Ancient Cycle

Silent Knowledge – The Magical Passes

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge / By / 4 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Castaneda recounts his first in-depth discussion with don Juan Matus about the “magical passes,” which began with a criticism of his physical condition. Don Juan reveals he had been teaching Castaneda the passes all along, disguised as his habit of “cracking his joints.” He explains that these movements are not mere exercises but are truly “magical” because they can halt the mind’s normal “lines of similarity” and interrupt the mundane flow of reality, which is perceived as fixed and unchangeable. Don Juan also makes the startling claim that the mind is a “foreign installation” and that the passes help to overcome its influence. He reveals that the origin of the passes lies in the *dreaming* practices of ancient sorcerers, who discovered them as a way to recreate states of well-being and prepare for their “navigations into the unknown.”

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Silent Knowledge – The Center for Decisions

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge / By / 4 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Castaneda explores the second topic of interest for the ancient sorcerers: “the center for decisions,” located in the “v” spot at the base of the neck. Don Juan explained that this is one of six main energy vortexes in the body, but its specific, fluid-like energy is displaced early in life, resulting in the human inability to make decisions. He also reveals the sorcerers’ view of the center at the top of the head, which they believe has been taken over by a “foreign installation”—the mind. The magical passes, or modern Tensegrity, serve to strengthen the other five centers by redistributing energy that has been scattered to the edges of a person’s luminous being. This redistribution of energy, especially to the center for decisions, restores the capacity to decide and overall vitality, overcoming the indecisiveness and exhaustion caused by the wear and tear of daily life.

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Silent Knowledge – The Recapitulation

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge / By / 4 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Castaneda details the third pillar of sorcery practice: the “Recapitulation.” He describes it as a procedure for reliving one’s entire life with two main goals. The first is cosmological: to satisfy a universal force called “the Eagle,” which seeks a being’s life experiences, not its life force. By offering a detailed account of their lives, sorcerers can retain their life force at the moment of death and embark on a journey of perception as inorganic beings. The second goal is pragmatic: to acquire “perceptual fluidity.” Reliving memories forces the “assemblage point” to shift to its past positions, and this repetitive movement grants the practitioner the flexibility needed to face the unknown. Castaneda also describes the practical method taught by don Juan: making a list of all known persons and using a specific breathing technique to inhale recovered energy and exhale unwanted feelings associated with each memory.

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Silent Knowledge – Dreaming

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge / By / 4 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Castaneda explores the “art of dreaming,” which he defines as the sorcerers’ technique for breaking the parameters of normal perception to travel into the unknown. Don Juan explains that sorcerers’ dreaming (*ensoñar*) is different from ordinary dreaming (*soñar*) and is based on the deliberate displacement of the “assemblage point” from its usual position. This practice originated from the ancient sorcerers’ observation that the assemblage point moves naturally during sleep. The key to this art is the development of “dreaming attention,” a focused awareness that allows the practitioner to control the dream state and enter other real, energy-generating worlds. The art of dreaming is complemented by the “art of stalking,” which is the ability to hold the assemblage point fixed in its new position, allowing for a full exploration of these other realms.

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Silent Knowledge – Inner Silence

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge / By / 3 minutes of reading

This chapter focuses on “inner silence,” the ultimate goal for the sorcerers of ancient Mexico and the culmination of the other four practices. Don Juan defined it as a natural state of perception free from the internal dialogue, where awareness becomes sharper and knowledge is instantaneous. This state is the matrix for an evolutionary leap called “silent knowledge”. Castaneda explains that it is achieved through the disciplined practice of forcing oneself to be silent for accumulating periods of time, until a personal threshold is crossed. He then recounts his own experience of reaching this threshold, which resulted in “stopping the world” and becoming consciously aware, for the first time, that he was *seeing* energy directly. Don Juan clarified that this was not a new perception, but rather becoming deliberately conscious of an awareness that had always been present.

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Silent Knowledge – The Westwood Series

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge / By / 29 minutes of reading

This final chapter is dedicated to “The Westwood Series,” a specific sequence of magical passes designed to integrate the other four “concerns” of the ancient sorcerers: the center for decisions, the Recapitulation, dreaming, and inner silence. Don Juan explained that the magical passes themselves act as an “agglutinating force,” a vibration that binds these other areas of practice into a single, functional unit. The chapter serves as a practical manual, organizing the series into four distinct sections, each corresponding to one of the other concerns. It then provides detailed descriptions and instructions for performing each of the individual passes within these four categories, outlining their specific movements and energetic purposes.

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The Fire from Within – Foreword

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 7 minutes of reading

Carlos Castaneda introduces “The Fire from Within” as an account of his apprenticeship with don Juan Matus, focusing on the “teachings for the left side” – lessons given in states of heightened awareness that were previously difficult to recall. He explains that his earlier writings depicted don Juan as a sorcerer and focused on “teachings for the right side,” but this book reveals that don Juan and his companions are actually “seers” and masters of ancient knowledge: awareness, stalking, and intent. Don Juan, as a “nagual,” is the leader of a party of seers, and Carlos himself is the nominal leader of a “new nagual’s party.” Carlos describes heightened awareness as a state of intense perceptual clarity where one can focus with uncommon force, yet it is not easily remembered in normal awareness. He details the ritualistic way he would enter this state and the profound joy and unsettling sadness it brought. The book specifically delves into the “mastery of awareness,” which don Juan presents as a modern version of the ancient Toltec seers’ tradition, refined by “new seers” who are warriors of total freedom, capable of choosing their departure from the world by being consumed by a “fire from within.”

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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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Petty Tyrants

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 29 minutes of reading

Don Juan begins explaining the mastery of awareness by focusing on “petty tyrants,” external tormentors who serve as a warrior’s training ground. He deliberately provokes la Gorda to illustrate how self-importance is the greatest enemy of a warrior. Don Juan details the “attributes of warriorship”—control, discipline, forbearance, timing, and will—and explains how these are used to combat self-importance and harness energy. He recounts his own brutal experience with a “king-size petty tyrant” (a sugar mill foreman) and how his benefactor, the nagual Julian, used this ordeal to teach him these attributes. The goal is not just to survive, but to gain joy and impeccability in the face of adversity. Don Juan emphasizes that true defeat for a warrior lies in succumbing to negative emotions and self-pity, rather than employing strategy and detachment, and that confronting petty tyrants is essential for tempering the spirit and preparing for the unknown.

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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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