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Journal of Applied Hermeneutics – Queries about the Warriors’ Way: What is the point of doing all those Practices?

A Journal of Applied Hermeneutics, Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Nagualism, Warrior Path, Way of the Warrior / By / 4 minutes of reading

In this section, Castaneda addresses two common questions. The first concerns when a practitioner will achieve “seeing,” the direct perception of energy. He explains that while practices are important, the crucial element is to “intend” the outcome—the state sorcerers call “stopping the world,” which is achieved by obliterating self-importance. The second question is about fear over strange physical sensations during Tensegrity. Castaneda recounts how don Juan Matus explained such feelings not as external manipulation, but as natural physiological responses or a product of one’s own victim mentality. Don Juan’s advice was to counter fear by being “impeccable”.

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Journal of Applied Hermeutics – Fourth Principle of the Warrior’s Way: The Energy Body

A Journal of Applied Hermeneutics, Ancient Cycle, Assemblage point, Intent, See, Will, Will / By / 6 minutes of reading

The fourth unit of the warriors’ way is THE ENERGY BODY Don Juan Matus explained that, since time immemorial, sorcerers have given the name of energy body to a special configuration of energy which belongs to each human being individually.

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The Journey of The Dreaming Body – The Fire from Within

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 25 minutes of reading

Don Juan brings his explanation of the mastery of awareness to a culmination, emphasizing that Castaneda must now break the barrier of perception unaided by shifting his assemblage point into a dreaming position. He reveals that the initial journey of the dreaming body (also called “the other”) is a form of perceptual dualism, triggered by extreme fright and guided by inner silence. Castaneda recalls a past experience where he perceived Genaro’s dreaming body and was shocked to witness his own double. Don Juan clarifies that these experiences are shifts of the assemblage point, not illusions, and that true travel in the dreaming body occurs when it takes precedence over the physical body. Castaneda also remembers being propelled across vast distances in his dreaming body, awakening in the house of Carol, the nagual woman, highlighting the incredible potential for movement and shared dreaming. Don Juan stresses that the perception of reality is entirely tied to the assemblage point’s position and that warriors must integrate these varied experiences. Despite the profound implications and Castaneda’s emotional turmoil, don Juan maintains that the path to freedom requires unbending intent and that ultimate understanding comes from embracing the mystery of relinquishing awareness at death.

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Breaking the Barrier of Perception – The Fire from Within

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 12 minutes of reading

Don Juan declares the culmination of his teachings on awareness, tasking Castaneda with breaking the barrier of perception unaided, by moving his assemblage point to assemble another world. He warns of a final test: jumping into an abyss from normal awareness, where success hinges on aligning a new world before impact. Castaneda, guided into a state of inner silence, experiences a shift into a familiar “sulfur dunes” world, and then into a black world, a uniquely valuable alignment. He encounters allies and perceives the black world’s peculiar timelessness, which ages the body. Don Juan explains that these are true shifts, not illusions, emphasizing the danger of being stranded in these new realities if one lacks control or the necessary support. He reveals that the old seers often misunderstood these shifts, mistaking them for literal ascensions or descents. The chapter culminates with Castaneda’s final challenge: to vanish the current world by entering the black world alone, a final act of inner silence and awareness that represents the warrior’s ultimate freedom and the dissolution of the everyday world.

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Epilogue – The Fire from Within

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 5 minutes of reading

Don Juan concludes his teachings by assembling his party and apprentices on a mountaintop, preparing for their final departure into total awareness. He emphasizes that the manipulation of intent through sober commands, coupled with inner silence, is key to shifting assemblage points. This maneuver, vital for new seers, allows them to achieve total freedom by escaping the Eagle, unlike the old seers who merely shifted to other dreaming positions to delay death. Don Juan clarifies that freedom is the Eagle’s gift, attainable with sufficient energy and a life of impeccability. Castaneda, Pablito, and Nestor, along with other apprentices, are then instructed to jump into an abyss from normal awareness. Instead of dying, Castaneda (and the others) shifts his assemblage point and assembles another world, thus surviving the jump. The epilogue ends with Castaneda realizing that he and his fellow apprentices are left to integrate their heightened awareness, facing profound questions about man’s fate, and waiting for the energy to accept the ultimate gift of total awareness themselves.

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Inorganic Beings – The Fire from Within

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 41 minutes of reading

Following a frightening experience in the unknown, don Juan explains that Castaneda lacks the free energy to fully comprehend it, emphasizing the warrior’s need to shed unnecessary habits. He then delves into the ancient Toltec seers’ secret knowledge, particularly their discovery of non-organic life forms, or “allies,” and their methods of interaction, often involving water and reflective surfaces. Through a vivid demonstration with a mirror in a stream, Castaneda has a terrifying encounter with one of these entities, realizing its immense power and the profound melancholy that comes with glimpsing eternity.

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The Assemblage Point – The Fire from Within

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

Following a startling encounter with an ally, Don Juan resumes his teachings on awareness, introducing the crucial concept of the assemblage point. He explains that this luminous point on the human energy cocoon is responsible for selecting emanations that form our perceived reality. The nagual’s blow, a push on this point, can shift awareness, a technique old seers used for control and new seers use for deeper understanding. Castaneda recounts his own experience of a dramatic shift and a vivid vision, which Don Juan clarifies as a movement of his assemblage point. The conversation delves into the differences between the “right side” (known) and “left side” (unknown) awareness, and how the assemblage point’s movement, especially through new habits or sorcery practices, unlocks access to these hidden realms. Don Juan emphasizes that true mastery lies in moving the assemblage point from within, an accomplishment that allows warriors to confront profound, even deranging, experiences while maintaining their sanity. The chapter concludes with Don Juan’s explanation of human luminosity as a “ball of jack cheese” with a “cheddar cheese” band representing the human spectrum of emanations, and the assemblage point’s role in “clustering” these emanations to create perception, even revealing a “dark side of man” through extreme shifts.

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The Position of The Assemblage Point – The Fire from Within

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 19 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Don Juan resumes his teachings on the assemblage point, explaining its crucial role in perception and how its position dictates our reality. Castaneda learns that the house they are in is an exercise in stalking for the nagual’s party, emphasizing detachment from fixed ideas. Don Juan describes how Genaro’s gait of power shifts Castaneda’s assemblage point, leading to different perceptual experiences – first of aggressive action, then of spiritual love. The key to these shifts is inner silence and stopping the internal dialogue, which is what normally fixes the assemblage point. Don Juan reveals that this fixation is instilled from infancy by human teachers, and that warriors can learn to move their point through intent. The discussion also covers different types of shifts: lateral shifts (leading to mundane fantasies or hallucinations) and “shifts below” (leading to animal transformations, which the old seers misguidedly pursued and new seers avoid due to their dangerous nature). Don Juan explains that while other organisms also have assemblage points, only humans possess the unique capacity for “skimming” or further refining their perceived reality, a powerful but potentially detrimental ability if not properly controlled.

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