Castaneda at LACC graduation 1959
Taisha (Anna Marie Carter) and Florinda (then Gina Thal) pictured in Nov 1974 Samurai Magazine
Former “Element” and longtime Castaneda shill, novelist and screenwriter Bruce Wagner
Cleargreen’s Joint Offices with Toltec Artists in 1998
1376 1/2 Midvale Ave. home of Nuri Alexander in 1978, Carol Tiggs in 1988, and Reni Murez in 1989
Above, Westwood Compound Photos
The ‘Witches’ House’: Castaneda’s 25-Year Residence
The exterior views above are of the Westwood compound (a duplex, interior courtyard and apt. over the garage) where Castaneda lived from 1973 until his death in 1998. The Pandora gate picture shows the entrance into Castaneda’s side of the duplex. From the entrance on Eastborne, one could turn right into Taisha’s rooms, or left into a large living room. That side also contained the main kitchen and Florinda’s bedroom. Joanie Barker, whom Castaneda first met in 1960 (and whom he described in private sessions as “don Juan’s first, and smartest, student”), lived in the small apartment above the garage until late 1997 or early 1998.
Immediately inside the large hedge that hides most of the compound from view were a variety of fruit trees, which Castaneda’s cohorts claimed had been replanted from “the Witches house in Sonora.” In the back of the compound was a large patio that Castaneda tiled to resemble the tiling around the “inverse fountain” on the UCLA campus. Also adjoining the back of the garage is a large laundry area. Next to that is a large garage-type structure that was apparently sometimes used as a studio.
R. Crumb’s Sept. 28, 1998 New Yorker cartoon mentioning Tensegrity (Castaneda would have been so proud, but didn’t live to see it)
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