#585 Chuck’s Place: INTIMACY: In-to-me, see, or, In-to-me-I-see?

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.

Carlos Castaneda, like a standup comic, would have us in stitches, poking fun at our obsession with love, “luuuff,” as he pronounced it. This stemmed from the years of humiliating mockery he was subjected to by don Juan, who piercingly attempted to awaken him and dislodge him from his major energetic drain: finding love. Don Juan was definite on this point: if Carlos could not free his energy from this obsession he would never have enough energy to travel beyond the veils into infinity. What Carlos was trying to teach us was that our own obsession with intimacy was, to misquote The Love Guru*, really, at bottom, “in to me, see” or all about me.

The truth is, we enter and exit this world alone. It is, first and foremost, a solo journey. We are, utterly alone. How deeply can we enter this experience? This does not mean simply to be comfortable being alone, but to be able to fully recapitulate, know our deepest truths, and remain in awe of our own magical journey, open to innocently experiencing and truthfully sharing this life. How much of what we attach ourselves to, preoccupy ourselves with, hunger for, or go in search of is really an attempt to distract ourselves from this genuine experience of solitariness? How much of our search for intimacy is, at base, all about me, in the form of escaping me?

Even when we think we have conquered our narcissism; when we think we are “truly available to meet another,” really “able to give,” we must ask ourselves the questions: Is my willingness to go beyond myself and truly be open to another a hidden ploy to escape myself and my dreaded recapitulation? Is my desire to give to another an avoidance of giving myself the true attention I need, not the big baby, but the ability to fully be with all of me, embracing the solitary reality of the journey? Is this really just another well-hidden illusory distraction of selflessness, all about me?

The shamans point out: the bottom line is energy. For most people they suggest years of celibacy and recapitulation to shore up the energy for the solo journey. When Carlos was well into his own solo journey he was quite taken aback when don Juan told him the story of a shaman couple, loves of each other’s lives, making love in a closet. Wasn’t this taboo in the shaman’s world? Carlos wondered. Don Juan laughed. No, of course it’s not taboo, if you have enough energy! I understand this to mean that only if an individual has already accrued enough energy to take the solo journey can intimacy be ventured into without it merely being a distraction from the work, all about me. With enough energy, traveling with a partner has nothing to do with need or distraction. To the contrary, having accepted and prepared for the solo journey frees us to discover intimacy with complete abandon, without need or ulterior motives, known or unknown.

The veil of in-to-me, see drops with sufficient energy to in-to-me-I-see, now available for true intimacy, with abundant energy to fly with ye, free! You see?

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

*Mike Myers’ movie The Love Guru.

Capitalism: A Love Story

If you haven’t seen Capitalism yet we highly recommend it. As Chuck stated in his blog last Saturday on Youthful Folly:

Thank you Michael Moore. Not only have you made a movie of supreme importance and relevance to now, but, because you did it so well, I am freed to write about Youthful Folly rather than have to comment on current events that equally attracted my attention this week. We must become real students of the truth of our beloved America. Everyone, go and see Capitalism: A Love Story! Jan suggests that you bring tissues, lots of them. We traveled a bit to view this movie on its opening day. We thought we might enjoy dinner at our favorite city of Poughkeepsie restaurant, The Busy Bee Cafe, only to discover that, like Flint Michigan, Poughkeepsie reveals the true nature of reality in America: our favorite eatery was empty and boarded up! As we traveled north toward home we decided to stop at Sabroso in Rhinebeck, another favorite place, for delicious tapas. They get it right!

On a final note: Congratulations to President Barack Obama for receiving the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize!!!

Look for a new Saturday message from Chuck tomorrow. Hmm, I wonder what he’ll write about? Have a great weekend!
Jan and Chuck

#584 Use Awareness Whether Advancing or Backtracking

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Personally, I have felt the energy as you have described it this week. I felt it begin to shift on Wednesday and by Thursday, as you said, I did feel a distinct difference in mood and in focus. I am interested in continuing to notice it and use it to my advantage. What advice do you offer us today?

Tracking the outer energy is a good way of staying focused upon your own path, of maintaining awareness of that which is outside of you and how it affects you innerly. This is good awareness training and I highly recommend it, but I also caution that you not neglect what your own inner energy is telling you to do, at the same time that you study that which is outside of you. Today, I speak of maintaining your balance and holding onto that which you have been noticing and learning, retaining the ground you have gained as the energy continues to push you in a new direction.

Yes, the energy of now will continue to push, so you must be cognizant, at all times, of the choices you are being offered and investigate them based on what you have recently learned so that your decisions may be advancing ones rather than backtracking ones. Perhaps you have need to backtrack, and that is okay, but I suggest that, if you backtrack, you do so with awareness that you are choosing to do so, and that you are doing so in order to learn something. So, in the case of needing to backtrack: what are you looking for? What are you needing to learn? What does a replay need to show you that you have not yet fully comprehended? What must you go back and get that you have not gotten yet?

These questions, and many more of your own, must accompany you if you are to remain alert and aware as you trek back into old familiar territory. If you trek back into an old oblivion without awareness, what will you learn then? It will be valuable even without awareness, though even lessons in oblivion may not be growth-oriented, but simply lessons that must be stated again in order to offer you the same moment of shift that you have been offered repeatedly. Is this your case? Does your oblivion begin to sound like a broken record, speaking the same message that you have heard a hundred or a thousand times before? If so, I suggest that you make a concerted effort to shift the self so that record does not have to continue playing its well-worn message.

Ask the self to finally take the old message innerly and dissect it for its true meaning and offer the self a new direction. This requires action on your part. The energy of now will support you in your actions, if they are right for you to take. If they are the wrong actions and you take them anyway you will soon find that this is so and have a second or third opportunity to shift, so do not worry. The Universe, the spirit guides in your life, and the energy of growth are always available.

This shifts me over to speaking about the other option that this energy of now offers you as you enter a new phase and elect to proceed, based on the truth of your recent inner work rather than falling into the oblivion of old and backtrack. The backtracking route is fairly known, for all of you have done it many times over, while the advancing route is venturing into unknown territory. In choosing to advance you will want to be quite alert and ready to make decisions and take action in awareness, cognizant of where you have been, where you no longer wish to go, and what you are attempting to achieve in your life now, at this moment in time.

I suggest that there is good energy now for proceeding forward on a journey of change, but I also warn that trickery is abundant in all phases of energetic shift, so do not fall into complacency regarding your decisions, no matter how right they appear to be. You must always remain alert. Judge your actions on your previous experiences in life and remember what you have learned from them. Keep your eyes on the horizon, alert for what is ahead, but do not lose sight of where you have come from. For it is your past that holds the treasures of knowledge, while your future holds the enticements of lessons yet to come.

You, your present self, must bear the tension of these two dynamics in play, the pulls and dangers of the future and the pulls and lessons of the past. You, in your inner and outer worlds, must constantly weight and gauge your decisions based on all that makes up your world.

I send you off into the energy, reminding you that you are in charge. Stay connected to your true needs more than your tempting desires. For it is the true need that will guide you rightly, while the temptation may lead you astray. Stay connected to inner self. Stay connected to the energy inside you, but most of all stay connected to the magic that is all around you, showing you everything you need for this moment.

Look for the magic and you will begin to experience it more often. If you don’t look for it, you will not see it, and you will not have the benefits of it, for it does not seek you out. You must be ready for it. You must ask for it. You must grant your self permission to allow it into your life. And you must be ready to go where it will take you, into the unknown. Are you ready?

#583 If You Can Envision It Then It Is Already Possible

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

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

I offer energy. I offer the guidance of synchronicity, of signs, of ideas for growth that may go far beyond what you normally consider part of your world. I ask you to think outside the box, to look outside your world, to imagine and then act upon something new and different, for only in reaching far beyond the world in front of you will you evolve.

I ask that you come out of your confinement, stick your head above the clouds, and take a fresh breath of air. I ask that you throw out a request for change in your life, allowing it to travel with true heartfelt intent. And then I ask you to pocket the other end of that intent and stay tethered to it as you return to your daily lives. Then watch and wait for the signs of doors opening, of new air blowing in to your stagnant lives, as if a window has opened too when you only opened the front door. With these openings you may begin to see options for change, simply because you are more open to them.

If you remain closed off, depressed, unable to move beyond your slump or place of stuckness, and no new air is allowed in, then neither will new life, new signs, new ideas be able to enter either. You are your abode. You are home base. You are the percolating body of activity in your life and from you will all things flow. But such flow, resulting in new experiences and new growth, will only happen if you venture to expose your self to new life and new ideas and experiences.

If you remain encapsulated then little will affect you or shift you, but if you determine that you truly desire more in life, then I urge you to be proactive for the self now. I have spoken already of the energy outside of you as being quite controlling, but you are fully capable of rising above it at any time, of pointing your arrow of hope and intent in any direction you choose, and shooting it out into the universe, keeping it tethered to you so that you may maintain a line of energetic attachment to the new energy it attaches to and attracts to you.

Place your prayers, your innermost desires to find purpose in your life upon that arrow as you fling it forward with open-hearted intent to grow now, asking for meaning in life, and for truth to be acceptable, so that you may fully live a new life.

As the energy tempers down you may be sure that you will feel a shift, but I challenge you to shift with it, to grow today, to move beyond your complacency and tackle that which holds you down so that you may move forward.

Life awaits! You will not know what it holds for you if you do not open your doors and windows and step outside and walk in a new direction, pushed forward by the energy behind you. Be amazed and you will encounter amazing things. Expect growth and you will grow. Expect magic at every breath and every step and you will encounter it. Find joy simply because it exists for you, and this you must expect too in order to tap into it. What is your truest desire in life? Go get it. If you can envision it, then it is already possible; it is already done. What are you waiting for?

#582 A Warning

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a message for us today?

My Dear Ones, it is important that attention be paid to the energy outside of you today. Take note of it and how it affects you, how it directs you to engage in activities better left undone, and how it twists your inner calm out of sync. Be aware that the outer energy will now come to tease and invite. If you elect to engage it you will wonder where the days have gone, where your energy has gone, and why you are doing what you are doing rather than something more meaningful.

By these warnings I attempt to alert you to the fact that the outer energy is now of a rather engaging sort; enticing is perhaps a better word. You will feel quite drawn to be outerly engaged, but I warn that such outer engagement will result in a frivolous waste of time and energy and decisions made while outerly engaged will not be worthwhile or of lengthy binding. So this is also a message of caution to avoid making any quick decisions regarding money or self. Wait a few days for the energy to tone down a bit.

Okay, that is all I have to say. Be innerly drawn in retaliation to the outer pulls that you will begin to feel today. Allow for calming and innerly focused attention to guide you soberly through the next few days. Do not make any dire decisions. Hold off until later in the week, or you may regret any actions taken. This is not a time to sign anything on the dotted line. Be patient and cautious; do not be hasty. Keep outer activities to a minimum. Do your chores. Be a good citizen, but do not waste your energy.

NOTE: During this channeling I got the distinct feeling that this energy will last through Wednesday and that after that we will notice a distinct difference. -Jan

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR