Tonal and Nagual

“The life we are living is but an endless vision”
(Carlos Castaneda, 1977, 221)


If reading Castaneda’s work one would feel at a certain moment that the itinerary has become too complicated or rather ambiguous this will be due to the fact that he or she has not paid enough attention to some fundamental concepts or maybe because the itinerary is still incomplete.
In order to disentangle such a tense moment you could need an accommodation with the concepts of Tonal and Nagual. From anthropological point of view the information brought by Castaneda is the following: Tonal (toh-na’hl in the Mexican cultures) is a sort of positive spirit, usually an animal that is received as a “guide” at the birth of a child. Michael Harner tries to explain the things:”The tonalli was part of an elaborate calendrical system with implication of predestination, somewhat analogous to one’s sign in Western astrology” (Harner, 1990, 63). What is the Nagual then? Harner says: “nagual refers both to a guardian animal spirit and to the shaman who changes into that power animal” (Harner, 1990, 63). But saying this confusion persists.
So Castaneda focuses on relating things to the other reality and explains them through symbols. Castaneda’s character Don Juan tries to teach his apprentice those differences: when educating a child one will describe the world in the exactly same manner as he was taught describe it. So, all the knowledge we have is part of a accepted convention. For a child “his membership becomes full-fledged […] when he is capable of making all the proper perceptual interpretations, which by confirming to that description validate it” (Preface to Castaneda, 1972). Through Tonal we organize the world in an attempt to eliminate the chaos. It validates the world by placing it on different layers and giving it labels. It is everything that our eye can see, judge or authenticate but all this cannot be modified. I t is as it is. Nagual, on the other hand is that part of inner and external world that cannot be submitted to rules, which cannot be explained, named or touched. The peril consists in the invasion of the Tonal over the Nagual in an attempt to suppress it. If all this seems a bit too scientific or exaggerated one can try to “see” the information in the following examples given by Don Juan: a table is taken into a secluded valley and a lot of objects are arranged on it. Don Juan will remove from the table the objects one by one and will ask to his apprentices to indicate which object is missing. The order of the objects, their place on the table, their name is the Tonal. Changing the perspective, the angle things do have the tendency of appearing differently. This is a first conclusion. And then he amuses by removing objects that are under the table…almost unnoticeable pebbles, leaves of grass and so on…neither of them can remember exactly the order under the table. This is a good example of how the Nagual should be seen: an almost unseen part of our attention coordinates of non-action, “a realm impossible to contain the words.”(Castaneda, 1981, 163) you can reach there by suspending the tiring process of thinking in concepts. So the apprentice, Carlos, learns to suppress the analogies, the differences, the comparisons and he is able to see at the end of his apprenticeship the lines of the world, the flowing energy that comes out of everything and through everything, inner connection of the world apart of the imposed order of the people.
And of course I went backward trying to explain myself those concepts through images and the best examples I could find were the “Yellow, red, blue” of Wassily Kandinsky for the Nagual and “Italian city “ of Paul Klee for the Tonal. I needed that because unfortunately I cannot live without concepts.


Wassily Kandinsky, “Yellow, red, blue”

Paul Klee, “Italian city”

more about that here