The Valkyries: An Encounter with Angels

The Valkyries: An Encounter with Angels
Paulo Coelho

October 2005

Well yes...another Mr. Coelho's inspirational semi-religious booster. This one had much more God element inside than the previous titles I've read. As usual, thought provoking and since I feel the better part of it came from the words, here's a compiled list of good ones...

He told me that some things are so important that you have to learn about them on you own.

The planet has set aside certain places for itself. It tells us to go away. In those places, without the millions of life forms that walk on its surface, the earth is able to be alone. It also needs its solitude, for it needs to understand itself.

Everything we do in the daily world is a ritual. Just as a mass is a great ritual, composed of various parts, the everyday experience of any person is, also. A carefully elaborate ritual that the person tries to perform precisely, because he or she is afraid that- if any part is left out- everything will go wrong. The name of that ritual is routine. When we are young we don’t take anything too seriously. But slowly, this set of daily rituals becomes solidified, and takes over. Once things have begun to go along pretty much as we imagined they would, we don’t dare risk altering the ritual. We like to complain, but we are reassured by the fact that each day is more or less like every other. At least there is no unexpected danger. That way we are able to avoid any inner or outer growth, except for the kinds that are provided for within the rituals: so many children, such and such a kind of promotion, this and that kind of financial success. When the ritual becomes consolidated, the person becomes a slave.

He recalled that once an animal trainer had told him how he was able to keep his elephants under control. The elephants, as infants, were bound by chains to a log. They would try to escape, but could not. They tried throughout their entire infancy, but the log was stronger than they were. So they became accustomed to captivity. And when they were huge and strong, all the trainer had to do was place the chain around one of their legs and anchor it anywhere- even to a twig- and they would not attempt to escape. They were prisoners of their past.

Someone once said that the earth produces enough to satisfy needs, but not enough to satisfy greed

I said to the old woman that I knew that I was going to die. “No,” she said. Not like an old person does. For you, it’s a remote idea. It might happen some day. For us, it’s something that could happen tomorrow. That’s while many elderly people spend the time remaining to them looking only in one direction: the past. It’s not that they’re so fond of their memories; rather they know that in that direction they won’t see anything to be feared. Very few old people look to the future, and I’m one of them. When we look into the future, we see what it holds for us: death.”