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A Brief Readers Guide To Carlos Castanedas Books

An excerpt from The End Of History

Copyright 2012 James L Desper Jr

Summary

Through the course of writing all his books on The Warriors Way,Mr. Castaneda made an extraordinary journey from total ignorance of The Warriors Way to an understanding of it that he expressed in a dry,academic manner. His confusion and Juan Matus (Don Juan) teachingmethod led to the first several books being merely an introduction of thewarriors world. By the publication of The Eagles Gift, Mr. Castanedahad begun to realize his place, his membership in that world and beganrelating events in light of that new awareness. But, to me personally,the beauty, power and knowledge of The Warriors Way are containedin the words of Juan Matus and his party of warriors, and their wordsonly. One must know all the books to know their words, and TheWarriors Way.

1. The Teachings of Don Juan : A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968) An introduction to the mood and world of a warrior. Since Castaneda,a sophisticated university student, had no use for abstract discussionsor verbal explanations of The W arriors Way, Don Juan (Juan Matus)was required to hook and maintain his interest through demonstrationsof ancient practices o f the seers of Don Juans tradition. The reader willnote that these rituals and practices are so tightly controlled as to beconsidered clinical. The Structural Analysis at the end is a waste of paper. Ignore it. The new commentary for the 30th annivers aryedition is a good overview of The Warriors Way, but seems designed

to convince academics, not the general public, of the value of theknowledge contained in The Warriors Way.

2. A Separate Reality : Further Conversations with Don Juan (1971) More demonstrations of ancient practices and a further step in.

3. Journey To Ixtlan : The Lessons of Don Juan (1972)

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Mr. Castanedas first breakthrough. He realizes that The WarriorsWay is a way of life and details the methods that a warrior uses tointeract with people and the natural world.

4. Tales Of Power (1974) A very confused Castaneda tells the story of his final initiation intothe warriors world. Don Juans other apprentices begin to play amajor role. They are only slightly less confused than Mr. Castaneda,so I personally tend to take their words with a grain of salt, unlessthey are directly quoting don Juan or one of the other members of hisparty, not only in this book, but in the later ones also.

5. The Second Ring Of Power (1977) The confusion and anxiety of Castaneda and the other apprenticesreaches its height. His encounter with a deviant female warrior onlyadds to the chaos.

6. The Eagles Gift (1981) With the help of another apprentice, Mr. Castaneda finally beginsto put the pieces together enough to understand a warriors ultimategoal : To accept the Eagles gift - to reach the Third Attention - toescape death for as long as the Earth itself shall live.

7. The Fire From Within (1984) A re-examination of some of the examples of ancient practices as theyrelate to Castanedas new grasp of The Warriors Way. Another stepforward.

8. The Power Of Silence : Further Lessons Of Don Juan (1987) My personal favorite of all. A mysterious journey into the unknown,as Juan Matus convinces Castaneda of the necessity of having anabstract purpose, something beyond merely himself.

9. The Art Of Dreaming (1994) A complete recapitulation of techniques needed to control andmanipulate dreaming and a cursory ove rview of The Warriors Way.A fascinating book that reveals perceptual possibilities that even donJuan was not acquainted with, courtesy of the Death Defier.

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10. Magical Passes (1998) Details a low-impact exercise program designed to tone the body andredistribute the bodys energy . The pictures and diagrams in the book

can be rather indefinite, so videos were produced and are availablefrom cleargreen.com . The beginning of Mr. Castanedas move intoacademic-speak.

11. The Wheel Of Time (1998) A compilation of quotes and concepts that attempt to guide theattitude, the mood of the warrior.

12. The Active Side Of Infinity (1998) A fairly complete ov erview of The Warriors Way disguised as arecapitulation of formative events in Mr. Castanedas life. Castanedasover-sophisticated analysis often obscures as well as enlightens.