The Second Ring of Power by Carlos Castaneda Read Free Book Online

the side of the road. We watched it move
toward us. The Nagual ran across the road and the wind enveloped me.
It actually made me spin very gently and then it vanished. That was the omen
the Nagual was waiting for. From then on we went to the mountains or the desert
for the purpose of seeking the wind. The wind didn't like me at first, because
I was my old self.
    So the Nagual endeavored to change me. He first made me build this room
and this floor. Then he made me wear new clothes and sleep on a
mattress instead of a straw mat. He made me wear shoes, and have
drawers full of clothes. He forced me to walk hundreds of miles and taught me
to be quiet. I learned very fast. He also made me do strange things for no
reason at all.
    "One day, while we were in the mountains of his homeland, I
listened to the wind for the first time. It came directly to my
womb. I was lying on top of a flat rock and the wind twirled around me.
I had already seen it that day whirling around the bushes, but this time it
came over me and stopped. It felt like a bird that had landed on my
stomach. The Nagual had made me take off all my clothes; I
was stark naked but I was not cold because the wind was warming me up."
    "Were you afraid, dona Soledad?"
    "Afraid? I was petrified. The wind was alive; it licked me from my
head to my toes. And then it got inside my whole body. I was like
a balloon, and the wind came out of my ears and my mouth and
other parts I don't want to mention. I thought I was going to die, and I
would've run away had it not been that the Nagual held me to the rock. He spoke
to me in my ear and calmed me down. I lay quietly and let the wind
do whatever it wanted with me. It was then that it told me what
to do."
    "What to do with what?"
    "With my life, my things, my room, my feelings. It was not clear at
first. I thought it was me thinking. The Nagual said that all of us do that.
When we are quiet, though, we realize that it is something else
telling us things."
    "Did you hear a voice?"
    "No. The wind moves inside the body of a woman. The Nagual says
that that is so because women have wombs. Once it's inside the
womb the wind simply picks you up and tells you to do things. The
more quiet and relaxed the woman is the better the results. You may say that
all of a sudden the woman finds herself doing things that she had
no idea how to do.
    "From that day on the wind came to me all the time. It spoke to me
in my womb and told me everything I wanted to know. The
Nagual saw from the beginning that I was the north wind. Other
winds never spoke to me like that, although I had learned to distinguish
them."
    "How many kinds of winds are there?"
    "There are four winds, like there are four directions. That's, of
course, for sorcerers and for whatever sorcerers do. Four is a power number for them. The
first wind is the breeze, the morning. It
brings hope and brightness; it is the herald of the day. It comes and goes and
gets into everything. Sometimes it is
mild and unnoticeable; other times it is nagging and bothersome.
    "Another wind is the hard wind, either hot or cold or both. A
midday wind. Blasting full of energy but also full of blindness. It
breaks through doors and brings down walls. A sorcerer must be terribly strong
to tackle the hard wind.
    "Then there is the cold wind of the afternoon. Sad and trying. A
wind that would never leave you in peace. It will chill you and
make you cry. The Nagual said that there is such depth to it, though,
that it is more than worthwhile to seek it.
    "And at last there is the hot wind. It warms and protects and
envelops everything. It is a night wind for sorcerers. Its power
goes together with the darkness.
    "Those are the four winds. They are also associated with the four
directions. The breeze is the east. The cold wind is the west. The
hot one is the south. The hard wind is the north.
    "The four winds also have personalities. The breeze is gay and
sleek and shifty. The cold wind is moody and melancholy and