“Brida” is a moving tale of love, passion, mystery, and spirituality by the master storyteller and philosopher, Paulo Coelho. Originally published in 1990, it’s a mystical story and is in third-person narration by the author.
“Being human means having doubts and yet still continuing on your path.”
Brida by Paulo Coelho
Summary
Brida is a twenty-one-year-old Irish girl, a plain gal who works, is taken care of by her parents, and loves her boyfriend, but with extra inquisitiveness. She’s interested in magic and is in search of a teacher who’ll help her to know more about the mysteries of the universe.
She happens to meet a man, almost twice her age, the Magus. He lives a lonely life in the forest and is an exceptional teacher of the tradition of the Sun. Brida feels she’s not meant to follow that tradition, so she decides that she’d not meet him until she had actually learned something.
With the help of a shopkeeper, Brida comes to know about another teacher, Wicca. She’s a woman much elder than her, who knows and practices the tradition of the Moon.
She teaches Brida a lot about witchcraft, both the traditions, their similarities, differences, and the meaning of soulmate. But she doesn’t tell Brida what she was keen to know the most- How to find one’s soulmate?
When she asked her this, she said-
“By taking risks, by risking failure, disappointment, disillusion, but never ceasing in your search for Love.”
She met Magus so that he could teach this, and he told her that she’ll eventually be able to see the light above the left shoulder of her soulmate, or the special spark in their eyes. Magus knew, from the very first time they had met, that Brida was his soulmate but he wanted her to find out on her own.
“Finding one important thing in your life doesn’t mean you have to give up all the other important things.”
In her quest for wisdom, she struggles to find the balance between her relationships, normal life, and a desire to discern her transformed self to resolve and understand the riddles of God.
Personal Reviews on Brida
Brida is one of the international bestsellers with an unusual story of spirituality. Personally, I found it very intriguing. The concepts of seeking your soulmate, finding your true self, Tradition of Sun, and Tradition of Moon kept me hooked till the last page of the book. I finished it while I was on a train to the countryside. The rurality and the lines of this book left me with an enticing effect.
There’s extensive use of Religion, God, and Magic. Anyone who’s not very interested in religion, Christianity, Spirituality, Tarot cards, and Witchcraft might find it bland and monotonous. However, there’s a pretty good collection of quotes.
“Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”
“Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.“
“What we see is not always what exists.”
About The Author
Paulo Coelho- Author of Brida
Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Coelho’s parents, however, wanted him to follow more of a traditional path since his father was an engineer, a man of “logic and intellect”.
When their attempts to suppress his devotion to literature failed, they took it as a sign of mental illness. At 17, Coelho’s introversion and opposition to following a traditional path led to his parents committing him to a mental institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20.
At his parents’ wishes, Coelho enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream of becoming a writer. One year later, he dropped out and lived life as a hippie, traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe, and started using drugs in the 1960s. Coelho also worked as an actor, journalist, and theatre director before pursuing his writing career.
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