Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Are You Paying Attention?

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Are you aware that a new path is before you?

Dear Jeanne: What guidance do you have for us today?

Do not be fooled by appearances. Change is taking place, deep and lasting change, and although this change may not occur in a manner anyone is used to, it is happening nonetheless. This is a time of great shift and with such a time comes great awareness. Are you paying attention? That is the real question?

Are you paying attention to your own deepest knowing, and what are you going to do about it, return to an old way, becoming complacent and docile yet again? Or are you going to flow with the shift now being offered?

Energy is available to greatly advance the cause of human consciousness for the individual as well as the masses. It is up to each one of you to remain aware, to prod the self to stay awake through this time of great shift and be a part of its impact.

Change begins with the individual. Accept what the energy is trying to alert you to on a deeply personal level before you begin to look outwardly. If you will dare to stay awake and move toward a new positive direction, the energy of such change will proceed along the same path, supporting and nurturing and healing you, bringing you forward into new life. If you fail to stay awake this time, be aware that you will have two hard years ahead of you, as you continue to battle your issues of dependence, negativity, and fear.

Though this may sound like a dire prediction, I stress quite the opposite, for it is not. It is equally positive and growth-oriented, for it is only in wallowing in the self that one will find the means to change, for the self is where the answers lie. The question you must ask the self is: Am I ready now to make certain changes? If you are, be aware of what comes to guide you, for there is great positive energy in abundance for the right kind of change. If you are not yet ready, that’s okay too. But you must also be aware of what comes to guide you, for you too will find that you are supported as you take an equally deepening journey.

Change begins and ends within, but is always reflected without, and this is where you will all learn your greatest lessons—in what reflects back at you.

Take the steps you personally need to take. This may involve leaving something, beginning something, changing something, evolving something, but this will also mean that if you are daring the self to change for the right reasons that you will be in alignment with nature and the universe.

I have no doubt that all upon that earth will encounter change, intentioned or not. And, as I said in the beginning, the main question is whether or not you will be aware and available to know this, so that you can take full advantage of it, aware that it will catapult you into new life. Or will you resist it?

Resistance is a result of fear, and fear digs deep into the human psyche, its marks going back to infancy, its roots difficult to decipher from the roots of innocence. Confront the deepest roots of the self. Find your fear and you will also uncover your innocence. Perhaps that is the place to begin the deeper inner work that will lead to new and lasting growth.

…and good will toward all…

Oh, and keep in mind: as you notice how the outer world and how those in power seemingly ignore the deeper issues of compassion, kindness, and love for all living beings, notice how you do the same to yourself. This is a universal issue, and everyone must address it inside the self.

As your world struggles, so do you, and this is good, for it is the key to finding your own deepest conflicts. No blame now, just growth. That’s what is called for, on all levels of life.

Thank you Jeanne! Peace to all.

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Innocence On The Altar

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Winter Solstice

A tragedy of unfathomable proportions has seized our nation, if not the world, as we arrive at the threshold of a new era on this Solstice day. We are all charged to take this journey with lost, sacrificed innocence and correct the course of human affairs.

What could it mean that a psychotic young man kills his mother and then so many young children? I suggest that this young man concretized and acted out, in a delusional way, an archetypal motif of individuation. I further suggest that this misapplied motif must be addressed on a mass human level, as well as on an individual level, in each and every one of us.

Every human is challenged to transition from childhood to adulthood, from the egocentric entitled stage of immaturity to adult responsibility. This is the Hero’s Journey, filled with many challenges.

One of the greatest challenges of the Hero’s Journey is to defeat childish dependence on the mother. Though many myths depict this as slaying the dragon or defeating the wicked witch, the core of this battle lies within the individual. At some point in our lives we must all ask the same question: Can I take adult responsibility for my life or am I caught in my childish dependency and entitlement demands to be taken care of?

The hero’s task is to slay his own childish dependency—NOT HIS MOTHER, NOT THE CHILD! The hero’s task is to become the adult parent to himself, and set firm but loving boundaries around the child within who is taken forward into adult life—NOT KILLED OFF!

The archetypes worm through us all…

The Newtown tragedy has mobilized tremendous energy to address the gun laws in our country. Too long has a greedy industry been allowed to fill its entitled pockets under the guise of protection and the Second Amendment. The truth is, these policies have been dictated by immature adults, who refuse adult responsibility. It’s time for adult boundaries to be set around the demands of an industry allowed to function with no limitations, like out-of-control children playing with guns.

We approach a fiscal cliff with similar concerns. The greed of undisciplined children not wanting to part with their toys—some of their wealth—can no longer rule. We need adult leadership, adult responsibility in all paying their fair share.

New York and California are poised to approve fracking. Even these bluest of blue states are willing to cave to the greed of the energy industry. Would adults allow toxic poisons to be poured into their bodies? Are we really going to allow our precious Earth to be poisoned this way, for the sake of insatiable greed for more money, cheaper energy? We need adult control. Children’s entitlement in control cannot sustain our environment.

The Holocaust had to be answered in a firm commitment: the rebirth of the State of Israel. However, this resolution, despite its many transformations, is frozen in structures impervious to a necessary two state solution. Once again, we find a child’s entitlement in control of policy as construction plans for new settlements are being made on disputed lands, in the midst of peace negotiations no less! Where is the adult in the house?

Moslem insistence on ancient practice, guarded in warlike fierceness, must soften to allow for change and evolution. How can the feminine, the source of renewal and rebirth, be so restricted in the modern world? Nonetheless, when we see the outcome of casualness toward our instinctive animal selves in our modern world, even in such institutions as Penn State, the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, and most recently in the Jewish Orthodoxy, we have to question humanity’s management of its instinctive nature and appreciate the intensity of restriction in the Moslem religion to regulate it. Violence, however, begets violence. We must find a new path of reconciliation.

We must all face our darkness…

Humankind must face the power of the forces that inhabit the darkness of our souls. Each individual must take the journey through the underground of their own deep unconscious. The instinctive forces that tragically erupt daily around the world are active in each and every one of us. Newtown must be answered by a commitment to take the inward journey, to recapitulate the hidden truths of our souls and revamp our instinctive energies to flow safely and responsibly into this new era now upon us.

Innocence has been sacrificed on the altar of this Solstice. Our nation is plunged into the abyss of mourning, soulfully seeking its lost innocence. We must journey now into the darkness and face the truths that have stolen away our innocence. May those innocent ones be the beacons, the light bearers that show us the way as we journey into our darkness, lighting the way into a new era for all of us.

Wishing for Peace on Earth and extending good will to all,
Chuck

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: A Journey Of The Utmost Importance

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Who are we at our core?

“In the shamanic world, what you went through is preparation for living a different kind of life, and that kind of life can be had when one is ready to view one’s life as a journey of the utmost importance.”

Chuck spoke these words to me when I was in the midst of recapitulating my childhood sexual abuse. They were transformative words, words of light in the midst of deep personal agony, for they focused me on the intent of my journey through this life. Why am I here? What am I supposed to learn about myself? What is the greater meaning of all that happens in this world? Once again, these words rang through me as I contemplated what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week.

I believe that we are all on journeys of the utmost importance, whether our lives are long and fulfilling or cut short. So, what are we to make of the senseless shootings at Sandy Hook? What meaning can we find in that tragedy, in the deaths of so many young children and the educators who dedicated their lives to engaging and teaching the youngest members of our society, a most important job?

We must face ourselves. We must face the world we have created. We must take this senseless act as a final wake up call and we must not go back to sleep. We must all take a journey of the utmost importance now and change ourselves and our country.

We must allow ourselves to feel every aspect of this most horrific act of violence, really feel it, and be guided now along a new path. We must all partake in creating a new society, not one based on fear as we did after 9/11, but one based on compassion and caring for all living things.

We must not wipe the tears from our eyes and then go out and buy more guns to protect ourselves, arm teachers and bus drivers, as has been suggested. Had I been a gun owner I would have wept and then immediately destroyed my guns. Why is this not happening? Why do we still contend that to be armed is our right and our need? It’s not a need at all, it’s a contention based on fear. And so we must ask ourselves what we fear and why?

In countries where there are few guns, in places where even the police don’t carry guns, there are few shooting deaths as well. It’s a no-brainer. But here, in a society rampant with greed, we have become like complacent animals. Locked in our cages, we are fed more pills, more food, more poisons, than we can possibly need. So drugged are we by the ideas that we need more things, more protection, more guns, that our brains have numbed. We are no longer capable of independent thinking, feeling, and action. We are mere cattle crowded into feedlots, long ago having forgotten that we are free beings, on journeys of the utmost importance.

In the wake of this tragedy, it’s time to wake up and stay awake, to take up not guns but a new weapon called compassionate change that is based on what is universally right for all living beings. Are we a nation of killers, or are we a nation of good, of kindness, compassion, and love?

Change happens slowly and it also happens in an instant, as the shootings at Sandy Hook show us so clearly. If we are truly on journeys of the utmost importance, it’s up to each one of us to take up the cause of personal change now—right now—to instantly turn away from violence, hatred, fear, and instead become truly caring beings. But we can only do this by facing our own deepest fears, by challenging ourselves to stay awake and really confront what lies at our deepest core, to question what is holding us back from becoming the truly amazing and loving beings that we are meant to be.

The shots at Sandy Hook were heard around the world. And now the rest of the world is waiting to see what we will do in the wake of so many truths so loudly declared, that is: that guns kill; that we had regressed into an angry, entitled, fearful nation; that we are no longer the shining star to look up to for guidance. How many times must we make the same mistakes? How many wake up calls do we need?

We must all face what we have become and take full responsibility for not only where we now find ourselves—those overfed cattle in the feedlots—but for our own thoughts, actions, and deeds as well. In our complacency we’ve let a lot of things happen, but now we are being rallied to really change, and to change drastically. If we are truthful, we will look at our world with open eyes and truly see that there is so much that is going in the wrong direction, and that each one of us has a duty to get on the bandwagon of change, in whatever way we can, and turn it in a new direction. But first, as I said, we must begin by changing ourselves. We must investigate our own attitudes, fears, and prejudices by asking ourselves why we feel so entitled, and why we continue to fear, judge, and criticize others rather than face ourselves.

Do we have to face yet more jolting wake up calls? Or can we take up a new cause now and take our journeys of the utmost importance in a new direction, to a higher level of conscious awareness and action so that those who died last week—those who gave us this most frightening wake up call—will not have died in vain. Let their journeys be considered journeys of the utmost importance by truly taking action to change ourselves and our country, and show the world that what lies in our hearts is what now leads us forward.

In sympathy,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Be Energetically Conscious

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Light a lantern for peace…

Dear Jeanne, please guide us.

Acknowledge first that you are human and as a human being you too are fallible. You too are capable of brutal acts. You too are due to do wrong at some point in your life. Do not dismiss the truth of evil within the self, for it exists as surely as the good exists within the self. Now look at the self as a spiritual being. Note that the same considerations must apply, for even in spirit are all beings capable of good and evil alike.

As conscious citizens of the world, it is your duty to remain conscious of good and evil at all times. Question the self constantly as to whether the thoughts you put out are harmful or not, whether the decisions you make are contributing to an energy that is good or bad. Use your energy wisely, for all of you are responsible for the world you live in. Do not leave it to a few to make the decisions that affect the many. Everyone has energetic impact.

In your own hearts you know right from wrong, love from hate. You know that your energy is powerful. Now is the time for you to use it powerfully in all that you set out to do. Abide by the laws of love and kindness, compassion and good. Be citizens of a new energetic morality that springs from the eternal knowledge of life as energy and each of you as energy as well. Elect a consciousness of good, and live with a gentle presence in the world. Elect to be compassionate and loving.

Elect to change the self now more fully, for there is no time to waste. Do not look outside the self for change, but look within. Society at large will not change until each one of you turn inward and rout out the dismal enemies that you carry within; until you purify your being, body and spirit; until your energy flows freely and lovingly toward all beings; until hatred is eradicated from you and all beings are accepted as energy too.

Change the self constantly. Confront the self constantly. Move into simpler life now, as you embrace the needs of a nation and a world for greater change.

Each of you matters in this process. If it is to have lasting impact, each one of you must be involved in an energetic shift away from excess and greed to the real deal, which is that life is precious. You have it for such a short time. Do something magnificent with your time there. By setting your intent to do so, you will have an impact on the shift that is now so necessary.

Be gentle and loving in thought, word, and deed—inwardly, to the self—as you face your deepest issues and deal with those. Get to your own roots and eventually you will get to the roots of everything and everyone, for the same roots grow through all living beings.

Be aware and conscious as you take your heart’s speak seriously. Take it more fully into your world now, for you and the world need it.

Thank you.

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Becoming Your Own Best Father

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Chuck’s father playing taps for FDR on the day of his death…the day the nation lost its father…

When father appears in dreams or active imagination, look beyond personal father; look to the rules, judgments, beliefs, and attitudes that inwardly dominate your personality. Though he may bear the image of personal father, we all have an inner father that is our own, separate and distinct from the father of our conception.

Ego self is the child of the father. It remains for the maturing ego to confront the father’s rule. This takes the form of discovering the beliefs, attitudes, and judgments that govern perceptions and rule behaviors. This process can be quite challenging as the edicts of the father may be quite contrary to how the ego views itself and wants to be in the world. The energy and sternness of the inner father may be quite a formidable force and young ego might feel itself quite incapable of taking charge.

Sometimes ego self elects to blindly be ruled by the constraints of the father. Sometimes ego self identifies and emboldens itself with the opinions of father, never daring to discover its own true nature. Sometimes ego self, like a young Nero, assumes the emperor’s throne, assuming power with childlike exuberance and entitlement, becoming a little self-indulgent tyrant. This immature grab for power refuses to encounter and discriminate the wisdom of the fathers before assuming control, an obvious recipe for disaster, like the burning of Rome that ended Nero’s reign. Ultimately, ego self must assume the journey of true self-discovery, the Hero’s Journey, or remain forever a child, governed by the commandments of the almighty father.

It’s true!

Kronos, King of the Titans, ruled the heavens without challenge, as he forced his wife Rhea, to deliver each of their children directly to him upon their births for his consumption. Finally, Rhea, fed up with him—no pun intended—cleverly substituted a stone which she gave to Kronos instead of her next baby who upon birth was named Zeus. Ultimately, Zeus defeated his father and a new era was allowed to be born. Here is the obvious lesson of ego self taking control and ousting the father so that new life may flourish unencumbered.

As the Mayan calendar comes to a close, we too find ourselves on the brink of a new era, where old judgments, attitudes, beliefs, and rules are giving way to a new order. The signs are everywhere. The demise of the old Republican party protecting unbridled greed is one sure sign, as is the truth of global warming coming to the fore, as we face what we humans have done to our planet. In addition, gay marriage is now the law in many states; a Black president has been reelected, his rule no longer an impulsive fluke of the electorate. A woman president is undoubtedly next. These are all outward changes to appropriately wresting power from the domineering father of old and establishing new guidelines for a healthy and fulfilling life.

The Hero’s Journey requires that we venture beyond the father’s reach, that is, go beyond the conventional wisdom we’ve internalized that dictates the conclusions of our mind. We must be ready to accept full responsibility for discovering and taking charge of the truth, inner and outer, becoming like Zeus and defeating Kronos within us. We must also be prepared to accept the shattering that catapults us from the comfortable confines of socialization and the known; the shattering that is inevitable if we are to disengage father from our beings. We are not who we think we are; our minds are not our own until we make them so.

We must take ownership of our inner father, and become like Zeus defeating his father’s vicious entitlement. Ultimately, what that means is that we must confront all the beliefs and attitudes that have comfortably ruled us and protected us from our deeper truths and the greater unknown, both within and without. We must face our own destinies as individuals on our own journeys to fulfillment.

A new inner father breeds contentment…

Only through taking the Hero’s journey now, at this most energetic juncture in our lifetimes, can we participate in the world renewal and transformation that is indeed imbued in the energy of 2012. It’s a personal thing as well as a global thing—one massive interdependent whole delivering itself from the anachronistic father, into a new era.

On time,
Chuck

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR