Shaun Hoggan

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Journey to Ixtlan, The Lessons of Don Juan

July 25, 2007 By: Shaun Category: Books, Humanities 115 No Comments →

Journey to Ixtlan, The Lessons of Don Juan

Shaun Hoggan

Diablo Valley College

Humanities 115

Instructor: James Wetzel

July 23, 2007

 

Journey to Ixtlan, The Lessons of Don Juan

Carlos Castaneda’s book Journey to Ixtlan The lessons of Don is about a professionally educated person, Carlos Castaneda, and his unpredictable interactions with Don Juan Matus, a self proclaimed Yaqui Indian Sorcerer whose viewpoint on life is seen through nontraditional means. Some would argue the un-seeming reality painted by Castaneda would indicate the character of Don Juan to be fictional, since his approach seems so foreign to the normalcy of most readers. When dissecting the book for meaning, Don Juan’s intent can be believable and even provides insights into the human psyche, which can be significant to the extent of changing the readers viewpoint on life and how to view and react to external forces around them, but does Castaneda embrace the beliefs of Don Juan? This paper will argue that despite copious amounts of time invested into Don Juan’s way of thinking, Castaneda does not fully subscribe to what is being taught to him by a genuinely sincere man, Don Juan.

Carlos Castaneda, in the first chapter, indicates his intent in seeking greater knowledge from Don Juan regarding the medicinal impacts of peyote and offers payment for Don Juan’s time. Upon rejection of Castaneda’s money, the reader begins to understand that something more exists to Don Juan than what meets the eye. Don Juan is portrayed as friendly, yet strange with cryptic, emotional cues when dialoging with Castaneda. Don Juan is also obstinate when it comes to choosing which choices are made and ensures they are consistent with his own belief system. The reader finds themselves trying to determine if something more exists to Don Juan than a simple Arizona desert living Indian.

Don Juan believes in forces which cannot be seen by natural human eyes, which include the human soul and the soul of all living things including plants, the wind, and the gurgling of a coffee pot. He is intelligent enough to understand that much of the human race is not aware of this and the knowledge, understanding, and ability to handle this information is power. A person can gain power by observing and practicing against these beliefs. The book surrounds the entire premise of Don Juan training Castaneda these beliefs and the new viewpoint on the world they will hold for Castaneda.

One of the crowning moments in gaining the power which Don Juan proselytes, is the moment when meeting one’s own personal ally. This is a time when the student or individual who has been prepared over an extended time is ready to meet a significant being who will be their individual aid, after a significant struggle with his or her ally. At the end of the book, Castaneda is faced with an opportunity of meeting his own ally after months of being trained in the ways of gaining power and having many experiences which could not be explained by any other means than the truthfulness of Don Juan’s words. It was certain that Castaneda had been challenged to his greatest extent and that he was able to identify and see firsthand what Don Juan had been teaching him was believable.

In the beginning, Castaneda had to be coerced into doing any action which was requested by Don Juan. As time passed, Castaneda became more trusting to Don Juan’s teachings, and more readily did as he was instructed without external verbal or internal complaint. The instructions provided to Castaneda, although noteworthy, seemed greatly sacred. Not to be confused with secret, these sacred principles and teachings provided to Castaneda are proven sacred in chapter 1 as Castaneda, when discussing the recording of their meetings, asks Don Juan if he can record their conversations, Castaneda writes regarding Don Juan’s reaction:

I … asked him if he would mind my bringing a camera with me to take pictures of him and his house.

“That’s out of the Question,” he said with a frown.

“How about a tape recorder? Would you mind that?”

“I’m afraid there’s no possibility of that either.”

I became annoyed and began to fret. I said I saw no logical reason for this refusal.

Don Juan shook his head negatively.

“Forget it,” he said forcefully. “And if you still want to see me don’t’ ever mention it again.” (Castaneda, 1972)

This event indicates that Don Juan considers these teachings important enough to not put them onto a recorded or acoustic imagery medium which can be left to interpretation and dispute from external sources. Don Juan intends to deliver his message through the spirit of meaning, intent and personal interpretation to a directed audience, not external sources other than those intended.

Castaneda has the reader hook line and sinker considering that he has fully adopted Don Juan’s teachings until the very last paragraph of the book. After being invited to see his ally for the first time, Castaneda chooses to get in his car and drive away from the opportunity from meeting his ally. He does this after Don Juan has left his presence. He excuses his reasoning with a brief explanation of not being ready.

Readers should consider that Castaneda, with his copious amount of notes taken during this surreal experience, had plans to turn this work into something for his own personal benefit. Castaneda writes eight books related to the subject matter of Don Juan. He used the experience to further his opportunity on the world and not to pay homage on the valuable lessons taught by Don Juan.

 

References:

Castaneda, Carlos (1972). Journey to Ixtlan The Lessons of Don Juan.

New York, NY: Pocket Books.

Winter of the Holy Iron, Cultures in Conflict

July 10, 2007 By: Shaun Category: Books, Humanities 115 No Comments →

Winter of the Holy Iron by Joseph Marshall III is about two cultures identifying themselves within the new western world who find unresolved conflict when looking into the telescope of the future.  Marshall, a Lakota descendent, authors a fictional novel where he paints a vision of his ancestry through strong character development and relationship building with the books characters and the reader.  Despite Marshall’s well written story surrounding the injection of the “Holy Iron,” otherwise known as a modern day flintlock rifle, the common thread and conflict is not found within

Marshall’s written words, but rather the message he sends through the words he does not write.  The message of conflict between two cultures and their differing belief systems is where in lies the true conflict and message of the book.  This conflict of cultures which the author describes and his intentions of discussing them in his book is what this paper will discuss. 

Superficial readers of Winter of the Holy Iron would argue that the book is about a Lakota war leader named Whirlwind who is faced with many choices and forces conflict among his fellow tribesman in his Lakota village when he brings home the recently shot victim, a Frenchman named De la Verendrye.  Those readers would indicate that the real meaning behind the book was intended to paint a picture of a moment in time when simple lifestyles of the Lakota people were suddenly complicated by new technology from the eastern world.  The questions which need to be asked in contrast to this simplistic viewpoint is: Why did Marshall, a Lakota descendent, who was raised by his grandparents, and whose first language was Lakota write a book about the eastern French civilization intermixing with western native American Indian culture?  Evidence of why Marshall may have written this book could be pointed out when reading between the lines of the text when

Marshall writes regarding Bruneaux.  Henri Bruneaux was cast as a stupid large oaf who never thought past his own individual passions and desires.  Bruneaux was a man of impulse who only took what he wanted and left all else to waste in his wake of terrible destruction.   Why did

Marshall describe his own people, through the mouth of Bruneaux, as savages and nothing more than beasts which should be exterminated?  The reader should identify that

Marshall had animosity towards cultures, other than his own.  This animosity was likely taught to him, and perhaps even learned through life experiences which may have paralleled the thoughts, actions, and behaviors of Bruneaux.  Yet at the same time,

Marshall admits faults of his own culture through the described weaknesses of Bear Heart. Bear Heart was a clear rival to Whirlwind. 

Marshall compares and contrasts them many times in the book and makes it clear that Whirlwind is superior to Bear Heart when he was chosen to receive the war lance and become the new war leader of the Lakota tribe.  Bear Heart is shown to have similar characteristics to Whirlwind except for his short temper and lack of thoughtful judgment which Whirlwind excels in.   Because Bear Heart was not chosen over Whirlwind, he continually stirs up the tribe against Whirlwind and his supporters and ultimately takes many of the tribe’s people with him as he ventures off to seek future security in the new gun technology, which he has recently been educated about by the actions of Verendrye.  

Marshall implies this separation is destroying the future culture of the Lakota and defines the main tribe as the one which Whirlwind remains within.  De la Verendrye is the healing salve between the two cultures, but only after a long period of discovery by the Lakota people in observing him in a weakened state after being shot by Bruneaux.  De la Verendrye risked his life and sacrificed his time to learn the language of the Lakota people.  This sacrifice by De la Verendrye ocours prior to the timeline of the books story line with another tribe called the Dakota.  Because of the sacrifice which he made, it makes him unique among both the Lakota and the other cultures which will interact among Indian cultures.  Even after common languages were established between De la Verendrye and the Lakota people, there was still conflict among viewpoints and just simply how the two cultures viewed the world around them.  Joseph Marshall wrote the book with passion.  His knowledge and descriptions of the Lakota people in how they loved, fought, built, survived, and how they viewed the world around themselves.  When dissecting the level of detail of the Lakota people with which he writes, the reader can see that

Marshall loves his culture and its roots.  His deep respect for the trials his culture has gone through is felt within the feeling of his book. 

Marshall, being a modern day person and having the insight of a modern day world, would have clearly felt the pressure of another culture squeezing his own and the oppression which is coupled with such looming and surrounding omnipresence.  Would

Marshall stand from a pulpit and preach against the conflicts of the Native American culture?  Perhaps he would, but in doing so his message of conflict and the destruction of culture it caries would only be heard and understood by his own culture and those who the message was intended for would not see the value in the message.  Rather than standing from a pulpit and preaching regarding the conflict of two cultures, Marshall has made a story with passion, desire, and intent with a clear focus to send a message of why two cultures who have so much individually, find conflict in living together peacefully.