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#546 Chuck’s Place: The Tool of Self-Pity

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Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences!

Earlier this week I threw the I Ching, which presented me with Hexagram #62 Preponderance of the Small. The I Ching chose the image of the skylark who, though a bird, stays close to the earth rather than soar beyond its limits. The gift of flight is acknowledged, but staying grounded where it needs to be is the sober requirement of the skylark. The danger with gifts is that we may become over-identified with them and push beyond the reality of where we truly need to be.

At one level, I think this archetype, Preponderance of the Small, is a fitting representation of the relationship between ego and spirit. We are given the gift of consciousness in all its smallness and must check its shield of hubris as we acknowledge our orphan status and find our way to the deep nurturance and wisdom of the spirit or collective unconscious. (See Message #542 Direct Experience.)

On a personal level, my encounter with this hexagram immediately generated both resonant awareness and the option of engaging Self-pity. Resonant awareness saw the truth in the hexagram and the appropriate response to its counsel. The ego self had a different reaction: the I Ching is suggesting an inadequacy. Suddenly, the door is opened to a lifetime of vignettes capturing hidden inadequacies and, deeper still, the judgement of core failure and the inability to change. Self-pity then rushes forth, offering to shroud the ego in an energetic cocoon, alienated and forsaken, yet bathed in a comfortable, self-contained protectorate.

And so, we are confronted with the classic blue pill/red pill choice. If we choose the blue pill, Maya, the spinner of illusion will step in and generate all kinds of “facts” to support our Self-pity. At the core of Self-pity is the secret belief that we are special, since, after all, on some level there is the belief of undeservedness for our predicament. With our specialness preserved we are not forced to change; we are safe to continue to wait, in entitlement, for the world to finally give us our royal recognition.

The red pill is simply the truth, and right action, which necessarily flows from it. With the truth we are challenged to stand in the field of our reality, inadequacies revealed, no specialness to cloud our clarity, no judgements, simply acceptance and responsibility for our continued evolution. (Sometimes, we swallow both pills at once!)

This morning, as I contemplated presenting this topic, I consulted The Wheel of Time by Carlos Castaneda, what I call “the shaman’s oracle,” as it depicts all the archetypes of the warrior’s way. Synchronistically, I opened to commentary on Self-pity. Carlos points out that Self-pity is inherent in our human condition, never to be eliminated. He counsels that the challenge is not to eliminate Self-pity, but, in fact, to rearrange its role in our lives. In effect, as I interpret it, he encourages us to use its energetic push to bring full focus to a truth attempting to reveal itself. How do we do this?

Steady the self and suspend judgment. Allow the self to get calm with its smallness and determine what actions flow from this place of truth. Thank Self-pity for being the foster parent that fosters evolution! Make it clear to Self-pity that we no longer need to be swaddled in blankets of illusion. With this action, we truly derive value from Self-pity, as we assign it the rightful place in our lives, by turning it into an evolutionary tool that serves truth over illusion.

Should anyone wish to write, I can be reached at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com

Until we meet again,
Chuck

Messages from Jeanne

#545 Attainment is Achievable

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
What message do you have for your readers today?

Align now with the conviction of your heart and your knowing self, facing your challenges, and forging ahead. For only in conviction and attachment to the greater good of the heart’s desire will fulfillment be attained. I do not anticipate failure for anyone if your goals are true heart-centered goals, if your path is viable, if your truth is continually spoken innerly and outerly, if your guidance is pure, and if your means do not conflict with your heart’s greater intent to evolve.

This is a time now of brightness to come. A gleaning of life ahead will be glimpsed and the path revealed if the focus remains heart-centered and pure. I cannot stress enough that truth of heart is your greatest guide and this you know, even though you may not yet have dared to listen to it. Abide by your inner desires to live in purity of this heart-centered self, with alignment of purpose, living fully from this place of truth.

Attainment is achievable; it is in full view. Do you not see it? Continue to urge the ego self to listen more closely to what is truly being spoken. Your quiet heart speaks most loudly and clearly when you need its sound advice most urgently. Listen to your heart, remain upon your path, keep to your strong inner convictions of growth, truth, and prosperity of real evolution of spirit. That is your charge!

Messages from Jeanne

#544 Stay Connected: Heart to Path

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
What message do you have for your readers today?

Remain quietly cognizant of the inner self at all times. Even though storms may rage and disruptions arise, it is the stable, heart-centered path that must remain in your awareness. Though the veils will undoubtedly fall before your eyes again, do not lose sight of the connection between your softly speaking truthful heart and the path beneath your feet.

It is time now to fully understand the path you have chosen. By your heart’s yearning for change and recognition, and by the signs placed before you, pointing out a new direction, so have you begun a new journey based on resonance and acceptance of the self as ultimate guide. Though your decisions may still be tenuous, and your path but slowly being revealed, so is your heart urging you to continue in this new direction of resonance and knowing.

If resonance is not felt, if the path beneath your feet does not feel right, does not receive your every step, then stop and sit a while until the mist clears and you can clearly see where you are. If your path of chosen resonance is a mistaken one, based on preconceived notions and unclear messages, there is no fault in stepping off it to find a new path. For in the end, the only path that will be right must be the one of complete resonance.

By this I mean that your heart, your feet, and your guides, signs, and supports, must all align in a clarity that resonates. Such a path is still going to be challenging. In order to truly be able to accept the journey that your heart points out so clearly, and in order for true evolution, you must recognize the challenges as inner challenges, to be dealt with by you alone.

Why are you now on this path? What are your challenges? They may be old or even ancient, archaic, challenges, or they may be new advancing ones. They may be newly acquired or simply newly shone, as if a bright light has finally picked them out for you because this is the right time to confront them.

Does your ego intrude too much as you seek your way? Describe your ego to your self so that you may clearly understand how it operates to both propel you and offer you challenges, great and small. Does your ego push you now upon this path that is so right, or does it inhibit your every step? Are you still battling ego over spirit desire?

This is why I ask, today, that quiet communing with the inner self is necessary, in order to more fully understand what is going on in your life as you continue your journey. Each day are you offered challenges and each day must you make a decision about how to address those challenges. Abide by the truths of your spirit in making your decisions, for only in asking your heart-centered self for truth and guidance will your resonance pick up the correct choices and decisions to make.

Sit in quiet time, contemplating the self, and ask for a fuller understanding of who you are. Ask for clarity so that you may connect your puzzle pieces and gain understanding of how and why your journey is as it is. Do not push aside the thoughts that arise. Write them down. Accept the fact that you must, each one of you, no matter how enlightened, face challenges to your ego, your spirit, and your outer world and all that it encompasses.

Inner contemplation leads to outer clarity. Inner contemplation leads to inner clarity. Inner contemplation leads to clarity of vision, for this moment in time, and, however brief it may last, so does it offer you a glimpse of the true nature of self in the universe.

Do not forget that you are an evolving energy being. No matter how stuck you may feel, how uncertain of your path, whether new or old, how unworthy you may perceive your good fortune, or how challenging your perceived misfortunes, please learn to trust that the journey you are on is truly significant, for it is leading you to understand the self.

The self is body, spirit, thought, consciousness, awareness, and knowing energy. The self is all things. The challenge is to remove the blockages that keep you from this awareness of self as all things, all energy, all awareness. Once you gain a glimpse of the self as all things you begin to understand the insignificance of the self as ego, as matter, as brain and body. For what matters is the energy of self as part of that wholeness of all things, as light, as part of the interconnectedness of all things.

Continue your inner work. Find your spiritual path in that life and you will begin to more fully understand the whys and hows of who you are and the meaning of that life. Stay connected: heart to path!

Messages from Jeanne

#543 By Your Example

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have some guidance for your many readers today, as we begin a new week?

Continue on your forward journeys opting for change, for progress, and for true growth. Though I ask that you choose growth, so do I also know that there are many deep feelings and emotions that must be confronted even as you so seamlessly choose to flow with the energies of life that wish for change. It is not easy to move along when others in your life choose quite the opposite, when others choose to stay put or split off in another direction without you. Change may produce joy and freedom at your deepest resonance, yet may it also produce sadness and even regret.

How do you move on when such feelings arise? How do you leave behind the people and the situations that you have long been tied to? How do you aid others as you move on, asking them to be present for themselves now? How do you free your energy so that it may be more fully available?

Progress and change are energetic opportunities, My Dear, as much as they are physical or practical opportunities. To choose to move forward because it is the only right thing for you to do is an energetic option that will allow for further growth in life and spirit. If energy is blocked or slowed then there will be difficulties. Yet, as blockages are removed and allowed to flow in the river of life, offered new life as you release them, so does all life have an opportunity to evolve and flow.

I speak today of being able to continue your progress without re-burdening your self. I speak of continually shedding attachments to the old ways of doing things so that all who know you will understand that you are doing things differently now. I speak of each one of you opting to flow with the energy that is available; more freed each day as you lovingly, from your heart-center, release your attachments, knowing full well that there is energy enough available for all in your care and your life, if they choose to engage it.

There is always energy available to aid and favor those who choose change that is right. In choosing to further engage in life in a manner that is energetically resonant, you are choosing to truly engage in life and all that it offers. By doing so, you become a grand example for others who struggle to release in the same manner; for all wish, underneath it all, to truly grow.

Many simply do not know how to allow themselves such a daring move. They do not, for fear of ridicule or disappointment, know how to take even the first step toward growth. Show them, by your example, how to do this.

By your example you show that life is full of eagerness for change and for adventure. By your example you offer others the opportunity to dare themselves. By your loving detachment you remove your negative thoughts and regrets from others so that they may be free enough to do what you are so hungry to do. Appetites for energetic life, once whetted, are hard to satiate. By your example you show that it is truly acceptable to eat of the fruits of true energy and true potential. By your example you free your own energy to more fully engage in nurturing new energy, even as you offer others a fine example of living a life in flux, the greatest desire of all beings upon that earth.

All beings desire to flow with life. By your own brave example you offer an opening in the seemingly dense pathway, an opening in the trees of life, through which one must forge a means and a way, looking always for the path of resonance. By your example you show the means, the energetic means, to truly forge a daring path of truth, beauty, and endless spiritual resonance.

Do not stop. Keep going. By your example do you learn what it means to be a guide, a mentor, and a spiritual companion to those who watch, who wait, and who desire to do the same.

Chuck's Blog

#542 Chuck’s Place: Direct Experience

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Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences!

Consciousness, with its companions: reflection and choice, is the most recent acquisition of mankind, considering the breadth of the evolutionary journey of human beings. Like our animal companions, our instinctual knowledge, what Jung called the collective unconscious, governed our decision making until the very recent past.

The birth of consciousness in mankind can be likened to the young child’s dawning awareness of “I” as distinct from the world around him. In my own case, that birth of awareness was at once exciting and terrifying. How could my little self survive and hold its own in an ocean of others? I recall, as a young boy, attending a Yankee game and suddenly being overtaken by panic, fearing being swallowed up in the midst of thousands of people. My young ego was experiencing, in projected form, the fragility of its position amidst such an overwhelming presence, a direct experience of the collective unconscious. I also recall the terror of going to sleep, many a night, as my young consciousness grasped the realness of death. I pondered: how can I be certain that I will awaken in the morning? In effect, my ego was terrified to turn out its light, uncertain it would reemerge the following morning from the collective unconscious of sleep and dream.

We are all orphans of our true parents: nature, instinct, collective unconscious, etc., cast from the garden for the sin of consciousness as our awareness continues to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge: our reflections upon our experiences in the world. At once, our egos must build fortresses of security, individual arks, to survive the power and fury of nature for the sin of our conscious hubris, and, at the same time, we desperately need to find a way to connect to the wisdom and nurturance of our roots.

Jung proposed that all religions and esoteric traditions have attempted to serve that function. Mystics and artists, who have had direct inner experience with the collective unconscious, have produced powerful symbols that embody its energy and guidance, symbols that range from the crucifix to those expressed in the Tarot. These symbols attract the masses and have provided a means, albeit a step removed from direct experience, to bathe in the knowledge and nurturance of the collective unconscious while being shielded from its disintegrating potential. Over time, these symbols have become increasingly polished and rigidified, removed from their natural healing roots, as the egos of mankind have commandeered the symbols and imposed dogma upon them, stripping them of their abilities to serve our deepest need for connection. Jung suggested that anyone who could still find a deep connection to their spiritual selves in the religions and traditions available in the world should continue their practices. For those whom these traditions have lost their transformative potential, he proposed the journey of individuation, utilizing psychotherapy to develop a relationship with the unconscious through dreams and active imagination.

The shamans of Carlos Castaneda’s lineage stripped their tradition of its rituals to arrive at its pragmatic core through a series of practices that enabled them to have direct experience. In this context, shamanic journeys are direct experiences of infinity at an energetic level.

Jeanne has proposed that we have evolved to the point where we can remove all projections of our deepest nature from the outer world’s spiritual systems and embark on a path of direct experience of our deeper spiritual selves. To protect our fragile egos in this process, she suggests that we engage our spirit guides, who are available, for the asking, to guide and protect us on our inner spiritual pilgrimages. She states, simply: Ask for help and you will receive the help you need. This is not based in belief; it is an experiential practice. She suggests that we approach it like any scientific experiment, treating it like a hypothesis: state your intent and see what happens!

Beyond that, she encourages recapitulation in order to clear the channel of the burden of barricades, erected to ward off encounters with our deepest truths. With respect to the controlling influence of our outer projections, she coaches us in detachment by strengthening our adult selves to encounter both our angels and demons within. Finally, as we are challenged by life’s inevitable changes, be they deep, heart-felt losses or blindsided fates, we are offered the practice of fluidity, whereby we learn to open, fully, to experience, remaining completely present and flowing with the changes, with grace and awe, as we await our next direct experience of infinity.

Ultimately, don Juan suggested to Carlos that he always find a path of heart in determining the direction of his journey. This is what Jeanne calls resonance. Whether it be in the world’s religious traditions, psychotherapy, shamanic practice, or Jeanne’s guidance, we must find our own path of heart to direct experience.

Should anyone wish to write, I can be reached at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com

Until we meet again,
Chuck

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR