Man has a dark side. It’s called stupidity. In the same measure that ritual forced the average man to construct huge churches that were monuments to self-importance, ritual also forced sorcerers to construct edifices of morbidity and obsession. As a result, it is the duty of every nagual to guide awareness so it will fly toward the abstract, free of liens and mortgages. ~ The Power of Silence

Someone recently emailed me asking why they are having difficulty finding meeting places for “Castaneda enthusiasts” or Toltec Warriors. To them it seemed that this was an insurmountable task and they even suggested the possibility of forming an organization of sorts to accommodate others in their pursuit to congregate with like-minded warriors.

To organize groups of warriors would defeat the purpose of walking a path of freedom. Creating an opportunity to congregate would establish a congregation which is essentially a group of worshippers or a “flock” (sheeple). The warriors and sorcerers of the Castaneda paradigm have been very careful for a long, long time to walk in awareness as invisible as possible. To this day there are those who judge the warriors who have integrated Castaneda’s teachings into their lives as cult followers. And what are religions? Cults. To be part of a cult means that you have sacrificed your freedom. Any organized structure, regardless of their initial intention, results in a set of bylaws, leaders, and influential individuals who ultimately thrust their agenda upon others.

I, for one, am glad that there are not congregations of Toltec warriors. Though I am most content to be in the presence of other warriors, the ability to share space together is in absolute freedom, with an unspoken knowledge of the fact that we share warriorship rather than having to state it out loud as though it were a fact. Some of my “warrior” friends wouldn’t even call themselves warriors or even use that word to describe me and therein lies the freedom. Words can often entrap people.

If gathering places started sprouting up across the globe claiming to be something like “Castaneda Community Center” or “Toltec Warriors Weekly Gathering” I would be the first to destroy all of my associations and connections to the syntax that allows me to define my walk. This blog would be the first to go, all of the quotes that I reference would be eliminated from my vocabulary and a recapitulation stemming from erasing the personal history of the connection I have for this paradigm would occur so fast that it would leave me in a tailspin.

The potential “Tensegrity movement” presented a little unease and cult-like potential. Cleargreen Incorporated is a for profit corporation that was founded by Carlos Castaneda in 1995 to promote Tensegrity which is supposedly a group of movements that he said had been passed down by 25 generations of Toltec shamans. If you watch the Tensigrity videos you will see that it is very reminiscent of Tai Chi with its primary function to assist people in honing skills such as discipline, focus and intention or working with the will. The scary part to me is that the women dress exactly the same. In the second or third taped instruction sessions, they even wear the exact same jewelry, kind of like conformists establishing their uniform. It is my own personal belief that Castaneda started this corporation as a means to financially take care of the witches in his party.

Don Miguel Ruiz and his son Don Jose call themselves Toltec Masters and attempt to capitalize on the Castaneda teachings by offering minimized, watered down versions of Carlos’ and don Juan’s knowledge and teachings and ground them in the New Age paradigm of salvationism rather than in freedom. They and other on-line “masters” use all sorts of propaganda in their attempts to earn a living by providing teachings, travel, workshops, books and even on-line trainings on how to become a Toltec Warrior. The worst of it is that you can acquire “teaching certification” in Toltec mastery that will allow you to certify others as accomplished Toltec Warriors. So for all of you warriors of freedom, just think…unless you have a framed certificate prominently displayed on your wall, you are not really a warrior of freedom! Whatever.

This is the reason why you will never run across a true Toltec warrior’s gathering place. To create one would be like creating a religion complete with dogma, structure, rules, self-importance, ego, authoritarian figures with a cult-like quality.

You will know other warriors, whether they even know this paradigm or not. They will be accessible to you through silent knowledge and your seeing and you will acknowledge each other by a simple nod on the street or a brief glimpse of recognition in some fleeting moment.