Someone in the private subreddit found a reference to Don Juan's appearance in a publication titled “CONVERSATION WITH CLAUDIO NARANJO” by Javier Esteban, May 26, 2011:
>Once I invited him and Carlos Castaneda to a Marcel Marceau show in Berkeley. Castaneda said to me, “He really looks like Don Juan.” “And why did you sometimes stop breathing?” I asked him. “Because I'm afraid, like Don Juan,” he replied. We had met many teachers together, but none like him.
>Did Don Juan really exist, or was he a literary character like Don Quixote?
>My friendship with Castaneda predates his books, and he invited me to go see him, so I believe he was real. Once he said to me, ‘Let's go to Sonora,’ but my documentation problem prevented it. I don't think he made it up..."
Here is a program from one of Marceau's performances in Berkeley:
And Marcel Marceau without makeup, as an older man:
That member's comment:
>I watched Marceau, his movements (without paying attention to the story he was telling), his arms, hands, legs... but above all, his use of planes in space. In those years, the Nagual (Carlos) had not yet systematized the passes and did not even know that those movements with which Don Juan cracked his joints were magical passes. Did the precision, energy and elasticity of some of Marceau's movements make him a “mirror” and did he see Don Juan in him? Or Julián through Don Juan? 🤷🏻♀️ Julián, besides being a skilled storyteller, was a mime and turned theater into a new way to teach the passes. (member's comment translated from Spanish with Translated with DeepL.com (free version))
And after more than a day working with Microsoft's Copilot image generator, based on ChatGPT-5, to maintain the facial features of Marceau but applied to a male from the Yaqui tribe living in Mexico in the twentieth century, and keeping it within the bounds of one of the few descriptions in the books where Don Juan was said to be "burly, and with a roundish face," I finally got it to generate this portrait:
with a business suit, for a \"business man!\" which was one of his personas
38 Comments
Wow >90% of how I imagined Don Juan
same
I also imagined him like this, but with slighter longer face and slightly bigger nose. But for me, it's also 90% accurate to my mental image of him!
This is how I imagine him...
Así no lo vería Carol Tiggs…
That man hasn’t spent much time in the desert sun.
Good point. I suppose he could be a bit more sun weathered.
But I actually don't think that Don Juan spent as much time in the sun as most would assume.
Remember, he was found by the lineage in his early twenties. From that point on, except for a period of a couple of years when he temporarily left, he was no longer working as a indigenous field hand.
When Carlos went to meet him in the desert he was either in his double, which obviously would not be affected by the sun, or he been there for just a short while expecting his arrival.
He was, in fact, a businessman who probably spent much of his time inside.
The "Brujo" persona was a presentation for Carlos's benefit. He didn't actually live there, exposed and in the dry desert heat, the rest of decades of time in which he was himself training to be...and achieved high-proficiency in, sorcery.
Don Juan was a businessman? This is the very first instance I have heard of that.
He tells CC in one of the books, that he's a stock holder, lol. Around this sub reddit, there's mention of art belonging to the lineage (and where did the wealth from that go, hah!)
Don't kid yourself about Don Juan's friendly demeanour to CC in the books. Those lineage guys were utterly ruthless. I mean, just look at how Julian treats Don Juan with the fish-faced man. If folks around here succeed in bringing him back, he'll just go off, he won't hang around, just like that Death Defier dude.
Ffff, I thought about going to Mexico to find some other lineage guys, but I had a very bad gut instinct about it. Those guys give me the creeps. The Spirit's there to pull, so's our Double.
I thought that he was just deceiving Carlos so that he produces the desired shock… Business world and shamanism couldn’t be more different. They didn’t live in an medieval era, therefore there was no need to have a fake identity/profession (like graveyard personnel etc.)
There was one more thing that I had to voice at that point. I had to know whether his suit was a shocking device for me alone or was it actually part of his life. Never had any of his acts caused so much havoc in me as his wearing a suit. It was not only the act in itself that was so awesome to me, but the fact that don Juan was elegant. His legs had a youthful agility. It was as if wearing shoes had shifted his point of balance and his steps were longer and more firm than usual.
"Do you wear a suit all the time?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied with a charming smile. "I have others, but I didn't want to wear a different suit today, because it would've scared you even more."
I did not know what to think. I felt that I had arrived at the end of my path. If don Juan could wear a suit and be elegant in it, anything was possible.
He seemed to enjoy my confusion and laughed.
"I'm a stockholder," he said in a mysterious but unaffected tone and walked away.
Wait what? How did I miss that. I remember the part when he was in a suit - when he was teaching him about the island of tonal. However, I could have sworn that he only wore it to shock Carlos!
From chapter 5 of Tales of Power:
Don Juan did look extraordinarily well in a suit. All I could think of as a gauge for comparison was the way my grandfather used to look in his heavy English flannel suit. He always gave me the impression that he felt unnatural; out of place in a suit. Don Juan, on the contrary, was so at ease.
"Do you think it is easy for me to look natural in a suit?" don Juan asked.
I did not know what to say. I concluded to myself, however, that judging by his appearance and by the way he conducted himself, it was the easiest thing in the world for him.
"To wear a suit is a challenge for me," he said. "A challenge as difficult as wearing sandals and a poncho would be for you. You have never had the necessity to take that as a challenge, though. My case is different; I'm an Indian."
We looked at each other. He raised his brows in a silent question as if asking for my comments.
And continued at the end of chapter 7:
"Do you wear a suit all the time?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied with a charming smile. "I have others, but I didn't want to wear a different suit today because it would've scared you even more."
I did not know what to think. I felt that I had arrived at the end of my path. If don Juan could wear a suit and be elegant in it, anything was possible.
He seemed to enjoy my confusion and laughed.
"I'm a stockholder," he said in a mysterious but unaffected tone, and walked away.
Man, pretty awesome thing you’ve done here. Creating DJM from CC references, well done! Thanks for sharing.
Looks possible to me... However, having grown up visiting Morongo Reservation, I'd suggest he had more wrinkles caused by exposure to the sun. And slightly more tan.
Here's a link to the source article/interview:
https://www.javieresteban.info/entrevista-inedita-a-claudio-naranjo/
backup - http://archive.today/GU0D6
Looks just like Taisha's description in " The Sorcerers Crossing' ! " He had a prominent nose, a strong mouth, a square chin and sparkling black eyes." She also said he had intense eyes and lustrous white hair.
Your comment has been automatically removed because your account does not meet our account-age requirement of 10 days.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Taisha was "doing him".
Only as a crow perhaps, but I suspect the levels of hanky panky in the lineages were as high as in a Mexican co-ed college.
It makes total sense if you have real magic, and don't care about social constraints.
It's a method to tie a lineage more tightly together using one of the strongest emotions humans have, which produces cohesion in small groups.
Maybe Zuleica as Esperanza was doing it too! In " Being-in-Dreaming" when she undresses and tells Florinda to "touch her". Seems like the book left out the next part...
Didn't know where to post this but there is this amazing Italian movie from 1966 called La Strega in Amore- it's on tubi titled " The Witch". True sorcery in it- the old lady dreams herself beautiful and young so she can still have sex! I swear, in one part she looks like she's doing " Lifesaver pass" .
Your comment has been automatically removed because your account does not meet our account-age requirement of 10 days.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Your comment has been automatically removed because your account does not meet our account-age requirement of 10 days.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I also asked ChatGPT at one point to imagine don Juan based on Carlos’s descriptions in the books:
Hah, it's uncanny, that's how I imagined him.
For some reason I always pictured him as one of the prisoners in Arrested Development 😅
First Nations tribes in North America usually don’t have facial hair, or extremely little if they do.
Overall, the face is more Mexican than indigenous.
But the sun weathering is more accurate!
I didn’t know that about the facial hair. Thanks for the info.
I forgot he was a happy guy
These are good!
👍
But I wouldn't consider the hairstyle to be indicative of an elderly Mexican gentleman living in the 1960's.
It was ChatGPT’s choice 🤷♂️ I asked it to only use descriptions found in the books of CC, FDG and TA, plus interviews. Guess it went for some 70’s flair. It was apparently dandy enough for Taisha to include it in her book.
I suppose it's possible that the general population blend-in stalking thing to do in the early 1970's in Mexico could have been to have your hair a little bit longer.
I would be interested to see that book passage...
[removed]
Some more from the user who found the initial reference to Marceau:
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Someone requested a pirate hat.
Lol