Paulo Coelho

Stories & Reflections

Witches and rebellion

Author: Paulo Coelho

In today’s society (as it was the case in the past) there is a tremendous amount of energy spent on trying to make people conform to established behavior, to established religions, namely, to a certain type of thought.

This uniformity is very tricky because it comes through a certain «political correctness» that stifles people’s spontaneity.

Women who rebels against this sort of general “inertia” were called in the past witches and the stigma still strive nowadays.

Actually these rebellious women pay a price, doing things in a way that probably will not make a lot of sense to others but that are vital to them. Athena is very bold and she takes a risk – as anyone who stays true to oneself does.

I wanted to particularly explore the prejudices that we have when we embrace our compassionate side.

People that accept that God is more than rules and commandments and try to dwell into the adoration of beauty and passion, this feminine energy, are called “witches”.
But in fact, Athena is someone who intuitively understands the soul of the world and tries to abide to its freedom.

I felt the need to question why society had tried to lock away the feminine side. The character of Athena, with her freedom and courage, was my way to tackle this subject and to unveil the shackles of dogma.
 
 
 
In The Witch of Portobello

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