Carlos Castaneda became a bestselling writer in the ’70s. Famous around the globe for his Don Juan books, he was (and is) a New Age icon, despite being later called out for fabricating these stories. He then disappeared from the spotlight, bought a compound in Los Angeles, and formed a cult, which consisted of dozens of followers—mostly young women who identified as witches called chacmools, a term for ancient Mexican warrior statues that protected the Toltec gods. Shortly after Castaneda’s death in 1998, six of these women disappeared. For Alta Journal, Geoffrey Gray investigates what happened, tracing their steps and imagining their journeys. It’s a deep dive into Castaneda’s weird world and a twisted tale set against the backdrop of Los Angeles and the California desert.
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