I read this book on a flight to New Orleans.  It was amazing.  I loved this book.  I wanted to give it to a person, for them to read, but that wasn’t meant to be.  As it is…so be it.

• The Valkyries
  • An Encounter with Angels
  • Author: Paulo Coelho
  • Pub:  HarperOne
• “And an angel descended where they were and the glory of the Lord shone all about them” Luke 2:9
• Prologue
  • “Something of great importance to me?”  Women,” J. said.  “Magic and women.”
  • “And I would have found a beautiful woman disciple to take your place.”
  • “It was he who taught me to understand that love is the only thing that never fails.  He who had the patients to lead me along the intricate paths of magic.  He who had the courage and dignity, despite his powers, to present himself always as a person with some doubts and with certain weaknesses.  He who helped me to understand the forces that can transform our lives.”
  • …hiding his disappointment
  • Regarding clouds:  “You see the soul of the rivers.  Rivers that have just been reborn in the sea.  They will also rise to the sky, and remain there until, for whatever reason, they once again become rain and fall to earth.”  “The rivers return to the mountains, but carry with them the wisdom of the sea.”
  • “You are a river.  You have already run down to the sea, and you know its wisdom.  You have died and been reborn many times.  All you have to do is remember.”
  • “Why?  Why must I do this?”  “Because people always kill the things they love…”
  • And each man kills the thing he loves
    By all let this be heard
    Some do it with a bitter look,
    Some with a flattering word,
    The coward does it with a kiss
    The brave man with a sword.
  • He was going to find that he did not necessarily deserve all that he had received.
  • The curse can be broken if you complete the task.  DO NOT GIVE IN TO DISTRACTIONS.
  • “I should have married an engineer…” (It’s always a choice, but not a very good one for me.)
  • He has always wanted to leave everything behind.
• One
  • “The desert is made of morning and  afternoons….the other times are risky.”
  • “…he told me that some things are so important that you have to learn about them on your own.”
  • If you’re in love with someone, you can have that person inside your head.  The same thing happens with someone you want to forget about. (Regarding 2nd mind)
• Two
  • (p31) …and had been prepared by the Tradition to be ready to act when the gates to paradise opened.
  • (p32) “magic-space’
  • (p33) “No, It was because I was afraid of being alone in the desert.”  He could have said it was because he loves me, she thought. 
  • We are creating terrains.  Our ‘earthquakes’ raise mountains.  Our ‘twisters’ clear paths.  This is necessary.
• Three
  • (p40) What a dope, she thought. To get angry in the midst of such beauty, and right after they had been talking about such interesting things…”
  • (p50) A sacred hymn opens a gate to heaven and heaven appears
  • (p51) The elemental, the disembodied spirits, the saints and the angels.
    They traditionally appear in the form of dwarfs, fairies, or salamanders.
  • “Why is he saying this?”  “Has he forgotten that I’m a master of magic, too?” (ego)
  • Speaking in tongues.  We can build a new tomorrow, today.
  • And he asked that his angel help him to be clear, because — by God! — it was so difficult to explain
  • (p55) “Angels are love in motion.  They never rest, they struggle to grow, and they are beyond good and evil.  Love that consumes all, that destroys all, that forgives all.  Angels are made of that love, and are at the same time its messengers.
  • “There is no love in peace.  Whoever seeks peace is lost.” (Whoa!)
  • …she could not think of one moment when love had ever brought her peace.  It was always accompanied by agony, intense joy and deep sadness.
  • (p58) ...he needed to make use of your hands to tether them to the stone.” (fable re: horses not running away)  USE YOUR HANDS
• Four
  • As you fly…look our the window.  You will see physical evidence of our communal shares on the terrain.  We’re making the new Earth.
  • (p64) He could not act toward her in the same way as he did with other disciples — after all, she knew his faults and weaknesses.
  • effort
  • (p67) The second mind was there, barring the entrance… (Second guesses…doubts…fears…)
  • (p68) She needed to speak the pure language of the heart
  • (p69) “The planet set aside certain places for itself.  It tells us to go away…. The earth is able to be alone.”
  • (p72) He loved his wife, but he was getting fed up with marriage.  He needed some strong passion in his love.
  • (p73) He was beginning to understand what J. had meant when he said that people wind up killing what they love most.
  • (p75) “Do me a favor,” she said, looking directly into her husband’s eyes.  “Don’t leave me in the middle of the road.”
• Five
  • Stop destroying things in your periods of rage.  Please.  Look to horizon.
  • (p83)  “Because I’m desperately in need of help.  I have won important things for myself, but I am going to destroy them, because I tell myself that they have lost their meaning.  I know it’s not true.  I know they are still important, and that if I destroy them, I’ll be destroying myself, as well.”
  • Ask for help when I find myself sinking.
  • Three conditions for conversing with one’s angel:
    • Break a pact
    • Accept forgiveness
    • Make a bet
  • (p91)  There was a limit.  …Her angel had said that Paulo was going to need her that afternoon.
  • There are always limits…and then, reactions
  • Everything that was hidden had to be revealed
• Six
  • (p96) “I’m talking about your pact with defeat.”
  • (p97) Without really knowing why, I began to gain weight, to take poor care of myself, to become unattractive.  Because – unconsciously – I felt that my beauty was a curse, and had caused suffering for my best friend.
  • “That’s why there is an angel with a burning sword at the gates to paradise.  To allow entry only to those who have broken the pact.”
  • (p103) …the Beast had never gotten that far.  (Veil of Parkoth)
  • and he was ashamed
  • “God has the right to destroy me…I do not.”
  • The angel knew about the pact too, and was happy at not having to devote efforts to keeping Paulo from destroying himself.
• Seven
  • (p118)  By the rivers of Babylon,
    There we sad down, yea, and wept.
    We hung our harps upon the willows
    In the midst of it
  • (p119)  “There is no sin but the lack of love…” “Have courage, be capable of loving, even if love appears to be a treacherous and terrible thing.  Be happy in love.  Be joyful in victory.  Follow the dictates of your heart.”
  • And what of obligations?  Children?  Spouses?  Bills and homes and responsibilities? “Well, meet your obligations.  But obligations never prevented anyone from following their dreams…”
  • (p120) They took pride in battle
  • (p122)  There is an invisible thread that unites all those on the side of the light…and this thread is becoming a strong, shining rope…anchored by the angels.”
  • Seventh Beam. I serve the Beam
  • …it brings back something they had forgottren
  • (p126)  That’s all I was told to do.  (I was told “be the ABE34 gate)
  • She was a warrior, but she, too, needed to rest.
• Eight
  • They made love to men they met along the way.
  • (p135)  Forgive my errors, and fill my heart with enthusiasm.  Grant me the strength to be both man and woman, both hard and soft.
  • She remembered when she had just been an employee at the Chase Manhattan Bank, and when her life amounted to nothing more than her husband and her two children. (What of her talk of “take care of your obligations?)
  • (p136)  Maria Egipciaca surrendered herself to the boatman.  When she arrived at Jerusalem, and angel appeared and blessed her for what she had done.  …Became the lover of wealthy men
  • I need love, affection.  I need someone who can protect me here on earth, just as my angel protects me in heaven.
  • The Ritual That Demolishes Rituals
  • Using what???  “Using hatred.”
  • “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.”
  • (p147) “The woman who knows the secret you are after.  Extract that secret from her, or give it up forever.”
  • (p156) Because we have dared to dream, an to believe in those things no one else any longer believes in.
  • “Punish us because we speak of faith, and we feel hopeless.  We speak of love, but we receive neither the affection nor the comfort we feel we deserve.  We speak of freedom and we are prisoners to our own guilt.”
• Nine
  • “We are part of this world, Lord.  And this world is filled with our fears.
  • “If we love, the world changes.  The light of love scatters the darkness of guilt.”
  • “Require us to seek out the love of others.  Even with fear of rejection, of severe glances, of the hardness of heart of some — do not permit us ever to give up our quest for love.”
  • “May the fire of love grown in our hearts.
    May the fire of transformation glow in our movements,
    May the fire of purification burn away our sins.
    May the fire of justice guide our steps
    May the fire of wisdom illuminate our path
    May the fire that spreads over the Earth never be extinguished.  It has returned, and we carry it within us.”
  • We are warriors of the light, this light we carry with pride.”
  • “And for this we accept forgiveness.  There is no more guilt, and we can return to paradise.  And we will bring with us the fire that will burn on earth.”
  • We wash away our sins, for love of the transformation that is going to shake the Earth.
  • The gates are open.  We are worthy to enter.
• Ten
  • (p162)  do not look at out sins, but at the faith that animates your assembly
  • I love him.  She is only enamored.
  • I too need to change.  This woman is an instrument of the angels.
  • …her angel had taught her that such things took no one away from God, or from the sacred task each person had to perform in their life.
  • (p164)  standing before a mirror
  • She knew the five rules of victory, and has slept with every man she desired, but she had forgotten the art of love.
• Eleven
  • “Bets and pacts are made with the angels.  Or with the devils.”
• Twelve
  • Each person had his own gift.
  • They were prisoners of their past.
  • Because we’re different from one another.
  • Why am I acting this way?  What’s going on with me?
  • “You’re not even giving me a chance to talk.”
  • …she really hadn’t permitted him to talk.  Now it was too late.  She had to allow her second mind to recite its boring problems.  To voice the same concerns, over and over.
  • (p188)  He walked along, looking up at the sky.  He was still thinking about his bet, and about the planes.  “Often I look at people like J.,” he said.  “People like J., who are at peace, and through that peace, find communion with God.  I look at you, able to talk with your angel before I was — even though it was I who came here to do that.  I watch you sleeping so soundly, while I’m standing at the window, and I ask myself why the miracle I’m waiting so desperately for doesn’t happen.  And I ask myself:  Did I choose the wrong path?
    He turned to her “What do you thing?  Did I choose the wrong path?
    Chris took his hand in hers.  “no.  You would be very unhappy.”
    “And so would you if you had chosen mine.”
    “That’s a good thing to remember.”
  • (p192)  Valhalla was a fantasy.  The warrior women, the huntress.
  • Each would always be fascinated by the other — so long as each remained exactly what the other imagined.  (When you break myth to go inside, to pairbond, please to not hold me to the facade of the myth.  I am more than my avatar and more than what you need me to be.)
  • …although each had seen them differently.  She knew his weaknesses, his moments of hatred, of despair.  Yet she was there at his side.
• Thirteen
  • (p202) “There.  It’s done.”
  • (p207)  …our moments of weakness and desperation – all are unimportant
  • 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…
  • …because one that his happy can look at the world only with love.
  • …but you forgot that people are insecure, and they need someone to guide them.
  • But my love is stronger.
  • Love is even stronger…and it will help us grow.