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: Befriend the Jackal

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Befriend the Jackal…
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

In Egyptian mythology, Anubis, the guardian of souls and lord of the underworld, appears with a human body topped with a jackal’s head. The jackal, in physical reality, is an earthbound wild dog who, like a vulture in the sky, feeds off the flesh of the dead. This is the likely root of Anubis’ symbolic and solemn association with death.

The jackal, in the tripartite human being dimensions of mind, body and spirit, is the physical body, the mortal component of this human trinity.  The physical body is also the subconscious dimension of the human being. The subconscious houses the raw materials of all that we are, as well as all that we have ever been.

When the superconscious dimension of our Spirit decides to incarnate in human form for a particular mission of self-actualization in time and space, it must forget its immortal existence to accomplish its goal. If we were to be born with a distinct knowledge of our soulful existence beyond death, it would trump the experience of mortality, which is crucial to creating the necessary growth environment, or experimental/experiential conditions that our Spirit requires to advance its mission.

The jackal, as accomplice to Spirit’s intent, is the  guardian of Spirit knowledge housed in the shadowland of the subconscious and stored in the human body. The paradox of this contract is that the jackal becomes Spirit’s greatest opponent in life. While Spirit seeks the spiritualization of our sojourn as material, mortal beings, jackal seeks to consume all of our spiritual stirrings that threaten to bring into the light of consciousness the truth of our hidden potential and immortality. The psychological tool to keep things hidden is suppression.

The jackal accomplishes its mission through preoccupying us with concerns of physical survival. We become obsessed with our income and resources to assure food and shelter. Our preoccupation with creature comforts renders us inert, as we sink into the malaise of semi-conscious existence. Ultimately, these obsessions evoke anxiety and fear and breed selfishness.

The world is currently caught in such a survivalist drama, as fears of scarcity fuel war and hate of neighbor. These fixations lack the deeper spiritual knowing of interconnected life beyond mortal existence. The challenge for the world now is to ascend to this spiritualized position of love and care for all of life. This is indeed the Great Spirit’s intent for the entire human race in its current incarnation: to ascend to love amidst threat to mortality. But how to accomplish this?

The shamans of ancient Mexico reminded themselves each day that they were “a being who is going to die” to counter the jackal’s distracting efforts to mire their Spirits in materialism. With death as one’s adviser, one is mindfully present, with Spirit, to the opportunity for fulfillment in each mortal moment.

Between the superconscious domain of Spirit and the subconscious domain of the jackal—the body—is the mind. The mind is actually another orphaned dimension of Spirit, known as the ego. Like the body, the mind is a victim of brainwashing, that is, amnesia of its true origin: Spirit.

However, despite its ignorance, ego stumbled upon the tree of knowledge and free will. On the downside of this discovery is ego frequently colluding with the jackal, advancing its power aims and survivalist agendas. On the upside, ego has the potential to calm the jackal, whereby opening the channel to Spirit’s guidance and resource in its Earthly mission.

When ego chooses to meditate, it calms the body with positive suggestions, which in turn provide reassurance. This is where ego learns voluntary control over the jackal’s autonomic nervous system. When the jackal gets anxious, the ego can lead it to the calmness of its safe place. Once the jackal feels safe, and sees that its true physical needs are being met, it allows its hidden treasures to come into the light of consciousness.

This allows ego to recapitulate the repressed traumas of this life, or the issues of past lives, previously hidden and stored in the dark storage of the physical body. This allows access to one’s true karma, one’s mission in this life, allowing it to be revealed and fulfilled. Ultimately, this spiritualization process allows for the full merger of mind, body, and Spirit in love, the collective Spirit intent for the lifetime we are all in.

Interestingly, it is Anubis who presents the human heart to Ra at the time of human passing, as the actions of one’s just-lived life are weighed and future karma assigned.

We begin our journey of spiritual return through befriending the jackal, who in turn opens the door to the gems of our true heritage, presenting materials for advancement. And, ultimately, as our worthy opponent through life, the jackal returns us, upon passing, to our full-fledged Spirit in infinity.

Loving the jackal,

Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: What Do I Really Believe?

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Love in the silence of personal meditation…
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

Matter follows thought. Thought issues from the mind. The mind is the soul’s seat of consciousness as it conforms to life in a physical body. The physical body is thus an expression of the soul, in a state of dense energy, as directed by the mind.

The mind has multiple influences upon it, the majority of which operate at a subconscious level. The core drivers of the mind are beliefs, those we consciously subscribe to, but more importantly, those we have internalized through socialization in this life, as well as those encoded in our genetics and archetypal inheritance.

Most of our beliefs operate in the shadow of the subconscious, unbeknownst to the conscious mind. We are a species that is highly susceptible to suggestion, which is merely a prepackaged thought presented to the subconscious mind, which in turn gives it material form through the body’s nervous and endocrine systems.

As the subconscious, by definition, is not a conscious thinking entity, its modus operandi is instinctive reactivity. This reactivity registers as physical sensations and emotions, which steer motor responses to actual physical circumstances or mental thoughts. The subconscious treats outer reality and the imagination identically, that is, as facts to be reacted to.

The influencers of modern social media are suggestion-producers, in the form of thoughts and images, that impact the collective subconscious and generate states of nervous activation, emotion and physical activity that then attempt to define and shape physical reality. For example, the suggestion that Ketanji Brown Jackson is soft on sexual predators becomes the internalized, felt to be, personal belief of many individuals.

Thus, many beliefs are actually not personally generated but are extrinsic mental installations that shape the conscious mind through subconscious influence. In such cases, the ego does not exercise its free will to apply consciousness in its ability to reflect and arrive at its own truth. To the contrary, it blindly accepts and follows the tenets of its internalized suggestions, where they are reacted to, as facts, by the personal subconscious.

Beliefs are also shaped by our educational systems that seek to instill a system of morality, along with tools for understanding and utility, that allow for successful navigation of life in a physical body. Thus, even our basic beliefs about the nature of reality are narrowed by the boundaries of what is considered valid exploration.

Medical treatment is largely confined to physical tests and medicines that correct the observable diseases in the physical body. The powerful effect of placebo, which completely reflects the power of a mental belief, is dismissed as irrelevant to objective reality.

Placebo actually gives evidence to the fundamental fact that, as a person thinketh, so do they becometh. Matter, the state of physical reality, is first and foremost shaped by our beliefs, shaped by inheritance, instinct, experience and karma. The royal road to discovering those beliefs is meditation.

To take true ownership of our physical reality we must illumine the beliefs that subconsciously operate within us, and determine their validity. In the still of meditation we observe how thoughts arise and impact our nervous and glandular activities. We discover the subtleties of beliefs upon the matter of our own physical bodies.

As we calm the subconscious reactivity of sensation and emotion, as well as the free flow of thought, in meditation, we move beyond the defining influence of the subconscious and are opened to the spiritual center of the higher self.

From the meditative position of detached observer we enter the subtle realm of energetic reality. We notice sensations arising spontaneously from the energy centers of the various chakras. We are treated to the experience of vibrational reality, where we can ascend into the quiet and calm of heightened spiritual awareness. We discover ourselves as energetic beings. We discover our higher selves.

At the heart chakra we are led to energetic truth and love, the one true energetic reality. Love is the binding glue of the oneness of all that is. All can experience this truth in the silence of their personal meditation.

As well, all that is untrue and negative will arise in meditation, where the opportunity arises to cleanse oneself of the the limiting beliefs, or habits, that have by default, defined one’s life.

Aligning one’s consciousness and free will with the truths of this spiritual, or energetic center, of the heart, sets the stage for manifesting the heart’s true content. Through the letting go of untruths, we clear the channel for pure love to flow through and into our physical reality.

Belief then becomes knowing. Knowing thoughts generate energetic and physical harmony. Harmony is the next stage of our human evolution.

Meditate, meditate, meditate, and all will be well, within and without.

Intent on Knowing,

Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: The Essence of Attraction

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Like attracts like…
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

The energy of attraction is magnetism. Our subtle states of mental and emotional desire generate a magnetic charge that draws toward it like energy that both reflects and interacts with it. If one is in a joyful state of positive radiance, its impact is infectious. Even the most somber person will experience the activation of its radiant joy within themselves.

When we think of magnetism we generally think of the attraction of opposites, not like poles, as expressed in the principle that opposites attract. To understand the true essence of magnetic attraction, we must look to the primary relationship between the supposed opposites of Spirit and Matter itself.

Spirit, for instance, is a substanceless essence that produces subtle blueprints that draw matter to them, to give them material expression in physical form. In the beginning was the word, and the word drew to it the matter that organized into flesh, according to its design.

Thus, though Spirit and Matter appear as opposites, their attraction is actually one of joining their different states of sameness. Matter without Spirit is void of form. Spirit without Matter is void of expression. Creative expression is the mirror of Spirit as Matter and Matter as Spirit, permutations of states of sameness.

Life itself is an evolutionary process. Life in human form hastens evolution because Spirit, as expressed in incarnate, material form, has a beginning and an end. Evolutionary changes are dramatically, physically expressed through the course of a lifetime, from infancy to old age. Discarnate Spirits lack a material playing field for their discovery process. Spirit form does have its material limitations!

Spirits in discarnate form are empathically drawn to the physically alive to act as both teachers and guides. We attract the spirit guides and teachers that match our energetic essence. Thus, in my work, I might attract the guidance of a Carl Jung or Carlos Castaneda, as I explore and practice their teachings, to clarify and deepen the depth of my own understanding.

In exchange, my research and experience in physical form constitutes a physical playing field, an actual physical laboratory, for resonant Spirits outside of human form to deepen their own knowledge in areas of their own interest, as well as karmic challenge.

As well, I might attract a trickster entity interested in vicariously living and encouraging my many vices. Thus, we can’t blame entities for our troubles, they merely piggyback on our own growth process, slow as it may be, to bathe in and resolve their own issues, latent karma from their own sojourns in human form.

Indeed, our guides and teachers contribute greatly to our potential spiritual advancement as they share their wisdom from a higher, more refined subtle plane. Of course, free will is the essential factor in spiritual advancement. We can only advance ourselves spiritually through our choices, whether in discarnate or incarnate form.

If I choose to live in my vices, the trickster entities I attract are actually reflecting to me the intent I am manifesting, which I might not even be aware of. The shadow of the personality houses many desires that our consciousness may be blind to.

Rather than project blame toward others in our lives, we might do well to discover how we have magnetically drawn them to materially reflect our hidden—especially from ourselves, though generally not from others—motivations.

The subtle energy connection points of the human body, called chakras, rise from the base of the spine to the crown of the head in ascending spiritual subtlety. While the base chakra is concerned with physical groundedness, security and safety, essentially the core needs of the human animal, the crown chakra is the opening to one’s highest spiritual essence.

As we focus on different chakras, according to our spiritual and material unfolding and realization through life, we send out energetic signals of attraction that bring forth guides, teachers, and companions, in both incarnate and discarnate forms.

May we appreciate the guidance they provide, as well as the service our lives offer in exchange, as we all advance through this particular journey of infinite discovery.

Indeed, the ultimate spiritualized essence of attraction is love, total love for all. May the force of your attraction bring deep fulfillment.

And may the force of attraction issue from the most refined love in all of us,

Chuck    

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Chuck’s Place: The Magical Pass of You

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Change your movements, change your self…
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico discovered that by performing a specific sequence of physical movements, which they entitled Magical Passes, the embodiment of an intention could be supported and realized. An example would be achieving a state of Inner Silence, through performing a specific set of shamanic bodily movements.

In actuality, all of our physical movements are dense energy constructions of intents we may or may not be aware of. For example, if we approach a social encounter with mental trepidation our bodily movements will express this mental/emotional state. Sensitive people will easily detect someone’s true inner state by reading the physical energetic configuration they enact.

Ultimately, all there is is energy. Hence, the physical world is made up of infinite, unique patterns of flowing energy that give structure and movement to all objects in the world. One of those unique patterns of energy is you.

Did you ever notice that you need only the slightest hint of a person’s movement to recognize them? Each individual has their own unique pattern of energy, which is reflected in all of their bodily movements.

Though we cannot alter the unique energetic essence that we are, we can shift its configuration. For example, the psychoanalyst, Wilhelm Reich, discovered that people’s emotional defenses resulted in a character armor, which physically embodied in postures of rigidity and muscular tension.

Through the practice of a prescribed series of physical movements, called bioenergetics, patients are able to change their defensive energetic configurations to experience joy and pleasure.

The magic of a magical pass is being able to stir our latent ability to re-assemble our energetic essence in new, creative, and fulfilling ways. This is the true definition of change: having the fluidity to shift our energetic essence into new possibilities. The challenge to achieving our coveted changes lies in our habitual attachment to our familiar, energetically encrusted, state of self.

An alternative to focusing on the rigid mental definitions of self, to break up this energetic encrustation, is to change the current magical passes one performs on a daily basis. For example, rather than conform to a specific sleep/wake routine, break the mold. Go to sleep one night at 8 pm, the next at 11 pm, etc. Rather than type the usual texts to friends and family, withdraw into reading a book. Notice what new possibilities of feeling and creativity present in this void of routine.

If you have a breathing practice, do it many times throughout the day. The alpha breathing pass of a count of 8 inhalation, 8 holding, and 8 exhalation, followed by a no-breath pause of 4, can be introduced spontaneously throughout the day.

One may come to observe that interrupting the habitual shallow breathing pattern, or holding of breath for long periods of time, shifts one into a deeply calm reset of the central nervous system. This might actually generate its own trepidation, as the familiar definition of one’s self as a nervous person is severely shaken. We discover why we tend to cling to what we call bad habits, as we understand how they fortify our security in an unchanging personality, with known bodily movements that rigidly uphold that unchanging self.

To really become the full magic of you, observe the habitual patterns that have defined you. Focus especially on the physical movements that actualize these patterns. Change the movements, change the self.

No attachment to outcome, just persevere with light abandon. As Carlos Castaneda would excitedly express, “See what happens!”

From the magic of me, to the magic of you,

Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: Intend To Ascend

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Breathe the breath of  inspiration…
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

To ascend is to realize one’s higher ideals in everyday life. To ascend is to invite Spirit into expression in the temple of the physical body.

The highest ideal is just to love. What blocks love is selfishness. Selfishness is living within the narrow confines of self-interest, essentially focused upon one’s physical comforts and physical survival needs, to the exclusion of the needs of others, as well as the intent of one’s own Spirit.

The physical body is the playing field of the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind expresses our karmic load in the features and workings of the physical body. The subconscious also houses our suppressed memories of experiences in the life we are currently in, in the organs and conditions of the physical body. The subconscious also holds the primal heartbeat of Spirit’s intent, seeking movement in physical expression.

However, the physical body is also the being who is going to die, therefore, from it issues the anxiety, worry, and preoccupation with survival. The physical body is our Earthly animal self, largely preoccupied with food, shelter, and comfort. Like our cherished pets, the physical body asks for tenderness and security to calm its panic around daily survival needs.

The physical body is the child within the self who seeks the reassurance of the parent, the ego mind, that everything will be OK, so that it can relax into a calm state of safety and expression. Short of this, the physical body remains tense and restless, riddling the parent mind with its fears, that generate obsessive thoughts of impending doom.

Frequently, the ego, as parent, becomes preoccupied with securing safety for this child panic state by piling up physical resources to placate its survival fears. This is where the ego is constantly obsessed with money: making, obtaining, or miserly coveting its accumulated reserves. This can also manifest in eating disorder issues, where the survival need of hunger dominates ego decision making.

Currently, we are witness to a war whose perpetrator’s intent is to devour and hoard a country to strengthen its own resource and personal defense. This is the child whose fears have become the parent’s mission to soothe, through the stealing of another’s property, with the justification of self-interest and survival.

Interestingly, the world is divided over the primacy of self-interest that expresses itself in indiscriminate human slaughter versus sacrifice and service, for the greater good of all. The former attitude can be characterized as a refusal to ascend. The latter attitude, the intent to ascend.

To ascend means ego opening and acquiescing to the promptings of its Godparent self, its High Spirit. Spirit is the home of that higher order of love for all, neighbor and self. Though ego was born to be housed in the temple of the physical body, its true parent is Spirit itself, who gave it life to perform its mission, from Spirit.

Typically, ego feels orphaned from its true Spirit. This is the side effect of being born with a blank slate, an imposed loss of memory of its divine origin. This is necessary for it to truly take on its assigned mission in the playing field of time and space, life and death in a physical body. Lacking the memory of its divine origin, ego becomes the little prince/princess of the personality, its Earthly domain, which includes the physical body.

Cynicism, the rational cornerstone of narcissism, is the worldview of an ego that lacks connection to, or completely denies, life beyond the physical body, in Spirit. Cynicism cannot rise above attachment to material love, as, from its perspective, matter is all there is. The only playing field for cynicism is love for one’s material conquests and acquisitions.

For egos ready to ascend, a loving, caring attitude of parental responsibility for the true needs of the physical body temple is primary. This can be achieved through many methods of breathing, meditation, chanting, and dance that calm the worried, mortal, physical body through direct contact with and expression of Spirit.

With the child of the body in its safe place, the ego is now free to open to the promptings of its own true parent self, its High Spirit.

Spirit sends dreams and synchronicities to nourish the spiritual needs of the body and the mind. Spirit sends visions and channels to teach the workings of higher love, as well as bathe the ego and body with the energy for loving movement and fulfillment. This is true inspiration: in-spir(it)-a(c)tion!

Our world is slowly coming around to intend to ascend, as we suffer the atrocities of loveless actions. As individuals, we can hasten this collective inertia by intending to ascend through the responsible parenting of our bodies and to receiving the loving guidance of our Spirits. This work is our personal contribution to the world’s necessary intent to ascend.

With full intent to ascend,

Chuck