Denver Workshop Oct 4, 1997 - The Sorcerer's Code

Notes posted in the Ixtlan mailing list. Author unknown. 

The workshop was held in the Colorado Convention Center located in downtown Denver. The weather was sunny and cool in the morning as we entered the Convention Center and made our way to the combined room formed by removing the partition between ballrooms 1 & 2. The windowless room was a large square with more than enough room for the approximately 150 participants. The room was empty except for the familiar square stage set up against the middle of the south wall and an inexplicable single row of about 50 chairs located in the middle of the room running from the east wall to the west. A few minutes before 9:00, the chairs were removed and we all moved up to sit on the floor in front of the stage. Miles Reed and Zaia Alexander entered from a door set in the east end of the southern wall of the room. Both of them were wearing sky blue long sleeve t-shirts which had a Tensegrity patch sewn on the upper left shirt front, and black pants. Zaia took a seat on the floor in the front row of the audience as Miles walked on to the empty stage to give a 15 minute lecture.

As Miles paced slowly and rhythmically back and forth across the stage with his eyes half closed, he began to speak about the origins of the magical passes. He explained that the sorcerers of ancient Mexico discovered the passes while in "shamanistic trances" and while in these trances they experienced states of extraordinary well being that had nothing to do with the trances themselves. They wanted to reproduce this feeling in their daily awareness and found that certain movements achieved this and called these movements the magical passes. These passes were kept secret from ancient times up until 13 years ago when Carlos, Carol, Florinda and Taisha created a generic version of the passes suitable for everyone and called it Tensegrity and began teaching it to anyone who wished to learn it.

Miles, still speaking in a measured, rhythmic, almost mesmeric manner and still pacing endlessly back and forth, eyes half closed, explained that we are luminous beings encased in a cocoon from which no energy can leave or enter. When we say we are tired or worn out, what has really happened is that we have disbursed our energy to the inside of the cocoon. This energy forms what looks like an orange peel or bark on the inside of our luminous sphere. Tensegrity loosens the encrusted energy which then automatically falls back into the vortexes at our energy centers located at the liver/gallbladder, pancreas/spleen, kidney/adrenals, the womb in women, and the center for decisions located at the V-spot in the neck.

The not doings are a different aspect of Tensegrity than the six series and the video passes and are considered the apex of Tensegrity. There is a binding force in the Universe that flows through us and all things. This binding force keeps us together just as it keeps the stars and the planets together. It can not be controlled. The ancient sorcerers tried to control it and failed. The not-doings serve to temporarily interrupt this force and allow one to slip for a moment into another possibility of awareness.

We spread out in front of the stage using about half the room and began learning the first 3 groups of the long form of the Heat Series. The fourth group, The Predilection of the Left and Right Body was not taught. After we had learned all three groups we were taught a long form taken from all three videos. Both Zaia and Miles led the instruction, alternating who described and taught the individual movements. Miles' serious mesmeric mood changed as the morning progressed and he became as light as Zaia was. The two of them kidded and joked with one another occasionally, helping to keep the overall mood of the workshop serious but light. Just as we broke for lunch, Zaia announced the Omega workshop next weekend and also announced that Carlos's new Tensegrity book would be coming out in February of 1998.

After lunch, Miles and Zaia entered from the same door as they used in the morning, this time wearing orange shirts and black pants. Zaia took the stage. Unlike Miles, Zaia used a podium and prepared notes to speak. Her mood was light and happy, and her buoyant sense of humor gave the impression that she is a very playful, impish person. She explained that the not-doings were being presented in a new format and that format was that of a male and female team of practitioners. She said that in ancient times, because of their direct link to knowledge, women were totally in control in the sorcerer's world. They were so powerful they completely dominated the men. They abused their power until eventually the men wouldn't put up with it anymore and the women were literally thrown out of control. Don Juan said that echos of this discord are still felt today by sorcery practitioners such as themselves. Zaia gave the example of how when the Energy Trackers and the Elements get together they are all hugs and kisses but right beneath the surface the Energy Trackers are thinking "what twerps" about the Elements and the Elements are thinking "bitch" about the Energy Trackers! Don Juan said that at one time men and women did practice together but that to do it requires a special energy, and that it can only be successful if both members of the team are totally egoless with no need for competition whatsoever. Zaia said that one of the reasons that Miles and she worked well together is because they have been told that they share the same energy configuration. She emphasized that for a man and woman to practice the not doings together they must get along, with neither one of them trying to lead or control. As an example of a pair of Trackers and Elements that could not practice the not-doings together, she said that if Kylie and Brandon tried to practice together, Kylie would not only eat him alive, but wouldn't even bother to ask permission first! Zaia then jokingly said that she thought that the reason she and Miles got along so well was because Taisha had created a little Taishito Abelar in Miles.

Since they had never tried practicing the not-doings in this new male/female format, they didn't know what would happen that day. The energetic speculation that Carlos talked about in his Sept 19th bulletin is the process of finding out what would happen, the process of actually doing the passes in this format and seeing what comes.

Zaia then spoke about the Sorcerer's Code. She explained that the not-doing passes are done in numbered ascending order while they are being learned, but they are done in a different sequence, called the Sorcerer's Code, in order to activate them. This code produces a different awareness than that produced by doing the passes in order. Zaia emphasized that during this workshop these passes were going to be demonstrated not with the idea of teaching them so we could learn them, but they were being shared with us so we could experience this different awareness right there on that afternoon. She said these passes were only for our awareness, asked us not to take notes while doing them and not to write down, share or to practice the code. She emphasized that we should never practice the code or any of the not-doing passes from this workshop on our own because it would harm us. The reason we could perform the code during the workshop was because she and Miles were acting as our conduits.

Zaia also warned us not to get too close to the stage because "even though we haven't yet proved to have an ego, we still stink!"

We then reviewed the Heat Series and the video long forms and took a quick break as the stage was moved from against the wall to about 1/4 of the way into the room. There were no video camera or screens to see the movements on stage which made performing the passes much more difficult and distracting than at the Los Angeles workshop in August. Zaia laid down with her head to the east with Miles next to her, his head to the west. First we were shown the one leg movement that we would perform over and over in each of the 18 passes. Then Zaia took us through all of the hand movements that we would use. The passes performed were nearly all of the passes done with the hands from the series On the Run. With the exception of the one pass mentioned above, none of the foot passes from On the Run were performed. Some of the hand movements were exactly the same as presented in LA, and some were new variations, but all the passes were performed with both arms and legs moving together at the same time. We performed the 18 passes twice sequentially and then twice in the order of the code. As we did the last pass, Miles admonished us to remain silent while we packed up our things and until we left the room.

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