By Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers Ahead: We come to another Paulo Coelho book and this one discusses many of the points made in The Alchemist about following one's Soul and believing in the magic around us. Though this puts Coelho's lessons in a more urban contemporary setting. Instead of a the Sahara Desert in an undisclosed time period, we are taken to 1980's Dublin to see the magic that could be around us right this very moment.
Brida O'Fern, a young Irish woman, appears in front of a teacher known only as the Magus and tells him, out of the blue, "I want to learn about magic." She didn't have any premonitions or supernatural encounters as a child, Brida just has a need to know about the Universe and most of all about Love.
Fair enough, says The Magus. As all guides do in a story where someone searches for their heart's desire, gives her a task. She must spend the night in the woods. Brida spends a terrifying night where her imagination runs wild with frightening noises and her own doubts and insecurities about her desire to learn magic and whether or not she can trust The Magus. (After all spending the night alone in the woods because a total stranger twice one's age told them could lead to a specific case of "Stranger Danger" at the very least.)
Lucky for us and Brida, The Magus has only the best of intentions and she passes the first test, that she is sincere and confident in wanting to learn magic. Brida is then led to another teacher, Wicca who takes a more hands-on approach to the young student.
One of the most unique ways that Wicca (and Coelho) show Magic is how commonplace it is and how effective a teacher is Wicca. Wicca hands Brida a deck of cards and asks Brida if she can see visions within them. After several days of trying and giving up in frustration, Wicca launches into a boring story about her plumber. While Brida half-listens, she sees changes in the cards. This passage illustrates that Magic isn't supposed to come from commanding it, but comes when it isn't expected.
Wicca uses other commonplace methods to help Brida learn more about the secrets to Magic. In one scene, the two take a trip to a
cathedral and Brida has a dream of a past life in which she was a persecuted Cathar in Medieval France. In another passage, Wicca asks Brida to close her eyes and describe the contents in a shop window which she does effertlessly. These passages highlight Brida's real world setting and how her magic could be used in her everyday life.
A refreshing take that Coelho explores in Brida is the concept of Love and Soul Mates. While he puts Brida in a love triangle, he does it better than most writers by having his characters act like adults. The moment The Magus sees Brida, he notices the "light in her eyes" which his tradition dictates that she is his Soul Mate. Instead of pursuing her, The Magus helps her by learning magic.
Unfortunately, Coelho gives him an upsetting back story in which he broke a happy relationship with a woman simply because she was not his soul mate making him something of a heel. However, the follow up to that story suggests that The Magus was simply young and inexperienced at the time-practically Evangelical in the concept of Soul Mates. Now he's older and wiser, there could be another chance for that relationship and that sometimes you don't need the light to see that you can have more than one Soul Mate.
Brida is also involved in a relationship with Lorens, a young physics student. The Reader braces themselves for a tired Magic Vs. Science Debate. Instead Lorens is 100 percent supportive as they discuss the different terms for energy and the Universe that they could be he same things spoken in different languages. Lorens is very similar to Fatima in the Alchemist in that he loves her so much that he is willing to wait for her. (Even wanting to go to the Pagan fires with Brida to see her get Initiated.)
Brida herself is constantly concerned about the concepts of Soul Mates. While she loves and admires both Lorens and The Magus, she is confused about which one is supposed to be her Soul Mate. Her back story of having several broken relationships convey that her quest to find her Soul Mate is based on her fear and assurance over who her true love is. Like the lesson with the cards, once she stops looking and worrying about it, the solution provides itself in a satisfactory and happy way for all involved.
Coehlo's symbolism can sometimes be pretty obvious and right on the nose. The Magus and Wicca are named for two distinct forms of Paganism and Magic. The Magus' name suggests an older tradition of druids and sorcerors bound by rules and rituals. People in history, mostly men but some women who stay at the right hand of Kings and we're instructors and teachers before they fell by the wayside and went into hiding (Much like The Magus who retreated into the woods after his teaching days were done.)
Wicca's name suggests the more modern Pagan movement created by Gerald Gardner in the 1940's which while somewhat structured is more intuitive and fluid with various rituals and means of pursuing magic. It is often practiced by many who are environmentalists and feminists, particularly women who want more than what the Abrahamaic religions offer for a woman's role. ( Much like Wicca, herself, who is still actively involved in teaching young witches and organizes group rituals.)
It is also no coincidence that The Magus' tradition is called the Tradition of the Sun (often seen as a Masculine symbol in many myths and religious followings) and Wicca's is called the Tradition of the Moon (often seen as a Feminine symbol) or that the book us drenched with descriptions of sex magic. Nor is it a coincidence that Brida is interested in and studies both. It is as though Coelho is saying that to truly understand Magic, and the Universe, a person should be willing to accept both their masculine and feminine sides and overcome the societal perceptions of both to find equality in oneself, their Soul Mate, and the Universe around them.
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