Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Take Action

Leave a comment

Take action knowing that it is your move.
No one else is present in your life to take action or move for you.
Everything depends on you.
Do not look to others to resolve your dilemmas.
Your life is totally up to you and your actions.
Take action.

This is the tenth step in learning a shamanic practice, a practice that is pragmatic and helpful in learning to evolve, to keep going, to grow and to change, but also to learn to live in more than just this fixed and rational reality. I wrote the above in the middle of the night of November 2, 2009, after intending again to connect and dream with the women of don Juan’s generation of seers.

A shamanic practice revolves around becoming totally responsible for the self, for the past self and the future self, as well as for the self who strives for each moment to be one of awareness. As I have been relaying these shamanic steps in my blog over the past few weeks, I have been struck each week by the relationship each step has to recapitulation, perhaps the most important step, according to the seers, in really electing to change and grow.

In doing recapitulation, in seeking to fully know the self, these steps that I learned from the women seers become more than just pointers, they become a way of life. Until one is in the process of learning about the deeper self these steps may simply come across as good ideas or thoughts that make sense in everyday life, but they blossom into true steps of growth when one begins the process of recapitulation with intent, with unbending intent. It is through experiencing each of these steps, through taking a personal journey into the darkness of the self, that these ideas ultimately make total, practical sense.

A recapitulation can take place through many means. One of them is to simply allow the self to go back into memories, to feel, see and experience them as if reliving them once again and then to go back again and again, going deeper and deeper each time. In looking from a different perspective each time, a personal experience may be revealed as it had actually happened rather than as it had been consciously remembered. When memories are revisited in a state of heightened awareness, new clarity and insight may be gained where before there may have been only vagueness or just a shadowy sense that something was not quite right, or there may have been no memory at all because it was effectively blocked by the psyche.

In memories, painful experiences may be replaced with less offensive stories. Safe or pleasant memories may be construed in order to alleviate the full force of the true and often brutal memories. In essence, selective memories can make us feel safe and okay, though they are not the whole truth. The truth often lies deeply hidden. In my own case, I was nagged by incessant feelings that something was wrong with me, but I was not able to fully access what that meant until I was ready and able to handle it.

Recapitulation, as Chuck mentioned in a recent blog, is a volitional action that happens when we are ready. Somewhere along our journeys, our psyche and our body determine that the time is now and prepares us for the moment. When we are thrown or drawn into recapitulation, some deeper part of us is ready, and it is asking us to shift.

In recapitulation, I did learn that I was totally responsible for everything about myself and that if I did not make a move to help myself then nothing would happen to change me or my life. And as I worked through what that meant, in light of where I was at the time and what I had to remember about my past, it empowered me, diminishing my reliance on others and my reliance on staying stuck in certain familiar modes, repeating the same habits and staying in a world that never changed. Although I considered that world to be rather safe, it was not until I was well into my recapitulation that I discovered that it was, in fact, a world of fear that I kept such control of by retreating, withdrawing and hiding, by making safe choices, so that I did not have to confront anything that made me afraid or uncomfortable. In spite of having lived a very full life in many ways, achieving a measure of success, I still had not resolved the inner dilemmas, of what was wrong with me, of why I felt so powerless and unsafe. What was I really afraid of?

So, I would have to say that I did not feel truly safe in this world until I had done a recapitulation of a world that lay hidden deeply inside me. It was purposely hidden so that I could grow up, maintain sanity, and mature into adulthood. I was protected from it long enough to prepare to return, when the time was right, and look with the eyes of an adult at what had happened to me in my past. In returning, I was afforded the opportunity to learn what it really means to take responsibility for the self, for the cards dealt, for the circumstances of life, and to regain the power that I had lost along the way. It took breaking many vows of silence, many pacts, and it also took facing the darkness within, the stuff that had followed me around for a long, long time, just waiting for me to return and remember what it was all about.

So, in the final lesson to “take action,” the women seers are also suggesting that it is our choice to evolve, to change, and to recapitulate too. We are all afforded many opportunities to practice such steps. We read our books and chant our mantras. We do our yoga and meditate ourselves into calmness, but until we really take action on our own behalf, and face our fears, we are just waiting for something or someone outside of us to change, when it is what is inside us that is asking for change. At least, that has been my experience.

Until next week,
Love,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

#688 Predictions from 2006

Leave a comment

Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Over the past few days some of Jeanne’s early messages about man’s use and misuse of the earth have been coming to mind as we have watched the antics taking place in the Gulf of Mexico around BP’s almost comical efforts to stop the oil flow. I went back into my journals, to unpublished channeled messages, and found a couple of instances where Jeanne warns of Mother Earth reacting to the greed of mankind. Here are a few excerpts from those messages:

From September 6, 2006 she writes: There are events happening within governments right now that will create havoc and they will be partners in disgrace, and disappointment will be rampant as the plans become realities. In enacting devastation there will be a great loss of life and many will wonder in dazed thought how such a thing could happen. But little will they realize that it is necessary. This is a chilling concept that will be refused. But the truth of the matter is that with great destruction comes great change, both internally and externally, and this is what life on earth now needs. Change is the only motivation at this point.

She goes on to say that human error will cause great harm and loss of life. Then upon such devastation will fall natural consequences, she says, that will further precipitate the changes that will be unbelievable in scope, but in the end will reap rewards. I know this sounds terrible and tragic and to many it will be the final end upon that earth, but for many it will signal definite and final growth, the opposite of final end.

She goes on to say: Even as I send these messages so do I also send messages of hope, for that is how it will be. There will be change and there will, as a result, be further change. It is inevitable.

From September 13, 2006 Jeanne says: Mother Nature revolts… There will be a time of destruction, partly man’s fault, partly instigated by the reaction of the earth to that which man has promulgated upon her surface. This will lead to a calming down of all tensions upon that earth and a forced new world will be in order.

Later in the same channeling she says: There are no accidents. The way things are now going upon that earth are not accidents — this is certain. All is connected.

I end with an excerpt from a message channeled on November 17, 2006: This planet is in an uproar. Do not doubt me on this, for there are now many signs of this, and the destruction that man has created is causing anger and his rule will soon be toppled and he will no longer reside as king upon that earth. For now does Mother Nature seek back her throne from the imposters who do not respect either her or their fellow men.

Chuck's Blog

#687 Chuck’s Place: Deeds of Denial & Indulgence

Leave a comment

“Denying oneself is an indulgence. The indulgence of denying is by far the worst; it forces us to believe that we are doing great things, when in effect we are only fixed within ourselves.”

In this quote from A Separate Reality, Carlos Castaneda unmasks the self-importance of self-denial. On the one hand, Americans overindulge and, on the other hand, have a puritanical guilt complex about it. What Carlos is challenging is the self-definition of becoming valuable because we begin a collection, a new inventory of deeds of denial and feel good about ourselves accordingly.

Certainly, the inability to discipline the self comes with a huge price. On the other hand, disciplining the self and accomplishing great deeds also comes with a huge price, the illusion of permanence. The challenge is to avoid becoming a collector of anything, huge deeds or huge misdeeds, indulgence or denial.

Self-importance appears with many faces, asceticism and worldly accumulation are but two. Beware as well of the middle way: if you find pride in your attachment to balance, once again self-importance has found its way into your self-definition. Better to indulge, to break the accumulation of days of pride in having achieved the better way. ‘Tis better to pick up after a year of sobriety and restart the steps than to indulge in thirty self-important years of dryness and rage.

Break all the rules. But beware not to get attached to the self-importance of being a rule breaker. If you fall into that trap, better to become consistent and disciplined to erase any attachment to the self-importance of the maverick. Self-definitions are rigid and fixed and make us appear to “be something.” Better to be nothing and everything, as fits the situation. This is fluidity, the ideal place to be. Of course, it’s possible to get caught in the self-importance of being fluid! In that case, it might be important to become rigid and unrelenting, to break the spell of unwittingly becoming fixed within as a superior fluid being.

I close today with another quote, from the Tao Te Ching:

“To hold things and be proud of them is not as good as not to have them,
Because if one insists on an extreme, that extreme will not dwell long.
When a room is full of precious things, one will never be able to preserve them.
When one is wealthy, high ranking, and proud of himself, he invites misfortune.
When one’s task is completed and his mission is fulfilled, he removes himself from his position.
This is indeed the way of Nature!”

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

Until we meet again,
Chuck

NOTE: The quotes above come from The Wheel of Time by Carlos Castaneda, p. 53 and Tao: A New Way of Thinking by Chang Chung-yuan, p. 25.

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: INTENT—The Ninth Step

Leave a comment

Hello everyone! Today I am keeping this super short.

On the night of November 1, 2009 I dreamed again with the women seers of don Juan’s line. As I mentioned in last week’s blog I recognize them by their energy. How do I know it really is them? That I can’t tell you, I just know it is. As soon as I put that little heavy dreaming pillow on my body I go into dreaming. I don’t know how this works either, but it does, immediately, so I am careful in how I approach it. I take it very seriously, and when I elect to place that pillow over my abdomen I know I must to be prepared to take a journey. Sometimes I am eager to take those journeys and other times I just want to sleep. The last time I used the dreaming pillow, a week ago, I stepped down into blackness, as I mentioned, and I haven’t gotten up the nerve to go back again — yet. But I will. And I’ll let you know what happens when I do, but for now I pass along the ninth step in developing a shamanic practice. Here is what I learned from the women seers and what I wrote in my nighttime dreaming handwriting on that November night last fall:

Use your intent to grow.
Learn by your mistakes.
Intent will find you.

Of course, I have been using my intent to connect with the women seers. So, as I also mentioned before, it really does work, if, as the seers say, it is unbending intent. So, I leave you today with a reminder that Chuck is fond of saying, and brings in last week’s step of no attachments: Set your intent; send it off; don’t attach to the outcome. And then, see what happens!

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

#686: The Way of the Truthful Warrior: I wish to live! I wish to grow! I wish to be a fully functioning, aware, changing being!

Leave a comment

Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Today is Monday, the day I ask you for guidance for all your readers, those who have found you via the Internet or through other connections, and those who once knew you in this world. What would you like to talk about today?

I am inclined to discuss the world situation. Though I know many of you seek personal guidance, do not turn from what I say, for it will be personally relevant, that I guarantee!

In this time upon that earth great forces are at work. You may already be aware of many such forces, for you know and see much that is happening around you, but be assured that there are other unseen forces that partake in “the world of change” that is now where you reside.

It is not by happenstance or coincidence that you are there upon that earth at this time. That is what you must always strive to discover about the self. Why am I here? What is my purpose? Each one of you has a meaningful existence. At times, you may feel full of despair, full of sorrow or sadness, full of depression and even self-pity, but I ask that you always stay connected to the fact that you belong there for a reason. So, that being said, what is your reason for being there?

I turn again to the conditions that exist in that world, your world. I ask that each one of you take full responsibility for the current climactic, economic, and global political situations. I ask that you each decide that you, being an important member of the world community, resolve to also have an active part in changing that world. Those of you who are of like mind, like inner mind, use your energy now for greater change. You can change the world.

This is not an inflated statement meant to perk you up in an idealized fashion. This is the truth of what I speak of today. As far gone as you may think your world is, as I have said, there are other forces at work to correct it. These forces of good are the ones you must now energetically seek. Once you understand what they are and how they operate, you will find yourself more fully in tune with them. Once you distinguish what it means to be truthful, to be utterly aware of truth as it is spoken and utilized, you will find that your own connections to it will be more open.

The way of the truthful warrior must now become your own. This will lead you to greater self-discovery and greater attunement with the forces of good energy that abound, seeking to reconnect such energy upon that earth. With a simple shift and twist of awareness, of how you elect to view the world — your outer environment and your inner environment — you may begin to prepare yourself for this new path of connection. In asking the self to partake in life more fully, as an aware being of spirit and connection to energy, you will allow yourself to be ready for understanding and finding out what it means to be connected on an energetic level. The more you allow for such connection, the greater the flow of such energy toward you.

I ask that you do not despair at the conditions of the world you live in, My Dears, but that you commit to energetic responsibility and responsiveness to them, and to all that arises as a result of your personal life.

There are many forces that seek to hold the veils over your eyes, to keep your status closed and unaware, to keep you complacent and dark. Those forces are always present. You will not make them disappear, but you can push them aside. You can find the voice of self, within the self, and allow it to say: Enough of this darkness and confusion! I wish to live! I wish to grow! I wish to be a fully functioning, aware, changing being!

Those are words of enlightenment and hope to your inner spirit self. They may be the first words that allow you to shift, so that your personal view of the world broaden and opens up to the horizon where all possibility lies. Do you dare to part the veils that keep you from really seeing what you must? Do you dare to give the self its true purpose, allowing it to come forth? Do you dare to keep going forward, breaking through the barriers, no matter what? That is how you will change the self, and the world.

The world will not disappear, but it will change. Do you want it to change with you in greater despair? Or do you want it to change with you in greater truth, enlightening awareness, and in energetic discoveries that are now but like small buds upon the trees, waiting to be forced open by the energy of the light? Are you ready for that energy, too? It really is your decision.

In conclusion, I suggest that you keep in mind that life and energy are always present. Sometimes they just need a little boost. A little light shining through the darkness may be enough to get them shifting and moving out of the place that holds them still. Is this all that you need? Think about it, but better yet, shift a little.

Do something differently today. And then see what happens!

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR