Encounters With The Nagual: Part 2 - Chapter 41. Bringing The Teachings To The Masses.

Encounters With The Nagual © 2004 by Armando Torres:

Part 2 - Chapter 41. Bringing The Teachings To The Masses.

In another of our conversations Carlos told me that, although it was antithetical in many aspects, there was one thing neither the old nor the new seers had questioned: The need to keep their knowledge hidden.

The old seers transformed the Toltec language into a forest of metaphors, where almost anything could be said with almost any combination of words. And it was also they who sank pre-Hispanic societies under an unbearable load of rituals, procedures, and secret passwords. As a result, instead of strengthening sorcery, this weakened it.

Carlos explained, saying, "The heritage of secrecy still burdens some groups of knowledge, although I have tried to shake it."

I asked Carlos why sorcerers try to hide knowledge.

He answered that each cycle of seers had their own reasons for doing it.

Carlos continued, saying, "The old seers started with an understanding that we are transitory, but they allowed themselves to become corrupted by seductive ideas of survival. As a result, they were filled with self-importance and lapsed into exclusivity.

"They were like the pyramids they built: As obvious and attractive as they were secretive and inaccessible. They preferred to keep themselves apart from the average people whom they saw as unworthy and ignorant.

"But, at the same time, they could not do without a court of followers. That contradiction caused long wars for control of the flock and destroyed a great deal of real knowledge.

"Self-importance and its unpleasant relatives, secrecy and exclusivity, feed on the fixation of the assemblage point. For that reason, the old seers had a great interest in generating rigid traditions in order to achieve maximum stability at the core of their societies. In reality, however, their concern for the spirit was very mixed up with their ambitions for temporal power.

"The new seers discontinued all that by giving the fluidity of the assemblage point first priority. They had observed that, as soon as that point moves, the idea of secrecy is idiotic; because in the realm of energy there are no rigid limits between conscious beings.

"As a consequence, what became most important for the new seers was to get rid of all speculation, and emphasize the practical side of their path.

"However, they soon came into contact with a bitter reality, and that was that ordinary people did not understand them: On the contrary, ordinary people were afraid and tried to destroy the new seers whenever they saw them. The secrecy of the new seers was not motivated by the feelings of superiority that moved their predecessors, but rather, secrecy was adopted for strategic reasons. They had to endure extreme persecution and were forced to protect themselves.

"It is an historical irony that, in spite of the legitimacy of their original motives, after a time the new seers secretive strategy caused the same ill effects as the arrogant secrecy of the old seers. After centuries of secrecy, all of the new seers' energy went into hiding their knowledge, and many ended up forgetting why it was they had hidden.

"At present, the modality of our time is changing quickly. In consequence, something else which seemed immovable is also changing: The way the teachings are transmitted. Naguals nowadays are forced to find new channels for the energy, even if it means to eradicate the most entrenched customs."

I asked Carlos, "Why is this change happening?"

He answered, "Because circumstances have moved ahead of tradition. To maintain the knowledge hidden is no longer a vital demand. There are those who will criticize you for disclosing it, but nobody will kill you for that reason today. So to continue the practice of censoring portions of knowledge has become catastrophic for the total objective of sorcery, because those portions ferment inside us and serve as food to any deep-seated sense of importance.

"My first task as a nagual was to put an end to the secrecy of my predecessors. The choice of modern warriors is freedom. Today, we can say whatever we want-- giving our listeners the choice to take it or leave it. This has led to an extraordinary consequence which previous naguals could never enjoy: Mass practicing.

"Mass practicing is our security valve. You can deceive people's minds, because after all their minds are not their own. But you can not confuse the luminous mass of hundreds or thousands of intents focused collectively on the goal of freedom.

"Mass is energy, and energy allows us to break out of the stagnation of attention. Through the collective practice of the magical passes, I have witnessed a true energetic manifestation around the world; something that for the first time has allowed me to believe in the feasibility of my task. My cohorts and I are so excited with what is happening that we do not have words to describe it."