Page:Para leer a Carlos Castaneda.djvu/145

as the author himself says on several occasions, is not literature nor science fiction. On the other hand, it is a faithful account of his encounters with the Toltecáyotl, in the hands of a knowledge man who once belonged to one of the many linages that survived, following the classical period collapse, which happened around 850 CE throughout the Anahuac.

Here it is worth analyzing what Castaneda says in the introduction to this book, as far as the knowledge transmitted by Don Juan. Indeed, the author points out that Don Juan pushed him towards a different cognitive system "that was" of the ancient Mexico shamans.

The point is that Castaneda says "it was", but Don Juan, Don Genaro and other practitioners did not live in "the past". Which implies that the Toltecáyotl never disappeared, was eradicated nor died. Instead, Don Juan himself says that the conquest and the colony proved a great lineages catalyst. Techniques were refined and these lineages remained clandestinely during these five centuries of occupation, and remain active. They are perhaps inaccessible and impeccable and we do not see in our square world, but does not mean they do not exist.

We must also remember that the Don Juan lineage, is one of many lineages and none was equal. Some "worked” knowledge through dance, others through music or healing, some others remain in total secrecy, not only in Mexico, but across the continent. Moreover, the Don Juan lineage was especially different by the "tenant” influence, who in the 17th century diametrically changed this lineage destiny, thanks to his ancient knowledge given in return for the energy it receives from the lineage.

In general, during these five centuries the dominant culture, whether colonial or neocolonial, always has denied, excluded and persecuted, any value of the invaded civilization. Which is always presumed as disappeared and the contemporary indigenous peoples, who are cultural Toltecáyotl descendants, are labeled as primitive and ignorant. This has been one of the major problems of the Carlos Castaneda works in Mexico. Intellectuals in general, despite having read Castaneda and usually having one or two volumes in their libraries, reject any philosophical value of the work and they take it as a literary fiction.

In order to publish the first Castaneda book in Mexico, which happened six years later, when it already was a world "best seller", the Fondo de Cultura Económica had to ask the great poet and "creole intellectuality high priest ", Octavio Paz, to write the prologue and "give seriousness and value" to an indigenous Yaqui teachings. Only with such a prologue, the colonized Mexican intellectuals dared to timidly and pre-judiciously approach the work. Attitude that unfortunately persists, to date. This has prevented the work from being fully valued in any dimension, and remains in small groups of "initiated aZotéricos ". The historical, cultural and social dimension of Toltecáyotl in contemporary colonial neo-Mexico, has not yet occurred, but is a matter of time, given that the Toltecáyotl is the most important legacy we have inherited from one of the six oldest mankind civilizations.

Because the philosophical concept of the Toltec "warrior", by itself, can change the face of a nation. Indeed, when we say that "the future of Mexico is its past", we refer in particular to high human values enclosed by the aspiration of becoming a "florid death warrior".