The Seven Values
The Statement, Stand and Stance One Takes in Relationship
to General Knowledge–
The Sixth of the Seven Values of the Everything
The sixth Value to the Everything—the statement, stand, and stance one takes in relationship to general knowledge—refers to reality based data, factual knowledge that can be tested and challenged, replicated and validated. We call that svaha.
This Value deals not only with gathering information from reading, online surfing, TV, radio, and any other source. It is much broader, as it encompasses not only what we know that is factual and reality based, but how we embody that knowledge and use it in our lives, how we make a difference in the world. General knowledge includes self-knowledge as well.
Your “statements” are your declarations of your values and principles that define who you are and what you are about in the world. They represent your bottom lines. Your “stand” is your immovable defense of your bottom lines. Just as a warrior takes a stand to fight in defense of someone or something, so too must we defend our values and our freedoms. Your “stance” is how you live your values and principles based on your statements. It is how you walk your talk.
It is through ignorance that men and women surrender their freedom. How is this so? When people are ignorant and uninformed they are easily manipulated, duped, “sold a bill of goods”, and led into slavery They will not take a stand or fight to preserve their freedom because they are not able to discern when their freedoms are being taken from them.
We are bombarded with data from every direction in this “information age”, as the amount of information available now doubles every eighteen months. We have weakened ourselves by being so compliantly accepting. We don’t bother to take the time to research and get our facts straight before we form our opinions. Many people no longer make a statement based on knowledge. It is all about how they feel and what they think something should be like, how they wish it to be rather than how it actually is. Their statements, stand, and stance are not based on rock solid factual data (svaha). Individually their lives are weakened, and just as a house built on a faulty foundation can collapse, this ignorance creates a faulty foundation for the collective of a community and a nation.
I have been speaking about freedom primarily in the tonal material world. With regard to our soul’s evolution, if the ultimate freedom is enlightenment, resurrection, and formlessness, then this Value is significant in how we get there.
In the Twisted Hairs tradition emphasis is placed on becoming a man or woman of power and knowledge and ultimately becoming enlightened. The Dawn Light Beauty Way Wheel is a roadmap containing 72 guideposts, or “tasks” that guide us to that destination. It describes the study, experiences, and knowledge that must be gained to become a person of power and knowledge. The Wheel reflects what is going on in the historical, social, cultural, political, and spiritual realities of the collective within a particular period of time.
This Wheel was slowly formulated over thousands of years and was introduced in its current form in 1702. Each succeeding naqual has been given the task of reframing and reconstructing it so that it continues to accurately keep step with the needs of the people. This current form is the result of the seventeenth major change.
One of the first tasks Grandfather Two Bears gave me was to take what he had done with the Wheel and see what no longer fit and what needed to be changed. Magick and sorcery were once considered arts and were prominent on the wheel. You will note that sorcery is no longer shown and magick has become medicine. Language was not added until about the time of Cortez. So the Wheel continues to evolve.
The Dawn Light Beauty Way Wheel is a roadmap for life, an ongoing pursuit of excellence and the more, an essential resource for the modern warrior and particularly for apprentices in this path. I encourage all of you to adopt this Wheel as your life “course of study.” (For a copy of the expanded Wheel, contact DTMMS.)