Personally I think the books of Carlos Castanenda are among the finest books ever written . So for this issue I asked to have reviewed Journey to Ixtlan. For those starting in on these books, it’s really the place to begin. (After that go to Tales of Power. If you want more I'd skip Second Ring of Power and go to The Fire from Within.) If you decide to embark on The Journey with Carlos - you're in for a real treat!
Will Arntz
Journey to Ixtlan. by Carlos Castaneda
Review by Katie Elliott
Journey to Ixtlan is one in many books by Carlos Castaneda that unravel the authors’ journey toward learning the way of the warrior. What makes it so interesting is the relationship between Carlos and his mentor, a Yaqui Indian named Juan Matis. Don Juan, as he is called throughout the stories, is a laid back, old wise man with a great sense of humor and a huge abundance of knowledge and power. Carlos is an intellectual skeptic who seeks out don Juan with the hopes of gaining more knowledge on psychotropic plants. Soon Carlos finds himself as the new apprentice of this strange sorcerer and fortunately for us, took excellent notes on the teachings of don Juan along the way.
The book is set up so that each chapter has a different lesson on a specific topic which, when accomplished, creates the path to becoming a warrior. In each of these chapters Carlos plays the perfect foil for don Juan’s antics which keeps the reading light and humorous while presenting important lessons and techniques for gaining personal power and mastering the path. Carlos must learn lessons like losing self-importance, using death as an adviser, being inaccessible, and becoming accessible to power while he battles with himself about the validity of the teachings and the overall sanity of don Juan. Carlos is constantly questioning and doubting don Juan and is constantly boxing himself into corners where the only way out is by applying the teachings he is so unsure of.
One of the many important lessons for Carlos is the realization that our everyday world is really nothing more than a description of the world that has been presented to us at birth and reiterated over and over again. “For don Juan, then, the reality of our day-to-day life consists of an endless flow of perceptual interpretations which we, the individuals who share a specific membership, have learned to make in common.”
This is important information. The world as we know it is colored by our own perceptions, experiences, knowledge, etc., and the only way to get around that is to acknowledge this fact and open our eyes and minds to new possibilities. So don Juan has the major task of teaching his apprehensive apprentice to “see” the world rather than just to “look” at it. Next > 1 2 3 4
