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It is true. The equivalent of shielding, at least in Theravada, is practice of the four immeasurables. My experience in practical terms is that this is to be interpreted as building "long term" shielding. Folks who do dream/sleep practices tend to do more than that, right before sleep.Eg in Dream Yoga, it could be a small mantra before sleep and/or visualisation of Dakinis standing at the house's windows, doors, corridors etc. I don't really enjoy that practice, one of the reasons being that Dakinis are something that's too far culturally speaking, at least for me, so I want another practice. The less Vajrayana I do, the better ( for me, not for everyone ). Chanting indeed is also an energetic practice in Zen, there's no conflict there, plenty of folks who chant in Zen ( which anyhow happens regularly before Zazen ) also do Qigong. There's also not much on transforming sexual energy, TNH recommended Qigong for this ( or yoga ) in his book on the 5 mindfulness trainings. Essentially nothing is needed strictly speaking, eg sexual energy can also be transformed with Reichian psychology techniques and I'm sure there are other techniques for shielding too, for more energy into the day there are plenty of methods as well. But as a "one stop shop" for filling the above gaps, Qigong seems to fit the bill nicely, so I'm going to pursue it.

In Chapter 2 of the Zhuangzi, there are two sections where he writes about dreams. One is the famous section about the man and butterfly at the very end of the chapter. In the other section, close to the end, Zhuangzi states, "Eventually there comes the day of reckoning and awakening, and then we shall know that it was all a great dream. Only fools think they are now awake...." Did he believe that the world we are now in is actually just a dream? I keep coming across intellectuals who believe that the world we see is just an illusion of some type. Plato is one ancient example. It sounds like Zhuangzi might be another.

I'm only responsible for what I wrote though, not for how you interpret it. In any case, there lots of reasons someone can see a therapist for, it's not only for disorder treatment or seeking a behavioural adjustment as you suggest. Eg understanding why things happen is one of the common reasons, which was the question in the OP. Anything that occurs systematically either like in this post through daydreaming ( not because of it ), or a recurring dream is worth exploring. It's ok, it's clear you were reacting to something different to what I wrote but it was also worth discussing that psychotherapists are not there only for disorder treatment. They're also infinitely more likely to help the OP find why it's happening, than internet forums.

I don't think kundalini is sufficient to explain the difference between the two categories of siddhis. For instance the Six Yogas of Naropa - the most well known being inner heat or 'candali' - which is obviously kundalini - is really a type 1 siddhi boosted by kundalini. The six yogas are: inner heat (tummo; T. gtum mo གཏུམ་མོ་; Skt. caṇḍālī) – entails the manipulation of the subtle energy of the body, which produces states of bliss and clarity, as well as physical warmth illusory body (gyulü; T sgyu lus སྒྱུ་ལུས; Skt. māyākāyā) – entails realizing the illusory nature of ordinary experience clear light (ösel; T od gsal འོད་གསལ་; Skt. prabhasvara) – entails recognizing the luminous aspect of mind dream (milam; T. rmi lam རྨི་ལམ་; Skt: svapna[-darśana]) – developing conscious awareness in the dream state transference (phowa; T. pho ba འཕོ་བ་; Skt: saṃkrānti) – directing transference of consciousness at the time of death, for either oneself or another intermediate state (bardo; T. bar do བར་དོ་; Skt: antarābhava) – entails maintaining awareness during the intermediate state (bardo) between the death of one lifetime and rebirth into the next lifetime. So I would say these are advanced versions of type 1 siddhis. Yes - they can be seen as signs of development without dwelling on them very much.

shared by a wise sadhaka friend of mine, who is a direct disciple of His Eminence Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche TO CLARIFY THAT ŚŪNYATA IS NOT A COUCH-POTATO-STATE, THE ŚĀKYAMUNI TAUGHT BUDDHA-NATURE (TATHĀGATAGARBHA) "When we talk about emptiness, something beyond fabrication, we immediately think of a state of being that has no function, like a couch potato or piece of stone, but that is absolutely not correct. It is not merely a negation, elimination, or denial. It is not like the exhaustion of a fire or the evaporation of water. It is full of function, and we call this function buddha activity, which is one aspect of buddhanature. This buddhanature has an aspect of uninterrupted wisdom. This is the difficulty, because as soon as we talk about wisdom, we think in terms of cognition and the senses and their sense objects. We are curious about how a buddha perceives things. But although buddhanature is seemingly a cognizer, it has no object, and therefore it cannot be a subject. Furthermore, it’s not inanimate, nor is it animate, in the sense of mind. This is why the Uttaratantra Shastra is really complementary to the Mahasandhi (Dzogchen) teachings, which always say that mind and wisdom are separate—the dualistic mind of subject and object is separate from the nondual wisdom, which is not other than buddhanature. You could say that when Nagarjuna explains the Prajnaparamita, he concentrates more on its empty aspect, whereas when Maitreya explains the same thing he concentrates more on the “-ness” aspect. This “-ness” is buddhanature. You might wonder why the Buddha taught in the sutras that all phenomena are like clouds—unstable, naturally illusory, and empty. Why is it that even though we can experience them, they are without essence, like a dream or mirage? When Buddha says there is buddhanature, he isn’t saying that buddhanature truly exists. Rather, he is emphasizing the clarity aspect. Why is all this taught as emptiness in the Madhyamaka teachings and the Prajnaparamita Sutras? And as Mipham Rinpoche’s commentary on the Uttaratantra Shastra asks, why in this third turning of the wheel of dharma does the Buddha say that this buddhanature exists within all sentient beings? Isn’t that a contradiction? Furthermore, since buddhanature is very difficult to understand, even for sublime beings who are on the path, why is it taught here for ordinary beings? Let’s go to Maitreya’s text (Uttara Tantra Shastra) : He had taught in various places that every knowable thing is ever void, like a cloud, a dream, or an illusion. Then why did the Buddha declare the essence of buddhahood to be there in every sentient being? (Stanza 156) First of all, there is no contradiction between the second turning of the wheel of the dharma, where the Buddha taught that everything is emptiness, and the third turning of the wheel, where the Buddha taught that all sentient beings have buddhanature. In the Prajnaparamita Sutras of the second turning, the Buddha emphasizes that nothing is truly existent. So here, when Buddha says there is buddhanature, he isn’t saying that buddhanature truly exists. Rather, he is emphasizing its clarity aspect. When we talk about the union of clarity and emptiness, it’s important that we understand both aspects, not only the emptiness aspect. Beyond this, the Buddha’s teachings on buddhanature address, and counteract, five particular mistakes: There are five mistakes: faint-heartedness, contempt for those of lesser ability, to believe in the false, to speak about the true nature badly, and to cherish oneself above all else. So that those in whom these above were there might rid themselves of them, therefore was it declared. (Stanza 157) Generally, throughout the buddhadharma, and especially in the Mahayana, the most important thing is to generate enlightened mind. If you read the Bhadrakalpa Sutra (the Sutra of the Fortunate Aeon), you will hear how in the beginning one thousand buddhas generated enlightened mind. Generating enlightened mind is a promise or pledge to enlighten oneself and all sentient beings, and for practitioners on the path it is the most important thing. For example, when you pray, why does prayer work? It works because of this determination, this pledge to help sentient beings. It’s all based on that. Hence, there are five reasons to teach buddhanature, each one addressing one of the five mistakes, and these reasons are all about helping us make good on this pledge. First, if buddhanature were not emphasized, then a bodhisattva on the path might become discouraged, because the path is long, rough, and endless. One might also despise oneself, thinking, how can someone impure and useless like me achieve enlightenment? Bodhichitta, the wish to enlighten all sentient beings, will not arise within people who have that kind of discouragement and who despise themselves. When we know that buddhanature is there within us, like a gold coin buried in the dirt, it gives us a lot of encouragement. We know enlightenment is possible because buddhanature is there within us. This brings joy to the path. If we didn’t know there was a gold statue inside the mold, there would be no joy in breaking the mold. But when we know, the desire to find the statue inside is so strong that we don’t even notice the process of breaking the mold, which is generating enlightened mind. Second, as bodhisattvas we have to benefit all sentient beings. If we don’t know that buddhanature resides within everybody, then we might not respect other sentient beings. Rather, we might think we’re great because we’re bodhisattvas, and then despise other sentient beings. This could become a big obstacle, hindering us in benefiting other beings. Imagine that you think you’re a bodhisattva who has buddhanature and that other sentient beings don’t have buddhanature and therefore require your help. You think you have to somehow insert the buddha inside them. That’s a very big mistake. It’s what we call exaggeration or imputation. The Buddhist view is that everybody has buddhanature. It will not change. No one, no guru, no Buddha can insert it. All anyone can do is become some kind of path to enable people to realize it themselves. The third reason buddhanature is taught is to dispel the obstacles that obstruct us from having prajna. There are two such obstacles. The first one is imputation. Even though there is no buddhanature, we impute or imagine its existence by thinking that all these buddha qualities exist, such as the ushnisha, the protuberance on top of the Buddha’s head, symbolizing his great wisdom and enlightenment. But they don’t. We also need to overcome the second obstacle to wisdom: thinking that the buddha qualities do not exist, or that there are no buddha qualities within us, which is like some kind of criticism. This is the fourth reason buddhanature is taught. Finally, the fifth reason is to dispel the obstacle that prevents us from understanding that we are equal to others. If we don’t know that buddhanature exists equally within all beings, then we might have more attachment to ourselves and more aversion toward others. Those are the five reasons why buddhanature is taught. Emotions are temporary, so action is like a dream, and therefore the aggregates — the result of emotions and action — are like a mirage. Buddhanature is pure and free from all kinds of compounded phenomena, right from the beginning. The ultimate true nature is always devoid of anything compounded, so it is said that defilements, karma, and their full ripening are like a cloud, etc. (Stanza 158) Therefore, buddhanature is free from the three kinds of emotions: desire, aggression, and jealousy. It is free from the emotions of karmic formation, such as virtuous actions and non-virtuous actions. And it is free from the result of emotion, the five aggregates. Therefore, the emotions are like clouds. The defilements are said to be like clouds, karma is likened to the experience in dreams, and the full ripening of karma and defilements—the aggregates—are likened to conjurations. (Stanza 159) The nature of beings is primordially pure; that’s why we call it buddhanature. Although emotions are seemingly apparent and seemingly stubborn, seemingly like a second nature, they are never a second nature. They are like clouds—they are adventitious, and not a true part of you. This point is quite important. In Buddhism we always come to the conclusion that these emotions and defilements are temporary. When we’re looking at a gray cloudy sky, we might call it a cloudy sky, but it’s not really a cloudy sky. The clouds are never the sky. The clouds are temporary or adventitious. The next part is critical for our understanding of karma. Since emotions are temporary, so-called karma or action is like a dream. This is important because many people think that karma is almost like a substitute for God. They think it’s like someone who punishes you, rewards you, and decides your fate. But it’s never like that in Buddhism. Karma is actually like a dream. In a dream, you might experience all kinds of ecstasy, but no matter how much you pant and sweat, it’s just a dream. When we say, “It’s just a dream,” there’s sometimes a connotation that we despise it because it’s not real. But it doesn’t work like that either. If you become enamored with a dream elephant, then in the dream you go through the ecstasy of meeting the elephant, the sadness of missing the elephant, and eventually the agony of no longer having the elephant. That’s how karma works. This stanza is a big summary of Buddhism. Emotions are temporary, so action is like a dream, and therefore the aggregates—the result of emotions and action—are like a mirage. They are like a mirage; the closer you approach them, the more futile or essenceless they become. We try so hard to get close to the elephant, but even if there’s an engagement, the exchange of rings, a marriage ceremony, or whatever, the elephant remains a mirage. To emphasize this, the Buddha taught emptiness in the earlier turnings of the wheel of dharma. For example, in the Prajnaparamita Sutra, he said that form is emptiness, emptiness is form, and everything is like a mirage or a dream, and so forth. Then after that, in order to dispel the five kinds of obstacles or downfalls, the Buddha taught buddhanature in the third turning of the wheel of the dharma. There’s no reason to feel inferior; you have everything that that sublime being has. Now we come to the benefit of hearing about buddhanature. When we hear about buddhanature, we experience joy or enthusiasm toward the path because we know that enlightenment is possible. Even a dog, because it has buddhanature, is worthy of homage. No matter how many emotions you have erupting inside you, you’ll know that they are removable. That is wisdom. At the same time, you will know that all the qualities of the Buddha are within you—that is primordial wisdom." ~His Eminence Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, "The Clarity Aspect" Credits:https://www.lionsroar.com/the-clarity-aspect/

I've had the occasional lucid dream since childhood. I then began practicing in an organized and devloted way after getting exposed to dream and sleep teachings from Yungdrung Bön. I follow the Bön teachings on dream and sleep from the Mother Tantra. I practiced dream yoga in a dedicated way for about 3 years and then sleep yoga for another 2 years after that. I haven't been practicing either recently but will go back to them periodically. It varies quite a bit depending on the circumstances I find myself in. I enjoy flying very much. I seek teachings from masters. I meditate. I experiment with traveling. I play around with mirrors. I do the exercises we are taught to develop stability and control of the dream environment. I try to resolve violent and frightening dreams into peaceful ones. I try to dissolve the dreams to access the clear light of sleep. Endless possibilities. Abstain from drugs and alcohol, marijuana in particular. Create a sacred, electronics-free sleeping environment. Wind down slowly at the day's end, eating a light dinner, and disconnecting from all electronics for at least a few hours, do some supportive and mentally cleansing practices before bed, approach sleep as a sacred and precious activity. Make your daytime practice every bit as important as the sleep-time practice itself. Approach the lucid dream as sacred - it is fine to treat lucid dreams as entertainment if that is your only objective but I feel the dream world opens more fully to a more reverential approach, much as one would do for example with something like ayahuasca. Consistency, persistence, and patience are key for me. It took me a long time to begin having regular and somewhat predictable lucid dreams, nearly 2 years of regular practice. If you can afford to do it in the setting of a prolonged retreat under the guidance of a master it will come much faster. It's challenging to develop the skills and supportive environment on your own, living in the busy, over-stimulated Western world. It is highly dependent on your emotional, physical, and psychological condition. It is very beneficial to spend time clearing obstacles from your life before engaging with dream and sleep practices.

As it's something that's impossible to prove and at the same time impossible disprove, it's like the universe is trolling us... I ignore them because what is one to make out of them, fry their brain if it was a synchrinicity? Impossible to answer. And let's say, for the sake of the argument, there even was a way to tell in retrospect. Then what? What is one supposed to do with their next dream, assume it has predictive value and act on it? They're bound to be disappointed after 1-2-3 dreams. Hence I ignore the cosmic trolling

I don't know what the events are, but to causally link them one would need other planes/dimensions a la Plato's cave ( or Jung's Unus Mundus ). Now as to what the events are there, no clue. Another interesting nugget, this one not from my own, but from someone else's experiences ( without going into details publicly as it's someone else's stuff ), is that for the vision/dream component may [*] be linked to a different point in spacetime, which I found interesting. Without going into details I fully trust that experience as a genuine one. [*] may, as in it could also be memories of the sort epigenetics describes and the physical part that followed can be a coincidence, impossible to tell if a candidate synchrinicity is after all just an odd coincidence.

I think there is a secondary problem as well. If the ancient sages are right, the experienced relative is not material, but mental. Whether you accept this lightly, as in whatever we experience is impacted by our mental structures; or more strongly, in recognizing that everything is fundamentally a cooperative dream; the end result is the same. In modern terms, the lighter version is captured by predictive processing or the interface theory of perception and the heavier by the simulation hypothesis. If relative reality is partially or entirely related to the turnings or waves of the mind, then solidified beliefs can edit, diminish, or erase what is perceived or known. Similarly, the all creating mind can produce or focus on experiences and states consistent with what one is seeking or expecting to find--- one reason why diverse and contradictory belief systems have long survived in the world. So people who dispute or close their mind to the absolute may never know it. Or they may create an object or experience of it, and take the thief for one's own child, as the Chan masters used to say.

Physical - I am the body, when the body dies I die. Mental - I am not just my body, but I am my thoughts. I am the thinker and the sum of my beliefs make me who I am. When the body dies my mind lives on. Causal - I am undifferentiated awareness. I see thoughts arising within the space of awareness. Awareness will be there when thoughts cease. I effortlessly exist. I AM. Unknown - I am the unknowable. The totality of experience is a changing illusion, including the 5 senses. Like the projection in a dream, the dreamer is dreaming the projection. The dreamscape itself is devoid of the dreamer. Like playing a video game, the character in the video game is not the same as the player playing the video game character, who is completely outside the video game world.

There are a lot of folks who swear by "pure awareness" as the essential element of sentient being. Something like that. I think of Nisargadatta: My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense 'I am' and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense 'I am'. It may look too simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked! ("I Am That", Chapter 75, p. 375) 'You are not your body, but you are the consciousness in the body, because of which you have the awareness of 'I am'. It is without words, just pure beingness. Meditation means you have to hold consciousness by itself. The consciousness should give attention to itself. (Gaitonde, Mohan (2017). Self - Love: The Original Dream (Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj's Direct Pointers to Reality). Mumbai: Zen Publications. ISBN 978-9385902833) Or Dogen: Therefore, …take the backward step of turning the light and shining it back. (Eihei Dogen, “Fukan zazengi” Tenpuku version, trans. Carl Bielefeldt, “Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation”, pg 176) I used to write about the location of awareness, but a friend of mine felt that awareness is all encompassing, throughout the universe. Because of him, I switched to writing about the placement of attention, but there's a trick (isn't there always!)--the placement of attention out of necessity in the movement of breath, with the activity of the body following entirely from the location of awareness, such as occurs in the moment before falling asleep. As a matter of daily life, just to touch on such experience, as occasion demands--that's enough.

The explanation I was given years ago - and dimly remembered was this. Justice and Mercy. There are two conditions one in which energy is limited and in short supply. In this case everything is geared to assessing what is absolutely necessary to complete the task. An assessment - an analysis of the situation which judges harshly exactly what is required and what is to be rejected. How much energy and was resources, tools and such are needed to do the job. This is Justice. It Just Is. So to speak. The other condition is where energy is abundant - it overflows - is radiant - in this condition we imagine, dream, create and most importantly allow. We are compassionate and lenient. Mercy - which is not strained but dropeth like a gentle rain ... and so on. This is sun-like. The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: 'T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown: His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much To mitigate the justice of thy plea; Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

Like him, dislike him, or be neutral.. The teaching of Samael Aun Wor has been appreciated by many and criticized by an equal sum it appears. In my view, if something/someone one is drawn to generates authentic Gnosis than why bother with the face/mask/book-cover? With that said, here is a snippet from a transcribed lecture from SAW on "Mental Representations". __ It is necessary to profoundly comprehend all the processes of the mind, all the reactions, and the psychological surplus which it accumulates, etc. Only in such a way does the ardent flame of intelligence sprout within us... Well my dear friends, we have been studying the distinct aspects of the mind, and afterwards we will continue, going deeper into the practical field of love, of interesting facts in the elimination of the psychological aggregates. This is very difficult. Nevertheless, this is not all, there is something else we must watch for. I am referring emphatically to mental representations. For in the world of the senses there are difficult representations such as they are, the objects that surround us, remorse, etc. but representations of the mind also exist. In the mind there are many representations that we must take into account. Let us suppose we have the representation of a friend for whom we have much esteem in our mind. Somebody very important talks to us about that friend, and all kinds of gossiping and slander arise. We hear all this gossiping. Then, in fact, the image we have of our friend, the representation, becomes altered. Now we do not see her as the kind person whom we saw before, full of harmony, etc. Now this image in our understanding is the appearance that others have given it; possibly that of the bandit, that of the robber, that of the false friend, etc. At night, perhaps we dream of that friend. Now we will in no way dream with harmony; we see that she attacks us, we see that we attack her, we dream she uses a weapon against us, etc. The image of our friend is completely altered: a representation has been altered. It can be that those who had talked about our friend judged him incorrectly, consciously or unconsciously slandered him, etc., but the representation of the mind remains altered. This is very serious because this representation, in fact, coverts itself into a demon which comes to hinder our esoteric advancement. It is a demon that gets in our way, a demon which is an obstacle to our profound inner development. This is, then, a serious error: to give an ear to gossip, to slander, to murmuring, to the "they say that," etc. Obviously, in our mind there are thousands of representations that can be altered if we take part in negative conversations, if we give an ear to slander, if we hear that ‘they say that,' etc. Due to all of these and other things, it is not advisable to give an ear to the negative words of people; to do so is a serious error. Moreover, not only do our psychological aggregates constitute a burden that we carry inside, but so do the living representations of our psychological defects. Therefore, we must not forget this matter about the representation of our understanding. Walkers of the path, for giving an ear to negative conversations, for being in huddles where only negative phrases can be heard, you usually deform many representations of understanding; and these, in the world of the mind, consist of real demons which form and create obstacles or a series of impassable obstacles for the awakening of the Consciousness. In this way, we can cite the case of many Gnostic students who, at night, usually have innumerable dreams of a negative type, sometimes they dream they kill another person, etc. It is a most serious matter to carry such enemies inside oneself, in one's own mind. Obviously, the most recommendable thing for our negative representations is to appeal to the annular serpentine power, to invoke Devi Kundalini Shakti so she will destroy these negative representations. Messages from the Being Unquestionably, we must not have such representations, negative or positive, within our minds. The mind should create certain serene attitudes that are at the disposition of the Being, but for that to happen, we need the human personality to become passive. A passive personality is a receptive personality, it receives the messages that come from the higher parts of the Being. Unquestionably, such messages go through the higher centers of the Being before entering the mind. This is the advantage of having a passive personality. The mind, disgracefully, is found to be totally controlled by very heavy elements, very difficult aggregates which are related to the world of ninety-six laws, also known as the region of Tartarus. The personality is active because it is controlled by aggregates of hate, pride, envy, and horrible lust. In real truth, we are nothing but miserable worms in the mud of the earth. If we achieve the elimination of such heavy psychological elements from our psyche, our human personality turns passive and the mind becomes receptive to the messages that descend from the highest parts of the Being through the higher centers of our psyche. Now you comprehend, my dear friends, the necessity to eliminate those elements which are too heavy. With Devi Kundalini Shakti, in other words, the igneous serpent of our magical powers, we can, in fact, eliminate these heavy elements. It is a triumph, because in this way we can receive the direct messages that come from the highest parts of the Being. Because of this, I say you must work on yourself. A receptive mind should be created, a mind that never projects itself, that is always receiving instead of projecting. Obviously, it would be good to accept positive or negative representations in the distinct depths of understanding; such a mind would only bring the messages that come from the highest part of our fellow men. In so much as we continue giving food to the distinct representations of understanding, it will never be a prodigal mind, a progressive mind. In reality, truly, the mind is conditioned by time and by pain. Analyzing in this way we will see that not only must we eliminate the undesirable psychological aggregates, but we also have a very difficult problem I see for inner illumination, and this is that we carry too many representations, apart from all the inhuman psychological aggregates. If we carefully study the life of dreams, we will find so many vague and incoherent things in them, various subjective and imprecise aspects, so many absurd things, such poor events with no reality. The only motive for their incoherence must invite us to reflection. As a Gnostic, one must have clear concepts and lucid ideas, radical illumination without vagueness, without any kind of subjectivity. Disgracefully, the representations and the diverse aggregates we carry inside ourselves condition the Consciousness in such a way that they keep it in the very disagreeable state of sub-consciousness, even in infra-consciousness. I invite you to reflection, I invite you to comprehend these indispensable things. The Silence of the Mind In the Oriental world much is spoken of in synthesis. For example, Zen or Chan Buddhism only tells us that we must obtain the calmness of the mind, the silence of the mind with the purpose of achieving the eruption of the Illuminating Void [Sunyata, the Emptiness]. We are told that there is true happiness in Satori. In the meditation room we must acquire the calmness of the mind inside, outside, and in the middle. We are told that the mind must get to be like a wall, absolutely still. Well, I found out that in the meditation rooms of Japan, it is difficult to get to Satori. As much as it may take, some minutes in the best of cases, or one or many hours after, the mind returns to being as agitated as it always was. One gets out of this state of happiness to face the world, fortunately, in a spiritual drunkenness, and ready to fight the ego. Of course, the "I" soon intervenes to give him a couple punches and get him out of that state of wanting to achieve its elimination. If we want to be something more than what can be achieved in a Zen or Chan meditation room, we must also have the awakening of the mind, a mind receptive to the infinities that come from beyond the sky of Urania, an illuminated mind. Could this be possible if we permit psychological aggregates to continue existing in our psyche? Could this be possible if we give an ear to gossip that alters the representation we carry in our understanding? Could this be possible, I tell myself and I share it with you as I think out loud, if we continue giving priority to positive or negative representations? H. P. Blavatsky has a phrase in The Voice of the Silence that I liked. It says: Before the gold flame can blaze with serene light, the lamp must be well cared for, safe from every wind; worldly thoughts must drop dead at the temple's door... That phrase of H. P. Blavatsky is portentous, marvelous. I tell you, only in this way is it possible for the mind to become truly calm and remain silent inside, outside, and in the middle; not just temporarily as in a meditation room, but in a continuous manner. When one studies the distinct creases of the mind, one also comprehends that the calmness and total silence of understanding are not possible as long as the mind is occupied by psychological aggregates and representations. One could object, saying that there exist laudable, clear, and magnificent representations. This is supposed to be acceptable, but it is not. We, as a whole, must be Being. Why must we have things that are not of the Being in our mind? I do not see why we must carry intruders in it. I have comprehended that only the Being must be in the mind, that is all. But as long as that temple is full of strange elements, things, games, huge cabinets of representations and aggregates, it can be said that there exists a deep sleep in the Consciousness, this is unconsciousness. "A man is known by his dreams," said Plato in one of his books. The day we stop dreaming, the cockroaches we carry in our brain turn into fire. All those absurd incoherencies do not exist, all those morbid, vague, imprecise, tasteless, insubstantial, and odorless states do not have any kind of existence. Joyful is the day in which we stop dreaming, the day in which we no longer dream. When a person dreams no more, he has triumphed. As long as there exist dreams in the mind, as long as he goes to the psychological space to project imprecise, absurd dreams, this indicates to us that we have a mind full of garbage, full of all kinds of rubbish. As I was saying, true illuminates have no dreams. Dreams are for those who are asleep. True illuminates live in the higher worlds, out of the physical body, in a state of intensified wakefulness without ever dreaming. The true illuminate, after the death of his physical body, is awakened in the psychological space. In this way thus, we should reflect on the necessity of getting to the stillness and silence of the mind. Full article here: https://glorian.org/learn/courses-and-lectures/lectures-by-samael-aun-weor/mental-representations

Lucid dream is coming, but you can do the connection at waking state too after many types of progressions. Pressure builds up, the stage is triggered in waking life(triggers sensual thoughts and here is i think we need actual celibacy otherwise we miss or jump off the train), and in dream state you become lucid and find a female being to enter and connect to. (i guess it is just a scenario of my clingings to the sensation i need experience) but still i think celibacy is needed and at minimum a million dollar point, it is for that you would not express the dark remains what runs in parallel with manual labor. Different styles of 'lucid dream' comes, lower organ and in head a point is opened in a semi real state what isn't like the normal lucid dream, you wake up from a dream but not fully woken up. ---- you just need the taste what lucid dream is, then need use that taste to find that state while awake. (imho that is a crucial difference while speaking amongst lucid dreamers). Later the sensation, by the way at first it seem cold and electrical but later it is not, therefore i think it is said "Lucid" the waking up in a dream is secondary importance, i think its just that you are in head area and there is awareness included and through center there you get sensation and will be transported to other world. Celibacy and lucid are from a same track. -- i have questioned and search people descriptions on what lucid dream is. And reached the conclusion that not everyone lucid dream is lucid dream same definition. So to know what lucid dream is there is a sensation, definite characteristics. Not just waking up in a dream and living through a scenario there, i mean fundamentals and things you do before having a dream, what is noticed etc. I have spoken to someone and i couldn't beat that person enough to get understood what is meant scenario details and what are the sensation or characteristics of a lucid dream. So that person talking about how long it lasted, what he did etc. --- in short: Lucid dream is for to stimulate the high-end of a sensual organ to get that sensation. In waking life you get activated beforehand, then need do celibacy in order to get a relevant dream. Lucid dream is not the reference to dream where you are woken up, but it means you are in head region and need release to get down. The entire celibacy politics is that you wouldn't waste the opportunity to get a dream world sensation unlocked to waking life, that sensation goes through different place back up and the connection is done manually without dream then. And once the mastery is gotten you won't get a lucid dream sensation of the same sensation because you did the entire circle manually in one shot so you will skip that circle becase you mastered it. Last time i had a microsecond long lucid dream(get the point? its not for to practice meditation there or live thousand years). The lucidity is a sensation itself, just a start for other types of happenings.

I have had dreams of being out of the body and flying. I do not know if they were real or just childhood fantasies. Was, .. Is there a way to tell the difference between dreams and the real out of the body experiences? Do I need to look at my hands? Or do I have to see something in real life to prove the dream was real? As far as I know, this self is of this body. Cut away an arm and leg and the mind is diminished because the mind no longer controls these limbs. Feed the body alcohol or drugs and the mind travels to areas where control is lost. The body is influenced by the chemicals that were ingested. It all points to body and mind are linked. It seems when I die then all that will be left are the strings of karma created by this mind and self. Never know when it will return. It isn't like flowers in the spring time. An apple seed is planted and begins to grow. When and what sweetness the fruit comes, that is unknown to me. I wish I could say i can rest as awareness and let all else arise and fall away.

My first recollectible memory of this life was an out of body experience induced by an intense dream. It indelibly imbued the gift of vajra knowing that my essential nature is awareness. The body, manifests as a semi-persistent experience, which arises within a field of awareness. The mind... another aspect of semi-persistence, though vastly more changeable and vacillatory moment to moment than the body, also arises and persists only within a field of awarneness. Body is not the I am. Mind is not. I am. Awareness is... all else rises and falls away within this. To rest as awareness is to open the door to true nature in this one's experience.

Have discussed this in the past, but will bring it up again, because I feel that it is important to say. My dreams are lucid, and not from anything special about me, but because of doing sitting meditation for many years. It was never my intent to have lucid dreams, but here we are, and more importantly, I believe that anyone can develop lucid dreams from a daily meditation practice. Nothing special, just don't get in a hurry. It took me at least a couple of years of daily sitting, 2 to 3 hours a day before the majority of my dreams were lucid. With that said, this has been an interesting, and constantly developing story. I never heard of Tibetan dream yoga, until I decided to investigate what the hell was going on with the dream changes. I first looked at the western wealth of lucid dreaming techniques which included things like, "reality checks" during the day, which is a process of asking yourself many times a day if you are dreaming right now, or in the "real world". With my experience in already having lucid dreams, this did not set well, as the western premise was that there was a solid "real" world, and then the "un-real" world of dreams. But if it helps folks , then more power to them. The more problematic thing I saw in the western take on lucid dreams, was the idea that a lucid dream was kind of like one of those computer games kids play, a kind of fantastic game where you could do anything you wanted. This too struck me as being focused on a self centered desire to just experience some kind of pleasure or excitement and seemed kind of on the low end of shallow. Not the say that I don't have fun walking through walls or flying in my dreams at times, but there are much more deeper things to explore, and that is where Tibetan dream yoga comes in. The Tibetans seem to have a take that is closer to my experiences. Instead of asking if "this is the real world or am I dreaming", I tend to see the so called real world as being more of a non lucid dream than the dream world. If you are dreaming and don't realize you are dreaming, then that world is as real, in that moment as this one. You get frightened, angry, happy, excited, etc, just like in this world, then you wake up and say, "this was not real, it was only a dream". In lucid dreaming, you know it is a dream, and one can use intent to see different things, talk to different life forms, lots of things, but one still feels, taste, hears, all the physical experiences are there. In fact in lucid dreams, the colors, the intensity of nature is much greater than most day to day waking world sights. Lastly, for me, this process of dreaming is evolving. I find myself more and more both in a dream, and at the same time experiencing myself laying in bed. both are occurring at the same time, and I find that going into the dream state is much faster now, and fluid. Lucid dreaming also gives me a better understanding of so called, "experiencing the moment" in my day to day life. Instead of seeing this world as solid unmovable matter, I see it as a kind of lucid dream, and If i put my intent in daily life, it does tend to unfold much the way a lucid dream would. Just scratching the edges of this deeper aspect of consciousness, have not idea where it will go, but I encourage anyone who is interested to develop a simple sitting meditation practice. Sit with no intention of getting anything out of it, but just sit to sit, just witness. Like I said, I think everyone can do this and it is well worth the time. happy sitting,

I had a strange dream a few days ago. I was on my own, somewhere indoors, a dimly lit and heavy environment. I started turning around my own axis, like those whirling dervishes, but moving very slowly. After a couple of full turns, my body slowly started to raise from the floor, just a few inches. As I kept whirling slowly and floating, I thought to myself "Whoa, so that's what it feels like to float!" It was an exhilirating experience. After a while, I had more control and was able to move like astronauts do in a zero-gravity environment. Turning upside down etc. Then I thought "This is great, but if I wanted to do this again by will, I probably won't be able to." It was clearly something that happened to me, and not something that I made happen. Shortly after that, the dream ended. It felt pretty real. Any similar experiences?

TESTIMONIAL: ---- Q: Hey mate, I joined yesterday's meditation and I just wanted to check something. I felt some sort of thought in my head say my spine needs to be worked on first. Honestly I have really bad posture and I'm full of aches and pains from sitting meditation. I started doing lots of movements, the kind you do when cracking your neck. That proceeded to some weird chiropractic-style twists and stretches. After about 20 minutes the thought in my head said that's all my energy system could take and come back tomorrow. I feel pretty pain free today, which is unusual for me. Honestly, the whole experience was strange, in a good way. I was wondering, is that normal, or did I just do a load of stretches instinctively, because it felt good. I wonder if there was an element of hypnotic suggestion - because I have been told about automatic movement, it gave my subconscious permission to get weird. I ask because from what I gather, that zifa gong normally only happens after initiation? ---- X: Hello. I'm glad you're having new and interesting experiences since you joined. I started the meditation group for several reasons: 1. To create a strong resonant pool of consciousness that would entrain to my energy and entrain to the vibration of our tradition, raising the vibration of all participants and aligning it to the devine. This would allow them to more easily expand their focus away from the physical and settle into the non-material realms with greater lucidity. 2. To encourage people to be consistent with practice. Meditation can be lonely and often boring and tedious. It is not always exciting. So having a sense of community and we're in it together-ness can help with consistency. 3. To use the established energetic environment to conduct treatments of people on a general basis for health and wellbeing, but also more personally for complex psychoemotional imbalances. So I use the environment as a sort of treatment room as its easier to work on individuals when they are entrained to me energetically. 4. Lastly, to connect practitioners interested in internal cultivation to competent and qualified guides residing within the immaterial realms who have traversed the path themselves and are recognised to instruct in the alchemical path of our tradition. In these instances, I will use my status and authority to invite Hu Fa Shen to temporarily pair with and guide uninitiated students during the sessions. This allows committed practitioners to get a taste of our tradition and to aid them in alchemical practice. This last point encapsulates some of your experiences last night. Whichever of those ideas the participant aligns to vibrationally, by choice, or whatever we have agreed upon before hand, will be what they experience and synchronise with during the sessions. As most traditional Daoist schools, we begin with realigning and fortifying the structures and condition of the body to stabilise and prepare the vessel for subtle work. This is what you're experiencing right now. It is called Xian Tian Shen Gong and is predominantly focused on movement and postural training. Once the body has been improved to a condition conducive to deeper work, the movements will gradually stop and you will be guided to seated meditation, Xian Tian Jing Zuo or guided breath and energy work, Xian Tian Qigong. While I understand that Zifa and spontaneous movement is what is most commonly attributed to similar phenomena, it's important to understand that this situation is not that and that the Hu Fa Shen guiding you in my room is an independent disembodied consciousness, different from you only by its discarnate state, the quality and size of its consciousness and its authority and rank in the immaterial realm. What you hear is the voice of the teacher that has chosen to work with you and the phenomena you feel are because of his interaction with you while you're immersed in the bubble of his consciousness and your energy is being entrained and your body, subtle energy and consciousness are being acted on and guided in the direction of the subtlest realms of the Dao. This is why our art is called Dao Yin Shu. If you look up the phrase, Dao Yin, nowadays, whether online or in literature, you will find pictures or videos or forms of movements akin to Ba Duan Jin or Yi Jin Jing, and the meaning of Yin there has been watered down to mean "stretching and guiding the Qi and limbs", but this is only because practitioners lost the connection to the divine over time due to the long-held cultural traditions of keeping arts within the family and behind closed doors. Often when a master died, his art died with him. If you go back far enough you will find that the Yin in Dao Yin stands for guidance, rather than guiding and Dao refers to divine existence. So together it means Guided by the Divine and Shu means art; hence, The Divine Guidance Art. To add to your last point. If you become formally initiated, it comes with particular things, such as an energetic signature in your aura that acts as a sort of uniform in the immaterial realms, so other spirits recognise your apprenticeship under Tai Shang and Xiao Yao Pai, authority to perform certain skills and your first Fu Fa Shen that is formally assigned to you, who will change only when you reach certain ranks or achievements in personal development etc ---- Q: Thanks! That's all really interesting. I was wondering what happens after death in your tradition? I asked this on the daobums forum and didn't get a reply. Does your spirit reside in a heavenly realm and become a fa shen for mortal practitioners within the tradition? Is that how spirits in the heavenly realms avoid transmigration? I'm assuming there's some type of karmic bond that is forged with the tradition? ---- X: Sorry, I must have missed it or maybe I was not in the mood 🤓 It is important to note that merely becoming initiated is not sufficient to ameliorate the condition of one's consciousness, qualitative speaking - to a degree that would allow vibrational synchronicity with a stratum of the fractal multidimensionality that corresponds to the idea of a "heavenly" experience. There are in fact many who become initiated, practice a couple of times and then never come back to it again. So aside from being assigned a teacher, one must practice Dao Yin Shu diligently in order to qualitatively and quantitative cultivate the consciousness in order to settle and abide in the realms of their preference. Any "spirit" in their discarnate state may act in the capacity of a "guide" to those other souls having an incarnate experience whom they have some affiliation with or have made agreements to assist them in exploring the themes they have chosen to challenge themselves with within the context of a particular experience of physical reality in the incarnate state. It is not necessary for them to have developed to degree equal to that of a Xian Shen, or for them to become affiliated with any heavenly schools - but merely to contain within themselves enough of what is lacking in another that they can execute the function of a guide effectively. Fu Fa Shen have a particular rank and are affiliated in a formal capacity with both the heavenly and earthly branches of our school. They specialise in particular things, such that under certain requirements of a practice phase, one teacher may be temporarily swapped out for another, just like in school on earth where u have your head of year, then you have your math teacher biology teacher, physics teacher etc. So, whether you become a Fu Fa Shen will depend on your degree of advancement. ---- Q: Thanks, it's just I wondered if there was a karmic debt incurred to the lineage that one must effectively pay off at death. I'm just thinking of the long term implications of initiation, and the ramifications of that after death. ---- X: "Transmigration" isn't a curse, it is a free choice and a desire of each developing soul, for it is in the incarnate state that the quality of the consciousness can be improved, especially the emotional quality of the consciousness, which is an essential condition for the experience of and vibrational synchronisation with the heavenly realms. The immateriality of existence beyond the density of the physical vibration is void of material form, thus the action of manifestation does not take any time or space nor does it need to issue by way of the actions of a physical body. Simply in your discarnate state, being only of mind and light, what you feel and instantaneously becomes a loved experience. Thus the existences of heavens and hella as described by traditional abrahamic religions are in fact simply various strata of the immaterial vibrational multidimensionality who are populated by souls of like vibrational quality who then pool together in collective consciousness to experience the realms project by their emotions and thoughts which constitute the creation of the abides they reside in. So there ate many many vibrational layers of existence pooled by populations of synchronistically aligned souls. They are all eager to incarnate and portion a part of their consciousness within the volume of their soul that is assigned to have a physical experience. Thus the experience of Taiji and duality or physical life, happens within the volume of the discarnate consciousness as an idea of reality. Where space time is separated from it's unity and split into the experience of one and the other bringing rise to process and the experience of things happening over time. It is in that incarnation that they can then work to improve the emotional quality and intelligence and wisdom of their soul in order to reside in realms deeper and deeper in the Dao that are subtler and more tender, up to the energy of the creator in his abode. So, incarnation is not something souls avoid, it's something they queue up to do with their friends. Each picking something to work on, a new perspective to explore that will help them balance one side of the scale of their growth against another in order to guarantee an healthy, even and holistic growth as a consciousness. When an discarnate being looks within its volume and assesses and energetic imbalance in their growth they desire to enter a physical experience in order to absorb the opposite perspective in order to balance themselves. "God" does not force anyone to incarnate or not incarnate, that would be a condition. How then could he be the unconditional all that is if he is conditional? Thus the Dao allows each spirit free will to develop in the direction of his choosing. Supporting all of its creation as parts of itself. So it is good to learn to look at incarnation from a more positive perspective. For it was your choice to come here to learn and play. X: "Transmigration" isn't a curse, it is a free choice and a desire of each developing soul, for it is in the incarnate state that the quality of the consciousness can be improved, especially the emotional quality of the consciousness, which is an essential condition for the experience of and vibrational synchronisation with the heavenly realms. The immateriality of existence beyond the density of the physical vibration is void of material form, thus the action of manifestation does not take any time or space nor does it need to issue by way of the actions of a physical body. Simply in your discarnate state, being only of mind and light, what you feel and think instantaneously becomes a loved experience Thus the existences of heavens and hells as described by traditional abrahamic religions are in fact simply various strata of the immaterial vibrational multidimensionality who are populated by souls of like vibrational quality who then pool together in collective consciousness to experience the realms projected by their emotions and thoughts which constitute the creation of the abodes they reside in. So there are many many vibrational layers of existence pooled by populations of synchronistically aligned souls. They are all eager to incarnate and portion a part of their consciousness within the volume of their soul that is assigned to have a physical experience. Thus the experience of Taiji and duality or physical life, happens within the volume of the discarnate consciousness as an idea of reality. It is a holographic experience and the experience of it is akin to a part of the soul falling asleep so to say and having a dream of being physical, much like we fall asleep and dream of many non-physical things, so too a portion of the soul sleeps and dreams of the physical. Within that realm, space time is separated from its unity and split into the experience of one and the other, this and that up and down, hot and cold, Yin and Yang, bringing rise to process and the experience of things happening over time. It is in that incarnation that they can then work to improve their emotional quality and intelligence and wisdom of their soul in order to reside in realms deeper and deeper in the Dao that are subtler and more tender, up to the energy of the creator in his abode. So, incarnation is not something souls avoid, it's something they queue up to do with their friends and it is a cause of great excitement. Each picking something to work on, a new perspective to explore that will help them balance one side of the scale of their growth against another in order to guarantee a healthy, even and holistic growth as a consciousness. Not skewing too far in one direction or the other and becoming disharmonious. So, when an discarnate being looks within its volume and assesses and energetic imbalance in their growth they desire to enter a physical experience in order to absorb the opposite perspective in order to balance themselves. "God" does not force anyone to incarnate or not incarnate, that would be a condition. How then could he be the unconditional all that is if he is conditional? Thus the Dao allows each spirit free will to develop in the direction of his choosing. Supporting all of its creation as parts of itself. So it is good to learn to look at incarnation from a more positive perspective. For it was your choice to come here to learn and play As for the karmic debts. No karmic debts. No strings attached. The only thing is that If you dissolve the apprenticeship you must wait until you decide to enter physical reality anew in order to be initiated again. Perhaps it's the cost of complacency or the swine not valuing the pearls for lack of a better analogy 😂 After death, depending on your degree of entrainment to the vibration of our school, you will settle in a realm affiliated to our vibration and may continue various forms of work there or reincarnate again if you wish to experience new perspectives of the absolute through your unique unique individuality, or you may simply abide in a the realms you're entrained to and exist until you are spurred into action. ---- Q: That's really fascinating, thank you for your insights. I suppose, coming from a Buddhist background, I tend toward a more pessimistic view toward the physical experience, so it's nice to have a new perspective. I'll keep going with the evening group practice for now. Will keep an eye out for the next initiation. Thanks again! ---- X: My pleasure. See you around 🙏🏽

PLAY : The Raven‭’‬s Tale. Cast : The Orator. The Raven. A Nymph. The Centaur. A Prattling Crow. Apollo. Corona. Three Magpies. The Gods. The Hydra Prolouge. [Curtain (black) drawn closed . The Orator is to the right side of stage , dimly lit by a spot from top leftof stage . ] Orator ; “ ‭Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting - ‭`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken‭! Leave my‭ ‬loneliness unbroken‭! ‬-‭ ‬quit the bust above my door‭! Take thy beak from out my heart,‭ ‬and take thy form from off my door‭!' Quoth the raven,‭ `‬Nevermore.‭ “‬ [Spot out - darkness . Orator exists . ] Scene 1. The Raven. [ Lights up. A Nymph walks across the stage holding a large sign with ‘The Raven’ written on it and the image of a raven . The stage curtain is drawn and background 1. ( appropriate star map with constellations and animals ; Corvus/raven sitting on top of Hydra/serpent and Crater / cup next to him and centaur nearby to the left ) is revealed . Before it sit The Raven and The Centaur in appropriate places . ] The Orator ( voice over ) : “ Once upon a time a raven was circling around the southern heavens,‭ ‬looking rather depressed .‭ ‬A voice addressed him‭; “. ‭The Centaur; “Why so glum Brother Raven?” ‭[The Raven turns to look and there amongst the stars is a man with lance and the body of a horse. ] ‭The Raven; “ Well, it wasn’t always like this you know. Things used to be quiet good but then there were some complications with my boss’s girlfriend and that business with that big cup there and this troublesome sea serpent creature / monster thing, to whom, I now seem firmly attached.” ‭He indicates the constellations of Crater, The Cup and Hydra . ‭[ Raven flapps and flutters his wings but he can not seem to separate himself from the Hydra nor move through the stars] Centaur; ‭“Well, we all have our issues. Tell me about yours?” ‭Raven : “Issues? I don’t have issues! I am just there and things happen to me … it doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with me! I am purely a victim of circumstances.” Centaur; ( He smiles) ‭ “ Dear R‬aven‭ ! ‬Is there any such thing‭? ‬I doubt it,‭ ‬for we all play a part in the events that unfold around us.‭ ‬Well then,‭ ‬tell me what happened and we will see if we can work out a solution to your dilemma together.‭” ‭Raven ; “Very well. It all started back when I was with my master , Apollo. He bid me observe the affairs of gods and men and report back to him, that being my duty, ordained by Zeus, how could I refuse it? The same as I could not refuse my other duty, to disperse amongst men the prophesies of my master Apollo so men may know the will of Zeus. All went well until that business with the woman. ‭“ One day when pulling Helios across the sky in his chariot Apollo saw the Princess Corona of Larissa, the fairest maid of all Aemonia. Apollo courted Corona and things seemed good. Apollo was happy with her and she was known to have a ‘grateful charm’, to be a joy to him and faithful in love … while none defamed her chastity. ‭“But, unfortunately for me, one day I observed from high perch, that very same Corona laying in a field with a lad … who was certainly NOT Apollo. Being faithful to my master’s charge, I immediately leapt from my perch, spread out my white wings and beat them as fast as I could to propel myself home to my master’s abode and repot to him this new development. ‭“But a crow followed me. A noisy busy-body prattling crow, curious of my alarm and quick flight and what it was I observed. After me, the prattling Crow followed with flapping wings, eager to learn what caused this Raven's haste .....“ ‭[Outer black curtain closes ] ‭Scene 2. A Prattling Crow . ‭[ The Nymph walks along the stage with a sign, text and picture ' A Prattling Crow’. Curtain opens to reveal backdrop 2. - sky, with clouds passing by .] ‭Raven ; ( enters from stage right - now he has white plumage - winging his way through the sky.) ‭Crow; ( Enters stage right following him.) ‭Raven; (spots Crow, gets annoyed and flapps faster, but Crow catches up.) ‭Crow; , “ Tell not what you have seen Brother Raven ! I saw you observing in that tree, but although you think you are fulfillling your master’s charge and being loyal , take heed of my story ! “ A long time ago,‭ ‬the god Vulcan fathered a son,‭ ‬Erichthonius,‭ ‬under strange circumstances.‭ ‬He tried to rape Minerva but didn't succeed.‭ ‬Instead,‭ ‬his seed fell down to earth‭; ‬from where it landed,‭ ‬up sprang Erichthonius.‭ ‬Minerva seemed to want to cover the whole thing up,‭ ‬so she hid the child in a basket.‭ ‬She then made this basket the responsibility of the three‭ ‬daughters of Cecrops,‭ ‬an ancient king of Athens.‭ ‬Then she made them swear never to look inside it. ‭“ Two of the daughters, Pandrosos and Herse, obeyed the goddess, but the third, Aglauros, peeked inside – and a saw a baby with a serpent curled up beside him. Then I went to Minerva and tattled on Aglauros for peeking . Minerva was so displeased that she took it out on me ! I was just the messenger of a wrongdoing but she forbade me to be her special bird any longer; from that point on, her friends have been owls and I have been ignored. Beware Raven that the same fate awaits you.” Raven ; “ Out of my way Crow! I must do my duty and report to my Master.” ‭Crow; “ Well, you might think that I never was Minerva's special bird in the first place. Harumph ! If you do, you're wrong. To prove it, I will tell you a second story. A long time ago, I used to be a beautiful princess, with many suitors. But then, one day, while I was walking along the beach, the god of the Ocean saw me and became amorous. But I wanted nothing to do with him. ‭“ He pursued me, so I prayed to the gods for help. The only one who listened was Minerva, herself a virgin, who transformed me into a crow. This is how I became Minerva's bird. But now I have been disowned and the owl has taken my place , who also used to be a Princess, although nowhere near as fair as I and whose morals are poorly lacking - the little tart!’ Raven ; “ Oh you who talk too much ! A mischief fall upon your prating head for this detention of my flight.‭ ‬Your words and warnings I despise. “ I shall do my duty in haste, despite thy warnings to inform my patron Apollo how I saw the fair Corona with a lad of Thessaly ! “ [Raven flies off leaving the Crow behind and exists stage left . The outer curtain is drawn ] Act 4 - The ‘Beautiful’ Apollo. [The Nymph walks across the stage with sign with text and image ‘The ‘Beautiful’ Appollo’. The outer curtain is drawn back . ] Scene ; Apollo’s Temple . Apollo is on his throne playing his harp and singing . Raven enters . ] Raven ; (short of breath ) “ My Lord Apollo , I have news ... bad news I fear . But is it not your charge that I watch the affairs of men and report back to you on their behaviour ... and in turn I relay your decrees and orders to mankind ? “ Apollo : “ Indeed my bird, it is. Speak ! “ Raven : “ I saw fair Corona lying in yonder field with a Lad of Thessaly . “ Apollo ; ( he drops his plectrum ): “ When was this ? “ Raven “ Just then ... well, some time ago, I flew here as fast as I could but I was delayed by a prattling crow . “ Apollo ; “ And where is Corona now ? “ Raven ; “ I dont know . “ Apollo ; “Send my guards to bring her here ! “ [Apollo sets down his harp, he paces, he fiddles, he attends to his bow, he paces with an arrow in hand striking his thigh as he walks . Raven looks nervous. Corona enters. ] Corona : “My Lord ? “ Apollo : “ Ahhh , my loyal Corona , my love ? “ ( he takes up his harp and starts strumming it ) “My bird , this Raven, tells me a fantastic tale , and you must tell me that it isnt true .... and then I shall deal with him later . He seems to think he saw you laying in a nearby field with a lad of Thessaly . Explain to me why he is suddenly lying to me ? “ Corona ; ( totally taken aback) “ Oh ! I .... I ..... well ...... “ Apollo ( angry ) “ It’s true ? ! “ Corona : ( slumps in resignation ) “ Yes. “ Apollo ; (raging , he drops the harp, he contorts, he looks insane , he takes up his bow, notches an arrow and fires at Corona , it pierces her breast . ) .Corona ; ( slumps , pause, she stirs, removes the shaft moaning ) “Ah,‭ ‬Apollo‭! ‬punishment is justly mine‭!‬ But wherefore didst thou not await the hour of birth‭? ‬For by my death an innocent is slain. For I am with child . . . your child .” ‭ (she dies ) ‭ Raven ; (crouches down and covers his head with his wings .) ‭[Outer curtain is drawn closed ] ‭[ pause .... outer curtain is opened ] ‭Scene 6 ( back drop back to no 1 , Raven ( black plumage ) and Centaur ) ‭Raven (sad) : “ This said, her soul expired with her life-blood, and death congealed her drooping form. .We stood there frozen at the horror. Sadly the love-lore God did repent his jealous deed; regret too late his ready credence to this Raven's tale. Mourning his thoughtless deed and blaming myself, he vents his rage upon this very bird; he hates his bow, the string, his own right hand, the fateful arrow, anything but himself and his own jealous rage.” ‭“As a last resource, and thus to overcome her destiny, he strove to cherish her beloved form; for vain were all his medicinal arts. But when he saw upraised the funeral pyre, where wreathed in flames her body should be burnt, the sorrow of his heart welled forth in sighs; but tearless orbed, for no celestial face may tide of woe bedew. ‭“Yet, after Apollo poured the fragrant myrrh, sweet perfumes on her breast, that now once more against his own he pressed, and after all the prematurely hastened rites were done, he would not suffer the offspring of his loins to mingle with her ashes, but he plucked from out the flames, forth from the mother's thighs his child, unborn, and carried to the cave of double-natured Chiron - a relative of yours I believe.” ‭[The Centaur nods .] ‭Raven ; “Then to him he called this foolish truthful Raven, high in hopes of large requital due for all his words; but, angry with my meddling ways. He frothed, he fumed and turned red. He burst forth fire that filled the temple and I , caught up in the conflagration had my pearly plumes engulfed. So fierce was the fire of his own guilt and shame expelled forth, my very beautiful plumage was scorched and turned from pearly white to deep dark black and he forbade me forever more to perch among the favoured birds whose plumes are white. ‭“ And then, to add insult to injury he spoke: ‭‘Wanton babbler! see thy fate ! ‭Messenger of mine no longer, Go to Hades with thy prate‭! ‭Weary Pluto with thy tattle! Hither,‭ ‬monster,‭ ‬come not back‭; ‭And — to match thy disposition — Henceforth be thy plumage black‭ !‬’ “Much concerned I hurriedly departed his presence and flew up into the highest branch of the highest tree and hid myself within the leaves and shadows‭ ‬until his blood and temper cooled.‭” [Three Magpies fly in and alight along a string of nearby stars.] ‭Centaur ; “Your story attracts others that long to hear,” ‭Raven : “ “It is the Chorus, every time this story is told they insist, very annoyingly , in my opinion, to sing in sweet melody and rhyme their version of the events told.” ‭Magpie 1 ; “Complaining Raven! This is a Holy event which we must always commemorate. The God's most holy presence asks the hymn, the solemn hymn, the hymn of agony, lest, in the air of glory that surrounds the child of Semele, we lose the earth and corporal presence of the Zeus-begot.” Magpie‭ ‬2:‭ “‬Yea,‭ ‬sisters,‭ ‬raise your voices.‭ ‭Magpie 3: “Aye - we sing.” ‭All Magpies: “Hail, child of Semele! To her as unto thee Be reverence,‭ ‬be deity,‭ ‬be immortality‭!” ‭Magpie 1; “Shame! treachery of the spouse Of the Olympian house, Hera‭! ‬thy grim device against the sweet carouse‭!” ‭Magpie 2; “ Lo! ~ in red roar and flame Did Zeus descend‭! ‬What claim To feel the immortal fire had then the Theban dame‭! ‭Magpie 3; “Caught in that fiery wave; Her love and life she gave With one last kissing cry the unborn child to save. “ Magpie 1; “And thou,‭ ‬O Zeus,‭ ‬the sire Of Bromius--hunter dire‭!‬-- Didst snatch the unborn babe from that Olympian fire: “ Magpie‭ 2; “‬In thine own thigh most holy That offspring melancholy Didst hide,‭ ‬didst feed,‭ ‬on light,‭ ‬ambrosia,‭ ‬and moly.” Magpie‭ 3‬:‭ “‬Aye‭! ‬and with serpent hair And limbs divinely fair Didst thou,‭ ‬Dionysus,‭ ‬leap forth to the nectar air‭!” ‭Magpie 1 ; “Ay! thus the dreams of fate We dare commemorate, Twining in lovesome curls the spoil of mate and mate.” Magpie2:‭ “‬O Dionysus,‭ ‬hear‭! ‭Be close, be quick, be near, Whispering enchanted words in every curving ear‭!” ‭Magpie 3; “ O Dionysus, start As the Apollonian dart‭! ‭Bury thy horned head ... “ ‭ All Magpies : “ Iiiiiinn ‭Ev – eeeeery bleed - innnnng heeeeaaaart!” ‭Raven ( to Centaur ); “They always go for a big finish. Now, If I may continue?” ‭[The Magpies fly off. The outer curtain closes ] ‭Scene 6 - The Banquet of the Gods. ‭Nymph ; ( as above etc . ) ‭[The outer curtain opens . Temple of Appollo - The Gods are seated at a banquet table, feasting and talking . ] ‭Raven; ( Voice over ) “ After much time passed and grief was done and Gods and men passed on to other things Apollo deemed it was time to give thanks for better fortune and arranged to give a feast to Jupiter and requiring the best water, finally spoke unto me.” Apollo : ( picks up his cup and goes to drink, but sees it is empty ) “ Where is my bird , that chattering Raven ? “ Raven ; ( flys in and lands next to Apollo ) ‭Apollo ; “Raven, go, my bird, so that naught may delay the pious rites, and bring a little water from fair and running springs. Catch up my sacred gilded bowl in thy hooked claws and fly aloft on an airy journey to far Lerna where lies the the Alcyonian Lake. And make sure to return swiftly so the Gods may not be parched - especially me ... as I plan to sing later . “ ‭[ outer curtain closes ] ‭Scene whatever it is - The Hydra ! ‭Nymph ... as before . ‭[Outer curtain opens - Back drop 1 Raven and Centaur ] ‭Raven ; “Upon my aerial approach I noticed the most bright and sparkling body of water and alighted upon a nearby tree to rest before I filled the cup. I noticed a beautiful sweet aroma filled the air. Looking about I saw the tree was laden with the largest, juiciest, purple figs I have seen, their juice overflowed from around their stem and had run down the fruit and dried in a crystalline coating of fig sugar. Of course I tried one . And then another. It wasn’t that they were so good, but being on a Holy mission, I realised I must have my strength for the journey back, carrying the filled cup. So I set the cup down and ate some more … and some more. “ ‭“ After some time, when I could not eat any more and my stomach was greatly distended, I realised flight with the full cup may be impeded, so, with no desire but to fulfil my duty most efficiently, and because I was now tired and drowsy, I went to sleep within the branches of that shady tree.” ‭[ Curtain closes ] ‭Act ? ‭[Curtain opens ] ‭Scene [ - The Alchonian Lake . ; there is a pool of water and a near by fig tree with Raven sleeping in it . On the ground nearby is the cup. The Sun is in the sky, stage right . The Sun moves across the sky . ] ‭Raven ; (awakes startled. He has a fat belly and smeared figs on his face . He looks at the Sun, in a panic he snatches up the cup and goes to the pool . he dips the cup in) . ‭The Hydra arises out of the pool ] ‭Hydra; “ Raven, why do you take this precious water?’ ‭Raven ; “ Do not distract me - You of many heads. Return to the depths of your pool while I go about my sacred charge. You are delaying me, would you let the Gods go thirsty ? “ Hydra; “ You have your duties but I have mine , and it is to guard this precious water . If you have good reason to take it , as you say ' for the Gods’ , then show me your warrent . “ Raven ; “ I dont have to answer to you ! “ [Raven fills the cup but Hydra grabs it , they are both pulling it, and start figting , hissing and squarking and hitting each other [outer curtain closes ] ............................ Scene ... The Curse Nymph ..... [outer curtain opens , backdrop The Banquet of the Gods - they look irritated and cranky , some try to converese but have dry throats, they cough , etc . ‭Raven; flies in holding the cup and dragging along the Hydra who is holding the other handle of the cup. Raven deposits them on the floor in front of Apollo ] ‭Apollo ; ( bellowing ) ‘What is this? Has my bird let me down again? Why did you take so long and thus allow the gods to go thirsty?’ ‭Raven : ( laments) “ O Great Apollo please forgive me … I would have returned much sooner, but as I went to take the water from the sweetest spring of all, this water monster arose from the depths and challenged me to my purpose. I informed her I was on a mission from you, but she blocked my way , I fought bravely against her for a great length of time, she seized the sacred cup and would not let go, so I had to bring her here thus attached.” ‭ Apollo ; ( stands up and walkes around the banquet to confront Raven ) “ Is that so? And this is the truth? “ Raven ; “‭Yes it is.” ‭Apollo : ( casually ) “ Why then my good and faithful Raven .... … if it is true, why, tell me then … ( he thunders ) do you have SUCH A FAT BELLY AND FIGS SMEARED ALL OVER YOUR BEAK AND RUNNING DOWN YOUR CHEST ? “ ‭[Raven flutters nervously ] ‭Apollo ; “ That is no water monster, that is Hera’s Hydra , the worst she has ever done is to go out onto the flat-land to raid the flocks. “‭I am impatient once again of your prattle and will have no more of any of this ! You have made the Gods throats dry and it has become hard to converse, so from now on you will have a dry throat! I command you to sing no more and instead only produce a dry croak to remind you of what you have done! By your lies you dare attempt to cheat the God of Prophecy by fibs? “ ‭Raven ; ( He goes to speak but only coaks and squarks come out , he is shocked and holds his thoat , tries again, but more of the same ) ‭Apollo : “ And stop that damn squarking .... I have had enough of you .... ALL OF YOU ! ( he grabs the cup and hurls it up into the stars , he grabs Raven in one hand and Hydra in the other and commences to hurl them up too ) . ‭[ outer curtain closes ] ‭Scene The Vision ‭Nymph .... ‭[outer curtain opens , backdrop 1 . Raven and Centaur ] ‭Raven ; “And with that, he grabbed all three of us, myself that Cup there and this Hydra under my feet and flung us up mightily into the sky and stars, to where we remain fixed unto this day. I am forever thirsty but the cup is just out of reach over there ...” ‭(Raven flapps and flutters his wings but still he remains stuck to the Hydra and none of them moved through the stars, nor towards the cup.) Centaur ; “I see. And you see this as misfortune‭?” ‭Raven : “ Of course! You do not?” ‭Centaur ; “Well I can see it another way.” ‭Raven : “ Please go on and explain then . I am more than willing to release myself of my entrapments and ill-fortune.” ‭Centaur ; “Very well. First you must realise there is another level of story behind all the things that befall us, for we are, not just fixed amongst the stars, but are the patterns of the very stars themselves and this great pattern represents, not just life and events on earth but the very nature of Man’s own soul or Psyche, as represented by our sister of the same name, in truth, we are all parts of her story. I am an important part in that, as are you. ‭“ Remember earlier when you said that his child, unborn, was carried to the cave of double-natured Chiron - ‘a relative of yours I believe.’ ? Well, I said yes, not wanting to interrupt your narative , but actually, I am that one and the same Chiron . Part of my duty has been to teach men how to read the stories in the stars. Also I hold the position of King of the Centaurs , they are a simple lot, but the Gods revered my intelligence , so much so that I have been the mentor of that child ... and of Hercules and some notable others . “ ‭Raven : “ Really ! The Great Hero Hercules ! And you where his mentor ? “ ‭Chiron ; “ Of which I am rather ashamed to mention , what a failure ! But that is another story, suffuce it to say , I too owe my position to his blunders .” ‭Raven; “ Well, you must tell me how that happened . “ ‭Chiron; “ One of my centaurs , Pholous who was friends with Hercules invited him to to his home for dinner . When Pholous was not looking Hercules helped himself to some sacred centaur wine , made only for centuars. When he returned he was horrified ! There Hercules sat with the bottle open, drinking it . Well, the secent had drifted out and reached the other centaurs. Furious, they grabbed weapons and charged at Pholou’s house. Hercules came out firing his bow and killing many of my centaurs . Hearing the commotion I ran outside to stop the fight but was grazed on the knee by one of Hercules’ arrows , unfortuanetly , one that had been dipped in the blood of the Hydra. Being imortal, back then, I could not die and was doomed to live on in great pain. It was so bad I asked Zeuss to kill me to end my pain , and he obliged . So here I am , in the world beyond death . ‭“ But do not give yourself lack of importance for your part is, perhaps more crucial, than you realise.” Raven ; “How is that‭?”‬ Centaur : ‭“By analogy and symbol dear Raven. For example you lament about your loss of colour from pearly white to deep dark black … even blue black if I may add. Have you not noticed that it is the very colour of space itself? Have you not noticed that white reflects light, hence finds difficulty in absorbing it. While black absorbs light by not reflecting it. By being black you are absorbing the light, and light is good, warm and gives life and illumination. “ ‭Raven ; “ I see. You do seem wise in your observations, so what is your function in the psyche of Man?” Centaur ; “ To interpret symbols, as I said , I teach men how to read the stars. But the affairs of the Gods, as well as the movement and arrangement of the stars are also for Man’s learning. In that we both play a part . Also my path is about healing, esecially the deep healing of a wound . Actually, they are both the same thing .” Raven : “ What are both the same thing ?” Centaur ; “ Healing and understanding the movement of the stars and the affairs of the Gods , which Man calls ‘myth’..... they all come together to heal the psyche of Man .” ‭“Let us move on to the feast for Jupiter and see if we can unfold more of your purpose and hence your illumination.” ‭Raven ; “Very well.” Centaur ; “ ‭Firstly the spring and pool is deep water, that is a symbol of the Psyche, the deep soul of man, of which he only perceives the surface. ‭“Deep within lies the many headed Hydra, which at times, can have one head and at other times many heads. It is the same thing, do not be confused, in the world of Psyche, things can be one thing and many things at the same time. Mostly men are not aware of Hydra, but occasionally she surfaces as her duty IS to protect the cared for sacred spring from those who are not ready nor worthy to receive its waters.” ‭Raven ; “But if the pool or lake or deep water IS Man’s psyche, then Hydra being a part of that is part of Man’s psyche or soul and resides within ?” Centaur ; ‭“That is exactly right. And what might that part be? What is like a snake in the Soul of Man that reaches up its head through the Spheres of Heaven to the Vast Empyrean? Yet, when Man thinks he is suffering it persecutes him on the Cross of the Elements? “ ‭Raven ; “ I know not.” Centaur ; ‭“Come now Raven, you seek water, do you not? Do you not realise this burning thirst in your throat is not for mere physical water? For what you thirst and what you seek and what is contained within the Sacred Cup is the Water of Life, and to drink from it is to gain knowledge of the soul. That is your function! To drive Man along , to seek the sacred wisdom and to gain knowledge of the soul, by observing the acts and lives of the Gods and their companions … which Man calls ‘myth’.” ‭ Raven ; “I see ...... Does not man have a force inside him that is curled up and sleeping in water, and due to certain circumstances, may arise and ascend, returning through the vast spheres which gave his incarnation form when previously descending FROM that original source and this, like a rearing serpent may return and pierce the veil into that very Empyrean?” ‭Centaur; “Yes, that is so … and tell me, how Raven, did you come to that knowledge?” ‭Raven ; “Well , it is still my duty to watch - the ravens on Earth do that for me and still report to me. Some time back one of them delivered unto me a strange document and in it, it had a diagram … I will show it to you.” ‭[ Raven produces a sheet of parchment from beneath his wing, but as he unrolls it The Magpies fly in and alight again in a row upon a string of stars.] ‭Raven ; “Oh, not again! What now ? ‘ ‭Magpie 1 ; “Peace be upon you Brother Raven, we portend sacred events, hear out our Chorus if you would learn.” ‭ Magpie 2 : “Lift up this love of peace and bliss, The starry soul of wine, Destruction's formidable kiss, The lamp of the divine: This shadow of a nobler name Whose life is strife,‭ ‬whose soul is fame‭!” ‭Magpie 3: “ I rather will exalt the soul Of man to loftier height, And kindle at a livelier coal The subtler soul of light. From these soft splendours of a dream turn! ‭ ‬and seek the Self supreme. “ Magpie 1 ‭; “‬ This world is shadow-shapen of The bitterness of pain. Vain are the little lamps of love‭! The light of life is vain‭! Life,‭ ‬death,‭ ‬joy,‭ ‬sorrow,‭ ‬age and youth Are phantoms of a further truth.‭” ‭Magpie 2; “Beyond the splendour of the world, False glittering of the gold, A Serpent is in slumber curled In wisdom's sacred cold. Life is the flaming of that flame. Death is the naming of that name,” Magpie 3 :‭ “‬ The forehead of the snake is bright With one immortal star, Lighting her coils with living light To where the nenuphar Sleeps for her couch. All darkness dreams The thing that is not,‭ ‬only seems.‭ “ ‭Magpie 1; “That star upon the serpent's head Is called the soul of man. That light in shadows subtly shed The glamour of life's plan. The sea whereon that lotus grows Is thought's abyss of tears and woes. Magpie 2 ‭; “‬ Leave Sirenusa‭! ‬Even Greece Forget‭! ‬they are not there‭! By worship cometh not the Peace, The Silence not by prayer. Leave the illusions,‭ ‬life and time And Death,‭ ‬and seek that star sublime,” Magpie 3 ‭; “‬ Until the lotus and the sea And snake no longer are, And single through Eternity Exists alone the Star, And utter Knowledge rise,‭ ‬and cease In that which is beyond the Peace‭!” ‭ [They fly off.] ‭Raven ; “ They are eloquent … I will give them that. Now, where was I? Oh yes, this diagram one of my raven’s bought to me.” ( Raven unfolded it and showed it to Centaur ) . ‭[outer curtain closes ] ‭Scene - The Doodle . ‭Nymph .... ‭[outer curtain opens , small backdrop is the ‘doodle’ with backdrop 1 behind it .Raven and Cetaur are examining the doodle ] Centaur ; ‭“That is strange indeed brother Raven, but it is not unusual for Man to try to understand things thus. Although obscure, we can see them struggling towards understanding of the concepts. ‭“ It appears you have comprehension of the process and now can see how one side of our worthy Hydra is that spirit in Man’s soul that may rise above and comprehend the Greater God?” ‭Raven ; “ Yes, but what does this have to do with suffering ? And why does Hydra at times have many heads and not one.” Centaur; “ Because men sometimes cannot see it that way,‭ ‬they have trouble seeming unity as they live in duality,‭ ‬and duality spreads to triplicity and before you know it you have multiplication of forms‭ …‬ like‭ ‬those fellows Plato and Lao Tsu tried to explain to them.‭ ‬So sometimes it is explained in that multiplication of forms.‭” ‭Raven; “How so?” ‭Centaur ; “ Have you seen the reverse of the diagram that was delivered to you?” ‭Raven ; “Reverse ? … It has a reverse? “ ‭Centaur; “Raven! You must really learn to pay attention, it is very frustrating to the forces that be and rule our development and spiritual growth when they drop things in our lap and we hardly notice! Turn it over and look at the other side.” ‭[ curtain closes ] ‭Scene - The ‘Evil’ Hydra . ‭[ curtain opens - same scene but the reverse of the image is now up .] ‭Nymph ..... Raven ; “ That IS rather strange.‭ ‬I am wondering what all those heads represent‭? ‬I know not what in Man has many heads.‭”‬ Centaur ; “ ‭The soul that is inside man came from the Empyrean and passed through the seven spheres, these are the 7 gifts that Man can have, if he grows and develops properly, they will , in turn awaken in him” ‭“Did you not listen to the Magpies chorus? ‘The forehead of the snake is bright with one immortal star’ and ‘That star upon the serpent's head is called the soul of man.’ “ Raven ; “Ah yes‭!‬That eye on the brow that sees in spirit is its head and its tail lies in man‭’‬s reproductive organs‭ …‬ its all curled up together but when the snake awakens‭ …‬ and comes up from the depths of the water it must make sure the person is worthy to receive its blessing‭ …‬ “ ( he thinks a bit more ) ‭ …‬ “ and that connects Man‭’‬s sacred creative ability with his inner vision‭ …‬ that‭’‬s rather clever‭ …‬ whoever thought of that‭ ‬.‭ ‬I see why it is not shown on the diagram as it is hidden within the body,‭ ‬but the soul,‭ ‬on a higher and more subtle plane sees through that‭ ‬secret eye.‭ ‬But man fears these as well,‭ ‬and some think them evil‭?” ‭Centaur ; “Some give them more trouble than others, Venus for example and the sexual energy. But consider other parts of the Magpie’s chorus; ‘And kindle at a livelier coal the subtler soul of light. From these soft splendours of a dream I turn, and seek the Self supreme.” And “Lighting her coils with living light, to where the nenuphar sleeps ... All darkness dreams - The thing that is not, only seems. “ Raven ; “But I am getting‭ ‬a little confused did not Hercules cut the heads off the Hydra in another story,‭ ‬thus defeating her‭ ?”‬ Centaur ; ‭“Hercules again ! Hercules’ journey is about Man’s literalist approach, and how his ego opposes lost soul. Of course soul can NEVER be defeated by ego … it may seem to be supressed for a time but like all suppression it resurfaces in different ways and in multiples of itself. ‭“ Hercules! Bah ! That is one of those myths that shows Man’s wrong approach … so , of course, everyone admires him. “ ‭“If you remember the story, the thing that happened when Hercules cut off any of the Hydras heads was, firstly, water gushed out … he released the waters of the depths contained within the depths of Man’s psyche. And secondly each neck then grew three heads. This is because when man cannot understand singularity - the Empyrean, firstly manifests in Triplicity; the thing itself and how it manifests in the world of duality, thus the mortals always have lessons in Triplicity; Life – birth & death, Tao – Yin & Yang, Humanity – man & woman and recently electrical charge – positive and negative … and so on …” ‭Raven : “And on this diagram, on both sides we see that unity, and below are the nine heads, making the ten, and also the first three above, with the 7 below … and I assume those 7 relate to the 7 stars that wander about the sky, unfixed as we seem to be?” ‭Centaur ; “Now you are getting the hang of it.” Raven : ‭“But Man sees these things as bad things as well?” Centaur ; “Ah yes‭! ‬But Man perceives in duality. He sees one thing as two things that are separate and then separate men decide which side of duality is reality.‭ ‬So then is Man in conflict‭; ‬man against man.‭ ‬The man of Wisdom however sees One and all men as one.‭ ‬To some men,‭ ‬and in Man at some times,‭ ‬there is a view that these eyes,‭ ‬or senses,‭ ‬or processes of the One are hindrances.‭ ‬Some have called them‭ ‬‘sore spots‭’‬ and are offended by their various functions.‭ ‬In duality they can be seen as‭ ‬‘either‭’‬ levels through which Men have fallen,‭ ‬and hence are barriers to the One,‭ ‬or stages through which Man can ascend and comprehend the One.‭ ‬But like your parchment and diagrams,‭ ‬they are,‭ ‬of course two sides of the one parchment.‭ ‬If one holds it up to the Light and allows Light to pass through it and illuminate it and that same light strikes one‭’‬s eye than the One and one image can be seen.‭” ‭Raven ; ( takes up the image and holds it up to the light to see both sides as one ) “But I know many men do not see it like that’ protested raven ‘they live in fear of the forces deep within … many don’t want to look within.” Centaur ; “Thats true . I have seen men and women even listening to a story such as this‭ ‬,‭ ‬just the first part,‭ ‬and then declare they want to hear no more‭ ‬– just‭ ‬when they are at the crucial point of having great mysteries revealed to them‭ ! ‬“ “ If the soul is not honored or accepted in the right way‭ ‬,‭ ‬which is according to its nature,‭ ‬it can demand attention,‭ ‬it can morph and twist the images,‭ ‬seeking a form that WILL get attention and it wont give up until it does get some type of attention.‭ ‬This can make some men more afraid and more reluctant to see the soul and forces and unconscious needs within,‭ ‬which in turn morphs the soul into more torturous forms‭ ‬,‭ ‬which of course creates more fear for the man and more torture for the soul‭ …‬.‭ ‬Until it all ends up in a right mess and Hydra has become the monster instead of the teacher and men are fearful to look below the surface and into the deep water of their psyche.” [ The Magpies return]. M1. “ Far out with the foam of the present that sweeps to the surf of the past:‭ Where beyond the extreme sea-wall,‭ ‬and between the remote sea-gates,‭ Waste water washes,‭ ‬and tall ships flounder,‭ ‬and deep death waits: “ M2. “ Where,‭ ‬mighty with deepening sides,‭ ‬clad about with the seas as with wings,‭ And impelled of invisible tides,‭ ‬and fulfilled of unspeakable things,” M3. “ White-eyed and poisonous-finned,‭ ‬shark-toothed and serpentine-curled,‭ Rolls,‭ ‬under the whitening wind of the future,‭ ‬the wave of the world.‭ “ M1 ; “The depths stand naked in sunder behind it,‭ ‬the storms flee away‭; In the hollow before it the thunder is taken and snared as a prey‭; ‭M2 ; “With travail of day after day, and with trouble of hour upon hour; And bitter as blood is the spray‭; ‬and the crests are as fangs that devour:‭ M3 : “And its vapour and storm of its steam as the sighing of spirits to be‭; And its noise as the noise in a dream‭; ‬and its depth as the roots of the sea:‭ M1; “And the height of its heads are the height of the utmost stars of the air:‭ And the ends of the earth at the might thereof tremble,‭ ‬and time is made bare. M2 ; “ Will ye bridle the deep sea with reins,‭ ‬will ye chasten the high sea with rods‭? Will ye take her to chain her with chains,‭ ‬who is older than all ye Gods‭? Ye are Gods,‭ ‬and behold,‭ ‬ye shall die,‭ ‬and the waves be upon you at last. All ye as a wind shall go by,‭ ‬as a fire shall‭ ‬ye pass and be past .” [ The Magpies fly off ] Raven ; ‭“I see . … It seems to me , at times Man must go through a ‘dark night’ in relation to his soul. But what has all this to do with me?” ‭Centaur ; “Your adventures are just not happenstance. Your story is a myth to instruct Man in the way of his development, if he can and has the will to develop his ability to perceive it . ‭‘So you see, dear Raven … that is getting older and wiser before my eyes, as we continue our discourse … Man must ever develop, understand and strengthen those senses, and bring them into balance so they can rise higher up the Tree of Knowledge and perceive that one Empyrean from whence they were born and to which they shall return.” ‭Raven ; “Unto what purpose O wise Centaur?” ‭Centaur ; “ OH!” ( he laughs ) “Not even the Gods know that, that is the one thing that his hidden from even them, they themselves are not privy to any purpose of the Empyrean … that is why Man is such a mystery to us – besides the issues of their behavior … but then again it seems not much better than the Gods at times.” ‭Raven : “ I can vouch to that ! It was certainly true of Apollo! But still, here I am; stuck here and cannot move.” ‭( Raven flapps and flutters his wings to no avail.) Centaur ; ‭“That is our fate and function. My centaurs move about and converse with me as do your ravens. It is not for us to move along Man’s path but to assist that movement. We feel that we are suspended in space unmoving, pinned in position by the unmoving stars that make up our bodies while beneath us the world spins on its axis and turns about the Sun. But from Man’s perspective, he is stuck on Earth and watches us and the heavens rotate above him. It all depends on one’s point of view.” ‭Raven ; “ “Well, that is very interesting … but Man does not particularly like the Raven, he associates us with Apollo’s curse , believes we reside in hell and rule over death.” Centaur ; ‭“Well, that is partially true but if Man seeks to understand the full story, if he ‬chooses to learn from what the Gods and us and our stories teach him, he ‭can understand … and many do. “ ‭“ Have you noticed that you are no longer dry and parched and are beginning to speak wisdom instead of cawing and croaking and complaining about yourself and your situation?” ‭Raven : “ Well, yes, now that you mention it. I do feel much better and refreshed … although I am still a little thirsty.” ‭Centaur ; “You have drunk some of the water of life, that water that is indeed sweet, and the water that nourishes development of the soul. But you remain thirsty as you desire more of this knowledge. ‭“ And that , dear Raven, is your precious gift to man, the thirst that inspires him ever onward to seek hidden knowledge, clothed in symbol, analogy and myth (as that is the language of the soul), and to continually advance.” Raven : ‭“Well I must say this is all food for thought … it is great food though … and I feel somewhat more satisfied with my lot than ever … although I must admit I am STILL hungry.” Centaur ; ( laughs ) ‭”‬Of course you are‭ ! ‬And so shall you remain,‭ ‬feasting and drinking amongst the stars,‭ ‬finding satisfaction but never being completely satisfied‭ ‬..‭ ‬and that,‭ ‬of course is the way it should be.‭ ‬Eventually Man will reach a further understanding,‭ ‬and with that a new golden age will come.‭ ‬The figs shall again ripen and when Apollo or Zeus uproot that tree and together with the Hydras pool,‭ ‬hurl it up into the heavens and the stars have moved about their greater course‭ ‬-‭ ‬which they actually do,‭ ‬but unseen of us and Man - You shall once again sit in that tree and eat to your content and drink the sweet water of truth and share that with Man,‭ ‬as that is Man‭’‬s final destiny,‭ ‬if he will accept it. Raven : “But Man doesn‭’‬t realise that,‭ ‬he shuns the darkness and fears it.‭”‬ Centaur ; ‭“Not all Men … some realise the depths of their psyche holds the key to release their soul, they have understood that repression of this realm by their ego only causes more complications and difficulty. Those are the types that do you honor. And you must, regardless of what the others say about you, or how they treat you, expose this world to all, you must rip open the covering and expose their truth, or false hoods within, so they must learn from them … and you must never give up … as your ravens on earth know by instinct. Never let them scare or chase you away … stay just out of reach, but NEVER give up on them. “ In fact my dear Raven you are one of the most significant and important symbols for the development of Man’s salvation ! “ ‭Raven ; ( stands proud and tall , looking triumphant ) ‭[Curtain closes .... lights dim .... a spot on upper right comes on revealing the Orator on the side of the stage ] ‭Orator ; “ And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door‭; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor‭; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted‭ ‬-‭ for ‬evermore‭! “ ‭[ lights out ] ‭END .

Hey, @Bhathen, let me try to answer your very interesting questions I'll do it in 3 parts: 1) Intro 2) Female Gods Predominant 3) What do these Gods represent? 1) Intro about time periods I personally don't know for sure, but I remember reading somewhere (or maybe it was a documentary I saw) that they've found yantras inscribed on rocks and stones all the way back to 10.000 years before Christ. Furthermore, if I remember correctly, it seems there was a worldwide trend of the cult of the "Divine Feminine" for many years in world history, in both Europe, Africa and Asia I believe they've found different cult objects etc., also in India of course. I do have a hypothesis of my own using the Cosmology of the Danish mystic Martinus as to why the Divine feminine was predominant in ancient times, whereas later there was a sudden worldwide shift more towards the masculine and patriarchal ways. 2) Female Gods Predominant According to Martinus, the microcosmos and macrocosmos idea is central to understanding reality, which he describes as "life within life within life". In his perspective the Earth itself is a living being undergoing its own spiritual evolution, similarly to us, albeit it at a macrocosmic level (from our perspective). Evolution happens via karma and reincarnation from minerals, to plants, to animals, to true human beings and beyond into the spiritual worlds. He says that we all carry both poles, the masculine and the feminine. As minerals and plants, we're double poled and therefore much more "at one" with the Divine. As animals one pole stagnates, and the other dominates completely. According to him, spiritual evolution as a human being is simply growing these two poles back into balance. That's what will take us from animal to human being. A man grows his feminine pole to match his masculine; when this happens he gets cosmic consciousness and is ready to move on to other worlds. Similarly with women, just the reverse. We're all living cells in the body of the Earth. I believe the reason Female Gods were dominant across the world in ancient times was because the Earth itself is a female. That's why the Earth was called "Gaia", "Mother Earth" and other feminine names when worshipped in many ancient cults. As cells in the Earth, we represent and follow the lines of feeling and thinking produced by the Earth. With the Earth being predominantly feminine in ancient times, feminine ways of seeing the universe and life predominated. That is, Feminine Gods. Some thousand years ago, the Earth entered from being mostly "one-poled" and feminine, into the phase of having to upgrade her masculine pole, in order to reach cosmic consciousness herself (which according to Martinus will happen in about 2000-3000 years in our time, however, it only feels as about 15 minutes for the Earth). When her maculine pole got activated, at first it's quite crude; it's about war, domination, power etc. That's when all the masculine values and perspective started to dominate more on a global scale, and we got the patriarchal religions (e.g. Judaism, Christianity, Islam etc) (not to say these religions are crude, it's just highlighting the masculine aspect. I personally grew up very much revering all 3 religions, and still do to this day. It's simply to give an example of patriarchy focusing more on hierarchy, power etc). The "left path" or feminine path is more powerful and gives magical powers and material results much quicker, because feminine logic is simply more available in the atmosphere of this planet, due to having dominated for many Eons of time. The "right path" or masculine path is newer, is more strict, more about discipline and morals, and doesn't easily produce spiritual powers and material results. It gives more "an inner" result, e.g. patience, forgiveness etc, the virtues preached by the more patriarchal religions. Further, the patriarchal religions all in some way contribued to removing the "old ways" of magical powers from the world as best they could, e.g. through witch burning, the inquisition etc. All the above is simply my own personal hypothesis and analysis. 3) What do these Gods represent? Okay, so what do all the Gods and Goddesses in the Sri Yantra represent? Here are some of my own perspectives so far. I would say you can view these Gods in several different ways. How I personally see it: 1) A material, scientific explanation of the universe, 2) A both spiritual and scientific map of your body, the universe and God (the microcosmos and macrocosmos idea), 3) Different energies available to be used for different purposes Let's start with the first one: 1) A material, scientific explanation of the universe. In this perspective, the pyramid is grouped into 5 "Gods": Ganesha in the lower right corner, Surya in the lower left corner, Vishnu in the upper left corner, Shiva in the upper right corner, and Shakti at the top of the pyramid. In ancient times they cloaked science in religious terms to help lay people understand. Materially Ganesha is simply the physical Earth. Surya is the Sun. Vishnu is the universe itself, Shiva is God or awareness inside each being, Shakti is the interplay in between all these factors. In this perspective, each avarana is simply a scientific mapping of life: 1st level: physical everyday life, you go about your business, and you compulsively react to sense-impressions in 8 ways (anger, delusion, envy, lust, jealousy, greed, pride etc). You're like an animal impulsively being thrown around by life with no control. However, you can rise above this by self-development, by developing patience, kindness, forgiveness etc. 2nd level: the dream world. This was much more a factor in ancient times than today. You see both in the Old and New Testament, as well as the Qur'an, people often had very vivid and lively dreams. Tribal people to this day still do. So this level simply scientifically describes what goes on when you're dreaming; there are 16 factors present in a dream: 5 senses, sense of a body, of a self, of form, of name etc. They simply scientifically "mapped" what a person experiences while dreaming. 3rd level: deep sleep. This is when we black out and have no concept of time. We sometimes feel like we close our eyes, and 1 minute later it's morning, even though we've sleept 8 hours. Where did time go? You don't feel the passing of time in deep sleep. However, these great ancient yogis still mapped exactly what 8 factors are present during deep sleep in order to explain this aspect of reality. 4th level: there are more planets than just Earth in this galaxy. Some are on lower evolutionary stages than Earth, some are on a higher stage. Somehow the ancient yogis mapped which planets in our galaxy have life and described it. There are 14 worlds, Earth is no. 8. There are 7 planets below us, and 6 planets above us. Earth is in "the middle" in its evolution, but also physically if you look at the galaxy. We're in the middle between the galaxy center and the most outer periphery. The lower planets are further out from the middle than Earth, whereas the higher planets are closer to the center of the galaxy. Interestingly enough, this is exactly what Danish Martinus also says. 5th level: there are 5 action senses employed in daily living, and 5 knowledge senses. 6th level: there are 5 elements in this material universe, and these have 5 attributes. 7th level: everything at the base level is composed of energy and vibration, there are 8 basic forms of vibration as the foundational building blocks for this universe. 8th level: underlying creation are immaterial principles governing creation. 9th level: immanent yet transcendent, penetrating everything and everyone, yet above and beyond everything and everyone, here lies the great mystery responsible for creating, upholding and destroying creation. We could call it God, the Goddesss, the Divine, they called it Sat-Chit-Ananda. It's eternally mysterious, yet what you can say about it is that it contains truth, consciousness and bliss. 2) A both spiritual and scientific map of your body, the universe and God (the microcosmos and macrocosmos idea) If we go this explanation, we take the scientific and material explanation from above, yet now we apply the microcosmic and macrocosmic idea to it. Creation repeats the same principles at each level. This means that the Meru describes your physical body, your energetic body, nature and the universe, every level thinkable. Making it "spiritual" simply means you can awaken each of these divine powers of the universe within yourself as well. You can awaken the energies in your physical body, energetic body, mind and soul. You can become a "junior God" or miniature God. You can open your third eye, astral travel, control the weather, heal diseases, predict the future, command spirits, go beyond life and death and much more. In this case each "God" or "Goddess" represents the powers of the universe, and the Meru allows you to awaken those same powers in yourself. Instead of simply being a material, scientific explanation or theory, you can now spiritually experience each of these principles actively and practically. 3) Different energies available to be used for different purposes In a very pragmatic and practical perspective, the Meru is simply a tool for improving practical, day-to-day living. Using it you can channel the powers of the universe for whatever need you currently have. It's pretty similar to the above idea, however now it's seen from a non-religious lense, a simple, practical tool. You can "order" more money from the universe, health, success, love, the weather needed for your specific purpose and much more. It's a magical tool for "managing" and improving your life however you wish to. Conclusion These are some of the ways I personally view it so far. Feel free to comment or question more, if there are any specifics you'd like to dive into deeper, or maybe start to dive in to some of the individual Goddesses and what they can do

thread thread thread thread A Dream Within a Dream Edgar Allan Poe - 1809-1849 Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow: You are not wrong who deem That my days have been a dream; Yet if hope has flown away In a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none, Is it therefore the less gone? All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream. I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore, And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand-- How few! yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep, While I weep--while I weep! O God! can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp? O God! can I not save One from the pitiless wave? Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream? from "thirty poems," hafiz, trans murray: LXXIV (Since reason is of no use to the lover, he must abandon himself to chance and to impulse. It lies in himself whether he shall prove to be of the chosen few who may achieve that perfect union which they seek.) KNOWING love's ocean is a shoreless sea, What help is there? - abandon life, and founder. Bring wine; don't scare us with Reason's prohibition: That magistrate has no jurisdiction here. When you give your heart to love you make the moment lucky: No need of auguries to perform good deeds. Ask your own eye whose is the murderous glance ; 0 friend, this is not Fate's crime, nor the stars'. Pure eyes discern him like the crescent moon: But not all eyes have scope to see that splendour. Seize the chance offered by the drunkard's road: Like the clue on the treasure-track, not all can fmd it. You are not moved, witnessing Hafiz' tears ? I cannot understand that heart, harder than stone.

"I talk to myself endlessly in my dreams, reminding myself to look at things," I said to don Juan. I had all along respected our agreement that we would talk about dreaming only when he brought up the subject. However, I thought that this was an emergency. "Does it sound to you like it's not you but someone else?" he asked. "Come to think of it, yes. I don't sound like myself at those times." "Then it's not you. It's not time yet to explain it. But let's say that we are not alone in this world. Let's say that there are other worlds available to dreamers, total worlds. From those other total worlds, energetic entities sometimes come to us. The next time you hear yourself nagging at yourself in your dreams, get really angry and yell a command. Say, Stop it!" I entered into another challenging arena: to remember in my dreams to shout that command. I believe that, perhaps, out of being so tremendously annoyed at hearing myself nagging, I did remember to shout, Stop it. The nagging ceased instantly and never again was repeated. "Does every dreamer experience this?" I asked don Juan when I saw him again. "Some do," he answered, uninterestedly. I began to rant about how strange it had all been. He cut me off, saying, "You are ready now to get to the second gate of dreaming." I seized the opportunity to seek answers for questions I had not been able to ask him. What I had experienced the first time he made me dream had been foremost in my mind. I told don Juan that I had observed the elements of my own dreams to my heart's content, and never had I felt anything even vaguely similar in terms of clarity and detail. "The more I think about it," I said, "the more intriguing it becomes. Watching those people in that dream, I experienced a fear and revulsion impossible to forget. What was that feeling, don Juan?" "In my opinion, your energy body hooked onto the foreign energy of that place and had the time of its life. Naturally, you felt afraid and revolted; you were examining alien energy for the first time in your life. "You have a proclivity for behaving like the sorcerers of antiquity. The moment you have the chance, you let your assemblage point go. That time your assemblage point shifted quite a distance. The result was that you, like the old sorcerers, journeyed beyond the world we know. A most real but dangerous journey." I bypassed the meaning of his statements in favor of my own interest and asked him, "Was that city perhaps on another planet?" "You can't explain dreaming by way of things you know or suspect you know," he said. "All I can tell you is that the city you visited was not in this world." "Where was it, then?" "Out of this world, of course. You're not that stupid. That was the first thing you noticed. What got you going in circles is that you can't imagine anything being out of this world." "Where is out of this world, don Juan?" "Believe me, the most extravagant feature of sorcery is that configuration called out of this world. For instance, you assumed that I was seeing the same things you did. The proof is that you never asked me what I saw. You and only you saw a city and people in that city. I didn't see anything of the sort. I saw energy. So, out of this world was, for you alone, on that occasion, a city." "But then, don Juan, it wasn't a real city It existed only for me, in my mind." "No. That's not the case. Now you want to reduce something transcendental to something mundane. You can't do that. That journey was real. You saw it as a city. I saw it as energy. Neither of us is right or wrong." "My confusion comes when you talk about things being real. You said before that we reached a real place. But if it was real, how can we have two versions of it?" "Very simple. We have two versions because we had, at that time, two different rates of uniformity and cohesion. I have explained to you that those two attributes are the key to perceiving." "Do you think that I can go back to that particular city?" "You got me there. I don't know. Or perhaps I do know but can't explain it. Or perhaps I can explain it but I don't want to. You'll have to wait and figure out for yourself which is the case." He refused any further discussion. "Let's get on with our business," he said. "You reach the second gate of dreaming when you wake up from a dream into another dream. You can have as many dreams as you want or as many as you are capable of, but you must exercise adequate control and not wake up in the world we know." I had a jolt of panic. "Are you saying that I should never wake up in this world?" I asked. "No, I didn't mean that. But now that you have pointed it out, I have to tell you that it is an alternative. The sorcerers of antiquity used to do that, never wake up in the world we know. Some of the sorcerers of my line have done it too. It certainly can be done, but I don't recommend it. What I want is for you to wake up naturally when you are through with dreaming, but while you are dreaming, I want you to dream that you wake up in another dream." I heard myself asking the same question I had asked the first time he told me about setting up dreaming. "But is it possible to do that?" Don Juan obviously caught on to my mindlessness and laughingly repeated the answer he had given me before. "Of course it's possible. This control is no different from the control we have over any situation in our daily lives." I quickly got over my embarrassment and was ready to ask more questions, but don Juan anticipated me and began to explain facets of the second gate of dreaming, an explanation that made me yet more uneasy. "There's one problem with the second gate," he said. "It's a problem that can be serious, depending on one's bent of character. If our tendency is to indulge in clinging to things or situations, we are in for a sock in the jaw." "In what way, don Juan?" "Think for a moment. You've already experienced the outlandish joy of examining your dreams' contents. Imagine yourself going from dream to dream, watching everything, examining every detail. It's very easy to realize that one may sink to mortal depths. Especially if one is given to indulging." "Wouldn't the body or the brain naturally put a stop to it?" "If it's a natural sleeping situation, meaning normal, yes. But this is not a normal situation. This is dreaming. A dreamer on crossing the first gate has already reached the energy body. So what is really going through the second gate, hopping from dream to dream, is the energy body." "What's the implication of all this, don Juan?" "The implication is that on crossing the second gate you must intend a greater and more sober control over your dreaming attention: the only safety valve for dreamers." "What is this safety valve?" "You will find out for yourself that the true goal of dreaming is to perfect the energy body. A perfect energy body, among other things of course, has such a control over the dreaming attention that it makes it stop when needed. This is the safety valve dreamers have. No matter how indulging they might be, at a given time, their dreaming attention must make them surface." I started all over again on another dreaming quest. This time the goal was more elusive and the difficulty even greater. Exactly as with my first task, I could not begin to figure out what to do. I had the discouraging suspicion that all my practice was not going to be of much help this time. After countless failures, I gave up and settled down to simply continue my practice of fixing my dreaming attention on every item of my dreams. Accepting my shortcomings seemed to give me a boost, and I became even more adept at sustaining the view of any item in my dreams. A year went by without any change. Then one day something changed. As I was watching a window in a dream, trying to. find out if I could catch a glimpse of the scenery outside the room, some windlike force, which I felt as a buzzing in my ears, pulled me through the window to the outside. Just before that pull, my dreaming attention had been caught by a strange structure some distance away. It looked like a tractor. The next thing I knew, I was standing by it, examining it. I was perfectly aware that I was dreaming. I looked around to find out if I could tell from what window I had been looking. The scene was that of a farm in the countryside. No buildings were in sight. I wanted to ponder this. However, the quantity of farm machinery lying around, as if abandoned, took all my attention. I examined mowing machines, tractors, grain harvesters, disk plows, thrashers. There were so many that I forgot my original dream. What I wanted then was to orient myself by watching the immediate scenery. There was something in the distance that looked like a billboard and some telephone poles around it. The instant I focused my attention on that billboard, I was next to it. The steel structure of the billboard gave me a fright. It was menacing. On the billboard itself was a picture of a building. I read the text; it was an advertisement for a motel. I had a peculiar certainty that I was in Oregon or northern California. I looked for other features in the environment of my dream. I saw mountains very far away and some green, round hills not too far. On those hills were clumps of what I thought were California oak trees. I wanted to be pulled by the green hills, but what pulled me were the distant mountains. I was convinced that they were the Sierras. All my dreaming energy left me on those mountains. But before it did, I was pulled by every possible feature. My dream ceased to be a dream. As far as my capacity to perceive was concerned, I was veritably in the Sierras, zooming into ravines, boulders, trees, caves. I went from sharp faces to mountain peaks until I had no more drive and could not focus my dreaming attention on anything. I felt myself losing control. Finally, there was no more scenery, just darkness. "You have reached the second gate of dreaming," don Juan said when I narrated my dream to him. "What you should do next is to cross it. Crossing the second gate is a very serious affair; it requires a most disciplined effort." I was not sure I had fulfilled the task he outlined for me, because I had not really woken up in another dream. I asked don Juan about this irregularity. "The mistake was mine," he said. "I told you that one has to wake up in another dream, but what I meant is that one has to change dreams in an orderly and precise manner, the way you have done it. "With the first gate, you wasted a lot of time looking exclusively for your hands. This time, you went directly to the solution without bothering to follow the given command: to wake up in another dream." Don Juan said that there are two ways of properly crossing the second gate of dreaming. One is to wake up in another dream, that is to say, to dream that one is having a dream and then dream that one wakes up from it. The alternative is to use the items of a dream to trigger another dream, exactly as I had done. Just as he had been doing all along, don Juan let me practice without any interference on his part. And I corroborated the two alternatives he described. Either I dreamt that I was having a dream from which I dreamt I woke up or I zoomed from a definite item accessible to my immediate dreaming attention to another one, not quite accessible. Or I entered into a slight variation of the second: I gazed at any item of a dream, maintaining the gaze until the item changed shape and, by changing shape, pulled me into another dream through a buzzing vortex. Never was I capable, however, of deciding beforehand which of the three I would follow. My dreaming practices always ended by my running out of dreaming attention and finally waking up or by my falling into dark, deep slumber. Everything went smoothly in my practices. The only disturbance I had was a peculiar interference, a jolt of fear or discomfort I had begun to experience with increasing frequency. My way of discarding it was to believe that it was related to my ghastly eating habits or to the fact that, in those days, don Juan was giving me a profusion of hallucinogenic plants as part of my training. Those jolts became so prominent, however, that I had to ask don Juan's advice. "You have entered now into the most dangerous facet of the sorcerers' knowledge," he began. "it is sheer dread, a veritable nightmare. I could joke with you and say that I didn't mention this possibility to you out of regard for your cherished rationality, but I can't. Every sorcerer has to face it. Here is where, I fear, you might very well think you're going off the deep end." Don Juan very solemnly explained that life and consciousness, being exclusively a matter of energy, are not solely the property of organisms. He said that sorcerers have seen that there are two types of conscious beings roaming the earth, the organic and the inorganic, and that in comparing one with the other, they have seen that both are luminous masses crossed from every imaginable angle by millions of the universe's energy filaments. They are different from each other in their shape and in their degree of brightness. Inorganic beings are long and candlelike but opaque, whereas organic beings are round and by far the brighter. Another noteworthy difference, which don Juan said sorcerers have seen, is that the life and consciousness of organic beings is short-lived, because they are made to hurry, whereas the life of inorganic beings is infinitely longer and their consciousness infinitely more calm and deeper. "Sorcerers find no problem interacting with them," don Juan went on. "Inorganic beings possess the crucial ingredient for interaction, consciousness." "But do these inorganic beings really exist? Like you and I exist?" I asked. "Of course they do," he replied. "Believe me, sorcerers are very intelligent creatures; under no condition would they toy with aberrations of the mind and then take them for real." "Why do you say they are alive?" "For sorcerers, having life means having consciousness. It means having an assemblage point and its surrounding glow of awareness, a condition that points out to sorcerers that the being in front of them, organic or inorganic, is thoroughly capable of perceiving. Perceiving is understood by sorcerers as the precondition of being alive." "Then the inorganic beings must also die. Is that true, don Juan?" "Naturally. They lose their awareness just like we do, except that the length of their consciousness is staggering to the mind." "Do these inorganic beings appear to sorcerers?" "It's very difficult to tell what is what with them. Let's say that those beings are enticed by us or, better yet, compelled to interact with us." Don Juan peered at me most intently. "You're not taking in any of this at all," he said with the tone of someone who has reached a conclusion. "It's nearly impossible for me to think about this rationally," I said. "I warned you that the subject will tax your reason. The proper thing to do then is to suspend judgment and let things take their course, meaning that you let the inorganic beings come to you." "Are you serious, don Juan?" "Deadly serious. The difficulty with inorganic beings is that their awareness is very slow in comparison with ours. It will take years for a sorcerer to be acknowledged by inorganic beings. So, it is advisable to have patience and wait. Sooner or later they show up. But not like you or I would show up. Theirs is a most peculiar way to make themselves known." "How do sorcerers entice them? Do they have a ritual?" "Well, they certainly don't stand in the middle of the road and call out to them with trembling voices at the stroke of midnight, if that's what you mean." "What do they do then?" "They entice them in dreaming. I said that what's involved is more than enticing them; by the act of dreaming, sorcerers compel those beings to interact with them." "How do sorcerers compel them by the act of dreaming?" "Dreaming is sustaining the position where the assemblage point has shifted in dreams. This act creates a distinctive energy charge, which attracts their attention. It's like bait to fish; they'll go for it. Sorcerers, by reaching and crossing the first two gates' of dreaming, set bait for those beings and compel them to appear. "By going through the two gates, you have made your bidding known to them. Now, you must wait for a sign from them." "What would the sign be, don Juan?" "Possibly the appearance of one of them, although that seems too soon. I am of the opinion that their sign will be simply some interference in your dreaming. I believe that the jolts of fear you are experiencing nowadays are not indigestion but energy jolts sent to you by the inorganic beings." "What should I do?" "You must gauge your expectations." I could not understand what he meant, and he carefully explained that our normal expectation when engaging in inter action with our fellow men or with other organic beings is to get an immediate reply to our solicitation. With inorganic beings, however, since they are separated from us by a most formidable barrier-energy that moves at a different speed- sorcerers must gauge their expectations and sustain the solicitation for as long as it takes to be acknowledged. "Do you mean, don Juan, that the solicitation is the same as the dreaming practices?" "Yes. But for a perfect result, you must add to your practices the intent of reaching those inorganic beings. Send a feeling of power and confidence to them, a feeling of strength, of detachment. Avoid at any cost sending a feeling of fear or morbidity They are pretty morbid by themselves; to add your morbidity to them is unnecessary, to say the least." "I'm not clear, don Juan, about the way they appear to sorcerers. What is the peculiar way they make themselves known?" "They do, at times, materialize themselves in the daily world, right in front of us. Most of the time, though, their invisible presence is marked by a bodily jolt, a shiver of sorts that comes from the marrow of the bones." "What about in dreaming, don Juan?" "In dreaming we have the total opposite. At times, we feel them the way you are feeling them, as a jolt of fear. Most of the time, they materialize themselves right in front of us. Since at the beginning of dreaming we have no experience whatsoever with them, they might imbue us with fear beyond measure. That is a real danger to us. Through the channel of fear, they can follow us to the daily world, with disastrous results for us." "In what way, don Juan?" "Fear can settle down in our lives, and we would have to be mavericks to deal with it. Inorganic beings can be worse than a pest. Through fear they can easily drive us raving mad." "What do sorcerers do with inorganic beings?" "They mingle with them. They turn them into allies. They form associations, create extraordinary friendships. I call them vast enterprises, where perception plays the uppermost role. We are social beings. We unavoidably seek the company of consciousness. "With inorganic beings, the secret is not to fear them. And this must be done from the beginning. The intent one has to send out to them has to be of power and abandon. In that intent one must encode the message 'I don't fear you. Come to see me. If you do, I'll welcome you. If you don't want to come, I'll miss you.' With a message like this, they'll get so curious that they'll come for sure." "Why should they come to seek me, or why on earth should I seek them?" "Dreamers, whether they like it or not, in their dreaming seek associations with other beings. This may come to you as a shock, but dreamers automatically seek groups of beings, nexuses of inorganic beings in this case. Dreamers seek them avidly." "This is very strange to me, don Juan. Why would dreamers do that?" "The novelty for us is the inorganic beings. And the novelty for them is one of our kind crossing the boundaries of their realm. The thing you must bear in mind from now on is that inorganic beings with their superb consciousness exert a tremendous pull over dreamers and can easily transport them into worlds beyond description. "The sorcerers of antiquity used them, and they are the ones who coined the name allies. Their allies taught them to move the assemblage point out of the egg's boundaries into the non human universe. So when they transport a sorcerer, they transport him to worlds beyond the human domain." As I heard him talk, I was plagued by strange fears and misgivings, which he promptly realized. "You are a religious man to the end." He laughed. "Now, you're feeling the devil breathing down your neck. Think about dreaming in these terms: dreaming is perceiving more than what we believe it is possible to perceive." In my waking hours, I worried about the possibility that inorganic conscious beings really existed. When I was dreaming, however, my conscious worries did not have much effect. The jolts of physical fear continued, but whenever they happened a strange calmness always trailed behind, a calmness that took control of me and let me proceed as if I had no fear at all. It seemed at that time that every breakthrough in dreaming happened to me suddenly, without warning. The presence of inorganic beings in my dreams was no exception. It happened while I was dreaming about a circus I knew in my childhood. The setting looked like a town in the mountains in Arizona. I began to watch people with the vague hope I always had that I would see again the people I had seen the first time don Juan made me enter into the second attention. As I watched them, I felt a sizable jolt of nervousness in the pit of my stomach; it was like a punch. The jolt distracted me, and I lost sight of the people, the circus, and the mountain town in Arizona. In their place stood two strange-looking figures. They were thin, less than a foot wide, but long, perhaps seven feet. They were looming over me like two gigantic earthworms. I knew that it was a dream, but I also knew that I was seeing. Don Juan had discussed seeing in my normal awareness and in the second attention as well. Although I was incapable of experiencing it myself, I thought I had understood the idea of directly perceiving energy. In that dream, looking at those two strange apparitions, I realized that I was seeing the energy essence of something unbelievable. I remained very calm. I did not move. The most remarkable thing to me was that they didn't dissolve or change into something else. They were cohesive beings that retained their candlelike shape. Something in them was forcing something in me to hold the view of their shape. I knew it because something was telling me that if I did not move, they would not move either. It all came to an end, at a given moment, when I woke up with a fright. I was immediately besieged by fears. A deep preoccupation took hold of me. It was not psychological worry but rather a bodily sense of anguish, sadness with no apparent foundation. The two strange shapes appeared to me from then on in every one of my dreaming sessions. Eventually, it was as if I dreamt only to encounter them. They never attempted to move toward me or to interfere with me in any way. They just stood there, immobile, in front of me, for as long as my dream lasted. Not only did I never make any effort to change my dreams but I even forgot the original quest of my dreaming practices. When I finally discussed with don Juan what was happening to me, I had spent months solely viewing the two shapes. "You are stuck at a dangerous crossroad," don Juan said. "It isn't right to chase these beings away, but it isn't right either to let them stay. For the time being, their presence is a hindrance to your dreaming." "What can I do, don Juan?" "Face them, right now, in the world of daily life, and tell them to come back later, when you have more dreaming power." "How do I face them?" "It's not simple, but it can be done. It requires only that you have enough guts, which of course you do." Without waiting for me to tell him that I had no guts at all, he took me to the hills. He lived then in northern Mexico, and he had given me the total impression he was a solitary sorcerer, an old man forgotten by everybody and completely outside the main current of human affairs. I had surmised, however, that he was intelligent beyond measure. And because of this I was willing to comply with what I half-believed were mere eccentricities. The cunningness of sorcerers, cultivated through the ages, was don Juan's trademark. He made sure that I understood all I could in my normal awareness and, at the same time, he made sure that I entered into the second attention, where I understood or at least passionately listened to everything he taught me. In this fashion, he divided me in two. In my normal consciousness, I could not understand why or how I was more than willing to take his eccentricities seriously. In the second attention, it all made sense to me. His contention was that the second attention is available to all of us, but, by willfully holding on to our half-cocked rationality, some of us more fiercely than others, keep the second attention at arm's length. His idea was that dreaming brings down the bathers that surround and insulate the second attention. The day he took me to the hills of the Sonoran desert to meet the inorganic beings, I was in my normal state of awareness. Yet somehow I knew I had to do something that was certainly going to be unbelievable. It had rained lightly in the desert. The red dirt was still wet, and as I walked it got clumped up in the rubber soles of my shoes. I had to step on rocks to remove the heavy chunks of dirt. We walked in an easterly direction, climbing toward the hills. When we got to a narrow gully between two hills, don Juan stopped. "This is for sure an ideal place to summon your friends," he said. "Why do you call them my friends?" "They have singled you out themselves. When they do that, it means that they seek an association. I've mentioned to you that sorcerers form bonds of friendship with them. Your case seems to be an example. And you don't even have to solicit them." "What does such a friendship consist of, don Juan?" "It consists of a mutual exchange of energy. The inorganic beings supply their high awareness, and sorcerers supply their heightened awareness and high energy. The positive result is an even exchange. The negative one is dependency on both parties. "The old sorcerers used to love their allies. In fact, they loved their allies more than they loved their own kind. I can foresee terrible dangers in that." "What do you recommend I do, don Juan?" "Summon them. Size them up, and then decide yourself what to do." "What should I do to summon them?" "Hold your dream view of them, in your mind. The reason they have saturated you with their presence in your dreams is that they want to create a memory of their shape in your mind. And this is the time to use that memory" Don Juan forcefully ordered me to close my eyes and keep them closed. Then he guided me to sit down on some rocks. I felt the hardness and the coldness of the rocks. The rocks were slanted; it was difficult to keep my balance. "Sit here and visualize their shape until they are just like they. are in your dreams," don Juan said in my ear. "Let me know when you have them in focus." It took me very little time and effort to have a complete mental picture of their shape, just like in my dreams. It did not surprise me at all that I could do it. What shocked me was that, although I tried desperately to let don Juan know I had pictured them in my mind, I could not voice my words or open my eyes. I was definitely awake. I could hear everything. I heard don Juan say, "You can open your 'eyes now." I opened them with no difficulty I was sitting cross-legged on some rocks, which were not the same ones I had felt under me when I sat down. Don Juan was just behind me to my right. I tried to turn around to face him, but he forced my head to remain straight. And then I saw two dark figures, like two thin tree trunks, right in front of me. I stared at them open mouthed; they were not as tall as in my dreams. They had shrunk to half their size. Instead of being shapes of opaque luminosity, they were now two condensed, dark, almost black, menacing sticks. "Get up and grab one of them," don Juan ordered me, "and don't let go, no matter how it shakes you." I definitely did not want to do anything of the sort, but some unknown drive made me stand up against my will. I had at that moment the clear realization that I would end up doing what he had ordered me to, although I had no conscious intention of doing so. Mechanically, I advanced toward the two figures, my heart pounding nearly out of my chest. I grabbed the one to my right. What I felt was an electric discharge that almost made me drop the dark figure. Don Juan's voice came to me as if he had been yelling from a distance away. "You drop it and you're done for," he said. I held on to the figure, which twirled and shook. Not like a massive animal would, but like something quite fluffy and light, although strongly electrical. We rolled and turned on the sand of the gully for quite some time. It gave me jolt after jolt of some sickening electric current. I thought it was sickening because I fancied it to be different from the energy I had always encountered in our daily world. When it hit my body, it tickled me and made me yell and growl like an animal, not in anguish but in a strange anger. It finally became a still, almost solid form under me. It lay inert. I asked don Juan if it was dead, but I did not hear my voice. "Not a chance," said someone laughing, someone who was not don Juan. "You've just depleted its energy charge. But don't get up yet. Lie there just a moment longer." I looked at don Juan with a question in my eyes. He was examining me with great curiosity. Then he helped me up. The dark figure remained on the ground. I wanted to ask don Juan if the dark figure was all right. Again, I could not voice my question. Then I did something extravagant. I took it all for real. Up to that moment something in my mind was preserving my rationality by taking what was happening as a dream, a dream induced by don Juan's machinations. I went to the figure on the ground and tried to lift it up. I could not put my arms around it because it had no mass. I became disoriented. The same voice, which was not don Juan's, told me to lie down on top of the inorganic being. I did it, and both of us got up in one motion, the inorganic being like a dark shadow attached to me. It gently separated from me and disappeared, leaving me with an extremely pleasant feeling of completeness. It took me more than twenty-four hours to regain total control of my faculties. I slept most of the time. Don Juan checked me from time to time by asking me the same question, "Was the inorganic being's energy like fire or like water?" My throat seemed scorched. I could not tell him that the energy jolts I had felt were like jets of electrified water. I have never felt jets of electrified water in my life. I am not sure if it is possible to produce them or to feel them, but that was the image playing in my mind every time don Juan asked his key question. Don Juan was asleep when I finally knew I was completely recovered. Knowing that his question was of great importance, I woke him up and told him what I had felt. "You are not going to have helping friends among the inorganic beings, but relationships of annoying dependence," he stated. "Be extremely careful. Watery inorganic beings are more given to excesses. The old sorcerers believed that they were more loving, more capable of imitating, or perhaps even having feelings. As opposed to the fiery ones, who were thought to be more serious, more contained than the others, but also more pompous." "What's the meaning of all this for me, don Juan?" "The meaning is too vast to discuss at this time. My recommendation is that you vanquish fear from your dreams and from your life, in order to safeguard your unity The inorganic being you depleted of energy and then recharged again was thrilled out of its candle-like shape with it. It'll come to you for more." "Why didn't you stop me, don Juan?" "You didn't give me time. Besides, you didn't even hear me shouting at you to leave the inorganic being on the ground." "You should have lectured me, beforehand, the way you always do, about all the possibilities." "I didn't know all the possibilities. In matters of the inorganic beings, I am nearly a novice. I refused that part of the sorcerers' knowledge on the ground that it is too cumbersome and capricious. I don't want to be at the mercy of any entity. organic or inorganic." That was the end of our exchange. I should have been worried because of his definitely negative reaction, but I was not. I somehow was certain that whatever I had done was all right. I continued my dreaming practices without any interference from the inorganic beings.

When you are meditating step back into a dream and start to interact with the characters. Talk to them. Do experiments to test your theories One issue is that dream imagery is formed/modified from your existing set of brain images. This usually limits how true is the dream image to the dream energy

My first experience/conscious memory of this life was a dream that led to an out of body experience. I was three. I had no notion of what dreams or death was, nor even really my body or identity yet. I was just an awareness exploring life. It instilled in me the unshakable vajra experience that awareness is not body dependent, nor body originated or centered. It was a gift beyond anything I could envision or seek intentionally then or now. Before I had even a concept of body death, I had the indelible experience that the body is not the center of awareness or of life itself. In my late 40's I died on several occasions a few years apart. Two I have no active recall of, but returned in an enduring and intently blissful state of gratitude that abided for months. The other occasion resulted in two encounters of which there are memories and again a blissful abiding state of enduring devotional gratitude that returns unbidden on occasion since then...