The Valkyries

simple fact: Love—of God and of others—shows us the way. Our defects, our dangerous depths, our suppressed hatreds, our moments of weakness and desperation—all are unimportant. If what we want to do is heal ourselves first, so that
then
we can go in search of our dreams, we will never reach paradise. If, on the other hand, we accept all that is wrong about us—and despite it, believe that we are deserving of a happy life—then we will have thrown open an immense window that will allow Love to enter. Little by little, our defects will disappear, because one who ishappy can look at the world only with love—the force that regenerates everything that exists in the Universe.
    In
The Brothers Karamazov,
Dostoyevsky tells us the story of the Grand Inquisitor, which I paraphrase here:
    During the religious persecutions in Sevilla, when all who did not agree with the Church were thrown into prison, or burned at the stake, Christ returns to earth and mixes in with the multitudes. But the Grand Inquisitor notes his presence, and orders him jailed.
    That night, he goes to visit Jesus in his cell. And he asks why Jesus has decided to return at that particular moment. “You are making things difficult for us,” the Grand Inquisitor says. ‘After all, your ideals were lovely, but it is we who are capable of putting them into practice.” He argues that, although the Inquisition might be judged in the future to have been severe, it is necessary, and that he is simply doing his job. There is no use talking of peace when man’s heart is always at war; nor speaking of a better world when there is so much hatred in man’s heart. There was no use in Jesus’ having sacrificed himself in the name of the humanrace, when human beings still feel guilty. “You said that all people are equal, that each has the divine light within, but you forgot that people are insecure, and they need someone to guide them. Don’t make our work more difficult than it is. Go away,” says the Grand Inquisitor, having laid out all of his brilliant arguments.
    When he is finished, there is silence in the cell. Then Jesus comes to the Grand Inquisitor, and kisses him on the cheek.
    “You may be right,” Jesus says. “But my love is stronger.”
    We are not alone. The world is changing, and we are a part of the transformation. The angels guide us and protect us. Despite all the injustice in the world, and despite the things that happen to us that we feel we don’t deserve, and despite the fact that we sometimes feel incapable of changing what is wrong with people and with the world, and despite all of the Grand Inquisitor’s arguments—love is even stronger, and it will help us to grow. Only then will we be able to understand the stars and miracles.

Also by Paulo Coelho
    The Alchemist
    The Pilgrimage
    By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
    The Fifth Mountain
    Veronika Decides to Die
    The Devil and Miss Prym
    Manual of the Warrior of Light
    Eleven Minutes
    The Zahir
    Like the Flowing River
    The Witch of Portobello

AUTHOR’S NOTE
     
    Anyone who has read
The Valkyries
will know that this book is very different from
The Pilgrimage
(previously published as
The Diary of a Magus), The Alchemist,
and
Brida.
    It was an extremely difficult book to write. First, because it deals with matters that require sensitivity on the part of the reader. Second, because I have already told this story to many people, and I feared that I might have exhausted my capacity to write it down. This fear remained with me from the first page to the last, but—thank God—it was only a fear.
    The third and most important reason: In order to relate the events that took place, I had to reveal details from my personal life—my marriage, my relationships with others, and the fragile distance that separates the magical Tradition to which I belong from the person I am. As is true for any human being, exposing my weaknesses and my private life is not easy.
    But—as was made quite clear in
The Pilgrimage
—the path to magic is the path of the common people. One can have a master, follow the esotericTradition, and possess the discipline needed to perform rituals; but the spiritual search is made up of many beginnings (thus the searcher is called an “initiate,” someone who is always in the act of beginning something), and the only thing that matters—always—is the will to go on.
    The Valkyries
clearly presents the man that exists behind the magus, and this may