The Nagual is the teacher who becomes the gateway, the doorway, the intermediate between the world of the “seeker” or apprentice, and the world of the spirit. The Nagual has been described as being “empty” – devoid of ego and the personal self that modern mans attention and devotion is trapped by. The Nagual reflects only the infinite, and is a pure conduit for the commands of the spirit.

The Nagual has been described as a peculiar energetic configuration, of a different structure than the “egg-shaped” luminous bodies of your average man. He is described as a compounded set of 4 luminous quadrants. In this respect, Castaneda was an anomaly: a configuration of 3 compressed luminous spheres, rather than the traditional four.

In the book, Tales of Power, Don Juan Matus reveals a significant truth in the roles that he and Don Genaro Flores were playing in Carlos Castaneda’s apprenticeship.  To understand the contrast of these two roles, one must first understand the concepts of first and second attention, and the juxtaposition of tonal and nagual.

In following Don Juan’s teachings through Castaneda’s 4 books – up to and including Tales of Power – one develops the understanding that Juan Matus is the main teacher and benefactor to Carlos.  Genaro is seen as somewhat of an oddity: one who is imbued with the 2nd attention, or permanently trapped in his dreaming body; and in being such an enigma – a constant source of terror and mystery to Carlos (and entertainment to us)!

So, halfway though the 4th book, Juan Matus drops this bombshell on Carlos: no, he is not the “benefactor”, he is a mere teacher – one who is cleaning and preparing the island of the tonal, for the ‘real’ lessons of the nagual himself, who happens to be Don Genaro.