Margaret Runyan (November 14, 1921 – December 24, 2011)

If you believe everything that has been written about Carlos Castaneda over the years, you come to a certain point where you realize that his life was a series of ‘magical passes’ accompanied by smoke and mirrors. Such is the case of Margaret Runyan Castaneda.

To suggest that they were married in 1960 and divorced in 1973, and yet their son has never found any divorce papers, seems to imply the long-held rumour that he ‘escaped’ from his past life in South America (in which he had a wife and infant daughter) is true. He would not have been free to marry anyone else, except as a bigamist. Nothing surprises me anymore.

The timing of this chart is rectified, based on Runyan meeting ‘the man of her dreams’ at age 34 (Mars and Saturn). Notice how there are two double inconjuncts from these planets in aspect to the Uranus/Ascendant conjunction @ 6° Pisces. Sparks must have flown. And the Mateus wine must have flowed, too.

She theorized that Carlos came up with the name Don Juan Matus because of their mutual enjoyment of Mateus wine, which, she wrote, “he jokingly referred to as his most valuable teacher.”

Chicago Tribune obit

The other inconjunct connects the Moon and Jupiter.

The Two of Them

Looking at their combined charts it is easy to see why Castaneda achieved success in the world of fiction (for that is what most people think his books about Don Juan are). In truth, he may have been ‘talking to himself’ as she suggests, and the dialogue has turned into a kind of “Conversations with God” story. The Yods are evidence of that. Their joint Moons are within 1° of each other in Taurus. Her Sun is conjunct his Saturn in Scorpio. The slower planets did not move very far in the 4 years between their births. Their relationship is the prime mover of his writing (her Moon and Pluto are forming a Yod pointing at his Mercury @ 12° Sagittarius).

If you want to know more, I suggest you read her book: