To: The Ixtlan Mailing List
From: anon@nagual.net
Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 18:53:52 -0400
Santa Monica Workshop, May 2, 1998
The workshop was again held at the Pavillion at Santa Monica College. The crowd
was definitely smaller than last month. I asked how many people were there and
was told "about 300". There was only one stage set up this time, but other than
that everything was exactly the same as last month.
Carol was the speaker this time and even though she was scheduled to talk a half
hour she only spent 10 minutes on stage. Before she came out we were told to all
move closer to the stage. Then we were told to move closer... then closer. We
were finally told that they wanted to create a compact energetic mass as close
to the stage as possible. We all moved even closer... :-)
Carol was dressed in a beige V neck sweater with beige knit pants and beige low
healed sandals. Her hair seemed just ever so slightly lighter and she had a very
attractive short haircut. Her features seemed less severe to me this time, I
believe her makeup was lighter, but it could have just been the lighting or the
fact that I was closer to the stage than I've ever been before. (Heck, everyone
in the room was closer to the stage than ever before!) She looked very
attractive. Her demeanor was calm and serene as usual, but also genuinely
friendly and encouraging.
Carol started out by slowly looking over the crowd, starting on her left and
sweeping her glance slowly all the way around to the right. She then turned her
head to the center, paused and took 3 noticeable, moderately deep breaths and
then said "I am Carol Tiggs. That name is my link with infinity" She talked for
a minute about names. Pretty much the same stuff as usual.
Then she spoke about how after don Juan's party had left, an "event" occurred
that caused them to decide to teach the magical passes to people. She went into
the secretive nature of the passes in ancient times and explained how they had
been cloaked in ritual up until don Juan's time and how they had further removed
all the rest of the ritual and superfluous detail in the passes, making
individual passes generic and suitable for teaching to the public. Then she
talked about "big Florinda". She was called "big" because she was so tall and
elegant and packed an incredible "wallop". Carol's voice cracked while saying
the last few words and she had to pause for a very brief moment to compose
herself. I thought she did so incredibly fast. It was like she turned on a
switch and "bang" all trace of emotion was gone. She said that big Florinda was
left behind after don Juan's party left to fine tune the four of them. Carol
then said that one of the reasons that they brought Tensegrity public was to
search for something that big Florinda had foretold about before she left.
Big Florinda had said that if the four of them had enough "gall" to continue to
pursue the path of the warrior with all they had that someday a time would come
when the mood of the ancient sorcerers would be completely removed from the
passes. Instead of being heavy, cold and detached, they would find a new mood,
one that was light and very precise. Precision would replace cold detachment and
lightness would replace heaviness of mood.
Carol then paused and looked at us and said, "That time has finally arrived. It
occurred right here in this room last month at the last workshop." She said that
she had been here doing all the passes with us and had witnessed it for herself.
She ascribed it to a combination of the energy of the participants combined with
the energy of the instructors. She said that a new mood had begun and would
prevail from now on.
Carol then made some remarks about the new members of the Awarness through
Harmony team, Gavin and Darian and then about the Heat Series and Westwood. Then
she said she wanted to cut her talk short so we had as much time as possible to
practice. She said that she had a great deal of gratitude to the participants
for all that they have given her and ended by saying "Thank you, thank you,
thank you."
The instructors for the afternoon session were Gavin and Darian. They both did a
superb job, continuing the excruciatingly detailed instruction with Heat that
Marcos and Brandon had begun last month with Westwood. The precision that these
passes were executed with by the group was truly amazing. Gavin and Darian
reminded us constantly of the proper postion of our bodies ("Bend your legs!",
"Elbows out!") and how to execute the passes ("Engage all your muscles!", "Stop
the blow with your stomach!") Nearly all of the participants already knew the
series so the instruction went fast and I think everyone was able to benefit
from the nitty gritty details that were offered. After Heat, we did the Westwood
long form for about 45 minutes. It wasn't taught with the same detail as Heat,
it really was just a review, but it was an intense practice.
The evening session was taught by Zaia and Miles instructing us in On the Run
with the sorcerers' code. They came out dressed in grey pants and hot pink
V-neck shirts. It immediately struck me how socialized I am to never expect to
see a man dressed in hot pink, but Miles carried it off with aplomb. We were
given details for the precise execution of the passes and constant reminders
about the proper position to be in or the need for tensing a particular muscle
or limb in order to execute the passes as perfectly as possible. Carol returned
for the evening session and performed the not doings with us.
The mood of the workshop, was more relaxed and at ease than it has been in the
past, very much like last month's mood. The precision thing is definitely
happening too. In fact, I'm sure that if we had one more day to all work
together on the same passes again, the entire room would become one precise,
perfectly synchronized, energy generating mass. It was already close to that on
Saturday afternoon.
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