Summary: The Alchemist

Plagued by a recur­ring vision, young shep­herd San­ti­a­go seeks guid­ance from a gyp­sy seer and a mys­ti­cal sage, who presents him­self as the Sov­er­eign of Salem, advis­ing San­ti­a­go to embark on a jour­ney to the Egypt­ian pyra­mids to unveil a con­cealed trea­sure. Fol­low­ing their coun­sel, San­ti­a­go divests his flock and embarks on a voy­age to Tang­i­er, only to be deceived by a swindler. This set­back leads him to toil for a benev­o­lent crys­tal trad­er, dur­ing which he per­suades the trad­er to take cal­cu­lat­ed risks that ulti­mate­ly enable San­ti­a­go to accu­mu­late mod­est wealth with­in a year.

Despite his new­found afflu­ence, San­ti­a­go, still yearn­ing for a deep­er pur­pose, opts to recom­mence his pur­suit of the trea­sure near the pyra­mids. He joins a car­a­van tra­vers­ing the Sahara desert, where he forges a friend­ship with an Eng­lish schol­ar study­ing the art of alche­my. The Eng­lish­man is en route to meet a sea­soned alchemist, aged 200, resid­ing in the oasis of Al-Fay­oum in the Sahara, aspir­ing to glean the mys­ter­ies of the craft. Upon reach­ing Al-Fay­oum, San­ti­a­go falls in love with a native woman named Fati­ma and averts an immi­nent assault on the oasis by deci­pher­ing a fore­bod­ing sign in the desert. Con­se­quent­ly, he is beck­oned by the adept alchemist to ven­ture deep­er into the desert, bid­ding adieu to Fati­ma and the car­a­van tem­porar­i­ly. While tra­vers­ing with the alchemist, who imparts pro­found insights about the Essence of the Uni­verse, they are appre­hend­ed by a cohort of Arab sol­diers. To safe­guard their lives, the alchemist sur­ren­ders all of San­ti­ago’s funds to the sol­diers and assures them that San­ti­a­go, pur­port­ed­ly a potent alchemist, will meta­mor­phose into wind with­in three days.

Rat­tled and bewil­dered, San­ti­a­go spends the ensu­ing three days in pro­found con­tem­pla­tion, even­tu­al­ly con­jur­ing a sand­storm with the aid of the wind and the sun, ful­fill­ing the alchemist’s pledge and secur­ing their lib­er­ty. Upon reach­ing the pyra­mids, San­ti­a­go is assailed by two men who, swayed by his recount of a vision hint­ing at trea­sure, spare his life. One of the men, while derid­ing visions as incon­se­quen­tial, inad­ver­tent­ly divulges to San­ti­a­go a final clue about the actu­al where­abouts of the trea­sure. San­ti­a­go returns to Spain, dis­cov­ers a cas­ket of jew­els and gold beneath a sycamore tree in a derelict church — the same one from his per­sis­tent vision — and devis­es plans to reunite with Fati­ma, who anx­ious­ly awaits his return in Al-Fayoum.

Preface

The alchemist delves into the nar­ra­tive of Nar­cis­sus in his tome. Accord­ing to the leg­end, Nar­cis­sus became fix­at­ed on his reflec­tion in a lake and even­tu­al­ly per­ished after falling in. The wood­land spir­it dis­cov­ered that the lake had trans­formed into a pool of saline tears, assum­ing that the lake wept for the beau­ty of Nar­cis­sus. Nev­er­the­less, the lake cor­rect­ed that it mourned its own image that it beheld in Nar­cis­sus’s gaze.

section 1

A shep­herd named San­ti­a­go takes repose with his flock in a desert­ed chapel, where a sub­stan­tial sycamore tree has sprout­ed. While in slum­ber, he endures a dis­qui­et­ing rever­ie. Upon awak­en­ing, his sheep pre­pare for the day, and San­ti­a­go con­tem­plates a maid­en he met the pre­vi­ous year. She is the daugh­ter of a trades­man, and San­ti­a­go is about to vend some wool to her father. Upon arriv­ing at the mer­chan­t’s abode, San­ti­a­go is urged to wait till the after­noon to final­ize the wool trans­ac­tion. Mean­while, he con­vers­es with the mer­chan­t’s daugh­ter about vil­lage life. Inquir­ing about his pref­er­ence for shep­herd­ing despite being lit­er­ate, the maid­en engages San­ti­a­go. Nev­er­the­less, San­ti­a­go opts to dis­course about his voy­ages. Enthralled by the maid­en’s Moor­ish eyes and ebony tress­es, San­ti­a­go expe­ri­ences an unfa­mil­iar long­ing to anchor in a sin­gle place for eter­ni­ty. When the mer­chant appears, he req­ui­si­tions wool from four sheep and instructs San­ti­a­go to vis­it again the ensu­ing year. Near­ly a year lat­er, four days before San­ti­ago’s next vis­it to the vil­lage, he lingers in the same aban­doned chapel, day­dream­ing about the trades­man­’s daugh­ter. As he ral­lies his sheep to move, he acknowl­edges their loy­al­ty. Pic­tur­ing a sce­nario where he could slaugh­ter them unbe­knownst until their des­ig­nat­ed time arrives dis­qui­ets him, and he is plagued by the same dis­con­cert­ing dream as the pre­ced­ing year. San­ti­a­go rec­ol­lects con­vers­ing with his sire about his aspi­ra­tions for voy­ages, dis­suad­ed by his father who argued that trav­els yield only nos­tal­gia, not trans­for­ma­tion. He clutch­es three gold coins ten­dered by his father to pro­cure a flock of sheep, impressed upon by his sire to embark on trav­els yet con­vinced that home is the supreme abode. Reflect­ing on this, San­ti­a­go intu­its that his father too craved ven­tures but was fet­tered by famil­ial oblig­a­tions. Mulling over whether the sheep rel­ish explor­ing nov­el paths and sights dai­ly, San­ti­a­go con­cludes they are sole­ly inter­est­ed in sus­te­nance. This notion evokes his fix­a­tion with the trades­man­’s daugh­ter. Abrupt­ly, he rec­ol­lects an elder­ly woman in near­by Tar­i­fa renowned for unrav­el­ing dreams and resolves to seek her out.

section 2

San­ti­ago’s encounter with a dream inter­preter com­mences with her recit­ing a gyp­sy incan­ta­tion, arous­ing San­ti­ago’s child­hood dread of gyp­sies. Find­ing solace in an image of Jesus, San­ti­ago’s hands betray his anx­i­ety. Declin­ing her offer for palm­istry, he pro­ceeds to divulge his dream. His dream entails a child lead­ing him from a flock of sheep to the pyra­mids of Egypt, promis­ing a con­cealed for­tune. Before dis­cov­er­ing the pre­cise loca­tion, he awak­ens from the rever­ie. The inter­preter vol­un­teers her ser­vices gra­tu­itous­ly but stip­u­lates a tenth of the unearthed wealth. Albeit skep­ti­cal, San­ti­a­go acqui­esces, depart­ing with a sense of relief — no imme­di­ate pay­ment due. In Tar­i­fa, San­ti­a­go acquires a vol­ume and seeks respite from the sun. A ven­er­a­ble man resem­bling an Arab engages him in dia­logue about the tome. Con­demn­ing the book for prop­a­gat­ing the fal­la­cy that one’s des­tiny is pre­or­dained and one’s “Per­son­al Leg­end” unal­ter­able, the man offers a retort that he chose his des­tiny by embrac­ing the voca­tion of a shep­herd, not a cler­gy­man. Intro­duc­ing him­self as Melchizedek, the King of Salem, the elder­ly man offers to unveil the trea­sure’s loca­tion in exchange for a tenth of San­ti­ago’s sheep. San­ti­a­go har­bors sus­pi­cions of a ruse, giv­en the man’s aware­ness of his dream. Nev­er­the­less, Melchizedek aston­ish­es him by inscrib­ing the names of his prog­en­i­tors in the sand — details San­ti­a­go had not dis­closed to the gypsy.

section 3

Melchizedek acquaints San­ti­a­go with the con­cept of a Per­son­al Leg­end, the ulti­mate ambi­tion or aspi­ra­tion in one’s exis­tence. He posits that indi­vid­u­als dis­cern their Per­son­al Leg­end in their youth but as they mature, an enig­mat­ic force con­vinces them of its unat­tain­abil­i­ty. Melchizedek queries San­ti­ago’s pref­er­ence for shep­herd­ing. Express­ing his ardor for voy­ag­ing, San­ti­a­go incites Melchizedek to sin­gle out a bak­er who also cher­ish­es voy­ages but opt­ed for a voca­tion deemed lofti­er than shep­herd­ing. Melchizedek hints at the pos­si­bil­i­ty of San­ti­a­go renounc­ing his Per­son­al Leg­end and elu­ci­dates that he often mate­ri­al­izes to indi­vid­u­als tee­ter­ing on the verge of for­sak­ing their dreams. He prof­fers assis­tance to San­ti­a­go in exchange for a tenth of his sheep. Per­turbed by the encounter, San­ti­a­go ambles around the city, procur­ing bread from the afore­men­tioned bak­er and con­tem­plat­ing a mar­itime pas­sage to Africa. Nev­er­the­less, he resolves to per­sist in shep­herd­ing. Observ­ing the free­dom of a vig­or­ous breeze, the lev­an­ter, con­cludes his cur­rent exis­tence is mere­ly a step­ping stone towards his Per­son­al Leg­end. San­ti­a­go locates Melchizedek the fol­low­ing day, bring­ing six sheep along, hav­ing trad­ed the oth­ers ear­li­er. Melchizedek reveals to San­ti­a­go that his trea­sure lies in Egypt, near the pyra­mids. Annoyed by the impre­cise guid­ance, San­ti­a­go is then shown a but­ter­fly which Melchizedek presents as a sign. He pro­vides San­ti­a­go with two stones from his jew­eled breast­plate, Urim and Thum­mim, sym­bol­iz­ing ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to assist in inter­pret­ing signs. Before leav­ing, Melchizedek recounts a sto­ry to San­ti­a­go about a shop­keep­er’s son who learns the secret of hap­pi­ness from a sage in a desert fortress. The nar­ra­tive empha­sizes the sig­nif­i­cance of main­tain­ing equi­lib­ri­um, akin to a shep­herd tend­ing his herd. As San­ti­a­go sets off for Africa, Melchizedek recalls enter­ing into a sim­i­lar pact with Abra­ham as he did with Santiago.

section 4

San­ti­a­go finds him­self in Tang­i­er, tak­en aback by local tra­di­tions and grap­pling with lan­guage bar­ri­ers. His con­cerns are briefly alle­vi­at­ed by a young stranger who con­vers­es in Span­ish. Eager to reach the Pyra­mids, San­ti­a­go offers to hire him as a guide. The stranger cau­tions about the per­ilous Sahara desert jour­ney and insists on inspect­ing San­ti­ago’s funds. Fol­low­ing a heat­ed alter­ca­tion with the bar own­er in Ara­bic, the young man per­suades San­ti­a­go to pro­vide mon­ey for camels. While nav­i­gat­ing a bustling mar­ket, San­ti­a­go spots a sword. Inquir­ing about its price to the stranger, he soon real­izes that the stranger has van­ished along with his mon­ey. At night­fall, a robbed and dis­heart­ened San­ti­a­go con­tem­plates sell­ing Melchizedek’s stones to finance his jour­ney back. But, his hand explores an emp­ty pock­et instead, the stones hav­ing slipped through a crevice. Retriev­ing them, he rec­ol­lects his pledge to make his own choic­es and opts to per­sist. San­ti­a­go awak­ens in the mar­ket­place to a new day and the benev­o­lence of a can­dy ven­dor. He observes the uni­ver­sal lan­guage of com­merce among the traders, some con­vers­ing in Span­ish while oth­ers in Ara­bic. In the same mar­ket, a crys­tal mer­chant frets over his declin­ing busi­ness, once thriv­ing when Tang­i­er was a bustling har­bor. San­ti­a­go enters the crys­tal mer­chan­t’s shop and offers to pol­ish his glass­es for a meal. Despite the mer­chan­t’s ret­i­cence, San­ti­a­go pro­ceeds to clean. Serendip­i­tous­ly, two patrons arrive and make pur­chas­es. Attribut­ing this to good for­tune, the mer­chant offers San­ti­a­go the task of clean­ing his crys­tal dur­ing the night. He cau­tions San­ti­a­go, though, that it would require more than a year’s toil to amass enough for his trip to Egypt. Unde­terred, San­ti­a­go agrees to the job.

section 5

San­ti­a­go toils at the crys­tal shop for near­ly a month, gen­er­al­ly dis­lik­ing his work and the can­tan­ker­ous mer­chant. Despite fair earn­ings, it would neces­si­tate a year for him to save for a new flock of sheep. Desir­ing to attract more cus­tomers, San­ti­a­go pro­pos­es an out­door dis­play case which the mer­chant fears might lead to break­ages. San­ti­a­go asserts the need to aug­ment earn­ings to pur­sue his Per­son­al Leg­end of reach­ing the pyra­mids. The mer­chant is bemused by San­ti­ago’s resolve and appre­hen­sive about the dis­play case ben­e­fit­ing the busi­ness. Adher­ing to the prin­ci­ples of the Koran, one of which advo­cates a pil­grim­age to Mec­ca, is his endur­ing aspi­ra­tion. San­ti­a­go ques­tions why he nev­er embarked on it, and the mer­chant acknowl­edges his choice to keep his dream alive. Rec­og­niz­ing San­ti­ago’s aspi­ra­tion, the mer­chant assents to the dis­play case. The dis­play case proves to be suc­cess­ful, and San­ti­a­go esti­mates that he could pro­cure twice his ini­tial flock of sheep in six months. He fur­ther pro­pos­es the mer­chant to serve tea in the crys­tal glass­es after over­hear­ing a cus­tomer’s griev­ance. The mer­chant hes­i­tates to delve into a new ven­ture but dis­cuss­es it with San­ti­a­go over a pipe. Real­iz­ing the missed oppor­tu­ni­ties, he agrees to serve tea, which proves pop­u­lar and expands the busi­ness. Flash for­ward a few months, and San­ti­a­go is now afflu­ent from the shop’s pros­per­i­ty. He express­es his inten­tion to head back to Tar­i­fa and pur­chase a large flock of sheep while encour­ag­ing the mer­chant to embark on the pil­grim­age to Mec­ca. Nonethe­less, the mer­chant con­tends that nei­ther will come to pass and uses the term “mak­tub,” sig­ni­fy­ing “it is writ­ten.” Pack­ing up, San­ti­a­go inad­ver­tent­ly drops two stones, Urim and Thum­mim, evok­ing mem­o­ries of Melchizedek. Pon­der­ing his tri­umph in Tang­i­er, San­ti­a­go con­tem­plates return­ing home to resume shep­herd­ing. He mus­es on jour­ney­ing to the pyra­mids as an avenue for explo­ration and resolves to per­sist in chas­ing his Per­son­al Leg­end. He ini­ti­ates the quest by seek­ing out a car­a­van sup­pli­er for the desert.

section 6

An Eng­lish­man, an enthu­si­ast of alche­my, pre­pares for a jour­ney through the Sahara desert with a car­a­van. His aim is to acquire knowl­edge from a renowned alchemist believed to have dis­cov­ered the Philosopher’s Stone and the Elixir of Life in the Al-Fay­oum oasis. San­ti­a­go, a fel­low trav­el­er, shares his pri­or expe­ri­ences work­ing for a crys­tal mer­chant. Ini­tial­ly, the Eng­lish­man dis­re­gards the sig­nif­i­cance of Urim and Thum­mim, but upon learn­ing that San­ti­a­go acquired them from a monarch, he acknowl­edges their impor­tance due to his famil­iar­i­ty with their bib­li­cal allu­sions. The two har­bor dis­tinct objec­tives for their expe­di­tion; the Eng­lish­man pur­sues an alchemist, while San­ti­a­go embarks on a quest for trea­sure in Egypt. As they set off, the car­a­van leader demands adher­ence to his direc­tives. Through­out their jour­ney, San­ti­a­go sel­dom engages with the Eng­lish­man who ded­i­cates most of his time to read­ing. San­ti­a­go befriends a camel dri­ver instead, shar­ing his past life as a shep­herd and lis­ten­ing to the dri­ver’s anec­dote of tran­si­tion­ing into a camel dri­ver after an earth­quake rav­aged his thriv­ing orchard. Warned about poten­tial per­ils like rob­bers and trib­al con­flicts, they main­tain a swift pace, evad­ing notice by refrain­ing from speech or light­ing fires at night and hud­dling near camels for warmth. One night, San­ti­a­go and the Eng­lish­man engage in a dis­cus­sion about San­ti­ago’s life nar­ra­tive. The Eng­lish­man draws par­al­lels between San­ti­ago’s accom­plish­ments and the fun­da­men­tal tenet of alche­my known as the Soul of the World. Intrigued by this notion, San­ti­a­go delves into the Eng­lish­man’s alche­my texts to delve deep­er. He acquaints him­self with the prin­ci­pal alche­my text inscribed on an emer­ald, the Emer­ald Tablet. Learn­ing about the Mas­ter Work, a process that puri­fies met­als leav­ing only the Soul of the world. The Mas­ter Work com­pris­es the Elixir of Life, a potent liq­uid that cures all ail­ments, and the Philoso­pher’s Stone, a sol­id that trans­mutes any met­al into gold. The Eng­lish­man engages San­ti­a­go in con­ver­sa­tions about alche­my but is dis­ap­point­ed by San­ti­ago’s super­fi­cial grasp of the sub­ject. Despite con­flicts emerg­ing in the desert, the car­a­van suc­cess­ful­ly reach­es the sanc­tu­ary of the oasis. San­ti­a­go feels relieved to be lib­er­at­ed from fear, even though his des­ti­na­tion, Egypt, still lies at a distance.

section 7

Upon reach­ing Al-Fay­oum, the alchemist, fore­warned by omens about an upcom­ing dis­ci­ple, observes from afar. Unper­turbed by the com­mo­tion around him, he remains aloof. Al-Fay­oum, an oasis, cap­ti­vates San­ti­a­go. It dwarfs many towns in Spain. Teem­ing with enthu­si­as­tic chil­dren and women greet­ing the new­com­ers. San­ti­a­go learns that its secu­ri­ty is assured due to its pre­dom­i­nant­ly women and chil­dren res­i­dents that avert­ing con­flict­ing tribes. The clus­ter is instruct­ed they will remain in this place until the con­flict ceas­es. San­ti­a­go occu­pies a tent along with five com­rades and the next day he recounts sto­ries from his days as a shep­herd, only to be inter­rupt­ed by the Eng­lish­man’s plea for assis­tance in locat­ing the alchemist. Despite devot­ing the entire day to scour­ing, they are unsuc­cess­ful in locat­ing the alchemist. An elder in the com­mu­ni­ty informs San­ti­a­go that even trib­al chief­tains are unable to reach the alchemist. Almost on the verge of giv­ing up, he choos­es to inquire from a maid­en at a well, Fati­ma, about the alchemist’s loca­tion. The instant he lays eyes on her, he falls in love. Fati­ma dis­clos­es that the alchemist engages with desert spir­its and makes a home in the south­ern region of Al-Fay­oum. After their con­ver­sa­tion, San­ti­a­go is left by him­self, cap­ti­vat­ed, as the Eng­lish­man pur­sues the alchemist and Fati­ma takes her leave. The sub­se­quent day brings San­ti­a­go back to the well, hope­ful of encoun­ter­ing Fati­ma once more. He encoun­ters the Eng­lish­man who has been wait­ing all day for the alchemist. He express­es his dis­ap­point­ment to San­ti­a­go regard­ing the alchemist’s vague instruc­tions on turn­ing lead into gold. Despite his frus­tra­tion, he is deter­mined to try. When Fati­ma appears, San­ti­a­go declares his love. Amidst the ongo­ing war, they con­vene dai­ly at the well. San­ti­a­go speaks of his Per­son­al Leg­end guid­ing him to the pyra­mids but artic­u­lates his desire to remain with her. Fati­ma, how­ev­er, urges him to press on with his jour­ney after the war, affirm­ing him that if they are des­tined to be togeth­er, they will reunite. Inspired by their dis­cus­sion, San­ti­a­go encoun­ters the Eng­lish­man con­struct­ing a fur­nace, opt­ing to con­front his fear of fail­ure and under­take the Mas­ter Work.

section 8

San­ti­a­go wit­ness­es two hawks in com­bat and envi­sions armies charg­ing the oasis. Rec­ol­lect­ing Melchizedek’s advice to be obser­vant of signs, he con­fides in the camel dri­ver about his vision. The dri­ver takes this mat­ter seri­ous­ly, believ­ing every­one pos­sess­es the capa­bil­i­ty to con­nect with the World’s Soul. He rem­i­nisces about seers earn­ing their liveli­hood by com­pre­hend­ing this soul and recalls a seer who advised him to con­cen­trate on the present instead of the future, elu­ci­dat­ing that God occa­sion­al­ly dis­clos­es the future to enable its alter­ation. Con­vinced that God had unveiled the future to San­ti­a­go through his vision, the camel dri­ver implores San­ti­a­go to alert the trib­al lead­ers about the impend­ing inva­sion. Although uncer­tain if they will believe him, San­ti­a­go learns from the camel dri­ver that the lead­ers have encoun­tered omens pre­vi­ous­ly. At the core of the oasis, where the lead­ers dwell in a lav­ish white tent, San­ti­a­go imparts his vision to a sen­try. Even­tu­al­ly, he is wel­comed into the tent where the lead­ers recline on silk cush­ions, indulging in food, hookah, and tea. They ques­tion why the desert would com­mu­ni­cate with a new­com­er like San­ti­a­go. He responds that his fresh out­look aids him in per­ceiv­ing what oth­ers might over­look. They engage in con­ver­sa­tion in Ara­bic, a lan­guage for­eign to San­ti­a­go. An elder­ly gen­tle­man attired in white and gold even­tu­al­ly speaks. He nar­rates a tale about a slave adept at inter­pret­ing dreams who saved Egypt from famine – he was called Joseph. The elder­ly man men­tions that their tribe takes desert mes­sages seri­ous­ly, uphold­ing this belief. He pro­claims the lift­ing of the oasis’s weapon pro­hi­bi­tion for a sin­gle day and prof­fers incen­tives for van­quish­ing foes. Should San­ti­ago’s prophe­cy prove false, they pledge his execution.

section 9

San­ti­a­go encoun­ters a cloaked horse­man wield­ing a sword who ques­tions how San­ti­a­go could ascer­tain the flight of the hawks and con­tra­vene Allah’s decree. San­ti­a­go defends his actions, expound­ing that his vision was Allah’s will and that he was embark­ing on a per­son­al odyssey in the desert. The horse­man unveiled as the alchemist, is con­tent with San­ti­ago’s val­or and directs him to seek him out after sun­set the ensu­ing day, pro­vid­ed San­ti­a­go sur­vives an immi­nent onslaught. The sub­se­quent day, Al-Fay­oum is heav­i­ly guard­ed by two thou­sand troops. An unex­pect­ed assault by five hun­dred cam­ou­flaged sol­diers is thwart­ed as the tent they tar­get is vacant, and the pre­pared tribes­men sub­due the intrud­ers, spar­ing sole­ly the com­man­der of the bat­tal­ion. The chief­tains scru­ti­nize the com­man­der’s breach of tra­di­tion and pass a death sen­tence, despite his plea of des­per­a­tion. San­ti­a­go is reward­ed for his fore­sight with fifty gold coins and an invi­ta­tion to join the trib­al coun­cil. Sub­se­quent­ly, San­ti­a­go stum­bles upon a tent towards the south­ern periph­ery of Al-Fay­oum reput­ed to be inhab­it­ed by genies. At mid­night, the alchemist reemerges, wel­com­ing San­ti­a­go into the tent devoid of any alchem­i­cal imple­ments. The alchemist dis­clos­es that he was aware San­ti­a­go would neces­si­tate aid owing to omens. When San­ti­a­go men­tions the Eng­lish­man’s require­ment for assis­tance, the alchemist dis­miss­es it, stat­ing he is present to assist San­ti­a­go in dis­cov­er­ing his trea­sure. San­ti­a­go con­tends that his for­tune, camel, and affec­tion for Fati­ma con­sti­tute his trea­sures. The alchemist high­lights that San­ti­a­go lacks any­thing from the pyra­mids and urges him to trade his camel for a horse, despite local pro­hi­bi­tions against imbib­ing, pour­ing San­ti­a­go some wine.

section 10

San­ti­a­go returns to the alchemist’s abode with a horse. The alchemist, with a fal­con perched on his shoul­der, mounts his horse and requests San­ti­a­go to lead him to a spot in the desert where life per­sists. San­ti­a­go, although per­plexed, com­pre­hends the task upon the alchemist out­lin­ing that life attracts life. They ride until San­ti­ago’s steed decel­er­ates, indi­cat­ing the pres­ence of life. The alchemist unearths a cobra amidst the arid stones and cap­tures it. He delin­eates a bound­ary in the sand with his sword and posi­tions the cobra with­in it, paci­fy­ing the ser­pent. They plan to advance towards the pyra­mids, but San­ti­a­go voic­es reluc­tance to depart from Fati­ma. The alchemist assures him that Fati­ma com­pre­hends his oblig­a­tion to ful­fill his Per­son­al Leg­end. San­ti­a­go inquires about the impli­ca­tions of remain­ing in Al-Fay­oum. The alchemist sketch­es an image of a pros­per­ous yet ulti­mate­ly rue­ful life for San­ti­a­go should he for­sake his quest. This per­suades San­ti­a­go, prompt­ing him to return to Al-Fay­oum to noti­fy Fati­ma of his depar­ture and reas­sure her of his affec­tion. The odyssey through the desert per­sists under the alchemist’s guid­ance, with the fal­con pro­vid­ing sus­te­nance dur­ing their halts. Fol­low­ing a tac­i­turn week, the alchemist declares that San­ti­ago’s jour­ney is near­ing com­ple­tion. San­ti­a­go laments not acquir­ing any knowl­edge, to which the alchemist stress­es learn­ing through actions. San­ti­a­go becomes acquaint­ed with the alchemist’s back­ground and the evo­lu­tion of alche­my. The alchemist advis­es San­ti­a­go to bond with the desert and heed his heart to com­pre­hend the Soul of the World.

section 11

San­ti­a­go and the alchemist nav­i­gate through the war zones of the tribes with vig­i­lance. San­ti­a­go artic­u­lates his fear of for­feit­ing every­thing in his pur­suit, to which the alchemist asserts that the gen­uine pur­suit of dreams brings about no anguish but leads to divine encoun­ters. San­ti­a­go ris­es the sub­se­quent day feel­ing serene with­in his heart and with the real­iza­tion that every­one har­bors a trea­sure await­ing them in life. Three tribes­men inter­cept their jour­ney, scru­ti­niz­ing them and stum­bling upon the alchemist’s Elixir of Life and Philosopher’s Stone. Uncon­vinced by the sor­cery the alchemist pro­fess­es they pos­sess, the tribes­men per­mit them to pro­ceed. San­ti­a­go ques­tions the alchemist regard­ing his dis­clo­sure, to which he responds that indi­vid­u­als sel­dom believe those bear­ing trea­sures. As they con­tin­ue their jour­ney, San­ti­ago’s essence demon­strates its sig­nif­i­cance in his exis­tence. They come across a trib­al set­tle­ment with San­ti­a­go sens­ing no dan­ger, which trou­bles the alchemist, recall­ing the harsh desert con­di­tions. Two tribes­peo­ple halt their progress but depart at the alchemist’s insis­tence. The alchemist then imparts to San­ti­a­go the sig­nif­i­cance of the spir­it’s pow­er mir­rored in one’s gaze. Trav­el­ing across a moun­tain range, the alchemist noti­fies San­ti­a­go of their near­ness to the pyra­mids. San­ti­a­go express­es his desire to under­stand alche­my from the alchemist, who asserts that he already holds the wis­dom as he has tapped into the Soul of the World.

In one twi­light, they face hun­dreds of Arab tribes­men accus­ing them of espi­onage. Tak­en to a mil­i­tary encamp­ment, the alchemist vouch­es for San­ti­a­go as an alchemist and hands over San­ti­ago’s funds to the leader. He states that San­ti­a­go can oblit­er­ate the encamp­ment using the wind. The tribes­men chal­lenge San­ti­a­go to prove this asser­tion, leav­ing San­ti­a­go feel­ing appre­hen­sive, sens­ing they are bound for destruc­tion. The alchemist reminds San­ti­a­go that fear is the sole hur­dle in achiev­ing his Per­son­al Legend.

section 12

Upon their arrival at the camp, San­ti­a­go and the alchemist swift­ly find them­selves embroiled in a con­flict. San­ti­a­go, grap­pling with his inca­pac­i­ty to meta­mor­phose into the wind, ques­tions why the alchemist remains unper­turbed by their immi­nent per­il. The alchemist replies con­fi­dent­ly, dis­clos­ing that he already pos­sess­es the skill to trans­mute into the wind. San­ti­a­go spends most of the sec­ond day at the camp perched on a precipice, striv­ing to con­quer his fear. On the third day, camp lead­ers approach San­ti­a­go to authen­ti­cate his auda­cious asser­tion. The desert com­mu­ni­cates with San­ti­a­go, offer­ing its sand to assist in the wind’s gust at San­ti­ago’s plea. It also advis­es San­ti­a­go to seek the wind’s aid. A gen­tle breeze stirs as San­ti­a­go entreats the wind’s assis­tance. The wind delib­er­ates San­ti­ago’s like­ness to it, but San­ti­a­go argues that akin to the wind, he too aspires to reach all cor­ners of the globe. Despite com­pre­hend­ing San­ti­ago’s per­spec­tive, the wind is uncer­tain about the course of action. San­ti­a­go pro­pos­es that love could pro­vide the nec­es­sary for­ti­tude. The wind, feel­ing slight­ed, aug­ments its speed and urges San­ti­a­go to con­sult the Hand That Wrote All.

The wind esca­lates into a robust gale, the sum, and the tribes­men urge their chief to restrain San­ti­ago’s endeav­ors. How­ev­er, the chief is keen to wit­ness San­ti­ago’s feat. San­ti­a­go con­vers­es with the sun, affirm­ing its obliv­i­ous­ness to love. San­ti­a­go elu­ci­dates the con­cept of Per­son­al Leg­ends and how the real­iza­tion of one’s leg­end leads to trans­for­ma­tion and the pur­suit of a fresh leg­end, much like the alchem­i­cal trans­mu­ta­tion of lead into gold. Inspired by San­ti­ago’s words, the sun radi­ates brighter, and the wind con­tin­ues to shield the height­ened lumi­nos­i­ty. San­ti­a­go beseech­es the sun to aid him in trans­form­ing into the wind. The sun, how­ev­er, acknowl­edges its restric­tions and advis­es San­ti­a­go to con­sult the Hand That Wrote All. San­ti­a­go com­mu­ni­cates with the Hand but refrains from speak­ing, opt­ing instead to pray. Through this, he encoun­ters an over­whelm­ing surge of love and com­pre­hends that he shares a soul with God, empow­er­ing him to per­form won­ders. Peo­ple in the future rec­ol­lect the fero­cious wind of that day. San­ti­a­go van­ish­es from his orig­i­nal posi­tion, only to mate­ri­al­ize far on the oppo­site side of the camp. The tribes­men are filled with dread, while the alchemist appears con­tent. The chief per­mits San­ti­a­go and the alchemist to pro­ceed on their expe­di­tion, even assign­ing them escorts.

section 13

San­ti­a­go, the alchemist, and their guide arrive at a Cop­tic monastery. The alchemist tells San­ti­a­go that he must under­take the final three-hour trek to the pyra­mids alone. The alchemist con­vers­es with a monk in an unfa­mil­iar tongue, lead­ing them to the kitchen where a block of lead is pre­sent­ed. The alchemist heats the lead, shaves a piece from the Philosopher’s Stone, and melds it with the lead, result­ing in gold upon cool­ing. San­ti­a­go seeks to attempt it, but the alchemist reminds him that his des­tiny does not lie in alche­my. The gold is dis­trib­uted among the monk, San­ti­a­go, and the alchemist, and a por­tion is pre­served for San­ti­a­go by the monk. Before depart­ing, the alchemist nar­rates a tale about Emper­or Tiberius of Rome, his poet son, and his sol­dier son. An angel proph­e­sied that one son’s words would endure, yet it was the sol­dier son’s words, spo­ken to the Son of God, that became eter­nal, not the poet son’s vers­es. San­ti­a­go pro­ceeds on his jour­ney alone. Upon spot­ting the pyra­mids under a full moon, he com­mences dig­ging at a loca­tion indi­cat­ed by a scarab but dis­cov­ers noth­ing. Two war refugees, pre­sum­ing he is look­ing for more gold, coerce San­ti­a­go to keep dig­ging. After find­ing noth­ing, they assault him bru­tal­ly. Men­tion­ing a dream about the trea­sure, San­ti­a­go learns from one attack­er about a sim­i­lar dream con­cern­ing a trea­sure in Spain, near a church and a sycamore tree from Santiago’s pas­toral days. The attack­er dis­miss­es the dream as fool­ish, but this rev­e­la­tion fills San­ti­a­go with renewed hope. He now knows the loca­tion of his treasure.

epilogue

San­ti­a­go reach­es the church and, filled with awe, drifts off con­tem­plat­ing God’s pecu­liar guid­ance to his wealth. Upon awak­en­ing, he begins to dig and chuck­les at the thought of the gold left at the monastery by the alchemist to aid his return jour­ney. Hear­ing a voice in the breeze stat­ing that God intend­ed him to appre­ci­ate the pyra­mids, he swift­ly unearths a trea­sure chest over­flow­ing with gold and gems. He retrieves Urim and Thum­mim and places them in the chest. San­ti­a­go plans to head to Tar­i­fa and share a tenth of his rich­es with the gyp­sy. Feel­ing a kiss from Fati­ma on his lips as the wind inten­si­fies, San­ti­a­go vows to return to her promptly.