This is the seventh volume in Castaneda's opus. It is difficult book to write about, and is probably the most abstract of all the volumes so far. The same concepts and principles and stories are visited from the previous books, but in more detail and from a different perspective. The Assemblage Point and its shifting is described in great and painful detail, which makes very little sense for the lay reader which doesn't have the luxury of being an apprentice to a thousands year old sorcery tradition.
There are more stories about the nagual Julian, Don Juan's teacher, and the nagual Elias, Julian's teacher. There are more stories about the sorcerer's party of Don Juan, mostly Genaro, Silvio Manuel and Vicente Medaro.
The new concept that is introduced is about the "Death Defiers", a group of ancient sorcerers who found a way to close the gap in their abdomen where the Rolling Force hits against and from where Death takes the human being by destroying the luminous cocoon. The Death Defiers found a way to close the gap and also to align their inner fibers (light them up) that correspond to the Allies, the inorganic beings which live for a very long time, almost infinite. In this way the Death Defiers also became almost immaterial like the Allies, and live in a similar world like them, but spend much of their time buried underground, where the energy of the Earth can protect them against the Tumbler/Rolling Force. One specific Death Defier is told by Don Juan to be the originator of his line of New Seers/sorcerers, who taught the first in the line, nagual Sebastian many secrets in exchange for energy to keep living. Don Juan describes him as a very thin, dried out man with dark eyes and otherworldly countenance.
Sometimes I wonder if these books are written the Sufi way, i.e. it doesn't make much sense to your conscious mind but it is your unconscious that is really the target of the writings.
I got laid off.
