This is an interview between Hugh T Alkemi and Isaac Boatright and part of a series of videos and audios to be released during the transition of EntheoRadio to the Alkemi Show. And when I mentioned Fire from Within book, the actual correct book for that passage on syntax by Carlos Castaneda was The Active Side of Infinity so go read at least the first chapter of that book! Here’s Part One:
Hugh: Hello and welcome to an off cuff fireside chat between Hugh T Alchemy and Maestro
Isaac Boatright. Welcome to an extension of EntheoRadio, soon to be Alkemi Show for
Human Transmutation. We’re just doing a little bit of a talk about The Invisible River.
Welcome to the conversation, Mister Boatright, Maestro Boatright.
Isaac: Thanks! You don’t have to call me Maestro.
Hugh: Yes, thank you. So you released something to myself and other students that you’ve
trained over the years. You’ve been working with shamanism and sorcery, Mesoamerican style in
the Toltec tradition for quite a long time. And you called it [ the intensive workshop that you
released an invitation to] The Invisible River. Could you explain the title and tell us a little bit
about the event that’s up and coming?
Isaac: Yes, I’ll start with the event. It’s covering recapitulation, which is a very potent practice. It’s really valuable.
It’s not psychotherapy. It’s deeper than that. It is more somatic. It works with memory and going
through one’s life and reviewing what you have experienced, reliving–in a sensory way–
experiences where enmeshment and entanglement still exist, and using breathwork and
intention to retrieve one’s energy while simultaneously sending the energy of others back to
them. So it’s a mutual, a reciprocal recovery of energy that happens.
And as I really thought about recapitulation and the other time focused techniques that are
going to be presented at this two day intensive workshop in the end of June on a Monday and a
Sunday, I wanted something to sum up the content, and that’s where The Invisible River came
from. It’s a poetic metaphor that has meaning on multiple levels. Thinking about a visible river,
it’s like what we know of as our lives, what we can really name in the Tonal, in the waking state.
And that’s really like the effect of the deeper current of what we are and to some degree how
we are. So the invisible river points to our essence and what’s calling us. And what our purpose
is telling us; it’s like flowing and to really participate in that consciously is what the focus
of this workshop is.
But really it’s not to tell people how to do that, but to make that more possible by having more
energy and by cleaning and clarifying and really enriching that relationship with the invisible
river of intent, of purpose, of attention. And you know, all rivers do flow into the ocean, so make
that what you will too. It’s an open ended metaphor, and in the ways that I’ve studied and the
teachings that I’ve received, there’s a focus on what I describe as energy generating syntax.
And this is very common in pretty much any indigenous ways that I’ve learned about, that I’ve
seen, that when you receive something as a teaching, as a concept, it has multiple levels that
can unfold through different levels of awareness and through your whole life, through time, as
you circle around and keep coming back to a new, fresh understanding of something that has
happened. And something that has been a theme. Thank you.
Hugh: I feel like one of the beginnings of Carlos Castaneda’s books, I think it might have been
The Fire from Within, talks about syntax. Don Juan’s attributed with a quote about syntax and
it’s in a “relationship” kind of way. And it really broke me open as a studied linguist, the way
that we approach language in English, the way that syntax is affecting all of everything. And I
started using it in sentences more.
And lately people have been like, what do you mean? Not a lot of people fully grasp how they are
using syntax or the way that consciousness flows and syntax is part of the expression of
consciousness through language.
Isaac: Yes, and it’s a stance towards how we are either opening or closing with our framework
that we create for something. So the idea is that we know, in relationship, that knowledge is
alive and expanding. The knowledge is becoming more alive through us and we’re becoming
more alive through the knowledge.
Rather than this idea from modern science that we’re closing in on the formula of how
everything works, and pretty soon we’ll know how it all works–which is just hubris. But this
perspective is the byproduct of a certain kind of syntax, we could argue. And I’m using the term
syntax in a maybe unconventional way, but you’re exactly right that it was through the works of
Castaneda that I first became aware of this idea of an energy generating syntax, and it really
spoke to something that I already knew and felt, as I imagine it did for you too.
It’s a reverence for mystery, and it’s a recognition that everything is alive. And it’s also an
understanding that concepts and words, you know, the map is not the territory, let’s say, and
we’re just pointing towards things with our concepts and our words. But we can never, we never want to just ultimately define anything…
Hugh: Right, everything. I mean, we live in a mysterious universe!
I think that even, as it’s put in the works of Frank Herbert and the Dune Series, they talk about
the mysterious language of the universe that contains “no words,” but it’s always moving,
dancing, and creating more mystery in its movements and its dance. And we can dance along
with it, or we can be a wallflower.
Isaac: Yeah, we’re invited to participate.
Hugh: Yeah, so I want to bring us back to the Invisible River. I could talk about syntax more.
For people who are interested in this, I think a good example might be Yoda.
He speaks in a different syntax. He’s using English, but he’s using syntax differently. Right? And
he’ll say something like, he’ll say something with the effect of, we are luminous beings, but he’ll
say luminous beings, we are.
Right? Is that the example of syntax and how it approaches and it feels, obviously creates a
different feeling when we say it differently?
Isaac: Yeah, it can be subtle like that. And it’s about intent.
Like we were talking about just now, it’s about the relationships that we hold with the living
world, and with the body as it appears in our consciousness, and with others as they appear in
our consciousness.
Hugh: Totally.
So that brings me to memory, others as they appear in consciousness. Obviously, there’s a
degree of psychology in this practice of sorcery. And we want to learn as best we can how to
bridge those two things so that we can get energy out of our memories, which is something that
we’re going to be working with in this workshop.
Can you describe how personal history, not just as memory, but as energy, gets tied up in old
experiences, and how somebody who is completely new to the idea of personal history, as it’s
illustrated by Castaneda’s writings and the sayings of Don Juan, might look in everyday life… and
how energies may be trapped in the idea of personal history?
Isaac: Sure. And I want to be clear that I’m drawing on teachings from multiple traditions, not
just Castaneda, but it is through his works that I learned about recapitulation. That would have
been in the mid-90s and I started doing it and I’ve been doing it, off and on, since then.
In recapitulation, we’re looking at our memories. But when we think about memories, there’s the
story of the memories that’s rehearsed and constantly honed and refined and altered and
reinterpreted. There’s a story of what something meant.
And, you know, you tell a story many times and it can drift quite a bit. Whereas in recapitulation,
the effort comes in with doing our best to remember the somatic elements of that time. So that
would be like, if I’m remembering this moment where I’m talking with you, how my feet feel on
the floor, how my hair and how the air feel against my skin, how I feel inside.
So it’s a challenge to go back to the somatic memory. And the effort, the intent is to remember
as much as possible of that, using that as a portal to grab hold of the essence of that event, to
grapple with it, to interface with it.
[talks about specific movements involved in the breathwork]
…with the breathing inwards, recovering one’s own energy, one’s wholeness, and with the
breathing outwards, returning the energy of others. Simple and elegant, and yet there’s a lot of
different levels to it.
Once you start practicing, it becomes rich in surprising ways.
Hugh: Yeah, I’ve found a lot of, let’s say, energy. And the ability to use that energy for other things,
because I’m dissolving, let’s say, an emotional charge. And it frees up, obviously.
Healing is a physical thing. It’ll free up aspects of my body, let’s say, like tight shoulders, neck,
clenching jaw, fear, all of these things get released in some of these practices.
So I’m grateful for both you as a teacher and a friend and the writings of Castaneda that
elucidated this information.
I know we’re real short on this interview, so I wanted to highlight the Invisible River one more
time as something that’s not necessarily open to everybody. Who are you looking for? Who’s a
good candidate to practice this versus everything that comes before it?
Isaac: Right. People who have been meditating, who’ve been engaged in somatic work, people
who have practiced different kinds of meditation. Shamanism and magic and sorcery, ritual,
anyone like that.
These people tend to need an enormous energy budget day-to-day to navigate altered states
and to do the kinds of healing work and to make the sort of choices that they would like to
make, when it may not always feel like there’s cooperation from the collective in offering those
choices. Having enough energy and presence makes all the difference.
It makes new possibilities open up.
There are about five different things we’ll be working with, but the heart of it is recapitulation.
And teaching that in person is the best way for sure, because there’s a lot of energetic stuff that
we can model. As a group we can begin to explore the ramifications of this work. We can
witness changes in each other and share and reflect on the praxis. That [group dynamic] is
going to be very helpful.
Getting back to the thread of personal history: personal history can be a cage, a burden, but it
can also be a useful tool. The amount of energy we have in our relationship with that personal
history is what determines the difference. Abundant energy supports us in experiencing our
wholeness, our awareness, our attention, in the moment. And then we have that personal
history as something we can play with and put down or pick up, so that we understand that it’s a
dream and we’re lucid about it.
That’s the ideal situation, from my current understanding at least.
Hugh: I find it very valuable. It helped me move through some very challenging parts of my life,
lots of change, especially when, you know, the bottom drops out and you’re like, “Whoa, what do
I do now?” My identity in relationship is completely changing. My identity to my location and my
environment is completely changing.
It’s great when we can work with these things and we can see our past dropout and still exist.
Our emotions drop out and find balance. So this is a short little teaser trailer for the event.
And we’re going to just remind people to check out your website, and we’ll close this little
interview. Tell us your website and how they can reach out to you.
Isaac: My website is isaac boatright dot com. You can reach me through there.
This offering is something that comes from my heart; it’s something that is alive in me. So I’m
looking forward to sharing that with those of you who also feel it and feel called.
Thank you very much.
Hugh: Thank you friends, thank you temini (Toltec sibling). Maestro Isaac Boatright here, and Hugh T.
Alchemy saying, have a great day.