This felt like an important time to finally finish Paulo Coelho’s ‘The Alchemist.’
Though as I poured over the last few pages, I’m struck that there will likely always be a time and place for this book. As I’m sitting here typing I’m thinking to myself of the various themes and lessons that almost overwhelm the reader on every page. Like:
“What is an Alchemist?” “It’s a man that understands the world and nature.”
Coelho doesn’t leave you in such a state of ambiguity to not eventually explain that “a man that understands the world and nature” is one that “understands that “love is the force that transforms and improves the soul of the world.” In other words, an Alchemist is one that aspires to be something greater, like copper spinning itself into gold, to in turn make themselves and world around them richer. It’s achieved in the act of trying, and never stopping to be greater. The pursuit is endless, but so too the rewards.
“Each thing has to transform itself into something better and to acquire a new personal legend, until, someday, the Soul of the World becomes one thing only.” Just before this passage, the boy is talking to the sun about how the Soul of the Worlds biggest problem was no one apart from the minerals and vegetables were content to be just themselves. This reminded me of a sort of Buddhist ideal that all is one in its truest form when it’s simply being. But Coehlo actually challenges this and says we must work to be better. This is our personal legend.
Fear deafens the heart. Love amplifies it. Listen to your heart and trust your intuition, and in doing so you’ll understand the pursuit.
There’s so much to takeaway from this book, and I look forward to reading it again to relearn all this and more. Trust the omens my friends!
by sposeitwas2swallows