Customer Reviews

The Sorcerer's Crossing: A Woman's Journey (Compass)

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is maybe the most practical book written about nagualism, as first described by Carlos Castaneda. It took me a long time to read this book, not because it was slow or dense, but because there are so many descriptions of practical exercises (often reminiscent of certain aspects of Tensegrity, but not always), that it took me five times as long to practice the maneuvers than to actually do the reading.

That said, it is a very good book, even if you're not planning to recapitulate or anything like that. For people who haven't read any Castaneda, it will probably seem a little off-the-wall, especially given that Taisha Abelar doesn't really provide a wealth of explanations as to what she experienced -- only descriptions -- which is perhaps a sign of why Castaneda described her as such a stupendous stalker.

This book is a good entry point into sorcery, especially so for women who have had a hard time getting into Castaneda, because of his inherently male bias. This book also works really well in conjunction with "Being in Dreaming" by Florinda Donner -- together, the two books cover the companion disciplines of stalking and dreaming.

Finally, if you're serious about freeing up energy and breaking the barriers of perception, Taisha Abelar's book has the most detailed account of the recapitulation out of any of the related works. You'll learn a lot by listening to what she is told.

Once I started reading this book, I stayed up all night to finish it. It was like a mystery--and showed me such a difference slice of human experience that I had to find out how it ended. Taisha's book was more satisfying to me than Castaneda's works, althought it travels in the same world. Maybe it's just the way she writes, or the fact that it is a woman's perspective, but I was totally captivated by this story. It showed me a way of life unlike anything I had imagined possible. Each person must decide for themself if her story is true. For me, I believe it.

When I finished this book, I was left with several new ideas that didn't fit into my old way of thinking. Over the last year, I have been working them through, and have discovered the answers for myself. For a while, I wished that I could go to live with some scorcerers and have a similar growth experience. What I have accomplished is to find my own mystical path in the midst of everyday living, paying ! ! the rent, and keeping the fridge full. It's a solution that works for me. Taisha's book gave me a jump start into an area I didn't even know existed, and I'm grateful for that experience.

Taisha Abelar's book provides a woman insight into sorcery and this is important, because as wonderful and significant as Castaneda's books are, they are from a male perspective, and men think or order reality in a way that is fundamentally different from women. Women are synthesizers, men categorisers. Men are experts on gathering inventories and splitting hairs, women on making a coherent whole. Both are obviously useful and necessary ways of dealing with the cosmos, but Abelar's book shows for one thing how much more direct is women's dealings with life than men's. She does not have to engage in endless dialectics in order to reach the place where she can simply give herself permission to try. Her rationality was not as much of a bar to her in exploring these revolutionary concepts and her book is therefore direct and candid. Try it. If you like Castaneda, you'll find this one equally delightful and insightful and important.

I love the way she draws you into the 'story' while showing you how to set yourself free. If you read this book with an open mind and heart you will be able to apply the insights to your own life.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to see life differently and yearns for a life based on personal freedom.

I have read all of Carlos Castaneda's, Florinda Donner-Grau's, and the only book by Taisha Abelar. This was the last book that I read. It was the best by far. Why didn't she write more?!? It not only gives you a different perspective on sorcery, but gives you concrete information on how to begin the sorcery path yourself. Of course this is pertaining to women. Men might find more help from Carlos's books. The best thing about this book was all the details of the recapitulation process. By the way, if you need details on where to do this yourself, refer to "The Teachings of Don Carlos" by Victor Sanchez. Please, take my recommendation on this book!

Taisha's book is one of the very few I found a very threatening read the first time around. This meant of course that the book hit the nail on the head and felt too close for comfort as a result. A few years later upon re-reading her story, I am amused to discover that I apparently have started to understand at least some of it - I feel no longer threatened. Books that challenge my pet beliefs about myself to this extent are rare. This one is written without sentimentality but instead manages to offer honesty and insight into the particular difficulties women are likely to encounter along the way of spiritual training of any kind. I have found it very helpful and I recommend it highly. Of course everybody's path will be different - but Taisha's book will be of interest to anyone striving to understand and control their own conditioning through (particularly Western) society. The only other book I can remember ever having had a similar effect on me, "The Marriages Between Zones 3, 4 & 5" by Doris Lessing - is the sequel to the equally relevant "Shikasta". Both of those books are written from an observer's point of view and expertly illustrate the mechanisms of conditioning; how they cripple our abilities to perceive and evolve.

This is a very important book to read for those interested in shamanism and sorcery. Abelar was a female apprentice to those sorcerers who taught Carlos Castaneda. She describes some of the teachings specific for women. She also places a greater emphasis than did Castaneda on some very important aspects of sorcery/shamanism. These aspects are those of visualization and breathing techniques. She also emphasizes the practice of physical movements called Magical Passes, the purpose of which is to draw energy in to the chakras. I found it difficult to figure out how to execute these movements from the descriptions in the text however and would therefore recommend buying the Tensegrity videos. I also highly recommend "Being In Dreaming" by Florinda Donner. Donner was another female apprentice but unlike Abelar who is a Stalker, Donner is a Dreamer so the tone of the book is a bit different. I consider both of these to be advanced texts on shamanism. The Path (Esmeralda Arana) is a concise easy to read text conveying basic shamanic principles.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I believe Taisha Abelar is a beautifully fragile being.

I believe that recovery never ends, but the emphasis upon those recoveries changes with experience and accumulation of power.

The primary objective of this book is to teach the warrior to bring emphasis upon the present moment that is escaping us, so that one may live in perpetual recapitulation, by first learning what Taisha Abelar has been taught by Juan Matus.

Then through this experience if one is triggered into an emotion or into a memory, within the living construct, whatever those emotions memories may be, the recapitulation that is taught in this book will bring a state of inevitability upon
those emotions or memories that captures our essential energy.

To be aware one must remember. To have wisdom one must let go of emphasis upon that awareness, through understanding. Emphasis becomes magical. Life is lived within the heart.

Then that emphasis will bring empathy to all those circumstances that one understands and through that empathy we step away by degrees and are not affected, yet what emanates from this unaffected standpoint is noticed, then a journey of power begins.

I believe this book helps the warrior become aware of the power of that moment that is continually escaping us. Gently watch that which has escaped. Don't be governed by that escape.

I believe that in the beginning it is best to focus upon recapitulation so that the warrior may become aware of the subtleties within imprinted awareness through that reviewal.

Then as wisdom increases one learns to gently wait for that memory to show itself at the most appropriate time,without being forced. Then it will be governed by something other than intellectual processes; it will be governed by the heart. So that observation without interference will be the governing force, that will inevitably bring the gentle hand or the eye of the spirit, that will view the living construct through the gaze of the warrior.

We must learn to view this phenomenon impersonally, as we are viewed before we commence our ultimate journey into the unknown.

This is a superb book for those who wish to recover that which has escaped the fundamental fabric of their being.

Every woman in the world should read this book, infact, every person in the world should read this book, at least once. The book offers a better way of living, from within yourself, and gives you a different outlook on the world, you could say it changes your material world. Theres not much i can say about this book that would do it justice. Just get out there and read it.!!!!!!!!!

Abelar's generous sharing of secret shamanism/sorcery knowledge and her tutelage from the tradition of Yaqui Indian brujo Don Juan was insightful and in many ways, useful for self-healing, whatever one's path. For instance, there is great value in the recapitulation, visualization and breathing exercises; regardless if you are a man or woman, the exercises help clean the psychic aura, move negative energy, and assist in grounding after emotional trauma.

The book itself was unskillfully written; Abelar breaks many literary rules: she tells the reader information without letting us decipher it from the narrative and adverbs are used "impulsively" throughout the book.

On a literary level, this book is a good example of how not to write; it was difficult to finish, but the overall message of the book resonated with me and it helped me see some of my own fatal writing flaws.