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 Place: Orgasm As Divine Encounter

The divine is everywhere... You just have to see it! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The divine is everywhere…
You just have to see it!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Orgasm is a physical, emotional, relational and spiritual experience. This blog focuses exclusively on the inner spiritual dimension of orgasm, that of union of Ego/Self at climax.

If the Self can be analogized as a whole diamond—all of what we are—the Ego would represent one facet of that diamond, the face that enters this three-dimensional space-time world with consciousness. In essence, the Ego is the child of the Self, born into the unique experience of life and death in a world of matter. The Ego takes the adventure of this lifetime and ultimately folds into its greater Self at death, into the Self that exists beyond space-time in boundless infinity.

As the Ego is launched into its life in this world at birth a veil falls, separating it from its greater Self. Much like Adam and Eve’s fate, the price of consciousness for the Ego is to go it alone, to develop and exercise its consciousness in the maintenence of life and in the adventures of this world.

This alienation from the Self is a great disadvantage and though the purpose of this life is for the Ego to learn to steer its own ship and make its own discoveries, it harbors a deep longing for unity with something greater and more meaningful. This longing is actually the desire and need to unite with its greater Self.

The greater Self is always there, but remains quite veiled because its full energy, that resides in infinity, is quite powerful and could easily overwhelm the Ego. Hence, the Ego must be molded to handle a direct encounter with the Self without suffering total dissolution. In fact, psychosis could be defined as the Ego’s unshielded encounter with that powerful energy of the Self, causing obliteration of Ego and consciousness.

The Self often comes in powerful form to the Ego in dreams. Many of these dream encounters are forgotten upon waking, though some are so numinous, like visions of the Saints, that they change the course of an entire life.

Shamans throughout the world have discovered that sexual energy is the energy of dreaming. The Shamans of Ancient Mexico, specifically, encouraged their apprentices to preserve their sexual energy so as to enhance their ability to find their energy body and travel with the Self in adventures in infinity.

Many religions have made similar discoveries, requiring their priests, monks, and nuns to shut down the physical experience of sexual orgasm to further the cause of spiritual union. Some of these traditions have gone so far as to cast the body as an evil, to be tolerated but vigilantly restricted lest it interfere with true spiritual advancement.

The fact remains, however, that orgasm is a direct encounter between Ego and Self, a highly spiritual affair. Ego, as consciousness, is completely psychic or mental, of spirit substance. The Self is beyond space-time, a very intense high level energy, and high spirit Ego/Self meetings are spiritual encounters.

Orgasm is a powerful energetic seizure that momentarily joins Ego and Self in a state of vibratory oneness. This ecstatic communion of Ego and Self eventuates in a profound, albeit momentary, state of contented wholeness that rejuvenates the Ego’s energy and partially satisfies its deep longing for the Self.

The energetic download of the energy of Self at orgasm is not without its fears and challenges. For one thing, the Ego’s energetic wiring may feel inadequate to handle the charge of the Self. Sometimes the Ego is so fearful of the tidal wave of the energy of Self that it defensively inhibits a sexual charge. Sometimes Ego will tinker with the connection through the use of substance to relax its fears, or use a forceful fantasy to override its own defenses. Naturally, the use of these titrating methods will impact the quality of union between Ego and Self at climax.

Be receptive to the divine self... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Be receptive to the sacred…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Sometimes Ego is receptive to Self but finds itself immediately and prematurely swept to orgasm, forestalling a deeper union. Ego may attempt to steel itself, through body rigidity or mental distraction, to avoid the immediacy of orgasm, which will as well impact the quality of union.

As with all channels of connection between Ego and Self, the road to orgasm is a work in progress. In general, as with advanced dreaming, the ability to deeply relax the mind and body allows the Ego to find its receptive place where it can enjoy a full orgasmic encounter with its deeper Self.

Orgasm is sacred encounter and is best treated as such, as a true religious experience. Though it can be entered into at any level, from sacred to profane, at its most sacred level it is indeed union with the divine.

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: The New Ethic—Wholeness

Now in the cauldron... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Now in the cauldron…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

As current events clearly evidence, we, as a world, are in a heated cauldron of violently clashing energies. What is cooking in the cauldron will eventuate in a newly formed world which includes a reconciliation of all the factions currently at war.

Erich Neumann, a German Jewish Zionist psychologist and medical doctor, who settled in Palestine in 1934 and who was also Jung’s greatest protege took up the issue of this great transformation, in the midst of World War II, in his book, Depth Psychology and a New Ethic. In this concise work, Neumann made clear that the core issue that confronts both the individual and the human species as a whole is its confrontation with the shadow side of its nature.

The ethic that has guided humankind to its current state of consciousness has split the self into good and evil. The dark, evil side of the self is rejected, denied, suppressed and repressed. This gives rise to a scapegoat phenomenon where the dark side of the self is projected onto the darker or weaker “other,” currently the Muslims, illegal immigrants, resident people of color, and women. An effort is made to rid and protect the self from the dangerous other through walls, bombs, prisons, and destruction of Planned Parenthood, to give a few examples.

We have reached the stage where the disowning of our own darkness and the destruction of its projected carrier has reached lethal proportions everywhere in the world today. There is no safe place.

For Neumann, the old ethic of maintaining world order through splitting, projecting, and destruction will be replaced by a new ethic of wholeness. Wholeness means the truthful acceptance and integration of all that we are into a balanced whole. Being “good” or being “bad” are replaced by being “whole.”

Being whole means loving all that we are. Loving means full acceptance of the truth of all that we are. This includes acceptance of all of our animal, physical, instinctual, earthy, emotional impulses as real parts of who we are. Loving means sitting with the emotional tension of all of the most abhorrent and unacceptable parts of the self and finding a creative way to integrate them into our lives.

The old solution of suppression and repression, of negative judgment toward and denial of the dark side of the self can no longer be contained in the scapegoat mentality which now threatens to tear us, as a world, into bits. We can no longer seek refuge in the purely spiritual. Even Tibet, the holiest of holies, was forced into diaspora, to foreign soils of lowly earth beyond the sanctuary of secluded mountaintops. There is no sanctuary in spirit alone.

Humankind must value and reconcile with its creature side; spirit alone is one-sided and falsely representative of what we are. And our materialness, the earth—the feminine—must be granted its true throne as the other side of God, the material, instinctive, and wild as equal.

To accept does not mean to give carte blanche to all that we are. To accept means to suffer the tumult of finding wholeness. Nothing is condemned in wholeness, but again, this is not license to act out the forbidden, though it will require a journey with the forbidden.

Compassion within leads to compassion without... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Compassion within leads to compassion without…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

On the journey to wholeness the judgments of good and bad are suspended. Good and bad are labels for different parts of the self. In wholeness, all parts must be accepted. How could it be otherwise? How can we be whole if we eliminate parts we don’t like about ourselves?

Acceptance then comes in the bearing of tension of the unacceptable and finding a way to creatively being all that we are, in a new balance that takes life forward in a new direction, into a new ethic of wholeness.

It is from this new ethic of wholeness that we can look at all sides of ourselves with equal love and compassion. And indeed, full acceptance and integration of the shadow within the self offers the basis for true compassion without.

Bearing the tension of the opposites,

Chuck

 

 

Chuck’s Place: A Channeled Message

Instead of Chuck’s usual blog this week, we post excerpts from a recent channeling in which Jan asked Jeanne to comment on the world situation. We thought it might offer some helpful insight and advice.

Here is what Jeanne said when asked if we should be concerned about a third world war and how to interpret the recent bombings:

Peace...
Peace…

“The potential for war is, of course, always present in such times, a spark can set off a wildfire, but keep in mind that though there is great fear of such there is also great good in the world today. In spite of the terrible things that are occurring, the good is greater and more powerful.”

“There will continue to be outbreaks of violence around the world and the nations of good must be on the alert, but the enemy is not the rest of the world, nor the religions of the world, strangely foreign and different though they may be. The enemy is the militant extremist idealists who are greatly misguided, misinterpreting and misusing holy texts that are outdated, separatist doctrines, disregarding the essence of love for all beings.”

“They are to be feared like the poison creatures that exist in the natural world, but life will go on, for the good will learn how best to deal with these natural poisons. Good and evil exist simultaneously and perhaps this is the lesson that must be learned and accepted to restore balance. This is reflected all over the globe, in varying degrees, in all walks of life. A lot has been coming out of the woodwork, so to speak, abuses of all sorts being revealed, greed, control, corruption, evils of all sorts that no one wants to know about. How painful the truth is!”

“No right will come about if such truths remain hidden, for then all will remain out of balance, and the terrorists in all things will remain unseen yet active, and their attacks will continue to be surprises. Far better to know the enemy, to be fully aware of what crawls in the garden. Gardens are beautiful places, but do not be fooled, the poison snake lies wrapped in the grass beneath the holiest of trees.”

“Balance must be restored, and balance entails knowing the truth of good and evil and the constant acknowledging of this dualism in all things, in all beings, conscious or otherwise. No one is totally pure, nor is anyone totally evil, always there is dualism.”

“The people of the world must go to war against their own refusal to face their own terrorist, their own evil-doer within. This is where the biggest changes will come about, within each conscious being as they face the extremist within. A terrorist and a do-gooder are equally misguided, the preacher and the sinner equally so. No one is exempt from good and evil. It is only in facing these truths that change will come about. America has Puritan roots, but the devil dwells in those roots as well, and if Americans are to go back to their roots they must deal with the devil within. No nation is all good or all evil.”

“Stay contained. Keep doing the personal inner work. Know yourself at the deepest levels, your evil within, in whatever form it takes, so that it does not overtake. Know your enemy and learn to deal with it. You cannot simply ignore it. Get to know it intimately and yet agree to disagree on some issues. Peace will not come if all is not revealed.”

“Ignorance is the ignoring of truths. Don’t ignore, don’t be ignorant. Take action, but act with kindness whenever possible. Even when force is called for, use only as much as is necessary to get back into balance. Personal balance will bring outer balance. It all takes a lot of work! Keep working!”

We hope you find this insightful and helpful advice,

Chuck and Jan

Chuck’s Place: Night & Day

What's real? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
What’s real?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

In the night, the world loses definition as all merges in the darkness of oneness. Sleep brings death to waking consciousness as Ego’s grip loosens and it falls into dormancy. Many are terrified to drop into sleep where the great wall of focused consciousness collapses in dreams.

In dreaming, Self plays all the edited footage of life’s events and reveals many characters in the depths of the psyche who react to Ego’s decisions made in space-time. Dreaming, with all its close encounters of the non-rational kind, also opens the portals to worlds beyond space-time.

Though the reign of Ego is overthrown by the night its awareness is often present in dreams, comparable to the light of the moon. The moon does not overwhelm the dark, even in its fullness, as it cycles monthly through its various stages of light and presence. Nighttime awareness must always share the stage with independent others who show up unannounced, far beyond Ego’s ability to control. In fact, the dreams and journeys of night are orchestrated by a Self far more sophisticated than Ego’s limited intelligence.

Ego may rule the day, but Self rules the night. And Self cannot be stopped from imposing its agenda, ready or not. If we refuse the needs of the greater Self too much by day then we are sure to be clobbered by night when Self cannot be restrained or diverted by reason.

The morning, however, with its dawn of light, is the time of the rebirth of Ego. Immediately, the vagaries of the dark and the night, snippets of dreams and journeys taken, vanish as Ego once again springs to life and defines its world. Quickly, Ego brings online its greatest tool, the will, which decides and acts in the service of its ruler, Ego. In the day, Ego decides how to advance creation. Ego consolidates its power, decides when to get up, when to shower, what and when to eat, etc. The day is largely a succession of decisions and actions set in motion by the mind of Ego, enacted by its faithful servant, the body.

It was Jung’s contention that the central myth of our time concerns Ego’s management of the daytime world we are all living in. The Christian myth divorced us from our animal, instinctive selves, making Ego master of the physical body and physical world. Ego, in turn, was subject to the higher law of the masculine God as defined by this myth.

In today’s largely secular world, Ego and its physical counterpart the brain are truly regarded as the higher powers. Homage may be paid to some ethereal Godhead but, secretly, reason, the ruling order, has no attachment to irrational spirit. Reason has indeed become the daytime God. But, back to Jung’s point, just how well is it doing with its reign?

May the night do it's changing work in a positive way... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
May the night do it’s changing work in a positive way…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Given the state of the world today, a radical shift of attitude is critical for survival. The promptings for that shift are largely the stuff of the night. The dreams and messages from the night, where Ego is a minor player, are intent upon educating Ego to become the kind of leader Self envisaged when consciousness was granted to its child, Ego, and it was sent to live and grow in a time-limited existence in this world.

While appreciating Ego’s ability to enlighten the day, may Ego also be made humble and wise by its nightly encounters to bring true enlightenment into its decisions and actions by day.

Integrating night and day,

Chuck

 

Chuck’s Place: Mutual Dependence—In The Tao

So often we focus on the will of the High Self, or if you will the God/Goddess in us, and where we are in relation to it. “Am I in the right alignment?” is the frequent question. This would suggest that the ego, or consciousness, is seeking to be the willing servant to what is truly right.

Diamond Self... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Diamond Self…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Though not disputing the validity of this charge, we need also to focus on the opposite, the importance and dependence of the Self upon the ego. If the Self is our true wholeness, the eternal within us, represented as a diamond, then the ego is one facet of that diamond. This ego facet of the Self acts in this world through thought, decision, and action.

The Self absolutely needs the ego to take life forward in this human dream we call our earthly existence. The Self beckons us to advance life in novel and creative directions, to evolve the growing experience of the greater Self as it continues to journey in infinity. The ego is its arm in the time/space continuum. The ego matters. If the Self is the active side of infinity, the ego is its active side in human life.

A recent dream, told to me by a creative artist, illustrates this point. I paraphrase his telling of the dream: He was walking along through a glass tunnel, an aquarium type setting, clutching a big fish to his chest. He could see the open sea beyond the glass. The fish was dry. He noticed some water on the ground and a pail. He put the fish down to go and scoop up some of the water into the pail when the fish somehow escaped into the open sea. He immediately entered the vast ocean in pursuit of the fish. At one point the fish hesitated, turned and looked at him, and he was able to grab it, leave the ocean and get back into the tunnel. Once there he put the fish into the pail.

The most important feature of this dream is that the fish allowed itself to be caught. A fish is quite at home in the vast ocean, yet it allowed itself to literally be taken out of its element. The ocean is the beginning matrix of all life, the most powerful symbol of the collective unconscious, infinity itself. The fish is frequently associated with Christ, a powerful symbol of the Self. Clearly, the Self in this dream allows itself to be “captured” in the pail of this world, taken out of its infinite freedom to live in the hands of the dreamer. The Self depends upon and seeks out the dreamer to have the experience of life in this world.

Of course, the ego must decide how to truly fulfill life and the greater needs of the Self. What kind of life is it to stick the Self in the mere confines of a pail? I think the Self is challenging the dreamer to reflect on this use of vital life energy and creative potential.

The truth is though, the ego is free to chart its own course, but if that course is out of balance, or too estranged from the deeper Self, there will be a rupture in the Tao, in the harmonious flow of life energy from the depths of the unconscious, from the depths of infinity.

Carl Jung never tired of telling the story of the Taoist rainmaker, told to him by his dear friend Richard Wilhelm, translator of the I Ching. Here is that story:

“Richard Wilhelm was in a remote Chinese village which was suffering from a most unusually prolonged drought. Everything had been done to put an end to it, and every kind of prayer and charm had been used, but all to no avail. So the elders of the village told Wilhelm that the only thing to do was to send for a rainmaker from a distance. This interested him enormously and he was careful to be present when the rainmaker arrived. He came in a covered cart, a small, wizened old man. He got out of the cart, sniffed the air in distaste, then asked for a cottage on the outskirts of the village. He made the condition that no one should disturb him and that his food should be put outside the door. Nothing was heard from him for three days, then everyone woke up to a downpour of rain. It even snowed, which was unknown at that time of year.”

Sometimes it's just a matter of sitting still until all is right... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Sometimes it’s just a matter of sitting still until all is right…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

“Wilhelm was greatly impressed and sought out the rainmaker, who had now come out of his seclusion. Wilhelm asked him in wonder: “So you can make rain?” The old man scoffed at the very idea and said of course he could not. “But there was the most persistent drought until you came,” Wilhelm retorted, “and then—within three days—it rains?” “Oh,” replied the old man, “that was something quite different. You see, I come from a region where everything is in order, it rains when it should and is fine when that is needed, and the people also are in order and in themselves. But that was not the case with the people here, they were all out of Tao and out of themselves. I was at once infected when I arrived, so I had to be quite alone until I was once more in Tao and then naturally it rained!”” *

This story illustrates the mutual dependence of ego and Self. On the one hand, the ego must acknowledge when it is truly out of alignment with the Self. When the flow of life energy is blocked, the rain ceases to fall.

On the other hand, it rests with the ego to voluntarily do the work, in whatever form, facing deep truths, meditating, etc., to restore the balance and bring life back into the right relationship with the Self if life is to once again flow in a nurturing way into this world.

What the world needs now, and what we are indeed on our way to establishing, is the mutual dependence of ego and Self, together in the Tao. May we all become the rainmakers and find the needed balance to restore harmony in this magnificent dream we are all dreaming together.

Making rain,

Chuck

*Story quoted from: Jung, His Life and Work, Barbara Hannah, p.128