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THE RELUCTANT SORCERER
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By
Anupama Bhattacharya Do sorcerers
die? Perhaps they do. Even from liver cancer. At the ripe old age of
72. "Nothing
that I had ever done, nothing that I had ever imagined, could even compare
to the anguish and the loneliness of that moment," wrote Castaneda
in his book Tales of Power, describing his feelings when
he stood at the edge of an abyss, ready to jump into it and prove his
worth as a sorcerer. He faced death then. But death, for the bestselling
author, also considered the godfather of America's New Age movement,
was as much a part of life as breathing. | |||||
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The descriptions of his apprenticeship, as well as his own experiments
with sorcery, can be found in lucid detail in the 10 books Castaneda
wrote on the subject. That's about as far as the biographical details
go. Of course, none of it can be confirmed since Castaneda was
known to be an inveterate liar about the statistical details of his life.
That, actually, is also part of the sorcerer's way. According to don Juan, erasing personal history is important since it separates the sorcerer from his past and keeps his luminosity intact. Which is why Castaneda remained a recluse, refusing to be photographed or interviewed. This secrecy was broken by a brief interlude during the last years of Castaneda's life when he held workshops on an intricate system of movements called Tensegrity or Magical Passes. The secrecy and the workshops do not, however, contradict each other. "Since don Juan's lineage could not continue due to our energetic configuration, our mission was transformed from continuing his lineage into disseminating his ideas. Don Juan's lineage ends with us," the elusive author stated in a 1997 interview. |
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| Not much is known about Castaneda's family. Though he claimed that he had no relatives, his death certificate lists a niece, Talia Bey, who is president of Cleargreen, a company based in the USA that had been organizing Castaneda's Tensegrity seminars. The death certificate also lists him as never married though, according to Margaret Runyan (author of A Magical Journey with Carlos Castaneda), she was married to Castaneda from 1960 to 1973. No proof of their marriage, as usual, is available. Castaneda, in his book The Second Ring of Power, states that when people have children, it creates a hole in their luminosity. To regain the luminosity, parents who want to be sorcerers must steal it back from their children. In fact,
deception, attempts at murder, stealing powers, hatred, loathing for
fellow apprentices, all these form part and parcel of the sorcerers'
life. Don Juan himself seems to play double games, pitting one apprentice
against the other. The aim, of course, is to find the apprentice best
suited to take on the mantle of the nagual, the master sorcerer. The lack
of sensitivity, however, does not mar the incredible beauty of the imagery.
"We are pieces of the sun. That is why we are luminous beings," says
la Gorda, one of don Juan's apprentices. The universe, sorcerers believe,
is made of two principles: the tonal (unity, coherence, thought) and
the nagual (disintegration, impulse, feeling-the source of everything).
The tonal is the perceived reality. It is only by boosting the tonal
that the nagual can emerge from its depths. The aim of sorcerers
is to reach a state of total awareness by tapping the nagual within,
thus bringing the two aspects of the universal existence into perfect
harmony. According
to don Juan, the universe is an infinite agglomeration of thread-like
energy fields called the Eagle's emanations, which radiate from a source
of inconceivable proportions. Human beings are also composed of the
same energy fields, which form a layer of luminosity the size of the
person's body. A very small group of the energy fields inside this luminous
ball is lit up by a point of intense brilliance called the assemblage
point. Perception occurs when the energy fields in this small group
extend their light to illuminate identical energy fields outside the
ball. The inaccessibility of the supernatural world is due to our energetic
conditioning. When the assemblage point shifts, new filaments of the
universe pass through it, making it possible to perceive a different
reality. This shifting is called dreaming which, according to sorcerers,
is the gateway to infinity. The idea is to be conscious of it and direct
it. All this
can be attained through what don Juan calls impeccable living. Though
what impeccability means is never quite explained. In don Juan's terminology,
that is also the warrior's way—which is what a sorcerer
is inherently. Castaneda's journey into the realms of sorcery
was not easy. From his own descriptions in his first few books, he comes
across as a bumbling fool, the typical white man who can't see beyond
his limited sphere of rationality. But six books down the line he emerges
as the new nagual, don Juan's successor. | |||||
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According
to Castaneda, psychotropic plants such as peyote, Jimson weed and
mushrooms are often used in sorcery to enhance awareness. Not surprisingly,
most of Castanaeda's books read like a drug-induced vision where
everything is out of proportion. Hallucinations, however, have no place
in Castaneda's terminology. "It is not possible for us to see something
that doesn't exist," writes he. "The agents inducing the visions might
be different, but what we see is real."
Definitely, Castaneda's books are a good read, peppered with sufficient suspense and drama. Not to mention incredulous tales such as when don Juan creates a peculiar rodent who wears eye-glasses, to prove a point in nagual creativity, or when Castaneda shifts his attention and crosses into the nagual world, only to emerge as shimmering ripples before the other apprentices. Along the way, Castaneda learns to fly, grows a beak, is chased by giant insects. The question, however, remains: Did don Juan exist? Efforts to trace the old Yaqui Indian have been fruitless. The lack of colloquial or cultural traits in don Juan's conversations as reported by Castaneda have furthered the notion that his bestsellers are fictitious, albeit brilliant, pieces of literary genius. | |||
| Says Clifford Geertz, a renowned anthropologist based in the USA: "Castaneda's books have no presence in anthropology." Even author Joyce Carol Oates finds it difficult to accept Castaneda's books as non-fiction: "They seem to me remarkable works of art. The dialogue is faultless. There is a novelistic momentum." But if
a hoax can be as intriguing and illuminating, then there is definitely
something to that. Castaneda, in spite of the often unpalatable
tidbits of humor, does create a philosophy that is stark, exacting and
mind-boggling. And vastly different from the traditional shamanic rituals
that are primarily healing in nature and involve chants, trances and
a staunch faith in native gods. Celibacy, however, is essential to Castaneda's
version of sorcery. This preserves energy and directs it in shifting
the assemblage point. From blinding panic to exquisite ecstasy, Castaneda
seems to take his readers on a magical mystery tour through the psyche.
The spirit is seduced in the sheer intoxication of the eternal. "We
are all going to face infinity, whether we like it or not. Why do we
do it when we are weakest, when we are broken, at the moment of dying?
Why not when we are strong? Why not now?" questions Castaneda.
You are forced to think. For death was not only a preoccupation with
the celebrity author, but a way of life. "A warrior considers himself
already dead. That is why he has no place for fear," said he. Was
Castaneda prepared to die? We would never know. We would never even
know if don Juan existed, or if the ancient shamanic rituals that Castaneda
brought to life were real. But somewhere along the way, his name would
go down in the annals of New Age literature as the man who considered
death "the greatest kick of all". Which is why he saved it for the last.
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Carlos
Castaneda's death in 1998 ends a unique tradition of sorcery
and leaves the mystery of don Juan, his shamanic master, unresolved
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