Chapter 2: The Knock of the Spirit (The Abstract) Summary and Analysis

Carlos and don Juan return to don Juan's house after climbing down the mountain. Don Juan tells Carlos he took Carlos to the case for a reason, to move his apprentice into heightened awareness. He tells Carlos that his problem is that he's a modern, leaning heavily on "the aberrations of reason." He tries to explain the nature of intent and the abstract to Carlos and illustrates it with his story about the nagual Elias. He emphasizes that understanding the abstract cores means moving beyond the comprehensible, and Carlos is confused. Don Juan explains that the abstract cores must be understood outside of language. Don Juan tells Carlos that he asked any of the same questions and that Carlos was like Julian in personality, but that he...