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: Fixation

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In contemplative silence we build our well…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

What does it mean when you simply can’t get it out of your head? It might be a thought, a desire, a hunger, a person, an object, or an incident.

The energetic charge of our fixations is experienced as strong emotion and mental perseveration. This is the fire of an activated archetype outwardly projected and inwardly fixated. Some deep need is stirring and we are drawn involuntarily to its projection, the flame of our fixation.

Projection is automatic, that is, unconscious. We don’t choose to project, it happens to us. We are not at fault, for instance, if we are attracted to the wrong person. Attraction happens. Nature is ruthless in pursuit of its aims, in this case, blindly bringing a couple together for union.

Caught in the flame of desire the ego is overwhelmed. The intensity of the energetic charge may at once be both threatening and exciting. After all, archetypes transcend our civilized exterior; they reach down to the primordial core of our being and flood us with bursts of living energy. How do we keep ourselves afloat in such a precarious state?

In the hexagram of The Well, the I Ching makes clear that we all need to partake of the living water that lies beneath the surface of the Earth. The well is the human connection to that living energy below. Humans must build the well. Psychically, the ego is the well. As humans we are charged with building and managing our relationship with our archetypal core, what Jung called the collective unconscious.

In the case of fixation, the ego builds its well through its response to archetypal activation. A hasty reaction may be equivalent to jumping in the well and drowning! An overly suppressive reaction may refuse the bucket that brings up the living water from below.

Often the ego lends its mental manipulative powers, such as through rationalization, to further the aim of the archetype while naively assuming it is doing ‘the right thing’. Only deeply contemplative inner truth will reveal the right action called for.

Often the ego protects itself from rejection and defeat through rationalization turned against the self in some cognitive permutation of unworthiness. Perhaps this is a necessary defense, as the ego hones its ability to regulate the impact of archetypal energy.

We too easily forget that the ego, with its consciousness, is a very recent acquisition for humankind. Before its arrival we shared, with all other animals, life completely directed by archetypes, with no conscious choice available. No wonder we are so flustered when an archetype is activated. How fragile our conscious footing amidst such intensively charged directives!

The ego can choose to bear the tension of the archetype. In recovery programs guidance is given to examine people, places, and things. In early recovery, particularly, the archetypal energetic power of the desired object is respected by avoiding known associations to it. Further, one turns to a trusted sponsor, the program, or a higher power to strengthen one’s resolve to bear the tension vs succumb to habitual addiction.

Spiritual traditions all stress restraint, sacrifice, and detachment as the technology to manage archetypal fixation. Unfortunately, this technology, valuable as it is, does not address the need to fully partake in our humanness while in human form. Yes, we are spirit beings, but we are spirit beings in human bodies with deep archetypal roots in this Earth. We must build our wells to draw our nurturance from that underground river of living energy.

If we can’t bear the tension and either jump into the well or refuse the call we needn’t judge ourselves negatively. All experience accrues, adding to eventual ego enlightenment. When we are ready, when the ego has been sufficiently moulded to be in the truth, we can align our intent with that of the heart, our personal conduit to our higher spirit.

From this place of heart centeredness we know the truth and allow ourselves to be in the Tao. Being in the Tao means knowing that our lives are unfolding to express and fulfill all that we are and that projections are stirrings to find outlets for that fulfillment. However, often projections are simply reflections, not what is actually needed. The heart, in its quiet calm, will tell us the truth.

Aligning with this truth we have the certainty that life will bring to us the real deal. And with that we will be led to draw the water from our living well, our fixations realized in their highest form.

Constructing the well,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: My Inner Trump

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Our baldheaded cardinal going at it again!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

A doggedly persistent male cardinal smacks into our living room window throughout the day. The top of his head is bald and blue, like that of a turkey vulture, from his incessant headfirst crashes. We have noticed that this cardinal has a mate and we surmise he must be trying to fend off his perceived enemy reflected in the window, but the truth is that his enemy, unbeknownst to himself, is himself!

Our Soulbyte of Tuesday July 17, 2018 begins: “Pay attention. Become more fully aware of nature assisting you on your unfolding journey.” What is the guidance of this display of nature, of this seemingly crazy cardinal?

A bird is a spirit being. It flies like angels. The cardinal is named after the Cardinals of the Catholic Church in early Rome, adorned in their bright red robes and pointy red hats. Thus the cardinal is an earthly representative of a spirit being. Closer to home, the ego is the earthly representative of a spirit being. Consciousness, the hallmark of spirit, is born as the ego at the chakra center located at the solar plexus.

The solar plexus is the fire in the belly chakra, the home of personal power, where the ego discovers its ability to rise above the absolute control of nature’s primordial energies that command the lower chakras and choose its behavioral responses to the world. Nonetheless, choices are inevitably constricted by the narcissistic, self-referential cognitive and emotional limitations of the ego at this newly awakened youthful state of emergence.

Our cardinal reflects this narcissistic fixation. He cannot differentiate his enemy from himself. This results in a repetitive pattern of self-destructive behavior based on a distortedly applied archetypal instinct of defense. That distortion is a narcissistic reflection that won’t allow him a perspective beyond himself.

When Donald Trump asserts that American intelligence is the enemy, not Russia, he reflects the cardinal who sees his own reflection as the enemy. Trump unwittingly sees his own country as the enemy, which he subsequently incessantly verbally attacks, just as the cardinal incessantly attacks his own image reflected in our living room window. This is likely a developmental issue where ego is fixated on a narcissistic worldview.

The question is why this developmental stage is being so graphically mirrored upon the world stage at this point? What does it mean for all of us, as holographically we all share an inner Trump?

If we bring attention back to our friar, the baldheaded cardinal, attention is drawn to the redness of its firery spirituality. The cardinals of Catholicism, as well as the leaders of all spiritual traditions, have stood for a morality that rises above instinctual dominance. This is the equivalent of transcending the solar plexus and rising to the heart chakra with its more inclusive consideration of others.

The heart center can recognize and value life beyond itself. It can see truth and make decisions based on the overarching needs of the interdependent whole world. Our spiritual traditions stalk a higher chakra than we have actually developmentally reached. Obama stalked the heart center, which resulted in major inclusiveness of groups long rejected and cast out by society.

The truth is, however, that developmentally we truly have not reached the heart center perspective, and the Trump election avalanche was fueled by the collective narcissistic shadow which now unabashedly asks: “What about me, why do we have to care about everyone else?”

We are guided to take up this issue on an individual level. As our cardinal reflects, we must incessantly ask ourselves: “What repetitive self-destructive behaviors am I engaged in based on illusion? Who within me is in charge of my decision making? Am I properly including my deepest instinctual self in my decisions, or do I avoid the fire in the belly of emotion by blindly adhering to moral platitudes that defend me from the tensions within and without?”

The greatest individual contribution we can make in this time of fierce splitting apart is to face squarely our own inner Trumps. Clearly the planet beckons us to take up the challenge to reconcile our deepest instinctual selves with our highest spiritual values.

Suspend judgment. Take responsibility to know the self beyond illusion. Bear the burden of instinct and spirit. Find wholeness in the self. Let love join body and spirit, as well as neighbor to neighbor.

Facing my inner Trump,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Unfolding

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Unfolding…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

What really is fate but the unfolding of a dream, one of infinite possibilities moving to completion.

Outside of time and space is everything; past, present, and future all bundled together in ultimate oneness. Inside time-space are the parts of that oneness fully exploring themselves in the spirit of our individual lives.

Of course there is free choice, but what is free choice but the exploration of a possibility, and all possibilities want to be explored. How else could we find our way back to ultimate oneness if we didn’t know all of our parts?

Life in this world is the active side of infinity where God/Goddess, ultimate oneness, experiences its infinite self through the many varied lives of all sentient beings. There is no judgment, there is no good and evil in wholeness, there is simply all that is.

The Tao of our lives is the river of our particular being. We are who we are. If we are to truly know ourselves we must align with the central current that flows through our being. This is the voice of our true self that seeks to manifest and illuminate our uniqueness as well as our interconnectedness to all that is.

When in alignment with the self we greet oncoming time as it presents, accepting and assembling its unfolding pieces one at a time. Choices are really acquiescences to the true path of the self already lived. For yes, from the point of view of the oneness of infinity, all has already been lived, though we are fully recapitulating for infinity the experiences of our unique possibilities as we go about our daily lives.  And this is how the great oneness can truly know itself, in the  fullness of all its lived possibilities that we deliver to infinity through our senses and consciousness every day of our lives. And for those who know the experience of traumatic recapitulation, recapitulation is a fully lived, not simply remembered, experience.

We know we are in good alignment when we accept the unfolding of the miracle of life in such an integral way, senses and consciousness fully on board, fully aware and fully active. The next needed item or happening appears; it is recognized, incorporated, and lived. This does not mean we won’t encounter great challenges and unexpected experiences; they are part of the unfolding dream. Nonetheless, there is great solace in those difficult moments when we can accept and know that all has already happened, that we are simply in the living experience of our great unfolding dream.

So get calm and observe. What’s going to happen next? Know that, as you flow through this recapitulation of your life, you have already made it. The intent of the self is unfolding. Live it to the fullest!

Unfolding,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Uphold Civility

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How about a little more love and compassion?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Our world has many separate parts that interact to maintain our wholeness. The reigning principle that holds us together is homeostasis, a tendency toward balance and stability. When one part of our world becomes extreme other parts of our world become extreme in the opposite direction in a compensatory effort to restore balance.

Currently, our world has devolved into such an extremist state of tenuous balance, with volatile groups expressing deep opposition to one another. The ability to appreciate the needs and perspectives of others in an effort to restore peaceful equilibrium is lost to our current circumstance.

Suspend judgment. In such time of extremism, all cling to the one-sidedness of their individual or group positions. The truth appears radically self-evident; the “other’s” view is clearly distorted and wrong. Emotion intensifies to convince, defend, and attack. Reason is stretched beyond reason. In fact, reason is one side of a pair of opposites, deeply suspect to many.

Realize that all the opposition outside ourselves courses equally through our inner selves. Here we can contribute to our own inner balance, as well as the greater world’s, by inwardly facing the one-sidedness of our own ego positions. Even the most contentious positions encapsulate some grain of truth. Our ego is charged to use its analytic and feeling capacities to find the value and necessary place for all parts of the self and the world.

Outwardly, we do well to not fall prey to blame and hate, as these reactions simply further and intensify the divide. Though we must stand firm to who we truly are, upholding our beliefs and values, we are equally free to feel compassion for all. Compassion is directed love energy, where all are acknowledged as legitimate parts of the whole.

Compassion can be expressed through civility. Regardless of the intensity of our beliefs or feelings we can treat each other with respect. This is an enormous task in these times of extremism where many say and do things that evoke strong visceral reactions within the self. Nonetheless, we can all take up the challenge to resist getting taken over and acting out our rageful impulses, verbally or otherwise. This act of containment keeps ego control above water, not causing further damage. Being civil may not result in a kind response, but it will at least not further inflame.

Next, the responsibility is to care for the self and the intense emotion suppressed within. Allow the self release in total private. A brisk walk, deep breathing and, yes, even throwing stones may be warranted. Once the emotional charge has diminished, reflect deeply on the source of inner activation. Something important is being revealed to the self in the emotional reaction. Know thyself, love thyself.

Love the part of the self that feels victimized, betrayed, or disempowered. Although you may choose to have no relationship or engagement with the triggering “other,” find compassion for them within the self, perhaps simply seeing them as a fellow human being struggling with human life. At that level we are all one.

Upholding civility is the bridge we have now, in these times of raging rivers that threaten to flood our civilization. Join in supporting this bridge, through action with civility.

Civilly and affectionately yours,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Transition

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Leaving the old…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

Artifacts of family life, tucked away in the attic for decades, came out for their final viewing. Dusted-off trophies glistened on the mantel. Pictures and paintings of yesteryear adorned the room. Artifacts of school years and family journeys were revisited, private diaries were revealed—some still holding too private moments to be shared. Laughter and tears abounded as the emotional energy of a family’s life was recapitulated, retrieved, and released. The next morning the room was bare, calmly awaiting its new life as it sent us all off in new  directions.

Don’t turn back or you’ll turn to stone, is the biblical guidance. Many a backache is such a stone, the weight of regret and obligation. Did we fulfill our archetypal parental duties well enough? The truth is that new archetypes have come into play now and, just as always, the challenge is to be fully present and living in the now of today, a rapidly changing world.

Humanity is being deeply humbled now as the planet continues its reformation. Surface politics merely reflects but hardly effects the tumultuous energies of transformation churning at our core. We are all sitting in the living room of our lives, viewing the artifacts of a world we must release, as we are birthed into new life.

Jan and I were blindsided by the call to Roberts Mountain, the call, dear Joseph Campbell, we dared not refuse. In turn, we have blindsided many with whom we have been energetically connected. In truth, the energy of our time is blindsiding us all and we are all challenged to find our way back to the Tao, the flow of the River Now.

Years ago, when Jeanne was at the height of her cancer journey, we conceived a business that would serve all peoples at anytime, any- where. We called it therapyanytime.com. The business required all remote contact, via internet and the crude cameras of that time. After marking that space of possibility, life and death called our energy elsewhere and we moved on.

Here we are today, moving to the home built by Skip Atwater, founder of army intelligence’s remote viewing program. Further, our practice must evolve into remote viewing in digital space. The dream Jeanne and I once conceived is unfolding now. All whom we are connected with are part of that dream, wherever we all land next.

I realize, of course, that the deeper thrust is into true energetic connection beyond digital support. This is where the Shaman’s world and Robert Monroe’s world converge, both having discovered that the next stage of our evolutionary potential is to be achieved through explorations of life in the energy body while still in human form.

Going to the new land…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

This is the post-materialistic world we are currently moving toward, as our Earth can no longer sustain the excess of our physical appetites.

In energetic life all things are possible, the adventures endlessly exciting, and the Earth dearly loved and respected.

Looking forward to continuing from the mountain, as we all move forward into new energetic life.

Peace and love always,

Chuck