The Teachings of Don Juan

The Teachings is a first-person narrative that chronicles Castaneda's first interactions with Don Juan. He describes his encounters with Mescalito (a teaching spirit that inhabits all peyote plants), divination with lizards, flying with "yerba del diablo" (lit. "Devil's Weed"; Jimson weed), and transforming into a blackbird with "humito" (lit. "little smoke"; a smoked powder containing Psilocybe mexicana). According to Don Juan's teachings, fear, clarity, power, and old age are the four enemies of the man of knowledge. One becomes a man of knowledge after defeating these four natural enemies. Being born humans, we get to live in a world of humans, playing the Matrix games with others until...View all