31 Oct Drugs, Brujos, Shapeshifting, and the Witches
One of the rock stars of LA spirituality was the great sorcerer himself, Carlos Castaneda, (born in Peru on December 25, 1925, died in Westwood on April 27, 1998) who brought the use of psychedelic drugs for personal and spiritual growth to the attention of the mainstream. His 12 books still sell well today and to date have sold more than 28 million copies, which catapulted Carlos Casteneda to international fame.
Casteneda’s books, the first of which was The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, are an account of his apprenticeship in Toltec shamanism. The early books were written for his PhD in Anthropology at UCLA. They are full of colorful tales of such miracles as people turning into crows, talking to coyotes, jumping off cliffs and surviving, and disappearing into thin air and reappearing elsewhere. There is much ingesting of herbs, mushrooms and cacti, and while in these states, Don Juan imparts higher knowledge to Carlos.
This higher knowledge is of a “nonordinary” or a “separate” reality,” of the ways to personal and spiritual power, and of how to become a “warrior.” Whether or not the books are fictional has been a big controversy, but there is no doubt that learning about the “Yaqui way of knowledge” has raised the consciousness of countless people worldwide whether or not the facts are “true.”
Casteneda abandoned public life in 1973 and disappeared from view, refusing to be photographed. He lived quietly in Westwood with the three “witches;” Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar, and Carol Tiggs, women of power who practiced shamanism and wrote fascinating books of their own. He reappeared in the 90s to teach Tensegrity, a series of spiritual exercises based on ancient Toltec sources.
Carlos Casteneda died in his home in Westwood in 1998. The witches mysteriously disappeared, leaving no trace. Many speculated they had committed group suicide although no bodies were found. Some believed they had left this reality to enter a “separate reality” with Carlos.
The best place to get more information about Casteneda and the witches is http://www.sustainedaction.org/
© 2020 Catherine Auman
This is an excerpt from Catherine Auman’s book Guide to Spiritual L.A.: The Irreverent, the Awake, and the True
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