Taisha is guided by “the Caretaker” through an exercise in projecting her consciousness. Using techniques of deep relaxation and breath control, she is instructed to create an “opening” in the “blackness” and send her awareness through it.
This chapter delves into the foundational mythos of the sorcerers’ world, which Castaneda calls “the rule of the Nagual.” He recounts how Don Juan, after a near-fatal encounter, was initiated into this rule by his own benefactor. The rule describes the Eagle, an immense cosmic force that consumes the awareness of all beings upon death. However, the Eagle also provides a gift: a chance to escape this fate and achieve freedom by keeping one’s awareness. To guide beings to this freedom, the Eagle created the Nagual, a double being who comes in a male/female pair. The chapter details the specific structure of a Nagual’s party—composed of four types of female warriors (the four directions) and four types of male warriors—and outlines their luminous features, their tasks of dreaming and stalking, and the cyclical duty of each Nagual to find and train a new party before departing the world.
In this chapter, Carlos Castaneda recounts his first formal encounters with the warriors of don Juan’s party, which are structured as a series of introductions corresponding to the four cardinal directions. Each meeting is a bizarre and often jarring experience, designed as a lesson in stalking and controlled folly, forcing him to confront his own self-importance and preconceived notions. Castaneda is introduced to a host of unique and powerful individuals, including the dreamers and stalkers who guard the gates to the Nagual’s world, the enigmatic leader Silvio Manuel, and Florinda, who is designated as his future guide into the art of stalking.
The Eagle’s Gift – The Nagual’s Party of Warriors Read More »
In this chapter, Castaneda reflects on his first true meeting with don Juan, realizing the mental image he had constructed was entirely false. The real don Juan is powerful, athletic, and vital. Upon arriving, don Juan performs a “quasi-slap” without physical contact that instantly brings Castaneda into a state of profound clarity and peace. Don Juan then formally introduces himself as Juan Matus, the “nagual” or leader of a 27-generation lineage of sorcerers. He explains that sorcery is not witchcraft but the ability to perceive energy directly, a state of conscious awareness that sets sorcerers apart. He reveals that their meeting was orchestrated by the “intent of infinity,” which he describes as a palpable “tremor in the air,” and that he has been searching for a successor with a double energetic configuration—the new nagual—whom he has found in Castaneda. He describes past naguals as being “empty,” reflecting not the world, but infinity, a quality Castaneda later realizes don Juan embodies perfectly.
The Active Side of Infinity – Who Was Juan Matus, Really? Read More »
On the warrior’s path, stalking is a subtle art, often misunderstood. Associated with inner vigilance, the control of automatisms, and mastery of behavior, it may appear at first glance to be a solitary exercise — a technique aimed solely at
Following a frightening experience in the unknown, don Juan explains that Castaneda lacks the free energy to fully comprehend it, emphasizing the warrior’s need to shed unnecessary habits. He then delves into the ancient Toltec seers’ secret knowledge, particularly their discovery of non-organic life forms, or “allies,” and their methods of interaction, often involving water and reflective surfaces. Through a vivid demonstration with a mirror in a stream, Castaneda has a terrifying encounter with one of these entities, realizing its immense power and the profound melancholy that comes with glimpsing eternity.
Following a startling encounter with an ally, Don Juan resumes his teachings on awareness, introducing the crucial concept of the assemblage point. He explains that this luminous point on the human energy cocoon is responsible for selecting emanations that form our perceived reality. The nagual’s blow, a push on this point, can shift awareness, a technique old seers used for control and new seers use for deeper understanding. Castaneda recounts his own experience of a dramatic shift and a vivid vision, which Don Juan clarifies as a movement of his assemblage point. The conversation delves into the differences between the “right side” (known) and “left side” (unknown) awareness, and how the assemblage point’s movement, especially through new habits or sorcery practices, unlocks access to these hidden realms. Don Juan emphasizes that true mastery lies in moving the assemblage point from within, an accomplishment that allows warriors to confront profound, even deranging, experiences while maintaining their sanity. The chapter concludes with Don Juan’s explanation of human luminosity as a “ball of jack cheese” with a “cheddar cheese” band representing the human spectrum of emanations, and the assemblage point’s role in “clustering” these emanations to create perception, even revealing a “dark side of man” through extreme shifts.
Don Juan continues his explanation of awareness, introducing the concept of great bands of emanations. He explains that the Eagle’s emanations are grouped into 48 bands on Earth, with 8 producing awareness (one organic and seven inorganic). He elaborates on the three “bundles” of awareness (beige-pink, peach, and amber) that crisscross these eight bands, with humans being connected to the amber bundle. Don Juan emphasizes that true understanding comes from direct seeing rather than mere inventory. He describes inorganic beings and their unique characteristics, contrasting them with organic life. The conversation then shifts to the nature of different worlds assembled by the assemblage point and how surplus energy allows a seer to perceive other bands. Don Juan also discusses the special relationship between man and plants, noting the varying positions of their assemblage points and how old seers exploited this for sorcery, often transforming themselves to access deeper realms. He concludes by stressing the old seers’ aberrant focus on breaking perceptual barriers, even through dangerous transformations, which the new seers largely avoid.
Great Bands of Emanations – The Fire from Within Read More »
Don Juan concludes his explanation of the mastery of awareness by assigning Castaneda the task of breaking the barrier of perception unaided, emphasizing that failure would render his learning mere words. He explains the barrier as a “wall of fog” and the importance of an internal dialogue-free state for the assemblage point to move. The true key to shifting the assemblage point, don Juan reveals, is the mastery of awareness itself, which frees the point by discarding one’s inventory. He then instructs Castaneda to see the mold of man, a crucial step to release all ties from his assemblage point. Castaneda recalls a previous experience of seeing the mold of man as a radiant light and a masculine deity, a “chance seeing” that don Juan clarifies is a “static prototype of humanness without any power.” He struggles with the sacrilegious implications but is ultimately swayed by a direct experience of the mold as an infinite, amber light, feeling profound, selfless affection. Don Juan explains that such shifts, especially those induced by power plants, highlight the provisional nature of perception. He clarifies that seeing the mold as a man is a lateral shift, while seeing it as light (which Castaneda achieves independently) signifies a deeper, more significant shift in the midsection of man’s emanations, leading to a profound, unbiased understanding of its true nature as a pattern, not a creator.
Don Juan brings his explanation of the mastery of awareness to a culmination, emphasizing that Castaneda must now break the barrier of perception unaided by shifting his assemblage point into a dreaming position. He reveals that the initial journey of the dreaming body (also called “the other”) is a form of perceptual dualism, triggered by extreme fright and guided by inner silence. Castaneda recalls a past experience where he perceived Genaro’s dreaming body and was shocked to witness his own double. Don Juan clarifies that these experiences are shifts of the assemblage point, not illusions, and that true travel in the dreaming body occurs when it takes precedence over the physical body. Castaneda also remembers being propelled across vast distances in his dreaming body, awakening in the house of Carol, the nagual woman, highlighting the incredible potential for movement and shared dreaming. Don Juan stresses that the perception of reality is entirely tied to the assemblage point’s position and that warriors must integrate these varied experiences. Despite the profound implications and Castaneda’s emotional turmoil, don Juan maintains that the path to freedom requires unbending intent and that ultimate understanding comes from embracing the mystery of relinquishing awareness at death.
The Journey of The Dreaming Body – The Fire from Within Read More »
