"...we are returning to the cult of the Great Mother. The Greeks
called her Gaia...." Athena, main character in book
Paulo Coelho's bestselling book, The Alchemist, features a shepherd boy
learning about alchemy and concepts of occult mental powers; this book,
The Witch of Portobello, is centered on the "Mother." The Mother is the
Goddess, also viewed as Gaia, the Goddess in the form of nature.
Yet the first page in the book has a quote from the King James Version
of Luke 11:33:
No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place,
neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in
may see the light.
Coelho uses Scriptures freely but always out of context. I believe that
the quote from Luke is about the divine light of the heroine Athena and
how she was willing to share it in her teachings and how we should do so
as well.
The story recounts the posthumous life of the central character Athena
through the eyes of various people who had known her. Athena was born to
a gypsy woman but adopted by a Lebanese Christian family and raised in
London. After ending a bad marriage, Athena, now divorced, is refused
communion in her Catholic Church. This causes her to reject Christianity
and to search for her birth mother, which leads her on a journey into
the esoterica of Goddess spirituality.
Athena is initiated into this spiritual journey via a woman with a "teacher,"
and this woman becomes Athena's teacher. Even Athena's gypsy birth mother has
turned to this spirituality (which differs from the gypsy beliefs, though she
still retains some of those). Athena's birth mother tells her:
"We don't believe that God made the universe. We believe that God is the
universe, and that we are contained in him and he in us......Although in my
opinion, we should call 'him' 'goddess' or 'Mother'" (118).
If creation is contained in God and God in creation, that is panentheism, though
if God is the universe, as also asserted here, that is pantheism. So it is not
clear which view is being offered, though both views are against Christian
theism. God is the Creator but is always distinct from His creation. He does not
need creation nor does He depend on it.
It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it.
I stretched out the heavens with My hands
And I ordained all their host. Isaiah 45:12
Later, Athena teaches an actress about spirituality, and says this as part of a
longer speech on returning to Goddess worship:
"...we are returning to the cult of the Great Mother. The Greeks called her
Gaia...." (148).
These views include the belief that a divine nature resides in us. Athena's
teacher at one point speaks of "living as a human being and as a divinity"
(178).
Athena becomes a channel for the "Mother" (called here Hagia Sophia, which means
"holy wisdom" and is also the name of a mosque) and gives a series of psychic
readings about the future to a group of people (187ff and 196ff).
Athena explains the channeling as feeling "as if I were suckling on the great
breast of the Mother, drinking the milk that flows through all our souls and
carries knowledge around the earth" (200).
Athena holds regular meetings where she dances (assumedly part of her Gypsy
blood) during which she falls into trances, channels Hagia Sophia, and teaches a
group of followers. This all takes place on Portobello Road in London. Rumors
are started about Athena by a minister who leads a demonstration against her and
calls her "the witch of Portobello Road" (hence, the title of the book). Coelho
makes sure the minister is presented as a harsh legalist who does not mind
voicing untruths to make his point.
In a conversation with Athena while she's channeling Hagia Sophia, the
journalist friend, Heron, who is in love with Athena, tells her that he has
discovered his spirit guide, Philemon (255). This is interesting in light of the
fact that Carl Jung claimed he had a guide named Philemon. Coelho is undoubtedly
making an allusion to that.
One of Athena's speeches to her group is about Jesus' forgiveness. She asserts
that the word "sin" was introduced by "powers of darkness" trying to control
people's minds and hearts. Sin, according to Athena, is "to prevent Love from
showing itself" and "the Mother is Love" (229).
But sin was introduced by mankind, the first sin being disobedience to God. (see
Genesis chapter 3 and Romans chapter 5). God's righteous nature does not allow
acceptance of sin, but He loved humanity so much, He sent Jesus to pay for the
penalty of sin on our behalf, offering forgiveness and reconciliation with God
to all who believe. Therefore, sin is against God but despite that, it has
revealed God's love.
For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that
everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did
not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the
world might be saved through Him. Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned,
but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not
believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.
John 3:16-18
All the prophets testify about Him that through His name everyone who believes
in Him will receive forgiveness of sins." Acts 10:43
Many long-winded speeches are given by Athena about love, but nothing said is
profound or definitive. It is more like what would be read in poorly written
romance novels. Yet the Mother and love are one of the main messages. Love "just
is" and has "no definitions."
The themes in this book reminded me somewhat of the Divine Feminine messages in
Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code though that book ties Jesus into the theme. In an
interview at the back of the book, Coelho talks about the "feminine side" of
God. Coelho seems to mix occult views from Crowley, Gerald Gardner (founder of
modern Wicca), and Carl Jung.
Anyone who takes the time to look at the context of Coelho's references to
certain Bible passages or figures will see that he has grossly misused them.
*Edition used: NY, NY, HarperCollins, 2006
Paul Coelho, author of several bestsellers, including The Alchemist,
which sold over 100 millions copies, once followed the teachings of
controversial ritual sorcerer and occultist extraordianaire, Aleister Crowley.
Quote==Researching a story, he came across the writings of the English
occultist Aleister Crowley, and then joined the Alternative Society, a sect that
advocated drugs and practiced black magic, and sought to embody Crowley's
principle "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."==From "The
Magus" in The New Yorker by Dana Goodyear at goo.gl/SvyHMO
Coelho left those teachings after being imprisoned by the junta military group
in Brazil and although many sites refer to him as having returned to his
childhood Catholic faith, that is not exactly true. What really happened is that
Coelho had a vision of a man when visiting Dachau (former concentration camp), a
man he later saw in Amsterdam.
Quote==This man, a Jewish businessman whom Coelho refers to in his writing as
"J." and "my Master," inducted him into something he calls the Order of R.A.M. (Regnus
Agnus Mundi), a society for the study of symbols. R.A.M. is surpassingly
obscure--discounting the allusions Coelho makes to it--and has a curiously
ungrammatical Latin name, though he says that it is part of the Catholic Church,
and that it is more than five hundred years old. (Efforts to verify its
existence proved futile.) Not long after the encounter in Amsterdam, Coelho met
J. in Norway, where, in a ritual beside three Viking ships, J. gave him a
snake-shaped silver ring, which he wears to this day, on the fourth finger of
his left hand. ==From "The Magus"
Coelho also states that he does not regret his time with his occult group doing
what he calls "black magic." Further evidence of his non-Christian and seemingly
occult-New Age leanings is this:
Quote==In Coelho's latest book, "The Witch of Portobello",
the author seems to be growing disillusioned with Catholicism, and
explores the re-emergence of Goddess religion. ==End quote from a pagan website,
The Wild Hunt, at goo.gl/D29zV3
And from The New Yorker article:
Quote=="The most famous witch of El Camino, Jesus Jato, is coming from
Villafranca del Bierzo, six hundred kilometres away." Jato has a shelter on the
road, where pilgrims can spend the night for free. "He arrived today. He is the
classic witch, sorcerer, call it what you will." The plane began to move, and
from underneath his black T-shirt Coelho took out a chain heavy with medallions:
St. Joseph, St. Teresa, St. George, St. Michael. ("The Warriors of Light, as I
see all these angels who fight," he said."I hate crosses. I hate sacrifice.")
==End quote
The type of "Catholic order" that Coelho follows is apparently not Catholicism
at all, but rather an esoteric occult group (assuming it exists), and Coelho's
views expressed in these articles are sorcery and occultism. Coelho states that
he "hates crosses" and "sacrifice," clear references to the sacrificial death of
Christ on the cross, which he either rejects or disdains. Coelho writes
spiritual content, but it is from a place hostile to Jesus Christ.
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death--even to
death on a cross. Philippians 2:8
I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me
would not remain in darkness. John 12:46
For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as
enemies of the cross of Christ. Philippians 3:18