It was 1997. We were founding the Instituto Paulo Coelho, a non-profit institution, exclusively financed by the author’s copyrights. The main idea wasn’t, and still isn’t, to dole out, but to provide opportunities to the less favored layers of the Brazilian society.

We began opting for concentrating the budget on actions for children and the elderly. We chose to participate in the maintenance of the Instituição Meninos de Luz, at the slums of Pavão-Pavãozinho and Cantagalo, in Rio de Janeiro, which at the time cared for 80 children and teenagers and today cares for more than 400 young boys and girls.

I needed to create the logo for the Instituto Paulo Coelho and wanted it to express the power of our project, which was simple in its central idea, but ambitious in its results. I sought something that synthesized in a precise manner all the power, energy and will we were putting into that work.

Inspiration came in a dream. I saw great flapping wings protecting the Earth and all human beings. When I woke up, I knew immediately what it was about: Saint Michael. I researched, did many drafts and trials, but it was in vain, as nothing pleased me. Until the day I clearly saw the whole image: a circle and a spade. It was exactly what I was looking for, a simple image, but full of power and determination. The beauty of the most perfect form, the circle, which also represents the shield and protection, combined with the force of the warrior’s sword. I draw up a first draft and understood that what I was seeking so keenly was there.

A couple of years later, due to its power and symbology, that very same logo was adopted by Paulo on his official site and was now representing the image of the WARRIOR OF LIGHT, which appears in many of his online texts and publications.

Ever since, this symbol has already been seen and spread by thousands and thousands of people around the world, on t-shirts, cards, pins and even on tattoos.

Long live the Power of the Warrior, long life Sant Michael!