Introducing the Paulo Coelho Read Along of The Pilgrimage

Our read-along book for February 2024 - with a timetable and character list.

An Introduction:

The Pilgrimage was not the first published book by Paulo, but it was his first success in 1987 when it was published by Editoria Rocco Ltd in Portuguese as O Diário de Um Mago and was then picked up by HarperCollins Publishers in English as The Diary of a Magus (Wizard.) We are going to start our slow read of Paulo’s 10-book classic collection with this rich and mysterious story and it will lay the foundations for our reading of all his subsequent books in that it will introduce his unique style of storytelling, which can best be described as ambiguous and enigmatic.

Reading Timetable:

Each week this month I will be adding a commentary in advance of our reading the following pages below. At the end of each commentary, there will be the opportunity for you to add your comments, thoughts, and reflections with the rest of the Paulo Coelho Read Along community. We’re looking forward to sharing this read and deepening our appreciation of Paulo’s work through your contribution.

If you don’t own a copy already Order the book here: https://amzn.to/3HA30hM

Week One: Thursday, February 1st, Pages 1 to 69.

Including chapters: Prologue, Arrival, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, The Creator and the Created, and Cruelty.

Including Exercises: The Seed Exercise, The Speed Exercise, and The Cruelty Exercise.

Week Two: Thursday, February 8th, Pages 71 to 135.

Including chapters: The Messenger, Love, Marriage, Enthusiasm.

Including Exercises: The Messenger Ritual, The Arousal of Intuition (The Water Exercise), and The Blue Sphere Exercise.

Week Three: Thursday, February 15th, Pages 137 to 204.

Including chapters: Death, Personal Vices, Conquest, Madness.

Including Exercises: The Buried Alive Exercise, The RAM breathing exercise, and The Shadows Exercise.

Week Four: Thursday, February 22nd, Pages 205 to 276.

Including chapters: Command and Obedience, The Tradition, El Cebrero , Epilogue: Santiago de Compostela.

Including Exercises: The Listening Exercise, and The Dance Exercise.

List of Characters:

Narrator and Main Character: Paulo Coelho (Aged 38)

In Mexico

Paulo’s Wife: Not named (Presumably Christina Oiticica - they were married in 1980.)

The Master: (J) A member of the order of the RAM. (Regnus Agnus Mundi, and /or Rigour, Adoration and Mercy.)

In Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France

Mme Lourdes: Paulo’s first contact upon arrival.

The Gypsy: A stranger whom Paulo thinks is his guide but is later regarded as the devil.

Petrus: His guide for the journey.

In Roncesvalles, Spain

The Sorcerer: A monk, Father Jordi, who gives Paulo the blessing of the Virgin of Roncesvalles.

In an unnamed village.

The Old Man: A Storyteller who relates the tale of Felicia of Aquitaine.

In Puenta de la Reina.

The Boy with the Ball: Discovering your personal Devil and Angel.

In Estella.

The Messenger, Astrain: Paulo’s personal messenger.

In an unnamed town.

The Owner of the bar: Who accuses Paulo and Petrus of blasphemy and admits there’s a curse on the town.

The Priest: He denies there’s a curse on a house in the town.

The Woman in the House: She denies her house is cursed.

The Dog: It attacks Paulo in the cursed house.

In Logroño.

The Popcorn vendor: He defends the time of Franco’s rule.

Antonio: He led the Spanish fans in their cheers at the World Cup in Mexico in 1986.

At the hermitage.

Alfonso: The monk who lives in the hermitage.

Near Azofra.

The Nun: She appears at the moment the dog reappears.

At Foncebadon

Legion: The dog now has a name.

An unnamed village.

The woman and the young medical officer: They assist in Paulo’s recovery from the dog attack.

In Ponferrada.

The High Priest: He oversees the ritual of the Knights of the Templar.

The Australian: He recovers his sword.

In Villafranca del Bierzo.

The Little Girl: She offers to take Paulo to the ‘Gates of Forgiveness’.

**

Plot Summary:

The back cover blurb of the edition of my early 1992 copy of The Diary of a Magus - Lessons in the Art of Self-Discovery (Harper Odyssey - San Francisco), reads…

‘Follow one of South America’s most popular authors as he journeys along the ancient Road to discover personal power, wisdom, and a miraculous sword.

‘The Diary of a Magus’ recounts the spectacular trials of Paulo Coelho and his mentor, Petrus, as they make their pilgrimage across Spain to recover the ceremonial sword that will seal Coelho’s initiation into the secret society called ‘The Tradition’. Part adventure story, part guide to self-mastery, this compelling narrative reveals the precise exercises in self-control and self-discovery that Coelho learned through his journey.

A fascinating mix of chivalry and mysticism, ‘The Diary of a Magus’ delivers a powerful brew of magic and insight.’

Nowhere in the description of that edition, nor any other I can find since, is the book referred to as a novel - (reviewers of the book take note). It’s varyingly described as a gripping story, an exciting tale, a universal quest, and a captivating account. This presents the reader with the first corundum: what am I reading here? It’s not a novel in the traditional understanding of that genre, and it’s not a parody, a diary, or a travel journal. This is an important point that deserves attention at the outset of reading this book or The Valkyries - which we will be reading later.

For what it’s worth I’ve decided to place The Pilgrimage into the category of ‘Magic Realism’ - which is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as ‘a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy.’

I mention this from the outset to assist you in your appreciation of this book, but also as a way of hopefully relieving you from wanting to ask certain questions that could easily distract from the purpose of his writing. May I suggest a few questions from my reading of The Pilgrimage in particular?

- Is this a factual account of a real pilgrimage that Paulo made along the Camino de Santiago?

What appears to be factual is that sometime in 1986, Paulo did walk part of the pilgrim road, but has since revealed that he did not complete it on foot. He ended in O Cebreiro and arrived in Santiago by bus (approximately 160 km), and that fact is not in his story. Then he makes no effort to try and substantiate the authenticity of the characters who appear on his journey apart from his wife, Christina, whom he mentions, but not by name. Everyone else in the story could be fictional.

There is nothing in his comments over the years since the book was published to suggest that he was writing a factual account of anything that happened to him on the journey. It could all be pure fiction. It could be full of imagined events triggered by mundane instances along his journey. We will never know for sure and more importantly, Paulo does not seem to think it matters. He’s not a journalist or a travel writer, he’s a storyteller.

Why did Paulo write ‘The Pilgrimage’?

To assist in answering that question, we should probably take a look at where Paulo was at with his life in 1986. I have covered this in my post:

Introducing the magical world of the enigmatic Paulo Coelho

A decade before writing Paulo discovered Aleister Crowley, and then joined the Alternative Society, a sect that advocated drugs and practised black magic, and sought to embody Crowley’s principle ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.’ He met the record producer and singer Raul Seixas and began writing songs for him. He also initiated Seixas into the Alternative Society and introduced him to drugs.

By 1982, he’d slowly backed away from his hard-core involvement but had earned himself the nickname ‘The Wizard’, by which he was widely known in Brazil (and by some still to this day.) He married Christina and says, ‘I was very happy with the things I was doing. I was doing something that gave me food and water – to use the metaphor in The Alchemist, I was working, I had a person whom I loved, I had money, but I was not fulfilling my dream. My dream was, and still is, to be a writer.’

‘I don’t regret my experience with black magic, and, of course, it gives me a kind of aura—it’s good for my biography,’ Paulo is on record as saying. But the only book he has ever destroyed was one about his two years in the sect. Christina, his fourth and last wife, asked him not to publish it. 

Then he met the mysterious ‘J’ - an apparent spiritual mentor around whom Paulo created a mythological cloak of ritual to portray a transition back to Catholicism (in the Brazilian cultural version), and this was around the time he did the pilgrimage and wrote the book. Then after the pilgrimage, he left his lucrative career as a songwriter to pursue writing full-time.

Taking all of that into consideration I propose that The Pilgrimage became the vehicle for an outward expression of a transformational time where Paulo finally moved from the dark side and into the light, and most of the imagery, mythology, and symbolism he used in the story is potentially simply metaphorical. It serves the purpose of delivering deeper meaning dramatically and entertainingly.

So we will commence our slow read of The Pilgrimage next week and before then I will provide a commentary outlining what I see as the key themes of the book.

In the meantime - here is some Bonus Material for paid subscribers who want to dive deeper into the mind of ‘The Wizard’ to discover the transformational process he points to beneath the text.

Read More here: