Question about the one power?

[michaelk93]

Hi everyone I'm new to Wheel of time series and approximately 75% through the fourth book. I just have a question about the process of weaving flows when an individual is using the one power for a task. For example when someone is healing it states that a weave of Air, Spirit and Fire is created, but does not indicate what the channeler does next. Well I guess it probably does somewhere but I can't be bothered looking through all the chapters LOL. So can anyone help me and explain the process of using the one power for different tasks? That would be great thankyou!!  :)

[yoniy0]

Well, there's a reason it's called weaving. A channeler uses the different components of the True Source in a specific weave. By the way, some tasks can be performed by several distinct weaves. And of course, men and women use different weaves to do the same thing. However, if you're looking for the exact weave required for Healing, I'm afraid you'll have to ask an Aes Sedai. I was never properly educated in the subject...

[FarShainMael]

Look, it's simple really. First take your flows, then do this, then this, knit one, pass slip stitch over, throw it onto the very epicentre of your Wheel, take away the number you first thought of, and reduce the answer to pounds, shillings, and pence. Seemples!

 

[OptimusPrime]

Basically the channeler summons the One Power, enough to do what they want. Then they form the necessary weaves, which I think of as glowing lines that they form into a pattern. When that pattern is conplete, the desired effect occurs and the One Power drawn to do this then returns to the True Source.

 

To get the desired effect you have to create flows of the relevent aspects of the Power (Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Spirit) and then weave it into the desired pattern, both affect the outcome. As does the ammount of the Power you put into the weave. And yet there are ways around the channeler strengths in many cases, where if someone has a Talent for a certain weave they may be better at it than, or overcome opposing weaves created by, someone stronger in the Power.

[thevillagecouncil]

I imagine them to be colorful celtic knot style designs that the wielder weaves. Here's an image on deviantart that kinda shows what I'm talking about

 

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs48/i/2009/178/9/d/Hamdiggys_Rand___Colored___by_unefleur.jpg

[OptimusPrime]

Oooh that makes me think of the Construct Rand made that hunted Shadowspawn in the Stone of Tear.

[Bowden]

I imagine them to be colorful celtic knot style designs that the wielder weaves. Here's an image on deviantart that kinda shows what I'm talking about

 

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs48/i/2009/178/9/d/Hamdiggys_Rand___Colored___by_unefleur.jpg

 

That pic was almost as awesome as Chuck Norris 0.0

[Noreallyjustsomeguy]

How the weaves are specifically made, we don't know ... it would be beyond even Jordan's level of detail-tolerance to describe the number and order of specific strands of the Power.

 

But conceptually, it might be thought of this way.  Reality itself is described as a Pattern, woven by a great Wheel which is driven by the One Power.  So, when a channeler uses the Power, he or she forms a smaller pattern within the great Pattern, thus producing the desired effect on or in reality.  What else is a "weave" if not threads interlaced in a specific "pattern"?  So the channeler simply select the threads of Power in the number and order that create the pattern for the desired effect.  They are manipulated purely by the mind, despite the hand-gestures that some Aes Sedai have come to associate with particular weaves.

 

In the specific case of the standard Air/Spirit/Fire Aes Sedai standard Healing weave, the weave, once formed, is laid on or in the person being Healed.  It is not directed at a specific point on the person, which is why it would Heal a sinus headache at the same time that it Heals an arrow wound in the side.  Because of how the weave is formed, it cannot be directed at a specific wound or a specific body part: it is all or nothing.  This is in contrast to Nynaeve's style of Healing, which uses all five powers and has a different weave for each thing being Healed.  Nynaeve's Healing is a targeted treatment, and so the pattern of the weave varies each time.  The standard Healing you're referencing is an all-or-nothing treatment, so the weave for that Healing is precisely the same each time.

[Thor]

Now that I think of it, RJ took alot of the elements of Dungeons and Dragons magic.