Customer Reviews

The Path: A Practical Approach to Sorcery

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This is an interesting and useful book describing growth and unfolding of a self-taught "sorceress". Arana, armed with books by Castaneda, Monroe and Gurdjieff embarks on a path of discovering the energy body and the rules that govern the many worlds accessible by the conscious mind. To get there, she has learnt to free her mind of the grips of perceptual certainty, to follow her Intent and to practice relentlessly. For me, Arana's descriptions of her experiences form the most useful part of the book. I actually find the book to be more helpful (and trustworthy) than those written by Castaneda. At the very least, A's book may turn out to be an indispensable companion to C's opus.

Arana brings us remarkably lucid analyses of working with Intent, with the Elemental Force (God) and brings forth an excellent case for the "sorcerer's" need to establish a working meditation practice. She also provides good descriptions of how to work with the assemblage point ... for intrepid afficionados of the netherworld of different states/dimensions of consciousness and those interested in meetings its colorful denizens she provides useful pointers on lucid dreaming (for better or worse).

The most unfortunate part of this book is probably its title. There is little, if anything, of real "sorcery" in the book. On the contrary, Esmeralda is interested in attaining that ultimate goal - freedom. Her book provides an honest, valiant and useful tool for anyone who shares her goals. I recommend it.

I expect to see many negative reviews of this book "The Path: A Practical approach to Sorcery"; because many people will read the title, and incorrectly assume this book is full of spells, incantations, and curses. Well those people simply do not understand what magick (or sorcery in Ms. Arana's nomenclature) is all about.

Many people think magick is chanting an incantation and a $100 bill falls to the ground in front of you. Most people have the similar misconception of what Alchemy was about (transmuting base metals like brass and lead into gold); that was only a tiny part of what alchemy was about. True alchemy was about transmuting (purifying) the soul in order to escape the cycle of reincarnations.

Now with that out of the way; this book is a wonderful essay of one woman's long pilgrimage from darkness into the light, and I recommend it to you HIGHLY!

One part of this book disturbs me greatly. Ms. Arana repeatedly talks of one of her mentors (the books of Carlos Castaneda). On page 119 Ms. Arana states "Those people who thought that his books were about the use of psychotropic drugs missed the boat entirely." I read many of Dr. Castaneda's books, and freely admit that I missed the boat.

I am NOT in favor of people taking psychotropic drugs at all. The drugs WILL allow you to perceive and interact with other realms; but you will lose any control over the experience, and I can tell you from first hand experience that not all of those beings are sweetness and light!

This book is NOT a complete path to mastery; but will greatly assist you in taking your first stumbling steps towards mastery. I am fond of saying "The more one works toward self mastery; the more inner work s/he sees that needs to be done" Two Bears.

Please be patient while I point out a few things in the book.

Page 2. "I began to have lucid dreams or what people commonly refer to as out of body experiences." Lucid dreamimg is not a full out of body experience where the astral body seperates from the physical body. According to Stephen LaBerg (the man that coined that coined the term "Lucid dreaming" if memory serves.) states that lucid dreaming is one of many gateways to out of body experiences.

Page 3. "I do not pretend to be a guru of any sort." I could NOT agree more! There are NO shortcuts to self mastery. You MUST do the HARD work yourself. So prepare to do a lot of internal work!

Page 28. "I have asked the Elemental Force to help to help mr change something about myself," Just in order for you to understand her nomenclature; this energy has been called by countless names (Akasha, Ch'i, Itaki, Ki, Mana, Nuwati, Prana, etc.)

Page 34. "If one stops the internal dialogue, one "stops the world"." It is VERY important to visit the silence; because in the silence you can re-program what is allowed to pass through your filter, then release negative emotions such as anger, hatred, bigotry, tendencies to commit violence, etc. I can verify this from first hand experience.

Page 49. "During REM sleep, the body protects itself by paralyzing the voluntary muscles so that when you dream, you don't start acting out what is occuring in your dream and injure yourself." Ms. Arana is one of the very few people to correctly identify the purpose of sleep paralysis.

Page 71. "First imagine that the mind is like the hard drive of a computer; a hard drive with a massive but finite capacity." This statement is in error. The mind is infinite. It contains all of the information of the current lifetime and all previous lifetimes (The brain is not the mind. The brain is only the operating system to access the mind.). A person that refuses to accept the notion of other realms will stop experiencing them, a person that has tendencies to hold grudges, commit violence, etc; over time will build walls that limit their their potential to experience other acts such as mercy, forgiveness. love tolerance, etc; This in no way means the hard drive is full (You are only tearing down self imposed walls). By going into the silence and reprogramming what our filters will allow to come into our perception; we can change internaly that begins to change our physical reality. The occultists had it right in the statement "As above, so below; as within so without."

Page 85. "I have never seen anything in my lucid dream resembling the "predator" or the "sucker"." I must disagree (one of the few page numbers I forgot). Ms. Arana talks of the predators or gardners that strips away energy from the human beings energy body and uses it as food for them. On another page she relates the story while in a hypnogogic state that she saw a huge black spider that came through the wall that terified her, and she willed herself to wake up, knowing it wasn't real.

It was real. The predator is a shape shifter (based on my experience) that starts out as black spiders and snakes, etc to instill fear, then shapeshift into more hideous creatures. The more fear, terror, feeling of hopelessness, worthlessness, depression, suicidal thoughts, etc you emit; the more tasty your energy is to them. (I warned you earlier that not all entities were sweetness and light!"

To free yourself of the predators (in my opinion) is that when you encounter them to control your emotions and emit unconditional love, and other positive emotions. This will raise the vibration of your energy body, and sour the milk (so to speak) so your energy is not acceptable to them.

Please E-Mail if you have questions or comments; Two Bears.

Wah doh Ogedoda (we give thanks Great Spirit)

Esmeralda Arana's educational and entertaining book, THE PATH, is packed with amazing revelations about the similarities between the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Twelve Step Program, Carlos Castaneda's Warrior's Way, Robert Monroe's Out of Body Experiences (OBEs), and Gurdjieff's concept of hypnotic sleep.

What do recovering alcoholics have in common with sorcerers? According to Arana, quite a lot. The key to transforming your life is in transforming your perception of reality -- and it is essential to request assistance from both the elemental force (also known as God, or Spirit) as well as a human support group -- and then to start acting in accordance with the behavior appropriate to your new place of perception. You can change channels in your life from one reality to another just like changing channels on TV, by tuning in to a different perceptual station with sufficient energy and intent.

Arana clearly elucidates the striking similarities between AA's 12 step program and Toltec sorcery techniques taught by Carlos Castaneda by sharing intimate revelations about her own experiences with overcoming alcoholism. Arana also describes her fascinating experiences with lucid dreaming as she describes how difficult it could be at times to detach her energetic "double" from her physical body, and some of the side-effects of lucid dreaming (such as hearing voices, and knowing intimate and seemingly unknowable details about others).

I highly recommend this book for its excellent down-to-Earth writing, original ideas, and fascinating insights into how you can make small shifts in perception in order to make big changes in your life. THE PATH is an intensely practical and transformative book which I'm sure I will still be thinking about months and years later, telling all my friends about at every opportunity!

This book was recommended by a friend who knew that I had a history of lucid dreaming; otherwise, I never would have read a book with such a title. If you have ever been fortunate/unfortunate enough to share in the experience of lucid dreams, then you owe it to yourself to read this book. Although I am not a believer in Sorcery, nor a fan of Castaneda, I found this book to be very insightful, and actually helpful in many ways. The author clearly is a gifted communicator. Anyone who overcomes great adversity in life, and makes the effort (and takes the risk) to share this experience for the benefit of others, receives my full support and my appreciation.

Being trained in both conventional western medicine and an ancient healing tradition from Peru ( the Inka Medicine Wheel), I feel I have a unique perspective on this brave and personal book by Arana. Though closely tied to the legends of Carlos Castaneda, the author makes the concepts accessible without indulging in the fantastic. Likewise, this is not fanciful popular fiction like Harry Potter. There is magic all around us and within us, if only we could see it. Arana shows us the way to deeper insights if not understandings from which we may emerge changed in a profound and meaningful way. This book is a "must read" for students of alternative healing and/or shamanism as well as western trained physicians.

As a child I loved listening to the bible stories of healers and profits. I left the Christian Science church as a teen because I never saw any one do real healing, and found the main text book of the church useless.

Near UC Berkeley there is a classic old used book store called Shakespeare & Company. One day after classes I was poking around and found a book called The Quimby Manuscripts. It was a pair of ancient beat up type-written manuscripts about the man who taught the founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, how to heal people. I felt like Indiana Jones with a new secret map. Quimby had learned mesmerism in the mid 1800's and through his experimentation learned to heal people. He described his diagnosis method as his spiritual body interviewing the patient's spiritual body to find out what the physical problems were and how to fix them.

I had recently read Life After Life by Raymond Moody about near-death experiences, which introduced me to the non-physical body. So when Quimby mentioned this sprit body I was excited and fascinated by the corroboration between the two books.

I eventually read all of Robert Monroe's books about his experimentations in the non-physical body. And all of Castaneda's work with specific interest in the "double" and dreaming, and uncomfortably with the flyers or predators of man's energy.

Esmeralda Arana's book is the best attempt I have found by anyone to bring all of these discussions together in one place. I love that she suggests to use these revolutionary concepts to make practical small changes in one's life.

She is also the only person I have found who linked the Loosh harvesting preditor described in Robert Monroe's book Far Journeys p. 162, with the Flyers described in Castaneda's book The Active Side of Infinity p.215 The idea that man is the "top" of the food change never seemed logical to me. Why should the food chain stop with man. These descriptions of a human predator are either the most important knowledge we can be investigating, or they are fantastic science fiction.

What happened to Esmeralda? my email ... rws70 AT yahoo dot com

When I read a book I want it to tell me something about the human experience. This book shares a perspective that brings into focus a greater awareness of our requirements as spirits on Earth 101. I believe that "when you are ready, teachers appear," and in these few pages there is wisdom imparted for those who are ready. It is not about magick and spells, but about something far more noble. It is about being a Warrior for our souls!

I wasn't sure what to expect from The Path - a synthesis of 12 step programs and Toltec sorcery? Sounds unusual, to say the least. To my surprise, and delight, Ms. Arana pulls it off, comparing the rather fantastic and often impractical suggestions of Carlos Castaneda to the far more grounded and workable steps in AA. She gives practical suggestions to get you started on the path to learning how to experience what she calls your "energy body," or a higher form of consciousness.

Some other good things about the book are that it's highly readable - very little academic mumbo jumbo - and it's concise. More imprtantly, Ms. Arana's practical suggestions aren't hard to follow and are not that time consuming. In the short time that I've been experimenting with her recommendations I have already noticed some perceptual differences. I highly recommend anyone interested in sorcery, or whatever name you care to ascribe to higher levels of consciousness, to give The Path a go.

It could also be called "Sorcery for dummies" or Castaneda essentials or New Millennium sorcery or ...

Down-to-Earth grounded writing. Everything that left unclear after reading Carlos & Company. A truly sober and utilizable position of assemblage point. Must have for every Carlos fan. Thank you Esmeralda.

An illuminating and thought-provoking book, "The Path" was also utterly absorbing. The author describes her personal experiences and draws the reader into the universe she envisions. A really remarkable work, it offers real solutions along with insights. A must-read for anyone interested in expanding both their mind and heart.