Customer Reviews

The Eagle's Gift

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

What disturbs me about these reviews is that there seem to be two kinds of reviewers: the skeptics, who (mistakenly) call Castaneda a con man, and the believers, who usually can't spell worth a hoot and often have all kinds of wacky comments indicating that they are barely capable of understanding the concepts Castaneda presents. To the skeptics, I wish to say this: I am convinced that Castaneda has accurately described the world as it is today, in a way that our society cannot accept, but which is actually more practical and holistic than our steadfast denial of the existence of "forces which shape and control our lives." There is more to life than we know, and society is responsible for our blindness.

To the true believers and self-styled shamans who love to converse about this stuff as if they were experts, I say: Learn to spell and your credibility will be greatly enhanced.

Thank you for your attention.

of course to any everday rational person, the world of castenda is absurd. how could it be otherwise? nevertheless, read this book with disbelief suspended, and its a great read. for those who have persevered through the previous volumes of carlos' introduction to the ways of 'power', now comes the nub of the argument. the heart of the matter. all that power-plant taking, ally-mongering and what not of the previous volumes is left behind. what was the purpose of don juan's elaborate rituals in the ways of 'power', painstakingly taught to a dense, exasperating carlos? nothing less than a quest for freedom. the practices are not important; what is important is the effect on the practitioner. the world of don juan is entirely re-interpreted for the reader. a completely new framework must be understood. not familiar with the world(s) of don juan and carlos? never mind: this volume, more novel-like and fast moving than the others, reads well as fiction in and of itself, whether or not the reader cares to believe casteneda. comprehending the framework of what casteneda describes is a bonus. casteneda is a quietly skilled writer, who bears re-reading. i recommend reading and understanding all the books in this series, in order. the payoff is for thos who persevere. as for the now eternal question of whether this is true, real, logical, etc., how can the average reader ever know? why worry? as carlos himself was led this way and that by his benefactors, always in a certain direction, tending towards a finer understanding of their realm, so can the reader be led by casteneda.

Carlos Castaneda's "The Eagle's gift" is the best and most important book I have ever read. It makes me sad to read about other people's skepticism which, in my opinion, is dictated solely on the base of prejudice or shallow knowledge on the subject. Those who have met Carlos Castaneda know that there is nothing invented in his books, as strange as it may seem. Unfortunately, when one is confronted with something that does not fit in our dayly reality, we immediately discard it as "fake" or "absurd", so that before giving up to stupidity or bigotry, one should first have a deep knowledge about what he is criticizing. "The Eagle's Gift" opens untapped possibilities for all human beings who have enough courage and are enough open-minded to venture into the magic world that Carlos Castaneda presents us with. This world is a magic realm that we can experience right in our own realities and lives. Finally, because there are no words to express my admiration and gratitude, I will just say that I recommend this book to anyone who wants more from life that just being drift through it.

The eagle's gift is the first of the casteneda series that dives the reader into the world of dreaming. Casteneda has evolved from the shaman's apprentice to being the one in charge of the party of sorcerers. His evolution leads him to dreaming practices that build upon the basic abstract cores that are outlined in his earlier books. The dreaming is actually an advanced way to further the apprentices understanding of awareness... always with the purpose of strengthening one's connecting link with intent and building a concentration on the spirit. The connecting link with intent becomes unbending intent which eventually serves as the way to total freedom. The goal is to gain the totality of one's self by nurturing one's awareness through dreaming. The fixation of attention on a solid object in quick gazes ie. to the object and away from the object is one of the preliminary techniques introduced in the eagle's gift.

I usually enjoy Castaneda's books, and have found some of them moving, but I've gotta say that I had a tough time getting through this one. Fiction or not, to me this book seemed like a forced rehash of his earlier work, with a dash of women's power added in an effort to keep it current. Of course, it's also possible that I just wasn't getting it. In fact, that's why I stopped by this board. I wanted to see if I was the only one in the world that didn't really enjoy the book or get much out of it.

Whether or not Casteneda's yarns are authentic representations of what is alleged to be Toltec is beyond comment. However, it is rather curious to reflect that in this system there is an image of the Creator as an Eagle that seems intent upon devouring what it produces. In purely psychological terms, that's an image of the Evil Mother. Besides being a useful go-get-'um, i.e., reason for doing for all the occult gymnastics, the Eagle, in other words, the Mother Complex, is indeed a major challenge in every man's psychological development. However, is the Mother Complex the same as the Creator, or, God? Which brings us to the other side of this Toltec coin: the so-called Human Form, which, don Juan assures us is our idea of God. This may, indeed, be a common idea of God, but it is altogether misleading to call this God, because what is commonly thought of as being God is not God, God having no image or form or name or whatever you want to ascribe to God unless, of course, you are talking about a god. It might be instructive for the credulous readers and fans of this very fascinating writer, Casteneda, to study such sources of the ancient wisdom tradition of the West as the writings of Plotinus or, God forbid, the Kabbalah. Perhaps, in the light of such readings, the wisdom and occult exercises of this don Juan character will appear in a richer and more balanced light. As for occult exercises, it would behoove the serious student of magic to look into the Golden Dawn system or something comparable. By the way, don Juan's virtuoso feat of disappearing into the void is not the exclusive property of the Toltecs or Aztecs. This technique is known in other cultures, even ones that know nothing about devouring Eagles and such. Attachment to such images is a bigger obstacle on the way than the devouring Eagle itself. All that said, there is much that is valuable in Casteneda. Let his readers sort that out for themselves.

Well put to the person from Germany in summing up not only the "spiritual", "magical", and "philosopical" sides of Castenada's, such as the Eagle's Gift, but also a very logical and scientific side of Don Juan's teachings. The more I think about reality and existance and my place in it, the more I realize just how exacting Don Juan's descriptions of the world are. Instead of experimenting on or guessing about the nature of reality, Don Juan simply sees what is and you really can't get any more exact than that. I encourage anyone with any sort of vague interest to pick up and read one of Carlos Castenada's works. While reading it is easy to disregard what you're reading as fiction, but I encourage you to discretly read between the lines, so to speak, lay down pre-conceived notions and personal dislikes, and discover just how marvelous and profoundly intelligent Don Juan's teachings can be...

To use some of the language presented through this book, it is of "exquisite complexity", but without pomp, it is just a very detailed account of Carlos' further travels in the 2nd attention or the left side awareness). The more i encounter this book, the more it strikes me because it was in fact written by someone who is at home in the "2nd attention" thus is able to handle pretty immense amounts of details without getting confused or falling out of sinc. Carlos intricaltely describes what brought him to think that there is more to his ordeal than what he knows, as well as how he proceeds, and his strategy in these proceedings. The pinnacle of strategy and other facets of knowledge, the book is a rich and pleasant conglomerate of objects many of which easily fall outside of our normal immediate knowledge, but may present plenty of problems even (and perhaps especially) to the intellectually chosen folk, the cream de la cream of academia..

I am 214 pages into this book, and I still have hope that Castaneda will pull it together in the last 100 pages. I suggest that if you are curious about Castaneda: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK FIRST. I have been reading them all in sequential order - this is book #6. I have found very little actual worthwhile content in here. In the earlier novels, he took the best bits from his field notes and weaved them into a compelling story. This book seems to be everything that happened, but it's just a lot of rambling, and people bickering, and stuff that really doesn't provide much enlightenment. Honestly, start at the beginning: THE TEACHING OF DON JUAN. Or if you are only going to read one book, most of my friends recommend JOURNEY TO IXTLAN (the 3rd book), thought I personally prefer A SEPARATE REALITY (the 2nd book). As somebody who is quite a fan of Castaneda (and could care less about the "is it true?" argument), I haven't yet found any reason to be reading this book, except as a completist. Skip this one!

This is the 6th book in the series. The saga continues nicely with the proceeding book in regards to what has happened to Don Juan, Don Genaro and their respective party of warriors. This `Eagles Gift' reveals events on what you could say is a parallel course with the other books; the clever ability of being able to continue to write more books by Carlos Castaneda or simply the unfolding of these events at their appropriate time?

Let me draw from the next book in the series "The new seers call the emphasized emanations the right side, normal awareness, the tonal, this world, the known, the first attention. The average man calls it reality, rationality, common sense. The emphasized emanations compose a large portion of man's band of awareness, but a very small piece of the total spectrum of emanations present inside the cocoon of man. The disregarded emanations within man's band are thought of as a sort of preamble to the unknown, the unknown proper consisting of the bulk of emanations which are not part of the human band and which are never emphasized. Seers call them the left-side awareness, the Nagual, the other world, the unknown, the second attention." (Page 109 The fire from within).

To look at such words and rest on the fact that Carlos Castaneda's books are fiction and thus are of no spiritual worth is insanity. I digress; The Eagles gift thus gives us a large insight into Carlos Castaneda's journeys into the left side, the second attention. Two things that are important here is that Carlos's journeys into this second attention is inclusive of amnesia. Second, the methodology employed by Don Juan to get Carlos into the second attention consisted of Don Juan striking Carlos Castaneda at a specific spot on Carlos Castaneda's back. A life of impeccability with both the individual being struck and the individual striking is of a necessity here to facilitate a successful transition into the second attention (So don't go slapping your spouse on the back hoping that she or he vanishes into another realm). Thus the Eagles gift is a journey by Carlos Castaneda into discovering those events that he has forgotten while in the left-side awareness; this journey is thwart with much frustration, but inevitable success. This frustration is exasperated by the fact that Carlos has been thrust into the spiritual position of being the Nagual, much to the displeasure of the other warrior sorcerers. More can be said, but for a greater insight, one should just read the book

Regarding `The Eagle', this is nebulous in my mind, something to gain further insight into. Even the following book `The fire from within' expounds upon this. It is a description of a force given by prior sorcerers towards what the first attention mind can draw comparisons to. I can only hope that as one continues into the series, one can gain further insights into this Eagle; beyond this one may just have to experience this on a personal level, a level of gnosis.

Reading some of the other reviews, it is interesting to see such opinionation. Even after having read 6 of Carlos Castaneda's books; I for one still have questions, like Don Genaro's ability to transverse lines of force, giving the ability of flying. I do on the other hand love what another reviewer has stated "Those who have met Carlos Castaneda know that there is nothing invented in his books". In my studies, I hope to find this to be true; unfortunately I did not see this on the 2 videos that are available on Carlos Castaneda. I do on the other hand know that his wife stated that she did not think that there was a Don Juan; still this does not mean much to me, but something to not forget nonetheless. I for one find much in reading Carlos's books, much correlation with my spiritual studies. In my initial reviews of Carlos' books, I was skeptical; this has undoubtedly changed, while still wanting to find answers.

Interestingly, when it comes to the reviews of the specific books being reviewed, there are a lot of reviewers that don't review the book at hand. Usually they go back to the argument of whether the books are fiction or non-fiction; either this or saying something like "this was not my favorite of Carlos' books". Reading Carlos Castaneda's books for me is not one where the primary importance is to gain pleasure, or discover fiction or non-fiction, but one of gaining insights in helping me along my spiritual path; the mere fact that this is the 6th book that I have read of Carlos Castaneda, should give an insight as to how much I value these books.