Paulo Coelho « eBooks! eBooks! eBooks!
Biography
Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he attended law school, but in 1970 abandoned his studies to travel throughout Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, as well as Europe and North Africa.
Two years later he returned to Brazil and began composing popular music lyrics, working with such popular musicians as Raul Seixas. As he confesses in an interview to Juan Arias, during that time he was introduced to the work of controversial English mystic Aleister Crowley, which influenced their collaboration. The influence extended not only to music, but also to plans for the creation of the “Alternative Society,” which was to be an anarchist community in the state of Minas Gerais based on Crowley’s premise: “‘Do what thou wilt’ shall be the whole of the Law.” The project was considered subversive by members of the Brazilian military, which imprisoned all prospective members of the group. Seixas and Coelho are reported to have been tortured during their imprisonment.
After a supernatural experience, described in The Valkyries, Coelho left the society.
Later in Holland he met a person (whom he would refer to as “J” throughout The Valkyries, The Pilgrimage and his website “Warriors of Light online”) who changed his life and Coelho was driven towards Christianity. He became a member of a Catholic group known as RAM (Regnus Agnus Mundi) with “J” as his “Master”. In 1986 he walked along the Road of Santiago, an ancient Spanish pilgrimage and his book The Pilgrimage describes his final initiation.
He and his wife Christina live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
