Encounters With The Nagual: Part 2 - Chapter 45. The Seers of the New Era.

Encounters With The Nagual © 2004 by Armando Torres:

Part 2 - Chapter 45. The Seers of the New Era.

"The old and the new seers represent two extreme positions facing the same challenge of adapting to very concrete historical circumstances. But today, times have changed.

"By the Eagle's design, at least one of the lineages of the new seers has been able to redirect its task.

"The last twenty-seven naguals of my line have tried to recover the fearless spirit of the old seers, while at the same time maintaining the sobriety of purpose of the new seers. In that way, we were able to gather enough energy to attempt a new and more balanced adaptation of the teachings.

"According to Don Juan, massive changes in energy are happening at the present time, which will inevitably cause the emergence of a new cycle of warriors. To differentiate them from their predecessors, I have called them modern seers; or seers of the new era."

Before continuing with his story, Carlos clarified for me that his concept of the new era had nothing to do with the New Age contemporary mystic movement, but was rather an extension of the old pre-Hispanic belief in a series of eras, following on one after the other in the history of the world.

I asked Carlos why he had not mentioned anything about this new breed of warriors in his books.

He answered, saying, "My books describe a phase of my apprenticeship relative to my benefactor and his cohorts. Although they had conceptualized a new cycle as a strategic need, it was not part of their immediate life. They realized that their own actions departed from the Rule of the new seers when they allowed and even encouraged the popularization of their knowledge. But they left it to me to find the appropriate terms in which to describe what was happening."

I asked Carlos, "At what time did these seers begin to appear?"

Carlos said, "They are barely appearing yet.

"Everything began with the conquest of Mexico. The old seers took that change as a sign, and understood that it was necessary to review and revise their tradition-- which they did.

"And things would still be the same for us as new seers if it had not been for the manifestation in our lineage of a being whom we call 'the death defier'. He returned the sense of adventure and fascination for the unknown to the new seers. Contact with that entity has been decisive for us."

Eagerly, I asked Carlos to tell me more about the death defier-- one of the most extraordinary and incomprehensible characters of his books.

He answered, "The death defier is an entity of supreme awareness. He was born about ten thousand years ago. But he appeared physically in our lineage at the time of the nagual Sebastian, in the year of 1723."

I asked, "Was the death defier a person?"

Carlos replied, "He was a man in other times back when the thirst for knowledge was alive and man-kind surrendered himself to his love for the Earth. He is the typical exponent of that mentality. If you spoke with him, you would notice that we share the same yearning for companionship, and an urge for the expansion of awareness.

"But you would also notice strange things. He lives in another vision. His sense of self is very different from ours, because it embraces a very wide range of sensations. He does not have gender, age, nationality, or a defined language. He does not have friends or relatives; and worse, there is nobody in the world like him. He passes through the world like a ghost, and spends most of his time ensconced in some deep niche of dreaming.

"His contribution to our lineage, as much in techniques as it was in theoretical knowledge, was monumental. That warrior knew all the arts of the ancients, and much more! You can say that it was his appearance on the scene that led to the germination of the cycle of modern seers.

"The second sign which showed that the time of change was near, was the presence of a foreigner in the lineage: The nagual Luhan.

"As you already know, Luhan was Chinese. Although he had received a high education in his own country, his adventurous personality made him become a sailor; and he lived an erratic existence all over the planet until one day his luck put him in the way of power.

"The young Luhan had disembarked in the port of Veracruz, and he was strolling around in search of amusement, when a dangerous incident brought him staggering out from a bar, where he collided head first into the nagual Santiesteban, who did not have time to react. This event, unusual in the life of a sorcerer, was taken as a sign.

"You can imagine the bewilderment of the new seers! The spirit had spoken in an obvious way, and ordered that secrets guarded by generations of warriors should be put in the hands of a stranger. In that way, Luhan was accepted as the new nagual and his knowledge of martial arts became part and parcel of the heritage of our lineage.

"But the confirmation of these signs of change happened two centuries later when I, another nagual whose luminous constitution was not of the conventional kind, came into the hands of a certain strange old man named don Juan Matus. Neither he nor I knew it then, but the destiny of the knowledge of the new seers had been sealed."