"The wind told me that you know about love " the boy said to the sun. "If
you know about love, you must also know about the Soul of the World,
because it's made of love."
"From where I am," the sun said, "I can see the Soul of the World. It
communicates with my soul, and together we cause the plants to grow and
the sheep to seek out shade. From where I am—and I'm a long way from
the earth—I learned how to love. I know that if I came even a little bit closer
to the earth, everything there would die, and the Soul of the World would no
longer exist. So we contemplate each other, and we want each other, and I
give it life and warmth, and it gives me my reason for living."
"So you know about love," the boy said.
"And I know the Soul of the World, because we have talked at great length
to each other during this endless trip through the universe. It tells me that its
greatest problem is that, up until now, only the minerals and vegetables
understand that all things are one. That there's no need for iron to be the
same as copper, or copper the same as gold. Each performs its own exact
function as a unique being, and everything would be a symphony of peace
if the hand that wrote all this had stopped on the fifth day of creation.
"But there was a sixth day," the sun went on.
"You are wise, because you observe everything from a distance," the boy
said. "But you don't know about love. If there hadn't been a sixth day, man
would not exist; copper would always be just copper, and lead just lead. It's
true that everything has its destiny, but one day that destiny will be realized.
So each thing has to transform itself into something better, and to acquire a
new destiny, until, someday, the Soul of the World becomes one thing
only."
The sun thought about that, and decided to shine more brightly. The wind,
which was enjoying the conversation, started to blow with greater force, so
that the sun would not blind the boy.
"This is why alchemy exists," the boy said. "So that everyone will search for
his treasure, find it, and then want to be better than he was in his former
life. Lead will play its role until the world has no further need for lead; and
then lead will have to turn itself into gold.
"That's what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become
better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too."
"Well, why did you say that I don't know about love?" the sun asked the boy.
"Because it's not love to be static like the desert, nor is it love to roam the
world like the wind. And it's not love to see everything from a distance, like
you do. Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the
World. When I first reached through to it, I thought the Soul of the World
was perfect. But later, I could see that it was like other aspects of creation,
and had its own passions and wars. It is we who nourish the Soul of the
World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on
whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love
comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than
we are."