Journey to Ixtlan: the lessons of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda

Author:Carlos Castaneda [Castaneda, Carlos]
Language: swe
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Non-Classifiable, Hallucinogenic drugs
ISBN: 9780671436735
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1982-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

A WARRIOR'S LAST STAND

Sunday, January 28, 1962

Around ten a.m. don Juan walked into his house. He had left at the crack of dawn. I greeted him. He chuckled and in a clowning mood he shook hands with me and greeted me ceremoniously.

"We're going to go on a little trip, " he said. "You're going to drive us to a very special place in search of power." He unfolded two carrying nets and placed two gourds filled with food in each of them, tied them with a thin rope, and handed me a net.

We leisurely drove north some four hundred miles and then we left the Pan American highway and took a gravel road towards the west. My car seemed to have been the only car on the road for hours. As we kept on driving I noticed that I could not see through my windshield. I strained desperately to look at the surroundings but it was too dark and my windshield was overlaid with crushed insects and dust.

I told don Juan that I had to stop to clean my windshield.

He ordered me to go on driving even if I had to crawl at two miles an hour, sticking my head out of the window to see ahead. He said that we could not stop until we had reached our destination.

At a certain place he told me to turn to the right. It was so dark and dusty that even the headlights did not help much. I drove off the road with great trepidation. I was afraid of the soft shoulders, but the dirt was packed.

I drove for about one hundred yards at the lowest possible speed, holding the door open to look out. Finally don Juan told me to stop. He said that I had parked right behind a huge rock that would shield my car from view.

I got out of the car and walked around, guided by the headlights. I wanted to examine the surroundings because I had no idea where I was. But don Juan turned off the lights. He said loudly that there was no time to waste, that I should lock my car so we could start on our way.

He handed me my net with gourds. It was so dark that I stumbled and nearly dropped them. Don Juan ordered me in a soft firm tone to sit down until my eyes were accustomed to the darkness. But my eyes were not the problem. Once I got out of my car I could see fairly well. What was wrong was a peculiar nervousness that made me act as if I were absent minded. I was glossing over everything.

"Where are we going?" I asked. "We're going to hike in total darkness to a special place, " he said.

"What for?"

"To find out for sure whether or not you're capable of continuing to hunt power."

I asked him if what he was proposing was a test, and if I failed the test would he still talk to me and tell me about his knowledge.

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