For aeons of time humanity has wondered at the origin and meaning of its existence and that of the universe, where we came from and who we are, and what part and purpose we play in life’s grand scheme. These are questions that the Toltecs have explored experientially in considerable detail right back to antiquity, and with some considerable success, and has become known in the Toltec system of knowledge as the Evolution of Awareness. In this first detailed page on the Toltec system of knowledge many of the core principles are drawn together to provide an overview of the scope, scale, and approach required to using the Toltec system of knowledge. Many of the principles and mechanisms introduced here will then be considered in more detail in subsequent relevant page in the menu. In order to start to appreciate the scale of what I am attempting to present here, we first need to consider that what we perceive of the manifested universe is only a tiny piece of the whole that we call life, or rather the One Life, and that each of us as individuals are a unit of the one life, a living being within the one life, and contributing through our experiences to the ever evolving awareness of the one life. The process of contributing to this evolving awareness also implies purpose, through whatever context and experiences we find ourselves in throughout our lives. Ultimately our experiences through learning, and hence acquiring knowledge of ourselves and the world around, define a meaningful reason and purpose for our existence, as a valuable unit of the one life engaged in the ongoing evolution of our own and life’s awareness.
With this said as an introduction, then the evolution of awareness according to the Toltec system of knowledge defines a reason and purpose for existence that is distinct and clear to each and every unit of the one life, whether the unit be a sun, planet, human being, animal, plant or mineral, to mention only a few at our manifested level of existence. This purpose can be very simply stated as the impetus to raise our awareness, in other words to acquire knowledge through our experiences, learning about who and what we are, and to apply that knowledge to whatever context our life is concerned with, or again in other words, whatever challenges we each individually face on our own path of learning, and hence acquisition of knowledge, and hence raising of our awareness. Collectively all of our endeavours, and those of all other beings at all levels of existence in life, contribute through their raising of awareness to the evolution of the one life, of which we are all a part. The natural question that arises from this is who or what decided this purpose, or assigned the one life this purpose, a question that the Toltecs have again studied in a lot of detail, and needs to take us back to the source of the one life known as the Spirit.
It is impossible to say what the Spirit is or where it came from, as this type of question or assertion the Toltecs have discovered to belong to the unknowable. The unknowable is just what it says, it is something that we cannot possibly fathom, say anything about, or discover whilst we remain a unit of the one life at any level of existence, and hence there is nothing more than I can say about this either now or in the future. What can be perceived of the spirit is its impetus, or that it moves, or that it changes, as it emanates from the most fundamental source that the Toltecs have been able to identify. So the spirit stirs in the void of No-Thing, before manifestation, before any form of any sort, in the darkness of no-thing or nothing, in the deepest of the unknown, a region of knowledge yet to be discovered which is so massive we cannot even comprehend its scale, depth, and extent. For context, the manifested universe that we find ourselves in is like the tiniest needle in the vast haystack of the unknown, and even that tiny needle of the manifested universe is to us so vast with so much unknown that our existence is again just a tiny pin-prick in the vast unknown of the manifested universe.
So why did the spirit stir in the first place ? Well the best answer to this in the Toltec system of knowledge, is in order to learn, in order to acquire knowledge about itself, to try to know what, where, and how it is. In other words to turn the unknown into the known at all levels, to map out the fabric of life, and in so doing establish the most fundamental purpose of all, that life evolves in order to learn about itself, and since the spirit is the most fundamental source of the one life, and we all have the spirit within us, and we are all made from the spirit, animated by the spirit, and hence have a tiny piece of the spirit’s most fundamental purpose within us, to know itself, or for us to “know thyself”. It is an axiom of the Toltec system of knowledge that there is no knowledge other than knowledge of the Self, what we perceive on the outside is a reflection of ourselves on the inside, and this is one of the most simple yet fundamental principles in life, that we are the microcosm of the macrocosm. Within our level of existence we can work towards acquiring all the knowledge that is available at that level, until we reach the totality of the self, which is illumination of all available knowledge at that level. From that point we progress to a higher or more inner level of existence and the job of learning and acquiring knowledge beings again, and again, and again, as we each and all together make our long and seemingly endless journey from where we find ourselves, back to the source of the spirit.
So often the question arises as what the spirit is made of, and how does it act ? This can only be answered through what the Toltecs have observed as Intent. When the spirit stirs in the void, it can be perceived by a fully trained Toltec, as an emanation, a movement or flow like a Luminous Fibre in the dark void of the unknown. The movement of this single luminous fibre exerts a pressure or force on the surrounding darkness, and is known as the Force of Intent, the one and only force that exists throughout the one life, and at all levels of existence. In our common perception of the world, science has differentiated different types of forces e.g. gravitation, electromagnetic, strong and weak nuclear forces etc. but it needs to be understood that these are different expressions of the one force of intent. All those different forces originate from the force of intent, and only the difference in reaction of the different physical forms leads to the different expressions of the force of intent that science observes and measures. And intent is far more potent than simply the physical expression of force, for it is the primary creative urge or essence of the spirit to manifest itself as Some-Thing.
So the pressure or force of intent on the void, and emanating from the spirit, has the result through the purpose of learning about itself, and hence the acquisition of knowledge and hence Power, to transmute the No-Thing into Some-Thing, and in so doing turn progressively the unknown into the known. So the force of intent can be seen as the ultimate power of creation and destruction, and the acquisition of knowledge by any being at any level of existence is a true acquisition of power, or personal power, in that the being now has the ability through intent to create or destroy some-thing within the one life. And this is another most important axiom in the Toltec system of knowledge, that the acquisition of knowledge leads to personal power, and that this power is concerned directly with the ability to create or destroy through the force of intent. And creation and destruction has no value judgement attached to it, since the processes of life are not “good” or “bad”, as both have there rightful place within the natural order of life. So the force of intent brings about action, and hence creation and destruction, defined by the fundamental purpose of the spirit. Within our own level of existence learning about ourself and hence acquiring knowledge and hence power, results from the application of the force of intent, or in other words we use our current knowledge of intent to bring about the necessary circumstances and challenges in our life for us to acquire more knowledge, and hence more power. Learning to handle and utilise intent is a fundamental axiom and discipline within the Toltec system of knowledge.
It is also important to point out here that the acquisition of knowledge through learning is objective, in that it encompasses both what is Life-Supportive and Life-Destructive. Life-supportive acts lead to a growth, development, expansion, and support of the process of evolution of life, whereas Life-destructive acts lead to destruction, collapsing, shrinking and resisting of the process of evolution. It is an important axoim in the Toltec system of knowledge that there can ultimately be no gaps in our knowledge. To accomplish the totality of the self it is necessary to have all possible knowledge available at our current level of existance, and hence we must at times be involved in acts that are both life-supportive and life-destructive Obviously there needs to be Balance in the progression of the evolution of life and awareness, as too many life-destructive acts risk destroying life all together, which takes us back to the beginning of the exploration of the unknown, and hence a repeat of what already went before. And this is much how the evoluton of awareness appears to have proceeded according to the Toltec system of knowledge, as the pendulum swings with the passing of the ages, and through aeons of time, sometimes the pendulum swings far to the life-destructive approach to life, and then before all is lost a rising up of those acts and processes that swing the pendulum back the other way, in order to support the evolution of awareness in a life-supportive way. And so through striving for a balance in awareness the Great Mystery of the unknown is mapped out by the spirit in all its diversity, little by little across the ages of this great manifestation.
So with the purpose of the spirit put into action through the force of intent we now have a meaningful exploration of the one life through transmutation of no-thing into some-thing, or the unknown into the known, and this process implies or yields Intelligence. In other words combination of the purpose of the spirit combined with action that results from the force of intent, generates an intelligence of the process, or the ability to create meaning from that which is now known. This intelligence of the spirit is also that spark of intelligence, the spark of the spirit, that is within us all, in each and every one of the units of the one life. It is what comes into our body at birth, and leaves our body to return from whence it came, when we die. As already described intelligence is the product of the purpose of the spirit and the force of intent making it possible to acquire new learning, and new knowledge of one’s own inner self, the inner workings of both our-selves and the inner workings of the wheelwork of nature. It is this intelligence reflected down through all the many levels of existence that we experience as the self or our own self, the indwelling being, the soul, the true self, the dreamer, or however you wish to name that ineffable spark of intelligence, that spark of the spirit that is within each and every unit of the one life.
Now that the spirit, through the force of intent, and through the means of intelligence, can make active meaning from the knowledge thus far gained about itself, an awareness of self is born, an awareness of the distinction between what is known and unknown, an awareness of the purpose of the spirit, and most particularly an awareness of a being called the Self or I. This Inherent Awareness of self represents the total extent of all the current knowledge accumulated by the spirit in order to learn about itself, and know itself thus far. Reflected down through the levels of existence to our level, we each sit with our current level of awareness with regards to our self, that is the based on the sum total of all the knowledge and power that our being has accumulated throughout its existence. So when we talk of being self-aware or our awareness of self, and by reflection also our awareness of the world around us, we are referring really to the level of knowledge and hence personal power that we currently have at our disposal. This personal power we can actively use in the pursuit of new knowledge and additional personal power, or said another way that which is currently available to us in order to go about raising our level of awareness. The process of raising our level of awareness of self through knowledge, acquired through experiential learning is known as Evolving Awareness, and at any particular moment we can say that the sum total of our awareness is that inherent awareness from the knowledge of self we have already acquired over the ages, plus the evolving awareness that we are now actively engaged in acquiring through the context of our lives as this time.
All together across the vast ages of this fourth great manifestation of the spirit, from the first stirring of the spirit, through the movement from the force of intent, by the means of applied active intelligence, and emerging and growing awareness of self, the Evolution of Awareness has proceeded across unimaginable aeons of time. This evolution has created such diversity within the one life that is again unimaginable in scale, depth, and extent, through many levels of existence all the way down from the source of the spirit, to the manifested universe, to the galaxies, to our galaxy, to our solar system, to our planet, to humanity, to the animals, to the plants, to the mineral kingdom, right to the very furthest extent of the spirit at this time. At the furthest extent the tiniest spark of the spirit brings about a new self, as the spirit through the force of intent, pushes further and further into the void in its relentless purpose to know itself through the diversity of its own reflection. This new self then proceeds on its journey of evolution of awareness, learning, growing, and acquiring knowledge of itself over aeons of time, and gradually progressing step by step up the ladder of evolution. As awareness of self grows so the being also grows progressing from one totality of the self to the next, up through the mineral kingdom, to the plant kingdom, to the animal kingdom, to the level of humanity, and ever onwards and upwards to a planetary being, and eventually a solar being, a galaxy being, back towards the source of the spirit, back towards home and whence we came from. Throughout this journey back to the source the self carries with it the acquired knowledge and power, our awareness of self, and hence our contribution to the one life and the great Evolution of Awareness.
Now from this very condensed summary of the Evolution of Awareness in the Toltec system of knowledge the interested reader would have noted that each unique being, a spark of the spirit, a unique self, undertakes a journey over enormous aeons of time, which raises many interesting questions regarding what our individual life constitutes, what our level of existence is, and what is currently our place in the current great manifestation ? To answer these questions we must look at our inner self, that which has an awareness of both our self and our surroundings, that which has within it that active intelligence born of the spirit through the force of intent, that which so many would call our soul. So the soul is our true inner self, our awareness of self, and the level of awareness of each of self is equivalent to the knowledge that has thus been acquired since the soul was born from a fresh spark of the spirit. The level of existence that we currently find ourselves within the physically manifested universe, means that our soul resides for a period within a physical form, made-up of a mental, emotional and physical shell, all contained together in what is known as the luminous cocoon, like a luminous egg made up of the luminous fibres of life within manifestation. This form in physical terms we call our body, and in the Toltec system of knowledge the luminous cocoon with the mental, emotional, and physical shells within is termed the Dreamed, the expression of I am. The dreamed is animated for a period by the soul, or the inner self or being, that which is called the Dreamer in the Toltec system of knowledge, the expression of I. The dreamer and the dreamed together in cooperation is the expression of I and I am.
For clarity we can liken the dreamed to a motor vehicle, and the dreamer to the driver of the motor vehicle. The purpose of the motor vehicle is to enable us to travel to different places with different experiences etc. Without the driver the motor vehicle doesn’t do anything other than sit there doing nothing, and so cannot fufil its purpose in any useful way. Without the motor vehicle the dreamer is not getting anyway fast or slow, since there is nothing to travel in, in order to encounter and work with the challenges that will lead to new experiences and hence knowledge. Now that we have the terminology for the dreamer and the dreamed we can understand that the dreamer, our soul, is the spark of the spirit, the spark of intelligence, with an awareness of self, that has evolved over aeons of existence since first being born from the spirits relentless purpose in the unknown. The dreamer has accumulated its knowledge through the challenges that it has encountered through the forms that it has grown through from a mineral, to a plant, to an animal, and then to a human being which is the level of existence we currently find ourselves at. As we well know the dreamed or our physical incarnation only lasts for a short period of time, let’s say for a standard life span of 70 years. So the implication of all of this is that the dreamer reincarnates over and over into a new dreamed, carrying with it each time a little piece of learning that needs to be done whilst in incarnation, learning that will illuminate another little part of our knowledge that we did not have before. So over many lifetimes, as countless different dreamed, the dreamer develops and evolves its level of knowledge and awareness. Over aeons and aeons of time a dreamer will acquire totality of the self, or the required personal power to illuminate all knowledge available at the level of existence of a human being. From this point there is no need to incarnate as another human being, as this is not needed in order to learn. Instead the dreamer or soul progresses up the ladder of evolution to a larger being, and here starts the acquisition of new knowledge at a new level of existence. Over time the being will traverse this level of existence and so on an so forth, rather as one progresses from junior school to senior school, and onwards from there.
The Relationship between the dreamer and the dreamed is most important for the evolution of our awareness, our learning, and for our knowledge to grow in an efficient manner. At the moment of our birth into the dreamed what the Toltecs call an eclipse of consciousness takes place, in other words the dreamed forgets why it has been born, what it is supposed to do, and what is important for it to learn in this current incarnation. This really is common sense, for what would be the point of learning through working with the experience of your challenges in your live, when you already know what you are supposed to learn. New knowledge is simply that, knowledge that you the dreamer does not yet have, and therefore the dreamer will do its best to guide the dreamed to fulfil the task of acquiring the necessary experience and hence knowledge within the time allotted to the dreamed in this current incarnation. It is correct to say that the dreamer always cooperates with the dreamed, but the same cannot be said about the dreamed. It often takes an enormous amount of personal development work to establish a good cooperative working relationship between the dreamed and its dreamer, a journey I can personally attest to in my own training within this lifetime. In the Toltec system of knowledge this process of the dreamer and dreamed working together is known as Intelligent Cooperation, a process that is always learned by working actively with the relationships that we have in our life. Through intelligent cooperation a very close relationship can be established between the dreamer and the dreamed, and this greatly facilitates the progression of our learning, experience, and hence knowledge of self acquired in any specific lifetime.
It should also be evident that the dreamed or the vehicle from our previous analogy, can take on many different forms and types in order to assist us in the specific knowledge that we need to acquire during any specific incarnation. Incarnation usually alternates in gender between male and female, where we are born on the planet, to what race of people, in what circumstances is all based on the script for learning in the current lifetime. So in humanity from the Toltec system of knowledge it is clear to see that we each have already had many, many incarnations as all sorts of different people, in different parts of the world, with different parents, and with different circumstances in our lives. This is one of the things that makes humanities ongoing prejudice for each other so ludicrous when viewed from the Toltec system of knowledge. We are simply incarnated exactly where we need to be in order to fulfil what we set out to do before we incarnated, in other words the script for our learning in this lifetime.
This really is just a very short introduction to the evolution of awareness, and many of the topics covered here I will be looking at in more detail in the forthcoming pages yet to be written, but summarised in the menu on the left. So this is a very simple explanation of some of the key aspects of the Evolution of Awareness from the perspective of the Toltec system of knowledge. It may well deviate quite dramatically from what you might be used to, but with careful consideration, many of the principles and aspects that I have introduced here can be found within the great spiritual teachings, religions, and philosophical and esoteric discourses within the common era of our history. There is after all only the One Life, which we are all a part of, and hence we are all part of the Evolution of Awareness with our own unique journey, our own unique knowledge, and our unique level of awareness. As we seek to raise our own awareness in whichever way is best suited to our circumstances and context in life, then we contribute a valuable and unique drop in the ocean of awareness. The most significant decision we ever make is it to be born, and what we then do whilst we have this current dreamed, will then pave the way for the steps that the dreamer will take in our next life, and so on and so forth, through the ages of the evolution of our own awareness and that of the One Life.
Click on the following link to continue to The Force of Intent.
1. Mares, T., Toltec Legacy Online Teaching Facility, Toltec Legacy, 2009.
2. Mares, T., Toltec Legacy Online Audio-Visual Experience, Toltec Legacy AV, 2021.