Castaneda, Carlos – The Second Ring of Power

of the boulder made its fall a very impressive event. Don Juan

seized the opportunity to create a dramatic lesson. He said that

the force that rules our destinies is outside of ourselves and has

nothing to do with our acts or volition. Sometimes that force

would make us stop walking on our way and bend over to tie

our shoelaces, as I had just done. And by making us stop, that

force makes us gain a precious moment. If we had kept on

walking, that enormous boulder would have most certainly

crushed us to death. Some other day, however, in another

ravine the same outside deciding force would make us stop

again to bend over and tie our shoelaces while another boulder

would get loose precisely above where we are standing. By

making us stop, that force would have made us lose a precious

moment. That time if we had kept on walking, we would have

saved ourselves. Don Juan said that in view of my total lack of

control over the forces which decide my destiny, my only

possible freedom in that ravine consisted in my tying my shoe-

laces impeccably.

La Gorda seemed to be moved by my account. For an in-

stant she held my face in her hands from across the table.

Impeccability for me is to tell you, at the right time, what

the Nagual told me to tell you, she said. But power has to

time perfectly what I have to reveal to yon, or it won’t have

any effect.

She paused in a dramatic fashion. Her delay was very

studied but terribly effective with me.

What is it? I asked desperately.

She did not answer. She took me by the arm and led me to

the area just outside the front door. She made me sit on the

hard-packed ground with my back against a thick pole about

one and a half feet high that looked like a tree stump which

had been planted in the ground almost against the wall of the

house. There was a row of five such poles planted about two

feet apart. I had meant to ask la Gorda what their function

was. My first impression had been that a former owner of the

house had tied animals to them. My conjecture seemed incon-

gruous, however, because the area just outside the front door

was a kind of roofed porch.

I told la Gorda my supposition as she sat down next to me

to my left, with her back against another pole. She laughed

and said that the poles were indeed used for tying animals of

sorts, but not by a former owner, and that she had nearly

broken her back digging the holes for them.

What do you use them for? I asked.

Let’s say that we tie ourselves to them, she replied. And

this brings me to the next thing the Nagual asked me to tell

you. He said that because you were empty he had to gather

your second attention, your attention of the nagual, in a way

different than ours. We gathered that attention through

dreaming and you did it with his power plants. The Nagual

said that his power plants gathered the menacing side of your

second attention in one clump, and that’s the shape that came

out of your head. He said that that’s what happens to sorcerers

when they are given power plants. If they don’t die, the power

plants spin their second attention into that awful shape that

comes out of their heads.

Now we’re coming to what he wanted you to do. He said

that you must change directions now and begin gathering

your second attention in another way, more like us. You can’t

keep on the path of knowledge unless you balance your

second attention. So far, that attention of yours has been

riding on the Nagual’s power, but now you are alone. That’s

what he wanted me to tell you.

How do I balance my second attention?

You have to do dreaming the way we do it. Dreaming is

the only way to gather the second attention without injuring

it, without making it menacing and awesome. Your second

attention is fixed on the awful side of the world; ours is on the

beauty of it. You have to change sides and come with us.

That’s what you chose last night when you decided to go

with us.

Could that shape come out of me at any time?

No. The Nagual said that it won’t come out again until

you’re as old as he is. Your nagual has already come out as

many times as was needed. The Nagual and Genaro have seen

to that. They used to tease it out of you. The Nagual told me

that sometimes you were a hair away from dying because

your second attention is very indulging. He said that once

you even scared him; your nagual attacked him and he had to

sing to it to calm it down. But the worst thing happened to

you in Mexico City; there he pushed you one day and you

went into an office and in that office you went through the

crack between the worlds. He intended only to dispel your

attention of the tonal; you were worried sick over some stupid

thing. But when he shoved you, your whole tonal shrunk and

your entire being went through the crack. He had a hellish

time finding you. He told me that for a moment he thought

you had gone farther than he could reach. But then he saw you

roaming around aimlessly and he brought you back. He told

me that you went through the crack around ten in the morn-

ing. So, on that day, ten in the morning became your new

time.

My new time for what?

For everything. If you remain a man you will die around

that time. If you become a sorcerer you will leave this world

around that time.

Eligio also went on a different path, a path none of us

knew about. We met him just before he left. Eligio was a most

marvelous dreamer. He was so good that the Nagual and

Genaro used to take him through the crack and he had the

power to withstand it, as if it were nothing. He didn’t even

pant. The Nagual and Genaro gave him a final boost with

power plants. He had the control and the power to handle

that boost. And that’s what sent him to wherever he is.

The Genaros told me that Eligio jumped with Benigno. Is

that true?

Sure. By the time Eligio had to jump, his second attention

had already been in that other world. The Nagual said that

yours had also been there, but that for you it was a nightmare

because you had no control. He said that his power plants had

made you lopsided; they had made you cut through your

attention of the tonal and had put you directly in the realm of

your second attention, but without any mastery over that

attention. The Nagual didn’t give power plants to Eligio until

the very last.

Do you think that my second attention has been injured,

Gorda?

The Nagual never said that. He thought you were danger-

ously crazy, but that has nothing to do with power plants. He

said that both of your attentions are unmanageable. If you

could conquer them you’d be a great warrior.

I wanted her to tell me more on the subject. She put her

hand on my writing pad and said that we had a terribly busy

day ahead of us and we needed to store energy in order to

withstand it. We had, therefore, to energize ourselves with the

sunlight. She said that the circumstances required that we take

the sunlight with the left eye. She began to move her head

slowly from side to side as she glanced directly into the sun

through her half-closed eyes.

A moment later Lidia, Rosa and Josefina joined us. Lidia sat

to my right, Josefina sat next to her, while Rosa sat next to la

Gorda. All of them were resting their backs against the poles.

I was in the middle of the row.

It was a clear day. The sun was just above the distant range

of mountains. They started moving their heads in perfect

synchronization. I joined them and had the feeling that I too

had synchronized my motion with theirs. They kept it up for

about a minute and then stopped.

All of them wore hats and used the brims to protect their

faces from the sunlight when they were not bathing their eyes

in it. La Gorda had given me my old hat to wear.

We sat there for about half an hour. In that time we re-

peated the exercise countless times. I intended to make a mark

on my pad for each time but la Gorda very casually pushed

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