Tonal, the ‘heat', is directly associated with the Sun. The whole physical universe, with all its forms and distances, is an illusory idea that has been engendered by our tonal, namely by that energy that is located around the head in the waking state, and which anyone who has trained in extrasensory perceptions can visualize easily: it covers the head and its colour is a matt amber-gold (although at the start of the training it is only visible as a golden light that surrounds the head). The tonal, however, swaps locations with the nahual when we are asleep, or in a state of trance: it then moves downwards from the head to the belly, while the nahual goes up starting from the belly and ends up reaching the head, which from the outside is perceived as an energy movement, and from the inside as the radical perceptual change that we experience when we move from the reality of the waking state to the dream state, or to an altered state of consciousness.
Nahual comes from a Nahuatl root formed by nehuatl, ‘I' and by ni ye, ‘I am', and therefore it means ‘who I really am'; it also comes from the word nahualli, meaning ‘what can be extended'. It is a cold energy, which moves in circular movements and resides in the navel area outside the physical body during the waking state, whereas when we fall asleep it moves to occupy the location of the tonal around the head, leading our perception to all kinds of subtle worlds, i.e. to realities that transcend the physical dimension. This is the sleep state consciousness, or the consciousness of the state of trance, that state that, for instance, in Spanish is called ensoñación, that dreaming while awake state which will be explained later. It is equally that part of our energy that we can extend to the point of reaching some other place and which, following the correct type of training, can create an ‘energy double'.
At this stage I would like to take the opportunity to clarifythat the term ‘nahual' does not mean either good or badsorcerer or mystic, namely the type who can either heal or cause fearand panic among the people, or who goes around saying to his disciples that the‘nahual is the privilege of the few', as this could notbe further from the authentic tradition. The nahual is the governing energy duringthe sleep state, and therefore we all possess a nahual. ‘Nahual' is however also the term used to refer to whoever develops the powerof this energy: the union of the energy of tonal and nahual creates certainstates of consciousness through which it is possible to gain access to thesubtle worlds while awake, and to develop full mastery of lucid dreaming whileasleep.
The ‘nahuales'[plural of nahual, translator's note] can thus unify the dream world, which istotally malleable, with the world of apparent reality, where they manage tomanifest themselves in different forms just as in a dream; they can then changethis reality as easily as the actions occurring in a dream. This gives them theamazing power to influence and change matter. The sages of ancient Mexico were ‘nahuales': to become a ruler it was necessary to know the cosmos, thecipactonalli, the ‘language of what is known' [where ‘known' refers to thewaking state, translator's note] and the cipacnahualli, the ‘language of the unknown', and to know who you were here (the tonal) aswell as who you were there (the nahual). Many of them would then become healers.
The cipacnahualli is the symbolic language of dreams,which can be learnt in exactly the same way as the language of the tonal: it islike another universe in which it is necessary to learn how to move about. Thecipacnahualli is full of symbols, places, colours and beings, all differentfrom the reality of the waking state; we all perceive them in our dreams —although we have no recollection of them — but only mystics and visionaries arecapable of bringing these experiences back with them when returning to thetonal and turning them into something useful.
Making sure that the nahual can become useful in thetonal requires that the two become united, and this specifically necessitatesan ancient form of training, which is gradually re-surfacing in Mexico due tothe influence of the guardians of the tradition. This enables us to train incontrolling various states of consciousness, such as the dreaming whileawake, an altered state of perception that is brought about by dances andbreathing exercises, without having to resort to sacred plants like the peyote;from this state we can perceive the worlds of subtle energy, whilst remainingawake and fully conscious.
Another state in which tonal and nahual are united isthe sleep-dream-wake, or lucid dreaming, from which wecan exert complete control over dreams as a way of creating reality by means ofthe ‘sowing of dreams', the subject of Chapter 6, which talksabout the thirteen heavens. The passage from the temictli, ‘uncontrolled dreaming', to the temixoch, the ‘blossomingof dreams', the ‘controlled and lucid dreaming of a master', who possesses thecapacity to sow dreamsand make them ‘blossom', is what everybody should do inthis life because, in the words of an ancient Mexica proverb: "He who doesnot remember his dreams is one of the living dead, as he does not have anycontrol over his own life." This gives us a sense of the importance that the dream stateheld for the Mexican civilizations before the Conquest: the scions of noblefamilies and those destined to become warriors had this dream state controlinculcated in them since childhood.
There is yet another state, called dream towardsthe outside while awake, from which it is possible to exert influence overothers by altering their perceptions and, if really so inclined, altering theirreality… And this is really what a nahual is able to do. As time goes by and asthe influence of the Sixth Sun keeps growing, we shall recover these abilitiesand we will be able to see much further afield, but this journey of conquest ofours will not be directed towards the outside: the time has come for us toreturn to the obsidian mirror and set off to conquer ourselves.
The few oral and written sources available have preservedsome of the sayings of the ancient nahuales or nahualli,the ‘sages who united sleep and wake'; the main writtensource is the Florentine Codex, whereas others belong to the oral traditioncalled mah toteotahtzin mitzmopieli, ‘the taleof our Venerable Land'. Here are some examples:
"The nahual is not weakened by emotions. It is not weakened by Coatzin's venerable snake, ‘sexuality'". This saying seems to refer to the two different ways of becoming a nahual, one of which was through sexuality, while the other was through abstinence.
"The word of the nahual is wise, he is the master of his liver, he serves the community, he is serious, frank and free of any excesses"; here the expression ‘master of one's liver' might refer either to the ability of controlling one's anger, as the liver is viewed as the place where anger is created, or to the ability to travel to the heavens or to the underworlds by means of the ihiyotl, the life essence, the subtle body that is anchored in the liver.
"The good nahual, reliable guardian, the one who observes, preserves, helps and does not damage anyone."
"The nahual is tlamatini, ‘a sage', mictlanmatini, ‘sage of the underworlds',ilhuicatlmatini, ‘sage of the heavens'."
Given that it isalso possible to develop one's nahual for misguided purposes, such as exertingcontrol over others, another saying goes:
"The evil nahualli is a spell holder, he casts a spell over people, he possesses spells to seduce people, he cheats people, he casts evil spells over people, he acts as an evil sorcerer against people, he makes fun of and upsets people."