In an earlier post I have explained deeply an experience I had involving magick, psychedelics and extraterrestrial intelligence from "higher" dimensions.
I have touched there the concepts of Will and Intent and have promised to explain further, so I did some research and this is what I came up with.
When I had the vision explaining me the entire concept of the multi-dimensional body of light and the secret of the assemblage point, as presented in the books by Carlos Castaneda and explained in great detail In this post, I have discovered one more thing which I haven't shared yet because I just couldn't find the proper context, and had no way of working with it.
(I know I'm referring to this post a lot but it's for a good reason, this really is the core of everything I know and do, especially on the magickal path.)
I have explained there that those strings of light, what's called in the toltec tradition the Eagle's emanations or commands, are simply encoded experiences which the assemblage point knows how to decode into sensory input, creating a living perceptual experience of an organism living inside a cosmos.
Then I had an insight coming to me in the form of a logical conclusion and a flash of sight simultaneously - the assemblage point is much smaller than appears, and moving in such a high speed that it seems like it is much bigger and covers a greater area of emanations or strings, but actually it makes just one string glow at a time, though it does it so very fast making it seem like a bunch of strings are glowing of consciousness at the exact same time in order of making a complete perceptual experience for the individual.
As I said, back then I had no use for this crazy piece of knowledge, it was just an awesome thing to know, which could maybe shed some light on something Don Juan tells Carlos in the book "A Separate Reality" when he gives him lots of psychedelic substances: "Seeing is not so simple and only the smoke can give you the speed you need to catch a glimpse of that fleeting world..."
What does speed have to do with the mystery of awareness? Maybe the conclusion above might answer this question.
Anyway, back to the topic.
As explained at the end of the post I've linked earlier, toltec seers of antiquity saw that there are three "types" of attention, which are, in fact, three "levels" of knowledge and perception on the cosmos; the first, second and third attention.
In the "Six Explanatory Propositions: from The Eagle’s Gift" Don Juan says that it is crucial for a warrior to understand how the first attention works before going to ventures in the second two.
The "job" of the first attention is explained in this words:
"He explained to me that the first attention has been taught how to move instantly through a whole spectrum of the Eagle’s emanations, without emphasizing at all that fact, in order to reach “perceptual units” which all of us have learned that are perceivable.
Seers call this feat “skimming”, because it implies the capability of suppressing those emanations which are superfluous and selecting which of them must be emphasized."
In other words, the assemblage point is moving rapidly through a specific spectrum of the emanations, the strings, making them glow while neglecting the other emanations, and it does so very fast, making us percieve a concrete and solid "world" that is full of "objects".
In those Six Explanatory Propositions Don Juan explains further:
"The first ring of power is the force that stems from the Eagle’s emanations to affect exclusively our first attention. He explained that it has been represented as a “ring ” because of its dynamism, of its uninterrupted movement. It has been called ring “of power” due to, first, its compulsive character, and, second, because of its unique ability to stop its works, to change them or reverse their direction."
When I first encountered this concept of rings of power I thought that it's a metaphore. It's not. As I am coming to realize, everything Don Juan tells Carlos in a formal manner is simply direct knowledge.
So what is this ring of power?
We did say that the assemblage point is moving instantly and rapidly, so, it's not just moving, it's spinning in a shape of a ring!
And what's even more mindblowing about it, is that the spin can be interfered, redirected, reversed or even stopped completely.
We will come back to that soon.
But, what exactly is it that makes the point spin in this ring shape?
" Intent is what directs our first attention in order for it to focus on the Eagle’s emanations within a certain frame. And intent is also what commands the first ring of power to obstruct or interrupt its flux of energy."
Ha! We're getting somewhere!
In "The Wheel of Time" Don Juan explains:
"For the shamans of ancient Mexico, intent was a force they could visualize when they saw energy as it flows in the universe.
They considered it an all-pervasive force that intervened in every aspect of time and space.
It was the impetus behind everything; but what was of inconceivable value to those shamans was that intent —a pure abstraction—was intimately attached to man.
Man could always manipulate it.
The shamans of ancient Mexico realized that the only way to affect this force was through impeccable behavior. Only the most disciplined practitioner could attempt this feat."
Ans back to the Explanatory Propositions:
"Don Juan explained to me that intent doesn’t refer to have an intention, or to want one thing or the other, but rather has to do with an imponderable force that makes us behave in ways which could be described as intentions, wishing, volition, etc....
...a private, intimate force that we possess and use individually as a key that makes the first ring of power move in acceptable ways...
...Don Juan suggested me to conceive intent as an invisible force which exists in the universe, without receiving itself, but still affecting everything: the force that creates and sustains skimmings. He asserted that skimmings must be incessantly recreated to be imbued with continuity. In order to recreate them each time with the freshness that they need to build a living world, we must intend them each time we build them..."
So intent is the infinite force that is making the assemblage point move the way it moves and skim the way it skims in order of creating the perception of a living world.
What's so mindblowing about it is that man have a deep and direct connection to this force. We actually are intending our world right now through the force of the first ring of power, an intention we were taught by our socialization agents, be it our parents, teachers, etc. They teach us how to spin the first ring of power by the power of reason, we learn to talk to oursleves compulsively, explaining to ourselves what is it that we are percieving.
That means that the intention of the first ring of power is actively creating our perceived world with our reason, which is our internal dialogue, though we are never aware of the fact that this is an action that is being done.
What's so profound about it, as we said, is that the first ring of power can be interfered, redirected, reversed or even stopped completely.
Interfering the intent of the first ring of power is possible through practicing what shamans of antiquity used to call "non-doings".
Non-doings are maneuvers that were designed to, ideally, block the first ring of power, which is the doing of the world.
For example, in one of the books Don Juan gives Carlos an excercise in non-doing - looking at a tree while perceptually emphasizing the appearance of the shadows of the leaves instead of the leaves themselves. Doing so, Carlos is deliberately interfering with the intent of the first ring of power which is normal perception, and intends a new way of perceiving this tree, with spectacular results.
Ultimately, practicing non-doings makes the warrior achieve a state of inner silence, when the internal dialogue is no more, the compulsive power of reason is gone, and the world stops.
Such moments are a wake-up-call for the second ring of power, which is the intent of manipulating the second attention. The second ring of power when fully woken is ultimately and ideally, the perception of oneself as a luminous multi-dimensional entity in a luminous multi-dimensional world of the eagle's emanations, or those strings of conscious energy.
The purpose of the nagual which is the shaman teacher or the benefactor of the initiate is to interfer with the first ring of power, and then to introduce the initiate to the second ring of power and the possibilities of the second attention.
Once the first ring is blocked we are like children, saturated with intent but have no idea what to do with it. It's the benefactor's job to guide this intent in order of creating a new perceptual environment.
The intent of the second ring of power is called will.
Unlike reason - the intention of the first ring which is not realizing itself, which is not aware of the fact that it is creating the world at the moment, but simply explaining why is it so, the warrior is aware of all of this, and ultimately is able to spin the second ring intentionally, willing the world to be what it is.
And the difference is huge.
Will is a force that stems from our other self, the multi-dimensional body of light. A force that makes the second ring spin.
A force I am fortunate to gradually get to know now through excercises given me by an extraterrestrial intelligence, exercises which designed to evoke and manipulate this force.
As an ending, a relevant quote from "Tales of Power:
"The trick of the sorcerer is the same trick of the average man. Both have a description; one, the average man, upholds it with his reason ; the other, the sorcerer, upholds it with his will . Both descriptions have their rules and the rules are perceivable, but the advantage of the sorcerer is that will is more engulfing than reason."
