what life offers so that growth may happen. Note how life presents itself to you. Why is your life the way it is? What are you not seeing clearly? What is your old thinking habit telling you that you are not getting? Who is in control of you and your process in life?

I could go on with many more questions, but I think you get the gist of what I am suggesting. The blockages that must be dismantled or annihilated, My Dears, exist nowhere except inside you, so that is where your probing must be centered.

Dismantle the self. If you will dismantle the false self you will achieve the truthful self, the pure essence of self. This self, heart-centered and alive to life, will offer you new plans for the journey ahead, detached from what lies in the murky past. Only in dismantling the old self will you discover that all that has plagued you your whole life long was indeed guiding you to truthfulness.

In truthfulness will life’s journey be more easily navigated because your inner guide will point you more clearly in the right direction and you will understand why you must go on this path: for the truth lies here. Follow always the path of heart-centered truth and you will lead the self on the path of change and potential for growth.

Chuck's Blog

#718 Chuck’s Place: Po

September 18, 2010 Chuck Leave a comment

Jeanne once called me “Parallel Man.” She referred to a certain knack I have to see the same idea presented in many different forms. In fact, under the influence of a certain idea I am likely to see it reflected everywhere for days. I suspect that this is how synchronicity works—like a wave of energy that moves and has a ripple effect on everything, at a moment in time.

This week I had a deep concern about a pending danger, a pending collapse. I consulted The I Ching, which produced hexagram #23, Po. This hexagram is constructed by five yin lines supporting a weighty yang line at the top. The image used to depict this state of energy is a house about to split apart due to a shattered roof. The English translation for the character Po is splitting apart, a most ominous condition.

The Flyer’s mind, what the seers of ancient Mexico called the foreign installation, that influences all human thinking, attempted to hook me on a doom and gloom scenario. This conjuring mind generates many negative scenarios, threats to survival; bait to capture awareness and energy in a state of agitation and fear. I breathed calmly, recalling Buddha beneath the bodhi tree as he refused to attach to earth-shattering illusions that were rapidly firing before him. It helped as well to recall the many “groundhog days” of going for the bait, investing so much energy in potential dramas that never materialized. Don’t attach; let life unfold; see what happens; suspend judgment; find out what it means—these mantras have proven far more emotionally and energetically efficient in approaching ongoing time than chasing down the red herrings of the conjuring mind.

The I Ching goes on to state that the imminent collapse presented in the time of Po is not due to personal behavior, but is, in fact, an impersonal reality, part of a death and resurrection theme inherent in nature. The time of Po is October/November, the time of the harvest. The I Ching also chooses the image of a rotting fruit on a tree to depict Po. Of necessity, the fruit will fall to the earth and die. However, that yang line, the seed, will be buried in the earth with the promise of new life.

Synchronistically, we are in the time of Po now, harvest time. Personally, illusions we cling to may be exposed, die, that change and new life might unfold. This is a natural and evolutionary process. Nonetheless, the process of letting go, of dying to old ways or untruths, may indeed be painful and threatening, as they present themselves.

I prefer the image of the rotting apple falling from the tree to that of the collapsing house. Though I see the parallel, an image taken directly from nature, undisturbed by human intervention, seems to remove the judgments we quickly place upon ourselves in trying to decipher the meaning of an oracle. Understanding what naturally does and must occur in nature first can help in suspending judgment of that same scenario as it manifests in human nature.

Incidentally, as I completed my contemplation of Po, I pulled a card from my Tarot deck (Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot Deck)—the Knight of Disks—the harvester, who with his threshing tool in hand is preparing to harvest what he has cultivated. This card is a perfect synchronistic ripple of Po, splitting apart in the time of harvest. Time for all to bravely separate the wheat from the chaff!

If you wish to correspond, please feel free to post a comment below.

Until we meet again,
Chuck

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Recapitulation & Inorganic Beings

September 15, 2010 Jan Leave a comment

Today I write about inorganic beings, a complex and often confusing subject that I have been pondering for weeks, not quite sure how to approach it in this blog. Even a thought about or reference to inorganic beings—beings without form or beings able to appear in any shape or form—can induce fear. I often see people shudder when the subject is brought up. Since I do not intend to frighten anyone, I have decided to approach the topic today from a personal perspective. Hopefully some of my experiences during my recapitulation and otherwise will alleviate some of the discomfort associated with inorganic beings, as well as raise awareness as to how they may potentially approach us and what their presence might mean in our lives.

Jeanne, whom I communicate with regularly, is an inorganic being. A month before she died in December 2001 she came to me in a few dreams, almost as if she were setting up the process that would unfold over the next few years. After she died she began coming to me in other shapes and forms, sometimes materializing before me in recognizable human form, other times as pure energy that I could not see but could feel, and still other times as visible luminous white fluttering energy. I was never afraid of her, though the first time she appeared before me, as if a hologram were forming right before my eyes, I have to say I was quite shocked.

The thing that I recognized about Jeanne, inorganic being that she was, was that her energy felt good, it felt right, and it matched my own perfectly. So that is the first important thing to learn about the self: What does your personal energy feel like? It should be instantly recognizable, known, and accessible. Personally, I have a longstanding relationship with my own energy, with what it feels like, and I suggest that most other people do as well. Even if you’ve never thought about it, you know how you feel when you are in your element, in balance, perhaps doing something creative, something calming, or even something thrilling. We all have a personal energy that is ours alone, as personal as our fingerprints.

Once we definitely recognize what our personal energy feels like then we can use it to gauge ourselves energetically in the world, both in the world of everyday life as well as what we encounter as we recapitulate, dream, and have experiences that go beyond the norm. We can learn to use it to our advantage no matter what the situation is by training ourselves to retain awareness of our personal energy at all times, even when we are being challenged to go beyond our routines and comfort zones.

When don Juan teaches Carlos Castaneda about inorganic beings he accompanies him on many adventures, watching over him and guiding him through some tricky situations, until eventually Carlos is able to have some experiences on his own, having trained his awareness about how inorganic beings approach, in what shape and form, and learning to decipher what they want and whether they are friend or foe. For instance, the mind is a great place for inorganic energy to attach. Flyers, as the shamans call mind-destined energy eaters, can appear as incessant thoughts, worries, fears, etc. that eat up our energy and make us forget why we are really here. They can come in many forms, taking us away from our selves, our goals, our intentions, keeping us captivated while they get what they want: our energy.

During my own recapitulation I learned that these flyers come most often in the form of old voices from the past that we may not even recognize as those of others, such as our parents, teachers, people who have abused us, our religion, our society, our politicians, any number of things we have been taught and heard over and over again from the time we were born. These voices pile up and pile on the jargon of the world we live in, until we are inundated and, before we know it, they occupy our everyday speech, actions, thoughts, and ideas, pestering us into living automatic and uncreative lives based on a generally accepted protocol of what life is meant to be.

These flyers have been eating away at our energy for a long time before we start to think and act for ourselves. By the time we wake up to the truth that we have our own ideas, thoughts, and curiosities about life that deviate from everything we have ever been taught, the flyers will do what they are supposed to do: they will start in on us again, incessantly calling us back to their dogma and their way of doing things, which after all we’ve been doing for so long and weren’t we happy with the way things were? Breaking away from the flyers, from the mind of the past, is a major step not only in recapitulation, but in growing up and becoming a separate adult human being on a personal journey.

Another form of inorganic being that I encountered during my recapitulation appeared in the form of foreign energy. The first thing I learned was that it had been present in my personal energetic world for a long time already, just as the flyers had been. Foreign energy, energy that has attached to us through experiences and interactions with people in our pasts, loves us. In true parasitic fashion, it finds a home in us, eats away at our energy, taking it from us, depleting us. When we finally discover its vicious little teeth chomping away at us, it can put up quite a fight as we try to extricate it from our very beings.

This foreign energy plants itself in us during experiences in life; sexual encounters being but one of them. The shamans say that women carry within them the energy of every man they have ever had sex with. Men, in turn, take energy from women, so suffice it to say that they too carry around with them the energy of every woman they have ever had sex with. This might not sound too appealing, but until we rid ourselves of this foreign energy, whether it arrived in sexual encounters or in other ways, we will not be totally energetically complete and whole.

During my recapitulation I dubbed the flyers and foreign energy “The Invisibles” because they would come out of nowhere and before I knew it I was back in their clutches, moaning about not wanting to leave the old comforts they provided, even though I knew they were devastating to me. That old energy was so well known to me, how could I ever let it go? These inorganic beings and I had traveled a long way together, how could I possibly leave them behind? From my reactions you might get the gist of how they work. By constantly returning and exerting pressure—We’re such good friends, aren’t we, Jan? Isn’t it easier to just give in and acquiesce to us? Can’t we just stay a little longer? etc.—they attempted to remain present in my body, my thoughts, my world, stealing my energy.

As I wrote about in Recapitulation & Breathing, a number of good breathing techniques can help remove these uninvited guests. By breathing them out, by refusing them with conscious intent to unseat them, they eventually get the idea that we are serious, that we will not let them in anymore and eventually they leave and we gain back our own energy. Once we have successfully gained it all back, we are in a very strong position to ward off not only these very common inorganic beings but the more tricky and conniving ones of other worlds.

In having done a recapitulation and in recognizing that I am completely compatible with Jeanne’s energy in infinity, I have continued to train my awareness, especially as regards inorganic beings because they are always out there, ready to sneak in when we are unaware, looking for some tasty energy, no matter how well attuned and aware we may think we are. The thing to remember is that none of this is personal. Inorganic beings operate, from what I can discern, completely impersonally, just out for what they can get.

I hope some of this makes sense. I think the first thing to take note of is personal energy. Get to know it, recognize it, and always come home to it. Secondly, begin to really listen to the flyers of the mind, the voices of old; question them, and question the unspoken commands and the actions we do automatically, as to whether or not they are right. Thirdly, it is important to rid ourselves of energy that does not belong to us, and to refuse to let it back in. These confrontations with the reality we have accepted and lived with for so long offer breaks in the incessant jargon of a world that was created long before we entered it.

And lastly, once we are ready to question this reality we open ourselves to a new way of not only seeing the world, but reacting and interacting in it. And we may, if we choose, after our training, go off alone, like Carlos, better prepared to enter other worlds and to deal with what we may encounter.

I am fortunate to have encountered Jeanne, but I have also, through the years, encountered other not so compatible and often very uncomfortable and sometimes frightening energy, but because of my training with her in infinity and with Chuck in the shaman’s world I will not be deterred. I know I must remain aware at all times, that is a lifelong challenge, but I cannot stop my journey now. I want to keep going, to enter new worlds freely, without doubt, shame, embarrassment, without flyers or foreign energy holding me back.