Inspired action flows spontaneously from an inspired mind.

When we replace trivial and undignified thoughts with substantial and ennobling ones, we are focused ahead of time on perceiving and interpreting events in the best possible light.  In this way, we take the energy we previously devoted to the pursuit of self-interest and channel it into acts that benefit all.

I am part of a Living Whole that wants the best for me and all others at the same time.

An inspired mind flows spontaneously from an inspired heart.

When we replace selfish and self-important feelings with generous and all-embracing ones, we are positioning ourselves ahead of time to respond to events with loving-kindness and goodwill toward all.  In this way, we take the energy we previously devoted to self-defeating attitudes and channel it into creative acts that benefit all.

I am part of a Living Whole that wants the best for me and all others at the same time.

An inspired heart flows spontaneously from being attuned to this single wish of the Living Whole:  that all benefit as one.

But how are we to give up our separate sense of self-importance and open our heart to this living wish when so many around us are acting out of greed, superstition and fear?  How are we to refine our thoughts and emotions when we are bombarded from every quarter with ever more sophisticated attempts to capture our attention?

It is one of the oldest lessons:  If your intention is clear of ulterior motives, then even distractions and confusion are The Way.

Self-defeating thoughts and emotions, from this point of view, are viewed as the enemy-within, the constellation of habit attitudes and habit behaviors that constantly throw up stumbling blocks to the spirit warrior’s progress.  Indeed, the spirit warrior is best defined as a woman or man who clarifies their intention by consciously training to (1) recognize Spirit within all matter and, (2) defeat the self-defeating habits of the enemy-within.

Freeing our intention of ulterior motives by focusing on these two goals, we find that confronting the distractions and confusion thrown up by the enemy-within becomes more like practicing with a sparring partner than an out-and-out battle.  More and more, the enemy-within is experienced as an artificial sense of self that was formed by the conditioning it received from family and culture.  As we get to know it better, it seems most like a recurring dream opponent trying to awaken us to our true potential.

For example, even if we were born to the same parents on the same day, it is obvious that were we then raised in a completely different culture, say the Mbuti of central Africa or the Inuit of the Arctic tundra, we would have a completely different personality, a completely different sense of self in relationship to the world-at-large.  Once the hollowness of this illusory, conditioned, self is fully experienced—like recognizing that the distorted image in a funhouse mirror is not our true reflection—we stop reacting automatically to events around us.  Our actions become more creative, more spontaneous, and meet with greater success.

In this sense, inspired action, an inspired mind, an inspired heart, and attunement to the wish of the Living Whole all spring from living each moment with an intention free of ulterior motives.

I am part of a Living Whole that wants the best for me and all others at the same time.

Spirit, like nature, abhors a vacuum.

When we clear our intention of ulterior motives, we are no longer beleaguered by our inner talk—Spirit rushes in to fill the clearing we have made for it.  Our heart-mind becomes its nest.

And of what is this nest constructed?

Lessons:  the accrued wisdom of the ancients, who first learned to stop their inner talk and then recorded what Spirit whispered to them in that shining silence.

By taking Spirit’s voice to heart, we, like the ancients, replace unworthy and self-destructive thoughts and emotions with ennobling and beneficial ones.

An Oracle is the voice of Spirit, speaking to us across the ages in the language of lessons.

Lessons are wisdom teachings, a body of ethical principles that can be adapted to the ever-changing circumstances of life.  As in sailing, you don’t set your sails to go with the wind in the same way you do to tack against the wind—nor do you drop anchor in the open sea just because it works when you are in port.  Lessons and their ethics guide our responses to change. Lessons make us better adapted to events, more competent, more improvisational, less predictable, and more creative.  Their ethics make us more generous, more compassionate, less competitive, more collaborative, and more successful.

The Toltec I Ching incorporates the lessons and ethics of the Oracles of two of the world’s great civilizations.  From ancient Mesoamerica, comes the Oracle of the Tonalpoalli, or Sacred Calendar, with its lessons inspired by the great civilizing spirit of the Toltec sages.  From ancient China, comes the Oracle of the I Ching, or Book of Change, with its lessons inspired by the great civilizing spirit of the Taoist sages.  We invite you to explore further your own inner path—and to carry the timeless wisdom of the ancients back into these troubled times.

This article appeared originally in Volume 8, Number 4 of Evolve! magazine.

The Toltec I Ching, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just been released by Larson Publications.  It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams.  Its subtitle, 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.

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I take a deep breath and ask the Oracle my question out loud, determined not to flinch:  At what crossroads does our global civilization stand now—and in what direction does good fortune lie?

A rare thunderstorm shatters the Oregon twilight.  Lightning strikes the foothills, thunder rattles the windows, the wailing wind drives sheets of rain sideways against the house.  The lights blink off on off on.  I shake the coins, drop them, count them, six times.  The squall passes on to the next valley.  The Oracle speaks.

IMAGE:  A male warrior holds the funeral bundle of his child, preparing to place it in its burial site.  His face reflects the shock, anguish, and horror that fills his heart.

I almost flinch.  This is surely the most ominous of the 64 hexagrams.

INTERPRETATION:  This hexagram depicts the inevitable result of carelessness and irreverence.  The male warrior symbolizes the versatility and fortitude that are at the core of outer nurturing.  That he prepares to place the funeral bundle of his child in its burial site means that strength cannot accomplish afterwards what nurturing can accomplish beforehand.  That his face and heart are filled with shock, anguish, and horror means that he is in the grips of the most terrible truth:  that which we most cherish cannot be replaced.  Taken together, these symbols mean that you avoid causing suffering by honoring and nurturing all that your spirit touches.

Animism is the world’s oldest Life Way.  It’s a world view in which everything has spirit, in which every thing is alive and aware.  A world view in which all is sacred—humanity no more or less than anything else.  It is not driven by self-interest but by reverence.  It’s not that I treat nature right so that I might live better, for instance.  It’s that I treat nature right because it is the living body of the One Spirit.

The corpus of practices by which people interact with Spirit in a mutually beneficial way is called shamanism.  The way in which human beings communicate with Spirit is a principal concern of shamanism and that gives rise to systems of divination.  An Oracle gives voice to the essence of situations and the trends developing out of them—it is the spontaneous response of the One Spirit to an individual’s act of divination.  The I Ching is one of the world’s best-known Oracles, having been in continuous use for at least 3,500 years.
For all who perceive the world as something grander and more noble than a merely materialistic set of mechanistic causes and effects, the Oracle issues this dire warning of imminent loss.  The last line of the Interpretation reminds us that the only thing that cannot be taken from us without our permission is our spirit of reverence and good will toward all.

ACTION:  The masculine half of the spirit warrior draws back from the brink before it is too late.  It is not a time for pursuing desires and ambitions:  those who cannot temper their strength run the risk of losing a source of that strength.  When our masculine half goes too far in pursuit of goals and becomes short-sighted and impatient, it is necessary to balance it with the strongest medicine possible:  real problems can be avoided only by balancing the masculine half with the power of the feminine half’s protective love.  It is the feminine half’s sense of caring and reverence that holds the key to fulfilling the real goal of happiness, companionship, and a clear conscience:  those who do not hold the emotions of caring and reverence dear to their hearts run the risk of causing pain for themselves and others.  Just because we can acquire something doesn’t mean we should, just because we can accomplish something doesn’t mean we have to:  stopping to really consider what we are risking, allowing ourselves to feel the full brunt of such an emotional loss—this is the protective and loving nature of the feminine half’s medicine.  Likewise, stubborn pursuit of goals even in the face of warning signs, longing for something that threatens to cause suffering for others, refusal to change course when it endangers the greater good—this is the short-sighted and zealous nature of the masculine half when it loses its balance and sense of proportion.  Because you treat nature, other people, and your own creations with the care and reverence you would your own infant child, you counteract every self-defeating action before it ever arises in thought or feeling.

The spirit warrior is a man or woman who aims to defeat his or her enemy-within, his or her own self-defeating habits of thoughts, feelings, and reactions.  The dual nature of Spirit, whether cosmological principles on the largest scale or complementary halves of each individual, are symbolized by the terms masculine and feminine.  The masculine half is often thought of as direct purposeful action, such as the act of tunneling through a mountain to get to the sea.  The feminine half is likewise thought of as unconditional open-hearted nurturing, such as the river that waters everything it touches as it winds around mountains to get to the sea.  Obviously, the goal of the spirit warrior is to bring her or his two halves into the kind of dynamic balance that allows for the optimum response to circumstances in the most timely manner.

Here, it is the stubborn pursuit of obsolete and self-destructive goals that the Oracle warns us against—and encourages us to envision the irreparable loss of the true benefits of civilization, to feel the emotional pain of those losses ahead of time in order to motivate ourselves to immediate action.  As it makes clear, this is not the kind of action that has brought us to an impasse:  we can’t get out of a hole using the same shovel we dug it with.  As the Life Way of ethical values and behaviors becomes more widespread and replaces the consensus of self-interest and needless consumption, the rigid patriarchal hierarchies supporting—and supported by—such decadence give way to self-directed egalitarian groups coordinating their efforts to protect what is valuable.  It’s this emotional connection to what needs to be salvaged, this treating all things as we would our own child, that forges us together in a sense of shared purpose and mutual respect.

INTENT:  The foolish ruin even that upon which they depend.  When we recognize the sanctity of life, however, and work to protect it from unnecessary and pointless harm, then we safeguard our own spiritual foundation and that of all who touch our spirit.  Consider what cannot be replaced and then cherish it, planting seeds of intent in the spirit realm to nurture it and keep it from being lost forever.  Shun materialism and self-interest as you would a poisoned well:  keep to the path of the balanced and harmonious way of life, revering all that the life-giving and life-sustaining forces themselves love.  By maintaining an unbroken alliance with the helping spirits, the community of spirit warriors ensures that the hidden storehouse of life-giving power is never depleted:  only in this way can human nature continue to draw upon the power to create its own, unforeseeable, future.

Not everything can be quantified and brought down to plans of action.  Those who simply act as if they care and merely feign sincerity continue to make bad decisions because their intentions are still rooted in self-interest.  Those who sincerely maintain that all of matter is imbued with spirit, on the other hand, do so from direct personal experience and treat their thoughts and emotions as inner actions that are just as consequential in the field of intentions as physical actions are in the field of material cause-and-effect.  Within the shamanic Life Way, our inner actions are as significant as our outer ones.

The text of this hexagram closes with this demand on those wishing to transform civilization while there is still time—that we open our hearts, drop off all the trappings of cynicism, and consciously wish the best for all.  The curative demeanor for the coming Age is the feminine face of loving-kindness and good will, not merely a re-painted mask of the patriarchal grimace of conquest and dominance.

Typically, the Oracle’s answer involves two hexagrams, the first of which refers to the present or near future and the second of which to the future developing from those present trends.  The present reading is no exception, involving line changes in the second and fifth places.

2nd    The primal relationship between humans and nature has been disrupted by your predecessors’ short-sightedness.  Look upon nature as you would your beloved and work to repair this rift.  Begin by puncturing the bubble alienating you from the affection surrounding you.

The second line refers to local leaders and groups.  Here the concern is clearly with remedying environmental problems, which have been initiated by earlier generations.  As before, the Oracle advises us to become inspired not by appealing to our heads but to our hearts.  But now, it reminds us that we have stopped pouring out open-hearted affection toward nature because we have closed ourselves off to the love and generosity pouring into us from the natural world.  Being too absorbed in the strictly social sphere deprives us of the time and attention we need to share in the strictly natural realm.  It takes no leap of imagination to foresee that we must strive for greater intimacy with nature if we are to salvage civilization or, in the worst case, survive its fall.

5th    You have made a good start but do not really have the stomach for some of the difficult decisions ahead.  Find someone trustworthy to enact reforms.  Focus on encouraging people to advance by reminding them of the positive accomplishments of their predecessors that will remain in place.

The fifth line refers to leaders at the highest levels.  Here it clearly faults them for lacking the character and resolve to make the necessary reforms.  While we have little hope that they will voluntarily step aside and hand over the reins any time soon, we can see that the Oracle envisions a smoother, rather than a more drastic, transition of power.  Ultimately, however, difficult decisions will have to be made, which entail reforms that can only be enacted by someone that people whole-heartedly trust.  If a successful transformation of civilization is to take place, then the sacrifices people have to make will be made easier if they know what they are sacrificing for:  a better world that will carry over the best of the past while jettisoning the rest.

Whereas the first hexagram and its line changes can bee seen to answer the first part of the question, At what crossroads does our global civilization stand now, the second hexagram can be viewed as answering the second part of the question, In what direction does good fortune lie?

Image:  A great feathered serpent hatches out of the earth as if from an egg.  Its feathers are adorned with conch shells and it senses its surroundings with its bifurcated tongue.

The Plumed Serpent is the symbol of the enlightened human being.  In a historical sense, it refers to the great Toltec spiritual and political leader, Quetzalcoatl, who lead his people into a time of great peace, prosperity, and cultural flowering.

INTERPRETATION:  This hexagram represents the great forces released by the accumulated efforts of spirit warriors over the ages.  The feathered serpent symbolizes the collective intent and vision shared by spirit warriors in every time and every place.  That it hatches from the earth as if from an egg means that the community of spirit incubating within the material world emerges as a living, dynamic force of creation.  The conches adorning its feathers symbolize the call for all to join the community of spirit.  Its bifurcated tongue symbolizes the duality that is one.  That it uses its bifurcated tongue to sense its surroundings means that you are attuned to the universal presence of the masculine and feminine creative forces.  Taken together, these symbols mean that you align yourself with those whose only need is to bring benefit to their surroundings.

Though times are dark, we are the light bringing it to an end.  For millennia, women and men with the highest motivations have dedicated their lives to the creation of a Golden Age of Humanity.  That their names are not always celebrated in history books is of little matter—their spirits live on just as ours will.  Just as a pyramid is raised stone by stone, the world we wish to bequeath to the future is built life by life.  The cumulative effect of light-bearing individuals inevitably tips the scale to an equally long period of history in which universal good will prevails.

Beyond this, the very nature of the One Spirit is to benefit all in equal measure.  Joining forces with others who wish to practice unconditional benevolence is the path of good fortune.

ACTION:  The spirit warrior reverses the flow of power, channeling it inside instead of outside:  by storing up power internally rather than expending it externally, we are able to both free ourselves of habits and gain control over our actions.  This inner autonomy also extricates us from social influences that strive to mold us into obedient marionettes even as it allows us to be more tolerant of the deeper motives of those social influences.  From the spirit warrior’s perspective, the original intent of religion is to awaken the higher soul to its potential freedom while purifying the lower soul of fear, greed, envy, and hate—just as the original intent of government is to awaken the higher soul to its responsibility to others while instilling in the lower soul the capacity for self-control.  From this perspective, the fact that religion and government acquire ulterior motives over time and begin to act in their own self-interest merely demonstrates that they are managed by human beings and must be viewed accordingly.  Similarly, the fact that all religions and governments strive to awaken the higher soul and purify the lower soul—even when they have forgotten how and why—simply demonstrates that the quest for metamorphosis is a universal and irresistible force.  Just as our inner autonomy releases us from the trap of depending on social influences for our sense of self, in other words, it also releases us from the trap of not seeing how those social influences contribute, however unintentionally, to the gradual unification of humanity.  Reversing the flow of power, we gain inner autonomy and, paradoxically, become one with the universal civilizing force.

We give away our power when we are dependent on something, especially when we are dependent on it for our sense of self.  We reclaim our power when we pull it back from externals and cultivate an independent sense of self, one not reacting to circumstances in a predictable and automatic way.  When we can no longer be manipulated by others or controlled by our own unmanageable desires, we achieve the kind of autonomy that is free to respond to the needs around us in creative, innovative, and successful ways.

Such autonomy also frees us from seeing overly simplistic snapshots of complex processes.  It allows us to consider the potential value of social institutions that have fallen into disrepair and disrepute, especially by considering their original value and working to revive it.  When a temple was to be rebuilt or enlarged in ancient Mexico, for example, the old temple was not torn down and replaced—the new temple was built around and over the old one because it was recognized that it was the site itself that people already held sacred.  The shock of dramatic transformations of culture can be mitigated by slowly and methodically reshaping the institutions people have long held in esteem.  History holds clear examples of failed reforms that attempted to remake society from the ground up.

INTENT:  The wise become independent even from what they revere.  Like children who are grown up and independent of the parents they love and admire, spirit warriors take their place among the community of spiritual equals.  Because you use this lifetime to bring the most benefit to others, you incubate the higher soul that is preparing to hatch from the lower soul:  joining in the collective labor shared by spirit warriors in every time and every place, you contribute directly to both the fulfillment of humanity’s destiny and the creator’s vision.  Becoming part of the universal civilizing spirit, you contribute directly to the founding of a free and harmonious world of equals right here within this world.

Wisdom isn’t so much knowledge as it is freedom—freedom in every sense imaginable.  Freedom even from what we have held valuable, since everything changes, rigidifies, loses its original impetus and takes another direction.  And freedom, especially, from emotionally-charged words, since they are among the most potent manipulators of behavior.

Breaking through the barriers that have long been used to divide and conquer a world of peers, we are, individually, a microcosm of the greater metamorphosis at work on the whole of civilization.

Thunder still echoes in the distance but the rain has stopped.  I close the book, put away the coins.  Not quite as ominous as it started out, the Oracle’s answer to my question doesn’t just point to the darker side of human nature—in fact, it spends much more time illuminating the light half of our nature.

Perhaps, ironically, it is easier for us to stare into our darker half than it is for us to gaze into our own nobility.  It would be the cream of the jest if civilization faltered and crumbled simply because we averted our eyes from the Smoking Mirror’s reflection of the grandeur of our true nature.

—Oracle Cast  2 June 2009

The Toltec I Ching, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just been released by Larson Publications.  It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams.   Its subtitle, 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.

This article first appeared on the Reality Sandwich website July 7, 2009:  http://www.realitysandwich.com/oracle_and_smoking_mirror

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This is the lesson I’ve learned in my sixty years.  It’s the lesson I repeat to myself constantly.

Like a favorite song you hum to yourself all the time.  Or the heart of a story you don’t want to forget.

I am part of a Living Whole that wants the best for me and all others at the same time.

We don’t have to go far or look hard to see this lesson at work.  The sun shines everywhere and on everyone equally.  Water nourishes everything and everyone it touches equally.  The soil nourishes every seed equally.  Air breathes life into all equally.

The lessons we repeat to ourselves, like the songs and stories we identify with, become part of us.  They color our moods and influence how we see things.  They are like a filter on a camera that changes the whole tone of light before it is ever recorded—they form a predisposition toward interpreting our experiences in a certain light.  We are open or closed to things, ready to be excited or irritated by things, primed to encourage or criticize others, already leaning forward or holding back, already wanting to smile or scowl—all before the experience has even begun.

In this sense, the lessons we learn determine ahead of time how we will react to whatever comes our way.

The problem, of course, is that the early lessons of life are learned without our consent.  We are too young and lack the independent sense of self needed to reject lessons that will prove self-defeating later.  In fact, we lack the criteria by which to make such judgments—and even the awareness that such rejection is possible—until we reach a certain level of maturity.  By that time, such lessons have become ingrained, part of our unconscious disposition, habits coloring every thought, emotion, memory, and reaction.

Such habits are the opposite of Inspired Action.  They result in thinking the same thoughts, feeling the same feelings, reliving the same memories, responding with the same reactions, over and over and over.  Rather than inspiring us to new and surprising insights, demeanor, and behavior, they lock us into a rigid and routinized way of interacting with the world.  Rather than sparking our spontaneity and creativity, they make us predictable and, therefore, prone to manipulation.

But not all lessons lead to self-defeating attitudes and behavior.  Those we learn voluntarily and accept consciously can lead to thoughts, emotions, and actions that are better adapted to life and therefore bring us greater happiness and success.

Since habits are kept alive by repeated reinforcement, trying to eliminate them by focusing on them merely reinforces them all the more.  For this reason, they have to be replaced, not eliminated.

We replace old self-defeating habits by focusing our attention on new lessons—lessons that we consciously choose to learn.  By focusing attention on these new lessons, repeating them to ourselves all the time, we find our feelings changing and our reactions to events surprising us.  Like musicians and athletes training to peak performance, we train ourselves through repeated practice to see the world in a different light and participate in it with a greater sense of purpose.

We unlearn self-defeating lessons by holding our attention on new ones that bring us into closer harmony with people, nature, and spirit.  All people, not just those it is convenient or easy to get along with.  All nature, not just those parts it is convenient to care for while ignoring the harm done to the rest.  All spirit, not just the conventional idea of spirit but the living presence of the sacred everywhere at hand.

I am part of a Living Whole that wants the best for me and all others at the same time.

We live in a time when intense competition and self-interest is promoted as the greatest good.  A time when natural resources are not protected by the governments who should be stewarding the land.  A time when religious ideology spreads hatred instead of love and factionalism instead of universality.  Not precisely a time promoting harmony with all people, all nature, and all spirit.

After more than 5,000 years, the Mayan Calendar is coming to an end and starting anew on the Winter Solstice of 2012.  People everywhere know that things cannot continue as they are.  The future doesn’t exist yet.  There are more than six billion of us.  We can create whatever we collectively choose.  We do not have to let governments, religions, corporations, or the media choose for us.  We are a world of peers and we can decide our destiny.  We can learn new lessons.

We can create the Golden Age of Humanity if we choose.

I am part of a Living Whole that wants the best for me and all others at the same time.

Inspired Action transcends self-interest and benefits the whole.  It arises from a sense of trust in the world and reveals itself in acts of generosity.  It is fascinated with how accurately it can discern others’ needs and how well it can benefit others.  It is self-sacrificing in the sense that it places the needs of the whole ahead of self-interest.

Inspired Action arises from a sense that all things, including human beings, are sacred.  It is based on the lesson that all matter is spirit.  It reveals itself in the personal experience of all spirit being immediately present.  It is self-transcending in the sense that it draws us into ever-closer communion with all spirit, all nature, and all people.

The Toltec I Ching incorporates the common lessons of the ancient cultures of Asia and the Americas.  The sum of these lessons embodies a worldview in which humanity stands precariously balanced between nature and spirit—a worldview that forever balances between (1) the guilt of having to take other lives in order to live and (2) the awe of being consciously alive in the maze of matter.  These roots of the indigenous cultures produced a brand of moral ethics based on personal responsibility for (1) genuine sorrow and remorse for taking the lives of plants and animals and, consequently, taking no more than absolutely necessary, and (2) making this life as meaningful and as rewarding as possible by treating everyone and everything honorably and nobly.

With this introduction to the concept of Inspired Action under our belts, let’s consider the worldview in which people can communicate with spirit through the practice of divination.  In ancient Mesoamerica, divination was conducted using the Sacred Calendar, or Tonalpoalli, while in ancient China, it was accomplished through the Oracle of the I Ching.  The logic of that worldview can be seen as we follow the line of reasoning outlined in the book’s Glossary—

Oracle The means by which the One Spirit gives voice to the essence of situations and the trends developing out of them.  The natural, appropriate, and spontaneous response of the One Spirit to an individual’s act of divination.

Divination The art and practice of interpreting signs and symbols to see into the essence of things.

Essence The living presence of the One Spirit manifesting itself in every creation at every moment.  The unchanging background of all change that makes up the underlying harmony of all creation.  The timeless perfection of all things underlying their apparent imperfection.

One Spirit The single immaterial living awareness of the material universe.  The origin and destination of every individual soul and, thereby, the eternal repository of all the memories and experiences of all who ever lived.  The marriage of the masculine creative force and the feminine creative force, whose union of Light and Love creates and sustains all of creation.

Soul The personal aspect of spirit.

Spirit The invisible half of nature.  The living awareness within all matter.

Nature The visible half of spirit.  The single body of the One Spirit.  The living and aware form of the sacred.

Masculine Creative Force The creating half of the One Spirit.  The natural, appropriate, and spontaneous catalyst of all creation, whereby all things are inspired to take form and strive toward continual metamorphosis.  The universal principle of fire, which ignites all it touches and, within the individual, manifests as the masculine half of the spirit warrior.

Feminine Creative Force The sustaining half of the One Spirit.  The natural, appropriate, and spontaneous benevolence of all creation, whereby all things are accorded an equal measure of essential benefit.  The universal principle of water, which nurtures all it touches and, within the individual, manifests as the feminine half of the spirit warrior.

Spirit Warrior A man or woman engaged in consciously defeating the enemy-within.  Women or men consciously training themselves to unite their feminine and masculine halves in order to promote and share in the good fortune of all.

Enemy-Within The conditioned and artificial aspect of every individual’s personality that is acquired unconsciously from their surroundings and must be consciously extinguished through training in order for each to return to their essential nature.  The set of self-defeating behaviors and perceptions that the spirit warrior defeats.

Metamorphosis The natural, appropriate, and spontaneous return to essence, understood as the result of self-liberation, which does not imply liberating the self but, rather, that liberation can only be achieved by oneself.

Benefit The natural, appropriate, and spontaneous response to need.

Need A temporary blockage in the free flow of benefit among all things.

Training Consciously working to eradicate the thinking errors based on self-interest by concentrating on thoughts and feelings based on good will toward all.  Consciously working to quiet the inner monolog and experience each moment of life just as it is, without interpreting it in reference to oneself.

The Toltec I Ching, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just been released by Larson Publications.  It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams.   Its subtitle, 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.

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