The Second Ring of Power
About This Book
The Second Ring of Power is the fifth book in Castaneda's series — picking up in a chaotic period after Tales of Power's climactic ending when Castaneda, having returned from his jump into the nagual, finds himself back in the mundane world and seeking don Juan's female apprentices in Mexico. The interactions that follow are disorienting and sometimes threatening: the women of the nagual's party, led by a powerful sorcerer named la Gorda, introduce Castaneda to dimensions of the Toltec teaching that don Juan had deliberately withheld — particularly the teaching related to the 'second ring of power' or second attention, which don Juan's group (the male apprentices' group) had not focused on.
The book significantly expands the gender dimension of the Toltec teaching: where previous books had focused almost entirely on don Juan's male warriors, The Second Ring of Power introduces the female warriors of the nagual's party, their specific qualities and powers, and a distinctly different relationship to the second attention from the male practitioners. La Gorda and her companions demonstrate and teach forms of inner awareness that complement rather than duplicate what Castaneda learned from don Juan — suggesting that the complete Toltec teaching requires engagement with both masculine and feminine dimensions of awareness.
What You'll Learn
• Understand the second ring of power as it is developed in this volume: how the attention of the 'tonal of the times' differs from the first attention of ordinary waking consciousness, what dimensions of experience become accessible through the second ring, and how la Gorda and the other women serve as guides to this territory
• Grasp the gender dimension of the Toltec teaching: how the female warriors' relationship to the second attention differs from the male warriors', what specific qualities or capacities the feminine side of the tradition accesses more naturally, and what the complete warrior path requires from both dimensions
• Recognise la Gorda's teaching style: how she conveys the second attention teachings, what her relationship to Castaneda reveals about the dynamics of power exchange in the Toltec tradition after the master has departed, and how her approach differs from don Juan's
• Learn the concept of the double: the energy body's capacity to act independently in the world — what the double is, how it develops, and what its relationship is to the physical body and to the dreaming practice that is its primary means of development
• Appreciate the disorienting quality of this book: how the absence of don Juan's stabilising presence, the unfamiliar teaching style of the women, and the chaotic circumstances of the period it describes make The Second Ring of Power one of the most challenging and least conventionally satisfying of the Castaneda volumes — and why this very quality may be part of its teaching
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