I never really had a deep connection with Castaneda. However, more than forty years later, I find myself increasingly reflecting on and savoring this quote: "One must assume responsibility for being in a weird world: we are in a weird world... Touch the world sparingly."

This quote seems to hold a certain truth and wisdom that becomes more apparent with the passage of time. It makes me think about how we navigate through this strange and often unpredictable world.

For those who are interested in vivid images of Yaqui fate, I would recommend seeking a copy of the novel about dreaming of centaurs, "Dreams of the Centaur" by Montserrat Fontes.

This book offers a unique and captivating exploration of Yaqui culture and the themes of fate and dreams.

You can find more information about the book by clicking on the link: Dreams of the Centaur.

I find all of Castaneda’s books to be truly unique, fascinating, and engrossing, and this particular one is no exception.

We are told the story of how Carlos met Juan Matus in a bus station in Arizona, which marked the beginning of a ten-year apprenticeship.

Carlos first discovers the significance of erasing one’s personal history. This is crucial as it frees us from the encumbering thoughts of others. One can achieve this by not revealing what one truly does and by distancing oneself from those who know one well. In this way, a fog is built up around oneself.

It is also vital to lose self-importance. In another book, it is explained that in order to “dream,” we require energy, and self-importance consumes a great deal of it. Therefore, it is best to rid ourselves of it to preserve as much energy as possible.

Carlos also learns that death is our eternal companion and our most important adviser, always to our left, just an arm’s length away. Awareness of our impending death helps us to “drop the cursed pettiness that belongs to men who live their lives as if death will never tap them.”

We must take responsibility for all that we do. We must know the reasons behind our actions, no matter what, and then proceed without doubts or remorse.

Don Juan seems to have the ability to read Carlos’s mind and knows about events from his childhood and youth without being told.

Carlos tells Don Juan that they are equals, yet in reality, he feels that as a sophisticated university student, he is superior to Don Juan, who is an Indian. He is dumbfounded when Don Juan informs him that they are not equals - “I am a hunter and a warrior, and you are a pimp.”

The world is a mysterious place, especially in the twilight. The wind can follow one, make one tired, or even kill one. It is searching for Carlos. Carlos learns about being inaccessible. He has previously made himself too available, especially in his relationship with a particular “blond girl.” One must ensure not to distort one’s world but instead touch it lightly, stay for as long as necessary, and then swiftly move away, leaving hardly a trace.

A hunter should know the routines of his prey and, most importantly, have no routines oneself. Carlos himself eats lunch every day at twelve o’clock, as Don Juan repeatedly points out.

These are just a few of the topics that Don Juan teaches Carlos. He also learns about becoming accessible to power, experiences a battle of power, and learns about a warrior’s last stand. He discovers the gait of power and the tricky art of not-doing.

Finally, he learns about the ring of power and encounters a dangerous, “worthy” opponent, a sorceress named La Catalina.

Towards the end, Carlos meets Don Genaro, another powerful sorcerer, and together they make Carlos’s car disappear into thin air.

Carlos is sent alone into the mountains and “stops the world.” He has a conversation with a coyote that speaks both English and Spanish (!). Carlos sees “the lines of the world.”

We understand that Carlos’ time with Don Juan has come to an end, as it is time for Don Juan to leave this world. Carlos’ sadness is overwhelming, and so is that of the reader.

This is an amazing book. The information and knowledge presented are fascinating and absorbing. Castaneda presents the details in a great and satisfying manner. The book is well-expressed, although the content can be difficult to grasp. (Carlos himself openly admits that he finds it nearly impossible to understand Don Juan’s “concepts and methods” since “the units of his description were alien and incompatible with those of my own.”)

I will truly miss reading this author’s works when I have finished them all, but fortunately, I still have many more to read. The “separate reality” portrayed in these books is quite different from our daily reality, so it is an amazing journey for the reader to delve into these books and access this other reality or world.

I strongly recommend that you read this mind-expanding book!

It’s a truly strange book, and I must admit that I can’t claim to fully understand its meaning.

One possible way to approach this reading is to view it as a sort of Tao-like tome. It seems to suggest that we should stop futilely trying to control the world and instead learn to fit in as just one among the many. As the text states, “plants and ourselves are even..Neither we nor they are more or less important.”

The author-narrator, Castaneda, often finds himself chided by Don Juan for his thinking, his intellectualism, and his constant attempt to “understand.” In one instance, Castaneda thinks himself superior to an Indian, to which Don Juan responds with a harsh rebuke, “We are not equals. I am a hunter and a warrior, and you are a pimp.”

In contrast, Don Juan also says, “The mood of a warrior calls for control over himself and at the same time it calls for abandoning himself.” This idea of control over oneself means letting go of the ego and taking a step back. The first step towards achieving this control is to abandon the dominance of the head and trust the body, to be able to “be cognizant of things without thinking about them,” and to soak the body “for hours in ‘not-doing.’” “Not-doing” implies giving up control and relinquishing the need to understand something solely in terms of its relationship to us.

From birth, we are surrounded by what is called a “ring of power,” which is a particular way of understanding the world, a perspective that makes the world work for us. As Don Juan puts it, “Our ring of power is hooked to the doing of the world in order to make the world.”

Forgoing rationality and decentering ourselves to see the world as it truly is, rather than as it appears from our own limited perspective, is one way to view this book. However, I suspect that this might not be the full extent of what Castaneda is trying to convey. He seems to be after something more mystical, yet it’s not quite like the practical way of living advocated by Taoism, nor is it a straightforwardly mystical, Hindu, or Nirvana-like oneness with the universe. Decentering is perhaps just a necessary stepping stone to reach an alternative state, whatever that might be.

Ixtlan is a hard-to-describe mystical, perhaps even magical state that can only be attained by a few. This is the real world, not the one we inhabit that is filled with ego and control. Castaneda and his world, in this context, seem like phantoms. Once one accesses the real world, they can never truly go home again. Literally, one may return, but everything is different. The “initiated” find themselves in a different place from their loved ones. The journey to Ixtlan is not for the faint of heart. It is reserved for the hunter and warrior who finds themselves straddling two worlds – the phantom world of the here and now, filled with ego, control, and loved ones, and the real world that is something entirely other. As Don Juan so aptly says, “Only as a warrior can one survive the path of knowledge, Because the art of a warrior is to balance the terror of being a man with the wonder of being a man.” The terror lies in leaving this familiar world behind, in seeing it as not real, and in making the difficult decision to let go of what one loves and is familiar with, and to take the leap into the ineffable, into the true reality. After years of pursuit, Castaneda ultimately decides that he is not yet ready to take this final, fateful leap.

Such a profound book! It has the power to make you view the world from an entirely new perspective. As you turn the pages, you are drawn into a realm of ideas and insights that challenge your preconceived notions. The author's words are like a gentle breeze that blows away the dust of familiarity, revealing a world full of colors and textures that you may have overlooked before. This book is not just a collection of words; it is a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment. It makes you think, question, and reflect on the world around you. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to expand their horizons and see the world with new eyes.

The detailed and rather bare-bones accounting of the spiritual elements within Castaneda's experiences can indeed become quite tedious.

One might find oneself slogging through the pages, trying to make sense of the minutiae. However, it's not all doom and gloom. The few broad nuggets of advice that Don Juan has to offer aren't bad at all.

These pieces of wisdom provide some glimmers of hope and inspiration in the midst of the otherwise dry narrative.

In particular, Castaneda's encounter with Don Genaro towards the end of the book is truly a standout. It is one of the few supernatural elements in the book that manages to rise to the metaphorical significance it so richly deserves.

This encounter adds a layer of depth and meaning that elevates the overall work.

While it may not completely transform the entire book, the end definitely redeems it to a limited extent.

It gives the reader something to hold onto and思考 about long after they've finished turning the pages.

Overall, despite its flaws, Castaneda's work still has some redeeming qualities that make it worth a read for those interested in exploring the spiritual realm.

In my opinion, going to the upper world or further dimensions through drugs or hallucinogens, which is strongly and directly referred to in this book, has nothing valuable.

He emphasizes that humans are not something special, which is not very nice. Of course, except for the part where he says to Carlos: "Tell the flower I'm sorry I'm doing this to you and be sure that I myself will eat you for a while longer, so I'm equal to you."

Overall, the goal of this book is very unclear and it doesn't have a specific pattern either.

Throughout the story, the protagonist doesn't accept any of the words of his teacher, and also at the end of the story, after the ten-year path that he introduces to him, he doesn't go. Of course, I give him the right and if I were in his place, I would never accept someone like Don Juan as a teacher.

This book seems to be a bit of a jumble of ideas and experiences, lacking a clear direction and purpose. It makes the reader wonder what the author really intended to convey.

Perhaps the author was trying to explore some deep philosophical or spiritual concepts, but in the end, it all comes across as rather confusing and unconvincing.

However, it's important to note that everyone's perception of a book can vary, and some people may find something valuable or interesting in it that others don't.

Maybe with a different perspective or a more in-depth analysis, one could uncover hidden meanings or messages within the text.

But as it stands, for me, this book falls short of expectations and fails to leave a lasting impression.

In the midst of Castaneda's books, this one is the simplest, the most understandable, and the closest to our world. The other books are mostly composed of encrypted concepts of shamanism that must be carried out under the supervision of its teacher.

This is the third book of Castaneda, but it is always recommended to be read as the first book.

The book includes the advice of an old, bearded shaman named Don Juan, who is a shaman teacher, to a young student who has referred to Don Juan to obtain information about plants. But Don Juan, by recognizing that the young Castaneda is ready through the shamans, unwillingly involves him in this valley and teaches him the art of being a warrior in the shamanic culture or, in fact, being a shaman in our own Iranian culture.

The best part of the book that impressed me and it is not without kindness to quote it for you to encourage you to read it is where Don Juan asks Castaneda, "Carlos, are we equal?"

Castaneda thinks to himself and says, "Well, I am a doctoral student at a top American university, and Don Juan is an old, bearded, and unemployed man. Surely I am better than him." But because he liked Don Juan, he said, "Yes, we are equal."

Then Don Juan looks at him and says, "No, Carlos, we are not equal. I am a warrior, and while I know that I have a limited time in this world, I act, and my actions are composed of decisive actions, and finally, I exert my power. But you are a parasite who participates in the battles of others throughout your life, and your actions never have any power. You spend your whole life chasing the vague entities called the people that you create in your mind, and finally, you will go into the confusion of the world, and when you die, you will wake up from this deep sleep that you called life and realize the facts."

The book is a mirror. I highly recommend you to read it, especially for those who are in search of the truth.

This is a rather strange left turn within the series.

Castaneda states in the introduction that he had previously believed the sole means to comprehend Don Juan's teachings was through the utilization of psychotropic plants, "but I now know that assumption was wrong."

Why the complete shift away from plant use? There appears to be some sort of motive, yet I simply cannot fathom what it is.

At one point, when he fails to understand the teachings (as is often the case), Don Juan tells him, "maybe you need to use Mescalito again."

I have read this and the first two books. The second one was truly remarkable with its exciting imagery and engaging storytelling.

In this particular volume, his writing skills have sharpened even further. The teachings are presented in a more progressive manner, and there is a greater sense of a plan compared to the first book.

They are interesting teachings. There is a moment where he jumps from a 1961 visit to 1970 in the very next section. In that leap, he makes it seem so linear, as if it were the next day. Something about that strikes me as very odd.

Otherwise, I did enjoy this book, albeit not as much as 'A Separate Reality'. Overall, it was better than the first book.

I find that Castaneda, as an apprentice, is extremely annoying in the first two books and somewhat less so here (as if he is beginning to catch on).

In the first two books, he is like a college student who can only communicate with the teacher by asking questions that presuppose his/her logic is correct, seeking support for it (but lacking any listening skills, so no matter what they are told, they will never truly understand).

You know the type; the entire class starts rolling their eyes when they begin to speak up because they think that if this person would just闭嘴 and listen for a moment, they might get it.

Seriously, it wasn't until approximately two-thirds of the way through 'A Separate Reality' that the reader gets the sense that Don Juan has finally committed to Castaneda. I am now reading 'Tales of Power'.

4 1/4 stars

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A 4 1/4 star rating is a great achievement and a testament to the hard work and dedication of the team behind the product or service. It gives potential customers confidence in choosing it over others in the market.

Overall, this rating reflects a positive experience and is likely to attract more customers who are looking for a reliable and high-quality option.

This is the second book in the series penned by Carlos Castaneda.

I initiated this book in 1983 when I was a 19-year-old, fresh out of high school and lacking any sense of direction.

An older acquaintance of mine recommended it to me.

I was journeying to Brooklyn by bus, with a one-hour commute each way; thus, I required a book to kill the time.

Castaneda was a graduate student majoring in Anthropology and was working on his thesis regarding Mexican Shaman and their utilization of regional plants and herbs to bring about psychotropic effects in an effort to cure people of diverse illnesses.

Castaneda commences with a scientist's perspective, being a skeptic, but later gets completely astonished by what transpires to him, which subsequently becomes his lifelong pursuits.

If you intend to read these books, commence with The Yaqui Way of Life, which is the first book, and be ready to be deeply immersed in Don Juan's teachings.

This book is truly magic✨.

From the moment you open its pages, you are transported into a world of wonder and imagination.

The words seem to dance off the paper, captivating your attention and drawing you in deeper with each turn.

It has the power to make you laugh, cry, and feel a whole range of emotions.

Whether you're reading it for the first time or the tenth, it never fails to amaze.

The story is so well-crafted that you can't help but become completely immersed in it.

It's like a portal to another dimension, where anything is possible.

This book is not just a collection of words; it's a work of art that has the ability to touch your soul and leave a lasting impression.

Once you've experienced its magic, you'll never be the same again.

I am going to bestow the same review upon all the Carlos Castaneda books that I have perused within that series. This is simply because each and every one of them is truly outstanding.

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have encountered Castaneda at a very early stage of my magickal journey. My spells and rituals have always been reliant upon the power of intent. And I have discovered that there is no superior education regarding how to focus one's intent than what is presented within this series of books.

Back in that time (1994), they were classified as nonfiction. However, lately, they claim that they are fiction. All that I know is that a great deal of what is contained within these books actually works. And having been a Wiccan Faery Witch for now 13 years, I am well aware that much of what is real to us is regarded as fiction by those who are not traversing a magickal path.

These are life-altering books that you will never forget, and their teachings continue to exert an influence on my life even today. It simply couldn't be any better than this!