Category Archives: Chuck’s Blog

Welcome to Chuck’s Place! This is where Chuck Ketchel, LCSW-R, expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences! Currently, Chuck posts an essay once a week, currently on Tuesdays, along the lines of inner work, psychotherapy, Jungian thought and analysis, shamanism, alchemy, politics, or any theme that makes itself known to him as the most important topic of the week. Many of the shamanic and psychological terms used in Chuck’s essays are defined in Tools & Definitions on our Psychotherapy page.

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Taking The Pain Out Of Archetypal Bite

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We are all frozen children when our triggers show up…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

When we get triggered we are involuntarily seized by the power of an archetype. Archetypes are the core building blocks of human experience that lie dormant in the ocean of our shared collective unconscious until called forth to define and respond to a situation we encounter. 

The terror of a trigger is a tidal wave of emotional archetypal energy that floods both body and mind with panic. “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” is an apt definition of the Shadow archetype, as presented by the 1930’s radio mystery series. When we are caught off guard by an encounter, the Shadow archetype—the mystery and danger of the unknown—is activated, and we are in its grip.

Jung defined the shadow globally as everything that we are but don’t know about, which exists in the dark; hence, the term, shadow. Many things that exist in this dark region of the unconscious mind are purposely kept there because they evoke both fear and anxiety, which greatly compromise our stability and ability to function.

We are all frozen children in relation to our triggers. A child state is one of innocence. Shadow shatters innocence. We are no longer safe. We then install the protection of constrictive body armor. Our freedom of movement is checked by insistence of advance notice of everything.  Our breath is shallow and often held.  Our mind is either hypervigilant or not present at all.

The normal child state precedes the age of responsibility. The child, by definition, is taken care of. The overpowering danger of the greater world is held in abeyance until it is confronted by the shadow of the unexpected. When our adult state of confidence and autonomy is overpowered, we too become like children, overwhelmed by the unknown.

If we choose childlike defenses, we are caught in the existential kink of anguish, which contains the emotions of archetypes, generating the illusory belief that we are in control. Truthfully, however, we are like children playing hide and seek. We are victims, clinging to the child state of non-responsibility. We become like Little Red Riding Hood, haunted by the shadow of the Big Bad Wolf.

To defuse the power of archetype, we must first be willing to turn on the light in the shadow. This can be initiated by stating the intent to master the unknown trigger. Here, consciousness is taking a stand and presenting a suggestion to the subconscious mind. Previously, the subconscious mind was given the suggestion to avoid the trigger. That became its marching order and, consequently, an automatic habit.

This intent mobilizes the subconscious mind to channel the High Self, who then arranges a series of experiences tailored to achieve the necessary steps toward mastery. These experiences will show up in outer synchronicities, dreams and relationships. Slowly, the shadow archetype will be refined to reveal other archetypes that are the root causes behind the trigger.

For example, fear of approaching a woman might reveal the overwhelm of the Goddess archetype in all her piercing beauty; or terror of the Witch archetype, who threatens to castrate. Reflection on the terror experienced with an authority figure might reveal an encounter with a God archetype like Kronos, who would not even grant his children life.

The basics of achieving dominion over shadow require that we, as ego, undertake the Hero’s Journey. This will likely require that we revisit the triggers many times, as we gradually desensitize from them. When a trigger actually becomes boring, we are freed of emotional disruption. We are done.

There may be many other tasks to complete, as well, such as talking with or confronting someone, despite our trepidations. Inner mastery of the central nervous system through various kinds of breathing practices and body practices will support challenging tasks and build needed confidence.

Perseverance in all of these practices will eventually lead us to neutralize and integrate the shadow of all of our triggers. With this comes the restoration of a child’s innocence in the personality, coupled with an adult knowing that indeed, we can navigate the big bad world with truth and right action, the essence of love and wisdom.

Reflecting,
Chuck 

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Stupendous Empowerment Of The Freedom To Think

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We have the power to create a new world…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Victor Frankl, survivor of four concentration camps during the Holocaust, gifted the world with the empirical truth that the inner freedom to think can literally save one’s life. Additionally, he established that no circumstance, however dire, could take that power to think away from anyone. Frankel’s discoveries are particularly relevant to our current world, itself approaching conditions of holocaust on many fronts.

Freedom to think is distinct from freedom to speak. Freedom of speech is extremely perilous in our present world, as it can be met with serious consequences, even death itself. Speaking is extraverted and therefore outwardly expressive. By contrast, thinking is an introverted, inward thought process that impacts the subconscious mind in the realm of the transpersonal Soul.

It is true that unspoken thoughts are themselves energetic entities that crowd the subtle atmosphere and attract the attention of receptive minds, such as through the practice of intentional healing prayer. However, even in this positive instance, targeted thought suggestions to the subconscious mind of another person will only be received if they resonate with that person’s values and beliefs.

Nonetheless, controls upon free speech and extreme propaganda, at the heart of the influencer industry, barrage the human mind incessantly with falsities targeted to control human belief and behavior. These persistent messages can take root and cloud access to one’s inner freedom to think clearly.

To avoid this type of barrage we are wisely advised to limit our exposure to emotionally charged rhetoric that seeks to hook our attention through fear mongering, and to direct our attention instead to our own inner thought processes. Inwardly, we are best advised to find calm in meditation, and truth through inner reflection and connection with our own true Spirit.

Robert Monroe, before each of his journeys into the subtle realms of infinity, always stated the intent that he would only accept an interaction with an entity that was at his level of morality and knowledge, or beyond, and that they should hold only benevolent intent. We can present these same suggestions to our own subconscious mind, with the intent to include both subtle thoughts and interactions, and to protect ourselves from outer world influencers as well, thus insuring maximum protection from undesirable influence, within and without.

The power of thought that Victor Frankl tapped into was the ability to manifest the life he suggested to his subconscious mind on the plane of the imagination, which he could live in and be supported by, as he navigated the horrors of life on the physical plane of existence, until the war ended.

His positive dissociation was hardly schizophrenic nor in denial of physical reality. Victor Frankl was already a practicing psychiatrist by the time he went into the concentration camps, acutely aware of reality in time and space, but he was able, through the power of imagination, to live in two planes of reality simultaneously.

In truth, we all exist simultaneously on several planes of existence. The current state of the world is concurrent with our awakening to the rarified energetic conditions of life on the astral plane, where the power of thought is the key to manifestation. As we move deeper into the Aquarian Age, our utilization of this power has the potential to completely change physical life on this planet.

We are presently at the beginning of such knowledge, but as shown in the accomplishments of Victor Frankl, we can utilize the extreme conditions of now to access the stupendous empowerment of our freedom to think, to both survive now and to manifest the world we truly want, through the power of the subconscious mind.

Best to keep your relation to your subconscious mind sacred and personal. That which we talk about inevitably attracts the energy of resistance. The containment of a suggestion within the womb of self allows it to mature, without interference, and to be born when it is truly due.

May your suggestions also be impregnated with the intent for the greater good of all.

Quietly exercising,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Cruelty Is The Reaction Formation Of Unrequited Love

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When cruelty shows up, find your way to love within…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

The dominant feature of those who hold power in the world at this time is cruelty. The rhetoric and behavior of those warring entities is both disdain and indifference toward the suffering of adversaries and a polarized philosophy that can only see solution in the destruction and elimination of opposition. Understanding the energetics of cruelty can truly lead us to a path of peace.

As we enter the autumn of our seasonal cycle, we must acknowledge Nature’s Law of Destruction as the necessary precursor to new life.  We are indeed in the cosmic season of Kali Yuga, the Dark Age of Degeneration. World leaders are under the spell of such energy, channelling it with gusto. If we suspend all judgment, we see the necessity of this breakdown and can turn our attention to the process of preparing for renewed life.

Beyond the destruction of autumn lies the barren season of winter, where life moves inward to the darkness of the soul in the shadowland of Self. Winter offers a peek into the Dark Night of the Soul, where we are invited to face and resolve our inner mysteries. It is here, if we are ready, that we discover the covert defenses we have utilized to avoid our deepest feelings and needs. One such defense is that of reaction formation.    

Sigmund Freud introduced reaction formation as an ego defense that “transforms an unacceptable or anxiety-provoking impulse or feeling into its opposite” (from Brutus AI). For instance, instead of consciously acknowledging an unacceptable desire or emotion, we act outwardly with just the opposite of how we truly feel. Thus, we might act affectionately toward someone whom we actually feel hostility toward.

A more nuanced appreciation of the dynamic of reaction formation is the energetic exchange that occurs when something is transformed into its opposite. For example, the intensity of affection one might feel for a person, that is then followed by a felt sense of rejection by that person, might result in a corresponding emotionally intense feeling of hatred toward them.

This compensatory emotional reaction assuages and redirects the original energy of affection, while it also protects the ego from the feeling of rejection. Such is often the motive in stalking behavior, where one can be said to be in love with hatred.

Cruelty might issue from disappointments at the primal-need level of human development when one is most vulnerable, sensitive and needing of attention. The British psychoanalyst, Melanie Klein, went so far as to suggest that a frustrated infant would assign one of its mother’s breasts to be the ‘good breast’ and the other the ‘bad breast’ to energetically balance its joys and sorrows and preserve a lifesaving connection to its ‘flawed’ human mother.

Cruelty, however, permits no such defensive option. Cruelty bespeaks such a deep experience of felt rejection at one’s core, the shame of which is reactively transformed into the pleasure of rejecting others and bathing in their extreme suffering. The scapegoating of others creates a playing field where the ego is justified in its fixation of hatred, with an intensity that nullifies its deep sense of inner rejection and abandonment.

When we are able to acknowledge and feel the truth of our deepest disappointments, we are freed from defensive illusions and entitlements that fuel cruel thoughts and actions. These actions allow us to experience love for ourselves, at the deepest level, and love for all who  have taken on the challenge of loving in human form.

Planet Earth is the planet for the accelerated experience of refining love. Taking the Night Sea Journey of Recapitulation allows us to gather, from all our disappointments, a loving acceptance of everything. Immortal souls we may be, but in the context of a mortal life love is challenged to grow amidst its greatest adversary, death itself.

To move beyond the defense of reactive formation to true loving acceptance of all that is, is the foundation upon which new life will grow  in the New Age, beyond the Kali Yuga of now.

Those of us now present in human form are privileged to contribute to this energetic emergence, most especially through the practice and acceptance of all that is, within and without.

It’s all about love,
Chuck  

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Chuck’s Place: Act Only From Love

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Waiting patiently for the right time to push…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

I was struck by an allusion to the current state of the world as Gaia’s late-stage pregnancy, in a podcast with defrocked priest and spiritual master Father Sean O’Laoire. Ten years ago, I co-wrote a blog, with Jan, about the state of the world, suggesting then that Gaia was in the early stages of Her pregnancy and that we, as a human race, were best served by the utter stillness of patient waiting.

Father Sean, fully acknowledging Gaia as the feminine face of God, speaks to Her matured state of pregnancy now. The guidance continues to be one of continued patience, but also one of attunement to Her real contractions.

Gaia’s contractions are Divine actions that will bring forth new life. Gaia can be likened to the High Self, the Divine spark in the human personality. When the call for action issues from the dimension of the High Self, it represents the truth of the heart and signals that it is indeed time for the ego to join with the High Self in a mighty push to bring forth new life.

The challenge for the ego is to distinguish the true High Self from the false gods that preach their wares. These can take the form of powerful emotions that demand retribution. If action is motivated by less than love it is simply not right action. Act only from love. Even powerful reactions of self-defense should issue from love alone—love for all thy neighbors.

Actions that issue from the mental plane are equally suspect if they are not in alignment with Gaia’s contractions. If we push without nature’s affirmation we act from our own free will, but we may not be aware that we are under the sway of our own shadow, or the manipulative suggestions of others.

How often when in the grip of desire or inspiration do we get calm and ask the heart, “Is this the right thing to do?” If the heart answers, “Yes,” and Gaia’s Nature responds with synchronistic affirmation, then it truly is time to push, to take action. Nonetheless, the ego must assume sole responsibility for its decision.

Free will should only acquiesce if it knows it is right to do so. It is not right to act if we are truly uncertain. Sometimes we have to go it completely alone. Such is the trial of human existence.

The quickening of events in outer reality now are hastening the breakdown of the world as we knew it. What I labelled a miscarriage, in our blog ten years ago, has proven to be an enduring, disintegrative phenomenon that America and the world were destined to experience.

The karma of America’s shadow has come home to roost. World leadership has fallen from high ideal and devolved into ugly meanness. In full transparency, and with heated passion, America is now living out its shadow of entitlement and primitive instinct.

Tragic as the consequences of this breakdown are, they are truly necessary. Unless we openly encounter the full breadth of our shadow we won’t find our way to responsibly act from the light of truth. As Socrates stated, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Nonetheless, there are many entities in this world, and beyond, that luxuriate in the suffering of others. I encourage that we use these petty tyrants as opportunities to lose our self-importance so that we may be fully energetically available to parent the coming New Age of spiritual advancement.

The wars and battles of now are materialist last stands of souls competing for world dominance. They are powerful and destructive, but they serve the completing of karma from human history. The human race must reconcile with its shadow before it can truly be born as an awake spiritual being.

I have written many times that responsible use of the subconscious mind is the spiritual awakening that is heralding the birth of the New Age. This awakening is intimately associated with Gaia, as it is only She who can create that which we intend to manifest.

The true warriorhood of now is to fully reclaim and refine the masculine side of God, that which plants the seeds of suggestion into the subconscious mind.

When those suggestions are for the greater good of all, you can be certain that Gaia will fully contract and bring forth a world powered by love. That’s the contraction to truly push for.

Act only from Love,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Karma Of Resentment Is Ultimately Love

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Self Importance Kills!
-Photo by Chuck Ketchel

Resentment means, literally, to feel, with intensity, over and over again; resending to the self feelings that have affected it deeply. The actual feeling experienced in resentment is one of passionate anger and bitterness, held tightly, and felt enduringly, for perceived wrongs committed against the self.

Such emotional fixation and repetitive emotional experience rigidifies the heart, inhibiting the free flow of loving and compassionate energy.

The mind often replays incidents associated with its resentments, whereby refreshing their smoldering energy with renewed vigor that then seeks outlet in actual or imagined revenge.

As is evident from the current state of the world, resentments from centuries ago have led to fervent beliefs of entitlements, which are being played out in wars and conflicts throughout the globe. The family of nations and the oneness of the human race is overshadowed by a stage of separateness that is focused on individualistic needs, entitlements and resentments.

Behind all the material veils of physical life is the ultimate truth that all is One, that everyone is part of everything. This truth can only be lived when we emerge from our narcissistic shells and are able to be in love with, and of service to, the Greater One. The karma of separateness, as embodied in resentment, is love. Love is the acceptance of everything, which removes all barriers to Oneness.

The journey from resentment to love is a developmental process. The shamans of ancient Mexico discovered that the key to freeing the stuck energy of resentment lies with overcoming one’s self-importance. Self-importance must first be differentiated from self-esteem.

The essence of self-esteem is a measure of one’s self-confidence in the ability and capacity to face life’s challenges. Equally important is one’s ability to be in full acceptance of self, of all one’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as all that one has done, good or bad.

In contrast, self-importance is an egoic strategy of defense, which protects the ego self from feelings of inferiority and inadequacy. The self-important ego clings to its archetypal entitlements, as, for instance, in the expected love and support of parents, or in the right to have its needs met and not to be abused.

These are, of course, healthy archetypal expectations, however, they hardly address the fullness of reality conditions in Earth School, beginning with the universal experience of violent separation and trauma at birth. Regardless of our ultimate mission in an earthly incarnation, we have all chosen a milieu where the ego is always behind the eight ball. To graduate from Earth School we must arrive at total acceptance of everything, even the most unfair experiences.

To defend against the enormity of this challenge the ego employs self-importance, demanding to be compensated in some form for all the basic entitlements it has been denied. The ego’s resentments for violations to its self-importance might result in aggression expressed outwardly, or buried inwardly in a silent, bitter depression.

The ultimate goal for shamans is the total elimination of self-importance and maintenance of a healthy self-esteem that provides the confidence and clarity to face life’s challenges without attachment to the outcome. Success and failure are equal for shamans. There is no diminishment of self for failure, there’s simply acceptance of the truth without judgment. Healthy self-esteem has no need for self-importance; it acts from its own self-assuredness.

Shamans suggest using the  petty tyrants in one’s life to get over self-importance. Petty tyrants are those people or circumstances in our lives that offend us and drive us to resentment. The goal is to arrive at not being offended by the most offensive behaviors inflicted upon us. If we are not offended we gain utter clarity in how best to navigate a difficult person or situation.

Of course, we may need to safely release genuine primal screams of reaction for what we have endured. However, once released, rather than shift into resentment, we are strengthened in our confidence to come to full acceptance of the truth of our experience and fluidly take action to best address the circumstance we are in. Only the ego caught in self-importance suffers woundings and resentments, the High Self never does.

We don’t indulge in hate, but ultimately feel genuine love for our petty tyrant, a necessary teacher from the dark side, who has offered us such opportunity to shed the weight of resentment and hone our skills of navigation as we deepen our ability to further journey into infinity.

We might also employ the power of autosuggestion to gain release from the habit of resentment. The subconscious mind transforms resentments into habits as the conscious mind incessantly dwells upon them. If we raise our consciousness and freely choose to suggest love for all of our neighbors, we exercise the Divine spark at our disposal in the subconscious mind to transform resentment into love.

Shamans have also provided the recapitulation breath, the side to side bilateral breath that accompanies the reliving of encounters with petty tyrants and both neutralizes resentments and frees stuck energy for the ultimate journey of love, for every One.

And yes, we can set extremely firm boundaries with petty tyrants and still love them. These boundaries are not boundaries fueled by resentment. To the contrary, they are firm boundaries that reflect the truth of the heart.

In this infinite journey that we all traverse, the ultimate karma for all resentment is love. For how are we ever to advance without the total acceptance of everything that is all-inclusively an expression of the One?

Choose love, the ultimate free choice,

Chuck