Castaneda, Carlos – The Second Ring of Power

showed me that during that time I could actually let my atten-

tion go from the images of the world. If I don’t focus my

attention on the world, the world collapses.

How is that done, Gorda?

It’s very simple. When a woman menstruates she cannot

focus her attention. That’s the crack the Nagual told me

about. Instead of fighting to focus, a woman should let go of

the images, by gazing fixedly at distant hills, or by gazing at

water, like a river, or by gazing at the clouds.

If you gaze with your eyes open, you get dizzy and the

eyes get tired, but if you half-close them and blink a lot and

move them from mountain to mountain, or from cloud to

cloud, you can look for hours, or days if necessary.

The Nagual used to make us sit by the door and gaze at

those round hills on the other side of the valley. Sometimes

we used to sit there for days until the crack would open.

I wanted to hear more about it, but she stopped talking and

hurriedly sat very close to me. She signaled me with her hand

to listen. I heard a faint swishing sound and suddenly Lidia

stepped out into the kitchen. I thought that she must have

been asleep in their room and the sound of our voices had

woken her up.

She had changed the Western clothes she had been wearing

the last time I had seen her and had put on a long dress like

the Indian women of the area wore. She had a shawl on her

shoulders and was barefoot. Her long dress, instead of making

her look older and heavier, made her look like a child clad

in an older woman’s clothes.

She walked up to the table and greeted la Gorda with a

formal Good evening, Gorda. She then turned to me and

said, Good evening, Nagual.

Her greeting was so unexpected and her tone so serious

that I was about to laugh. I caught a warning from la Gorda.

She pretended to be scratching the top of her head with the

back of her left hand, which was clawed.

I answered Lidia the same way la Gorda had: Good eve-

ning to you, Lidia.

She sat down at the end of the table to the right of me. I

did not know whether or not to start up a conversation. I was

about to say something when la Gorda tapped my leg with

her knee, and with a subtle movement of her eyebrows sig-

naled me to listen. I heard again the muffled sound of a long

dress as it touched the floor. Josefina stood for a moment at

the door before walking toward the table. She greeted Lidia,

la Gorda and myself in that order. I could not keep a straight

face with her. She was also wearing a long dress, a shawl and

no shoes, but in her case the dress was three or four sizes larger

and she had put a thick padding into it. Her appearance was

thoroughly incongruous; her face was lean and young, but

her body looked grotesquely bloated.

She took a bench and placed it at the left end of the table

and sat down. All three of them looked extremely serious.

They were sitting with their legs pressed together and their

backs very straight.

I heard once more the rustle of a dress and Rosa come out.

She was dressed just like the others and was also barefoot. Her

greeting was as formal and the order naturally included Jose-

fina. Everyone answered her in the same formal tone. She sat

across the table facing me. All of us remained in absolute si-

lence for quite a while.

La Gorda spoke suddenly, and the sound of her voice made

everyone else jump. She said, pointing to me, that the Nagual

was going to show them his allies, and that he was going to

use his special call to bring them into the room.

I tried to make a joke and said that the Nagual was not

there, so he could not bring any allies. I thought they were

going to laugh. La Gorda covered her face and the little sis-

ters glared at me. La Gorda put her hand on my mouth and

whispered in my ear that it was absolutely necessary that I

refrain from saying idiotic things. She looked right into my

eyes and said that I had to call the allies by making the moths’

call.

I reluctantly began. But no sooner had I started than the

spirit of the occasion took over and I found that in a matter

of seconds I had given my maximum concentration to pro-

ducing the sound. I modulated its outflow and controlled the

air being expelled from my lungs in order to produce the

longest possible tapping. It sounded very melodious.

I took an enormous gasp of air to start a new series. I

stopped immediately. Something outside the house was an-

swering my call. The tapping sounds came from all around

the house, even from the roof. The little sisters stood up and

huddled like frightened children around la Gorda and myself.

Please, Nagual, don’t bring anything into the house,

Lidia pleaded with me.

Even la Gorda seemed a bit frightened. She gave me a

strong command with her hand to stop. I had not intended to

keep on producing the sound anyway. The allies, however,

either as formless forces or as beings that were prowling out-

side the door, were not dependent on my tapping sound. I felt

again, as I had felt two nights before in don Genaro’s house,

an unbearable pressure, a heaviness leaning against the entire

house. I could sense it in my navel as an itch, a nervousness

that soon turned into sheer physical anguish.

The three little sisters were beside themselves with fear,

especially Lidia and Josefina. Both of them were whining like

wounded dogs. All of them surrounded me and then clung to

me. Rosa crawled under the table and pushed her head up be-

tween my legs. La Gorda stood behind me as calmly as she

could. After a few moments the hysteria and fear of those

three girls mounted to enormous proportions. La Gorda

leaned over and whispered that I should make the opposite

sound, the sound that would disperse them. I had a moment

of supreme uncertainty. I really did not know any other

sound. But then I had a quick sensation of ticklishness on the

top of my head, a shiver in my body, and I remembered out

of nowhere a peculiar whistling that don Juan used to perform

at night and had endeavored to teach me. He had presented

it to me as a means to keep one’s balance while walking so as

not to stray away from the trail in the darkness.

I began my whistling and the pressure in my umbilical re-

gion ceased. La Gorda smiled and sighed with relief and the

little sisters moved away from my side, giggling as if all of it

had been merely a joke. I wanted to indulge in some soul-

searching deliberations about the abrupt transition from the

rather pleasant exchange I was having with la Gorda to that

unearthly situation. For an instant I pondered over whether

or not the whole thing was a ploy on their part. But I was too

weak. I felt I was about to pass out. My ears were buzzing.

The tension around my stomach was so intense that I believed

I was going to become ill right there. I rested my head on the

edge of the table. After a few minutes, however, I was again

relaxed enough to sit up straight.

The three girls seemed to have forgotten how frightened

they had been. In fact, they were laughing and pushing each

other as they each tied their shawls around their hips. La

Gorda did not seem nervous nor did she seem relaxed.

Rosa was pushed at one moment by the other two girls and

fell off the bench where all three of them were sitting. She

landed on her seat. I thought that she was going to get furious

but she giggled. I looked at la Gorda for directions. She Was

sitting with a very straight back. Her eyes were half-closed,

fixed on Rosa. The little sisters were laughing very loudly,

like nervous schoolgirls. Lidia pushed Josefina and sent her

tumbling over the bench to fall next to Rosa on the floor.

The instant Josefina was on the floor their laughter stopped.

Rosa and Josefina shook their bodies, making an incompre-

hensible movement with their buttocks; they moved them

from side to side as if they were grinding something against

the floor. Then they sprang up like two silent jaguars and

took Lidia by the arms. All three of them, without making the

slightest noise, spun around a couple of times. Rosa and Jose-

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