Paulo Coelho: A Warrior's Life: The Authorized Biography by Fernando Morais

Author:Fernando Morais [Morais, Fernando]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Literary, Biography & Autobiography, Literary Criticism, Biography, 20th Century, Authors; Brazilian - 20th century, Authors; Brazilian, Coelho; Paulo, African
ISBN: 9780061718885
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-08-19T18:01:13.375000+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Paulo and Raul

EITHER ALONE OR WITH GISA, who was following him on his journey to satanism, Paulo began to try out some so-called magical exercises. One he frequently performed consisted in going to a park to pick a leaf of Sansevieria trifasciata, a plant with hard, pointed leaves, popularly known in English as mother-in-law’s tongue and in Brazil as St George’s sword. Performed in public, this exercise was likely to expose the novice to a certain amount of ridicule, since it was then necessary to walk ten steps holding the plant as though it were a real sword, turn towards the setting sun and then bow to the four points of the compass, pointing the ‘sword’ at each and shouting at the top of one’s voice: ‘Strength lies in the West!’ Each step to the left was accompanied by a roar, with eyes raised heavenwards: ‘Knowledge lies in the South! Protection lies in the East! Victory lies in the North!’

He would then take the leaf home, where he would cut it into eleven pieces (eleven being the Thelemites’ magic number) with a penknife or an ordinary knife that he had previously thrust into the ground, and then heated over a fire and washed in sea water. After this he would arrange the eleven pieces on the kitchen table to form the symbol of Mars–a circle topped by a small arrow, which also represents the male sex–while boiling up some water in a saucepan. He would then mix the pieces up with the torn petals of two yellow roses and add them to the boiling water. The entire ceremony had to be performed so that the thick, viscous liquid thus produced would be ready at precisely eleven at night, which, according to the Liber Oz, is the hour of the Sun. He would then add it to his bath water, in which he would immerse himself until midnight, the hour of Venus. After performing one such ceremony, Paulo dried himself and wrote in his diary, with the house in almost total darkness and his notebook lit just by a single candle:

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