Messages from Jeanne

#723 Facing the Dispersion

Leave a comment

Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
What message of guidance do you offer us now?

This is a time of great culmination and dispersion. Imagine waves at sea, with no sight of land but far from any shore, slapping into each other, rising up in collision and confrontation, and yet there is little to do as a result of this clash but to sink back down into the great wide ocean once again. Such is the time of now, the time of culmination and dispersion, yet what is the deeper meaning?

Beyond returning to the unconscious, the great wide ocean of discontent, all of your experiences are meaningful for the moment, and far beyond as well.

All are challenged to take not only meaning from the events in life but to learn the lessons about the self those events send swirling up into awareness. The deep sea that does tend to the earth and its inhabitants in so many ways does also keep hidden the deeper meanings of life, evolutionary or otherwise.

I do not mean to confuse or speak only in metaphorical or allegorical terms, for I do not intend wasting words. I seek to expand awareness, to prod you, My Dear Readers, awake; to ask you to use your intuition and knowing to guide yourself more steadily through life—so bear with me. Who can you rely on to offer real advice? In truth, you must resort to the self, for only the self knows what lies deep inside you. You must, if you are to evolve, find the means of allowing the self to express, to be expressed and fully known, both inside and outside the self.

This inner process requires a good dose of humility, a large portion of innocence, and the ability—learned, practiced or innate—to trust that you can allow the energy inside you to guide you, as the waves upon the sea, to the point of culmination and dispersion.

It is only through calling up the deeper truths of the self, often by force, that the spreading of them will occur. In forcing the self to face the deeply sunken treasures of truth, long buried or otherwise hidden, the next step in personal growth may have a chance.

That next step is facing the dispersion I speak of. To face this kind of dispersion requires affording the self the deepest respect, first of all. Only with deep respect for the self will you be able to take seriously all that shoots forth and falls around you as your inner and outer waves crash and disperse.

In honesty must your self-respect be guided to acceptance of all that lies floating about on the waters that are your life. You see, you are but nature itself, like the ocean, with things seen on the surface and things hidden below, even to the very bottom and beyond, in the muck that lies far beyond normal reach. You are nature itself and as such you have within you the same forces that nature bears. These include unknown forces that emerge when you least expect them, forces that will shake you awake and ask you to humbly step back, to look at your life in all its broken bits and pieces floating like debris upon the ocean top. These forces ask you to accept that indeed these doings are honestly my own, and then to allow this humble self to accept the responsibility for not just picking up the pieces and putting them away. No, the real process of clean up after a storm is to examine how this storm happened, whether it was conscious or unconscious, and to use those fragments of self to build a new more naturally acceptable self.

All humans are innocent beings at the core. All fear life, as much as they fear death, yet do they too easily elect to pretend that neither is that important. Caught in an alternate reality of sameness, they lose sight of the truth of life. They forget they are the ocean and the moon and stars alike. They forget they are innocent beings with the forces of nature rocking inside them. They quell and soothe this true nature. They pretend it could not possibly exist, that what they experience could not be true. “How could this happen?” they ask. “This could not happen to me!” they cry. “What did I do to deserve this?” they wonder.

In truth, if you look at your life as the ocean itself you may be able to better understand the reflection of self as nature. If you prefer, look to the sky, for it too is like the ocean. One lies above and one below, yet do they offer the same opportunities for growth. They offer the opportunity to look beyond what you see before your frightened eyes. They ask you to pierce the surface of your world and explore what lies beyond.

My advice for you, My Dear Ones, is to continue piercing your own world. Do not accept it simply because it presents itself in one form or image. Look at your life and remind yourself that though this is my life at this moment, it is but the surface that I must break through. I must use the forces of nature inside me to explore my inner world for guidance but also for direction.

One must be ready to undertake the shattered bits and pieces of flotsam and jetsam that float upon the ocean of life as indeed that which is laid before the self to examine. This is indeed a time of energetic self-examination. If you take a moment to study the self you may find that your culmination has already occurred. It may have happened years ago when you least expected it and since then you have been trying to put the pieces together again, in the same way, attempting to re-form an old image. However, that is not possible. The only thing to do now is to accept that a new world, a new self is called for. A new self must be prepared now.

A new life must be created from the dispersed self. But be sure to keep in mind also that this is the opportunity you have waited for, the moment of decision you have longed for. Do not miss it this time. Do yourself the honor of doing it differently!

Please feel free to post comments or respond to this message from Jeanne in the post/read comments section below.

Fondly and innocently offered.

Chuck's Blog

#722 Chuck’s Place: Miller Time

Leave a comment

These days I find my current reading on the bookshelves of our local recycling center. A couple of weeks ago I picked up five gems, one of which was Alice Miller’s The Drama of the Gifted Child (the 1994 Revised Edition). Actually, I’ve never read a thing by Alice Miller and have only encountered her name peripherally when reading the works of others, who tend to disparage her overvaluation of the “child within.” I was curious to read her directly, but she was not my first choice among my five new acquisitions. In fact, it was Jan who first picked up her book and subsequently insisted that I read it.

Last Sunday night I had a dream about a relative of mine who was holding an object the size of a bar of soap, which was comprised of powerful chemical agents, used to dissolve things. I awoke from this dream remembering the I Ching reading I had written the day before, Dissolution, and also recognized the mandala shape of the object. I interpreted my dream to mean that my individuation (mandala) required breaking down (chemical bar) or recapitulating a specific experience in my life (the relative). Jan awoke commenting that she both kept waking up at 1:01 a.m. and had just had a dream where she was in college and kept having to repeat the course: Life 101. It was another sign for recapitulation. I resolved to pick up Miller’s book to kick off my effort.

By Wednesday, I had another dream where half of my house was sold and two older women were installed as tenants needing care and having control of our furniture, particularly the large screen TV! Wow, I had reentered the land of mothers, a place I thought I’d “finished with” years ago.

Upon reading Miller’s introduction to The Drama, I became immediately aware of why she raised the ire of so many analysts I’ve appreciated so deeply over the years. She summarily dismisses people like Winnicott and Jung; in fact, she dismisses all schools of psychotherapy. For her, the only thing that matters is the body and the truth it holds of childhood experiences, traumatic and otherwise, that need to be retrieved, relived, acknowledged, and energetically released to free the adult self to live a full and real life. Her major beef with mainstream psychotherapy is its dismissal of the truths and enduring impact of childhood experiences, in favor of the rational, cognitive processes of the mind to spin reality and manage symptoms. More simply put, modern psychotherapy values thinking over feelings embedded in body memory.

On this point I couldn’t agree more with Miller. The reigning mode of psychotherapy in the modern world is entitled: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); translation: you are what you think; change your thoughts, change your self. Miller is ruthless in her attack upon this psychotherapy premise, which she claims actually ends up colluding with patient’s defensive systems, especially defenses of denial, rationalization, and intellectualization, which are used to suppress the childhood truths held in their emotional and bodily symptoms. From a compensatory standpoint I am able to understand her dismissal of so many valuable contributors to the mental health field, though I can’t help but see her passionate one-sidedness as somewhat akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Nonetheless, her core premise is utterly valid. Without the full retrieval of the truth of our lives we don’t know who we are and are hampered in our ability to evolve, in fact, our evolution will be limited to our symptoms merely taking on new forms.

As I see it, Miller, in shamanistic terms, is laying out a course of recapitulation. Firstly, she emphasizes the body, the ultimate truth holder. Though the tender psyche of the growing child may need to fragment the truth of its experience to survive, the body registers everything. Very often focusing on bodily feeling and sensation, with intent, will open the door to actual stored experience. Bodily pains, sensations, illnesses, habits, and postures all represent avenues to stored memories. How conditioned are we to seek relief of symptoms through medication, medical intervention, or bodily manipulation? In contrast, how often do we see our symptoms as purposive and meaningful, invitations to awaken to stored memory that needs to be recapitulated?

Even in the absence of bodily cues, don Juan instructed Carlos Castaneda to focus on the sensory aspects of an event set up for recapitulation. Carlos states on page 106 in Magical Passes the following:

“This recollection entails getting all the pertinent physical details, such as the surroundings where the event being recollected took place. Once the event is arranged, one should enter into the locale itself, as if actually going into it, paying special attention to any relevant physical configurations. If, for instance, the interaction took place in an office, what should be remembered is the floor, the doors, the walls, the pictures, the windows, the desks, the objects on the desks, everything that could have been observed in a glance and then forgotten.” [Italics added.]

Miller makes the bold assertion that childhood is over. You can never go back and redo it through reliving it. The needs of the child frozen in childhood will never be met for that child because childhood is over. She, I believe, cautions us here about getting caught in the big baby or the archetypal wounded child; this is not recapitulation, it’s a bottomless pit of tormented need and woundedness that can, at best, only achieve momentary catharsis. After experiencing relief the needy child reasserts itself, seeking eternally fulfillment of its unmet needs, never waking up to the fact that childhood is over.

What Miller does encourage is the rightful mourning and release of held feelings, but most importantly the full lifting of the veils of childhood to empower and free the adult self to achieve a full life. The difference here is between an adult trying to find fulfillment as a child and an adult freeing themselves to fulfill their needs as an adult. In shamanic energetic terms, this is the retrieval of the full energy of the self previously frozen in veiled, unknown experiences of one’s life. This sets the stage to realize one’s true energetic potential. The past simply becomes known fact, devoid of energetic or emotional encumbrance. Energy is now available for human fulfillment and the definitive journey in infinity.

The other night, I woke at 3 a.m. and Jan woke at 3:01. I think we are on the right track now, Miller time!

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 & Balance

Leave a comment

Maintaining balance may be the most important part of undertaking a recapitulation process. Entering into the unknown self or unknown realities is a very serious matter and should never be taken lightly. When I was very near the end of my recapitulation I had some frightening experiences that nearly freaked me out. Though I clearly understood that I had entered an alternate reality and that some evil entity was making a last ditch effort to recapture the energy that I had worked so hard to regain, it was not until I sat with Chuck at one of our regularly scheduled shamanic sessions that I was able to calm down and return to a sense of normality. Chuck calmly and softly said: “Don’t worry, Jan, the shamans have an explanation for everything you’ve been experiencing.” That alone was enough to calm me down and bring me back to reality, to tuck my fears away as we went on to explore in greater detail just what had happened and why.

In many of his books, Carlos Castaneda writes of don Juan being the sobering factor in many of his adventures into inner silence. Specifically, on pages 197-199 in The Active Side of Infinity he relates an experience he had with don Juan of going into inner silence and ending up walking in the Sonoran desert. He said that he could not speak during these adventures, that only don Juan, whose grave voice guided him when necessary, could talk. At the end of the experience, he writes the following:

Suddenly, I felt don Juan’s arm hooking my right arm and pulling me from the boulder. He said that it was time to go. The next moment, I was in his house again, in central Mexico, more bewildered than ever.

“Today, you found inorganic awareness, and then you saw it as it really is,” he said. “Energy is the irreducible residue of everything. As far as we are concerned, to see energy directly is the bottom line for a human being. Perhaps there are other things beyond that, but they are not available to us.”

Don Juan asserted all this over and over, and every time he said it, his words seemed to solidify me more and more, to help me return to my normal state. [End of quote.]

This captures many of my own experiences when working with Chuck during my recapitulation process. Over and over again he would bring me back to solidity, to balance in this reality with sharp calls to return to now, to the present moment, followed by sobering though at the time I thought rather “otherworldly” explanations of the experiences I was having.

Balance requires awareness. In the beginning of recapitulating it may be exceedingly productive and even crucial to have a seasoned guide, for it is very easy to get drawn into fear by foreign energy and get lost in the dramas of old memories, old situations, and old behaviors. It is also possible to get lost in other worlds, which it may take weeks to extricate oneself from. I had all of these kinds of experiences and many others during the three years when I did the bulk of my recapitulation. However, every time I had an experience and returned to balance in this reality, often grounded by Chuck’s pragmatic discussions of how the seers of ancient Mexico understood the universe, I gained and retained new awareness that I then utilized in further explorations.

Often I visualized balance as straddling a river, the river being this reality, the present, and either side of it, where my feet were planted, being my experiences. One foot was firmly planted in the past as I recapitulated and relived experiences from my entire life. The other foot was planted in a new world of awareness as I gained an understanding and perception that had previously been rejected and denied because of my need to control my world and be safe. Chuck seamlessly entered all three of those worlds with me, guiding me to truthfully observe my experiences in whatever reality I was in at the time, but then drawing me back into balance, sometimes quite forcefully as don Juan did Carlos, asking me to deeply study and bring into cohesion all three realities.

During my recapitulation I also learned that finding balance meant forging a connection to spirit, to the heart-centered inner guide. If I found myself in an unfamiliar world while recapitulating, in an alternate universe for instance, and could not figure out what I was supposed to do and was not able to talk to Chuck about it, I learned to rely on what my heart said was the right thing to do. This became a steady and reliable source of guidance during many uncomfortable and strange encounters. As I learned what my own energy felt like, absent of negative outside energy and old embedded energy planted in me by others and by life’s experiences, I was more quickly able to return to awareness and inner truth. The more I connected to my own inner spirit, the more anchored and aware I became, gaining not only increased self-confidence, but also a new sense of personal power.

It became increasingly easier to return to relying on the self with the more experiences I recapitulated. As old untruths gave way to previously hidden truths the reason for taking a recapitulation journey clearly revealed itself as the only way I was ever going to really change. I learned that my personal experiences belonged to me alone, for reasons that were meant for me to grow from, and even though others may have been involved it was up to me to take responsibility for dissecting from them my own life’s lessons.

Staying in balance is not only necessary during the process of recapitulation but is crucial to living a life of awareness. Without balance our lives may become scattered, stressed, unfocused, and we may even succumb to old habits and behaviors. In a dream last night I was shown how my personal energy is directly connected to remaining in balance. In this dream I had my hand on a square motherboard, slightly larger than my hand, of luminous energy connections. This motherboard was centered on a larger square, creating a mandala, held in place in the center of the back by a single metal spring soldered to the larger square, so that it was quite wobbly and shook when even lightly touched. When my hand was perfectly and lightly balanced in the center of the small board, the energy was fantastic, vibrating, glowing, and alive, but when I removed my hand the energy died immediately. If I shifted it slightly or removed a finger or two, the energy and the luminosity dimmed. It was clear to me that to be in perfect balance takes focus, attention, and awareness. It is not to be taken lightly. In understanding the precarious nature of being human, with little shifts here and there, I saw that my energy is really under my own control. I am responsible for remaining aware, each moment, of how I decide to use my energy or not. In the dream it was also clear to me that this motherboard was heart-centered and that this is where my connection to the energy of myself and the universe is to be found.

To remain in balance is to do so in reality, whatever that reality may be. As Carlos learned in working with don Juan, and as I learned in my shamanic work with Chuck, the more experiences I had in the seers’ world and in my own recapitulation the more I was able to navigate all realities with greater awareness and energy. Eventually, as Carlos, I became fully capable of taking journeys alone, able to see energy as it flows in the universe, and able to return to balance, without the guidance of another.

Perhaps the most rewarding part of doing a recapitulation is that one becomes open to life in a different way, perceiving and understanding the universe differently but also the self. I have certainly found that it has been far easier, and much more fun, to just be alive without the burdens of untruth that I carried for so many years. I humbly offer these blogs about recapitulation so that others may dare to journey into themselves and into other realities. Perhaps these experiences are helpful.

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

Sending you all love, good wishes, and balance.
Jan

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

Messages from Jeanne

#721 Prepare for a Long Winter’s Meeting

Leave a comment

Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
The signs of autumn are early upon us this year in the Northeast. The leaves are changing their colors and dropping to the ground, the grass has mostly stopped growing and after a dry summer the spiders are coming into the house looking for warm crevices to winter over in. Our personal activities, conscious or unconscious, reflect this time as we prepare for the darkness that now comes earlier and earlier each day. Perhaps we notice this incremental change in season more strikingly this year due to its early arrival. Perhaps we are at an age of appreciation for the chance to draw inward once again after the warm and largely external lives we have led during the summer months. As Chuck wrote about, this is the time of Po, of breaking down and dissolution, yet it does not carry sadness with it, only the looking forward to what comes next as we enter a time of turning inward with the prospect of deep reflection and study ahead.

The moon, recently shining so brightly at night, stresses that this time of death and dissolution is also brightly lit, that there is indeed light in the darkness, and if we allow ourselves to wake up during the night we see that everything we experience in the day is still there at night, though illuminated by a different light, thus allowing us to see it differently too. In the night and in the darkness we have the opportunity to explore differently if we choose to wake from our slumber and look into that darkness. This is all metaphor for doing inner work, of course.

I can’t help but notice that nature is setting everything up for us, perhaps a little earlier this year because nature itself requires that we human beings become more innerly focused and reflective over all. It is telling us that it is time once again to face our personal darkness and resolve our inner issues so that when the spring comes we will be in synch with the new life all around us. No matter what happens to us or to the world over the next few months new life is certain. That too is the insight of the time of Po.

With all of that in mind, Jeanne, what message do you offer us human beings at this time of preparation for turning inward, as we enter a new phase? Whether we like it or not we must go inward now. I feel this strongly on a personal level, but also perhaps even more strongly on a universal scale. Great change in the human race feels pressingly required and exceedingly important. I feel we are truly being confronted to do the work of transforming ourselves. Within each of our inner worlds we have the opportunity to do this work. Then the challenge becomes bringing it into our outer worlds. This is a long monologue leading up to asking for your guidance, specific to this time, which is both personal and universal. What guidance do you offer us today and in the weeks ahead?

Metaphor, My Dear, is a fine vehicle for teaching, yet at this time it is most important that practical and pragmatic decisions be made or your inward turning will have dire consequences. It is a time of staying in reality. Even though, as you state, it is of utmost importance to accept the darkness that comes creeping into your awareness, so is it equally important, if not more so, to accept the fact that you cannot go into that darkness unprepared.

What do you mean by “dire consequences?”

To be unprepared for the onslaughts of the inner world could lead to shutting down, to fear, to disaster. Be always conscious that the outer world reflects the inner world, but be also conscious that beneath the cold earth the seeds of spring wait patiently, holding in the energy of new life. However, one must prepare for that which is present at each moment until that time of birth. One must guard one’s energy in a healthy manner and go forth, not haphazardly, flippantly, or inflatedly, but soberly, with focus on the moment in hand, at all times.

You must, each one of you, prepare for what lies ahead. You already know what that means. You cannot have lived even a few years upon that earth without recognizing the change of seasons. Now however, as adults, you are more aware that you must be responsible for the self. You must be as the animals in nature that have been busily preparing for this certainty of darkness, of cold shutting down and hibernation; their entire lives revolve around this activity. They are conditioned to this moment, for it is as important as the fact that they do live. Without this instinct to survive there would be no new life.

As adults, your natural instincts must now be brought forth. Where is your own instinct to not only survive but to do so with impunity, impeccably, but also with desire to be your natural self?

As you prepare for the time ahead, as the season changes once again, remain aware, alert to the behaviors of the self that have become so natural to you but are not in fact nature at its core inside you. Inspect your process for habitual tendencies that do not actually have anything to do with the true desires of the self, with survival, or with inner work. Inspect your inner nature for what it truly needs to be doing to prepare for the time of inward turning. Your true nature, your spirit self, absent of society, of ego, and of attachment to the things of that world, might actually surprise you with what it truly wants. I can guarantee that it wishes for expression in some manner.

Do not “think” about this expression, do not give it tools, but allow it access to life simply by intending, by opening the doors of your mind and your physical self without judgments, without old ideas or behaviors, but simply allowing the self to “know” that this spirit self exists. And the other thing is, do not think that you know this side of the self, because you don’t. You may have inklings, you may hear it calling, but you do not fully know this self, because it has not yet fully lived. In order to live fully it must be released and that is a high order.

In order to prepare for your inward months of spirit work, you must balance that time in practicalities. You must prepare for the winter ahead. Do what you must in your own world and environment to set yourself up for this time. In all matters be pragmatic. At the same time, question your automatic reactions, responses, and habits. Do things differently now, by allowing your conscious mind to disseminate that which has not been working for you so that you may be open to the guidance that will come from your new acquaintance, your spirit self. Allow yourself to flow naturally during this time, by both accepting the changes in your outer world, without sorrow and attachment, but also by acquiescing to the quiet stirrings of your inner process.

Do not reach for the normal comforts of the darkness. Reach instead for the discipline to stay present with what your spirit shines its light upon. And do not pretend that you are safe in your world, because that is too complacent. Instead, challenge yourself to be constantly alert and aware of the fact that nothing ever stops challenging you. Be as aware as the animals that predators lurk all around you. They may be as familiar as your own habits, or they may be as foreign as disaster striking, but do not for a moment pretend they do not seek you out. You are not special.

This is a time of closing down, yet is it also a time of confrontation with what comes next. This is where your adult self and your spirit self must remain alert and cognizant as they confront each other in the darkening light and challenge each other to lay down their arms and sit at the conference table for a long conversation about the truth of the self. This is the meeting that must convene in order for change to become acceptable, for this time to be productive, and for each one of you to offer the self transformative work.

Come to your meeting fully prepared by being open and nonjudgmental. Allow each part of the self to speak. But, the number one rule at this conference is that only the truth be spoken. It may take a while to reveal that truth, but it lies at the center of your world, waiting to be discovered like the seed in the ground.

Autumn is inward turning time. Begin your preparation for a long winter’s meeting. Consciously or unconsciously you are all headed there. It is your choice in how you approach this time. I wish you the best of luck. I wish you openness, but above all, I wish that you may face your truths fearlessly, honestly, kindly, and lovingly toward the self.

Please feel free to post comments or respond to this message from Jeanne in the post/read comments section below.

Offered humbly, in service.

Chuck's Blog

#720 Chuck’s Place: Huan

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

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR