Luminous Body

 

There is no point of talking about the luminous body, like it is a physical body - it is simply not.
The luminous body is located in the realm of imagination, and slowly becomes a reality when you become aware of its existence and can see it.

Luminous body is larger than the physical body, it shines, and is full of life of its own order. It has different "centers" - swirls and protuberances, some of them have color others don't have any color; some of them are located as high as the height of an out-stretched hand, others are as low as the ground.

Not every luminous body is round like a perfect sphere or an egg, in fact that is rather a perfectionist view promoted by some artists. While some of them look like eggs that have been bitten off, others look spread out and rather muddy, others look like pancakes with the high axis. Many shapes, these may be seen and understood in different ways, and a seer aims at seeing and understanding as many types of them as possible. Basically all of them, including (and especially) his or her own. There is no underlying principle in understanding of the luminous body, it is simply seeing, but that make take a while, as Don Juan did consider seeing to be a pinnacle of the warriors' accomplishments. It is that, that made her a woman of knowledge, and not just a witch, albeit a good one. Even though seeing is not hard, perfecting it as an in-and-of-itself capability is. We see energy regularly, and it is that seeing that we find funny or awful or intrusive, we just don' usually realize that we see.

Throughout the lifetime of her practice an adept gradually comes to see her own shape and all its peculiarities. It is complicated and yet it is obvious. It doesn't have to be so hard, but we are trained to see differently from the off-set of our training as humans, and thus our seeing is greatly fogged up by not looking at what's there in its most obvious existence possible - the light, the dark and its various shades, which are like emotions This lost ability can be regained, but it requires a lot of dedication.

The luminous body starts to take shape of a double when enough energy has been accumulated and cultivated. It starts of as a farfetched idea and gradually materializes. It works in and of itself and without asking for permission from you, so looking at it the same way that you look at yourself is not particularly useful. It has been helpful for me to look at it as a sort of mirror reflection, but you are the mirror reflection. It is kind of the same with the dreaming body in your dreams. If you can understand that, than you can understand the other. Don Juan differentiated the double as an accomplishment of the stalkers, while the dreaming body as that of the dreamers. I think both are fine. We should know though that what operates in the dreams is the dreaming body, and not just the consciousness.

Throughout the course of her practice the adept comes to see that the luminous body is continuously depleted and is under attack of sorts. The attacks are sometimes subtle and sometimes long term, and sometimes are like a sledgehammer aiming to crush you at once. They are like a rolling force, that is basically a penumbra of the final demise consistently trying to bash through the gap in your midsection. I haven't really attempted to see it, but it is quite enough to feel it.  The warrior aims to close that gap once and for all.

Feeling as though under attack is universal. I think anyone can claim to experience something of the sort, but I think there were only those old devils , the sorcerers of antiquity who have successfully saw and explained what those attacks are, and why are we being attacked  in the first place? The answer is simple and not simple at the same time - we are food for the beings of a different order, that can generally be considered an extension of the predatorial nature of this universe. They are much older and much more sophisticated than we are. They feed off our energy as we present it as food by the virtue of cultivating it throughout the course of our lifetimes. Bit by bit we lose our precious energy to quarrels, nerve racking life occurrences, successful (yesss!!! I did it!!!) and the unsuccessful  (OOhhhh sheeeeeet!) events that shape our personalities. No one can help us but ourselves, and our own increased awareness of such things, otherwise known as seeing. Even the teacher or the benefactor cannot - they can open the door, but it is up to you to do the walking. As we start off on that hike and improve our posture, grow, we may become very paranoid, as it is mind boggling to feel how connected the interchange of energy is and how easy it is to loose it! The intensity resonates as a feeling that you are about to explode. It may come as a surprise how weak we generally are behind our many resolutions, that all depends on the energy level and where it is being directed.

Anyways, back to the luminous body. As we become more aware of our rather miserable condition we can take steps to reverse it, for which there are many ways, that I am describing elsewhere. And so the patching up process begins, and once it starts it feels good. In fact so good, that I don't think anyone would like to exchange it for anything else. This feeling comes from the increased energy level as well as less energy leaving the body. What a joy it is to operate fully and without being eaten up by the flyer!

How to save up energy and how to patch up the luminous body to bring it back into shape is a tough question, and it takes breaking the routines of daily life, and various other strategies to actually begin the process. The society doesn't care if you save up the energy, and your family probably doesn't either, simply because they are not seeing it that way. If they would be capable of that, it would have the impact of the bell on top of the major cathedral - a wake up call like no other. BANG! WHAT!? I am being depleted from MY prescious energy? NOOOO! But that how it starts, and after the initial reaction subsides you start to desperately think what to do, that would be more practical than screaming or running amuck. And that's when you come back to the warriors' lifestyle. Warriors try to fight indulgences because indulgences deplete. What is an indulgence? It is simply something that you can't control, an ineffective use of energy. Oh you like that roast chicken soooo so so very much, and you cannot let go for even a million dollars. Warriors aim to bring the attention back from there and use it instead on filling up, seeing etc. In other words redirecting the energy into a more viable basin.

Attention is a biggy as we are all made out of attention. This! That! All these things! They are all attention that we actually "pay". Have you ever thought about who do we pay it to?

The 1st attention according to the toltecs of Don Juan's lineage is the attention that we use to function before we discover the warrior lifestyle, the normal attention that we use in daily life. Then, with the enough energy saved up we enter the world of the 2nd attention, or the nagual. This is where we operate with the heightened energy and heightened attention to detail, this may take years of hovering about. I can't speak yet of the 3rd attention.

During this process the luminous body becomes brighter and more acute, like a well-oiled mechanism and the little things matter more and more, as a warrior becomes baffled by the visions of these different things piled up, and sometimes chaotic. The only thing that may keep the warrior sane at this level is their strong inner conviction that there is no other way but to keep going, keep circling up and about, and keep realizing.

Also, although this is only a close proximity to what can be spoken about, the warrior-in the-making starts to encounter more and more that which can be described as power.

Power is many things and none of them. It is quite puzzling that something out there can be at your services, and yet be able to kill you without warning. Warrior spends years in refining this connecting link with power, and it is usually marked by an increased awareness, but also by an increased sense that it is further than ever. Power in the Toltec sense of the word is an ultimate gift and the ultimate addiction. As I said, it is consistently at your service, and yet it roams completely on its own. In the words of Don Juan, and I am paraphrasing here, "a warrior enters the world of power, and with that he encounters his third enemy" the four enemies being of course the fear, clarity, power, and old age.
What makes power an enemy? I think, it is because it has a strong potential to spoil, but in truth without knowing how it can spoil a warrior, there is no way to counteract it, so I do not think that there is a need to worry about it at this stage. However, like having a jinni in the lamp - he grants you three wishes, and that is it. If you have more than 3, you become the most miserable person because they are bound to remain unfulfilled. ..

ohhh the pull of power, how sweet you are...

Healing (part 3): Amulets and Talismans

Amulets and talismans are basically power objects. In others words they are inanimate objects imbued with the force, the power of their holder or holders. Any object can be charged to be a power object, but it gets a little bit complicated, as with anything, one gets attached to their power objects, their toys, and in the end it is kind of hard to let go and become self-reliant again. Power objects have in many cases been a source of strife among their holders, or those who have attempted to become their holders. One example is regalia, crowns and scepters that go together with the highest titles. The can be rightfully considered power objects and it is likely that initially their function wasn't to be a stale symbol of power and affluence, it was to gather or disperse energies - to hold the Gathering of Ministers such as the Duma or Parliament in control, and also protect their holder and his off-spring.

Humans have been creating amulets probably for as long as they have been around, and it may be that that it is only a left over of a much more civilized culture that REALLY knew how to connect and use them, but I don't know much about that. But Carlos in his works have mentioned them many times and it makes sense to me. So, just think about the following scenario. At the time when a metal (say iron) axe is a rarity and has a cost of a horse, you find such an axe, which automatically elevates you in status first of all, can you handle that? If you can, and you successfully fought off the unwanted elements, then you can use it. You chop wood, skin with it, perhaps kill the enemy, and it starts to take up a very special place in your life. You hang it right by you on the wall of your dwelling, you always carry it around, take it to the religious festivities, show it off to your friends. Finally you can't live without it! It has by that point become a sort an amulet of your success by the virtue of how you found it and how you have used it. I am trying to say more than that though. An amulet is something to which you consciously feed energy. In other words you do a sort of energy work with it which similar to the energy work performed with precious and semiprecious stones. From what I see the people who work with stones develop very strong attachments to them. Like a dear friend, they comfort you. However, they do ask something in return - that something is your attention.

However, an amulet doesn't have to be a rock. It could be anything to which you feed energy. A piece of jewelry perhaps, a weapon, or a pipe. Wood is a nice material, in certain cases glass. Any of these are good and have a potential of becoming an important sources of power and balance for their possessor. But be ready to let go. As when you put all your knowledge and experience into one object, when it breaks you will think that all your knowledge is now gone. Primitive and wasteful.

So, with the time passing, try to be more self-reliant, and not worry too much about objects. Be generous and give them away if you think that they want to go and join someone else.

In regards to their use in healing, they are indeed very useful. A rock can be placed around or on the body for an effect of warding of, attracting, redirecting, blocking, circulating or what have you, the energy. In every case, I strongly suggest to be ready and connected, and the deeper your knowledge of the object that you are using, the better. After all, you want to be in charge of the session.

There is also exist a practice of inscribing the objects with the runes, or a prayer to increase its power and effect. That is I think up to you, if you think that that can assist the healing process. But it is good to know what you are putting on it, and with which purpose. An incantation protects; so does the smoke, that may be sufficient in some cases, in others may not. Use your imagination and always be connected to Protectors.

In my opinion power objects should come to their holders on their own volition. They can be bought as indeed it would be a fair transaction to purchase something that is being sold. That said, I think the really really good stuff should be given as a gift. I am not being conceited, just telling you that there is nothing like just giving something to someone who truly deserves it.

Daoist Alchemy

When we talk about the Daoist Alchemy, we talk about the psychosomatic system of energy manipulation and cultivation. This is what is known primarily as the nei wan, or internal elixir. There is also wei wan - the external elixir. This one was concerned with transforming iron into gold, discovering the secret of immortality, and I bet no one really practices it in our day, except in laboratories.

But the Nei Wan is practiced by quite a number of people, from the numerous Chi Gong practitioners in China and Southeast Asia that claim traditionalist approach, to the more modern Universal Tao,  to the Tai Ji and other Internal Martial Arts practitioners around the world.


Daoist Alchemy starts from becoming aware of the fact that we are given a limited amount of energy at our birth, therefore the death results from continuously dissipating this energy throughout our lifetimes. DA aims at recapturing this energy and thus reverting to the state of being like a child, who "the horn of rhinoceros can't hurt, and the claw of the tiger has no place to land". And so DA has been called the journey of return, return to the primal state also being referred to in the alchemical literature as the golden fetus.

What is that primal state, and why should one aim to return to it? Well, there is a very good benefit of doing that, and that is in simply being happy. Look at all the Chinese New Year and Feng Shui pictures and you will see what I mean: besides the widespread picture of Hotei -the god of wealth, who is basically a very fat guy with a sack full of gifts you see little kids running around and laughing and that is pretty much it.

Yes, being like a child, care-free and pliable, without worries or concerns makes one happy and especially very content as we are as humans and the members of societies are just the opposite for the most part. The consistent preoccupation which is born from the perception that the world is made from solid objects gives rise to everything else, and so we strive and strive and strive to achieve, to gain, to get, to win, to overcome. Is there end to it?....This approach was hailed by the Tang Dynasty's greatest poet Du Fu, who said

A hundred years full of sickness, I climb the terrace alone.
Suffering troubles, I bitterly regret my whitening temples,
Frustratingly I've had to abandon my cup of cloudy wine.

He basically says that being a part of a society does him no good, he suffers from running on and on without an end so he craves to return to the real source of happiness, the elixir, the Dao.

So the DA being an extension of such viewpoint believes in that. It says "disconnect yourself", think and meditate, release your fears and come back to how you were when you were a pliable child - that is really what is going to make you happy! And really, the child doesn't know much, like the adults do - he just sits, eats, and pees, either smiling or crying, but the world is a small bubble, and there is no need for more.

Of course, for some of us who are adults it is very hard to imagine coming back to being that way, as the baggage is just too heavy sometimes. However, it is an intriguing idea for many, and a good reason why especially the Daoist philosophy is so attractive to a great number of spiritual seekers around the world - it doesn't require much, worship, rules or precepts. Basically it is up to you, as long as you are sure that you are treading the right path for yourself, and that should be the only guideline for anyone. That said, there are traditions and teachers and lineages, and they vary like anything else. For example, the founder of the Tai Ji Quan is considered a Daoist priest Chang San Feng who was known to be very tall with a large long beard, and was probably not Chinese at all as there are no Chinese people with such measurements and ethno type. He was said to be and immortal and it is claimed that several emperors up till the Ming Dynasty has met with him personally.

Besides offering such a free-roaming lifestyle DA has a rich variety of techniques developed through the ages, they aim at understanding jing, or the sexual energy, then transforming it into the chi, the actual energy, which then can be used to feed the shen or the spirit, which in turn is used to feed into the void, which is then crushed. These rather esoteric-sounding  ideas simply mean that you never stop, for no one knows where the final destination is.

A Daoist adept aims to open the back and later the frontal energy channels that unify into a Microcosmic Orbit. This is a long work process, that includes discovering and "opening" of the centers, that are similar to the concept of chakras in yoga, although there is more of them. Please refer to Mantak Chia books for more information on this sort of gong fu. Also there is a good but complicated from the point of view of readability book by Douglas While called "The Art of Bedchamber", which is basically a compilation of classics on the subject,

Although this sort of work is better practiced in couples, there are plenty of instances where they are being practiced by solitary practitioners and in groups. These have historically secluded themselves high up in the mountain layers, and unknown to the outside work have done their work by uniting with Nature undisturbed by anything other than their own minds. Some of these practitioners, are discovered even up to this day....

A couple that is alchemically connected have a chance of realizing themselves as the Universal occurrences that they truly are, they become infinitely more open, more happy and more satisfied. A "win-win" situation become not a theory but a practice and all those crazy phrases from the Chinese Classics such as the Tao Te Ching and the Art of War start to make sense in a more ways than one. It is the Dao that performs this magic on them, and no other force can provide a better backbone for this unique discovery, as the Dao is not really a force, but a consciousness that pervades the unseen world.

Tonal and Nagual; Toltec Understanding of Reality.

jimfitzpatrick.com

In the book "Tales of Power" we encounter a new breakdown of what the yin and the yang of Don Juan's reality may actually mean. They are a little bit more than the pairs of the opposites and what makes the concepts complicated is that the two are actually complimentary terms. It is not that everything is black and white at once, but more like everything is intertwined and can be that as well as all the shades that result from the mixture of the two. However, the tonal and the nagual are actually drastically different.

In the book the tonal is likened to the table and everything on it, while the nagual is everything outside of the table. Don Juan patiently explained to his apprentice that no matter what he picks off the table, even the concepts of God and death - it is still the table, thus the known. Outside of the table lay the dark confines of the unknown, which despite the fact that they are "unknown" can be mapped out, which is what the warriors actually do as a full time job. But about that later....

Further lies the unknowable, a region (if it even may be called that) that is impossible to map out, and as it is explained - rather than charging the warrior and giving her hope, it drains her, she feels ill at ease, depressed and without hope of renewal. Only warriors with extraordinary discipline and vision can venture there.

Warrior spends his lifetime at an inexplicable task - "cleaning up the tonal". It is not like a house cleaning, activity that may or may not be performed; with different amount of attention to detail, perhaps different mood. A warrior is always in the mood to clean up her tonal, which is what ultimately makes her so impeccable and unapproachable to the flyers, or any other forces that prevent her from retrieving, saving, and cultivating energy crucial for survival and for travelling in the Great Out-There, the nagual.

Cleaning up starts from the simple acts of observation, "taking notes" so to speak, i.e. noticing the patterns of behavior and their results in our daily life. That and some recapitulation allow the warrior to change those routines, enhance them, and start changing their life into a masterpiece of strategy. Routines seize to exist, and instead we encounter energy and its flow, unstoppable and wondrous to behold.

Tonal is essentially fragile, and needs to be cared for with all the care possible. Like a little child tonal is capricious and constantly threatens to self-destruct, all we have to do to check that, is to consider how we react if someone doesn't agree with our opinion about something, or crosses our way. That and many other things and we are faced with some very important beings, who truly don't believe in their ultimate and final seization of activities which we in colloquial call "death" although that would be something else. Death to the warrior is actually an advisor, the best one according to Don Juan. Such is the power of death, that a warrior has no choice but to start restructuring his or her life upon the mere shiver in that unknown universe out there. Although death is described as residing by the left side, we can be assured that she could be anywhere, from the simple trip on the bus, to the rest in the park. But don't let that scare you. We are talking about being advised, not being spooked by something that we don't understand. Only the lifetime of impeccability allows the warrior to tippy-toe by the left side of the Big Bad Bird. Without cleaning up of the tonal and striving for the impeccability that is pretty much not possible.

Please note that this peculiar approach is typical of the new seers, and not of the older brand of warriors. What makes it peculiar is that only the new seers believe in discipline and sobriety as the inevitable characteristics that come hand in hand with venturing into the unknown. Without them a new seer is not. And the reason for that is the indulgence and it is a big no-no for the new seers, and they strive really hard to eradicate it with all their strategies, stalking and such. But this doesn't guarantee success. If anything it actually increases the probability of "straying off". That is because with the increased amount of energy, the sensuality and love for things material also increase. The indescribable beauty that the warrior witnesses  is sometimes hard to explain or to share. Thus it is natural for the warrior to tighten up his behavioral patterns, may be even appear a little shrewd and puritanical.

Nagual is not a part of reality per se and begins as a mere idea, a spark which is hard to conceive. But the spark keeps growing keeps burning, and one day it turns into a bonfire which will simply consume the warrior if she doesn't have her tonal cleaned up and thoroughly functioning.
There is no point in talking about It, since that is something that absolutely must be experienced. But to encounter the concept is a good start, and coupled with the gradual understanding and increase of intensity a warrior enters the door. From then on she is inevitably and forever changed. Concepts are not concepts anymore, but truths hidden in the positions of the assemblage point.

For Don Juan truth was a position of the assemblage point, and that in itself produced irrevocable facts. Nagual can be said, in a more epistemological sense to be a source of truth for the warrior, of a sort that cannot be found under any other conditions other than the warrior lifestyle. They go through untold hardships, doing and pondering obscure things to arrive at that experience, at that truth.

Benefactor is the one who shows the nagual and how to keep on going after one brings it into her life. That is different from a teacher, who teaches behavioral patterns, discipline and how to get it together. Although the two may unite under one individual, they do not necessarily, and one should consider it auspicious to find a teacher and a benefactor, or a teacher who is at the same time a benefactor. Reason for that being is that the nagual cannot be taught, only shown.

I have long tried to embody the knowledge that Don Juan and his Apprentice carried to us, and this what I am speaking about in this blog post is not really obscure, as much as it is alien to the mind that is used to delineations, and only immersing yourself into this knowledge completely can one understand it. By the way Don Juan wasn't really interested in "understanding", neither did he require it from his apprentice. Linear thinking as such, with all its out-coming logistics can, and many times is an obstruction to the understanding of the simple fact that the world is not black and white - it is more like the known and the unknown, and even known is basically unknowable. When one closes in on this sort of understanding it seems pretty plausible that there is a great darkness outside of what we think we know. Let us burn the sacred incense and proceed with awe and caution as the powers we may encounter are indeed indescribable.

Healing (part 6): Dance, Rhythm and Trance.

Its all trance. The dance of energy. Immense pleasure accompanied by simultaneous shutting off of the internal dialogue. Once you are in there the "impossible becomes possible". To put it more simply you are in the right space.

Dance is definitely as old as the world, as I am sure the alien astronauts who reached the confines of their conscious space weren't so square as to not dance? So why not be more open to an idea that the universe of rhythm music and dance is connected as well.

Whatever can get you there.....

Rhythmic beating of the drum in one place is similar to choral rendering in another and then there is also didgeridoo which is both I suppose.

The ritual begins, but its fun, like a prom dance, and everyone is slowly revealing their inner animal as they feel more and more comfortable with the beat being played by few crazy-looking characters on the side. These "crazy-looking characters" are actually priests, who don't just play the drum - they speak to the gods, i.e. to the higher consciousness, as well as the protector-revealer force of that gathering.

We start off unsure of ourselves, but as the beat goes on, we become more and more sure that no matter what we do and how we move - it's just fine, and no matter how freaky we may think that movement is, the protector-revealer of the gathering will benevolently smile upon our efforts and will find us another one and another one and yet another one who will move just the same.

As the ritual continues, wondrous things start to happen. The fire in the middle of the dancing circle, like a forever built-in live monument dances and communicates with the participants giving them signs, "don't burn yourself!" he says, "don' get carried away and burn yourself on me", "or instead of a benevolent warm element I will become a killer" . We benevolently listen to his utterings and while forgetting our social selves we keep in mind who is the real boss - it's the bonfire in the middle, and there is a special person in charge of feeding it with new branches, prepared in plenty beforehand.

While many are here for fun, many are here for a reason. We notice that they can barely move, and others may be just lying down - that is because they are ill, for one reason or the other they are searching for healing from the accumulated energy of this dance. Some of them are moaning as the cathartic experience brings out their pains and worries, others are moving better and faster as their bodies and spirits are getting oiled and receive the healing.

Others are here to find spouses, they are mostly young and dance better than everyone else - their movements are fancy and like colorful birds they stand out - many are successful as they are being joined by the beautiful opposites with the signs of affection, sometimes merging into one - these will be joined later officially with the help of the priestess.

The drummers are doing a hell of a job - they are masters in their art, and their beat flows non-stop from the wicked instruments in their possession - it syncopates, talks, slower and faster, and sometimes it feints stopping while resuming with a new force cascading on both listeners and dancers with the ecstasy of drum melody.

Their music is sacred as it is directed to the overlords of the gathering, and many times they are so into it, that they don't even notice how the music starts flowing all by itself, with rhythms that they never heard before, and the complexity and emotion of the spoken language.

The fire calms down, and most participants are lying down asleep, some grunting and some smiling in their renewed dreams. There are a few who are not asleep and are waiting for the dawn with open eyes, sometimes sitting by and embracing each other. They are happy to have found each other in the sometimes lonely world.

The ones that came for healing will feel better when they return to their huts. Their limbs will work better. Others who came for internal ailments will feel how their internal processes are given new life. As they are giving offerings to their ancestral gods by their places of birth they will sigh, and marvel at how much better they are feeling, and how much more energy to accomplish new things they have stored. All is well, and the Always Gracious Mother Goddess is embracing all her children with the benevolent smile as there is nothing that is not good and not empowering here, and as we let go of many of our bariers and limits to our imagination we truly feel more united with that great organism that supports and nourishes us, the Earth.

About How They Did It Back Then

Literature is full of stories about the adepts of the past. Depending on which tradition you are studying, you will encounter very rich fables about:

 1) What brought that or the other human to the path.
 2) How they found a teacher.
 3) How they were initiated and proceeded through the cathartic 2nd stage of learning.
 4) How they found companions on the path.
 5) How they achieved a critical barrier.
 6) How they become benefactors for others

This delineation is by no means final. It is only a vague outline, and many times these interchange and of course are much more denser if you apply them to life.

There is no way to describe the exact flow of this sort of narrative, since it always varies, but it is obvious that there is some sort of an abstract that can at least serve as a guide from the start. That said, this abstract is so deeply interconnected with the idea of personal power, that it is not even clear whether it even exists all in itself, or it is a creation, a monumental construction of the seekers of liberation.

The books tell us of things happening as far as 80,000 years ago in Tibetan. Similar in Toltec and Vedic and Pre-Vedic traditions. This highly contradicts what the modern anthropology knows to be "factual" information. This is because the modern science is usually limited to empirical analysis and rejects "non-factual" information related to the flight of consciousness, dreaming, and such. All of that is an indivisible part of knowledge and shouldn't be rejected. In fact it seems like the best of scientists are dreamers deep inside, just dreamers confined to their structural home base  - the lab, the particular field of science, professorship and degrees, and so forth.

However, looking back it seems that the adepts of the past were also empirically driven, no less, but perhaps sometimes more than the scientists of the modern era. In fact, their drive was so strong and passionate that they would disappear from the face of the Earth and no one would be able to find them. We don't know where, but it is at least clear that powerful dreamers prepare a getaway spot for themselves somewhere in the dark sea of awareness, and there they go one day.

What is Passion? To me it is an unyielding emotionally charged drive, unstoppable in its nature, direction and force. One doesn't want to stop because of the sheer pleasure of going. This, besides desire for gain is what drove the adepts of the past, so called "sorcerers of antiquity" as they are named in Carlos Castaneda books, yogis from Indian, Chinese, and Tibetan literature, and some such.

Caution comes in here because the uncontrollable passions, or desire for gain made some of these individuals greedy, as the infatuation with power does. Just imagine one such gentleman - high plumage for an important meeting with colleagues, jewelry and obsidian piercings, body markings and all depict a very powerful person with perhaps a loud sounding name. Not an underground lizard, but a high flying eagle. These individuals were well accepted as leaders of men and women because the practiced the types of knowledge relevant to the time and place, and understandably mysterious and hidden from the uninitiated, just like an alphabet may have been in our history not so long ago.

These individuals would choose apprentices themselves, and it would be a great honor to be accepted into their world. Many parents would gladly say "bye bye" to their children, as perhaps now many without fully knowing it say "bye bye" to them when they go off to school or college, perhaps at a later age.

Once admitted, the child would be fully immersed into learning, as this would be a replica of  life itself with one difference. From waking up until going to sleep there would be an unseizing contact with what the teacher or teachers represented. That is far from being academic - it is more like "chopping wood and carrying water", and probably included chopping some wood and carrying water, as such a learning unit would have to generate resources from living and nourishing. The knowledge was passed from higher to lower, from elder to younger, although not strictly so - it does make sense.

So how does one find the teacher of knowledge? Well, I think the 1st question would be, "which facet of knowledge is one interested in learning?" When that's decided, it is not one's parents, but a powerful urge, creates an intention to learn whatever is needed to learn to make the individual complete. True learning is without boundaries, and one can never limit himself and set the boundaries of place, time, and resources. I know that for fact, as I always have gone to great efforts to get a book that I was interested in and to find a human who could share what they know. Usually I think of myself as successful in that endeavor, because it is sometimes amazing how things that were meant for me invited themselves up into my lounge.