Power of Silence

The Trickery of the Spirit – Dusting the Link with the Spirit

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Power of Silence / By / 24 minutes of reading

This chapter introduces the “third abstract core” of sorcery, known as the trickery of the spirit, which involves “stalking oneself” or “dusting the link” to the spirit through artifice and subterfuge. Don Juan illustrates this through the story of his own apprenticeship under the nagual Julian, who used jarring experiences—like presenting an “inorganic being” and transforming his physical form by shifting his assemblage point—to jolt don Juan’s awareness and teach him the art of stalking. This art, characterized by ruthlessness, cunning, patience, and sweetness, aims to bring the apprentice into heightened awareness and is exemplified by don Juan being forced into disguise, even in women’s clothes, as a means to achieve this profound shift in perception and self.

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The Knock of the Spirit – The Last Seduction of the Nagual Julian

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Power of Silence / By / 16 minutes of reading

This extensive excerpt further illustrates the Knock of the Spirit as the second abstract core, revealing how the spirit’s manifestations—ranging from the sentient “warrior trees” to traumatic life-or-death situations—serve to move the assemblage point and activate the “connecting link to intent.” Don Juan recounts the challenging apprenticeship of his benefactor, the nagual Julian, whose initial encounter with the spirit was a near-fatal hemorrhage during a seduction. The narrative stresses that the spirit’s direct commands and the intensity of experiences like those involving sexual energy are meant to induce heightened awareness and foster the acquisition of silent knowledge, often requiring apprentices to overcome their “natural barriers,” such as the narrator’s tendency to disguise complacency as independence.

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The Knock of the Spirit – The Abstract

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Power of Silence / By / 20 minutes of reading

This chapter delves into the “second abstract core” of sorcery, termed the Knock of the Spirit, which is the spirit’s direct and often forceful invitation to a sorcerer or beginner to enter the “edifice of intent.” This phenomenon represents a form of knowledge without words, a profound understanding that transcends conventional thought, as exemplified by the experiences of the nagual Elías and don Juan himself. The spirit’s intervention, sometimes tied to intense experiences like those involving sexual energy or dreaming, aims to shift one’s assemblage point and revive the dormant connecting link to intent, demanding a fierce, unbending intent to overcome the ego’s resistance and accept this unfamiliar realm.

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The Manifestations of the Spirit – The Impeccability of Nagual Elias

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Power of Silence / By / 19 minutes of reading

This chapter, “The Manifestations of the Spirit,” explains the “first sorcery story” as the spirit’s direct interaction with a prospective nagual, presenting specific “omens” that serve as an irresistible lure. Don Juan recounts how his benefactor, the nagual Julian, was led to him through such precise signs, enabling him to save don Juan’s life. The narrative emphasizes that sorcerers, particularly naguals, possess a unique ability to “read omens” and understand their exact meaning through their “connecting link with intent,” a faculty akin to highly refined intuition. This is further illustrated by the story of the nagual Elías’s encounter with the actor Julian, whose “black shadow of death” indicated his destiny. Despite initial perplexity, Elías intervened, striking Julian’s and later Talia’s “assemblage points” to induce “heightened awareness,” ultimately leading them to join the “bird of freedom,” a metaphor for the sorcerers’ demanding path.

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Foreword and Introduction

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Power of Silence / By / 14 minutes of reading

In the Foreword and Introduction, Carlos Castaneda clarifies that his books document don Juan Matus’s unique teaching method for understanding the “sorcerers’ world,” a rigorous form of “oral instruction and manipulation of awareness” that is as complex as formal academic training. Don Juan, unable to find a perfect term, settled on “sorcery” to describe this knowledge, emphasizing that it’s not about learning new concepts but about “saving energy.” This conserved energy allows sorcerers to perceive a “modality of the time” beyond ordinary perception, tapping into “energy fields” inaccessible to average individuals whose energy is fully deployed in their everyday world. This “state of awareness,” or “silent knowledge,” is cultivated by a teacher (the “nagual”) who convinces the apprentice of their inherent power, facilitating a “direct knowing” without words, and is broadly categorized into the “mastery of awareness,” the “art of stalking,” and the “mastery of intent.”

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