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: Why We Matter

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On an individual level, the deepest question we can ask ourselves is, “Why am I here?” On a collective level, the deepest question we can ask ourselves is, “Why are we here?”

After years of focused exploration in the spiritual realm, seeking proof of and versatility in life beyond the body, I found myself drawn powerfully back into this world. I know my focus needed to first be in the spiritual world because I could not avoid exploring the question, “What comes next, is there life beyond this life?”

We are all dreaming this dream together... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
We are all dreaming this dream together…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

Recently, however, I was drawn powerfully back to focus on life in this world. In fact, for the past several months I have been drawn to volume after volume of notes taken at Jung’s seminars in the 1920s and 1930s. I realize that the energy of now mimics the energy of that time and that Jung was thoroughly engaged in comprehending its questions and attempting to provide answers. Those questions were answered but not solved in his time. We live in the further unfolding of the seeds of that time and are asked, in our time, to provide the next evolution of answers.

The stakes are indeed much greater now. Though the horror of Hitler still hovers, it pales in significance to the threat of total world annihilation, which is the truth of our current predicament. To soften that blow I refer to a dream Jung had where he met a yogi in deep meditation. This yogi was, Jung realized, dreaming his, Jung’s, life. When he looked closer at the yogi he realized it was an exact replica of himself. He also realized that once the yogi awoke from his dream Jung’s life in this world would be over, though life itself would go on in another realm, in a another dream.

That is our predicament now, we are the collective participants of God’s dream. We are the incarnation of God’s dream. That makes us all, like Christ, God made human, set down in our collective world to freely explore the evolution of God’s dream.

Our world dream, Earth, has been an epic dream that has managed to never end because we, in the dream, have always found a way to keep it going, to both create and solve innumerable challenges that continue to evolve the dream. And it’s a beautiful dream, one we’d like to keep going!

In our time, we have forced this dream to epic challenges. Can we rescue ourselves from the clash of forces that scream out for a major evolutionary advancement? Hitler heralded an attempt to maintain purity of line at all costs. That motive has fully matured on the world stage at this very moment. Tribalism, purity of line, separation of races, religions, classes and sexes are all at war with the ultimate world melting pot that we must evolve into if we are to continue our dream on a more secure footing.

The truth is, God is indifferent to the outcome. Here I speak of God beyond incarnation, eternal God. For that God, whom we are the seeds of, all is forgiven because the outcome of our dream was left to us to freely and creatively grow and discover. That is how God grows. We are the creative side of God and we are here to discover things.

If this dream ends, God will not be angry or disappointed. God grows and learns regardless of the outcome. All outcomes are seeds of future eternal dreams. Nonetheless, this is a beautiful dream and it presents fascinating challenges.

From the perspectives I articulate here, I arrive at detachment. For me, detachment is merely having a fuller perspective that enables access to true solutions to problems. Detachment requires, however, that we fully suffer being in finite, human form. Only from that place can the true answers arrive. God outside time and space cannot provide the answers. Only incarnated God, in time and space, can provide the answers. And that’s us!

So, from inside the dream, feeling the full weight of endgame time, waking up now, I find that love in the form of suspending judgment appears as the clear resolution. To suspend judgment is to erase hierarchy; all are equally valuable, good, bad, and ugly. We are all necessary parts of the same whole. Each of us is necessary and vital, playing our unique part in the struggle to evolve the dream.

Love is embracing every aspect of the interconnected whole that we are, each of us trying desperately to solve the problem of a higher level of integration. And those that fight it the most must be loved and embraced for their role in forcing all of us to solve the issue our parent’s generation could only shelve.

It’s fully off the shelf now and WE MATTER, because without all hands on deck this dream will be shelved as the yogi comes out of meditation.

In meditation,

Chuck

 

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Sailing

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Anxiety, fear, terror, joy, ecstasy—these are the emotions we experience when we anticipate or are in direct contact with what Jung called the collective unconscious. For Jung, the collective unconscious was the home of our eternal self, part of which has incarnated in finite human form in the life we are now living in this world.

Sailing along together on the great ocean... - Art by Jan Ketchel
Sailing along together on the great ocean…
– Art by Jan Ketchel

Though shielded by veils, our fragile egos, like small sailboats, ride the waves of our eternal selves in the ocean of the collective unconscious. And like those small crafts dwarfed by the vast ocean we are both terrified and excited to merge with and bring into this life a fuller experience of all that we are. Jung called this individuation, the act of truly unfolding and becoming all that we are.

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico arrived at the same understanding of the human predicament, using their own descriptive metaphors. Those Shamans identified the eternal in ourselves as the energy body, the part that leaves the “fixation of the assemblage point,” that is, the fixation of awareness on the world of everyday life, and ventures into our greater potential in infinity in our dreams.

Shamans and psychotherapists alike are aware of the collective unconscious, or infinity, and the resulting emotional reactions of terror and tremendum upon encountering this dimension of our being.

In prior times, religions constructed safe havens and technologies to shield yet relate the faithful to the greater energy of infinity. In today’s world, the dominance of the rational mind has largely shut down belief in infinity and left many to face the tremendum of infinity with little other than psychopharmacological interventions to regulate the central nervous system as it fields the emotional impact of infinity. How may times a day do we encounter anxiety, fear, terror and ecstasy? These are all the surface rumblings of truths great and small that lie in the vast unconscious where the bulk of what we are resides.

Jung came to call the reservoir of repressed traumas from our lives in this world the personal unconscious. And those traumas cry out for recognition and reconciliation through the triggers that evoke powerful emotions in our daily lives. In our day, psychotherapy and shamanic recapitulation provide technologies to face and integrate this shadow side of our psyche. Once we have reclaimed the energy from this dimension of our unknown selves we are opened to the riches of higher fulfillment, yet at the same time we are also open to the deeper layers of the collective unconscious as well.

For me, dreaming is the point of intersection for both psychotherapy and the shamanic world, for both communing with and finding support from the far reaches of our infinite selves, offering us the opportunity to actualize and fulfill the life we currently find ourselves in. Dreaming is all about forging a relationship with the infinite self.

To begin a relationship with the deeper self ask it for a dream. When you wake up with even but a morsel of an image from a dream do not judge it; stop, write it down, sketch it. As the day unfolds return to the image or the dream, several times; simply relive it. Notice what automatically pops into your head as you do this, without thinking, simply noticing what spontaneously arises. Perhaps you’ll get a message. Actualize that message in some concrete way, i.e., write it down, incorporate it into an action.

Over time, your unconscious will speak more clearly to you, as it very much appreciates your attention. Never dismiss its guidance but don’t (usually) take it too literally either, as it speaks in symbols, that’s its language. But it’s actually a code specifically designed for you, so keep cracking it!

As you deepen your relationship with your deeper self you will be invited into deeper journeys into infinity. In fact, you will be taught how to solicit and prepare for them even before sleep and dream. This marks the transition from passive to active dreaming, the bridge into infinity that all can cross now, bringing the riches of infinity into the current life now being lived.

From this approach, all of life becomes a spiritual journey where intense emotions and experiences are seen as callings from infinity to address deeper truths and clear the channel for a greater influx of infinite energy to enrich and individuate the life you are now living.

Dream on,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Hidden Relationship

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Last week I wrote of spirit and soul, the divine twins that are the essence of what we are. Spirit manifests as logos, as mind and thought activity. Soul, as eros, manifests as feeling and connection. Spirit floats away from the earth, soul embraces it.

A man's anima might be quite delicate... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
A man’s anima might be quite delicate…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Logos is the dominant principle in men, eros the dominant nature in women. In the background of a man’s deeper unconscious lies his soul, eros, what Jung called the anima. In the background of a woman’s greater unconscious lies her spirit, logos, what Jung termed the animus.

The anima in men and the animus in women are autonomous, independent characters that greatly overshadow the ego and impact moods, opinions and relationships in a variety of ways.

For men, the ability to feel, create artistically, and form a loving relationship is greatly influenced by the quality of their relationship with their inner woman, their anima. Some mens’ egos are quite comfortable with their animas and they allow her a great deal of play in their choice of career, aesthetic sensibility, and quality of relationship. Such men are said to be truly in touch with their feminine side.

Oftentimes a man might cling too dominantly to his rational, logos side to the disgust of his inner anima. Her revenge might be to overpower his day with hurt feelings and dark moods. She might as well put a spell on him by projecting herself onto another person, entrancing him into a highly inappropriate relationship.

Women might find themselves lending their animus a dominant role in their lives as well, dedicating themselves to careers or causes requiring a strong logos spirit. On the other hand, women may also shut out or be unaware of the workings of their inner animus who can become the opinionated voice of their internal dialogue, casting a negative spell upon all they touch.

Most relationship problems can be traced to the hidden influences of anima and animus, which lead to hurt feelings and opinionated misunderstandings. To disentangle from the web of these battles requires that each individual get to know their own inner “soul mate.”

Interestingly, this inner confusion has found a concrete form in the transgender issue so hotly politicized in our time. The truth is that all humans are at least psychologically hermaphroditic, and they must get to know and bring these opposite parts into a working relationship to achieve wholeness.

A woman's animus might appear as strong and tough... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
A woman’s animus might appear as strong and sturdy…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico’s number one dictum, “suspend judgment,” is of vital importance in discovering the truth of the self. Both the anima and the animus, each in their own way, generate judgments. The anima overpowers with feelings that tell us we’re not being treated fairly or properly loved. The animus forcefully tells us what is right based on generalized “facts” that “everyone knows to be true.”

If we can suspend our tendency to be duped by these automatic feelings and opinions, which compulsively seek to take charge of our perceptions and reactions, we are freed to see and experience reality as it truly is. We are freed to experience clear objective thinking and genuine feelings in ways that lead to balanced wholeness within and real relationship without.

What is asked is that all muster the courage to truly know thy self. And the true self is a many faceted being of many part selves, all of which must be discovered, recognized, but also required to drop their prejudices for the sake of inner wholeness and genuine outer connection.

The true inner work of individuation, of becoming the true individual self we are, by reconciling the differences within with one’s respective inner mate—be it anima or animus—is the only hope for achieving individual fulfillment and a fulfilling relationship.

Exploring the hidden,

Chuck

 

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Spirit & Soul

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Light and shadow, yet the same... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Light and shadow, yet the same…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

Spirit and Soul are used interchangeably and though indeed they are of the same wholeness each reflects different properties. This same paradox confronts the physicist in the study of elemental particles. The question arises, is it a particle or a wave? The answer, it depends. Sometimes it presents as a particle, sometimes as a wave. The same wholeness is sometimes matter, sometimes energy.

Shamans and dreamers confront the same reality. The same human being in one form is solid matter, and yet in dreaming shifts into pure energy, instantly defying time and space, on sheer intent transversing the universe.

Spirit is associated with the bright sun of consciousness. Spirit is a mental state that brings light into darkness. Spirit thinks, studies, reflects, constructs, abstracts. Spirit is awareness. Spirit is not matter. Spirit discovers, manipulates and exploits matter. It was spirit that ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Spirit is psychically ego consciousness, that which consciously directs the course of our lives.

Soul is the moon, that which animates nature in all its varieties and changes. Soul is the deep instinctual knowledge that animates from the darkness, far from the blinding light of consciousness that chooses and directs. Soul is the knowledge of nature that directs the unfolding of pregnancy and birth, far from the clutches of spirit consciousness that thinks it needs to direct the show.

Spirit dominates the day. In the light, the deeper forces and powers of instinct disappear as the power of the light defines and makes everything seeable and doable. Yes, we can take charge of ourselves, define ourselves, and with orderliness submit to the routine we’ve created for our lives. But as we cross the boundary into dusk, into the growing darkness of night the energies of the soul, long forgotten in the day, animate the dreams and feelings of the night. And we wonder why we have trouble sleeping! We can see in our individual lives the imbalance of our world: spirit so dominates soul and soul strikes back with a vengeance.

Spirit is masculine consciousness. Soul is feminine wisdom. Together they are the Yang and Yin of wholeness, the masculine and the feminine sides of God. Though all human beings are both spirit and soul, women, so much closer to nature, have retained the dominant projection of soul, the irrational instinctive forces of nature. Men, less obviously governed by nature, have picked up the masculine spirit of rational consciousness. And it is this overarching rational spirit that holds the world in captivity right now.

The rational spirit presumes to assert its mastery over all the forces of nature. This rational bulwark worries not about climate change. The world is formatted into a global economy that the God of Reason will order and control. Reason advances more deeply into merging the human brain with the technical computer, the ultimate Frankenstinian creation of the God of Reason. All wars are technical affairs, to be expected and easily controlled, necessary byproducts of reorganization. This is spirit that has lost its way, so dissociated itself from its soul.

Spirit and Soul must merge once again... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Spirit and Soul must merge once again…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The energies of soul, as equally powerful as spirit, continue to mount their counteroffensive. The energies of soul are ruthless, indeed the rage of the Goddess Isis, mockingly exploding the hubris of spirit all around the globe. Just as we all must face the terror of the night, the human race, like the animals in the forest that sense the earthquake and the fire before they arrive, must contend with a subliminal anxiety, even at the height of the midday sun. The spirit in all of us feels the rumblings of the soul.

Spirit and soul are alienated from each other. Their bipolar battle is the backdrop of the times we live in. Like a married couple, spirit and soul presently find themselves in divorce court, though in truth they can never really be separated, for they are the two faces of God and they must find their way back to divine union. This is the positive aspect of our present chaos, for we are indeed finding our way back to balanced union.

It’s true that the world as we know it is undergoing major reformation, but spirit and soul will eventually reconcile and life will find itself in a new world order. It’s just how they work. But we must all take part in the transformation. It’s up to each one of us to face the imbalances of spirit and soul within ourselves and deliver to the present and future of our world a sustainable and more perfect union.

Little bit of soul,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Ego & Entity**

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We are more than we think we are... like this double shadowed being! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
We are more than we think we are…
like this double shadowed being!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

If you break it down, the term “un-conscious” is just that—all that we are that we are simply not aware of.

Ego is that part of us that we are aware or “conscious” of. Hence, ego and unconscious comprise the sum of all that we are, the known and the unknown.

Freud was able to prove that disturbing parts of who we are can be pushed out of awareness into the unconscious through a defense mechanism he called repression. Jung subsequently discovered that other parts of who we are, that go deep into our ancestry and phylogenetic heritage, reside in what he called the collective unconscious. These parts appear in dreams, visions, and fantasy and may powerfully influence the quality and behavior of our lives. Jung further discovered that the collective unconscious eventuates in infinity and houses the spirit side of who we are.

Entity can be defined as an autonomous character that is active in the unconscious part of who we are. For a variety of reasons it comes to the surface of our conscious minds and challenges the ego to contend with its will and message.

An example of this might be a conscious personality that sees itself as peaceful and loving suddenly seized by a powerful emotion of rage and unpleasant thoughts as regards a friend or family member. Perhaps in a dream that night an acquaintance they haven’t heard from in decades is encountered. When they amplify the dream by recalling the personality of the dream character, the image of an aggressive bully comes to light, someone they never felt comfortable being around in their youth.

In this example the ego is confronted with a challenge. This exaggerated bully character is certainly a hard one to “own” as a part of one’s own self. This character hardly fits the definition of one’s conscious values and how one knows oneself. However, the problem that has arisen is that one’s own ego is struggling to accept that something has irritated it and that it has an aggressive reaction to someone close to them. This is simply incompatible with how one sees oneself!

The tendency might be to see the appearance of that childhood bully in the dream as a reminder of an evil entity that tried to take possession of the ego and force it into hateful, rageful feelings and thoughts. The strategy may then call for disowning the anger and turning instead to loving thoughts for one’s close friend or family member.

However, a more astute and honest reflection might reveal that the ego has had too narrow a definition of itself, seeing itself only as positive and softly loving, disavowing the stronger and more assertive side of itself. As a consequence, the dream image of the bully may have arisen from the unconscious as a character who could balance out the extreme one-sidedness of the conscious attitude of lovingness with an equally one-sided attitude of aggressive behavior. In this scenario, the unconscious entity compensates for the ego’s imbalance, demonstrating to it the results of its narrow definition of itself, presenting it with the far greater depths of who it really is.

Taken this way, the ego is offered the opportunity to drop its false pretenses of an all-loving being and make peace with its, at times, aggressive reactions. The ego, upon further reflection, might discover that its aggressive reaction to a loved one might in fact be the most appropriate reaction to have, as that person might be taking excessive advantage of one’s loving and giving attitude and require a boundary!

Somewhere in all that darkness and confusion there is a centered and calm being... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Somewhere in all that darkness and confusion there is a centered and calm being…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Of course, if the ego is fully honest with itself it might have to admit that the outer problem probably arose in the first place because the ego felt too uncomfortable with confrontation and sought refuge in its one-sided definition of a loving self, a definition way too narrow to encompass the fuller definition of one’s true Self.

Thus, when ego encounters an entity within, it first does well to question what might have given rise to this entity at this particular time. Before casting out the devil, make sure the devil isn’t the Self in disguise!

Reflecting,

Chuck

** Please note that last week’s blog is now also available for viewing: Orgasm As Divine Encounter