Seeing

The New Seers

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 14 minutes of reading

Carlos recounts his arrival in Oaxaca where he meets don Juan, who immediately shifts him into a state of heightened awareness. Don Juan begins to explain the history of Toltec seers, distinguishing between the ancient Toltec seers—powerful sorcerers obsessed with their “seeing” that ultimately led to their downfall—and the new seers, who are warriors of total freedom. The new seers, having learned from the mistakes of the old, emphasize stalking, dreaming, and intent, and use their heightened awareness to seek freedom rather than control. Don Juan also explains that “seeing” is a profound form of knowing, not merely visual perception, and that the world is composed of “Eagle’s emanations” rather than solid objects. He emphasizes that the new seers have developed a systematic way to understand awareness that was lacking in the ancient Toltecs, who were destroyed by their own pursuits.

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The Eagle’s Emanations

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 22 minutes of reading

Carlos and don Juan continue their discussion on awareness, specifically focusing on the first truth: the world is not composed of objects but of the “Eagle’s emanations.” Don Juan clarifies the distinction between the “known,” “unknown,” and “unknowable,” emphasizing that the unknown is within human reach through perception, while the unknowable remains beyond comprehension. He explains that the ancient seers made a crucial mistake by confusing these categories, leading to their downfall, a mistake corrected by the new seers who learned to map the unknown through controlled “seeing.” Don Juan describes the Eagle as the indescribable force that bestows awareness on sentient beings and devours it at death, an interpretation that both fascinates and terrifies Carlos. He further elucidates that human perception utilizes only a minute fraction of these emanations, and that “seeing” involves sensing the Eagle’s emanations as “filaments of light” that are inherently aware.

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A Witness to Acts of Power – An Appointment With Knowledge

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Tales of Power / By / 78 minutes of reading

In this chapter, I unexpectedly find don Juan in Sonora, where he reveals that my true path to sorcerers’ knowledge lies in accumulating personal power, not through hallucinogenic plants or intellectual explanations. We visit a power spot where I am challenged to “see” a mysterious “moth,” which don Juan clarifies is a manifestation of knowledge. Despite my rational attempts to explain away the unsettling encounter, don Juan continually emphasizes the role of personal power, impeccability, and the silencing of internal dialogue in understanding the world of sorcerers. He introduces the concept of the “double,” exemplified by don Genaro’s seemingly impossible appearance, challenging my perceptions of reality and demanding that I embrace the unfathomable nature of existence through experience, rather than solely through reason. The chapter concludes with me witnessing Don Genaro’s “double” in a profound and baffling manner, leaving me with a deep sense of perplexity and a clear imperative to continue cultivating my personal power.

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A Witness to the Acts of Power – The Secret of The Luminous Beings

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Tales of Power / By / 37 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Don Juan and Don Genaro initiated a series of challenging tests designed to push me beyond my conventional understanding, culminating in a demonstration of “the secret of the luminous beings.” Through exercises in focusing my will and stopping internal dialogue, I experienced profound perceptual shifts, such as witnessing “the ally” as a moth and “seeing” people as energetic forms. Don Juan explained that all beings are luminous and that our perception is governed by an “assemblage point” that can be moved through discipline and personal power. The chapter concluded with Don Genaro’s astonishing reappearance, which further blurred the lines between ordinary reality and the sorcerers’ world, emphasizing that my reason alone was insufficient to grasp these events and that true understanding lay in direct perception and the cultivation of my will.

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The Tonal and the Nagual – Shrinking the Tonal

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Tales of Power / By / 26 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Castaneda recounts a disorienting experience in which Don Juan “shrinks” his tonal, causing him to be instantly transported a mile and a half away from an airline office to a bustling market. Don Juan explains this phenomenon as a deliberate manipulation of Castaneda’s tonal—the organizing principle of his known world—by startling it into a state of “shyness” or contraction, thereby allowing the nagual to temporarily take over and perform extraordinary feats. Castaneda struggles to reconcile this inexplicable event with his rational mind, prompting Don Juan to emphasize that such experiences exist beyond the realm of reason and are apprehended only through the body, in what he calls “nagual’s time.” The chapter concludes with Don Juan reiterating the importance of a fluid, balanced tonal for a warrior, and hinting at further explorations of the nagual with Don Genaro.

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Part Two: The Sorcerer’s Ring of Power

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan / By / 61 minutes of reading

Castaneda grapples with the profound implications of “stopping the world” and becoming a sorcerer as explained by Don Juan and exemplified by Don Genaro’s story. Castaneda learns that this path means abandoning all earthly attachments, including loved ones, and embracing an unknown reality from which there is no return to his old life in Los Angeles. Despite the deep sadness and loneliness this realization evokes, he is told that only as a warrior, balancing terror with wonder, can one survive this path, and though he experiences a fleeting moment of “seeing” their profound loneliness, Castaneda ultimately decides he is not yet ready to fully embark on this transformative journey.

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Part One: Stopping the World – Not-Doing

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan / By / 32 minutes of reading

After confronting “entities” in the wilderness, Castaneda accompanies Don Juan to a “place of predilection” for cleansing and to learn the profound concept of “not-doing.” Don Juan explains that “doing” defines our everyday perception of the world, while “not-doing” allows a warrior to manipulate reality, access hidden truths, and even enhance dreaming. Castaneda experiments with not-doing by observing shadows and a pebble, leading to extraordinary perceptual shifts and a deeper understanding of the lines of the world and personal power. Don Juan also advises Castaneda to challenge his negative self-perception by consciously “lying” to himself, viewing it as a new “doing” to ultimately achieve the “not-doing of the self.”

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Introduction

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan / By / 12 minutes of reading

This introduction clarifies Castaneda’s decade-long apprenticeship with Yaqui sorcerer don Juan Matus, culminating in the “stopping of the world”—a state of altered perception crucial to sorcery, which he initially misunderstood as reliant on psychotropic plants. Don Juan’s teachings, which redefine reality as merely a “description,” involve “seeing” beyond conventional “looking,” and he employs unique, often shocking, tactics to break ingrained perceptions. The narrative details how Castaneda’s early notes, previously discarded due to their lack of focus on hallucinogens, are now reinstated as foundational to understanding don Juan’s method of teaching a new “description of the world” that challenges and ultimately transcends ordinary reality.

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The Descent of the Spirit – Seeing the Spirit

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Power of Silence / By / 28 minutes of reading

This chapter, “The Descent of the Spirit,” explains the “fourth abstract core” as the spirit’s direct revelation, which frees individuals from self-reflection and mundane concerns. Don Juan illustrates this through the story of the nagual Julian and Talia, whose traumatic experience, guided by the nagual Elías, shifts their assemblage points and allows them to “see the spirit.” The narrator undergoes a similar shift in a sorcerers’ cave, perceiving Eagle’s emanations and a “lull of perception.” Don Juan further clarifies how sorcerers’ understanding evolved from “awareness” to “will” and finally to intent—the conscious force permeating the universe. Ultimately, sorcery is presented as the disciplined path, known as the “warrior’s way” or “impeccable action,” to re-establish this connection with intent and gain silent knowledge without being overwhelmed by its power.

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