Version 2007.11.08

## "Encounters With The Nagual" - ©2004 by Armando Torres
Part II. Warriors' Dialogue

### Intellectual Preparation

In one of the last conversations we had, Carlos characterized the modern seers today as warriors who are distinguished by their frankness. They reject the furtive attitudes that have traditionally distinguished sorcerers; and they have renounced every doctrine that is not crystal clear and based on immediate verification.

"Another peculiarity which identifies them is that, as opposed to their ancestors, they are collectively guided toward freedom. The old seers thought about freedom as a theoretical goal; something that was beyond their concrete possibilities- while the new seers saw freedom exclusively as an individual commitment. For the seers of today, however, to be free is the collective purpose of the group of power; the essence of their actions and their reason for being.

"Modern warriors are inflexibly committed to each other. They have sacrificed their concerns as individuals for the sake of the group. Their bond of power gives them encouragement and provides a continual challenge to prevent them from lowering their guard: And their oath as warriors is based on the purpose of departing together to the third attention. Closer than ever to freedom, these warriors are more independent and more self-sufficient than their predecessors.

"But the most remarkable thing about them is their capacity of revision. At this time, seekers of knowledge are forced to thoroughly examine everything that has been said in the past; adapting traditional knowledge to the modality of the time in order for the warrior's way to be truly and finally understood by people.

"The technique which prevents that revision from drifting towards the capricious [* capricious- changeable; determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason] is seeing. To see the luminous nature of the world permits us to choose, without any possibility of error, the most appropriate symbols to transmit ideas.

"Part of my task as a nagual has been to renew the nomenclature. [* nomenclature- a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline] Words wear out. Don Juan himself used terms which, from my point of view, were already archaic, because they were linked to the Mexico of antiquity, not with today's world. However, due to lack of time, I have not dedicated enough attention to this matter. It is a task that I'm giving to those who want to assume it.

"The stage of knowledge inaugurated by my books breaks the course of nagualism in two. I have come to put emphasis on: intent, the pursuit of sanity, the sobriety and sense of a group of power; and to abolish the servitude of secrecy and openly reveal the magical passes.

"The goal of modern seers is, more than ever, total freedom; but to achieve it, it is important that the strategies are continually refined. A society that no longer openly persecutes sorcerers does not serve us as a training ground. It is our duty, then, to find new fields where we can exercise and train our potentialities.

"According to Don Juan, the best of those fields is the intellect; and it also functions as a guarantee that strategies of popularization and adaptation will work correctly. Ignorance can no longer be accepted: The time of the wild sorcerers is already past. The sorcerers of the old guard were stagnated in their traditions, and they lost their ticket to eternity: We don't want the same thing to happen to us now.

Therefore, the Rule for the seers of the new era is preparation: That is their distinctive stamp. They should not only prepare in terms of the arts of sorcery, but also cultivate their minds in order to know and understand everything. The intellect is the comfort of today's Toltec; just as in the past, the comfort was the affection for rituals.

"Don Juan said that each warrior of this new cycle should have at least a university degree to take advantage of the defenses against disinformation which modern science has created. That will heighten the chances of survival for the entire party; and in the future this will be even more valuable."