women are not supposed to see saidin

[Caelan Arendor]

If I remember correctly, it is repeatedly stated that women fundamentally cannot see the weaving of saidin. Yet there are several instances where characters like Egwene or Nynaeve seem to notice something — a tingling, a disturbance.

Discussion question:
Are these perceptions purely intuition or talent, or is Jordan hinting at a deeper metaphysical connection between the two halves of the One Power? Is this ability only present in the "supergirls" of the narrative? Would love to hear your opinion

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

As far as I remember, women cannot sense saidin or its weaves or if a man is holding the power. 

 

I think the only things I can remember is them reacting to knowing that Rand was channeling, not that they could feel it. 

 

I think this was pretty clearly set in canon at Elayne and Egwene's training session with Rand in Tear. 

 

So I don't think that this has anything to do with anything fundamental about the Power. 

[Mailman]

1 hour ago, HeavyHalfMoonBlade said:

As far as I remember, women cannot sense saidin or its weaves or if a man is holding the power. 

 

I think the only things I can remember is them reacting to knowing that Rand was channeling, not that they could feel it. 

 

I think this was pretty clearly set in canon at Elayne and Egwene's training session with Rand in Tear. 

 

So I don't think that this has anything to do with anything fundamental about the Power. 

The rebel Tower does come up with a method to sense somewhat Saidan and the direction of it as demonstrated when the Black Tower envoy is addressing the hall. It is not much more explored than that I think.

 

I don't remember them specifically sensing male channeling outside that though.

 

There is another scene i think where Graendal and another female forsaken are about to strike at each other and Demandred (I think) starts to gather power to do something which is interrupted by one of the other male forsaken and it is stated that neither had any idea what he might have been doing.

Edited Saturday at 12:17 PM by Mailman

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

39 minutes ago, Mailman said:

The rebel Tower does come up with a method to sense somewhat Saidan and the direction of it as demonstrated when the Black Tower envoy is addressing the hall. It is not much more explored than that I think.

 

I don't remember them specifically sensing male channeling outside that though.

 

There is another scene i think where Graendal and another female forsaken are about to strike at each other and Demandred (I think) starts to gather power to do something which is interrupted by one of the other male forsaken and it is stated that neither had any idea what he might have been doing.

Wasn't that a ter'angreal or a talent though? I don't quite remember. Cadsuane I think had a ter'angreal so possibly so did Nynaeve her Paralis-net. 

 

And didn't Moggie teach them something that sort of worked but really just gave them a splitting headache? 

 

Hmm. Certainly comes up more often than I first remembered but it doesn't seem to be a native ability - not like the goosebumps men get when women are holding the power. Though maybe I'm still misremembering some of it. 

 

I think the Chosen involved were Sammael and Rahvin, Sammael always willing to strike first and Rahvin being the cautious politician, the moment help define their characters as well as indicate the dangers of the Chosen interacting with each other. 

[Mailman]

11 hours ago, HeavyHalfMoonBlade said:

Wasn't that a ter'angreal or a talent though? I don't quite remember. Cadsuane I think had a ter'angreal so possibly so did Nynaeve her Paralis-net. 

 

And didn't Moggie teach them something that sort of worked but really just gave them a splitting headache? 

 

Hmm. Certainly comes up more often than I first remembered but it doesn't seem to be a native ability - not like the goosebumps men get when women are holding the power. Though maybe I'm still misremembering some of it. 

 

I think the Chosen involved were Sammael and Rahvin, Sammael always willing to strike first and Rahvin being the cautious politician, the moment help define their characters as well as indicate the dangers of the Chosen interacting with each other. 

I'm not sure if it was a talent but I remember the sister brought into the hall asking for permission to channel towards the Ash'a'man because he was bonded to one of sisters that had come to present the offer from the Black Tower. Actually having to channel would vastly reduce it's effectiveness as the man would be able to sense you channeling while you were scanning.

 

I think they might have potentially developed this from the idea given from Moggy, although I am not sure if that was confirmed.

 

There was definitely Ter'angreal that could detect and track channeling. The devices in Far Madding also had the same tech as Cadsuanes trinkets.

[Elgee]

5 hours ago, Mailman said:

I think they might have potentially developed this from the idea given from Moggy, although I am not sure if that was confirmed.

 

The Sister who invented the Weave that could detect a man channeling was a Green totally unrelated to Egwene, so I think it was probably something she came up with all on her own. 

[Caelan Arendor]

So a woman could not detect a man channeling just spontaneously? She had to guess that the man was using saidin and THEN invoke the Onre Power herself and create a special weave....interesting thought. Though that implicates she would miss the man's chanelling if she was totaly clueless that he did it.

[Elgee]

On 11/30/2025 at 8:36 PM, Caelan Arendor said:

Though that implicates she would miss the man's chanelling if she was totaly clueless that he did it.

 

It doesn't just implicate this - it states that, several times, in the Books.