The Mastery of Stalking

The very first principle of stalking is that a warrior stalks himself, don Juan said. He stalks himself ruthlessly, cunningly, patiently, and sweetly. There are four steps to learning it: Ruthlessness should not be harshness, cunning should not be cruelty, patience should not be negligence, and sweetness should not be foolishness. These four steps have to be practiced and perfected until they are so smooth they are unnoticeable. ~ Carlos Castaneda, The Power of Silence

All warriors who are interested in strengthening their link with intent must practice this. Stalking is not limited to those with a predilection of stalking, it is applicable to dreamers as well. Don Juan said, A warrior needs focus. Heightened awareness is like a springboard. From it one could jump into infinity. He stressed, over and over, that when the assemblage point was dislodged, it either became lodged again at a position very near its customary one or continued moving on into infinity.

As committed warriors we must diligently stalk the dream into infinity. When Silvio Manual screamed Intent!! Intent!! Intent!! he was able to move himself and others into a state of heightened awareness; to open the portal of intent. This was not because he screamed the words, anyone can scream the words. It was because he had become a master of stalking and intent and could move his assemblage point at will. Continue reading

The Bird of Freedom

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.

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Vanquishing the Self

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.

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Awakening to Your Authentic Self

Nagualism is at once taking off one mask and wearing another. Naguals take off the mask that makes us see ourselves and the world we live in as ordinary, lusterless, predictable, and repetitious and put on the second mask, the one that helps us see ourselves – and our surroundings – for what we really are – breathtaking events that bloom into transitory existence and are never to be repeated again. ~ Florinda Donner, The Witch’s Dream

Someone who reads my blog recently emailed me and said, “You’ve mentioned “authentic self” and “being authentic” and so on. How so?” My short response was, “In freedom, of course, free from the patterns and impositions from others that attempt to force us into compliance of how or who we should be. Finding innermost passions and allowing those to flow freely as an expression of one’s self.”

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Raising the Spirit of the Divine Feminine

All organized religion is nothing but a very successful maneuver to put women in a lower place. Religions invoke a divine law that says that women are inferior. ~ Florinda Donner, Being in Dreaming

This quote would be more accurate if you replaced the word women with the word femininity. “All organized religion is nothing but a very successful maneuver to put femininity in a lower place. Religions invoke a divine law that says that femininity is inferior.”

Mother Earth is the divine sacred feminine and is wisdom, justice, beauty, and compassion for as long as humanity has walked upon her. She is the irresistible power that destroys old forms and brings new ones into being. She is the healer and nurturer, she is the creative force that resides within both female and male. She is warmth, radiance, and beauty. She is the power that creates life and the force that can take it away. The Divine Feminine is the unseen dimension of ourselves to which we connect to all things within the web of life.

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The Love of a Sorcerer

A warrior’s love is the world. He embraces this enormous earth. The earth knows that he loves it and it bestows on him its care. That’s why his life is filled to the brim and his state, wherever he’ll be, will be plentiful. He roams on the paths of his love and, wherever he is, he is complete. ~ Don Juan, Tales of Power

In spite of the fact that sorcerers are intensely depthful and are so efficient with their energy they are often misunderstood. Impeccable warriors speak few words and those few words are often direct as a result of speaking from the place of intent, the place of pure knowing. Those words convey an essence which, to some, falls short of human emotion.

The following is an excerpt from a 1997 interview with Carol Tiggs, Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner-Grau.

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