Celestine is divided up into chapters, each loosely based on this “ancient manuscript” and the story of the narrator’s discoveries associated with it. This is how the story takes on a kind of extra dimensional quality I associate with my childhood “Neverending Story.” We are afforded the point of view of the narrator’s experience of something, and in that way we are privy to how the story permeates the narrator’s story. The truth however, or the real take a way value is the connections between the narrator and the hero’s experience. When Atreyo looks into the mirror of the second gate at his true self, Atreyo sees the little boy reading about Atreyo’s adventures. The purpose of Atreyo’s quest (albeit his entire existence) is to teach this young reader (and so on).
The first chapter of Celestine highlights coincidences and purports them as leading us somewhere. Redfield purports that at the turn of this century we were collectively realizing that life is a series of synchronicities that we each day - indeed each moment - we choose to either value or ignore. These events come in the form of thoughts, feelings, intuitions, or occurrences.
Now these coincidences seemed like poppycock when I first read them back in the 1990s, but I was willing to hope. My Uncle Dany had cultivated an impression of spirituality in me via his intelligence, Tarot Cards, and unmatched ability to bullshit. The coincidences Celestine exemplifies can be a chance meeting on the street, a thought about a friend you haven’t seen in a while just as you get a phone call from them, or a dream that somehow delivers some much needed message or appears to come true. These coincidences, it is said in this newly discovered ‘ancient manuscript,’ will begin to happen more and more frequently and affect a majority of the population in the beginning of the 2nd millennium. The attention paid to them will begin to spread. The validity of their truth will be more widely experienced and soon there will be widespread understanding and discussion of their existence.
Now, I can’t tell you how weird that sounded to me as a kid (well, as a teen) but nowadays? It’s hard to meet a person who doesn’t nod their head while discussing the uncanny. We’ve all had them: chance encounters, conversations, thoughts that seemed to just come to us and land so meaningfully in our lives that they appear almost designed. One can always argue that hindsight is 20/20. But to them I say, try it! Live your life attending to your every thought, listening and pondering every sign your world brings you. To do this you really need to not only find love in your heart for those around you, but you also need to find, love and forgive yourself. You need to trust and have enough faith in the universe to just let go, be present and empower anyone and everyone around you. Relax with every person you meet and just try being entirely truthful (we’ll get more into how to really do that). Even if you don’t connect with a person, you can have realizations that propel you to the next awesome realization. If nothing else, it will improve your movement through life. You will at the very least be more present and that will help keep you grounded in that good place from which you can possibly act from.
The first chapter of Celestine highlights coincidences and purports them as leading us somewhere. Redfield purports that at the turn of this century we were collectively realizing that life is a series of synchronicities that we each day - indeed each moment - we choose to either value or ignore. These events come in the form of thoughts, feelings, intuitions, or occurrences.
Now these coincidences seemed like poppycock when I first read them back in the 1990s, but I was willing to hope. My Uncle Dany had cultivated an impression of spirituality in me via his intelligence, Tarot Cards, and unmatched ability to bullshit. The coincidences Celestine exemplifies can be a chance meeting on the street, a thought about a friend you haven’t seen in a while just as you get a phone call from them, or a dream that somehow delivers some much needed message or appears to come true. These coincidences, it is said in this newly discovered ‘ancient manuscript,’ will begin to happen more and more frequently and affect a majority of the population in the beginning of the 2nd millennium. The attention paid to them will begin to spread. The validity of their truth will be more widely experienced and soon there will be widespread understanding and discussion of their existence.
Now, I can’t tell you how weird that sounded to me as a kid (well, as a teen) but nowadays? It’s hard to meet a person who doesn’t nod their head while discussing the uncanny. We’ve all had them: chance encounters, conversations, thoughts that seemed to just come to us and land so meaningfully in our lives that they appear almost designed. One can always argue that hindsight is 20/20. But to them I say, try it! Live your life attending to your every thought, listening and pondering every sign your world brings you. To do this you really need to not only find love in your heart for those around you, but you also need to find, love and forgive yourself. You need to trust and have enough faith in the universe to just let go, be present and empower anyone and everyone around you. Relax with every person you meet and just try being entirely truthful (we’ll get more into how to really do that). Even if you don’t connect with a person, you can have realizations that propel you to the next awesome realization. If nothing else, it will improve your movement through life. You will at the very least be more present and that will help keep you grounded in that good place from which you can possibly act from.
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