Tag Archives: election

Chuck’s Place: The Trickster King In Us All

I recommend a viewing of Netflix’s The Crown. This modern exposition of the sacred transformation of the human being, anointed and born again as the divine queen in the cathedral, portrays the rich and basic archetypal substrate of the human psyche; the same archetypal substrate that has us project onto our president the ordering of the life of our nation, believing the presidency to be the design, for us, of the divine.

Who should wear the crown? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Who should wear the crown?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

America, of course, long shed itself of the silliness of the monarchy, but we could not erase our psychic predisposition to find sacred order and balance in our president. Our coronation at the cathedral is the ballot box, our king is our president, in whose presence we are equally predisposed to encounter the awe and the awful.

With President Obama, the earthy black shadow rose to kingship and he glowed with progressive intelligence. America, having apparently valued its shadow, appeared to be on the cusp of anointing the feminine to her goddess rank, just in time to rescue the ailing Earth. But alas, America was unexpectedly charmed by the Trickster King, Donald Trump.

What becomes evident is that America did not resolve its shadow by electing Obama. The shadow was stored beneath the surface and the trickster took full advantage of exposing it and tapping into its energy. We were not ready for the goddess. We hadn’t truly reckoned with the shadow.

The Trickster King is the full embodiment now of that shadow, and we must reconcile with it. In a nutshell, that shadow is the ultimate ego self who exalts itself in godly towers. This is the ego that truly only cares about itself, its needs, its wants, its security, its power. This is the ultimate individualistic ego that feels no responsibility for the safety and needs of the world, only insofar as it impacts its own interests. It’s alway only about “me and mine,” it says. In fact, “me” has become extremely narrow by definition, as the impetus now is on a “pure” America, where only those truly entitled to the Kingdom may reside.

As a psychotherapist, I have experienced marriages, families, friendships, business relationships, and relationships within the medical caregivers community experiencing major earthquakes as the fault lines of greater connection have been shattered and threatened by the divisiveness of this election. The grassroots impact of this election has indeed infiltrated even the sanctuary of the bedroom.

America is forced to face and reconcile with its huge shadow in all relationships in daily life in order to find its way to genuine connection where the ground will be properly prepared for the election of the feminine. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

We must face the truth, that though we have long espoused in our faiths and politics heart-centered compassion, the truth is, we mostly live at the level of self-centered survival. Apparently, it is necessary for this to be acted out and lived under our current kingship. Let us not make the mistake of an earlier generation that projected as a nation their divine center onto their divine king: “Adolf Hitler is Deutschland, Deutschland is Adolf Hitler.” *

It is not my intention to identify Trump as Hitler but to draw attention to the human tendency to invest leaders with the divine and follow them blindly.

We must thank and respect our trickster president-elect for mirroring our truth to us, but must individually, as true Americans, secede from the monarch, withdraw the projection from the Trickster King and face the truth of our own inner kingdoms. We must face our own ego king self, and ask: Who will rule the personality? The ego, or the  the divine Self within us?

Time to go into the tower and restore balance... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Time to go into the tower and restore balance…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The Self is the divine spark within us all who rests in the truth of our heart center. Our ego’s task is to realign and truly embrace the rule of this heart center and in so doing release us from its own egocentric worldview.

As we succeed in this individual effort we become like the ancient Taoist rainmaker who in restoring balance within triggers the restoration of balance without. As the rains return, the crops are nourished and life thrives anew. Sometimes those rains must provide great floods for life to truly be renewed. Never lose sight of the ark of the heart. It’s near, dear, and a definite lifesaver.

Remaining heart centered,

Chuck

* Quote from C. G. Jung’s Visions Seminars Volume 2, p. 1332

Chuck’s Place: Remain Calm

Keep the flame alive... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Keep the flame alive…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The ocean has many waves. A powerful wave will wash ashore, but alas, soon comes another—ceaselessly. All waves have something to contribute.

The Obama wave has been an unprecedented wave of change. The Hillary and Bernie waves followed in its wake, but clearly the undertow of these waves have given way to the Trump wave, a very powerful conservative counterpoint to the unprecedented changes of the past eight years.

This is the yin and yang of life. When the power of what rules the earth becomes so great that it swallows the light of the heavens, that light becomes sparks of light in the belly of the earth.

Those  sparks of light cannot be put out, but they must accept their humble position and keep the candlelight alive, shielded deep within the heart. That flame must be tended; it is the flame of the eternal and it resides within.

In a time of outer darkness, go inward and tend your inner flame, a flame which will never go out. Appreciate that the outer changes we are experiencing are part of nature too and must be respected and valued.

Those changes must happen, and in time the next wave will appear, and the flames tended now will coalesce into a collective light that will steady the course with unprecedented clarity.

No one is at fault here. We are all part of the same world. Sometimes consciousness takes the helm, sometimes nature’s imperative. We are finding our way to new balance. Hold loving kindness in your heart that we might hold together and embrace the wholeness of our mighty earth dream.

With loving kindness,

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Woman-in-Charge

As the winds of change take a pregnant pause, we have a moment of reflective consciousness to assess what has happened, where we are now, and how to prepare for what is coming.

Hurricane Trump appears to now be downgraded to a mere tropical storm, still dangerous but no longer deadly. His catabolic action has truly served to usher in the breakdown of the ruling elite, the utter outing of the shadow of patriarchal rule. Decent folk of all political persuasion are turning away from the outright denigration of the feminine.

It appears that the gasbag inflatedness of the self-righteous masculine ego has been pricked and humbled. The collective conscience is settling on civility as the ruling principle. Curiously, it now becomes clear that Trump is actually the advance guard of the goddess, clearing the ground for the crowning of feminine rule. In every marriage, in every relationship, in the rule of the land, in the rule of the world, the feminine is truly set to take its leadership role.

This is truly momentous. When, in the history of the world, has a woman assumed the most powerful position of control over the entire world? We appear to be on the brink of this transition. My reading of the energy of this fateful transition has been consistent for the past several years. Ever since the towers crumbled, I knew that the world as it has been traded was coming to an end.

Our planet is sick, and human leadership, unfortunately, has been the culprit. Gaia initiated her healing crisis and we humans have become the pawns of her transformation process. Mother Nature is leading us now. She has delivered the healing potion, and yes, Donald Trump has been part of her brew, part of the clearing of the ground for her next move, the installation of the feminine in the place of power.

Why is it so vital that the feminine take the lead?

The feminine knows how to work with nature. Woman cannot escape direct confrontation with nature. While a man can duck out of his initiation rites, a woman will be initiated by nature into menstruation. She cannot escape it and it will revisit her monthly, prepared or not. When it’s time to deliver a child, nature takes over in the autonomous tumult of childbirth; this is not something woman can create or stop. Woman can only go along, acquiesce, humbly staying afloat as nature takes her course.

We, as a world, are faced with the crisis of planetary survival. The masculine attitude believes it can debate the validity of climate change. The masculine attitude still believes that it is superior to nature, can take its fill and not be concerned about its impact. The masculine attitude is searching for a new planet to inhabit, ducking off into outer space rather than taking care of the one we already have.

Well, thanks to Donald, women are coming out in droves, revealing the impact of unstoppable masculine energy in abuse to the earth of their own bodies, and an attitude of respect is emerging for the nature of woman. This should naturally be followed by a reinvigorated attitude of respect for the planet as well.

Nature must be respected, she insists upon it now, and she asks that a woman, her closest ally, rise with consciousness to partner in the healing of the planet. Gaia does not want a compliant female to lead her healing. She demands that reflective masculine consciousness and feminine wisdom merge to make the right decisions and acquiesce to the truth of badly needed change.

And so, I ponder the reflections I suggested at the beginning of this blog.

What has happened?

What has happened is that the evolution of consciousness, which started with the birth of the ego—the right to think and decide—that was made in the Garden of Nature, and cost us the harmony of living unconsciously with nature, has reached its climax. The inflated ego recreated nature into Frankenstein and has nearly destroyed the world in the process. This rise in consciousness took too much liberty, the towers had to come down.

Where are we now?

The dust is settling. Trump unwittingly performed his magic. The truth has been laid bare. We are being asked to acquiesce, to truly trust the coming to power of the mature feminine. Nature, the true condition of the world, of relationship, must be acknowledged. A necessary rebalancing must be accepted.

Don't let the flame of consciousness blow out! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Don’t let the flame of consciousness blow out!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

What is to come?

I believe we are averting a reinstallation of Hitler in the guise of Donald Trump. In 1933, Hurricane Hitler blew out the flame of consciousness in Germany. We appear to have survived the onslaught of a similar hurricane, this time around in our own country.

We will choose, with consciousness. This is a major advancement for consciousness, as it rises to the heart center, deciding on behalf of what is right and truly needed.

Of course, the future is never written in stone; it’s full of cataclysmic challenges. Elections are merely starting points. I foresee Gaia taking us far deeper into an environmental reshaping of our planet. What is critical now is that we all move forward consciously, with a respectful and reverent attitude toward feminine wisdom that knows how to prepare for and flow with the inevitable.

Of course, I also have to humble myself to the possibility that I might be trumped on the morning of November 9th! But the coming of the rule of feminine wisdom is inevitable, it’s already in play.

It’s the only attitude that can meet these times that are so a’changin’.

It’s inevitable,

Chuck

 

 

 

Chuck’s Place: Kundalini Unhinged

Like a coiled serpent...
Like a coiled serpent…

Kundalini is the Hindu name for the primal energy that fuels creation. In the human being, the microcosm of the macrocosm of all creation, kundalini is said to lie dormant, a coiled snake at the base of the human spine awaiting activation at times of growth.

Kundalini awakens, becomes aroused, and begins its upward climb through various chakras, energy centers located along the spinal column, until it ultimately merges with its male counterpart, Shiva, at the crown of the head. Yes, kundalini, in the form of the feminine Shakti, is the divine energy that fuels and causes to unfold the Self, that which we truly are.

Kundalini energy is not specific to Hindus and Yoga traditions. Mystics of all faiths, who have experienced transcendent encounters in visions and meetings with God, have been struck by the illumined energy of kundalini. In psychology, kundalini would be the equivalent of psychic energy, what Freud first identified as libido, as it innervated the sexual center or chakra in its awakening of the physical body to its primal sexual energy.

The Taoist would know kundalini through what is termed chi, an experience of which every seasoned martial artist can attest. In the realm of everyday life, somatic ailments in the form of anxiety or headaches, for example, aside from their physiological roots, may indeed be the consequences of an awakening kundalini, pushing for developmental unfolding with great urgency.

Even drug addiction can be understood in kundalini’s energetic terms. Methamphetamine activates a compulsion to experience the expansive union of Shakti and Shiva in godly omnipotence. The heroin addict experiences the equally blissful state of oneness of union with Shiva in a blissfully dormant state, like a fetus enveloped in the womb, in the sweet harmony of sleep prior to kundalini’s violent awakening at the time of labor. Hallucinogens are a crapshoot as they stir kundalini to usurp the ego’s control and take one on an unhinged trip with kundalini within or without the body.

The Hindus have defined our current time on earth as the age of Kali Yuga, which essentially represents a Dark Age with the degeneration of human civilization. Carl Jung in the 1930s agreed with this characterization of our time, which he likened to the time of the fall of the Roman Empire.

The events we now witness around us on the world stage reflect this disintegration, as reverberations in the macrocosm of the destructive side of Shakti unleash kundalini throughout the world to prepare the way for a new era. Whereas an individual may be confronted with powerful kundalini energy when it is time to grow up, kundalini can also take the form of a powerful recapitulation experience that rocks the body and psyche as it insists upon burning through the limitations of old trauma.

On the world stage, Trump is definitely controlled by an activated kundalini energy. This is partly the power of his seductive draw. He embodies the energy of destructive change, and everyone feels the desire to break through the gridlock of the current world order.

I have often spoken of ISIS as also being an unconscious agent of the destructive side of the Goddess Isis, who, like Shakti with her kundalini energy, seeks to level the current world order that threatens her planet Earth. The problem here is that kundalini,  lacking the companion of awake human consciousness to safely guide its path of change, will wreak major destruction to the planet. In the nomenclature of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico we are being asked to engage our intent to beckon positive change.

Just as an individual who takes drugs risks death or psychosis with an unhinged encounter with kundalini, so our collective human race also risks serious destruction if we further kundalini’s destructive path by electing madness. As I have previously stated, Hitler was not elected, Hitler seized power. Evolution insists now that we consciously choose our leader, who is entrusted to safely guide us and this kundalini energy of change through the chakras of our current world reality.

Just as a student of yoga is taught to safely guide kundalini through the chakras of the body with the appropriate deliberate guidance of a master, or risk destruction through overzealous action, so may we be wise in our choice of a leader to soberly channel kundalini through a newly formed world backbone. If we miss that opportunity, we will indeed be consciously signing up for the world rollercoaster of kundalini’s unhinging!

In calm meditation,

Chuck

 

Chuck’s Place: Twilight Of The Gods

The aspiring goddess, Hillary Clinton, states: “I believe in science. I believe that climate change is real and that we can save our planet…

This is a very different “witch,” as she is currently cast as, than those once burned at the stake for evoking the beauty and instinctual power of nature, simply because they were women.

How high is enough? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
How high is enough?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Once upon a time the great religions had to tear themselves away from the dominance of instinctual nature to achieve spiritual heights. Women, the feminine, and the Earth, were the scapegoats of this developing spirit mind, an ego striving to rise above and separate itself from its lowly animal nature.

By the age of the Enlightenment, for all practical purposes, that rising spirit of reason abandoned the God of the heavens. The masculine ego of reason could no longer believe in a power beyond itself and secretly crowned itself God Almighty instead. As Almighty God, the masculine ego claimed complete domination over its heavenly entitlement, Earth, which it divided up and from which it extracted its riches, the true material signs of its godliness: money, power, and control.

With the recent dawning of the Age of Aquarius a radical shift ushered in, the New Age, with its valuing of both spirit and matter, consciousness and the interconnected wholeness of the feminine placed on equal terms. The time we live in, right now, is the most dramatic demonstration of this evolutionary transition from the dominance of the Kingly Ego to the inclusion of the Queen, the rebalancing of yin and yang that restores the Tao of our Earth.

This transition has been long in the making. Hitler was the first modern Ego King who sought to consolidate the total dominance of masculine power over the world. His social alchemical ethnic purification efforts were geared to arrive at Nietzsche’s Superman in the form of the blond beast. This was a dramatic expression and foreshadowing of where we have finally come to, masculinity’s last stand to rule the world in the person of Donald Trump.

What goes up must come down! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
What goes up must come down!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The difference between our current election and Hitler’s rise to power was that Hitler was democratically defeated in Germany in the 1932 elections. When von Hindenburg died in 1934 Hitler declared himself head of state. Hitler mesmerized and tapped into the latent collective undercurrent of unrest and desire for change in Germany at the time, which he then materialized in his Nazi regime with its resultant holocaust.

In our time, evolution has insisted that we, the populace, face the energies before us and consciously choose who will lead the country and, ostensibly, the world. Trump has emerged as an extremely worthy representative of one-sided masculine dominance and control. Like Hitler before him, Trump has his scapegoats, currently people of color, people of the Muslim religion, Mexicans, and women. His ethnic cleansing strategy is remarkably similar to Hitler’s; eliminate in one form or another the blackness of the Earth.

Blackness is the darkness of the night, the color of the rich earth. Blackness is the color of yin, the eternal feminine. Like Hitler, purification and cleansing, a restoration of pure whiteness is Trump’s recipe to make America great again. Evolution absolutely insists, however, that consciousness, the hallmark of the New Age, squarely face off with the old age of total masculine control and this time choose to advance itself.

This is the election we are currently in. Hillary, for her part, is the aspiring Goddess who looks at the sun and sees it rising rather than setting. She mirrors an integration of the value of the feminine, an interconnected world and saving the Earth, with the spirit of science. She includes, powerfully, the mind and its virtues, science, with the feminine perspective, love. Though cast as a witch, she is a worthy representative of an evolutionary transition.

I am so appreciative of both Hillary and Donald’s willingness to completely play and be their parts in this Twilight of the Gods contest. And we, the people, are not simply a vicarious audience; we are part and parcel of this divine play. And it must play out, with all its twists of comedy and tragedy. And in the final scene we must cast our deciding vote. Consciousness must fully participate in this ultimate reality show.

Love... from the Earth - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Love… from the Earth
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

If consciousness chooses Hillary, it marks another milestone in the settling in of the Age of Aquarius where the feminine is granted its equal position next to its masculine half. If Trump wins, it means we are simply not ready for this great transition, that we need another chapter of Earth life for the all-powerful masculine to rigorously live out its power and control before consciousness may be ready to reconcile with the feminine in all her godly manifestations: Blackness, Woman, and Earth.

What an extraordinary time to be alive and participating in this world!

CK