The Teachings of Don Juan (Identities and Issues in Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Carlos Castaneda
- First Published: 1968
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography, Anthropology
- Subjects: Memory, Perception, Folkloric or magical people, Native Americans or American Indians, Reality, Drugs, Witches or witchcraft, Hallucinations or illusions, Southwest, Plants, Mind and body
The Work
This book introduces the mystical character of Juan Matu, a Yaqui Indian from Sonora, Mexico. Born in the Southwest in 1891, Don Juan lived in Mexico until 1940. He then immigrated to Arizona, where he met Castaneda and, in 1961, accepted him as an apprentice in Yaqui sorcery. Until 1965, he instructed Castaneda in becoming a “man of knowledge” through experience with “nonordinary reality.” The teaching required the use of hallucinogenic drugs, and much of the book chronicles Castaneda’s visions while under their influence.
The sorcerer teaches...
[The entire page is 539 words long]
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