49 pages • 1 hour read
James RedfieldThe Celestine Prophecy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “Clearing the Past”
Another chance encounter occurs on the road as the narrator and Father Sanchez journey to Machu Picchu. They see a couple pulled over, and Father Sanchez recognizes the woman as Julia. She is also a spiritual seeker. While the priest goes over to talk with her, the narrator is left alone with Julia’s companion, Rolando, who makes him feel uncomfortable. As Julia and Rolando leave, she tells the narrator that she is sure they will meet again.
Back on the road, Father Sanchez asks the narrator if he spoke to Rolando about Wil and then gently rebukes him for not doing so. Father Sanchez explains the Sixth Insight to the narrator: Each person must examine their past to figure out their own control drama and break free from patterns of manipulative behavior. As the narrator remembers his parents, he realizes that they were “Interrogators,” and his control drama is “Aloof.” Father Sanchez describes the four basic control dramas in greater depth.
Father Sanchez and the narrator arrive at the home of another priest, Father Carl, but he is not there. Later, Father Carl meets the narrator at the Machu Picchu ruins and guides him to start processing the Sixth Insight more fully by asking questions about his past and his parents. When he awakens the next morning, the narrator has Wil on his mind. Father Carl tells him what he knows about Wil’s search for the Ninth Insight and shares his own control drama, which is Interrogator.
The process of working through the Sixth Insight continues as the two men explore why the narrator chose his career. Father Sanchez returns from making some phone calls, urgently informing them that Cardinal Sebastian is at his mission. It is imperative that they return and deal with this threat. Both priests advise the narrator to build up his energy and stay alert. Father Carl provides further guidance in how to concentrate on beauty and draw energy from nature.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Engaging the Flow”
Understanding more clearly the importance of drawing energy from the right source, the narrator tries to draw energy from the beauty around him. He begins to think of Wil, and he “sees” him running through the jungle with the Ninth Insight in hand, pursuers close behind. His thoughts next turn to Marjorie, and he wonders if they will ever meet again. When he later tells Father Sanchez about his visions, the priest emphasizes that thoughts are meaningful and should be carefully examined for their message. The basis of the Seventh Insight is intuition—following where the energy leads to find answers.
Resolving to journey to Iquitos, since Wil said that was his destination, the narrator sets out in Father Carl’s truck. His intuitive sense is immediately put to the test as he comes to a fork in the road. Both routes would take him to Iquitos, but he senses that the choice is important. As he surveys the energy fields surrounding both roads, he selects the left one—the one that is brightest. He soon encounters a blockage in the road and sees Phil approaching the truck. As they are discussing their next steps, the military arrests both men. The narrator is transported to a jail, where he is placed in a cell with a young Peruvian man named Pablo. The narrator has a dream that night in which he searches for a key. Pablo instructs him about the ways dreams connect to people’s lives and convey important messages.
The narrator sees Marjorie briefly and learns that she has been in the prison since their separation. He notices that she looks vulnerable, and he is again strongly attracted to her. The narrator has a debate with Father Costous, a priest who is collaborating with the military. He asks the priest why the Church is so opposed to the Manuscript, but this only makes the priest angry. The narrator dozes off and has a dream in which he is escaping with Marjorie. When he wakes up, however, he finds that she is no longer in the dining room, and he notices that his energy is low. Pablo reminds him to be aware of not allowing his energy to fall.
Once again, the narrator challenges Father Costous, and this time the priest explains that the concept of personal evolution opposes the long-established teachings of the Church. As the chapter comes to an end, the narrator plans to meet with Cardinal Sebastian. Pablo gives the narrator one final warning against becoming too attached to another person and assures him that this principle will be developed more fully in the Eighth Insight.
Chapters 6-7 Analysis
The novel is largely plotted around sacred spaces that are hotspots of spiritual energy: Viciente; the mountains and forests around Cula; and Machu Picchu. On their way to Machu Picchu, Father Sanchez and the narrator run into Julia and Rolando, whom he knows as fellow seekers. The interpersonal dynamic between the narrator and Rolando serves to illustrate the Sixth Insight regarding efforts to seek control over others and, thereby, channel their energy. In his hesitation to engage people at critical points in the story, the narrator displays an ongoing pattern of “aloofness.” Father Sanchez explains to him that patterns of behavior learned as children persist throughout people’s lives and affect interactions in both passive and aggressive ways. The four patterns enumerated in the Sixth Insight are defined as character types: Interrogators, Intimidators, Aloof, and “Poor Me.” The narrator’s inability to communicate with Rolando is “a perfect example of how a control drama interferes” (126), according to Father Sanchez. He goes on to say: “You were so aloof you didn’t allow an important coincidence to take place” (126). Dealing with these control dramas, therefore, is “[t]he first step in the process of getting clear” (126). Ultimately, the Manuscript offers a message of hope: “We are truly free to become more than the unconscious act we play” (131).
The mentoring process continues as the narrator meets Father Carl at Machu Picchu. In fact, the priest acts as a kind of therapist, specializing in “help[ing] people see their way of controlling” (132). He guides the narrator toward the recognition that his life was produced by roles that were directed toward him and that he internalized. In this process, the Manuscript reflects a convergence of ideas from popular psychology, which is a characteristic of New Age thought. After expounding on the principle of control dramas, Father Carl challenges the narrator and brings the New Age concept of self-actualization clearly into focus: “You can go right back into your old drama, or you can wake up tomorrow and hold on to this new idea of who you are” (139).
Significant movement toward the plot’s resolution is provided in Chapter 6 as the priests describe the role that Cardinal Sebastian is playing, in concert with the government, to suppress the Manuscript. The Cardinal seeks “to increase the military pressure against the Manuscript” (134). The adversarial relationship of church and state in the novel is a point for which it is criticized. A military regime would be far more focused on suppressing its political opponents than on an esoteric manuscript. Nevertheless, in the novel, the military does the bidding of Cardinal Sebastian.
The narrator’s spiritual education continues in Chapter 7, as Father Sanchez teaches him that love is essentially “the energy of God” (153). The Seventh Insight teaches that the way to become connected to this cosmic energy is through intuition. The motif of waking up is explicitly named when Father Sanchez describes the progress of the narrator’s spiritual understanding: “As you began to wake up,” he says, “you’ve become clear” and “conscious of this evolution” (155). Relying on his intuition and putting the Seventh Insight to the test, the narrator resolves to go to the jungle on a mission to defuse the Church’s opposition. Father Carl lends him his truck. This reflects a motif in the novel: Whenever a mode of transportation is needed, one appears. The magical quality of these provisions is not realistic, but it suggests the allegorical nature of the quest.
As he heads for the village of Iquitos, the narrator is immediately faced with a test of his intuition. Relying on his intuition and the energy he senses, he takes the road on the left at a crossroads—and is arrested by the military. The traditional distinction between “right” and “left” may be implied here, as the “right” road might have kept him from being arrested. In many ancient cultures, the left side is considered suspect; in fact, the Latin word for “left” is “sinister.” The directional movement here, therefore, symbolically overturns expectations. Intuition does not necessarily take a person in the “right” direction, as society would judge it; however, if he had not taken the left road, then he would not have met Pablo in jail and learned more about both the Seventh Insight and the Church’s opposition to the Manuscript. In this sense, the left road turned out to be right. In fact, Pablo guides the narrator to this realization when he says, “The Seventh Insight says that the challenge is to find the silver lining in every event, no matter how negative” (178).
While he is in jail, the narrator sees Marjorie again and notes that she “looked vulnerable.” He also “felt another strong attraction to her” (167). Consistent with the novel’s pattern, Chapter 7 ends by linking the subject to the next insight. As Pablo puts it, “It warns against your growth being stopped […]. It happens when you become addicted to another person” (179).
