Spring Toltec Shamanic Mitote Retreat

An important step of my journey has been the Toltec work I studied for many years. This work integrates into all I offer. I began my Toltec study in the 1990s and found that I resonated and lived the higher teachings. More questions led me to work with a Toltec Nagual Shaman for two years. It was a profound experience that broke through many layers of me. My spiritual healing journey accelerated very quickly. I traveled with this teacher and group to the Southwest, Peru, and Mexico in new understandings of Shamanism and our spiritual journey. I later worked twice a week with another Shaman to deepen my journey.

Learn “how to” live the Four Agreements and begin to step into personal mastery. I recommend reading “The Mastery of Love.” my favorite Toltec book by Don Miguel Ruiz.

The Mitote Ceremony is a Way to challenge Limiting Beliefs of Possibility.

The Mitote ceremony is a sacred ritual in dreaming performed through the night. It has been passed down through the various Toltec lineages to transform one’s personal dream. It impacts the participant on multiple dimensions.
The Intent of the Mitote

There are multiple intents woven together in this ritual designed to push and pull an individual along their transformation.

The first intent of the Mitote ceremony is to become lucid in the dream state. Each time we go to sleep, the mind passes from the waking dream to the sleeping dream. Each time that the mind passes through this dimension of dreaming, we have an opportunity to become aware that the mind is dreaming. This is often referred to as lucid dreaming. When we become aware that the mind is dreaming, we can take control of the dream. We can start to change and influence the dream. In this way, the dreamer can practice changing the dream instead of reacting to the dream. Mastery of this aspect of dreaming has many benefits. It especially has benefits in the waking world of our daily life. One of the easiest ways to become aware that we are dreaming is in the moment that the body falls asleep and the mind continues to dream. We can become aware in other ways, but this is one of the easiest.

During the Mitote, there are multiple opportunities to take advantage of this window as we wake periodically during the night and then lay down to sleep again. The mastery of this requires a high degree of awareness.

The second intent is the breaking of patterns and routines. Most of our actions, thoughts, and emotional responses are patterned routines. These patterns are programs that keep us repeating the same dream. We could say that our actions in this state are unconscious. We do not exercise our free will in choosing our actions when we are in a patterned reaction. This is the same behavior we often experience in a dream where things are just happening, and we are just reacting. We find ourselves just doing things in the dream in reaction and not consciously choosing an action. We could say that in this experience, we are not exercising our free will. In that place, we do not even see a choice. To make a choice, one must first see a choice.

This is similar in the waking dream when we are just reacting or behaving in a patterned routine. For example, did we choose the path that we drove to work? Or did we take the same route that we usually take? Our personal power is invested in these patterned routines. Inhabits, we lose our opportunity for choice. By breaking the routine, we can recover the personal power that we have invested in it. When we have recovered our personal power, we do not have to react. The routine no longer dictates our behavior; and instead, we can choose.

One of the fastest ways to recover this personal power is breaking up the patterns that routinely run our lives. One of the biggest of these is the habit of sleep. We have a lot of agreements about sleep. We believe them, but they are not necessarily true. We can change them. When we change them, we can recover the investment of our personal power in that belief. In the Mitote, we consciously intend to break up the sleep pattern and recover our power in agreements about sleep.

When you practice this aspect in the Mitote, you can become much more aware of other places where our personal power is invested in routines that don’t serve ourselves or others. Once you realize that you can break up the patterns around sleep, it gives us more confidence and personal power to break other patterns in our life that we want to change.

The third intent is the energetic work of an experienced guide in the dream state. We are multidimensional beings. We perceive in many dimensions. However, from the time we were very young, the world trained our attention to focus on a limited number of these dimensions. In the dream state, our awareness is still working to evolve whether we are conscious of our dreams or not. During a minute, an experienced guide can work with individuals in the dream state towards this transformation. This evolution happens in realms that we are often not consciously aware of.

The general format of the Mitote ceremony: The Mitote is done with a group and should be lead by an experienced guide. Each one will take on its individual characteristics but follows a similar outline. If possible and convenient, the group gathers for a ceremony at sunset to connect themselves with the light of the sun. Afterward, the group will gather to perform the dreaming ceremony.

The group will generally break up into smaller groups which will be assigned a sequential order. The first group will hold the energy for the others through meditation and/or chanting, generally in the center of the room. The rest of the groups will lay down to dream and sleep. At intervals throughout the night, the smaller group will wake the next group. Each group will take a turn meditating and consciously holding the larger group intent. This continues until sunrise.

There are no guaranteed results from a Mitote ceremony. Each person’s experience will be different according to their point of view. Some people have had extraordinary Mitote experiences and remember many dreams, only to remember nothing in their next Mitote. One of the lessons I have learned in the Mitote ritual is not to have expectations. We set our intent, but don’t expect that things will turn out as we have intended. We must leave room for Spirit to intervene and co-create with us in Its divine way.
(Written by Gary van Warmerdam)