The Alchemist - The Universe and its Omens

In my life, I've consistently been propelled one way or another, sometimes with being aware of the experience, and other times without being aware. More often than not, when I am aware of being called to something, I am cognizant of a decision-making process that begins. I can say that, without a doubt, I have always benefitted from embracing internal prompting, wherever it comes from, whether it be from God or a web of psychological processes.

It is difficult to go into very specific examples of following my inner voice without alluding to others and possibly causing harm. So, I will avoid doing so. It is enough to say some things land right in our laps and we practically have no choice but to embrace them and follow them through. Other things are more elusive, and we are prone to forcing or ignoring them because of ideals we have either created or adopted. When things occur naturally and we recognize them in that way, we often have very little work or convincing to do, internally. When we force them or ignore them, because we think something ought to be true, or because we feel we will somehow be able to change someone or something in a positive way, we are often fighting an uphill battle. Our intentions are good, our hearts are full, but both are misplaced.

I recently finished reading Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, a short, accessible, but epic story about a boy named Santiago, and his search for an ambiguous treasure. Somehow or another, The Alchemist was never on my radar, but it should have been. I don't know how I missed it. My initial impression upon finishing it was one of great satisfaction, and I am more able to look for and hopefully embrace the signs around me that are constantly guiding us on our personal legends.

The Alchemist should probably be read more than once. In the first reading, the reader is drawn into Santiago's character and the process of unraveling the meaning behind everything he experiences, as he goes from being a thoughtful shepherd, to a reluctant

adventurer, to someone confidently in pursuit of a goal he does not completely understand. A second reading would be revealing, because the reader would be settled in with the plot, and could be more attentive to the omens that move Santiago closer to his treasure. In fact, the book is drenched in omens. Everything means something, which only becomes apparent as the reader progresses towards the end. Reading it a second, even third time would no doubt prove Hemingway's iceberg analogy to be true. He said a great story is like an iceberg, in which the majority of the substance is beneath the surface.

A general discussion of the Alchemist in a single blog entry is challenging, because there are a lot of directions in which the discussion could go. It is famously aligned with Joseph Campbell's monomyth, as outlined in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, so a Campbellinian analysis is certainly possible and applicable, but that would turn into an exercise. The goal of this blog is self-reflection and growth, so, while the monomyth will be discussed throughout, it will also be focused on what the story means to me more personally. The good news is, Campbell's book changed my life some years ago, and I've read it more than once, taught it as a central text in a World Literature class, and typically view most stories and, increasingly, situations as they relate to his monomyth.

We meet Santiago in his familiar world, the world of a shepherd. The opening paragraph is significant, because we meet him where we eventually leave him, in a

dilapidated church in his home country. In the beginning of the story, the dilapidated church symbolizes the state of Santiago's soul. He is somewhat content, but is not pursuing what Coelho calls a personal legend. He is doing what is comfortable and safe, and could probably go on doing it forever, while only ever managing to become an incomplete person. But, we get indicators almost immediately that Santiago has something churning in him. It comes across most powerfully in his infatuation with a beautiful young woman he met about a year earlier. His longing for her lets the reader know his heart is alive and well. She is an important character in that regard, because, even though we never meet her, she deepens Santiago's character, and she helps us understand Fatima later on, a woman Santiago meets in the desert whom he deeply loves.

It would be laborious and even counter-productive to chronicle every omen and plot development that occurs throughout the story. For this blog, it is enough to say that Santiago's journey ends where it begins. He returns home with the treasure, or Campbell's elixir. In fact, the treasure was right where the story began, which is meaningful in itself. Santiago traveled around the world to find an ambiguous treasure. He learned alchemy and how to communicate with the soul of the world. He realized that we are surrounded by omens and to pursue our personal legend we have to be able to recognize the omens and then not be afraid to follow them. But, in the end, the omens led him back to where he came from. The treasure was buried under that dilapidated church. He traveled around the world on an amazing journey just to discover his treasure was located within, where he originally was. It is the full cycle of the monomyth.

It reminds me of something Thich Naht Hahn once wrote, "I have arrived. I am home.

My destination is in each step." This is not to say that we don't ever need to go anywhere to become self-actualized. It means we get preoccupied with going "somewhere," thinking that our goal or our treasure is located or is hidden in some remote place, or at the end of some intense struggle. This may be the case at times, but often when we are going through a process of renewal it seems we learn the answers are somewhere within us. The road ahead lies within. It seems that's the point of the journey, to discover the potential that's within us, that's always been there. That's part of the greatness of the discovery, that we discover our own resourcefulness, our innate potential to achieve self-actualization.

In a book like The Alchemist, the best we can do in a light blog entry is to think broadly, and to pick out a few things that seem to be the most meaningful. There are certainly gems of wisdom throughout the story, but the statement, "When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it," is a unifying pillar. That statement, coupled with the emphasis on recognizing and having faith in omens, are the broadest ideas in the story that speak to me. Within them, we have elements of faith, destiny, free will, purpose, meaning, and hope. Like the Buddha taught, "All we are is all we have thought." This is also reflects The Secret, a book and movie about the power of our thinking.

The Alchemist teaches us that our desires become the work of the universe. We just have to want something, and to believe we can get it, and in some way we will. This can work both for and against us. If we are mired in misery and think we are destined for nothing but the worst, that's what we will get. If we are blessed with optimism and know we are going to somehow achieve happiness, we somehow will. However, most of us are not clear on what we want. Or, we think we want something because it comes easily, like something familiar, something we've grown up believing, or even something someone else tells us is valuable. These things are not part of our personal legend. They are decidedly impersonal. They can never come from within. Santiago latched on to the life of being a shepherd. It was practically his heritage, and he knew what that life would be like. But, he was spurned forward by his love for the young woman he met in one of the towns he visited. Love was what drove him, and is what led him to meet the old, mysterious king, who gave Santiago the call to adventure. Just imagine Santiago's character without what he felt for the young woman. He would have been emotionless and flat, with nothing coursing through him. Love propelled him forward.

Throughout the story, we see conditions manifest in a way that repeatedly leads to Santiago being propelled in pursuit of his personal legend. When he finally meets the Alchemist, he is nearing the Egyptian pyramids, and he learns how to speak the one

language of the universe, which enables him to communicate with the soul of the world. All the while, love again helps him on his journey, but this time it is unconditional love, not the fantasy of an ideal, which he experiences in his relationship with Fatima. Whatever feminine stereotypes exist in the character of Fatima, it is necessary for Santiago's personal legend. Fatima is the life giver. She and Santiago bond together in a natural, magnetic way. She knows that to love him is to enable him to achieve his personal legend. She encourages him to go, and assures him she is prepared for a life that consists of loving him while he pursues what he needs to pursue. This satisfies Santiago's desire for love, and also frees him, because he has her love, and he is simultaneously able to pursue the treasure, which we can safely say is both a chest of jewels and self-actualization.

There isn't a plan or expectation for someone like Fatima. Symbolically, it matters that he found her in the desert, on his journey. He was completely vulnerable, not knowing where he was heading. He would have kept pursuing the treasure without her, but we can conclude that he probably wouldn't have succeeded. She came unexpectedly, as an archetype, and gave him his final inspiration and passion to pursue his treasure. When there were no strings to play, she played to him. Still, she is one of many ways the universe conspired to help Santiago achieve what he wants. On the one hand, he valued love, and he valued meeting a woman like Fatima. It was central to his character, so his journey to her was also the result of the universe conspiring to help him meet her. On the other hand, she is ultimately an aid on his personal legend, albeit an essential aid, as Campbell's idea of a woman being a life-giver supports. Although he would not have achieved it without her unconditional love and support, his personal legend consists in finding the treasure... and self-actualization.

The idea of omens being everywhere is one of the most powerful assertions in The Alchemist. This is where mindfulness comes in, because to recognize and hopefully understand the omens, all we really need to do is pay attention. More specifically, we

need to be tuned in to the idea that omens exist, and we need to be willing to embrace them. Santiago certainly encounters omens throughout the novella, but the only way the story is relevant in our lives is if we can bridge it to our experiences. For every major transition I've undergone, certainly in the past few years, I can look back and see omens, or the writing on the wall. Interestingly, the omens can start within, or maybe that's the only place they ever exist. Even if they are prompted by something external, it's the internal reaction that ultimately matters, and our response to that reaction. We either stuff it away, try to get rid of it, flirt with it, or we embrace it. I'm happy to say I embraced it, and, just like we hear about or read over and over, embracing it leads to the changes. From there, once one process ends and others begin, there are new things to embrace, and those new things come to us when the old are washed or being washed away, and they are part of a rebirth. But, it all starts with paying attention to the omens, paying attention to the signs both within and without. It's good news that they are all around us.