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.
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 esoteric Tradition, 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 disappoint those who are looking for "perfect beings," with their perfect truths regarding everything. But true seekers know that, regardless of our faults and defects, the spiritual path is stronger. God is love, generosity, and forgiveness; if we believe in this, we will never allow our weaknesses to paralyze us.
The events narrated in this book took place between September 5 and October 17, 1988. The sequential order of some of the events has been changed, and in two places I made use of fiction, only so that the reader could better grasp the matter at hand. But all of the essential events are true. The letter quoted in the Epilogue is on file at the Registry of Titles and Documents in Rio de Janeiro under number 478038.
Paulo Coelho
Praise
International Acclaim for Paulo Coelho
"Among Latin American writers only Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez is more widely read than Brazil's Paulo Coelho."
--The Economist
"Coelho exhibits an amazing virtue of transparency that makes his writing like a path of energy that inadvertently leads readers to themselves, toward their mysterious and faraway souls."
--Figaro Litteraire, France "Paulo Coelho represents the legend of the wise storyteller."
--Corriere della Sera, Italy "Coelho reveals, through his powerful poetry, a unique and incomparable message of life as well as developing a path to reach the Eternity."
--Excelsior, Mexico
"Coelho is a pilgrim of a literature that soothes the soul, and of a philosophy that rediscovers the spirituality in people, our personal quest and reunion with the forgotten, everyday beauty of the world in which we live and the paths we weave. His books are a mirror: Refreshing, intense, messengers of love and of man's most essential path. His magic irradiates when, after reading his books, one feels happy."
--El Espectador, Colombia "[Coelho's] magic lies in the straightforward stance of being and living, and in those wholesome and positive concepts he feels able to convey."
--Minas Gerais Daily
ALSO BY PAULO COELHO
The Alchemist
The Pilgrimage
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
Credits
Cover design by Doreen Louie
Cove photograph (c) 2000 by Larry Ulrich
Copyright
The Valkries is an English version of As Valkirias, the Portugues original edition, published in Brazil by Editora Rocca Ltd. (Rio de Janeiro), copyright (c) 1992 by Paulo Coelho. English translation prepared by Alan R. Clarke.
THE VALKYRIES. English translation copyright (c) 1995 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition (c) APRIL 2006 ISBN: 9780061842863
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Coelho, Paulo.
[Valkirias. English]
The Valkyries: an encounter with angels/ Paulo Coelho; translated by Alan R. Clarke.
ISBN: 0-06-251291-9 (cloth) ISBN: 0-06-251333-8 (intn'l.) 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32
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Paulo Coelho, The Valkyries: An Encounter With Angels
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