Rand and Circles (spoiler)

[A Memory Of Why]

I've been thinking this for a while and it's kinda bugging me but unless I misunderstood how circles work Rand seems to be quite special as its shown when Rand is leading a mixed gendered circle he can weave both halves of the source.

 

My understanding is when joining a circle you act as a biological Angrael and add power to the leader of the circle, right?

 

Examples:

 

Cleansing: Rand literally weaves Saidar and channels Saidin at the same time.

 

Sealing: Weaves both halves of the source to close the gap.

 

My guesses:

 

1) yes Rand is special (not the Dragon but this incarnation as Rand)

 

2) side affect from the access keys

 

3) it's only special with Nyn involved

 

4) I totally misunderstood

 

5) something else?

 

Thoughts?

[SilentRoamer]

I am sure you will get the experts weighing in here and they may correct me if I state something wrong.

My understanding is that when in a Circle either Men or Women can lead (depending on the number of Women and Men because Women always outnumber Men unless it is a circle of two). Although a Woman always has to start the Circle - she can then pass the Lead over to someone else (only to a Man if there are more than the minimum number of Men in a Circle).

When in a circle Men and Women can see and use their Male and Female counterparts of the source. (Remember Nynaeve also cannot understand how Rand can ever wield Saidin - seeing it as a sort of insane torrent coated by the tainted ooze of the Dark One). 

So you are sort of like a biological Angreal but it also allows the Leader to wield both Saidin and Saidar - which is why some of the feats of the AoL could not be reproduced (because there were no men to form part of the Circle and therefore the Power could not be used in collaboration) - which is a continuous theme from Jordan how the sum of parts is greater than the whole. 

The uniqueness of the Cleansing are due to Rands philosophical understanding of Evil and how the Taint and the Corruption (from Shadar Logoth) are not able to occupy the same space, which he discovered due to the interaction of Evils on his wound. Didn't he also ask the Snake or Fox people how to do it as well? Where we got the answer off page?

 

I always assumed some sort of mathematics with the describing of structures and pressure - where the Taint was forced into a zero point mathematical function which squeezed the Taint out of Saidin using Saidar as a sort of membraine filter. 

Anyway - like I said I have only read the books once and there are some people in here with some really deep knowledge, hopefully they can weight in as this topic really does fascinate me. 

Edited August 4, 2022 by SilentRoamer

[wotfan4472]

There are other occasions where a man must lead a circle besides one man and one woman.

 

A man leads when there are two men and one woman, and two men and two women. Then there is the last one, and the biggest piece of lore, which is a circle of 72 must have a man leading this circle, regardless of how many women there are in this circle.

 

It is this stipulation why the Light never used this circle in the Last Battle at Merrilor, yet Demandred did. It was this key ability that explains why the Shadow and the Dark One spent soo much effort in keeping the Taint in place after it was placed.

Edited August 4, 2022 by wotfan4472