ALBEDO
I had checked into a reasonably civilized hotel on the lower part of Halfeld Street in Juiz de Fora, and for three days and three nights, I simply didn't leave the room I had rented. I bought a considerable amount of groceries (whole-wheat bread, fruit, and cartons of milk), with which I intended to cleanse my body before beginning the more intense practices of inner silence and the more extreme physical exercises. With a limited fifteen days to replenish my energy before leaving for the Xingú River in Pará, I obviously couldn't dedicate myself to the blackening work (NIGREDO) full-time, so I began to recapitulate frantically. In this phase of the work on oneself, Carlos Castaneda returns to speak of the importance of exercises to recapitulate life events and the control over breathing that accompanies it, to improve the altered states of consciousness that the initiate seeks to cleanse his mind of the lower sediments of the personality, such as negative emotions radiated from bad memories of people, scenes, places and situations experienced that unconsciously capture his attention. Nagualist teachings hold that RECAPITULATION is the way to bring this trapped psychic energy back to our body and spirit. At the beginning of this work, recapitulation retains the initiate's inner silence more than meditation, which may not produce the desired effect if the person's mind is excessively obstructed by mental images of past situations. As the poet Manoel de Barros would say, recapitulation "binds the inner silence with a buckle." The broom of breathing is the keynote of this exercise of practical occultism, which should be performed in comfortable semi-darkness, with light clothing, bare feet, and preferably sitting in a cushioned armchair. From the fourth day on, I began walking miles and miles through the streets of Juiz de Fora, especially after five in the afternoon, when the main thoroughfares of the city center transform into an enchanted landscape, intense as an opium dream. I've walked the streets of cities all over Brazil, and I'd venture to say that nowhere are there so many beautiful girls per square meter doing the traditional late afternoon jogging as in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. My eyes darted from the schoolgirl face of a seventeen-year-old Renaissance duchess to that of a rose-colored femme fatale in lawyer's robes leaving the courthouse with an eagle's eye on endlessly won lawsuits, and then to that of a blonde, green-eyed movie star in a light blue lab coat behind a pharmacy counter, and then to a pamphlet delivery girl in the middle of the street who must have been Cleopatra or Brigitte Bardot in her final incarnation, as if I were traveling through a land whose geography was made up solely of beautiful female faces, each a small town or village. I was like a fish before the glass of an aquarium, gliding through an endless cinematic traveling lens. A gaze clung to the burning twilight, an eye fixed, staring, staring. Everywhere there were beautiful, well-dressed girls leaving school, heading to college, chatting in skintight clothes at the doors of gyms. Lipstick-red lips stood out in the shadows, caught fire in profound detail under the headlights of cars on Rio Branco Avenue, thighs brushed against each other under flowery skirts, perfect hips arched, sweet-smelling perfumes invading my nostrils, more dreamlike glances, inconceivable flirtations.
I'd stop one or another and ask for some information I already knew beforehand, just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. One of them was named Daisy and stared at me with interest for a long minute, unblinking. I said something and couldn't find my voice in my throat. She looked back suspiciously and then gave me her phone number. Did she have a boyfriend? Partying on Saturday? It gave me food for thought. Fifth day. But I decided to go back to the hotel and continue the work. Friday. Return to the room in that hotel at the bottom of Halfeld and reclaim from the spirit the intensity hidden beneath everyday things. In any case, it already seemed to be happening. The fifth day of energy tracking had always brought me temptations throughout my life, due to the magnetism it endowed my physical appearance with. Therefore, to advance on the steep path of energy tracking, the initiate sometimes requires an uncritical capacity for renunciation. By the third day, I had begun to hear with acute clarity the "buzzing" of the inner ear, which Helena Blavatsky describes with a confusing avalanche of esoteric symbolism in her little book entitled THE VOICE OF SILENCE. Sound (upadi) is the vehicle of energy in Hindu doctrine. And it is precisely this internal sound that the initiate must learn to modulate within consciousness to access the source of inexhaustible psychic energy.
ResponderExcluirBecomings and flows of intensity. Ecstasy-agency, not ecstasy-image. Inverted birth on the hidden side of reality. Powerful non-organic vitality drawn from who knows what astral stratifications. A dynamic act of consciousness. Deterritorialization of the personality and passage to the fluid and luminous world of archetypes. A satisfying foray into the dark sea of consciousness reveals a world of inorganic entities living parallel to the physical world. According to the seers of the lineage of the nagual Juan Matus, there are 48 great bands of emanations on Earth, and we can find this number in many other occult traditions, such as in Gurdjieff's Sufism. According to the Toltec tradition, forty of these bands of emanations are formal (elemental) and do not harbor any form of consciousness, they are merely structures. The remaining eight bands of emanations possess conscious life, but only one, ours, harbors organic life.
ResponderExcluirThe Toltecs further assert that each band of this group of eight is constituted by three bundles of consciousness, thus we can relate the seven groups of inorganic beings to the twenty-one abstract cores mentioned by Carlos Castaneda. The inorganic beings represent paired energies, as they are a parallel universe. The ancient shamans of Mexico discovered very early on that the entire universe is composed of twin forces, forces that oppose and complement each other, hence the fact that most Toltec sorcerers transform some of these inorganic entities into "allies." The inorganic ones possess an infinitely more developed consciousness than ours, but they lack vital energy, which is abundant in humans, and therefore they are also interested in this type of exchange or alliance. It is irrefutable that our world is a twin world, and that the opposite and complementary world is populated by entities that have consciousness but no organism. Such "twin forces" correspond, to a large extent, to the parallel universe of the modern scientific theory of supersymmetry. Most of these inorganic beings have the same longevity as the planet, and in this sense (and only in this sense) they can be considered eternal. THE EARTH IS THEIR MOTHER (Emerald Tablet, Hermes Trismegistus)
ResponderExcluirWith the definitive abandonment of the physical body at the time of their deaths, initiates also become inorganic beings, which does not occur with an ordinary person, whose consciousness automatically extinguishes. A disembodied initiate is like a highly specialized inorganic being, with great speed, capable of frightening maneuvers of perception. Lying in the darkness of that hotel room, from the sixth day onward, I began to meditate ecstatically for hours on end, completely dead to the world amidst an overdose of extrasensory perceptions. Points of light, inorganic figures, gradient lines producing pressure at the base of my skull, waves of energy coursing through my entire body and provoking that characteristic tingling sensation between my eyes, caused by the overactive pineal gland secreting DMT.
ResponderExcluirThe work of Dr. Rick Strassman, a psychiatrist at the University of New Mexico, is especially significant in this regard: seeking to establish a biological basis for altered (mystical) states of consciousness, to the point of proposing that the pineal gland contains all the necessary components to produce psychedelic chemicals such as DMT, such is the similarity found between the psychedelic states of people who ingest DMT and high states of meditation and near-death experiences (NDEs). "It is as if the pineal gland possesses all the compounds, enzymes, and structural building blocks necessary for the independent production of DMT" (Rick Strassman). "The pineal gland also fascinated me because it first becomes visible in the human fetus 49 days after conception [generation of the embryo]. This is also the time when the sex of the fetus becomes clearly distinguishable. 49 days, according to various Buddhist texts, is how long it takes for the life force of someone who has died to enter the next incarnation. Perhaps the life force of a human enters the fetus after 49 days through the pineal gland" (Rick Strassman).
ResponderExcluirSome scientists believe that pineal cells in all vertebrates share a common evolutionary ancestor with retinal cells (it is no coincidence that the pineal gland has historically been identified as the "THIRD EYE" of mystical traditions or even a "sleeping eye"; it literally appears to be a "sleeping third eye" in most people). Although melatonin production in the pineal gland could be determined by a connection with the optic nerves, it is interesting to explore the possibility that this small pine-shaped gland (hence its name: pineal) has, in itself, a certain photoreceptor and magnetoreceptor capacity. Recently, the presence of ferromagnetic minerals (which means "acting like magnets") has been discovered in the pineal gland.
ResponderExcluirA study conducted by Ben Gurion University in Israel found the presence of calcite microcrystals in the pineal gland. The study authors note that "these crystals could be responsible for an ELECTROMAGNETIC BIOLOGICAL TRANSDUCTION, which is suggested by their "PIEZOELECTRIC STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES." It was during the practice of recapitulation as described above (self-remembering and self-hypnosis via holotropic breathwork) that the most significant shifts in light and sound began in earnest. Once established, I would meditate in the dark uninterruptedly. I would enter the light of the second attention almost instantly, knowing that in order not to get lost in the jungle of inorganic scouts, that immersion must be simultaneously overcome by the mechanism of alchemical whitening (ALBEDO), which allowed the fixation of pure psychic energy at the central point or eye of consciousness projection.
ResponderExcluirContinue in one minute
ResponderExcluirThe greatest danger of the work of blackening is the loss of sobriety, losing oneself so deeply in the abyss of the second attention—which is a vegetative state of contemplation—that one can no longer return to a state of sane balance in everyday life. But the authentic initiate is someone who has already gone through all this ordeal and learned to bring consciousness back to its habitual state of normalcy. They have learned, in short, and through arduous training, to discern among all the strange forces they come into contact with within the dark sea of consciousness, to identify the luminosity of strengthening influences, and to establish themselves in the bright spot of transparency of a purified human psyche, through which the light of the intellect (discernment) filters ever deeper.
ResponderExcluirWhile the practitioner of black magic clings only to the telluric elements of consciousness, knowing them only through the five earthly senses, the initiate directly perceives his soul substance, since the spirits of earth, water, air, and fire were already revealed to him at the moment he received his initiation and was definitively born into the hidden side of reality. From this moment on, he began to perfectly understand what Muslims call the "Language of the Birds" (Ullima Mantiqat-Tayri) (Qur'an, XXVII, 15), which allowed him to reintegrate into the center of the human state. In the medieval symbolism of the Peridexion (a corruption of Paradision), birds are observed on the branches of trees and the monster (dragon) at their feet. This opposition is translated into every being by the ascending and descending tendencies, called, respectively, sattwa and tamas in Hindu doctrine. The initiate then has his perception open to the sattwic dimension, which allows him to "rectify" (as in the formula of medieval alchemy: VISITA INTERIORA TERRAE E RECTIFICANDO OCCULTUM LAPIDEM) the ambiguous influences by reabsorbing them in the sparks of the superior mental fire which, so to speak, burns that which does not lend itself to the evolution of consciousness.
ResponderExcluirThe initiate, reintegrated into the higher center of the human state, sees nature from within, and this is already part of the alchemical whitening process (ALBEDO). In plant symbolism, widely used by medieval alchemists, the whitening phase corresponds to the arrival of spring: after the dark winter of consciousness in the blackening phase, all colors gradually return to manifest in the white offering of a Lila. In animal symbolism, while the work of blackening is related to the "flight of the raven," the work of whitening begins with the opening of the "peacock's fan" and is completed with the vision of a white swan gliding across a silver sea. And finally, in mineral symbolism, which is most closely related to alchemy, the work of whitening is a "baptism," a "washing" that purifies the metallic substance and crystallizes it as silver, "our living silver," which is pure, subtle, luminous, clear as spring water. In Gichtel's representation, albedo seems to correspond to the marriage of Mars and Venus. Here, Venus is the goddess of divine love, not the erotic love of other representations. She is the "celestial Venus," lovingly receptive to the spiritual presence.
ResponderExcluirMedieval alchemy largely adopted the symbolism of the spiritual quest, which always culminates in a feminine image of the WORLD SOUL: the chalice of the HOLY GRAIL. They also defended the idea that all these concepts are opposed to the pursuit of any erotic pleasure, since they concern only the reestablishment of a state of chaste submission to the divine will. However, it has always been very difficult for me to fully accept this idea, especially since my initiatory journey was entirely tantric and sexual. Certainly, the temporary concentration of sexual energy is the basis of all authentic initiatory work, and no one who tries to diminish its importance in the spiritual realm deserves to be taken seriously. However, in the world we live in, a regular initiation process will rarely culminate in the offering of an absolutely virgin soul to the embrace of the transcendental spirit. This in no way prevents a true initiation from occurring if the necessary energy has been gathered in the body of the seeker of spiritual power. Medieval alchemists were ascetics withdrawn from the world of mundane life, which is not my case.
ResponderExcluirSo, for me, it was a moment of fundamental relief to leave that hotel room in the late afternoon and wander aimlessly through the city after long hours of meditation that began at ten o'clock at night and lasted until dawn. Solvitur wandering. "The street leads the stroller to a vanished time," as Walter Benjamin says in his brilliant essay on the French poet Charles Baudelaire: "For the stroller, all streets are steep. They lead downward, if not to their mothers, then to a past that can be all the more bewitching insofar as it is not their own, their private past. Yet this always remains the time of a childhood. But why the time of their lived life? On the asphalt they walk on, their footsteps awaken a surprising resonance. The gas lamp shining on the pavement projects an ambiguous light on this double background. - An intoxication seizes the one who has long wandered the streets. With each step, the walk gains increasing power, the seduction of shops, bistros, and restaurants becomes ever less, and the attraction of smiling women, the magnetism of the next corner, a mass of distant leaves, or a name on a street sign becomes ever more irresistible.
ResponderExcluir- The flanator as a type was created by Paris. It's strange that it wasn't Rome. Why? Doesn't the dream find walkable paths in Rome itself? And isn't the city filled with temples, enclosed squares, and national sanctuaries, so that it can penetrate undivided, with every cobblestone, every sign, every step, every portico, into the dream of the passerby? Much can also be attributed to the national character of the Italians. For it wasn't outsiders, but they, the Parisians themselves, who made Paris the Promised Land of the flanator, "the landscape built purely of life," as Hofmannstahl once called it. Landscape—this is what the city becomes for the flanator. Better still, for him, the city is enclosed in its dialectical poles. It opens itself to him like a landscape and, like a hotel room, encircles him.
ResponderExcluirSeventh day: I slept in later than I had been accustomed to the previous days. I noticed this as soon as I woke up and saw the room flooded with light, the white curtains looking like movie screens when a film is about to begin. The housekeeper was vacuuming in the hallway, and I heard a truck pulling up in front of the hotel to make a delivery. I got out of bed and felt my entire body filled with an incredible vitality. I looked at the veins in my forearms, and it was as if I saw a kind of vital, phosphorescent heat accompanying the circulation of my blood within them. I went to the bathroom mirror and noticed that my face was visibly rejuvenated.
ResponderExcluir