Encounters With The Nagual: Part 1 - Chapter 03. The Sorcerers' Revolution.

Encounters With The Nagual © 2004 by Armando Torres:

Part 1 - Chapter 03. The Sorcerers' Revolution.

We were a group of twelve people gathered on the second floor of an elegant house in order to listen to a famous lecturer named Carlos Castaneda.

I knew none of the others except the friend who had invited me. While we waited for Carlos to arrive, we chatted amicably among ourselves.

Nearly two hours passed and our guest had not yet arrived. People's faces began to show signs of fatigue. Some despaired and left.

At a certain moment, I had the impulse to lean out of a window. I saw Carlos arrive, and our eyes met.

Unexpectedly, a strong wind came into the room, making papers fly everywhere. Some of the people were still struggling to close the windows as Carlos walked in.

Carlos was short but solid, with grayish hair, and dark skin which had begun to furrow with wrinkles. He was dressed in an informal way which made him look ten years younger.

Carlos' face was funny and full of life, and radiated empathy. He seemed very happy to be with us and it was a true pleasure to be near him.

Carlos greeted each of us with a handshake and said we had to use our time well because he was expected somewhere else later that night.

Then Carlos made himself comfortable in an armchair, and asked, "What do you want to talk about?"

But before we had time to answer him, he took the initiative, and flooded us with stories. His conversation was direct and absorbing, and was sprinkled with jokes that he finished off with expressive gestures.

During his talk, Carlos referred to nagualism as a body of practices and ideas, and he talked about its historical development.

Carlos maintained that through the revelations of the sorcerers, modern man has been granted an incredible opportunity.

This topic was quite new to me, so I limited myself to listening and taking notes. Fortunately for me, Carlos had a habit of repeating the main ideas, and this made it easy for me to follow him.

Carlos spoke of a maneuver of awareness to which seers devote themselves called the movement of the assemblage point, and towards the end, Carlos agreed to answer some questions.

One of the people wanted to know what the sorcerers' view on war was.

Carlos looked annoyed, and responded, "What do you want me to say? That sorcerers are pacifists? Well, they are not; although our destiny as ordinary men does not concern sorcerers at all.

"You should understand this once and for all-- Warriors are continually at war, and while they are at war they are comfortable."

Carlos took his time as he explained that unlike the petty wars which we as average humans constantly involve ourselves in because of social, religious, or economic reasons, a sorcerer's war is not directed against other people. The war is directed against his or her own weaknesses.

By the same token, sorcerers' peace is not the submissive condition to which modern man has been reduced. Sorcerers' peace is an imperturbable state of internal silence and discipline carried in battle.

Carlos said, "Passivity is a violation of our nature, because, in essence, we are all formidable combatants. Every human being is, by right, a soldier who has achieved his place in the world in a battle of life and death.

"Look at it this way. At least once, as sperms, each one of us fought a battle for life-- a unique struggle against millions of other competitors-- and we won! And now as we are trapped by the forces of this world, the battle continues. One part of us is fighting to disintegrate and die, while another part of us tries to maintain life and awareness at any cost. There is no peace!

"Sorcerers realize this, and use it to their advantage. Their goal continues to be that which inspired the spark of life that created us. Sorcerers seek access to a new level of awareness."

Carlos said that as human beings become socialized from birth, we are tamed by the power of stimuli and punishments just like an animal is domesticated.

He said, "We have been trained to live and die meekly following unnatural codes of behavior which soften us and make us lose our initial impulse; until our spirit is hardly noticeable.

"We were born as a result of a fight but the society we live in denies our basic tendencies, and eradicates the warring heritage that transformed us into magical beings."

Carlos added that the only available way to change is to accept ourselves just as we are, and work from there.

Carlos said, "Sorcerers know that they live in a predatorial universe so they can never let their guard down. Wherever sorcerers look, they see an incessant fight, and they know that it deserves their respect because it is a fight to the death.

"Don Juan Matus was always doing something-- moving, coming or going, supporting this or rejecting that, provoking tensions or discharging them in a burst, shouting his intent, or remaining silent.

"Don Juan was alive, and his life reflected the ebb and flow of the universe.

"Don Juan told me that I will live within the flow of life that originated from the moment of my father's explosion until the moment of my death. Those two episodes are unique in all of our lives because they propel us into encounters with unknown things ahead.

"And what best aligns us with that flow? An incessant battle which only warriors will attempt. Because of that, sorcerers live in profound harmony with everything.

"For sorcerers 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.

"Sorcerers know that they give the very best of themselves under conditions of maximum awareness brought about from their struggle.

"For that reason, sorcerers seek out their opponent the way a fighting rooster does-- with avidity and delight; knowing that the next step is decisive.

"The sorcerers' opponent is not their fellow man, but rather their own attachments and weaknesses.

"And the sorcerers' grand challenge is to compress the layers of their energy so that their energy layers will not expand when their life ceases. Then a sorcerers' self-awareness does not die.

"Ask yourselves these questions-- 'What am I doing with my life? Does it have a purpose? Is it tight enough?'

"Sorcerers make something exquisite of their passage on Earth. A sorcerer accepts her or his destiny, whatever it may be, and yet fights to change things.

"You can temper your will in such a way that nothing can deviate you from any intent you choose."

Another of the people present raised his hand, and asked how sorcerers are able to reconcile the principles of the 'warrior's way' with their duties to society.

Carlos answered, "Sorcerers are free, so they do not accept social obligations. The responsibility is to oneself; not to others.

"Do you know why you were given the power of perception? Have you discovered what purpose your life serves? Will you cancel your animal destiny?

"Those are sorcerers' questions that address the only issues that can seriously change anything. If you are interested in others, then address those questions.

"Death is a personal matter, and it is a challenge for each one of us. Yet a sorcerer knows that the challenge of death gives sense to his life.

"And death is a challenge which only sincere warriors accept.

"Seen from this point of view, the worries of ordinary people are just expressions of their egomania."

Carlos insisted that we ought not lose track of the fact that the commitment of a sorcerer is to 'pure understanding'-- a state of being that arises from internal silence.

Carlos maintained that our social concerns are a description which has been implanted in us, and our concerns do not stem from a natural development of our consciousness.

Rather, our social concerns are a product of the collective mind; of emotional disarray, of feelings of fear and guilt, and of a desire to lead others or to be led.

Carlos said, "Modern man does not fight his own battles. Instead, he enters into extraneous wars that have nothing to do with the spirit.

"Naturally, a sorcerer is not moved by this.

"A sorcerer's commitment is not to the transient attachments of 'the modality of the era' in which he or she happens to live."

Carlos continued, "My teacher don Juan Matus used to say, 'I was not present when they decreed that I had to be an imbecile.'

"In other words, he did not honor agreements made in his absence.

"Although don Juan was born into particularly difficult circumstances, he had the courage to become something more than just a human reaction to those circumstances.

"Don Juan himself affirmed that humanity's situation in general is horrendous, but to put emphasis on any particular group is just a covert form of racism.

"He lived in a permanent fight against the blindness of his fellow men; but the struggle was within himself. So he remained impeccable, and did not interfere with anybody except his apprentices.

"Don Juan used to repeat that in this world, there are only two kinds of people. Those who have a surplus energy for awareness, and those who do not.

"When I tried to explain my concern for people to Don Juan, he pointed at my incipient double chin and told me, 'Do not deceive yourself, Carlos. If the human condition seriously interested you, you would not treat yourself like a pig.'

"Don Juan taught me that to feel pity for others is inappropriate for a sorcerer because pity for others always stems from concern for the self. Don Juan pointed at people we met on our way, and asked me, 'Perhaps you believe yourself better than them?'

"Don Juan helped me to understand that the solidarity of sorcerers towards the people around them comes from a supreme command, not from human sentiment.

"Don Juan mercilessly stalked my emotional reactions, and he led me by the hand to the source of my preoccupations.

"I was finally able to realize that my concern for people was a fraud. I was trying to escape from myself by transferring my problems to others.

"Don Juan showed me how compassion, in the sense we use the word, is a mental illness-- a psychosis that will just make us more and more powerfully entangled in our ego."

It was obvious that remembering Don Juan had moved Carlos. I could see how a wave of affection overwhelmed him.

Someone present raised his hand and commented that, in contrast to what Carlos was saying, compassion towards one's neighbor is the essential idea of all religions.

Carlos made a gesture of waving away a fly, and said, "Forget all that. Notions based on pity are a fraud.

"By the power of telling ourselves the same ideas over and over, we have substituted a genuine interest in man's spirit with cheap sentimentality. We have become professionals at compassion. Has religion changed anything?

"And so, what now?

"When you feel the collective mind putting its pressure on you-- trying to convince you to concentrate on the appearances of the world-- repeat these crushing truths to yourself. 'I am going to die. I am not important. Nobody is.'

"And knowing all this is the only thing that counts."

As an example of misplaced effort, Carlos described the situation of a donkey caught in the mire. The more it moves, the more difficult things become. Its only way out is to concentrate on the immediacy of its problem, and act with coldness as it tries to relieve itself of the load on its back.

Carlos said, "The same thing happens to us.

"We are beings who are going to die. We were programmed to live like beasts carrying loads of other people's customs and beliefs until the very end of our lives.

"But we can change all that.

"The freedom which the warrior's way offers us is within the reach of your hand. Take advantage of it."

Carlos told us how, while he was an apprentice, he had a problem. He was addicted to cigarettes. He had tried to quit several times, but without success.

"One day, don Juan told me that we were going to collect plants in a desert area, and that the trip would last several days. He told me, 'You had better bring a whole carton of cigarettes! But make sure you wrap them very well, because the desert is full of animals that might steal them.'

"I thanked him for his consideration, and carefully did as he had suggested. But the following day when I awoke up in the middle of the chaparral, I discovered that the package had disappeared.

"I despaired. I knew that without cigarettes I would soon begin to feel bad. Don Juan blamed the loss on a coyote, and helped me to look for it. After hours of anguish, he finally found the tracks of the animal which we followed for the rest of the day-- going further and further into the mountains. When night arrived, he admitted to me that we were completely lost.

"Without cigarettes and without knowing where I was, I felt miserable. To console me, don Juan assured me that there had to be a town near by. It was just a matter of walking a little further and we would arrive someplace safe.

"But we spent the whole next day looking for a road, and then the next day, and then another. We spent almost two weeks like this.

"A moment arrived when, almost dead from exhaustion, I let myself fall down in the sand, and prepared to die. When don Juan saw me in that state, he tried to cheer me up and make me keep going by asking, 'Are you not interested in smoking anymore?'

"I looked at him with rage, and I berated him for his incredible irresponsibility. I turned a deaf ear to him and said that all I wanted was to die.

"Don Juan replied with indifference, 'Very well. Then we can go back now.'

"It turned out that the whole time we had been only some meters from the highway!"

That anecdote made the room explode with laughter.

When we finally calmed down, Carlos remarked, "The tragedy of today's man is not his social condition, but the lack of will to change himself.

"It is very easy to design collective revolutions, but to genuinely change-- to put an end to self-pity, to erase the ego, to abandon our habits and whims... ah, that is something else entirely.

"Sorcerers say that true rebellion, and humanity's only way out as a species is to stage a revolution against their own stupidity.

"As you can now understand, this is solitary work.

"The goal of sorcerers is the sorcerers' revolution-- the unrestricted unfolding of all our perceptual possibilities.

"I have never known a greater revolutionary than don Juan. He did not just suggest changing tortillas for bread. Oh no. He went straight to the core of the matter. He proposed a deadly somersault of thought into the unknown-- the release from all ties. And he demonstrated to me that it is possible.

"Don Juan suggested that I fill my life with decisions of power, and with strategies which will bring me to fuller awareness.

"He taught me that the order of the world does not have to be as we have been told, and that I can toss that aside anytime.

"I am not obliged to uphold an image before others, or live in an inventory that does not suit me. My battle field is the path of the warrior."

When the meeting was over, all Carlos' listeners gathered to exchange a few words with him, and say their farewells. When it was my turn, Carlos looked me up and down. Then he asked me to tell him my name, and why I was there.

I told him my name and I explained that a friend, knowing my interest for the subject, had told me about this opportunity.

Carlos' only comment was, "I want to talk to you in private."

I was a little confused by his words, but I waited until the end of his round of greetings, and I followed him to a corner of the room. There he invited me to have breakfast at his hotel the following day.

I assured him that it would be my pleasure.

He gave me the address, and told me, "We will meet tomorrow at nine o'clock."

He added that I should not tell anybody about our meeting, and that I should be punctual.