As explored
in earlier articles on erasing personal history and Toltec
warriorship, the ancient Toltecs were a culture of powerful
warriors, astronomers and sorcerers. Their disciplines of
astrology, medicinal herbs, shamanistic and dreaming/energetic
practices had to go underground, hidden from European and
spanish dominator cultures from 750 ad to around 1966, when
author Carlos Castaneda and later Don Miguel Ruiz, revealed
them in books and lectures. Many
a bewildered anthropologist have conjectured as to how the
Toltecs disappearance from history happened. The Toltecs left
no trace of bones, personal artifacts or where they went to.
All that was left was the ruins of the Teotihuacan temples
and ruins in Cancun and other areas in Mexico. Similar to
the vanishing of the Anasazi in the southwest. Where did they
go? Where did they disappear to? Where are there bodies? How
did they leave? The answer is; DREAMING .
The ancient
Toltecs and Anasazi people were not stupid, primitive, "injuns"
living in archaic myths before" modern civilization".
No, they were supreme Jaguar warriors, highly skilled astronomers
and very advanced dreamer-shapeshifters. So much so, they
could leave this world without a trace and go to another one.
Sound unbelievable, well read on, you decide!!
DREAMING
101 In
Western society, we've been trained by psychoanalysis and
science to perceive our dreams as offshoots of electrical
impulses, shooting off in the synapses of our brains. Dreams
to psychoanalysis, is a form of wish fullfillment and subconcious
functions of the ego, processing conflicting sexual and egoic
desires through metaphoric imagery. Unfortunatley,
this explanation is tradgically lacking in substance, application
and scope. It is also a minority perception globally. Most
indigenous cultures worldwide condider dreaming to encompass
a whole lot more than brain functioning and wish fulfillment.
To these cultures and the Toltecs, their whole life is based
around dreams and dreaming abilities. We
spend one third of our life sleeping, roughly 178.000 hours.
Obviously dreaming is a signifigant part of our living experience.
Whats happening when we sleeep? Where do we go when we dream?
What is the nature and messages of these dreams we have? Why
do some dreams seem like real life events, with total clarity?
In
indigenous cultures, dreams are discussed and explored daily.
Dreams are seen as a sort of psychic antenna that gives them
symblic lessons and meanings to their life experiences, much
like reading a Tarot deck. Dreams also forsee upcoming events
and help navigate around trouble and used for healing, advice
and "seeing". For
the Toltecs and their decendants, Dreaming is as real and
practical as planting crops, having a family, constructing
a home, music or anything else in their lives. To them, dreams
are a real and vital area of experience, continuity and spiritual
connection that western cultures cannot even imagine. The
real illusion is that we as human beings were meant to live
within reason , logic and materialism.
THE
THREE LEVELS OF ATTENTION In
Toltec lingo, their is what is described as; The First, Second
and Third Attention. These terms can be found all through
Carlos Castanedas works as well as Don Miguel Ruiz and others.
Lets examine them closer; 1)
THE FIRST ATTENTION :This is the social order, the
world of reason, logic and linguistic explanations. The "Matrix",
as the popular movie defines it. The world of the known.
2)
THE SECOND ATTENTION; The realm of dreaming,out of
body experiences, "psychedelic" experiences, sorcery,
magick lucid dreaming,visions,spirits etc 3) THE THIRD
ATTENTION; This is completely outside language, off
the island of the self and the social order and literally
impossible to describe as it is enormous in mass and intensity.
It is the totality of ourselves, it is eternity, if you will.
These
worlds of energetic possibilities are what both ancient and
modern Toltec practitioners train to enter at will, with full
conciousness. Specific training sequences and daily practices
help us navigate sucsessfully between these three areas of
assemblage points (points of energetic awareness or energetic
clusters or worlds)..
MEDICINE
DREAMING The
elders and Toltec shamans of Mexico,including their living
decendants the Huichols, Aztecs, Mayans, use dreaming for
practical daily challenges and healing. Medicine men (Naguals)
consult dreams for health diagnosis, finding a marriage partner
for someone, finding lost people and objects, plant identification,
naming babies etc. Visions,
songs and symbols acquired from dreaming are intergrated all
through the culture. Its drawn on their homes, rattles, drums,
sacred objects and their bodies. Humans are thus always interacting
with the dreaming guides and spirits. Dream songs, when sung,
reconnect Naguals to the spirit world. The
dream radar is a consistent tool for all aspects of life ,
and reality, to the Toltecs, is seen as having two sides;The
Tonal (ordinary reality) and the Nagual (the unknown).These
two sides need to be in balance with each other for a human
to be healthy. Together, the Tonal and Nagual provide proper
eguilibrium. Even
in our modern western society art, poetry, and music come
inspired to artists from the second attention. Billy Joel,
the famous musican said 70 % of his music came from dreams.
Physical reality as we know it,is filled with sounds and imagery
from the dreamtime.
SORCERY
DREAMING Don
Juan Matus, teacher of Carlos Castaneda and many others, defined
a Toltec as " a modern practioner of Toltec practices,not
limited to gender and race. A man (or woman) who is a master
of coyote shape shifting-a dreamwalker." At this level
of dreaming, there is total lucidity in the dreaming worlds.
For a dreamwalker, being awake or dreaming while asleep, is
the same. The universe is set up like an onoion, with multiple
worlds overlapping within each other. A
master dreamwalker can move freely from one layer in the onion
to another, at will. Sometimes you see them, sometimes you
don't. This requires of course a lifetime of saving energy,
living as a warrior and erasing ones personal history.
To gain fluidity
in dreaming, it is also necessary to erase our self importance
and ego. Erasing the dead weight of the ego leads to our energetic
freedom. The
Anasazi, Toltecs and aboriginal people were and are master
dreamers in a dreaming culture. If you visit the pyramids
of Mexico today, you get an eerie feeling that you are never
alone and are being watched. The eyes of the ancient dreamwalkers
are still there, just at another layer of the onion. Remember
the childrens song" row row your boat, merrily down the
stream...merrily merrily, life is but a dream..". The
Toltecs would agree. Keep fighting and keep dreaming!!
MARK EDWARDS
2007
