The Yellow Rose of Friendship precedes the manifestation of the rest of the universe. In other words, manifestation as well as the evolution of awareness only come into being through the medium of friendship. But to go back one step, realise that the Yellow Rose of Friendship only comes into being because of the relationship between the masculine nagal and its masculine intent. Here it is important to remember that intent is the unifying principle, and therefore equates with the feeling principle, that is, the heart. But what this means is that friendship is the product of the nagal having become creative because the heart has exerted itself upon the mind. Therefore we see that friendship has its origin, not in the separative nature of mind, but in the feeling that arises when the heart stimulates the spirit into be-coming creative. But that feeling, that act of be-coming creative, is friendship - a truly staggering truth that proves how misguided people are in their many views on friendship. Furthermore, it is now also clear to see that friendship is a peculiarly masculine urge that is expressed through creativity, and is not only an affair of the heart, but it is also an affair of intent, and therefore has everything to do with inclusiveness because of the fact that intent is the unifying principle.

The force of intent is what is termed as being the Eye of the Eagle, explained in Volume II as being the Christ principle, that is, the Son of God and the Son of Man, who in his journey upon life taught us that the greatest law throughout the entire universe, is the law of love. And because the law of love is the Mastery of Intent, Christ also demonstrated for us the law of transfiguration, that is, intent or love conquers all, and therefore overcomes all obstacles. Intent and unconditional love in all three its forms, are therefore one and the same force, manifesting in myriad's of different ways, and, as a result, can also be looked upon and defined in so many different ways. But, in the final analysis, whether we understand it fully or not, it remains the one and only force within the universe, all-pervasive and omnipotent, and always leading us from challenge to challenge so that we may perfect the process of transmutation leading into transformation, and ultimately into transfiguration, that is, the transfiguration of energy, resulting in the materialization of the purpose of the spirit. But for transfiguration we need energy, and to acquire energy we need power, and to acquire power, we need the force of intent, and therefore we see why the Mastery of Intent is so very important. Without this knowledge we are simply lost souls wondering aimlessly through a world that makes no sense, and we plod through a lifetime that seems to serve no real purpose, and therefore also has no real meaning.

There are three forms of unconditional love that are extremely important for our understanding of the Toltec teachings, for they form the very basis of the Path with a Heart. However, the first form is so far removed from humanity's present capability to perceive or comprehend, that there is little point in us discussing it here, other than to point out that it does exist, and can best be described as electricity, of which humanity as yet knows extremely little except for one of its dense physical manifestations yielding our common electrical energy. The second form of love is best expressed as the law of attraction and repulsion, the physical manifestation of which is the law of electromagnetism, which is also as yet not really grasped for what it truly is. But for our present purposes we can quite rightly define it as true unconditional love. Because all of the Toltec teachings rest upon this most fundamental law, I have never written about anything else other than unconditional love, and therefore all of the earlier volumes are expressions of unconditional love, as is this one. In this respect, realise that all of the various techniques, including all of the great many concepts such as ruthlessness, having no pity, honour, impeccability, the mood of the warrior, and so on, and so on, are all founded in, and expressed through unconditional love.

The third form of unconditional love is best expressed as being the law of harmony through conflict, which is a subsidiary law of that greater cosmic law known as the law of polarity. Just as the second form of love is the way in which the first form expresses itself in life within manifestation, so is this third form of love the way in which unconditional love expresses itself through the medium of life made manifest, that is, the tonal. Consequently it manifests as warmth, irrespective of whether it is the warmth of the sun, the warmth of the wind, the physical warmth of a warm-blooded creature, or the emotional warmth expressed between two people.

From the above it is clear to see how vital it is to our understanding of life, and therefore of ourselves, that we come to grips with at least those two forms of love that we are at present capable of comprehending and working with. As we have seen, the two forms of unconditional love we should be focussing on at this point in time, are what Toltec's have termed quite simply love and warmth. But if we look around us in the world today, it is clear to see how poorly man grasps the true nature of love, and, as a result, how warmth is being used as an excuse to justify so much behaviour that neither leads to freedom, nor is in any way life-supportive. And yet, in the final analysis, there is only one all-pervasive force within the universe, namely intent, and therefore unconditional love is but the threefold expression of the force of intent.

Real love is what Toltecs term the Law of Inclusiveness, a law which, apart from some of its physical manifestations such as gravity and magnetism, man does not even begin to understand as yet. But not understanding something does not mean that we are not subjected to it. The whole universe is pervaded by, and held together, by the Law of Inclusiveness.

To learn to love, and to learn how to receive love, is the destiny of us all, and it is herein that lies the deepest possible meaning to be found within treading the Path with a Heart. In doing so we must stalk our perception, an act which always does lead to that ultimate change which brings about death of the old, meaning a complete transformation. This is our destiny, and these are the implications of this second insight, namely, the unfoldment of destiny through the medium of that wonderful jewel of awareness termed humility and understanding*. But unfoldment of destiny is dependent upon the fulfilment of fate, that is, the evolution of awareness as personified within the unfolding wings of perception flanking the wheel of time, symbol of the emotional impetus of the Unspeakable. This has been so beautifully demonstrated in our time, in our present impetus, by that great Son of God termed the Christ, who not only confirmed that the greatest law is the Law of Love, but who also demonstrated that law with so much humility and so much understanding.

*Understanding as used by Toltec's means "to stand under in support of," as opposed to that type of understanding that is based upon rational assumption.

What people call love is not really love at all. Love, as most people understand it, is the practice of some really crazy preconceived notions that are so thoroughly separative and conditional, that both the lover and the loved one end up living a life of bondage and slavery in which the wheels must keep coming off, but always badly so. With respect to this it is important to bear in mind that although any relationship must call forth challenges in order for it to evolve and to deepen, yet it makes a vast difference in how the wheels are allowed to come off. Depending upon our perception of love, we can choose to meet our challenges in such a way that the relationship will only grow and deepen as a result of the wheels having come off, or we can use those same challenges to bring about destruction within the relationship.

Think for a moment. Who is your friend? Do you really know him? Are you really sure you grasp fully the implications in what he is saying to you? Can you grasp the purpose of this conversation, and where it can lead you to? Are you not perhaps both caught in selective perception? Are not perhaps both in bondage to ignorance? But if you are thinking straight, then you will quickly enough come to the realization that by thinking you know your friend, and that you are quite certain you grasp fully everything he is saying, then the chances are good that you are indeed caught in selective perception, and therefore a slave of your own ignorance.

If you wish to be free from that selective perception, then it is imperative that you begin to get your facts straight. In this respect realise that your friend is not just your friend. Your friend just happens to be a most marvellous being of the universe, a being called man, who just so happens to be in incarnation right now, and who just happens to be sitting talking to you right now, but who is actually trying to fulfil a fate that perhaps even he does not yet fully grasp. But does all of this just happen to be a coincidence? Was it just a thoughtless act that brought you together as friends? Is the conversation you are having with him right now just a mindless act between two people?

Your friend, being within physical incarnation, is more than likely also caught up in his social conditioning, in selective perception, and in ignorance. Therefore everything you think you know about your friend, irrespective of whether he told you about himself, or whether you learned it about him, does not, in the final analysis, amount to very much at all. In fact, it is nothing more than folly, for the simple reason that you do not know this marvellous being sitting in front of you, and neither do you know what forces brought you together. If the truth be told, everything you think you know about your friend is based entirely upon your selective perception of merely the form-side of that life you term your friend! In this respect realise that none of us know what man is, and neither do we know what life is. Therefore this marvellous being sitting in front of you is an incredible mystery, not only to you, but even unto himself.

The only thing you can know for sure, is that this unfathomable being is your friend, and that in being your friend he brings into your life, and even into this very conversation you are having with him right now, forces of fate that pertain to destiny, not only his, but also yours, for you, just like your friend, are also an unfathomable mystery! You are therefore not just having a conversation with your friend. Instead the two of you are engaged in fulfilling your fates, whether you know it or not, and thereby calling into being forces that are infinitely bigger than you can possibly imagine in having what, to you, appears to be a mere conversation. A simple conversation it does indeed appear to be, but nevertheless an interaction which is calling into being forces that can be life-changing depending upon how impeccably we play our roles within life, and it is these forces that Toltecs refer to as the sharpshooters of the universe. In this respect you and your friend may well believe that you are merely having a good old chit-chat, but if this is the case, then unbeknown to you both, there is the constant flow of power as manifested through the actions of the sharpshooters. The implications here are that whenever your friend says something to you, you are in effect being challenged by power, and when you respond to your friend, he likewise is being challenged by power. In other words, in speaking with your friend, you are being challenged by his fate, just as he is being challenged by your fate. If, in talking to your friend, you are sufficiently aware, you will see how his words are challenging you to come to a deeper knowledge of both yourself and him, and through that, also of life. It is, of course, not really your friend who is challenging, or his words, for that matter, but instead it is his personal power interacting with yours within the context of universal power as this is brought progressively into being through the forces of both your fates.

True friendship has got everything to do with our journey upon life, and in this respect we must remember that the journey is more important than the goal. In order to grasp this, look at it through my eyes. The way I see it is that I was born with a purpose to fulfil, and that I will die once that purpose has been fulfilled. But in between birth and death lies a journey, and as I know for a fact that I will die, if not today, then sometime after today, I do not fix my vision upon the goal. If I were to do so it would mean that I am only living my life in order to reach my goal as quickly as possible, so that I can die as quickly as possible. But I am not wanting to die as quickly as possible, so instead I fix my gaze upon the journey as I travel onwards towards my goal and my death. In this I know that I cannot justify my life unless I fulfil my fate, and therefore I also know that I cannot justify wasting time in the fulfilment of that fate. Consequently I give my everything, holding back nothing for my self, and in doing so I waste neither time nor time in the fulfilment of my fate.

In all of this I know that I cannot be faulted, for in my heart of hearts I know how utterly impeccable I am. But it is not wanting to be faultless, or wanting to be impeccable that drives me. What drives me is my intense and heartfelt passion to engage in life fully, and by holding back no-thing, my spirit flows clear, strong and free, as it abandons itself to the journey. That is what for me constitutes the Path with a Heart, and upon that path I walk savouring every moment of every step, for I know full well that every step taken brings me one step closer to the materialization of my purpose, and therefore one step closer to my death.

Because my death is my constant companion, every moment of my life holds an intensity and a poignancy that makes me cry from the very core of my being, and makes me laugh with that wild abandon that comes from the sheer joy of being able to laugh. And yet my tears and my laughter change nothing. All is folly. I will die now or later, and even with all of my power I cannot change that, and even if I could I would not want to, because to live for ever would be to remove the meaning of life. But what I have changed, is my perception of life, of myself, and of the people who share with me this journey through life. How have I changed it? I have shifted the focus from the goal to the journey. I have shifted the focus from death to life. I have shifted the focus from looking upon people as being unlovable to being lovable. In that shift of focus I savour every moment of every interaction I have with life and with the people in my life. But even in that shift of focus, I know my death stalks me still, and therefore no matter how much I shift the focus, all still remains folly.

Because nothing I can do will ever amount to anything other than folly, I embrace all of life, and all of the people in my life with every scrap of passion I possess. In that passion I have made myself incapable of excluding anything or anyone from my life, simply because I treasure every moment I am alive and walking upon this earth. All too soon it will be over, and I do not want to die knowing that I missed out on something, irrespective of whether it is a quiet moment of deep love, or a heated moment of intense battle fervour, irrespective of whether it is heartfelt laughter or heartfelt tears. This for me is the meaning of walking a Path with a Heart, and if I can use the power I am gathering upon my journey in helping others to share with me the Path with a Heart, then I do so with joy, and in whatever way that help is called forth.

It is undeniably true that my purpose, as it is for all of us, is to acquire power, and to utilize that power for the benefit of all of life, but the meaning I put into my purpose comes from the very bottom of my own heart. Therefore the power I wield is my duty and my honour, but my gift to humanity is my openness of heart as I journey through life. As a nagal and seer humanity calls forth my power because it needs it, but in that humanity also calls forth from me that openness of heart that puts meaning into my existence throughout my life upon earth, my life with my fellow travellers. This, for me, is the very essence of true friendship.

The warrior always celebrates the sharing and the companionship that he finds upon his journey through life, a journey that is sometimes challenging, sometimes joyful, sometimes sorrowful, but for ever filled with an awesome abundance of a great many different richnesses, each in their own way, bringing reward and fulfilment. In this respect there is for the warrior no greater joy than to share the dreams and the hopes, the triumphs and the failures of himself and his fellow travellers who, in having set off in search of the purpose of life, learn that the secret in fulfilling that purpose lies in the meaning of life.

If you feel that walking the Path with a Heart is for you, and if in your heart of hearts you know that it is the true meaning of freedom that you will be seeking upon that journey, then know that the Toltec teachings will reveal to you the purpose of life, but it will be up to you, as it is up to all of us, to find the meaning within that purpose. Finding the purpose is the journey none of us can avoid, but finding the meaning is our own unique journey within that greater journey we term the One Life. To find that meaning we need to practice the right side teachings so that we can acquire the necessary power to live the left side teachings. Only then do we acquire that complete openness of heart which allows us to hold back nothing as we let our spirits soar clear and strong and free. Only then, and irrespective of which dreaming class we belong to, do we begin to grasp the spirit of the Wolf who looks upon life as a quest for the true meaning of freedom. And only then does it make sense to look upon life as being a feeling, and therefore the heartfelt need to look and to feel, to listen and to feel, and thereby savouring every moment of every step, knowing full well that it will all be over all too quickly.

Therefore to the Warrior of Freedom life is the celebration of a love story, the ultimate love story. It is the story of the passion experienced by two beings in their struggle to find the true meaning of warmth, and the lasting fulfilment of undying love. It is the story of the nagal and the tonal, it is the story of any man or woman, and therefore it is the story of you and me, and of our mutual struggle in learning what it is to love and to be loved.

The reason why entering the realm of the heart is such a very difficult strategy to master lies once again in fear. To grasp this fully, realise that although deep down inside we all long to love and to be loved, yet throughout our lives we have again and again come up against challenges that seem to indicate that we are unlovable, and therefore undeserving to either give or to receive love. As a result we escape into the mind in an attempt to rationalise, not only our own behaviour, but also the behaviour of others towards us. In time such escapisms become the foundation upon which all of our perception is based, and therefore without even realising it, we get caught up in constantly defining and then again redefining our perception to become ever more selective so as to fit our view of the world. In this respect none of us want to be hurt, none of us want to experience the pain of feeling rejected, or not worthy, or not wanted, and so we choose to see only what we wish to see, and we hear only what we want to hear. In time that habit becomes so ingrained that we begin to believe our selective perception to be true. Furthermore, because everyone else around us is doing the same thing, we all support each other in this folly, and so it is that we all participate in the constructs as well as the maintenance of that folly we term social conditioning.

Men and women today are still not friends in the true sense of the word. Women, in wanting to be acknowledged, are so busy fighting everyone, including men, that love and warmth have gone right out the window. Who, after all said and done, can love a battleaxe? Who can love and respect a woman that is demanding her pound of flesh, or is it perhaps by some slim chance love and warmth she is demanding? But then, can one receive love and warmth simply by demanding it as if it is our democratic right to do so?

Men, on the other hand, are feeling so guilty for having been born into a world in which everyone has been led to believe that men are somehow superior to women, that they happily disempower themselves in order not to be seen as being the privileged or favoured sex. But guilt is a poor substitute for love, and the actions born out of guilt can hardly be described as warmth. So when we look around us today, we see a world filled with very demanding women that are also mostly very angry, and we see very weak men that have thrown away all of their dignity and honour in an attempt to appease these angry women. But the consequences of such behaviour are dire. Quite apart from the fact that the world is busy falling apart as a result of this battle between the sexes, both men and women are also becoming ever more disempowered, more and more selective in their perception, and therefore also more and more closed, defensive and hostile. As a result there is very little love left in this world, and practically no warmth whatsoever. Men and women are not friends. In fact, if the truth be told, they do not even like each other.

If it was not for that animal instinct termed sexual lust, men and women would never agree to share their lives together. Shocking as this may be, it is nonetheless true. But nevertheless, what starts off as lust bringing two people together, soon becomes seeking approval, then seeking security, and finally, when it has become clear to both people that they cannot demand love from each other, and that they therefore cannot have life on their terms, they usually develop a genuine dislike for each other.

But it is not only men and women that are not friends. Even men today do not really have male friends. That deep friendship between two males that should be the expression of the male's intuitive grasp of the meaning of the inherent unity of the One Life, is as yet something that is either feared because of being misinterpreted, or else scorned because of being seen as an expression of weakness. Therefore men go around slapping each other on the back, and constantly reaffirm to each other what jolly good fellows they are, mistaking this for being friendship. But women too do not have female friends. Generally speaking women all but hate each other, regardless what they may profess to the contrary, for deep down inside every woman sees every other woman as being a potential threat to her endeavour to carve out for herself a space within a cold and hostile world. But these are concepts which have already been covered extensively in Volume III, therefore let it suffice here to state that people, irrespective of gender, do not really have friends. What people today term "friends" are what can only be termed partners in crime!

Dreaming yields warmth which, in turn, is the polar opposite of the North; strength. Dreaming is defined as the ability to consciously move or shift the assemblage point in order to assemble an alternative reality. In this respect dreaming is closely allied to feeling, just as strength is allied to sobriety. At first glance it is not easy to see how dreaming and warmth can be connected, but the clue lies in the qualities of West and South; namely, feeling and warmth respectively.

Having explained this much, let us now return to the quality of warmth, which is the product of dreaming. As was pointed out in dealing with the West, all evolution is dependent upon the quality of feeling. If we did not feel that there is more to life than merely a humdrum existence, we would never set out in search of a better life. Likewise, if Benz had not felt it were possible to have a self-propelled vehicle, he would not have investigated that idea. It is therefore always feeling which leads us into the unknown in pursuit of knowledge. Although average man does not recognise the process involved, it is nevertheless his feeling which sets up dreaming. In this regard it does not matter what kind of dreaming it is - day dreams, ordinary dreams whilst asleep, or Toltec dreaming in which the warrior purposefully moves or shifts his assemblage point.

People who are willing to follow their feelings will, whether they are aware of it or not, allow themselves to explore their potential by using the art of dreaming, and by so doing they cultivate that characteristic which can be described as nurturing. It is this characteristic, for example, which you find in a gardener who plants a seed with the complete assurance that it will grow into the desired plant; or in the mother who nurtures her baby with the full confidence that it will grow up into a strong, healthy and successful adult. The characteristic of nurturing is the act of supplying the care needed by any living thing in order to grow, to flourish and to prosper. Without this care the seed and the baby would die. This care is quite literally that warmth which nurtures.

This brings us back to the concept of dreaming, and the warmth that nurtures a dream. Inherent within every human being is the potential to love - regardless of whether this is love for another being, love of the self, love for a dream, or love of life. The phrase 'love of self' does not imply egotism, but the act of giving oneself honest recognition for one's true virtues. Average man is hardly ever aware that the real reason why his life is rarely filled with the happiness and success he desires, is because of his self-hatred. People will always find a way in which to reflect this self-hatred upon another person, and thus will mostly feel hard-done-by, or unacknowledged, or unloved. The truth, however, is that they do not acknowledge themselves, and consequently are never really pleased with themselves, for they are unable to accept and love themselves just for who and what they are.

The distinction that must be made here is that the quality of warmth, although closely related to love, is not at all the same thing. Man in general has no idea about the true nature of love. What is commonly known as love is usually nothing more than a certain set of conditions which, when met, activates within the person concerned a feeling of intense pleasure. It is this pleasure that is all too often mistaken for love, and therefore, when the conditions of the person are not met, or his or her expectations are not fulfilled, this so-called love can quite suddenly turn into resentment or even hatred. This is especially true in connection with oneself, for although people will often be able to give someone else the benefit of the doubt, they find this well-nigh impossible to do with themselves. Often it is only the bigot who will claim his self-worth; yet such a claim is never based upon love and acceptance of himself, but rather upon the arrogant presumption that he is somehow superior to others.

True love is completely unconditional; and in this sense is an involuntary reaction to life, which arises out of having fully grasped the implications of the interrelationship of all life. Where there is true love, self-importance submits to humility, and judgment is superseded by understanding. Love is a force which exists independently of conditions, and operates in spite of expectations. An example of true love is when a mother knows that her son is guilty of murder and, whilst accepting the fact that he has to die for his crime, still cries at his hanging because he is her son and she loves him in spite of what he has done. In this case the mother can find no hatred in her heart for those whose duty it was to bring her son to justice, nor will she actively try to prevent justice from being done. In her heart of hearts such a mother can only express her deep sorrow at the loss of a beloved son, and wish that both he and his victim could have been spared their fate.

The majority of people do not love each other, or themselves for that matter, in the true sense of the word. Most people tend to be either wholly unaware of the true nature of love, or else choose to ignore it. Moreover, by its very nature, love is an act of intelligence which is dependent both upon sobriety, as well as the level of knowledge. This is something which every woman who is a mother knows to be true from personal experience. As a result of social conditioning the majority of mothers feel compelled to love a newborn baby straight away, and therefore often feel too ashamed to admit that at first they have no real feeling of love towards the newborn child. Yet this is only normal, since it takes time to acquire true love for a stranger.

The romantic concept of 'love at first sight' is therefore a fallacy and, in the case of adults, it is most of the time only a justification for sexual lust. Love at first sight is simply not possible. Under normal conditions, people at best feel a warmth towards each other. For example, a father will feel a warmth towards the child who is his son, and this warmth will nurture within the boy those qualities and talents which have endeared him to his father in the first place. This care and support will in turn engender within the son a similar feeling of warmth towards his father. Once this bonding, based upon warmth, has taken place, the relationship between father and son will develop in one of two ways, depending upon the knowledge of the father.

If the father is unaware of the true nature of love, he will, without even realising what he is doing, allow the relationship between him and his son to develop into conditional 'love'. In such a case the son will find himself in the unenviable situation of constantly having to meet his father's demands, in order to keep his father's approval and 'love'. If, on the other hand, the father acknowledges the true nature of love, then he will in time learn to love and accept his son just for who and what he happens to be. This example is true of all types of relationships, no matter whether it be between husband and wife, brother and sister, two friends, a mother and a newborn baby, or between a man and his environment.

It should be clear from the above that warmth is the forerunner of true unconditional love, and is for this very reason enormously important in the lives of warriors who, by virtue of the path they are walking, have to learn the true meaning of love. That the Warrior's Path should be called a path with a heart is not just a romantic ideal, but a statement of fact. Success and happiness, inner peace and fulfilment, cannot be bestowed upon one by any other being, but are the product of having learned to accept and to love oneself.

One final point should be touched upon here, for without at least mentioning it, this section would not be complete. The quarter assigned to power is the South - the place of warmth. The South is described as being the gateway to the nagal's world, and in this respect it should be realised that the principal duty and purpose of any nagal is to lead beings to freedom. From what has been stated so far concerning the four natural enemies, but most especially power, it should not be difficult for the reader to understand why the South should be termed the gateway to the nagal's world. In the final analysis all true warriors walk the Path of Freedom, simply because for them this is the only path with a heart. Therefore it is not so strange that the gateway to the nagal's world should be warmth.

THE FIVE ELEMENTS OF THE ONE POWER & THE FOUR ATTRIBUTES OF WARRIORSHIP