Witches, Buddhists, Christians, Shamans, Neo-Pagans, Native American Traditionalists, New Agers, these are the everyday people who flow through my world, and I bless them and love them all. But there has been only one from a similar realm to penetrate deeply into my bookish realm, and that is Ken Eagle Feather. You see, in real life, Ken is a Toltec. And a Toltec is someone who stands out from the crowd. My best understanding of the Toltec Way has led me to the conclusion that it is the deconstructive aspects of Nagualism that have made Ken appear to be so piercing. The Toltecs, like any group which explores the inner realms, have their own vocabulary. Filled with words and phrases like Tracking, Seeing, Stalking, Dreaming, Using Your Death as an Adviser, Focal Points, and Nonpatterning, this vocabulary is particularly visceral. It is also deconstructive in that the Toltec's intent focuses on peeling away the layers of meaning that we normally assign to "reality." However corporeal Nagualism may appear, with its focus on Tracking one's way through the physical world, it is, at least in Ken Eagle Feather's work, never gross, in that it is neither materialistic nor dense. Travelling with Power, Ken's first book, recounts his ten-year apprenticeship with Don Juan Matus, the mysterious shaman-sorcerer teacher of the best selling author Carlos Castaneda. The second, A Toltec Path, is "the exploration of Castaneda's books and the verification of their teachings through personal experience." He further describes it as "an autobiography of sorts, where presenting the knowledge is presenting myself." With his third book, Tracking Freedom, Ken scrutinises the Toltec system as a means to enlightenment, openly deconstructing that path, dissecting its pitfalls and foibles along the way. This is, as Ken sees it, all part of being a good Toltec. In the following interview Ken Eagle Feather discusses the Toltec path, Nagualism and its relationship to Shamanism, non patterning, and written works.
LR: Ken, how long have you been on the Toltec path?
KEF: I started on a daily basis in 1973 when I was in the hospital. I was in the military and had a bleeding ulcer and a couple of other problems with my digestive tract. I'd been in the hospital for about 3 months, and in talking with some other people on the ward I got pushed onto the path. The doctor wanted to perform surgery and keep me on medication. I didn't want to do that. So by reading Castaneda's book Journey to Ixtlan (1972) and then Tales of Power (1974) later, and then by engaging the exercises in those books, I eventually healed myself. For the first few years, staying with the path was forced because every time I quit doing the exercises the pain would come back, and as soon as I started doing the exercises again the pain would go away. And then after a few years I completely healed myself, and now I can eat pizza with the best of them.
LR: For someone new to the path, will it necessitate a change of lifestyle?
KEF: Eventually there will come a time that you have to redefine your life, yes. Now I'm not saying that everything will change your life circumstances may not change but certainly your attitudes and the way you approach your life will change. But it's been my experience that most people will have a radical change in what they are doing, in addition to how they go about doing it. What then occurs is between the person and Spirit.
LR: Can you explain the term Nagualism? How is this different from Shamanism?
KEF: Nagualism is probably a select class of Shamanism; a certain variety of it. It has academic roots going way back to when anthropologists were working with indigenous tribes in Mexico. Don Juan, Castaneda's teacher, uses it to mean a specific class of teaching. So even his definition is different than the academic's. And so one way to relate to it is to consider that there is a lot of shamanic flavour in it, but then there are a lot of things that are different. For instance, you don't necessarily build medicine wheels; you don't necessarily have the trappings of a pipe and feathers. it's very pristine, very streamlined. And also very rough and ready. it's not heavy on the spirituality as most people might define it. It is very individualistic, but yet you work in small teams. it's very, very rigorous and it's aimed not so much to build a world view, such as [is] found in Shamanism, at least in mainstream versions of it, but to actually work on developing perception. There will come a time when you will leave the teachings behind, because to hold on to them would pin down perception. And so there are different stages of growth along the path: from apprentice to practitioner to what don Juan calls a person of knowledge, someone who has grown beyond the teachings. These people are in an entirely different relation with the world. They have found freedom, and are in a state of complete being.
LR: Is Nagualism a religion?
KEF: Only in the sense that it contains a philosophical structure. This means it is a way to accumulate knowledge. But the way you learn, and what you learn, are biased by the type of structure. So, in a sense, structure is a set of beliefs. A person of knowledge is someone who has used different structures, different sets of beliefs to learn the costs and benefits of structures. By evolving beyond the need for structure, the person has figuratively and literally grown beyond belief. One of the tools to help along this evolution is the petty tyrant. This is a person in your life who pushes every button you have. So if you are working with somebody, especially if they are in authority over you, and if they are a little harsh, that's a good thing. Because it makes you work on your own shortcomings. It makes you pull your dirty laundry out of the hamper. Keep in mind that every time you rail and scream at a person you are just projecting onto them a trait within yourself. In order to discharge that energy within you accurately and ruthlessly, so that you may grow into new connections with the world and Spirit, you need to assess your complete circumstances with absolutely no pity, either for others or for yourself. that's when you are on the mark, when you engage energy on that level. The petty tyrant helps to get you there, forces you to work on your own stuff to
bring yourself further to light.
LR: So basically what you are saying is that petty tyrants and other kinds of challenges help transform things like fear into power, or confusion into a spiritual clarity?
KEF: Right, definitely in terms of Fear and Clarity. It is interesting that you bring those up because those are two steps along the path that require working directly with energy. Fear is a lack of suppleness in the energy body. This lack of movement translates through the physical body as fear, when it really is just being stuck. One way to fight fear is this: any time you come upon something and the only thing that keeps you from doing it is fear, then your decision is automatically made. You look it straight in the eye and proceed in that direction. From that struggle what you find is that fear is a lack of momentum in your energy body, a lack of fluidity. The energy body is stagnant; it has barnacles and is calcified. The more you jolt your energy body with the new experiences you gain by fighting fear, the more you awaken it. Fighting what was a lack of momentum then delivers you to clarity. The problem with this is you now think you know what's really going on, when all you have [done] is developed a new set of thoughts about what is going on, an enhanced set of beliefs. You then set the stage for becoming a metaphysical (or New Age) fundamentalist. Instead of talking about the material world, you get to talk about the spiritual world, complete with reincarnation, psychic phenomena, and alternative healing. But while you've expanded your world, a grand accomplishment, you haven't grown beyond belief. So the discipline for managing clarity is to not use it, and to pretend that you are still fighting fear.
LR: In Tracking Freedom you write about non patterning, which seems to be at the heart of the Toltec Way. To me this is reminiscent of a Buddhist-like non-attachment. It effects physical, emotional, and mentally based reality as we know it, almost as if you are getting back to a Platonic ideal about things, scrutinising that Platonic ideal and then releasing even that conceptual hold. Would you say this is true?
KEF: Yes, that's true, and it delivers you to fully understanding that which you will never fully understand. . . . So, non patterning is not putting the world into form. This includes yourself. Pure non patterning means you are not interpreting anything. And when you do interpret something it's on a practical level, to communicate something, for instance. The problem is that by interpreting the world you then hold on to your definitions, your interpretations. Optimally, however, you begin to realize that your world is just a set of mental and emotional constructs about reality. The further you go into reality, the clearer this becomes. Just remember that your enhanced clarity is also your prison. We really don't know anything about what this magnificence called creation is. It cannot be encapsulated. And so non patterning is very much a core Toltec teaching that is designed to constantly keep you open, keep awareness open, and keep perception open.
LR: Some traditions might approach this by divorcing themselves from the world. How does a Toltec live in the world and still stay so deeply within in order to do this work?
KEF: that's interesting, because Don Juan says you really have never learned your lessons if you can't do it in the world. This brings in the discipline of a Path with Heart. This is a path intended to bring you to life. A Path with Heart is formed by deliberately selecting a number of things that you want to involve yourself with: relationships, vocations, hobbies, arts, anything that really connects your heart with the world. The criteria for selection is peace, joy, and strength. You don't worry about money; you don't worry about if you are going to be socially acceptable. If an activity gives you peace, of your Path with Heart. When you have a number of these, you are on your Path with Heart. I have never seen a situation where a person who has a well-developed Path with Heart doesn't have their livelihood taken care of. They get their money; it's just that the emphasis isn't on money. That doesn't mean that money is a bad thing. It is an interesting form of power that can accomplish grand things. Just keep it very balanced, and within its place. Your income should be supportive of your path, not the defining element of it. So if you think it is part of your path, you may have the wrong relationship with your heart. If you think you must have money to accomplish some grand goal, say, to help humanity, it may just be your self-importance. So, like non patterning, the Path of Heart is also an essential feature of Toltec structures. It is something that awakens you and gives you joy as you walk over the earth. Then petty tyrants, no pity, and fighting fear are all exercises, skills to quicken the process so that you can achieve a radical transformation in the life you are living now. They give you a fighting chance to claim your freedom.
LR: What about personal power? It seems that the Toltecs actively and openly engage in acquiring and cultivating their personal power. This is really in contrast to many religions, and yet its use in Nagualism seems to reflect the reasons that other paths avoid it.
KEF: In the modern Toltec world, personal power means having enough energy to continually be more and more aware. In the ancient structures, several thousand years ago, it meant having more power than the next guy, competition, greed, manipulation, these kinds of things. When the Toltec empire got laid to waste by Indian wars and the Inquisition, the remnant went underground and revamped the system. They introduced ethics and from that ethical standpoint a new meaning of personal power evolved. So it relates to being more aware. For that you need more energy, which means you have awakened more of your energy body. That gives you your energy, and your Path with Heart generates energy. And from that energy you become more aware. . . .
LR: While most systems talk about their past masters in terms of highest respect and devotion, not that this is untrue of Nagualism, Nagualism openly talks about the mistakes of past Toltecs. Do you see this as a sign of an evolving path?
KEF: This is definitely an evolving path, and I think one of the distinctions of the Toltec path of knowledge. In some systems, you have a teacher for life, someone to give you a gentle, or sometimes not-so-gentle, reminder of what you're really supposed to be up to. Toltecs, like Don Juan, grab you by the scruff of the neck, work you over up and down, in and out, then set you on your way to fend for yourself. Personally, I appreciate this style of teaching. it's very individualistic, very responsible, very empowering. It lets you assess what your teacher says and does, then figure out if you want to continue exactly that way. Or perhaps you'll even want to get off the path entirely. The effect is similar: the system evolves, as it's not static to a given set of practices. There is nothing to adhere to except the unrelenting drive to develop perception. In this way, you can grow beyond belief.
LR: How do you see your work, and in particular Tracking Freedom, contributing to this evolution?
KEF: Tracking Freedom is the culmination of a learning task don Juan gave me over twenty years ago. He directed me to write books about his teachings. In doing so, I earnestly tried to present views that would crystallise don Juan's teachings, and make them applicable to a variety of situations. For instance, I aimed to make his teachings realisable in the daily world for anyone who was bold enough, or nuts enough, to travel this path. I also wanted to demonstrate how a philosophy works: how it expands perception, how it hems in perception. By understanding what we're working with, we stand a better chance of not getting bogged down in our amazing concoctions about reality. We stand a better chance of tracking freedom.
ADDENDUM
LR: Ken, how long have you been on the Toltec path?
KEF: I started on a daily basis in 1973 when I was in the hospital.
WHICH BEGS THE QUESTION: DID DON JUAN DIE IN 1973 AS WRITTEN BY CASTANEDA OR NOT?
Carlos Castaneda, the author and original source of the highly successful series of Don Juan books, writes in several places among those books that the Yaqui Indian shaman-sorcerer Don Juan Matus was born in 1891 and died in 1973.
According to Castaneda he met Don Juan in the late spring or early mid-summer of 1960 as chronicled in their now infamous Nogales Greyhound Bus Station Meeting. Castaneda apprenticed under Don Juan and over the years wrote a dozen books covering their experiences. During that period --- late spring, early mid-summer 1960 - 1973 --- except for Castaneda's word, nobody seems able to confirm or prove a meeting with him under any circumstances. For sure he was never produced by Castaneda or anyone on the fringes claiming to have met him able to produce him. Even in the Introduction Scenes, written in Castaneda's own hand, wherein Castaneda's Road Trip colleague he calls Bill and that Castaneda states put he and the old white haired Indian together in the first place, hedged his bets as to or if the old Indian was or was not Don Juan Matus. Castaneda writes:
Bill said convincingly that he had encountered people like him before, people who gave the impression of knowing a great deal. In his judgment, he said, such people were not worth the trouble, because sooner or later one could obtain the same information from someone else who did not play hard to get. He said that he had neither patience nor time for old fogies, and that it was possible that the old man was only presenting himself as being knowledgeable about herbs, when in reality he knew as little as the next man.
In the third book of his series, Journey to Ixtlan (1972), Castaneda writes that after returning to Los Angeles he "prepared himself for six months" and when he "felt ready" he went back looking for Don Juan, however NOT to or around Nogales, Arizona, but Yuma, Arizona. Citing a date during the winter recess at the end of the fall semester 1960 (i.e., Saturday, December 17, 1960), after allowing a full six months to lapse without ever seeing or talking with Don Juan since their bus station encounter Castaneda writes:
"I found his house after making long and taxing inquiries among the local Indians. It was early afternoon when I arrived and parked in front of it. I saw him sitting on a wooden milk crate. He seemed to recognize me and greeted me as I got out of my car."
Previously, in A Separate Reality (1971), Castaneda had written he and his experienced driving around the southwest guide, Bill, had driven around for a whole day six months before and could not find "the house of an 'eccentric' Mexican Indian who lived in the area" (Nogales/Sonora), but Castaneda on his own, after simply asking a couple local Indians in a effort that he calls taxing inquiries, drove right up in front of Don Juan's house in Yuma. Which opens the door for me that we are talking the posibility of TWO different people here.
C. Scott Littleton, Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, and former Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, whose notoriety precedes him as an expert on the Battle of Los Angeles, wherein a giant airborne object of unknown origin overflew L.A. during the war years, knew Castaneda well having attended UCLA graduate school with him in the same department at the same time. Littleton recalls being told by Castaneda personally that he never saw Don Juan again after an incident in 1973 wherein Castaneda and two other followers of Don Juan jumped into the abyss off the top of a flat, barren mountain on the western slopes of the Sierra Madre in central Mexico. He told Littleton as well, that Don Juan died shortly thereafter. So, did Don Juan die in 1973? Or could he even die in the traditional sense or at all? For more on that please see Footnote: [1]
THUS SAID, DID EAGLE FEATHER REALLY MEET DON JUAN IN 1973 --- OR AT ANY OTHER TIME?
In regards to Don Juan reportedly passing from the scene in 1973, capsulized here but explored more indepth in the Foonote below where Castaneda, in a 1994 interview, speaking of the death of Don Juan states: "Either they bury you six feet deep in the poor flowers or you burn. Don Juan chose burning."
Now, in a possible, albeit NOT total contradiction to Ken Eagle Feather being in the right chronological time-frame reference to have met and interacted with Don Juan for any length of time prior to his passing in the first place, please note that Eagle Feather specifically states he "started on a daily basis in 1973." Started on a daily basis, NOT started. Giving Eagle Feather the benefit of the doubt, the key to it all is "on a daily basis," not when he actually started. Eagle Feather never states when he actually started, only when he started on a daily basis. Although questionable, a big difference.
So too, there is a difference between start, started, starting and having met. Eagle Feather's own account on how and when he met Don Juan Matus in the first place, is clouded --- most of what he has to say regarding the meeting is somewhat ambiguous. He joined the U.S. Navy at age 17 and served in Vietnam, and, although he was in a military hospital in 1973, it's possible he could have met Don Juan somewhere along the line. In TRAVELING WITH POWER: The Exploration and Development of Perception (1992), he says he met an "Old Indian" on the side of a road, and later again under other circumstances. From those meetings he assumes the "Old Indian" is Don Juan Matus, although he himself admits that for years he doubted whether the man he met was THE Don Juan Matus found in Castaneda's series of books. After a long contemplation process and a continued indepth observation of Omens he concludes in his own mind --- and for the reader --- that the "Old Indian" he met, was in fact, none other than Castaneda's Don Juan Matus.
In ON THE TOLTEC PATH: A Practical Guide to the Teachings of don Juan Matus, Carlos Castaneda, and Other Toltec Seers (1996) Eagle Feather elaborates his meeting with Don Juan somewhat, offering some clarification:
"I first met don Juan while walking down Speedway Boulevard, a main avenue in Tucson. Late for class at a local Univerisity, I simply gawked at him and continued a hurried pace. When I arrived at class, a flood of energy swept through me, indicating that the very poised Indian I had passed was don Juan. A couple of days passed and I saw him again, this time standing near a small market on the outskirts of town. I approached him and held a very short conversation; I was too imtimidated to remain long in his presence."Over the next few years, our paths crossed many times. Each time, he offered a lesson regarding the mysteries of awareness."
Castaneda personally tells his friend Professor Littleton that he never saw Don Juan again after he, Castaneda, jumped into the abyss on the western slopes of the Sierra Madre --- an event cited to have transpired in 1973. As almost everybody knows who has even the faintest idea about Castaneda's series of Don Juan related books, that he continued to write them, book after book, for another twenty years --- without ever documenting any new face-to-face meetings beyond the 1973 date.
Eagle Feather was in a military hospital in 1973, as well as been in the Navy, having joined at age 17. So too, some time or the other he was attending a local university in Tucson. He told Lisa Roggow in the above interview that because of reasons emanating from his 1973 hospital stay, basically talking with some other people on the ward, he got pushed onto the Toltec path. In his book he goes on to say he met Don Juan walking along a street in Tucson while on his way to class at the university (i.e., Speedway Boulevard. It is the main drag that borders the north side of the University of Arizona, Tucson campus). But, when? Before or after his hospital stay? First of all, if it was before, there would be an overlap in time when BOTH he and Castaneda knew and were interacting with Don Juan --- and secondly, if it WAS indeed before, why the need of people in the hospital ward to push him onto the path? Why would the influence of meeting Don Juan himself, face-to-face in real life and in person, not be enough?
If it was after, Eagle Feather, who claims a ten-year apprenticeship under Don Juan, writes: "Over the next few years, our paths crossed many times." If those aforementioned "few years" transpired AFTER the jumping into the abyss event of 1973, remember, Professor Littleton was told by Castaneda himself that Don Juan, following Castaneda's jump into the abyss, died shortly thereafter. Castaneda substantiates it quite clearly in The Second Ring of Power (1977). Again, I refer you to Footnote: [1]
Noticeably, where I mention in my writings about an "excursion deep into a remote part of the southern New Mexico desert" making, as I state above, the location possibly difficult to find, Castaneda writes about a town (Yuma) that you can drive right up in front of Don Juan's house and park. It leads me to believe we are talking about two different places and most likely two different people. If such is the case, then the total authenticity of ANY specific meeting scenario begins to dissolve. If the possibility exits that there were/was TWO different people like I surmise, then which of the two, if any or either, did Ken Eagle Feather, Castaneda, or anybody else interact with? Please see:
The Old Man In the Desert
Continuing, Don Juan's teacher, Julian Osorio, was said by Castaneda to have died at age 107. The following is from the Julian Osorio link:
"If Osorio was born in 1871 that would have made him around 77 years old at the time of my visit to the old man in the desert. Osorio reportedly was never cured of his tuberculosis and lived to the ripe old age of 107, 30 years beyond the 77 years of my meeting --- although how Castaneda arrived at the 107 figure is not clear as Don Juan reportedly left the world in 1973 and for all practical purposes Castaneda ended his apprenticeship with him well before that."
Castaneda writes that Don Juan Matus was born in 1891[2] and that he was twenty years old when he met Osorio. He also writes that Osorio was twice Don Juan's age when the two met, making Osorio 40 years old --- hence then, making Osorio having been born in 1871. Breaking partway into the quote, it goes on to say:
"(... the old man in the desert had died) citing the night of October 31, 1978. During the year 1978 an unusual TWO new moon's in one month occurrence transpired and it just so happened to occur in October, with the second of the darkened new moons on, of all things, All Hallow's Eve, Halloween night, October 31st, the same night of the old man's death --- a major convergence of conditions and coincidences."[3]
Interestlingly enough, it should be noted that the 1871 year of birth calculated for Osorio and the death of the white haired old Indian on October 31, 1978 as written in the above quote and who also had tuberculosis the same as reported of Osorio, comes out to be the same 107 year old age as quoted by Castaneda for the death of Osorio. Quite the coincidence of numbers from a variety of different sources if none of it is not so.[4]
ADDENDUM CONTENTS BY:
the Wanderling
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"Oh, he's gone to the mountains," she responded in a noncommittal tone, and moved away from me.
"And where is Nestor?"
She rolled her eyes as if to show her indifference.
"They are together in the mountains," she said in the same tone.
I felt genuinely relieved and told her that I had known without the shadow of a doubt that they were all right.
She glanced at me and smiled. A wave of happiness and ebullience came upon me, and I embraced her. She boldly returned the embrace and held me. That act was so outlandish that it took my breath away. Her body was rigid. I sensed an extraordinary strength in her. My heart began to pound. I gently tried to push her away as I asked her if Nestor was still seeing don Genaro and don Juan. During our farewell meeting don Juan had expressed doubts that Nestor was ready to finish his apprenticeship.
"Genaro has left forever," she said letting go of me.
She fretted nervously with the edge of her blouse.
"How about don Juan?"
"The Nagual is gone too," she said, puckering her lips.
Pablito's mother goes on to tell Castaneda that not just he and Pablito jumped into the abyss that night, but so too, within moments, both Don Juan and Don Genaro jumped into the abyss as well. Castaneda tells her he has no clue what happened to them and she replies:
"Then I will tell you. I can't deny you anything. The Nagual and Genaro went back to the same place they came from; to the other world. When their time was up, they simply stepped out into the darkness out there; and since they did not want to come back, the darkness of the night swallowed them up"
In an explanation of the above, during an interview by Keith Thompson published in the New Age Journal, March/April 1994, Thompson queried Castaneda with the following:
"Earlier you mentioned reaching the end of the road, and now you're talking about the end of your time with don Juan. Where is he now?"
"He's gone. He disappeared."
"Without a clue?"
"Don Juan told me he was going to fulfill the sorcerer's dream of leaving this world and entering into "unimaginable dimensions." He displaced his assemblage point from its fixation in the conventional human world. We would call it combusting from the inside. It's an alternative to dying. Either they bury you six feet deep in the poor flowers or you burn. Don Juan chose burning."
As for entering into unimaginable dimensions and combusting from the inside, in the history of events as they unfold in the world such an event is not totally without precedent. For example, extrapolating from the Bible, in II Kings 2, when it was TIME for the God of the Bible to take the prophet Elias up to heaven, Elias traveled with his friend Elisha to the Jordan river. Taking his mantle, he rolled it up and struck the water of the river which inturn divided, enabling both cross over on dry ground. As they continued on, a flaming chariot with flaming horses came between them and Elias was taken up to heaven in a strong Vortex like WHIRLWIND OF FIRE. Elisha picked up the mantle which had fallen from his master and the spirit of Elias rested upon Elisha and he became his successor as a prophet.
In one of many parallels, the same as Elishia picked up the mantle that had fallen from his master and became master, Don Juan's teacher Osorio is said to have picked up the mantle from his teacher, Elias Ulloa, thus becoming the master. The same is such then for the outcome between Don Juan and Castaneda as the taught becomes the master.
The question I would ask is, IF the structure of the universe is such that it is possible for Elias to be taken up in a whirlwind of fire when it was his time, then why not Don Juan when, as Pablito's mother cites, HIS time was up?
As for Castandea, his Death Certificate indicates HE died April 27, 1998 at age 72. His Obituary announcing same did not show up until a month and a half later, June 19, 1998 (both documents can be reached through CARLOS CASTANEDA: Timeline). In the Los Angeles Times release, author, J.R. Moehringer, writes:
No funeral was held; no public service of any kind took place. The author was cremated at once and his ashes were spirited away to Mexico, according to the Culver City mortuary that handled his remains.
Interesting is it not what Castaneda says about Don Juan, "Either they bury you six feet deep in the poor flowers or you burn. Don Juan chose burning." In a sense Castaneda, a self-professed inline legacy to Don Juan's line of shamans, as mentioned below, burnt too --- except he was was cremated and his ashes were spirited away to Mexico --- albeit, a little less spiritually, being commerically burnt by a mortuary. In a Long Island NY Newsday newspaper article dated Sunday October 21, 2001, Sandy McIntosh writes:
"But when Castaneda actually departed in 1998, it was not as he had predicted. His physician, Angelica Duenas, whom I had befriended at one of his seminars and who signed the death certificate, told me what happened. "I have many patients," she said. "They die. He died like everyone else."
Castaneda says that Don Juan came from a lineage of sorcerers that was purported to be twenty-five generations long. Castaneda apprenticed under him and according to Castaneda became part of that twenty-five generations long lineage. In describing HIS teacher, Don Juan used the word Diablero. Castaneda states in his writings that diablero is a term used only by the Sonoran Indians. It refers to an evil person who practises black sorcery and is capable of transforming himself into an animal - a bird, a dog, a coyote, or any other creature. In that Castaneda studied under Don Juan and is included in his lineage it can be extrapolated that both either are or have strong influences from diableros. In a question answer session Castaneda asks an old Indian if there are none today (diableros), or that there never were any. The old Indian responds:
"At one time there were, yes. It is common knowledge. Everybody knows that. But the people were very afraid of them and had them all killed."
"Who killed them?"
"All the people of the tribe. The last diablero I knew about was S- -
(at this point Castaneda leaves the full name out in the text using only a capital "S" and a dash). He killed dozens- maybe even hundreds of people with his sorcery. We couldn't put up with that and the people got together and took him by surprise one night and burned him alive." (source)
All indications are thus then, that diableros DO and CAN die, including Don Juan Matus and Carlos Castaneda. It should be noted that when Castaneda died, five of his closest disciples made out wills, disconnected their telephones, and vanished at around the same time. Three of the followers were known as "the witches" and thought by many to have "burned from within." The bones of at least one of them, Blue Scout, was found scattered all over a remote area of Death Valley several years later. The fate of the others are unknown.
There is a possible caveat to all this Don Juan having died in 1973 stuff as reported by Castaneda. In that Eagle Feather came upon the book publishing scene while Castaneda himself was still in the process of writing books about Don Juan, there may have been a vested interest in Castaneda having Don Juan suddenly being "killed off." Regardless of when any book by Castaneda was published date-wise, one way or the other the year 1973 would have to have had transpired for Castaneda to know that Don Juan died in 1973 and be able write about it. I have no reason to dispute what Castaneda has to say in his books as cited above, but it is kind of convenient that Don Juan just happened to die, according to Castaneda, when Eagle Feather showed up. The problem with such a scenario is that Eagle Feather's first book, TRAVELING WITH POWER: The Exploration and Development of Perception, although it was rejected 13 times over an unknown period of time, it was not published and released to the general public until 1992, nineteen years AFTER the death of Don Juan as cited by Castaneda.
Carlos Castaneda speaking of Don Juan Matus in, THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968), Introduction: Thirty years later, in MAGICAL PASSES:
The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico (1998), Castaneda writes a similar or like theme:
"At the age of twenty Taking into account that Don Juan existed in real life as Castaneda writes him and that he was born in 1891 on one of the Indian reservations around Yuma, then the possibilities of those who could match his identity are very few in number. Although I have not researched the the conclusions personally, I have been told census records of the era indicate only a handful of male Indian newborns in the Yuma reservation areas for the 1890 census and 1900 census, which would seem to narrow Don Juan's identity or existance down to a few names.
The problem is Arizona was not a state in those days but a Territory. How accurate census records would be one way or the other or even if there are any is not known. If Don Juan was born in 1891 and there are records, he would NOT show up in the 1890 census anyway having been born one year after the census was taken. If he moved out of the census area --- to Mexico or anyplace else --- prior to the taking of the 1900 census, he would NOT show up in the 1900 census either.
In contrast to the born in the Southwest or the born in Yuma thesis previously cited as written by Castaneda, it should be noted that he has also written, refering to what his road trip and bus station colleague Bill says, the following:
See Footnote [1] to Albert Franklin Banta as it makes reference to the father of Don Juan Matus assisting Banta, a famous western tracker, capturing a fugitive in Mexico.
To the majority of people such an occurrence most likely does not mean much. However, for the occult, voodoo and others of similar ilk, such a rare event as having the darkened second new moon of a two new moon month happen on, of all nights, All Hallow's Eve, is a convergence of major proportions that carries a deep significance. It means POWER in the hands to those who can so channel it, COSMIC POWER. Any event perpetrated during such a narrow band or limited time period carries a destiny with it that similar events at another time won't or can't.
As to All Hallow's Eve, All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows Day (hallowed means sanctified or holy), falls on November 1st. The evening prior to All Hallows Day, October 31st, was the time of intense activity, both human and supernatural. Originally people celebrated All Hallow's Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but over time the supernatural beings came to be either dominated by or thought of as evil. To propitiate those spirits (and their masked impersonators) people began setting out gifts of food and drink. Over time All Hallow's Eve became Hallow Evening, which eventually became Hallowe'en.
See ZEN, THE BUDDHA, AND SHAMANISM. Scroll down to to the sub-section titled Once In a Blue Moon.
As well as going to the above link, for an even more indepth elaboration please visit Footnote [3] at CARLOS CASTANEDA: Don Juan Matus and the Nogales Greyhound Bus Station.
In the final paragraph of the main text I write:
The question continually comes up, in that I say Osorio lived to 107 years of age on this page as well as several other of my Castaneda/Don Juan related pages, where DOES it show up that Castaneda says it? The following quote is found in WHEEL OF TIME: The Shamans of Ancient Mexico (1998) in the Commentary section related to The Fire From Within (1984):
"The nagual Elias didn't have great expectations about the actor, who was lazy, slovenly, self-indulgent, and perhaps even a coward. The nagual was quite surprised when the next day at five in the morning he found the actor waiting for him at the edge of the town. He took him to the mountains, and in time, the actor became the nagual Julian- a tubercular man who was never cured, but who lived to be perhaps one hundred and seven years old, always walking along the edge of the abyss."
In the 1984 book The Fire From Within, of which the Commentaries attest to, Castaneda doesn't mention one thing or the other as to what age Osorio may or may not have lived. However, by the time his 1998 book comes out Castaneda is saying (in the above quote) Osorio lived to be perhaps one-hundred and seven years old. That is because sometime between 1984 and 1998 Castaneda must have somehow became privy to the fact that Osorio had died. Not knowing the specific month, day or year (October 31, 1978), he hedges his bets by using the word "perhaps" as in "(Osorio) lived to be perhaps one hundred and seven years old."
According to Don Juan Matus there are four inner obstacles a man of knowledge must overcome: fear, clarity, power, and old age. These four elements are both obstacles as well as necessary preconditions. Taken together the links below will help offer special added insights into understanding and alleviating some of the hardships faced when confronting the four obstacles along the path. You will notice there is a heavy ring of Buddhism in the links below. Some people would argue quite stringently that Buddhism and Shamanism are for the most part nowhere related and to draw an anology would be creating a thin line. However, the coincidence of
characteristics and striking similarities between Buddhist adepts and Shamans and Shamanism has been studied and outlined quite thoroughly by the likes of Mircea Eliade in
his monograph, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of
Ecstacy. For example, the abilities of the Arhat relating to the sixfold knowledge of the worthy ones that includes not only the ability similar to the Cloud Shaman to appear and disappear at will, but also the oft cited case in Buddhism and Zen by the Venerable Pindola Bharadvaja where the venerable Arhat was adomished by the Buddha for flying and performing miraculous acts infront of the faithful. For more, consider the very beginning root-source or Shamanism: The word shaman, used internationally, has its origin in manchú-tangu and has reached the ethnologic vocabulary through Russian. The word originated from saman (xaman), derived from the verb scha-, "to know", so shaman means someone who knows, is wise, a sage. Further ethnologic investigations shows that the true origin for the word Shaman can be tracked from the Sanskrit initially, then through Chinese-Buddhist mediation to the manchú-tangu, indicating a much deeper but now overlooked connection between early Buddhism and Shamanism generally. In Pali it is schamana, in Sanskrit sramana translated to something like "buddhist monk, ascetic". The intermediate Chinese term is scha-men. Continuing:
Footnote [2]
"All he said was that he (Don Juan Matus) had been born in the Southwest in 1891; that he had spent nearly all his life in Mexico; that in 1900 his family was exiled by the Mexican government to central Mexico along with thousands of other Sonoran Indians; and that he had lived in central and southern Mexico until 1940."
"Don Juan was an Indian who was born in Yuma, Arizona. His father was a Yaqui Indian from Sonora, Mexico, and his mother was presumably a Yuma Indian from Arizona. Don Juan lived in Arizona until he was ten years old (1901). He was then taken by his father to Sonora, Mexico, where they were caught in the endemic Yaqui wars against the Mexicans. His father was killed, and as a ten-year-old child, don Juan ended up in Southern Mexico, where he grew up with relatives.
"The friend who had introduced me to Don Juan (that is, Bill) explained later that the old man was not a native of Arizona, where we met, but was a Yaqui Indian from Sonora, Mexico."
FOOTNOTE [3]:
FOOTNOTE [4]:
"Interestlingly enough, it should be noted that the 1871 year of birth calculated for Osorio and the death of the white haired old Indian on October 31, 1978 as written in the above quote and who also had tuberculosis the same as reported of Osorio, comes out to be the same 107 year old age as quoted by Castaneda for the death of Osorio. Quite the coincidence of numbers from a variety of different sources if none of it is not so."
THE FOUR SYMBOLIC ENEMIES ON THE PATH OF LEARNING
