Matrix is a Metaphor for Clarity and Power | The Four Enemies of a Man of Knowledge
If you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: A Study of Toltec Shamanism, Castaneda's Sorcery, Yoga & Zen Philosophy, click the above button for details.
To become a man of knowledge one must challenge and defeat his four natural enemies. ~ Carlos Castaneda “The teachings of Don Juan”
Welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind podcast and today I would like to talk about the “Four enemies of a man of knowledge” and in particular Clarity and Power, and I am going to tackle this from a cultural prospective by showing the parallels between clarity and power in relation to the idea of the Matrix.
In The Matrix, the main character Neo is offered the choice between a red pill and a blue pill by rebel leader Morpheus. The red pill represents an uncertain future—that would free him from the enslaving control of the machine-generated dream world and allow him to escape into the real world, but living the "truth of reality" is harsher and more difficult.
On the other hand, the blue pill represents a beautiful prison—it would lead him back to ignorance, living in confined comfort without want or fear within the simulated reality of the Matrix. As described by Morpheus: "You take the blue pill...the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill...you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." Neo chooses the red pill and joins the rebellion.
From the perspective of sorcery, and really the yogic sages also. The Matrix is humanities frame of reference, and fear is our cultural blindness from within the matrix, and your view or understanding of humanities diversity is limited to your local culture. You could even say that fear is a tribal reaction.
Self, which is who we think we are is only a creation of tribal culture, a reflection of the human cultural syntax and thus a false self. In a tribal structure this loss of self-importance could mean less resources or even death through a challenge. In the context of a civilization, growing culturally is equally a terrifying existential threat to most people, it threatens the very existence of “you” as you conceive yourself. Thus conquering your first enemy is a simple one-step process; be willing to accept different viewpoints.
In the context of the human society, most people are trapped in their social frame, and are unable to conceive of a world outside of this natural tribal instinct.
So fear is fundamentally our tribal frame, an instinctual rejection of any new cultural influences that challenge existing beliefs and understanding, and our knowledge of who we are and what our beliefs are. Imagine realizing you are not who you thought you are, and you suddenly find that you don’t want what you thought you wanted! What now?
Fear thus plays on our natural cognitive bias, a systematic pattern where Individuals create their own "subjective reality" from their discernment of the social input.
The construction of a subjective reality dictates ones status in the world, regardless of what the objective reality maybe. Our cognitive biases although leading to perceptual construction; for e.g. your view of the social structure, also distorts our judgment, creating a subjective interpretation of reality.
Once we overcome fear, which is a breaking down of our world view, we rebuilt a new understanding of reality and in this rebuilding we find that we have become encircled by clarity.
Self in its guise as clarity is now humbled, but it is a false humility, a false surrender. Social conditioning is never defeated through meekness. Humility is what you learned as a child through reward and punishment, but you are no longer a child, now you must choose freedom or servitude to humanity.
Clarity’s maneuver is to use our devotion and perseverance against us, the very personal power we used to rebuild and transform, and thus we become trapped, a Witness to our humanity, a witness to our great construct. This is clarity’s strength, and our self-realized arrogance, because our new construct is still bound within humanities frame of reference.
The error was that we rebuild our world view from within the matrix of humanity, and thus the matrix is also the source of our self-realized arrogance. We are still as equally blind as when we were bound by the tribal awareness, we are still blinded by the social contract of the blue pilled mind, the mind of the matrix.
In the Matrix clarity equates to an Agent, for e.g. agent Smith within the Matrix, while power is the frame of reference that generates the matrix. If you have seen the movie then you will understand that even defeating an agent a.k.a clarity is a monumental achievement.
You could think of clarity as a collective cultural agreement, much like the agents in the movie, clarity does not exist as an entity, but rather as a cultural blueprint that takes over the mind of an individual much like an agent takes over a body that is connected to the Matrix.
Power is the matrix, the creation that is called humanity and this is how power defeats the sorcerer. When you try to go outside the human frame of reference, to leave the cultural plantation that enslaves you. Power cannot permit your freedom, power knows that once you slip outside of the human frame, you will never be put back inside its blue pilled box, so it attempts to poison you psychologically, you could even say that power implants a black pilled frame, it plays on your cognitive bias, giving you an alternative reality, but a reality that at first glance may seem the opposite of the matrix’s blue pilled frame, but is instead cleverly hidden within the matrix.
This implanting of an artificial frame of reference is powers attempt to trap you within the duality of the matrix, examples of this implanted ideal besides the black pilled frame is cancel culture. Power cares nothing about the ideal, its only intent is to keep you within a dualistic frame, to keep you within the matrix; anything to stop you perceiving reality outside of the matrix. Anything to stop you from developing a red pill frame which not only frees you from the matrix, but also fortifies you against future traps.
From the philosophical perspective, terms such as blue pilled vs black pilled are a rehash of existentialism vs nihilism, even cancel culture is a nihilistic reaction to traditionalism.
Powers attack is different from clarity’s. Clarity’s attack is from within the blue pilled mental frame, and thus attacks you through your blue pilled values. At the stage of clarity the sorcerer has no understanding outside of their blue pilled frame of reference and this is what makes clarity so powerful. Clarity has you trapped within the arena, but it is an arena chosen by clarity, so clarity has all the advantage, all the power. And this is where women have the advantage over clarity, clarity’s only desire is to use you for your social value. If a woman is unattractive or old then often she has no social value, and is dismissed by society, she no longer plays any role in the sexual dynamics of resource extraction. Such women have no value, and thus are not noticed by clarity and easily slip pass clarity.
But for the male sorcerer, clarity can always find a use for them, even if this use is as a simple laborer. Men have value until the day they die and thus they cannot simply slip past clarity and only by defeating clarity can the male sorcerer learn that their frame of reference is an illusion, that their cultural dynamics is the trap.
And what is meant by this is that things that are considered social responsibilities like duty to your community or nation, accepting the authority of the church or government, defending social values like a white knight, accepting traditional or even the opposite and accepting counter culture ideas or egalitarianism, being nationalistic and fighting for your country, are all irrelevant. They are still real of course in the context of the culture, but your engagement in this cultural reference is the trap.
Yet clarity does not cling to the sorcerer, but rather the sorcerer clings to clarity. we refuse to let go of clarity, because it both undermines all that we hold to be good and just, but also because clarity is so ingrained, so interwoven into our new hard won ideals, our beautiful creation, the “self-realized self”.
Self is so self-inflated with its own presumptions that it is deceived by its own ideals, its own understanding of the abstract and thus the sorcerer stops the search for the True Self, believing that they are now the one and only self-realized self.
And just to be clear this is not about morality or immorality, good vs evil, and it is not a form of amorality, these concept are within the blue pilled frame. We are looking outside the human frame, and if we drag it down into a moral argument then we are only arguing from within the matrix, within the human social frame.
Now at this point I also want to make a distinction between what is commonly thought of as red pill in relation to sexual dynamics. The sorcerers understanding of the red pill, is in the truest context of the matrix, the red pill frame is outside the blue pilled frame of reference, and thus it is real power because it is free from the slavery of humanity.
Many men’s groups talk about being red pilled or alpha, but their talk is from within the context of their cultural reality and thus are just as enslaved as their blue pilled contemporaries. Carlos Castaneda often talked about how women found the transition to sorcery a natural or fluid process, and in this context there is a sexual relationship between women’s natural ability to defeat clarity.
Interestingly in the framework of red pilled men’s groups there is insight into the nature of femininity from within a cultural frame. But you have to ask, how simple blue pilled men can come to this understanding of the differences between the sexes. They have no personal power and thus have no chance of breaking their conditioning.
So how did men come to understand blue pilled sexual dynamics within their culture at clarity’s level, my personal theory is that the men that are called alphas, have the same natural understanding of sexual dynamics as women. Thus alpha men are in fact men that think just like women and thus also have a natural fluidity to defeat at least the second natural enemy “clarity”, and this is the same fluidity that women have within this frame.
The reason I bring up this insight that Alpha’s naturally have towards the social sexual dynamics is because you could also view the Alpha as a potential danger, as these so called Alpha’s are equally potential agent smiths. And in this sense they could just as easily become guardians of clarity, keepers of the status quo.
Examples of this in society are police officers, the police force attracts a majority of alpha type personalities, and there is an old saying that “if they weren’t police they would be criminals”. This type have a fluid frame and can switch sides in a moment; they seek only advantage; they are the perfect predator.
The fluidity of police is well-documented. E.g. when a totalitarian government takes power the police force switches from crime prevention to enforcing the totalitarian governments will. The best example is World War 2 after the Nazis invaded they used the local police as their enforcers, and just look at recent lock downs across western countries. The police simply switched from a force for law and order; to a brutal arm of the new world order, this natural fluidity within the context of human morality is a true and natural amoral type of human, you could even call this a blue pilled blind spot.
But I digress, because the social dynamics of humanity is irrelevant, the sorcerer’s goal is to escape their cultural conditioning. Escape their attachment to humanity, and this is why fear, clarity, and power are our enemies, they are humanity, the force behind all that humans find value in.
The sorcerer that defeats clarity is now primarily focused outside of their cultural conditioning. Yet this is also when power attacks the sorcerer, when the sorcerer’s perception is focused on the second attention. The sorcerer is engrossed by the Nagual’s reality and is outside the first attention.
Power is the most deceptive of the four enemies, because it only manifests when the sorcerer becomes fixated within the second attention. But to understand why power is the most dangerous of the four enemies we must understand that self is now blinded by the wonders of the Unknown, and thus takes no interest in the affairs and subtleties of human despotism.
Yet power is a human affair, it is a function of the human world, but the sorcerer is no longer part of this world, the sorcerer is no longer a man living in a world of men. In fact calling this enemy power is a fatal contradiction, for it is not power per sé. but the very unwillingness of the sorcerer to be concerned with the ways of the world that makes him vulnerable, and it is this very lack of interest in human doing’s that catches the sorcerer by surprise.
The sorcerer is transfixed and their only interest is in witnessing the Not-Doings of Awareness, you could even say that the sorcerer has become trapped within divinities timeless bliss of oneness, an eternal witness in an ocean of Divinity.
Now this is not to say that the sorcerer is weak or lacking power, it is simply a case of not having an interest in human doings. And this is often the sorcerers fatal flaw, for humans live in a blue pilled frame, a tribal frame, where power is a daily struggle, a daily affair, and to defeat this enemy the sorcerer needs to understand that the world is a predatory world, and humans are the apex predator of this world.
The sorcerer needs to learn and understand the matrix from a red pilled frame as a protection against the human predator. No matter what personal power you gather, you still live in a human world and thus you need to learn how to survive in this world and simultaneously not be a part of the human frame.
A common mistake made when trying to understand the four enemies talked about by Castaneda is to link the enemies of a man of knowledge with personal gain and emotions, but they would not be considered such deadly enemies if it was that simple; if they were that obvious. We are dealing with an enemy that has subtly embed itself into what we consider human nature.
As a final word of warning; the black pill, crazy woke culture and even nihilistic views are the ideals of people that have been defeated by one of the enemies, and the world of the spiritual is filled to the brim with nihilistic gurus and philosophers.
I’ve enjoyed sharing my understanding of the Four Enemies of a Man of Knowledge, and I encourage you to explore and learn about yourself and to continue your journey. And if you have the time when let me know in the comments about your understanding of clarity and power, and this is important not only to me but also in helping others in their personal journey.
And I will leave you with a final word from the book “The teachings of Don Juan”
Once one of these enemies overpowers a man there is nothing he can do. It is not possible, for instance, that a man who is defeated by power may see his error and mend his ways. Once a man gives in he is through. If, however, he is temporarily blinded by power, and then refuses it, his battle is still on. That means he is still trying to become a man of knowledge. A man is defeated only when he no longer tries, and abandons himself.
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Here’s to you and your fulfilment and growth into every tomorrow to come.
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And if you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: A Study of Toltec Shamanism, Castaneda's Sorcery, Yoga & Zen Philosophy, follow the link for details.
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