--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >
I also liked Castaneda, I started with his 3rd book, Journey to Ixtlan, but the book which fascinated me most was Eagles gift, I read it three times, and it may have been the only book I read three times. So, inspired by this letter, I re-looked into Castaneda on the net, and found all his works online here: http://www.rarecloud.com/ This is a sort of prayer /aphorism from eagles gift: I am already given to the power that rules my fate. And I cling to nothing, so I will have nothing to defend. I have no thoughts, so I will see. I fear nothing, so I will remember myself. Detached and at ease, I will dart past the Eagle to be free. http://www.rarecloud.com/cc_html/cc_html_11/twot6.html I agree with you that the books have a definite power or spiritual vibration to them, even though I know now like you that they are made up, but something in the vibrates as truth. I didn't get the same feeling with his spiritual co-workers Florinda Donner Grau. But I also would have never touched the books if I would have known they were made up. The illusion that its real is very much part of it. Even with other popular spiritual books there is a certain myth around it, or around the person involved. At a time, they provided me with a metaphor of what was going on in my life. For example, I had an overpowering vision of the Divine Feminine, which changed my whole outlook, about one year prior to meeting Mother Meera. At the same time I was reading about the 4 directons and the archetypal female warriors in Castanedas 2nd ring of power. When I met Mother Meera, and I felt comng closer to her, my metaphor for her became the Nagual woman. In the eagles gift, there is a description of the 'human mould' as a humanly created idea of God. At the time I read it, I had just joined Purusha. I vividly remember that this passage challenged my feelings of devotion to a personalised God, as I took it very serious.With these thoughts in mind, as I entered the flying hall, suddenly my awareness rose to a space above the head, I suppose the Sahasrada Chakra, which I perceived as an abstract other dimension, and at this point, it was unconnected to the heard, a place of otherworldliness and loneliness. I am sure, it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't challenged my heart.I think it was the intensity that the book created in me which made this happen. At this point he opening wasn't persistend, but it soon became. Here some links I looked up in this context the last days, without comment, just for sharing: video of the chocmools demonstrating Tensegrity and indicating castanedas end (dissolving into energy as they thought): http://youtube.com/watch?v=BBsJzt24J-c Interesting article by Amy Wallace http://sustainedaction.org/wallace_book/Chapter_4_Sorcerers_Apprentice.htm I am not a writer, so writing this here, or, I also wrote an about 10 pages experience report in Mother Meeras 'the Mother', I have a general idea of what I want to say. I fisrt gather a sort of image of what I want to write about, like a list of points but just mentally and then I simply write. The 10 pages in 'The Mother' I wrote in a week, just in spare time, and I didn't ever revise it, except for proofreading. But then I think I have no skill really. > Take the works of a more modern spiritual writer, > Carlos Castaneda. I read his books. They inspired > me. I even met the man once, and he inspired me > in person. Later he died. (People do that.) And > after he died, I started reading scholarship done > on him and his life and his work, scholarship > that points pretty strongly to the conclusion that > Carlos Castaneda was one of the biggest compulsive > liars ever to grace the planet. When he came to > America, he lied about his age, the country he was > from, the family back home that he forgot to men- > tion to immigration authorities and never got in > touch with again, etc. He had a history at UCLA > of fudging his field studies to make them look > better. Real Yaqui shamans that I've met who knew > Carlos describe him as someone who came to them, > listened to their stories, and then wrote them up > in a bastardized form and made millions from it, > never crediting the shamans themselves or giving > them a penny of the profit. Some of his closest > students, who studied with him for years, say that > in their opinion as close observers he made up > everything after "Tales Of Power." > > And yet, knowing all this, when I read the books > they still inspire me.
