The Raven Oracle

The Raven Oracle ~ 

Portals

Here are a few 'portals' from off our back deck. What is a portal? IMHO, a portal is a 'pathway' to another dimension. One could say that a portal doesn't have an 'entrance' or 'exit.' Or, that all portals are BOTH entrances and exits. Just my opinion. What are they good for? Transportation! I gaze at these to evoke or awaken my 'energy body,' or 'dream body,' and then I enter the portal to continue on with Dreaming in another dimension. 

SHM

Again, these are just two from our backyard deck. If and when I ever get back out into the woods, I'll capture more photos of dreaming portals.

SHM 

Gazing Techniques by Castaneda

Seeing Together

Dreaming Together

Different Stages in Dreaming by Castaneda

The Eagle's Gift by Carlos Castaneda 

 "Years before, when I had acquired a degree of experience in dreaming, I had asked don Juan if there were any known steps which were common to all of us. He had told me that in the final analysis every dreamer was different. But in talking with la Gorda I discovered such similarities in our experiences of dreaming that I ventured a possible classificatory scheme of the different stages.

Restful vigil is the preliminary state, a state in which the senses become dormant and yet one is aware. In my case, I had always perceived in this state a flood of reddish light, a light exactly like what one sees facing the sun with the eyelids tightly closed.

The second state of dreaming I called dynamic vigil. In this state the reddish light dissipates, as fog dissipates, and one is left looking at a scene, a tableau of sorts, which is static. One sees a three-dimensional picture, a frozen bit of something - a landscape, a street, a house, a person, a face, anything.

I called the third state passive witnessing. In it the dreamer is no longer viewing a frozen bit of the world but is observing, eyewitnessing, an event as it occurs. It is as if the primacy of the visual and auditory senses makes this state of dreaming mainly an affair of the eyes and ears.

The fourth state was the one in which I was drawn to act. In it one is compelled to enterprise, to take steps, to make the most of one's time. I called this state dynamic initiative."

SHM

Lucid Dreaming Sites

Lucid dreaming sites or pages which I have learned a great deal from. Sure, Carlos Castaneda's The Art of Dreaming is great, yet there's more information out there than his.

How To Lucid Dream  <-------Click here for the link

The WILD Way To Lucid Dreaming <--------Click on the bold for the hyperlink

The WILD Way To Lucid Dreaming on Facebook <-----Click on the bold for the hyperlink

Deep Lucid Dreaming with Dr. Clare Johnson <---------CLICK ON THE BOLD FOR THE LINK

Deep Lucid Dreaming on Facebook <--------CLICK ON THE BOLD FOR THE LINK

Lucid Advice - Robert Waggoner <-----Click on this for the link

The Lucidity Institute  <----------------Click on the bold for the link

The Lucidity Institute on Facebook <-------------Click on the bold for the link

Lucid Dreaming: Gates to Your Other Self     <-------Click on the bold link

The Journey of Robert Monroe: From Out of Body Explorer to Consciousness Pioneer       <------Click on the bold.

World of Lucid Dreaming <-----------CLICK ON THE BOLD FOR THE LINKS

World of Lucid Dreaming on Facebook <---------Click

Taileaters Group on Facebook <-----Click on the links which are in bold. 

Taileaters Website for further information

Lucid Dreaming Dialogues

I suppose I will begin with the latest, as these comments are in regards to the Stalking and Not-Doings “S” has had me perform lately. Keep in mind that “S” worked as a gardener in his human life, so he seems to be very down to earth.

Comments from “S” to me, in Lucid Dreaming:

"Any time you begin something new, like Stalking the self or Not-Doings, you often have a sense of expansion, an outpouring, your awareness is expanding. There is a new “lease on life.” This always happens at the beginning of a new task.

"Whether we look at animals, fish, plants, or even weather patterns, everything in nature is growing, growing, growing all the time. Anything that is not growing is decaying. There is no standing still in nature. There is no treading water, you know?

"When an animal goes into hibernation, and even many plants during the winter go into a kind of hibernation, they all need that spring. Because the winter is a state of diminishment, where they use up all their reserves, and then they must get back up again and feed. Plants must put out new growth for this purpose.

"And you are very much like those plants. I happen to really like plants, as all my life I noticed how they would grow. And, of course, since I am engaged in something like perception and awareness guidance, then I really notice the similarity between plants and humans. For instance, sometimes in a plant’s life, it suffers some kind of trauma. And when it does, it pulls its energy back, taking its attention away from its growing tips. It pulls its energy in from its root tips, and just sort of hangs out in its main body, which is the main root structure, the trunk, and branches, and even the older leaves where not much photosynthesis is taking place.

"It is not that there is no action there, but the important point here is that it pulls itself away from its points of nourishment, the growing tips. A plant feeds itself from the growing tip of the root, the new little white root hairs, and the brand-new tips of the leaves. This is where all the action is.

"Likewise, this is where the flowering takes place, and fruiting. Everything happens right out on the edge, right on the tip of growth. If that is not happening, the plant is not growing. It is declining, and eventually it will die.

"Sometimes it takes years, from the point of trauma, if it is a big tree, for instance. If it is quite a small plant, then it might be only days, or hours. But it pulls itself in to its own history, you know?

"So, why does it pull itself in? Well, it pulls itself in because those growing tips are very fragile and moist and juicy and vulnerable and open. They can easily be damaged. The same with the root tips, the tiny root hairs that go out into the soil. They are very easily attacked by creatures. So, if it is suffering any kind of stress, it just stops all that growth. And then it begins to eat itself. It eats its own protein and carbohydrate until it kills itself. It literally eats itself to death because it is not taking in anything new.

"So for you, most noticeably for any apprentices that are engaged in this kind of warrior’s way or practice with perception and awareness, there is no standing still. Often, in your practice, you go through periods that feel stale, or flat, stuck. Nothing seems to be happening, not moving forward, you do not know why, but nothing seems to be going on.

"Because you are experiencing this, you feel depressed, and might even shit-can the training, the warrior’s path, try something else. There must be something wrong with something. You do not know what it is, so you just change, make a change of venue, or change your path with heart.

"When you are practicing anything like this, [Not-Doings and Stalking,] you want to be practicing right out there on the growing tip, just like the plant. Because that is the only place growth takes place. That is the only place you can receive the nourishment of the sunlight and the food and the water that you need for growth to happen within you. It is here, it is available.

"On the warrior’s path it comes through the teacher and the teaching, also through your fellow apprentices if you are lucky enough to have those you can resonate with.

"But that edge out here, this growing tip is extremely vulnerable. And the reason it works so well is because of how sensitive it is. That is where all the action takes place in your life. And of course, it is always here, right here, and always now. But do not you notice that sometimes you are slightly reserved, or slightly away from this present moment, looking at it intelligently, or maybe questioningly, or maybe even with resistance? And often you have a sense of separation, a sense of distance.

"When you feel that, that means you are in your main body, the first attention, your same old habits. That means you are living in your trunk, and in your branches and in your old stale leaves. You are living in the known, your habitual AP position. You are in your comfort zone. You are living in what is already known to you.

"To come out here on the edge of infinity, to Stalk yourself and un-do your do-ings, means to live in an area that is completely unknown to you. This can be very threatening. To be here you must be in a very vulnerable, sensitive, and risky condition, completely open.

"And yet, if you do not do that, there is no growth. The teachings can go on forever, and they may sound nice to you, but they will have no effect on your heart. You will not feel it.

"During the early part of the year, you had private meetings with ‘X’. And let us face it; everyone [everyone meaning other apprentices they work with] is, to some degree or other, living in their own personal history, living in the comfort area, living in their own body of knowledge, in the land of the known. Right? So, it can be very difficult to find your way out of that.

"What do I mean? “Live on the edge. Live at this growing tip.” What does that mean? How do you do that? Well, you come to an understanding of that. Or, maybe you do not. So, when you are having any kind of difficulty with that, that is when you need some extra help. That is why we do this, have these meetings.

"It is time.

"Everything in your whole organic being is crying out for you to open up. To come forward and to begin anew, reach a new level of experiential understanding, of direct knowing. To move into the unknown and go exploring in ways that you maybe have not in the past.

"So in this short time that we spend together, we explore how your practice, your warrior’s way or warrior’s path is in relation to your own "growing points.""

SHM

The Nagual Julian and Opportunities

Wow! I've been given a new lease on life! I'll write about this more when I have more energy, but I survived a heart attack. Five hour surgery and my heart was stopped for 49 minutes. Yee-Haw~! What's most interesting though, if you've read the Carlos Castaneda books, is that my life seems to have been playing out like the Nagual Julian. Remember what happened to him? If not, go read! Again, when I've more energy, I'll write out what I mentioned above about the Nagual Julian at a later time.

TMMK