Carlos Castanedas "The Art of Dreaming"

During one of our conversations, don Juan stated that, in order to appreciate the position of

dreamers and dreaming  one has to understand the struggle of modern-day sorcerers to steer sorcery away from concreteness toward the abstract.

"What do you call concreteness, don Juan?" I asked.

"The practical part of sorcery," he said. "The obsessive fixation of the mind on practices and

techniques, the unwarranted influence over people. All of these were in the realm of the sorcerers

of the past."

"And what do you call the abstract?"

"The search for freedom, freedom to perceive, without obsessions, all that's humanly possible.

I say that present-day sorcerers seek the abstract because they seek freedom; they have no interest

in concrete gains. There are no social functions for them, as there were for the sorcerers of the

past. So you'll never catch them being the official seers or the sorcerers in residence."

"Do you mean, don Juan, that the past has no value to modern-day sorcerers?"

"It certainly has value. It's the taste of that past which we don't like.