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collective inventory, something like making distinctions among a line of ants because some
are slightly darker than others.
"The ironic thing is that we human beings do in fact divide ourselves into two groups: Those
who dissipate their energy, and those who conserve it. You can call the last ones whatever
you want, sorcerers, Toltecs, initiated; and it's the same whether they have a teacher or not.
Their luminous reality is such that they are a step away from freedom.
What nobody can teach them, warriors obtain by themselves by listening to the silent
commands of the spirit.
"To open up to power is a natural process. No man can tell another: 'You are already open!' -
unless he is a charlatan. Nor are there any shortcuts that will automatically bring us to
freedom. The secrets of initiation are symbols of the arrogance of the ancients, keys without a
door, they will get you nowhere. You can spend your life pursuing them and when you finally
obtain them, you'll discover you have nothing.
"You believe that what differentiates knowledge is the way it is transmitted, whether by books
or by oral tradition. It has not occurred to you that both methods are the same, because both
belong to our everyday agreements. What is important about the way you receive
information? What matters is that you become convinced to act!
"The method of sorcerers is the systematic saving of energy. They state that what separates
men is not what they know, but how much energy they possess; therefore, the true way to
transmit
knowledge is in increased states of awareness. The appointment of sorcerers is not with a
book or a ceremony, but with dreaming. When a warrior learns how to capture experience
through his dreams, it doesn't matter under which label the teachings are presented, since his
perception is pure and he can corroborate it with his seeing."
Bringing The Teachings To The Masses
In another of our conversations he told me that, although they were antithetical in many
aspects, there was one thing neither the old nor the new seers questioned: The need to keep
the knowledge hidden. They 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 prehispanic societies under an unbearable load of rituals, procedures, and
secret passwords. Instead of strengthening sorcery, this weakened it.
"The heritage of secrecy still burdens some groups of knowledge, although I have tried to
shake it."
I asked him why sorcerers try to hide knowledge.
He answered that each cycle of seers had their own reasons for doing it.
"The ancients 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 couldn't 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 ancients had a great interest in generating rigid
traditions, in order to achieve maximum stability at the core of their societies. In reality, 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 changes into
idiocy, because in the realm of energy there are no rigid limits between conscious beings. In
consequence, what became most important for them was to get rid of all speculation and
emphasize the practical side of the path.
"However, they soon came into contact with a bitter reality, and that was that ordinary people
didn't understand them; on the contrary, they were afraid and tried to destroy them whenever
they saw them. The secrecy of the new seers was not motivated by the feelings of superiority
that moved their predecessors, but 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 motives, in time the strategy of
the new seers has caused the same effects as the arrogance of the old ones. After centuries of
secrecy, all their energy had gone into hiding their knowledge, and many ended up forgetting
what 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."
"Why is this change happening?"
"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 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 the 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 cannot 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
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 don't have words
to describe it."
The Magical Passes
For some years, Carlos had been teaching some movements to small groups that he called
'magical passes', because, according to him, they served to prevent energy from stagnating
and forming
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