The Sorcerer's World

Part 1: DISPELLING MISPERCEPTIONS

"All things exist within the realm of possibility, but only some things will be forced to go through the motions of actually occurring." (Quantum theory)

As a result of participating in forums for the past few years, and particularly in the course of presenting my own work on the subject of the double, one thing continues to amaze and amuse me, and it is essentially the reaction some people have to the mere concept of "the double".

In a recent online chat where the subject was touched upon, some of the comments put forth included:

"I don't believe in the double."

"The double doesn't exist except as a component of self."

"The double can ONLY be like what Carlos described of Genaro's double. It's an exact duplicate of the warrior."

As I read the transcript of this chat, where the conversation actually turned somewhat volatile, it occurred to me that a lot of the reactions I am seeing with regard to this subject are based almost wholly in the assemblage point of fear - a fear generated by 1) lack of comprehension; and 2) the insecurities of the ego as it resides in the tonal.

When an otherwise advanced warrior proclaims, "I don't believe in the double," to me it's usually a signal that some old program is running in the background which is distorting one's perception of oneself. One warrior whom I questioned about this recently told me, "The double is just a myth, isn't it? It's just a way of explaining a feeling - like Santa Claus being used to promote some essence of Christmas."

Hmmm.

***

While most of what I am going to say here may be repetitious, it seems that if the understanding of the double is so limited and distorted, perhaps more work is required. To me, it is simply obvious. But perhaps I am taking for granted that my own path has been blessed with a powerful communion with the nagual for as far back as I can remember. Perhaps what is obvious to me is Greek to someone else, and vice versa.

Another warrior friend once asked me, "If you had to define the double in 5 minutes or less, what would you say?"

My response: "The double is the evolved self, projected initially by the mortal warrior as a manifestation of the intent to preserve awareness beyond the threshold of 'death'. It is created from the energy of the warrior, literally, but takes on a life of its own as a projection of the warrior's Will. We give the double 'life'. When the warrior puts forth the intent which says, "Teach me," or "Make me whole," the double is the teacher who then begins 'dreaming the warrior'*. In this manner, the warrior is able to perceive well beyond the assemblage point of the tonal, and actually begins to utilize information and Knowledge gleaned directly from the assemblage point of the double - which might also be termed the AP of the nagual. As the warrior progresses on her path, the two assemblage points begin moving closer together, so that when the warrior's tonal is vacated at death, the dual assemblage points conjoin to create 'the totality of oneself' - or what I have come to call 'a singularity of consciousness'."



Though these words have been perceived as a riddle by many over the years, my own work has shown that CC was speaking in a very literal sense here - but our own understanding will be either limited or enhanced, depending entirely on the preconceived notions we bring to the table. Put another way: ir someone has already determined that they don't "believe" in the double, or that the double is "only a component of self", then that is the colored filter through which the words will be viewed, and from that filter, the warrior's own understanding will be limited at best, and often even thwarted altogether. Why? Because when we do not allow ourselves to even consider what might lie beyond what we already "believe", we have closed off the energetic connection to the realm of all possibility, and have confined ourselves to our own narrow and rigid belief systems.

The double is not a theory. It is not a religion. And it is not a belief system. To the warrior who has experienced her double, it is simply what-is. To the warrior who has not experienced her double, it remains as an energetic potential in the realm of all possibility which must be forced to go through the motions of actually occurring.

So much of this Toltec path (or any serious path of Knowledge) lies within our ability to set aside what we "believe" and deal instead with what we have never even considered - those concepts and otheworlds which exist beyond the worlds and in the realm of actual experience. But that's where the ego can become fragile and fearful and slam on the brakes with blanket statements such as, "I don't believe in the double." Obviously, the ego may not want to believe in the double, for the simple reason that the double tends to represent something "larger" than the sum of our human parts - and the ego is not particularly forgiving of anything which it may perceive as "greater" than itself.

I mention this primarily as a tool for our own awareness, and it is a tool I use ruthlessly in my own journey. If I find myself recoiling and stating, "I don't believe in this or that!" it is often helpful to turn and look the demon in the face and ask oneself why I am so closed to the possibility which elicits such a response in the first place. Most often, I will discover that my "beliefs" are generated as a comfort zone for the ego, rather than based in any sort of actuality. And, of course, once this is *seen* and acknowledged, it is a relatively simple matter to put the ego aside, shift awareness to a more fluid position, and look at the whole concept from an entirely different point of view. So, it's awareness OF the ego that essentially enables us to BYPASS the ego when dealing with matters of the double, the nagual, or any other unknown which may be frightening to our animal-humanform awareness.

To limit the double is to limit the self. To limit the self is to defeat the purpose of the double. To see and acknowledge only the tonal self is nothing more than a manifestation of the ego's insecurities. Please consider that - for it is ultimately the insecurities of the ego which have the greatest potential to derail the warrior entirely. If you are given to meditation, this is a topic which almost always yields new insights & perspectives. What do we have the potential to BE when we set aside ego and belief, and open the door to the manifestation of "all possibility"?

So ultimately, the double represents the other half of the dual assemblage point of man. We perceive the tonal with our 5 ordinary senses. We perceive the nagual with the *other* senses (no way to know how many) which are inherent in the energetic construct of the double. When these assemblage points overlap (through dreaming, meditation or gnosis/silent knowing), the warrior gains glimpses of her connection to the infinite. When the 2 assemblage points conjoin at death, the warrior may be said to inhabit the totality of herself, achieving what some have referred to as "ultimate freedom."

Of course... my personal sense is that the ultimate freedom of our totality is most likely only one more step in an infinite journey. From the wholeness of our totality, we embrace the first step of the next evolution.

Obviously this is a very broad topic, which is why I am calling it "part 1); and I hope to post more in the near future. For now, I welcome your comments, questions, feedback.

Infinite blessings,
Della

I just re-read the section of Tales of Power having to do with the double. As it is described, don Genaro appears to Castaneda as his double. Even though the question is asked, 'why the double' there seems never to be an adequate answer to that. Is it purely for the sake of dG playing games? It would appear from what is written that don Juan is equally capable of manifesting his double in order to make a point to don Genaro's apprentices. So, what is the purpose of the double, as defined and described by don Juan in Tales of Power?

As to what DJM or CC might have said the "purpose" of the double might be... I dunno. For myself, the purpose is clear: the double is the energy body which is ubiquitous throughout the space/time continuum & beyond. As such, it is the vessel for awareness beyond the tonal.

The double dreams the warrior.

That's a pretty noteworthy purpose.

This has captured my attention, this idea of a dual assemblage point, one for the tonal and one for the nagual. So when Castaneda says the double dreams the self, would that then mean we are a projection of the nagual, since the assemblage point of the double is being described here as the assemblage point of the nagual?

Thanks, MM

"A projection of the nagual..." Hmmm. Hadn't thought of it in those terms, but that may be an apt description. Shall have to give that more thought.

Re the assemblage point of the double being the AP of the nagual... the point I was attempting to make (and maybe not clearly enough) is that I have come to truly *see* through my own experiences that we possess this dual assemblage point, and it is actually the AP of our tonal self which is highly limited, since it concerns itself primarily with what can be experienced thru the 5 primary senses.

The AP of the double is infinite and eternal - if/when the double is fully developed, that is. The AP of the double is where we would find our "past lives" (greatly misperceived and mis-understood), as well as the portal to the totality of ourselves. There are those who might want to play games of semantics and argue that what I am calling a "dual assemblage point" is perhaps only a fragmentation of a single AP, but I do not see it that way. In the same way a double being (or nagual) is described as hving 4 compartments of energy, this has been *seen* as being closely related, energetically speaking.

While humans would appear to come into this life with a single AP, the process of creating & nurturing the double results not in a "Split" AP, but in an actual "mirror" AP - one of the tonal, the other of the nagual.

At that point, it could be argued (with strong evidence) that the warrior actually BECOMES a double being, or "nagual" on the energetic plane.

I have some theories as to why double beings existin the first place. You may want to check out the link, since it is closely related to what's being discussed here.

Unconditionally,
D