new age

I was disappointed to see that this wasn't a new book, but only a collection of sayings from Castaneda's previous works - with a saying on each page. Nothing here that isn't in the previous books, only taken out of the dramatic narrative. Definintely not for those looking for the latest in the tales. Now I understand Carlos has "passed on" to where ever the heck he may have been headed, so we will not be hearing from him again except, I guess, from these post-mortem compilations.

The Wheel of Time was written for those individuals who have been caught up in the web of the Warriors way. By selecting these quotations in such a way, Carlos Castaneda deconstructed the rather numerous Shamanistic trickery associated with his teacher. In this way he insured that no one would be able to fall into the chaos which seems to inflict other travelers into the other side of things. The Wheel of Time was specifically written for practitioners with each quotation an expression of a particular problem which arises within the structure of this path. This book was not intended for speculation. It was intended as an avenue into the unknown which allows the warrior to remain free and unbroken.

This book is a collection of truisms and cliches which to me, divested from the twinkling eyes of Don Juan, sound boring and trite. There are a few quotes in this book, however, that make the book worth reading. Here's one I like (p. 257):

"It isn't that a warrior learns shamanism as time goes by; rather, what he learns as time goes by is to save energy. This energy will enable him to handle some of the energy fields which are ordinarily inaccesible to him. Shamanism is a state of awareness, the ability to use energy fields that are not employed in perceiving the everyday-life world that we know."