The Teachings of Don Juan

"A warrior chooses a path with heart, any path with heart, and follows it; and then he rejoices and laughs. He knows because he sees that his life will be over altogether too soon. He sees that nothing is more important than anything else."

This statement was purportedly said by the sorcerer, don Juan Matus, to whom the anthropologist Carlos Castaneda claimed to have been apprenticed for many years. Now, whether this is so or not, or even whether don Juan actually existed, is for me not so much of an issue. The point is that Castaneda's narratives still offer many remarkable insights into the nature of reality, and the way in which we are conditioned to accept the material reality around us.

The stars in the background are from a Pawnee chart of the heavens drawn upon a buffalo hide. They gave me exactly that feel of being hand-drawn and yet retaining that authentic sense of pattern and purpose that I sought for this image.