The Alchemist is NOT About Manifestation

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is a cult classic.

It’s one of the most frequently cited books by high performers across entertainment, sports, and business:

And many, many more.

Because of this, the book is often grouped together with modern, New Age ideas about “manifestation”… that we can think, visualize, or affirm your way into any life we desire.

But that’s not what The Alchemist is about.

The Alchemist is not about creating any life you desire. It’s about discovering the life you were meant to live. Or as Paulo Coelho puts it, your Personal Legend.

Strap in. Today’s article is a longer one, but it’s one of the most important (and perhaps my favorite) I’ve ever written. We will cover:

This week’s YouTube video is a bit of a different style! I’d love your feedback:

Let’s dive in.

I will be summarizing key events from The Alchemist in order to analyze it. If you want to read the book first, you can grab it here on Amazon.

It’s a pretty quick read (4 hour audiobook on 1x speed), and it happens to be 47% off right now. Maybe that’s a… sign 😉

The Alchemist follows the journey of a young Spanish shepherd named Santiago.

Santiago sleeps under a sycamore tree next to an abandoned church and has recurring dreams about hidden treasure buried near the Egyptian pyramids.

The dream troubles him enough that he seeks out a dream interpreter, who tells him that the dream is prophetic, and that he must travel to Egypt to find the treasure.

At first, this sounds absurd. Santiago is a shepherd. He has a simple, peaceful life tending his sheep across the Spanish countryside.

Why would he leave all of that for a dream?

Just when Santiago is about to abandon his dream, he meets Melchizedek, a mysterious old man who says that he always shows up at a person’s crucial life moment.

This is a symbolic crossroads for the reader, representing the moment where most people abandon their dreams.

In exchange for 1/10th of Santiago’s flock of sheep*, Melchizedek gives Santiago spiritual guidance.

Melchizedek teaches Santiago about a concept called Personal Legend: The thing you have always wanted to accomplish. The path you are uniquely meant to walk.

He encourages Santiago to follow the signs… and so he does.

^{*We’ll come back to this detail later.}

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Readers of The Alchemist might not be aware that the book is actually a reflection of Paulo Coelho’s own life.

Before writing The Alchemist, Coelho had always dreamed of being a writer, but never acted on it. Until one day, he had a strange vision of a man that told him that they would one day meet in person.

2 months later, Paulo saw the same man from his vision, this time in real life. This man would end up becoming Paulo’s spiritual mentor.

That’s when Paulo decided to write a book as a kind of a symbolic metaphor for his life. That book became The Alchemist.

Back to the story:

Melchizedek gives Santiago two stones, Urim and Thummim*, symbols meant to help him read the signs of the world when he is uncertain.

^{*Again, this detail will be relevant later.}

Signs and synchronicities are a recurring theme throughout The Alchemist. We’ll touch on a few more examples throughout this article.

In a way, Coelho is depicting his own experience that led him to achieve his own dream of becoming an author.

He did not choose which signs would appear, he faithfully followed the signs that did appear.

As Santiago leaves Melchizedek, he notices a butterfly, a symbol of transformation.

His journey has begun.

Santiago sells the remainder of his sheep and sets out for Africa.

Almost immediately, things go wrong.

He is robbed. He is alone in a land where he doesn’t speak the language. He is forced to work in a crystal shop just to survive.

Modern day manifestation is often portrayed as a shortcut to wealth, love, and so on. In contrast, The Alchemist repeatedly emphasizes that following your Personal Legend creates hardship.

Through these hardships, Santiago begins to change. He learns many things. He grows in confidence and wisdom. He transforms, just like the butterfly.

Later in the story, Santiago experiences a powerful premonition. He sees two hawks fighting in the sky, followed by a vision of an approaching army. He senses danger and warns the people around him.

Most people dismiss him, but one man takes him seriously. He speaks with the elders and warns them.

The village is attacked, and because Santiago acted, lives are saved.

This moment shows that intuition in The Alchemist is not passive. It demands responsibility. If you see a sign and do nothing, the sign is meaningless.

Then, Santiago meets the Alchemist.

At this point in the story, Santiago has fallen in love with a young woman named Fatima.

For the first time, he has a legitimate reason to stop chasing his dream. He has money. He has love. He has safety. He could build a good life right here in the oasis.

This is where The Alchemist delivers perhaps it’s most uncomfortable truth. Certainly, the truth that has stuck with me the most.

Most people are closest to knowing their Personal Legend when they are young. But as time passes, fear convinces them it is impossible.

The Alchemist himself explains what would happen if Santiago stayed at the oasis with Fatima:

This line is the heart of the book.

And hopefully by now, you’re starting to see that The Alchemist is not merely about “manifestation”.

Historically, alchemy was not just a physical practice of turning “lead into gold”.

It was a symbolic way of describing inner transformation. The purification of desire. The refinement of the soul.

Alchemy is arguably more about psychology and philosophy than it is about chemistry and physics.

In this sense:

Once this clicks, it becomes clear that Coelho is not talking about achieving your own desire, but the desire of something (or someone) greater.

The Alchemist intersects with a deeply Christian idea, even if Coelho doesn’t explicitly frame it that way. And there is evidence of this throughout the book. Firstly…

Melchizedek is a character from the Bible.

In the Old Testament, Melchizedek is a mysterious priest-king who blesses Abraham from the “God Most High”. Abraham treats Melchizedek as his spiritual superior.

And just like in The Alchemist, Abraham offers 1/10th of his war spoils to Melchizedek as a tithe…

This is yet another piece of evidence that The Alchemist is not the New Age manifestation handbook that many make it out to be.

The Alchemist is not about creating whatever life you want, but creating the life God meant for you.

And if you’re still unconvinced, we can re-visit the two stones that Melchizedek gives Santiago in the story: Urim and Thummim.

These sacred stones appear multiple times throughout the Bible, used by various people to discern God’s will in critical situations.

God’s will for our life, not our will.

To be clear, this does not discount what many have achieved by applying the lessons from The Alchemist. In fact, it glorifies them:

Human beings are not gods, and are not meant to be gods. But we are made in the image of God.

That means we are creative. We are purposeful. We are called to participate in creation by responding faithfully to what we’ve been entrusted with.

Our Personal Legend is not ours to invent, but ours to recognize.

If you’ve read to this point, you might be wondering what happens at the end of The Alchemist.

Santiago reaches the pyramids. He digs in the exact spot he saw the treasure buried in his dream, and finds… nothing.

Then, a band of robbers finds him, beats him, and leaves him for dead.

As they leave him, one of the robbers mocks him and says that he too used to have a recurring dream of buried treasure in the fields of Spain… under the roots of a sycamore tree near an abandoned church.

Santiago returns home to Andalusia, digs beneath the sycamore tree, and finds the treasure.

He also realizes that the Alchemist knew where the treasure was all along.

But also, that the real treasure was the transformation Santiago had to go through. His Personal Legend.

It should be no surprise that reading The Alchemist had an impact on me as well.

The idea of alchemy - our God-given ability to create - heavily inspired the name Wealth Potion.

But more importantly, I hope today’s article sheds more light on my vision and mission for the Wealth Potion community.

Wealth is way more than just money.

When you close your eyes and imagine your dream life, sure, you might imagine a beautiful mansion, sports cars, and designer clothes. In other words, treasure.

But if you sit with that though for a little while longer, you’ll probably start conjuring something else:

This is the real treasure.

That’s what I hope to help you all achieve through Wealth Potion. Yes, money is an important ingredient. But it’s far from everything.

To your prosperity,
Brandon @ Wealth Potion

PS. Speaking of signs and synchronicities… while I was writing this article, I happened to be reading through the Book of Hebrews. And guess who appeared:

Coincidence? I know what Paulo Coelho would say.