Knowledge and Language are Separate
The nagual Elias used to tell me that the whole of humanity has moved away from the abstract, although at one time we must have been close to it. It must have been our sustaining force. And then something happened and pulled us away from the abstract. Now we can’t get back to it. He used to say that it takes years for an apprentice to be able to go back to the abstract, that is, to know that knowledge and language can exist independent of each other. ~ Don Juan, The Power of Silence
Don Juan goes on to tell Carlos, knowledge and language are separate; for a sorcerer an abstract is something with no parallel in the human condition. Sorcerers meet the abstract without thinking about it or seeing it or touching it or feeling its presence.
Recapitulating the Non-Personal
To move the fixation of the planet is the only way out from the dramatic state of slavery to which we have been reduced. The course of our civilization has no exit, because we are isolated in a remote location of the cosmos. If we do not learn how to travel along the avenues of awareness, we will come to such a state of frustration and despair that humanity will end up destroying itself. Our options are the way of the warrior, or extinction. ~ Carlos Castaneda, Encounters With The Nagual
In response to a recent questions about recapitulation the impersonal, recapitulating the impersonal encompasses the vast area of that which has been held by the position of the assemblage points of others, even if we never allowed our own assemblage points to fixate upon those lines of awareness. It is that which warriors see, that which enters into the scope of the warrior’s awareness when they have amassed enough personal power to truly see the vapidness, manipulative machinations, atrocities and stories of perpetuated myths of the monkey mind. Once a warrior has recapitulated the personal and has enough personal power to truly see all of the stories of the world that are maintained by the predator, they are then able to unwrite and recapitulate these impersonal lines of awareness. This territory is frightening to the extreme, walking deeply upon the lines that lie within the world of the predator, but it leads to even deeper levels of understanding, incredible awareness, and the potential to shift the assemblage point of the earth.
Not-Doing
The residue of consciousness, called the second attention, is brought into action, or is harnessed, through exercises of not-doing . The essential aid to dreaming is a state of mental quietness, called “stopping the internal dialogue,” or the not-doing of talking to oneself. In a woman both the attention and the energy for dreaming originate from the womb. ~ Carlos Castaneda, The Eagle’s Gift
A fellow warrior recently asked a number of questions on the post Choosing Evolution. I cannot succinctly answer all of the questions asked since my perspectives and perceptions lie deeply rooted in the energies that emanate from the womb but I will attempt to provide the evolutionary course that works for me.
A Warrior’s descriptions are conceived from experience and action and not whimsical notions concocted to entertain. Once a warrior acts she is able to share her descriptions of the world in freedom, without imposing her will upon others to travel upon the same lines of awareness.
When the Battles Have Ended
On the cosmic scale, the strength of a being is not measured by its physical capability, but by its capacity to manipulate awareness. It follows that if we are to take the next evolutionary step, it must be done by means of discipline, determination, and strategy. Those are our weapons. In order to manipulate and understand the emanations which arrive to our senses, sorcerers develop the power of their attention, sharpening it through discipline to exquisite levels, which allow them to transcend human limitations and to fulfill all the possibilities of perception. Their concentration is so intense that they can penetrate the thick armor of appearances, and expose the essence of things. ~ Carlos Castaneda, Encounters with the Nagual
Recapitulation Complete? Check.
Mold of Man Broken? Check.
Personal History Erased? Check.
Death as an Advisor? Check.
Predator Defeated? Check.
It seemed impossible. Diligently walking the path of the warrior towards total freedom while being constantly mindful to use what Carlos referred to as the weapons of discipline, determination and strategy has had its payoffs. It seemed an arduous task, and it was; breaking the patterns, unplugging from the man-made matrix, experiencing the Toltec mysteries, traveling throughout Mexico, taking the journeys, abstract flights, meeting other warriors, writing, writing, and writing.
Choosing Evolution
We are perceivers. The world that we perceive, though, is an illusion. It was created by a description that was told to us since the moment we were born. ~ Don Juan, Tales of Power
The world is composed of a massive diversity of people, and of these, there are two classifications that define them; sustainers and creators. We are perceivers, however, the majority of people are sustaining illusions that was imparted upon them from the moment they were born. And since most people operate from a field of reason, they continue to assimilate the ideas and thoughts of others which ultimately puts them in a position of sustaining those ideas and thoughts. Those are the ideas and thoughts from which mythology, ritual and ideologies were born and are maintained. They are patterns that are replayed and slightly adjusted to justify ones current reality. They rarely consist of original thoughts, they are not born of creative expression, and they are obstacles to the evolution of humanity.
Awareness, Intent, Evolution
The grand task of seers is to bring forth the idea that, in order to evolve, man must first free his awareness from its bindings to the social order. Once awareness is free, intent will redirect it onto a new evolutionary path. ~ Don Juan, The Art of Dreaming
Once awareness is free, intent will redirect it onto a new evolutionary path. What does this mean for the warrior? To free awareness one must recapitulate, erase personal history and allow for the assemblage point (AP) to shift significantly. When the AP shifts the warrior is able to perceive in a different way, free from the impositions of a long line of stories that had been conveyed as the right or only way to live for a very long time. Think about it. If you ever watch any history shows you will recognize the patterns that have been maintained and perpetuated from generation to generation.
Once awareness is free… no longer bound to the social order, you are free to perceive energy directly. Perceiving energy directly becomes different when you no longer attempt to define, label and compare every single experience as it unfolds. This act of perceiving is alignment with intent, to be in the ultimate flow of knowing that things are the way they are for a reason that lies beyond our ability to attempt to control or change it. This is not to say that warriors should not take responsibility for their actions; what it means is that we can only be observers, witnesses to an indescribable force (intent) that is much greater than ourselves while living with integrity and being impeccable.
Aligned with Intent
Prickly Pear Cactus Skeleton ~ Photo by FW
He told me that, from the moment when the explosion which gave us origin occurred, until the moment of our death, we live within a flow. Those two episodes are unique, because they prepare us for the encounter of what lies further ahead. And what aligns us with that flow? An incessant battle, which only a warrior will attempt. Because of that, he lives in profound harmony with everything. For a warrior, to be harmonious is to flow, not to stop in the middle of the current and try to make a space of artificial and impossible peace. He knows that he can only give the very best of himself under conditions of maximum tension. ~ Carlos Castaneda, Encounters with the Nagual
Aligning with intent eventually becomes an action, not a goal. It is difficult to find the words to describe it. Aligning with intent differs vastly from connecting with intent or creating intent. While we can will ourselves to connect with intent (to see) and create with intent (to know), in order to align with intent one must arduously recapitulate (in the moment), erase even more personal history (the stuff we thought was “knowledge”) and zealously unplug from the foreign installation. In order to align with intent, we must have tons of energy and personal power. The foreign installation is so generationally ingrained that it seems as though we are stripping away the very cornerstone of our reality. And we are. Herein lies the incessant battle of the warrior.
Ephemeral Patterns
…ephemeral patterns of sand sea sky …emerge…only seen once…then disappear…dancing with infinity…
Sonora, Mexico ~ photos by FW
Keep Dancing!
A Warrior’s Detachment
~ photo by FW
And thus with an awareness of his death, with his detachment, and with the power of his decisions a warrior sets his life in a strategical manner. The knowledge of his death guides him and makes him detached and silently lusty; the power of his final decisions makes him able to choose without regrets and what he chooses is always strategically the best; and so he performs everything he has to with gusto and lusty efficiency. When a man behaves in such a manner one may rightfully say that he is a warrior and has acquired patience! ~ don Juan, A Separate Reality
The holiday season is a weird time for a lot of warriors because many choose to appease their family members by maintaining a story that no longer serves them. They feel the pressure from the mold of man to spend time with their friends and loved ones and then they find themselves caught up in a lot of drama, drama that isn’t necessarily theirs but they become unwitting accomplices. And then they complain about the choice that they made to be there in the first place.
All Time is Here. This Moment. Now.
Sonoran Desert ~ by FW
Sorcery makes us aware of different realities; different possibilities, not only about the world but also about ourselves, to the extent that we no longer are able to believe in even the most solid assumptions about ourselves and our surroundings. ~ Carlos Castaneda, Being in Dreaming
Don Juan used to take Carlos out into the desert chaparral for numerous reasons but most importantly to have what he called an appointment with knowledge. For many years I have visited such a place in the Sonoran desert of the greater Phoenix area that is affectionately known to us as the place of intent. It is an amazing place, a power place of great magnitude that unerringly alters ones perception and provides a heightened state of awareness just by sitting there.
Last weekend a fellow warrior and I hiked in one evening as the moon was waxing towards full. We brought no flashlights with us, the moon in the desert provides sufficient light and we were able to see quite clearly as we walked deeper into the illuminated darkness. That sounds paradoxical but it isn’t when you are in the desert at night with the light of the moon. Once the eyes adjust you can see everything just as well as you can during the day, everything is just bluer.
Aligning with the Energy of the Trees
Northern Arizona ~ photo by FW
The feeling I had developed for the trees was beyond words. I had the certainty that I was able to absorb their moods, know their age, their insights and what they sensed. I could communicate with a tree directly through a sensation that came out from the inside of my body. And I also knew that once communication is engaged, tree pour themselves out in affection. ~ Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers’ Crossing
I’m a tree hugger. I don’t live in California and I don’t wear Birkenstocks with socks but I love a good tree hug. They have so much to tell us if we pay attention and align with their energy, their intent. Last Sunday I was hiking through an old growth forest in Northern Arizona and when approaching a gigantic old ponderosa pine I just had to embrace it.
I couldn’t wrap my arms around even half of her, she was so big. I pressed my ear against her rugged bark and listened. And then she spoke. She told me that we have to become “conduits” like them so we can bridge the energy of the earth as it moves up through our bodies and into the warmth and light of the sun. This allows us to merge with the abysmal void of infinity. Emptiness is form, form is emptiness.
Humility, Impeccability and Freedom
Whale bone, Sea of Cortez, Mexico ~ by FW
A warrior acknowledges his pain but he doesn’t indulge in it. Thus the mood of a warrior who enters into the unknown is not one of sadness; on the contrary, he’s joyful because he feels humbled by his great fortune, confident that his spirit is impeccable, and above all, fully aware of his efficiency. A warrior’s joyfulness comes from having accepted his fate, and from having truthfully assessed what lies ahead of him. ~ Don Juan, Tales of Power
We learn to free ourselves from old patterns when we recapitulate them with finality. Yeah, that’s what happened last week when I allowed my impeccability to slip and descend into the nightmare of the predator, feeling the pain of that particular reality and then indulging in it. A long-ingrained pattern of reacting to the atrocities that occur with regularity in a dream that doesn’t belong to me. I didn’t create it, I don’t participate in it, I don’t maintain it and I certainly cannot, under any circumstances, feed it by reacting to it. I must treat it as though it doesn’t exist. As warriors we have no choice but to be impeccable with our energy.
Time to Evolve
To move the fixation of the planet is the only way out from the dramatic state of slavery to which we have been reduced. The course of our civilization has no exit, because we are isolated in a remote location of the cosmos. If we don’t learn how to travel along the avenues of awareness, we will come to such a state of frustration and despair that humanity will end up destroying itself. Our options are the way of the warrior, or extinction. ~ Carlos Castaneda, Encounters with the Nagual
Recapitulating Knowledge
Rocky Mountains ~ photo by FW
There are lots of things that you do now which would have seemed insane to you ten years ago. Those things themselves did not change, but your idea of yourself changed; what was impossible before is perfectly possible now and perhaps your total success in changing yourself is only a matter of time. In this affair the only possible course that a warrior has is to act consistently and without reservations. You know enough of the warrior’s way to act accordingly, but your old habits and routines stand in your way. Everything we do, everything we are, rests on our personal power. ~ Don Juan, Tales of Power
Personal power is what we gain through recapitulating. A couple of years ago I posted an article called Freedom through Recapitulation that had to do with recapitulating the personal. After we recapitulate those stories we begin to move into fluidity where we live in the moment and thus, we recapitulate in the moment. Holding on to nothing, we are free; mindful of the things that could potentially back us up and so, we let them go.
Utter Awareness
Hubs ~ photo by FW
Therefore, the Rule for the seers of the new era is preparation; that is their distinctive stamp. They should not only prepare in terms of the arts of sorcery, but also cultivate their minds in order to know and understand everything. The intellect is the comfort of today’s Toltec, just as in the past, it was the affection for rituals. ~ Carlos Castaneda, Encounters with the Nagual
When I recently read this quote from Carlos it struck a chord deep within me. It appears to me that the people who are Toltec are truly beginning to prepare for some monumental shift in awareness through awareness. This shift is not limited to humanity, it also includes the earth. First suffice it to say that the Toltec are, according to don Juan, men and women of knowledge. There are now, more than ever before, more Toltec people walking on the earth. They are from every ethnic background, every level of education, and represent every age group.
Don’t Chase the Bird of Freedom
Emergence ~ by FW
The moment ideologies – including nagualism – become widespread, they become cultural mafias, schools to make people sleepy. No matter how subtle their postulates are, and no matter how much they try to validate them with personal corroboration, they end up conditioning our actions according to some form of reward or punishment, and by doing that, they pervert the very essence of the search. If the pillar of my faith is a salary, what merit does it have? ~ Carlos Castaneda
“Toltec Mastery” has become one such school to make people sleepy and this is evident in the work of those who pretend to bring this important knowledge of the Toltec forward. I am diligent in my efforts to disengage from the Toltec label since it is becoming a cult-like, dogmatic structure that has more to do with outmoded and repetitious patterns that are found in predominant worldwide religions and less than freedom.
The Bird of Freedom
Sonora, Mexico ~ photo(s) by FW
The nagual Mariano Aureliano had once told me that sorcerers, when they talk among themselves, speak of sorcery as a bird: They call it the bird of freedom. They say that the bird of freedom only flies in a straight line and never comes around twice. They also say that it is the nagual who lures the bird of freedom. It is he who entices the bird to shed its shadow on the warrior’s path. Without that shadow, there is no direction. ~ Florinda Donner, Being-in-Dreaming
But it was night and there was no shadow. The three of us were standing on the cool Saltillo tile looking up towards the northeast at the Andromeda Galaxy through a high-powered telescope. It was a mild evening and since we were in the phase of the new moon last weekend it was very dark and the millions of stars in the Milky Way were brilliant. There wasn’t any sound at all except the gentle lapping of the waves from the Sea of Cortez. We were in the Sonoran Desert, donde el desierto y el mar se encuentran; where the desert meets the sea.
Vanquishing the Self
Moab, UT ~ photo by FW
In order to be a dreamer I had to vanquish the self. Nothing, but nothing, is as hard as that. The sorcerers understand freedom as the capacity to do the impossible, the unexpected – to dream a dream that has no basis, no reality in everyday life. The knowledge of sorcerers is what is exciting and new. Imagination is what a woman needs to change the self and become a dreamer. ~ Florinda Donner, Being-in-Dreaming
At some point on the path of the committed warrior it becomes necessary to deepen by shifting the assemblage point as thoroughly as possible to align with the unfathomable sea of awareness. This is more than a decision to change a routine, recapitulate a thing or break a pattern. It is a commitment to align with intent as much as possible and jump into the abyss, feet first, without looking back. In order to jump it is necessary to prepare by pooling all accessible energy and engage in the act of not-doing as much as possible.
The warrior strives to become capable of what don Juan refers to as stupendous maneuvers of perception, and in preparing for this it is necessary to vanquish the self and gain deeper access to dreaming. In order to begin to explore from a new point of perception everything has to change. The hardest decision for me was letting go of the blog and recapitulating all of it because the lines within the internet began to overwhelm me and it felt as though the lines of information I was putting forth were gathering up other lines and coming right back through the screen, through my fingertips and into me. This subtle and nearly imperceptible occurrence was beginning to fixate my assemblage point and it was time to unplug and focus on fluidity.
Why Do I Always Say “Keep Dancing”?
Sea of Cortez ~ Photo by FW
I fidgeted nervously, changing sitting positions, and he smiled.
“I will have to come with you over and over to this hilltop,” he said. “And then you will have to come by yourself until you’re saturated with it, until the hilltop is oozing you. You will know the time when you are filled with it. This hilltop, as it is now, will then be the place of your last dance.”
“What do you mean by my last dance, don Juan?”
“This is the site of your last stand,” he said. “You will die here no matter where you are. Every warrior has a place to die. A place of his predilection which is soaked with unforgettable memories, where powerful events left their mark, a place where he has witnessed marvels, where secrets have been revealed to him, a place where he has stored his personal power. “A warrior has the obligation to go back to that place of his predilection every time he taps power in order to store it there. He either goes there by means of walking or by means of dreaming.
A New Band of Awareness
Black Hills, SD ~ Photo by FW
They (sorcerers) don’t look for definitions, but for results. If a practice is able to elevate our level of awareness, what does it matter how we explain it to ourselves! The means by which we will start acting to save and increase our energy are not important, because once we are in possession of our totality, we enter a new field of attention where we don’t care about concepts anymore, and things demonstrate themselves. ~ Carlos Castaneda, Encounters with the Nagual
When we can perceive from the perspective of “double vision” we are able to flow effortlessly among the various states of awareness, no longer clinging to this or that or the words that define them, i.e. tonal, nagual, 1st, 2nd or 3rd attention, stalking, dreaming, etc. The ability to have “double vision” allows us to merge multiple points of reference from which a new point of reference emerges. We align with intent and through that alignment we have no choice but to see things as they constantly unfold and then to participate in that creation or simply be a witness to it. From here we can, indeed, begin to navigate from a state of pure perception.
Sonoran Desert Magic
Buddha Rock, Sonoran Desert ~ Photo by FW
It is a sublime feeling,” he said, “to be in this marvelous desert, to see those ragged peaks of pseudo-mountains that were really made by the flow of lava of long-gone volcanoes. It is a glorious feeling to find that some of those nuggets of obsidian were created at such high temperatures that they still retain the mark of their origin. They have power galore. To wander aimlessly in those ragged peaks and actually find a piece of quartz that picks up radio waves is extraordinary. The only drawback to this marvelous picture is that to enter into the marvels of this world, or into the marvels of another world, a man needs to be a warrior: calm, collected, indifferent, seasoned by the onslaughts of the unknown. ~ Don Juan, speaking about the Sonoran Desert, The Wheel of Time
While driving through the Sonoran Desert last weekend I snapped this photo of the Buddha rock. I’ve driven past this natural monument countless times and never stopped to take a photo of it before. Towering above everything else, the Buddha is an example of the constant magic unfolding in this extraordinary desert.
Aligning with the Unfathomable Sea of Awareness
Amber glow of awareness, Sonora, Mexico ~ Photo by FW
The old seers saw that the earth has a cocoon. They saw that there is a ball encasing the earth, a luminous cocoon that entraps the Eagle’s emanations. The earth is a gigantic sentient being subjected to the same forces we are. ~ don Juan, The Fire from Within
Everything has a luminous cocoon, emanations of energy that seek to align with the familiar patterns of our daily lives ultimately settling into the customary position of the assemblage point. As warriors of awareness, we strive to keep our assemblage point fluid in order to avoid repeating the patterns that a fixated assemblage point maintains.
Routine is a comfort to most people whereas a state of flux is often dreaded and feared. Routine ensures that everything remains status quo and predictable and offers one the opportunity to remain in control or at least, feel as though they have some control over their lives. This has been my challenge for the past nine months, relinquishing control in order to completely loosen my assemblage point from the position of what is familiar and instead, move into a state of perceiving energy directly while completely aligned with the sea of awareness. This is one of the most difficult and arduous things I have ever done on my path as a warrior and I am constantly kept on notice to not fall back into the safety net of predictability, comfort and control.
Artificial Intelligence
photo by FW
There is no doubt that the description we have received (of living in the world) is a valuable possession, similar to the rigid stake that is tied to a tender sapling to strengthen and guide it. It allows us to grow up as normal people, within a society that is molded to that rigidity. To achieve it, we had to learn how to ‘skim’ – that is, how to make selective readings from the enormous volume of data that arrives to our senses. But once those readings are converted into ‘reality’, the rigidity of our attention works as an anchor, because it prevents us from becoming aware of our incredible possibilities. ~ Carlos Castaneda, Encounters with the Nagual
I’ve been thinking lately about artificial intelligence and how our species is rapidly evolving into the arena of exactly that. Most people are “skimmers”, merely touching the surface of a subject in order to accumulate meaning and knowledge. Yes, as you know this is nothing more than self-importance, nothing more than accumulating knowledge to claim to know things without really knowing anything.
