#Journey to Ixtlan

[sictransitgloriamvndi]

“In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.” - Carlos Castaneda

[noosphe-re]

For you the world is weird because if you're not bored with it you're at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.

Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan

[nihilosphere]

"Death is our eternal companion. It is always to our left, at an arm's length... It has always been watching you. It always will until the day it taps you."

"How can anyone feel so important when we know that Death is stalking us?"

"The thing to do when you're impatient is to turn to your left and ask advice from your Death. An immense amount of pettiness is dropped if your Death makes a gesture to you, or if you catch a glimpse of it, or if you just have the feeling that your companion is there watching you."

"Death is the only wise adviser that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your Death and ask if that is so. Your Death will tell you that you're wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your Death will tell you, 'I haven't touched you yet.'"

- Journey To Ixtlan

Carlos Castaneda

1972

[mastercontrol]

Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda (1972).

[nousrose]

Death is the only wise advisor that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you're wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your death will tell you, I haven't touched you yet.

Journey to Ixtlan

Carlos Castaneda

[talonabraxas]

“In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.”

― Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan

Gate to Ixtlan Talon Abraxas

[talib888]

Problems and Some Solutions for the Beginning Sorcerer

I've been busy with banishing rituals, the Neither-Neither, and sigil magick for some weeks now. Picking up from my previous post on a chapter of Stephen Mace's Stealing the Fire from Heaven:

To Know Self

Mace recommends three books.

Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda

Tales of Power by Carlos Castaneda

The Dream Game by Ann Faraday

To Control Mind

Mace recommends yoga although we aren't to pursue it as actual yogis, but as sorcerers. He also discusses yoga through the filter of Crowley's Book 4 and what I assume is Patanjali's formulation of the 8 limbs of yoga. Mace prescribes a practice of an hour a day for two years.

To Develop Will

To this end Mace again taps into Crowley's ideas, namely Magick in Theory and Practice. The practice itself can be briefly described as such: taking an oath to not do an arbitrary action that has no moral or emotional significance. The idea is to strengthen our will with "innocuous" denials and not corrupt it with desire. Later once our wills are stronger we can attempt to work this on our actual "dark nasties" and bind them.

To Enforce Prudence

Mace dedicated an entire to chapter to this, and once again takes his cue from Crowley. Several points from Liber AL val Legis or the Book of the Law are quoted in relevance to the stated aim.

My Own Intuition

Prior reading that I've done on writers like Castaneda and Crowley have probably poisoned the well a little, so to speak. But I'm open to trying new things and giving them half a chance. Having said that, I can't ignore my intuition when it's pulling me in certain other directions. I have a list of substitutions for the recommended practices. I'll discuss them in a later post.

[crosstheveil]

Excerpt: Luminous Being

"As long as you think that you are a solid body you cannot conceive what I am talking about."

He then spilled some ashes on the ground by the lantern, covering an area about two feet square, and drew a diagram with his fingers, a diagram that had eight points interconnected with lines. It was a geometrical figure.

He had drawn a similar one years before when he tried to explain to me that it was not an illusion that I had observed the same leaf falling four times from the same tree.

The diagram in the ashes had two epicenters; one he called "reason," the other, "will." "Reason" was interconnected directly with a point he called "talking." Through "talking," "reason" was indirectly connected to three other points, "feeling," "dreaming" and "seeing." The other epicenter, "will," was directly connected to "feeling," "dreaming" and "seeing"; but only indirectly to "reason" and "talking."

I remarked that the diagram was different from the one I had recorded years before.

"The outer form is of no importance," he said. "These points represent a human being and can be drawn in any way you want."

"Do they represent the body of a human being?" I asked.

"Don't call it the body," he said. "These are eight points on the fibers of a luminous being. A sorcerer says, as you can see in the diagram, that a human being is, first of all, will, because will is directly connected to three points, feeling, dreaming and seeing; then next, a human being is reason. This is properly a center that is smaller than will; it is connected only with talking."

"Does everybody have those eight points or only sorcerers?"

"We may say that every one of us brings to the world eight points. Two of them, reason and talking, are known by everyone. Feeling is always vague but somehow familiar. But only in the world of sorcerers does one get fully acquainted with dreaming, seeing and will. And finally, at the outer edge of that world one encounters the other two. The eight points make the totality of oneself."

He showed me in the diagram that in essence all the points could be made to connect with one another indirectly.

I asked him again about the two mysterious remaining points. He showed me that they were connected only to "will" and that they were removed from "feeling," "dreaming" and "seeing," and much more distant from "talking" and "reason." He pointed with his finger to show that they were isolated from the rest and from each other.

"Those two points will never yield to talking or to reason" he said. "Only will can handle them. Reason is so removed from them that it is utterly useless to try figuring them out. This is one of the hardest things to realize; after all, the forte of reason is to reason out everything."

I asked him if the eight points corresponded to areas or to certain organs in a human being.

"They do," he replied dryly and erased the diagram. He touched my head and said that that was the center of "reason" and "talking". The tip of my sternum was the center of feeling. The area below the navel was will. Dreaming was on the right side against the ribs. Seeing on the left. He said that sometimes in some warriors seeing and dreaming were on the right side.

"What are the other two points, don Juan?" He looked at me and smiled.

— Carlos Castaneda, from Journey to Ixtlan

[risikogruppe]

Journey to Ixtlan

"Ixtlan" turns out to be a metaphorical hometown (or 'place', 'position of being') to which the "sorcerer" or warrior or man/woman/x of knowledge is drawn to return, trying to get home. The point of the story is that a man/woman/x of knowledge, or sorcerer, is a changed being, or a Human closer to his true state of Being, and for that reason he can never truly go "home" to his old lifestyle again.

[radical-revolution]

For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I want to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.

~ Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan

[fugengulsen]

"In a world where death is the hunter; my friend there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions." - 'Journey to Ixtlan'.

-Carlos Castaneda

Jana Brike

[blogparanormalexpresso2stuff]

Carlos Castaneda - You Think You Have Time (Don Juan excerpt from 'Journey to Ixtlan')

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I want to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.

~ Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan

[alexesguerra]

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (30TH ed.) The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge Mass Market Paperback – March 3, 1985 by Carlos Castaneda (Author) -- Brand New Copies-- A Yaqui way of knowledge. The teachings of don Juan is the story of a remarkable journey: the first awesome steps on the road to becoming a "man of knowledge" -- the road that continues with A Separate Reality and Journey to Ixtlan. "For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking, breathlessly." -- Don Juan Review Praise for the groundbreaking work of bestselling author Carlos Castaneda "Extraordinary in every sense of the word." (The New York Times) "An unparalleled breakthrough... Remarkable (Los Angeles Times) "Hypnotic reading." (Chigago tribune) "It is impossible to view the world in quite the same way." (Chicago Tribune) "Excquisite... Stunning... Fresh, unexpected visions with the logic of dreams." (Detroit Free Press) "Taken together [Castaneda's books] form a work among the best that the science of anthropology has produced." (The New York Times Book Review) About the Author Born in 1925 in Peru, anthropologist Carlos Castaneda wrote a total of 15 books, which sold 8 million copies worldwide and were published in 17 different languages. In his writing, Castaneda describes the teaching of Don Juan, a Yaqui sorcerer and shaman. His works helped define the 1960's and usher in the New Age movement. Even after his mysterious death in California in1998, his books continue to inspire and influence his many devoted fans. Product details Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Washington Square Press; Reissue edition (March 3, 1985) Language: English ISBN-10: 0671600419 ISBN-13: 978-0671600419 Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.7 x 6.8 inches Shipping Weight: 4 ounces

[gentlepermanence]

#6 Visuals

Visuals 

For visuals, it is always an area I enjoy exploring. From early years Aphex twin’s audiovisual, 

I listened to the music with friends with these visuals at home, and it gave me many beautiful memories. Visuals always have a special interaction with sounds for me, even tho when I study experimental music. Not every piece has visuals. And some of them dislike the idea of having a visual. It’s like a double edged sword. Artists should use visual elements carefully. Not using visuals to overpower their music, but creating interaction between music and visuals. 

I sent a few visuals back to her. I gave her a few key words to look at here, “ Shaman” “Ceremony” “Ritual” 

This relates to the books I have read in the past, “Wheel of Time” from Carlos Castaneda

"Originally drawn to Yaqui Indian spiritual leader Don Juan Matus for his knowledge of mind-altering plants, bestselling author Carlos Castaneda soon immersed himself in the sorcerer’s magical world entirely. Ten years after his first encounter with the shaman, Castaneda examines his field notes and comes to understand what Don Juan knew all along—that these plants are merely a means to understanding the alternative realities that one cannot fully embrace on one’s own. In Journey to Ixtlan, Carlos Castaneda introduces readers to this new approach for the first time and explores, as he comes to experience it himself, his own final voyage into the teachings of Don Juan, sharing with us what it is like to truly “stop the world” and perceive reality on his own terms."

My interest in Shaman culture and using my music to channel the energy from the universe, similar examples could be the Future sound of London. 

For the technical part, VJ for the Live Music Performance "Silent Preacher" at Hosek Contemporary is created using Unreal Engine, Midjourney, After Effects, and Resolume. It is collaborated with one of my friends who’s based in New York. 

The unreal engine does give this visual "realistic" and "seriousness" feelinsg, 

Then I wrote this message to my visual artist friend. 

"Yet, amid this tranquility, an unexpected agitation seized her. It was a seemingly trivial matter, but it became a perplexing dilemma to her, stirring a tempest within her soul.

In those final moments, as the veil between life and eternity grew thin, she wrestled with this seemingly insignificant choice, haunted by uncertainty about the future. Thus, amidst the quietude of her passing, she surrendered to the enigma of her fate, leaving behind an unanswered question and the silent echo of an unmade choice."

After the visuals came out it also gave me more clues about what I should present, after I saw the rough cut, there were a few scenes from the visuals that inspired me what my setting would be like. 

A ritual, a ceremony, A ceremony of sounds. 

[talonabraxas]

“In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.” ― Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan

Don Genaro (Genaro Flores)