PART TWO Summary (continued)

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Summary

The leader of the caravan tells the group of people he is taking into the desert that he holds the power of life and death for every one of them. The desert is a capricious lady, and sometimes she drives men crazy. For this reason, they each must swear by whatever god they worship that they will follow his orders to the letter. In the desert, disobedience means death. The Englishman tries to continue his comments about the fact that nothing is coincidental, but in the confusion, the boy is unable to hear him. However, he understands exactly what the man is trying to say: there is mysterious chain that links one thing to another and that the closer one gets to his Personal Legend, the more it becomes the true reason for being.

As he rides across the desert on the camel, everyone around him is silent and he is allowed to also muse on intuition. He intuits that his sheep have already forgotten him and have come to depend on the new shepherd and that is good. He intuits that the merchant's daughter has probably already married and that's alright, too. He is coming to understand that intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to understand everything, because it's written there. Maktub.

The boy makes friends with the camel driver who travels alongside him. This man tells Santiago that he used to own an orchard along the Nile. One day, it overflowed its banks and his orchard was destroyed. So, he became a camel driver. From this, he learned that people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want. Later, this same driver tells the boy that there are rumors of tribal wars in the desert and that they are in danger. The boy senses the universal language of fear among the travelers.

One night, while armed guards patrol their camp, Santiago tells the Englishman all about his life. The Englishman is fascinated by his experiences at the crystal shop and explains that they are representative of the principle that governs all things: the Soul of the World. Therefore, this same concept within the desert will determine if it will allow them to make the crossing to the oasis. They both decide, based on what the other tells them, that they need to pay more attention to the caravan and read more books.

Notes

This section elaborates on the idea that we are connected through the Soul of the World: the people in the caravan depend on its leader to see them safely through the desert as well as the desert itself which will determine if it's their time to make to it to the oasis; Santiago's sheep now depend on a new shepherd; the merchant's daughter has no doubt come to depend on someone else as a husband; the camel driver had to learn to depend on his camels rather than his orchards for his living after the Nile overflowed its banks; and the entire caravan will have to depend on each other for protection during the tribal wars. As a result of the Soul of the World, nothing is coincidental - everything is part of God's Plan. So, Santiago needs to understand the Englishman better by reading his books and the Englishman can understand the boy better by watching the people of the caravan.

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Summary

Even though Santiago has trouble understanding the Englishman's books, he does comprehend one important repetitive idea: all things are the manifestation of one thing only. He also discovers that the most important book in the literature of alchemy was only a few lines inscribed on the surface of an emerald called the Emerald Tablet. The rest of the books are there to help understand only those few lines. He liked best the stories about famous alchemists who spent their lives in their laboratories trying to purify metals so that they would free themselves of all their individual properties, leaving only the Soul of the World. This would allow them to understand anything on the face of the earth, because it was the language with which all things communicated.

This is called the Master Work and it is part liquid and part solid. The liquid part is known as the Elixir of Life and can cure all illnesses and keep the alchemist from growing old. The solid part is known as the Philosopher's Stone. As for the alchemists themselves, most had spent so much time near their fires that they gradually gave up the vanities of the world and discovered that the purification of the metals had led to the purification of themselves. This makes Santiago think more and more that alchemy can be learned in one's daily life. As for the Philosopher's Stone, one sliver from it can transform large quantities of metal into gold. In the end, however, Santiago finds the books to difficult to understand how to achieve the Master Work.

Notes

The key to this section is the single line - The boy was becoming more and more convinced that alchemy could be learned in one's daily life. The idea of the Master Work that is both liquid and solid and can cure illnesses, keep one perpetually young, or make base metals into gold can also be taken more subjectively rather than literally. We can make of ourselves a Master Work by purifying ourselves and accepting that we are part of the One Thing of which everyone and everything is a part.