sorcerer

The Active Side of Infinity – A Tremor in The Air: A Journey of Power

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Active side of Infinity / By / 22 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Carlos Castaneda recounts the events leading to his first meeting with don Juan Matus. Initially, his academic ambitions to conduct fieldwork on medicinal plants are dismissed by his anthropology professors as outdated and irrelevant. Feeling defeated, Castaneda is persuaded by his friend and fellow anthropologist, Bill, to join him on a road trip through Arizona and New Mexico. During their journey, Bill reveals a hidden, personal side, sharing unsettling and unexplainable stories of his encounters with shamans who could transform or appear as apparitions, which deeply affects Castaneda. The trip culminates at a bus depot in Nogales, where Bill points out a mysterious old man he believes to be a powerful sorcerer. Acting on a strange impulse, Castaneda confronts the man, who introduces himself as Juan Matus and cryptically invites him for a future meeting before vanishing onto a bus. This brief, powerful encounter leaves Bill jealous and perplexed, and instills in Castaneda a profound and unfamiliar sense of longing and anxiety.

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The Active Side of Infinity – The Intent of Infinity

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Active side of Infinity / By / 35 minutes of reading

In this chapter, don Juan asks Carlos Castaneda to recount in great detail his initial journey to find him, specifically his encounters with two men, Jorge Campos and Lucas Coronado. Castaneda describes how his search led him to Guaymas, where he met Jorge Campos, a charismatic but deceitful Yaqui entrepreneur who promised to lead him to don Juan for an exorbitant fee. Campos first introduced him to Lucas Coronado, a truculent Yaqui shaman and mask maker. After a series of manipulative events, Castaneda eventually finds don Juan through Lucas Coronado and his son, Ignacio. Upon hearing the full story, don Juan reveals that Campos and Coronado were not mere obstacles but essential parts of a map laid out by the “intent of infinity.” He explains that Campos, the ruthless con man, and Coronado, the sensitive, suffering artist, represent the two conflicting ends of Castaneda’s own being, and that their actions, guided by infinity, were necessary to bring Castaneda to his path as a sorcerer.

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The Active Side of Infinity – Who Was Juan Matus, Really?

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Active side of Infinity / By / 15 minutes of reading

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.

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Journal of Applied Hermeneutics – What are Warrior Guardians?

A Journal of Applied Hermeneutics, Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda / By / 5 minutes of reading

In this log, Castaneda defines a “warrior guardian” as don Juan Matus’s term for a sorcerer—someone capable of interrupting their normal system of interpretation. He explains that the group known as the Chacmools was dissolved according to the dictates of energy, a force a warrior must obey. A new group selected by energy, the Energy Trackers, has replaced them. Castaneda relays don Juan’s explanation of energy tracking as following the trail of energy’s flow, which is experienced as a physical feeling rather than a visual sight. This new group naturally formed and developed this capacity, allowing energy to reveal itself to them.

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Part Two: The Sorcerer’s Ring of Power

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan / By / 61 minutes of reading

Castaneda grapples with the profound implications of “stopping the world” and becoming a sorcerer as explained by Don Juan and exemplified by Don Genaro’s story. Castaneda learns that this path means abandoning all earthly attachments, including loved ones, and embracing an unknown reality from which there is no return to his old life in Los Angeles. Despite the deep sadness and loneliness this realization evokes, he is told that only as a warrior, balancing terror with wonder, can one survive this path, and though he experiences a fleeting moment of “seeing” their profound loneliness, Castaneda ultimately decides he is not yet ready to fully embark on this transformative journey.

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Part One: Stopping the World – A Worthy Opponent

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan / By / 26 minutes of reading

Castaneda faces further encounters with the enigmatic sorceress, “la Catalina,” whom Don Juan reveals to be his designated “worthy opponent,” crucial for his development as a warrior. Don Juan uses these events to teach Castaneda about living strategically, emphasizing control over one’s “doing” and the importance of specific actions and postures, like the “rabbit thumping” dance, when confronting non-ordinary threats. A key lesson revolves around Don Juan’s demonstration of manipulating perception through the “ring of power” and the “ring of not-doing,” explaining how our collective “doing” creates reality and how a sorcerer can transcend it. Castaneda’s fear, self-doubt, and previous social “doings” are highlighted as weaknesses that his struggle with la Catalina forces him to overcome, pushing him to adopt a disciplined, strategic approach to life.

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Part One: Stopping the World – The Ring of Power

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan / By / 23 minutes of reading

Castaneda’s journey with Don Juan continues as they explore “not-doing” in the lava mountains, where Castaneda practices altering his perception of light and darkness and acquires a power object. They encounter four young men, who are sorcerer’s apprentices, and Don Juan teaches them about power objects like quartz crystals and the methods for attracting a spirit or ally to imbue these objects with power. A dramatic demonstration by Don Juan, where each observer saw him in a different “disguise,” leads to a discussion of the “ring of power” and the “ring of not-doing,” illustrating how “doing” shapes our shared reality and how not-doing allows for different perceptions. Castaneda grapples with the strenuous nature of the sorcerer’s path, while Don Juan emphasizes that a warrior transforms their ordinary world into a “hunting ground” by skillfully navigating between “doing” and “not-doing.”

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