In his unique retrospective of the life and teachings of Carlos Castaneda,
William Patrick Patterson offers a solid understanding of the amalgamation that became known as The Teachings of Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian shaman from the Sonoran desert in Mexico. Now available in soft cover and well worth a read in these last days of summer. Click here for a full review!
Photo of Carlos Castaneda: Wikipedia
I developed an outline for a proposed book on women and anger. Every time I mentioned this to women from all walks of life they would practically pump their fists in the air and cry "yeah! about time!"
So tomorrow, on a peaceful summer Sunday morning, I will post the chapter titles and please, if a subject resonates with you, let me know how and why and maybe you will be in the book!
This Dublin actor is taking to heart his role in the day's Bloomsday events celebrating James Joyce's epic novel Ulysses which takes place in and around Dublin on June 16, 1904.
In my hometown, local media celebrities and authors would begin reading aloud from Ulysses in the morning and continue until the pubs closed. The proceeds from patrons eager to support the celebration of Joyces's break-through work would go to local literacy projects.
Joyce's early work was printed in the U.S. in a famous avante-garde journal, The Little Review. Like many famous authors and editors of the time, the two women behind The Little Review became students of the leading mystic-sage of the 20th Century, G.I. Gurdjieff.
William Patrick Patterson will speak and sign his new book, Spiritual Survival in a Radically Changing Time World tonight at East West Books, 324 Castro Street in Mountain View, Calif. at 7:30 this evening. For more information call the bookstore at (650) 988-9800.
If you are out-of-state and would still like a signed copy of this remarkable overview of how we can use the new ideology, that is technology, to spur us to explore a new integration of body, senses and mind; simply call the store today. You can purchase with credit card. Give the store the spelling of the person to whom you would like to have the book dedicated!
Past and present images of Gary Snyder, who won the Pulitzer for his book of poetry, Turtle Island, in 1975. Does he stand on Eliot's shoulders? Yes and no. What do you think?
Curious about the title, Turtle Island? Turtle Island is the name for a continent based on creation myths from time's beginning. An idea found world-wide, of the earth or even the cosmos, sustained by a great turtle or serpent-of-eternity.
The children's author, Dr. Seuss, knew that we lived on Turtle Island. In his Yertle The Turtle, he wrote "it was turtles all the way down."
Could it be a reference to Atlantis? Atlantis, the continent that vanished beneath the waves. Perhaps, the seer, The Pythoness, in G.I. Gurdjieff's First Series, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, All and Everything, could be connected to or a reference to this serpent-of-eternity. She did, while prophesying, insist that beings of a certain tribe migrate from Atlantis. Why present the seer as a python?
I don't know.
Here's a poem to begin the week from Snyder's Turtle Island.
ETHNOBOTANY
In June two oaks fell,
rot in the roots
Chainsaw in September
in three days one tree
bucked and quartered in the shed
sour fresh inner oak-wood smell
the main trunk splits
"like opening a book" (J. Tecklin)
And slightly humping oak leaves
deer muzzle and kick it,
Boletus.
one sort, Alice Eastwood
pink, and poison;
Two yellow, edulus
"edible and choice."
only I got just so slighty sick--
Taste all, and hand the knowledge down.
##################################
Mr. L. Frank Baum was born today, May 16 in 1856. All together he penned fourteen Oz books, the best known is of course, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,
published in 1904.
Baum referred to himself as a "Royal Historian" of Oz to lend an air of authenticity to Oz as a real destination.
P.L. Travers said she never wrote for children; she said she simply wrote.
I wonder what Mr. Baum would have to say on the subject as I am writing my own story for children. And as it turns out, it is my own story.
In her Booker-award winning novel, Possession, A.S. Byatt's 19th century protagonist is in conversation with her young Breton cousin, Sabine, who yearns to become a writer. Christabel to Sabine: "Tell me then, what do you write? For I suppose you do write? It is a metier where the desire without the act is a destructive phantom."
Last August, while in London, I wrote a sappy, sentimental essay about the impact the Harry Potter stories had on young people. I was in the book business for the duration of J. K. Rowling's books midnight release parties. Here, also by A. S. Byatt is a refreshing take on Rowling's work: http://www.countercurrents.org/arts-byatt110703.htm.
"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anais Nin
As mentioned some time ago in this blog, Anais Nin introduced Carlos Castaneda via her literary salon in Los Angeles in the late 1950's.
Isn't it remarkable that Nin, a strong anima figure, believed that truth and beauty were the basis of all she wrote, but then she distilled the writing, drawing out the essence. Much like, she said, one distills a dream.
To do this, she said, she used the mesonge vital or necessary lie.
Was this distilled writing technique something Castaneda assumed from Nin?
Having read all of Nin's work and Castaneda, I can only conclude, yes.
In his recent book, William Patrick Patterson writes with remarkable insight into the making of Castaneda, placing Castaneda in Nin's orbit.
Soon to be available as a quality paperback, you can get a copy of The Life & Teachings of Carlos Castaneda through Amazon or explore the bookstore at Gurdjieff Legacy.com
"That," said the handsome South African guide, Stephan, "is one of the tiniest, baby elephants I've ever seen." She was adorable, absolutely adorable, and well protected. Older juveniles surrounded her, scooting her forward with their trunks when she dawdled. It took a good hour to get this photo of her, unobstructed. Stephan ventured that she was maybe three weeks old.
We were in Mala Mala game reserve, in South Africa, traveling with our good friends, Jonathan and Melissa Losos. Jonathan is a biologist, world renown, though he would not accept that accolade. Together, they had put together this tour for a hand-full of friends and family. And what a trip it was. I can still see warthogs running through the brush in Botswana, the mother with her tail held high above the tall grass so her babies could follow; hyenas circling a lioness' kill, a well-carved wilderbeast.
The cats do an expert job, neatly bringing down their prey, removing and burying the offal as the scent draws scavengers.
This lioness, our guide said, had left a pride with her yearling cub, a male. Why? Because the senior lion in the pride would kill him. Simple enough; as many things are and are not in Africa.
The mother and son lay on either side of the kill, bellies bloated with the choicest bits. The hyenas bayed into twilight but their numbers didn't follow the call. In the end the devil dogs moved off as lioness and son dozed.
Another Mala Mala day we watched a leopard youth struggling to keep his mother's kill in the fork of a tree and yet nibble a bit , a real juggling act. Then, a lame water buffalo the last of a herd of 500? 1,000? that poured around our jeep like a river round a river rock; and always the leaping antelope and zebras on the run. And I must confess, impala is tasty.
One full moon night we tracked, with a pride of lions, a water buffalo herd. Across the valley came the roar and with it the vibrations of the roar moving, palpable through the spring night; another pride on the hunt. At once and as one, the pride we were tracking with rose and their collective roar filled the coming night with sound and fury.
I locked my right hand into my husband's and whispered to myself a quote from Karen Blixen, aka, Isak Dinesen, the writer immortalized in the film Out of Africa. The quote: "The princess was silent, then suddenly exclaimed in a low voice: Try to have a secret with him. Something that in the whole world, only you and he know of. You will be feeling, then, that he is you and you are he."
After the rhinos had been cleared from the tarmac and our gear was stowed, we took off. The plane circled low and then gained altitude. Stephan stayed in his jeep parked on the edge of the airfield, his right arm raised in farewell.
A salute? A tribute to the fragility, the tenacity, of man? To his own sense of isolation or to comrads? I don't know. I do know that I turned to my friend Melissa and her eyes too, were filled with tears. We were leaving Africa. As Isak wrote in Out of Africa, "If I know a song of Africa, does Africa know a song of me?" I believe it is the same song. But can we hear it?
About a dozen people gathered in a small independent bookstore, moonnews.com, on a recent chilly, Tuesday evening to hear Eric Maisel, Phd, speak about successfully managing the anxieties of the creative process.
Author of Coaching the Artist Within, A Writer's San Francisco, and about two dozen other titles, Dr. Maisel spoke thoughtfully on his latest book, now available in paperback, The Van Gough Blues, The Creative Person's Path Through Depression.
We come to a point in our creative lives, to paraphrase Dr. Maisel, where we wonder if what we do has any meaning at all. Do we matter? Does our work matter?
The key he said, is reinvesting. We have to reinvest meaning in our lives. Reinvest meaning in our creative work, and to do that we have to value our work. Honor our lives by answering the call to create. Yep. Get up, meditate, write. For more from Dr. Maisel visit www.ericmaisel.com.
Is this a new message? Hardly, Marcus Aurelius, one of the Roman philosophers from the Stoic school, wrote, "Arise, throw off your blanket, and do the work of man."
And the great sage, G.I. Gurdjieff repeated this truth in the mid-2oth century, "Sleep little with no regret," he instructed his students. To learn more about Gurdjieff's teaching, visit Gurdjieff-Legacy.org.
