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: 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

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Stabilizing and Contributing Now

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…you need!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Whether we feverishly track the news or guardedly protect ourselves from incoming data storms we are all, at our interconnected core, impacted by what is happening in the world. Though we might insulate ourselves from the plight of children separated from their parents, at a certain level the emotional energy of their fear and sadness runs through us all.

The high profile suicides we have witnessed recently speak to the existential despair of our fragile egos, subjected to a milieu of instability, uncertainty, and disintegration. As a psychotherapist my role is to acknowledge these truths and help people safely cross the tumultuous river of our time.

Recognizing that we are all interconnected means that certain currents of thought and feeling that flow through us are collective in nature; they are greater than our individual selves yet we might interpret them quite personally. Ego can forge its navigating ship by recognizing its interconnected core but at the same time not identify with or attach its individual self to its collective affiliation.

Copycat syndrome is actually ego loosing its grounded footing and identifying itself with the mood, thinking, and action of another. Ego is indeed vulnerable to dissolving its identity and merging with a collective impulse, as is well illustrated by a mob mentality. In fact, at present we are witnessing mob mentalities emerging from many corners, deeply challenging our individual egos to know thyself apart from the collective self of the group.

Turning attention to the body self is most helpful at this time. The body registers the collective emotional currents of now in stress reactions that tighten the body boundaries through clenching. Giving ourselves the message that, “it is safe to release in this moment,” accompanied by slow deeper breathing releases these inner dams of tension and better prepares ego to go with the flow.

From this more personally grounded place, ego can contribute to calming the collective angst by tapping into love energy, which radiates back into the collective river of energy at its deepest current, our interconnected oneness. Love is the glue that binds us together as a human family.

Feel and send love to the separated children. Feel and send compassion to those in control of deciding the fate of those children that they might find their way to love in their actions. Arm the self with love energy that it may hold together while weathering through the great changes and challenges of now.

Encased in love we hold together and advance regardless of outer circumstance. Love endures the pain of separation. Love issues from beyond space-time where all is one, all the time. It is our deepest challenge and greatest opportunity to find our way to this enduring connection in this time of great distraction and separation.

Through stabilizing and dis-indentifying with the violent currents of now we find our way to the deepest current of love, which contributes to the restoration of our true oneness. Find your way down to that which always flows at the depth of your being, the universal current of love, and let it radiate, period.

Love is all,

Chuck