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Having the horses become lava horses, means that there is no way they will be tamed. What is your relationship to the lava horses – are they a global event, of which you are just an observer? Or are they personal – climbing up through the mountains of your inner being? Can you tame them with a word – or are they a force which will continue regardless of what you choose or say?
In the Norse creation myth, the primeval state before creation was not a void, but was fire and ice, in balance.
Many people might say that the opposite of fire is water – but the true opposite would be ice (which is water in a solid, frozen, cold state).
In the Norse creation myth, the primeval state before creation was not a void, but was fire and ice, in balance.
Many people might say that the opposite of fire is water – but the true opposite would be ice (which is water in a solid, frozen, cold state).
In Yaqui teachings, the world (anía) is composed of five separate worlds: the desert wilderness world, the mystical world, the flower world, the dream world, and the night world.
Lucy Cavendish writes in her book “Witches and Wizards,” about the Merlin, in association with the Wizard Merlin.
The Merlin is a small, intelligent falcon.
“Merlin is also the name of a small falcon, dark-feathered and barrel-tailed, found within Britain and worked with in traditional falconry. Merlins were prized for their fierce intelligence, ability to interact with humans, and sublime hunting skills. The Druids had many animals which they regarded as sacred, and far-sighted birds of prey were greatly esteemed.
When a Merlin appears to you as a totem, it is a message to your soul to see things from an enlightened perspective – falcons are creatures of the sun, day predators, and they can see even with all the brightness about them. They also remind us to look at our lives and any issues from a higher perspective.
Merlin was also the name given to the head of the druids…”
So a Merlin falcon would also speak of leadership.
Thanks so much for posting these. I really appreciate that you brought the idea of book reviews here – so that people can “preview” a book before reading it themselves – or – get the “Cliff’s Notes,” er, “Coda’s Notes” version if they don’t have time to read it.
I wrote:
I’m having an ego-shedding experience right now. It’s scary! When I look at – everything – I wonder about Love and connection and the importance of things, and I can feel myself shifting and actually disappearing into a sort of nothingness.
Coda asked:
Sounds very existential. Is this related to your recent fast?
No. It’s about lovingkindness meditations. Buddhist practice. I’ve been doing a lot of heart work, trying to create resonance between heart and body, and my poor heart just keeps going in loops. So I tried a little lovingkindness meditations, and struggled with the word, “Love.” I struggled to attach that word to a person.
I imagine it as a beam of energy that radiates from my heart, but it’s still “imagination,” it doesn’t have practical application. I think of people that I love, but it is still thought.
We live in our heads so much, to the detriment of our hearts. I’m trying to get mine going, and in the process am asking hard questions like: What is love? How do I love? Who do I love? How can I love better? Have I ever loved?
Then, there is a complete dropping away: What am ‘I’?” Yep. Existential is a great word for it.
So – if I were not stable, this “lovingkindness” – seemingly so sweet and safe – could be dangerous, as it is making me question the very earth that I stand upon.
Todd Rundgren has a song, “The Meaning of the Verb ‘To Love'” Thinking of Love as a verb.
ANYHOW, I came here today because Dan Millman has a new talk with Sounds True.
Chapter 8 – The Mescalito Ceremony
Carlos Castaneda is deemed worthy to join in with an Indian peyote ceremony lasting 4 days. This is a male focused group event, where the men go into the ceremony, and the women support them for days, with food, water, tending the fire, etc.
(as a feminist this bothers me. I know that tribal traditions have clear roles for men and womyn, and I wonder how this works in our modern society.)
The first night, he takes 8 buttons. The other men are singing. Each man has “his Mescalito song” that he sings, and all of them sing these songs at the same time. Castaneda does not have a Mescalito song, and feels left out. The singing touched him emotionally and he wantd to weep, but the feeling vanished when the singing stopped.
The men did not speak at all during the day, and on the second night, he takes 8 buttons again. He lay down and rested, and the cycle of songs began again, went all night, and in the morning, he went out to the women to take water. He no longer perceived his surroundings.
During the singing of the second night, he had perceived that Someone or Something was trying to get in. Castaneda could not tell whether the singing was to invite this Entity in, or whether it was to protect them and keep the Entity out.
Castaneda did not have a song, and Mescalito the Being appeared to him again, as he had in the desert, but Mescalito’s back was turned, and He would not look at Castaneda. Castaneda ran out into the desert, into the peyote fields.
He could not get Mescalito to talk to him. As he returned to the house there was a tremor, like an earthquake, which he had again experienced when he had met Mescalito in the desert.
He was exhausted and rested all day; that night he only took one peyote button, and as the men sang, he begged Mescalito to give him a song, his song. Immediately, he heard the song, and repeated it until he knew it, and was able to sing with the other men!
In the Lakota Vision Quest, it is called “Crying for a Vision.” You plead at the cellular level – the whole Medicine Wheel is called into this call, your mind, your emotions, your desire, and your body – every cell – calls for this Vision. Not everyone who calls receives the vision, and a purity of purpose and being is considered good preparation for “Crying for a Vision.”
The next day, Don Juan went with Castaneda and all the other men into the desert and they gathered more peyote. This whole time, they had nothing but water to drink (fasting).
That afternoon was the last cycle. This time, the fresh peyote was used, and it felt alive to Castaneda. He chewed 14 buttons, and the rumble like thunder or an earthquake announced the arrival of Mescalito the Being. He noted that the other men observed this event, too, and this moment of acceptance brought him into a state of trust. They weren’t playing tricks on him.
Castaneda realised, in a flash of wisdom, that the cactus and the entity were independent of humanity, and that Mescalito – as cactus, as Being – existed whether he ate the buttons or not. (Hang up the phone, says Alan Watts)
He sang his song, and cried with his whole being to speak to Mescalito. He asked Mescalito to show him “what was wrong with him, what was missing.”
Castaneda was transported to a field, where his father awaited. His father, long dead, was silent, but Castaneda poured out his soul, his emotions, his fears, his guilt and regrets to his father. It was here that gained a name to call Mescalito, so that he could call him anytime.
When this was finished, he was outside in the peyote field, and he felt Mescalito tell him to eat one more button. Directly from the earth, and Castaneda knelt down and ate the button right off the cactus!
The vision came to him – at first with vivid colours and detail, but as reality dropped away from him it became frightening. He heard the breathing of a monstrous creature, he lost his ego and identity and in fear, was floating in an indifferent world.
He was afraid, and ran to hide under a boulder from this coming monster. He felt that the plants were trying to dissolve him in dripping acid. He collapsed under this boulder in fear.
As his senses returned, he returned to the men, and closed the ceremony. They accepted him as one of them, and they talked and hugged as brothers (though they spoke no word about the peyote experience). He was instructed to never speak of his peyote experience, but –
He tried to with Don Juan. Don Juan said, “You don’t need me anymore, you have Mescalito. You have a song, you have His name, you can call him anytime.”
But Castaneda persisted, against the taboo of speaking of these things. The experience that Castaneda had in the desert was so frightening that he wanted help.
Don Juan told him – you called Mescalito, you asked questions of him (“what is wrong with me? what is missing?”) and he answered you. The answer did not come in a form that you expected – it came as a vision, an experience. Mescalito is not a college professor to lecture you when He teaches – he uses vision and immersive experience to teach.
Castaneda is disappointed and confused. The more Don Juan speaks, the more mystifying the entire experience is. The prospect of learning via these extreme states of experience is overwhelming to him.
Don Juan finally capitulates and tells him that Mescalito took him out of the world of man, and that Castaneda must choose between the world of man, and the world of Mescalito – except that there is a paradox: Castaneda is a man, will always be a man, and it is vital to experience being human in contentedness.
That, said Don Juan, was the lesson of Mescalito’s terrifying experience.
As, in my own practice, I am feeling so much of my personality, my identity being stripped away, I can relate to this ego-blasting experience in the desert. When I look at simple questions like: who do I love? How do I love? What is Love? How can I best live this life I’ve been given? – I am met with something destructive. Perhaps I have never loved – I have only ever used people. Perhaps I have never been loved, and don’t understand what that means. Perhaps “I” am not living this life, but this Life is living me. This dissolution of ego is shattering, destructive, difficult.
But I have faith that it will blossom into a new form, and that which is my Life, will learn and grow into something which is more of a blessing than my former self.
There is much to be learned from extreme states – whether they are induced by trauma, life experience, or in ceremony with Plant Medicine.
You mentioned the power of literature in an earlier post.
To me – literature – IS Art. When I speak of Art, I’m speaking of writing, visual, musical, all arts.
I just read this Christmas Story – how Dickens predated Freud in his wisdom of healing from trauma via dreams. You might say that A Christmas Carol is an ultimate shamanic healing – the healing occurs in dreaming, in deep access to the Inner State, and the man is transformed.
You’re ahead of me in this book – so – Joseph is a new character to me – and interesting! Thank you for posting Chapter 4. I hope you didn’t have to re-write it!
The exercise of exploring emotions like an infant is an excellent practice. Accept, let go. Accept – FEEL – Let go.
However for someone with a history of trauma there may be some intermediate steps. For example, practised lying down is too vulnerable, too like the child who was traumatised. For these people, practise should be at least sitting, if not standing, to emphasise the adult power with strong emotions. It is more difficult to feel while sitting and standing, but the emotions are less likely to be overpowering. For someone with no trauma, practising this exercise lying down – or in a foetal position, would bring the emotions up more strongly.
I am at the end of a small fast. For the Roman New Year, I have decided that intermittent fasting is an important way to cleanse my body, oxygenate my cells, revitalise my mitochondria, and hopefully find a deeper connection with my Heart and Spirit.
Fasting is a common practice in most religious traditions. Jesus fasted in the desert for 30 days. Ramadan. Lent. Yom Kippur. Refraining from sex is a common part of the fast, and most major religions advocate for celibacy as a spiritual path.
I’ve dedicated my life to self-improvement without grasping the one problem that sent me seeking in the first place. While trying to make everything in the world work out for me, I kept getting sucked back into my own mind, always preoccupied with me, me, me. That giant was me- the ego, the little self- who I’ve always believed myself to be. And I cut through it!
Dan conquered the Giant with a sword.
I’m having an ego-shedding experience right now. It’s scary! When I look at – everything – I wonder about Love and connection and the importance of things, and I can feel myself shifting and actually disappearing into a sort of nothingness. This is the scary side, where the nothingness looks like nothing. It’s nothing so dramatic as a vision of killing the ego with a sword, and that actually makes it scarier – it’s like feeling a void opening up beneath me (it’s not depression, it’s different from that) and a dissolution of “identity,” “personality,” and the person called “Jan.” I’ve been through things like this before, and I know, as Soc said,
Death is a transformation, nothing to be feared.
Transformation, a shedding of skin (I’ve been colouring a snake for months), to be born anew. What will come out of the darkness will be better than before, closer, more human, more real, more present than my current experience.
Thank you for sharing this – it is timely for me, and I hope that sharing my stories gives you some practical applications to latch onto.
Great book, eh?
Did we lose Chapter 4? Where Dan has his accident?
There are no ordinary moments.
The pain, the distress – the joy, the simplicity – nothing is ordinary.
This leads to an interesting view of Carlos Castaneda’s “Ordinary” and “Non Ordinary” realities – according to Socrates, it’s all non-ordinary!
Regarding satori:
I’ve experienced this myself while playing keyboard and guitar! I never thought of it as unwrapping something much bigger – it’s the gift of that intense, present moment awareness.
Yes! Some call it “peak experience,” or “the zone,” where the music flows through you effortlessly, or the dance – or the art.
Again, this is why I say so much that Art is Truth.
“Meditating an actin is different from doing it. To do, there is a doer, a self-conscious ‘someone’ performing. But when you meditate an action, you’ve already released attachment to outcomes. There’s no ‘you’ left to do it. In forgetting yourself, you become what you do, so your action is free, spontaneous, without ambition, inhibition, or fear.”
This is why I like active meditations. Tai Chi, for me, there comes a flow when the breath and the body are one, and the gentleness of it, lacks striving. Unfortunately, it only comes with mastery – so – as I get older and creakier and more forgetful, it is harder to surrender to that mastery.
It is when you have done a thing for so long that it resides at the level of instinct, and you can completely surrender to the process. Walking meditation would be the best place for a beginner to experience this, because you can “learn to walk” in a very short time, even though you’ve been doing it all your life.
I have a wish that Dan Millman gets to join Cirque du Soleil, and turn his Art into uplifting happiness for millions – but – I have a feeling that’s not how the book is going to end!
Thanks again!
I’m trying to go easy on you, really I am, but here is
Todd Rundgren and Utopia, performing an uplifting little ditty (only 18 minutes long!) called
“Singring and the Glass Guitar”
What is marvellous about this (besides the virtuosity of the players)
Is the story.
Harmony – the world was in Harmony
But Harmony was broken
And the Heroes had to go on a Quest –
Through the Medicine Wheel
Air, Water, Fire, Earth
(that’s East, South, West, North – the way the wheel is often opened in the Northern Hemisphere)
And as they conquer each of the elements – they gain a key.
All of the keys together unlock Harmony (Spirit)
and Balance is restored.
It reminds me of the balance of the Medicine Wheel, and how all parts are important to make up the whole, and they must be in balance with each other.
I’d rather attract and charm and love the elements than conquer them like the song – but – it was an early piece of my education in the Medicine Wheel (this song is from 1977!)
Wollumbin – Called “Mt. Warning” by white folk, in New South Wales)
Wollumbin, known to Australians as “Mt. Warning” was as sacred to the tribes in the region, which included Bundjalung tribe who named the mountain Wollumbin. Apparently it was as important in Dreamtime Creation myths of the area, as Uluru was to the tribes of the Red Centre.
It is called “Cloud Catcher.”
Chapter 7 – The Little Smoke
Over a period of time, Don Juan would hand his smoking pipe to Castaneda, so that they would get acquainted, so that they would be friends, and become familiar with one another. This emphasises to me that even inanimate objects must be treated with respect, especially objects which are used in sacrament (like my Drum!).
After some time getting used to the pipe, Don Juan decides that Castaneda is acquainted enough with the pipe to experience “The Little Smoke.”
The plant or substance of the little smoke is not disclosed. It is described as a mixture, with yellow flowers. It is compared to the datura, but the little smoke was not as particular or moody as the datura “devil’s weed.” All that was required was accuracy and exactness.
He mixed up a tobacco pouch of this blend and told Castaneda that this was a year’s supply of the “little smoke,” and that he needed to smoke it all within the year. He said that Castaneda would know how much to smoke each time, and how often he smoked was a personal matter.
Castaneda got argumentative with Don Juan, trying to find out more – would the mixture lose it’s power after a year? Would it no longer be hallucinogenic? What would happen if he kept the mixture after a year? How should he dispose of any he had left? Don Juan had no interest in any of these questions, and got annoyed with Castaneda.
He eventually explained that after a year, the old smoke would be disposed of properly, because a new year’s supply of smoke would be mixed. The disposal was very specific, but Don Juan did not reveal the procedure.
Don Juan claimed he no longer needed to smoke the little smoke, because the little smoke was his ally, and he could call upon it at any time. This is like Alan Watts says about “Hang up the phone if you got the message.” Once you tap into a certain stream of awareness, and train your awareness muscles, you can tap into that stream without the substance.
Later in the book, Don Juan says that this style of plant medicine – using plants to achieve altered states – is the lazy way to do it. Don Juan thought it was appropriate for white men, because they didn’t have access to the natural altered states of awareness that the Indians did.
Don Juan told Castaneda that, if the training went well, the little smoke would be his ally, too.
Without warning, one day, Don Juan fondled his pipe like an old friend, preparing for the smoke. When he loaded the pipe, he did so inside of his shirt, so that none of the mixture would fall to the ground. He handed Castaneda the pipe and lit it. Castaneda was terrified!
The smoke was heavy, like a mouthful of dough. It tasted clean and cold. Don Juan kept feeding him the smoke, until the pipe was empty. He cleaned the pipe of ashes, and with saliva, and put it back in it’s pouch.
Castaneda reports that his jaw got heavy, he could not close his mouth. The flesh started to melt from his face. In terror, he tried to grab a hold of something – anything – to prove that he was real. There was a centre pole in the middle of the room, and Castaneda spent the rest of his trip trying to touch the pole, but his arms became too long, or his body became misty, and he could not touch the pole. He tried to sneak up on it, tried different angles, crawling along the floor, but could not get any closer to the pole.
The next thing he knew, they were in the next room and Don Juan was right beside him. Don Juan sang a traditional Spanish lullaby, and it took all of the terror and violence away from Castaneda. He slipped into a joyous, blissful state. The images started to come, he was flying, and the images flew by without any coherence.
It sounds a lot to me like what we experience in journey – sometimes, when the rhythm is off (alpha rhythms will do this), or if your brain is not ready to make the Journey, you are presented with layers of images which correspond with your emotional and mental bodies – stripping off the layers which lie between you and your journey. I agree with Don Juan that plant medicine is a lazy way to do this, since we all have access to these images – often each night before we fall asleep (if only we pay attention).
The “Little Smoke” sounds a lot like DMT, a cousin to Ayahuasca. It took him out of his body quickly, presented him with his fears, and when his fears were removed with a song – sent him shooting into blissful imagery (though – not a Journey)
He awakens 2 days later with a headache, and extreme tiredness. He begs Don Juan to tell him what has happened. Don Juan said that the Little Smoke took Castaneda’s body away. Castaneda fixates on this and tries to understand – what would other people see? What if he looked into a mirror?
He had slipped out of his body – which is why he could not touch the pole. The pole was corporeal, but Castaneda, under the influence of the Little Smoke, was not.
Don Juan admonished him to learn the skill of using this power, this plant, and to use it as often as he could stand, as it was a vital skill. It would offer him the ability to travel, as well as the skill of invisibility.
The Morning Fog
Now that she is returned to life, she is much more appreciative of what life has to offer her.
“You know what? I love you better now”
“I kiss the ground
Tell my mother
Tell my father
Tell my lover
I Tell my brother – how much I love them!”When you go through the Wave, into the darkness – into the Shamanic Death – the return is ecstatic, and the dew on a leaf, the buzz of an insect, the returning of senses, of breath, of life. Even if you forget what happened in the deep – the appreciation of Life is enough to sustain, to motivate, to bring the fire to the surface.
To love.
