#622 Chuck’s Place: The Great Awakening

Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences! Many of the shamanic and psychological terms used in Chuck’s essays are defined in Tools & Definitions on our Psychotherapy website.

The interconnectedness of now presupposes a relationship among all who currently inhabit the world stage. Why have we all chosen to be part of this time, with the unique challenges and opportunities of now? I imagine that our various incarnations have perfectly fitted us to come together for this particular world play. As always, the Christmas vignette gives us pause to step out of role and acknowledge our deeper connection.

To awaken to our deeper reality while we perform, impeccably, our parts in the story of our time, is the real challenge and the real opportunity of now. We used to need the jolt of death to awaken us, where all that seemed so meaningful but a moment before dissolved under the impact of the lifting of the veils. However, in our time, in our play, we can awaken without death; we can jolt ourselves awake to perform in a truthful play.

We woke up to elect Obama. Then, we went back to sleep and he went back to sleep. He is slipping into the Clinton formula: pacify capital under the appearance of progress. We, the populous, sit in our seats, laughing or cringing, as we watch heavily funded and poorly-acted delusional skits of tea parties, town meetings, congressional speeches, Glenn Becks, and Sarah Palins. We listen to another speech to defend our freedom with fresh troops going to Afghanistan (or was it Iraq or Korea or Vietnam?) and simply yawn. I tell you, that play is so boring, so played out, it really is a dud. Nonetheless, Obama, Director, Commander-in-chief, has chosen not to alter the play.

It looks like capital will prevail with the health care bill as well, under the veil of reform, another dud. This play is quickly slipping into the old formula, but I don’t despair. We woke up to elect Obama and I think he will eventually wake up and direct an honest reality play. (Honest Abe is his role model after all.) That’s where I direct my energetic intent. That’s our collective challenge now: to direct our energetic intent to perform in a truthful reality play.

We must be impeccable in this intent in order to advance our evolutionary potential but, at the same time, we must remain detached. After all, it’s just a play. Whether you play the hero or the villain, when the gig is up you step out of role into new life, new causes, with new roles to play. Detachment, with impeccability of performance, keeps a foot in two worlds at once, allows for a lightness of being, as we unburden ourselves of the heaviness of getting too attached and too serious about this reality. After all, it is only a play. The real possibility of our time is to participate in a different reality play, a play without veils that aligns with the truth.

This is what our many journeys through infinity have led us all to. This is why we share the stage together at this time. We are challenged with a collective recapitulation. Can we face the real truths of history and unburden ourselves of the pain and lies that construct our phony plays? Can we lift the veils in this world and open to the greater world of energetic interconnectedness, wide awake?

I say, yes! I say, we are all performers in the hottest new hit on Broadway: The Great Awakening!

As always, should anyone wish to write, I can be reached at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com or feel free to post a comment.

Until we meet again,
Chuck

#621 Remain in Flux

Sorry this is a little late today. Due to extreme cold the internet has been down all morning. Have a great weekend!
-Jan & Chuck

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
What message do you have for us today?

Bring your energy inward now as the outer energy continues to pull at you. Remain centered, balanced, and in a state of flux, within and without, so that equilibrium and maturity of purpose and decision remain in tact. In turning inward, your work upon the self may continue unabated though your outer world may continually rev its engines. Your inner energy, to combat the outer engines buzzing loudly, must tune to a lower hum for this equilibrium to be achievable.

I cannot stress enough how important it is, especially at this time of year, to remain innerly connected. Find your balance and your inner place of calm so that you may flow now, uninterrupted, into holiday time, available to interact with dignity and mature grace, through this time of coming change.

There is little else you need attend to now. Stay focused on maintaining a steady inward gaze throughout the time ahead. This will aid you in holding your place in your inner work. Turn inward with heart-centered breathing, with calming mantras, and with mirrors of inner reflection, finding always the personal meaning of your outer world, asking the self, in an innerly manner, to ponder what is being shown outside of you. Your world reflects your deepest issues and this you must constantly contend with to truly remain in flux.

Enjoy your inward turning, not a chore but a path to enlightenment of self. This is the reason you exist, not only to live in that world, but to find the true reason you are in that world at this time. What are you supposed to learn? Your answers to that question must be taken from your outer life and answered in your inner life. To get to a place of deep inner work, to a place of true flux, is to accept responsibility for every step you take, every place you find yourself, every confrontation and challenge you encounter and turn inward in contemplation, without judgment or blame of self or others, but as simple fact that this issue is most important and necessary work at this moment.

To ask the self why is just the first step. The second step is to wait for the inner self to respond. Your answers will come, though perhaps not as you wish them, perhaps in an unusual or uncomfortable way, but no matter how they arrive, your next step is to receive them and take them back into your inner self and go deeper, asking what you are supposed to learn next. This is true inner work in flux with every day life.

Find your equilibrium and without fear or judgment allow the self to venture inward even as you move forward in your outer life, flowing and knowing that life and the universe expect you to keep challenging the self to fully grasp the true meaning of your existence. I give you this gift to ponder, as usual: the SELF!

#620 A Turning In Time

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
I’ve been feeling a hopeful, bright energy while at the same time we are heading into the darkest time of the year for those of us who live in the northern hemisphere. I feel that darkness encroaching on the horizon, a kind of pulling-in, comfortable darkness though, rather than a negative darkness. The winter has turned cold now as we await the advent of the holiday season and family gatherings. What message do you have for us today as we prepare for this season?

Whether is it dark and cold or light and warm, so is the energy of the earth universal. Tap into the calmness of the season more fully now as you go into a time when traditionally there is much spending and attachment to that which is outside of you. Turn inward to granting the self and others the peace and calmness of inner energy that is so useful and beneficial, and that is also free. Turn inward to the truths that all of you hold within: the power to calm yourselves, the power to stop yourselves from exploitation of your energy, and the power to heal yourselves. Turn inward at this time of extroversion and allow for exploration of a new and deeper inner process that does not cost a penny and that will leave you quite peacefully steady, balanced, and calm.

I speak today of the power that resides inside the self to smooth ruffled feathers, soothe frantic energy, and calm desperate nerves. I speak of the innate ability to find inner balance and to find a means of tapping into the innate well of utter calm energy that resides inside you.

Each one of you, My Dear Ones, will fare well in life if you can turn inward and find your place of peacefulness. Developing a relationship with this calm inner and knowing self allows for greater contact with this self and with those who are present in your lives to guide and support you. Beginning a process of inner calming, inner acknowledgment, inner listening, and inner speaking will, as you practice these things, bring you closer to this inner self more easily each time you turn inward.

This is not a selfish thing to do but a deeply necessary practice, especially now in the waning time when energy is indeed asking you to turn introspective, to protect this aspect of self from the cold winds of winter. Is not winter best dealt with by making preparations that provide for warmth and protection, for nurturance and conservation of energy for the cold and darkness ahead?

Even as you speak of winter, so must you think upon the season as an energetic time, traditionally a time of hibernation and inner rest, a time of rejuvenation of energies before a new spring arrives in a couple of months. Observe the world of nature during this time in order to learn a new practice of inner work. It is not unusual that the home becomes a center, family is sought, and warmth, in all manner of speaking, is desired.

Whether you are a family oriented person or not, the time calls you to go innerly to your own warmth, to sit by your inner fires of energy and read your truths by the light of your own hearth. This is a turning in time, most definitely, though your commercial world has you believing that it is an outward turning time. In truth, there can be little effect of outward expression at this time, except perhaps as a perfunctory nod to traditions long exhausted and over done. The deeper tradition, the most necessary, lies inside each of you, in your own nature, as it calls you to acknowledge the inner self, even as the outer world grabs your attention.

As adults in a world that has gotten out of synch, and out of all proportion with nature, it is up to each of you to more firmly establish a new tradition based in the oldest tradition of the natural world itself: to turn inward. Use this time of darkening of the light to change the way you relate to the world, to each other and, most importantly, to the self.

A practice of natural calming, seeking inner connection, and allowing the self to remain aware of the outer natural environment will aid you in developing a new inner tradition during this time of change. It is time to break the old traditions, reconnect with the natural energy of the time of year and the energy of the universe and delve into your souls, My Dear Ones. Give yourselves the gift of connection with the self. For only in connecting with the true innocent self will you have anything to offer of meaning to anyone else.

Be calm. Be real. Be silent, and perhaps you will hear the true sounds of the season as you open your door to the true visitor who is knocking.

#619 Do The Right Thing

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Thank you for the guidance you extend to us and to all of your readers. Every day it seems that you impart something new or present a different perspective on what we already know as true, but don’t necessarily pay attention to or practice. Thank you for guiding us. Personally, and with those who are closest, I feel that a barrier has been surpassed, that a path has been cleared and that there is much support for taking the next step along this cleared and visible path. This path is connected to doing what is so totally right that it can’t be denied. There is a new certainty imbued with a steady calmness that I feel all around me. This feels like a very pragmatic as well as a spiritual calmness, as if the whole world has shifted and the potential for real change may be more than a myth now if people act on this clear path of steady certainty. Do you have any comments about this and guidance to offer your readers? What is it that I’m feeling and experiencing all around me?

My Dear One, you are feeling and experiencing the aspects of shift that occur as a grand alignment of energy takes place in the universe, totally separate from your earthly environment but energetically very much impacting it. You notice, and many others too may feel the energy that now does indeed shift from an ocean of energy, quite varied and potent, to rivers and streams of energy, channeled into energy currents that will chip away through long held barriers and wash down the blockages that have stood in the way of progress. This is indeed a time of greater clarity, greater knowing, and wise truthfulness. But along with such revelation must come the next step in human evolution and that is the human reaction to further grow in the arms of such energy by admitting that it is time to not only make some changes but to do what is right for all beings.

This is not a time to be selfish, but a time to consider the impact of your decisions on your greater world, first beginning with those closest to you. In doing what it right and proper closest to home, so do you extend such energy, offering it greater potential out in the world. By offering your love and compassion to others, by extending your own energy in the right direction, by making personal decisions based on what is clearly revealed to you during this time of energetic flow you will indeed offer the world and the greater population access to this potent energy. As you know, I am fond of expressing the fact that energy affects energy and that you, each one of you, by your attitudes, demeanors, actions, and intents have the potential to change your self, your personal world and the greater world.

By deciding to act upon what is being so clearly revealed and implanted, in each one of you, you offer your self and others the true seeds of growth and change and mental, physical, and emotional evolution, along with the spiritual. For it is time now for those of you upon that earth who live in spiritual contexts to go beyond the confines of your inner practices and take what you have learned out into the rest of the world. Allow your spiritual practices to flood the valleys of your everyday life so that the spiritual ocean you tap into daily may begin to slip out into your everyday world a little bit more forcefully.

You know that you sit with your own experiences. Each one of you, My Dear Readers, have had and do have spiritual experiences that guide, protect, and teach you. The energy of now asks you to find a way to send your most private experiences out into the world so that others, also having experiences, may recognize that they are not alone. In this manner may you become a part of the ocean of energy that does indeed require rivers and streams now as inlets into the populations upon that earth who are so desirous of change, desirous of compassion for all creatures, and desirous of right doing by all human beings.

Though turmoils continue to exist both inside and outside of you, I ask that each one of you take what you have personally learned from the great ocean of energy by understanding its affects on you, and by allowing that understanding and those experiences to become, more fully, the real energy of who you are. Are you not a spiritual being who is loving and compassionate, who is connected to energy outside of you because you know how rightfully it guides you and teaches you as you take your journey? Have you not tapped into spirit and knowing, and have they not already proven themselves as so right for you in your life? Well, now it is time to bring these truths more fully out of your sacred spaces and walk with them inside and outside of you. It is time to live your truths. It is time to act with love and compassion, guided by spirit within the self, toward the self, but now also toward others, in all walks of life.

Move with energy that says: It is time now to channel the ocean of all knowing into new rivers of life, offering access to all, so that the energy may flow inside and outside, so that the energy, like water flowing, may find its natural course, so that all may experience its potential.

It is a time to do what is right, based on the clarity you receive, based on the calm resonance you feel, and the steady knowing that permeates your being as you contemplate where you now stand, at the headwaters of the energy of real change. If you have the daring to stay connected to this energy, you will grow exponentially during this time. Even if you feel overwhelmed, even if you may feel it washing you out to sea or pushing you a little faster than you are ready for, stay attached to the truth that underlies this energy. It is good. It will lead you where you need to go. It will bring clarity. It will help you grow into the person you are meant to be.

Look for the signs, the lifelines that will be thrown to you by this supportive energy. You will not be left alone, but you must look outside of you for the aid that is present in your life. You must dare your spirit to look for resonant spirit beyond the confines of your temples, your churches, and your meditation rooms.

Look toward others of like spirit and act with them as energetic support to truly change your selves and your world. It is up to you, the individuals, to turn the energy into more powerful rivers of energy that will empower and heal.

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR