Читать книгу Confession of a Ghost. F.M. Dostoevsky award. Playing Another Reality - Alexandra Kryuchkova - Страница 21

“You won’t believe, it’s sunny there!” the Guardian smiled at the door to House No. 3.

I squeezed my eyes shut and stepped inside. When I opened my eyes, right in front of me, I found a wide-open, rocky-toothed mouth!

“No!” I yelled, clinging to the Guardian, and the mouth immediately shut.

“Well, I’m sorry, I’ve just yawned,” the Lion said calmly. “I’ve been looking forward to see you, and the Sun is baking in full!”

The Lion, not at all aggressive, turned out to be very amiable. He stroked me with the brush of his tail to make me calm down, stretched out his paw and said in a deep voice,

“Actually, I’m a kitten, a big one. Just don’t tell anyone or they’ll stop taking me seriously! House No. 3 is the Sphere of Close Contacts, brothers and sisters, short-term local trips; commerce and business; elementary education and the Word, oratory and literature in terms of writing, not publishing, since publishing is handled in House No. 9. You can pet me, I don’t bite.”

“Where are we?” I asked the Lion, shaking his paw and scratching him behind the ear. “There’s nothing around here, except the Sun baking.”

“That’s right, we are in the desert.”

“Desert? Is it the Sphere of my Close Contacts?”

“For a lonely soul, even any crowd is a desert,” murmured the Lion. “This phrase was read in Heaven and voiced on Earth by Chekhov, the writer.”

“Nice to meet you, Rukh!” flashing a sunny smile, the suddenly manifested Star said. “I am Acubens, or Sertan, according to the astronomer Bayer’s classification of 1603, Alpha Cancri, I correspond to the elements of Fire. I’m a patroness, guiding strange and lonely people, including holy fools, prophets, astrologers and writers. I give the opportunity to penetrate into the World, where the Past and the Future coexist, and to learn something to transfer into reality.”

“Sertan is a magician, a star of revelations and prophecies. She brings surprise gifts in the Sphere of her location!” added the Lion and spread his wings.

“Wow, you are winged!” I exclaimed, and the Lion purred contentedly. “We are in the desert! What kind of gifts are we talking about?”

“In deserts, magical mirages live and revelations are heard. The hermits retreat here to get closer to Heaven,” the Guardian encouraged me. “Sertan has the features of Saturn and Mercury, which is good, because she is in the Sphere of Mercury, the Word. Your words will be a life-giving source.”

“Sertan gives strength to survive in harsh conditions,” said the Lion. “She is also a symbol of the Egyptian scarab beetle, the resurrection of the soul, the source of Eternal Life, which logically complements the Sun, the Higher Self, your life-giver.”

“Wherever I look, there’s the seal of Saturn,” I sighed.

“They call me refuge and hidden place,” Sertan continued. “Experiencing pain, you’ll retreat here and create something spiritual as required by the energy of Saturn.”

“Sertan is clearly expressed in Pope John Paul II and in Michelangelo, who painted the Last Judgment,” the Guardian added. “More often the star promotes people in the field of literature, in the study of stars and in public affairs.”

“Now I’ll tell you about myself,” the Lion purred. “Let’s fly over the desert! Get on my back and hold on tight.”

I grabbed the Lion’s lush mane, the Guardian waved his wing at us, and we took off.

“Do you know why I am winged? I love catchy words. They fly in the air, I hunt and catch them, and then play with them,” said the Lion with a smile. “People with the Lion Zodiacal Sign in House No. 3 are famous for their strength in creative thinking. A wide flight of thought plus imagination and ingenuity is the key to success and self-realization in the field of art. Sphere No. 3, associated with the Word and the ability to express thoughts, is often flooded with light at birth of writers. Lion is a temperamental creature, he leads the masses, has the flame of the Eternal Fire burning, that can ignite others. Knowledge of foreign languages is a plus. A good position for theater and film actors, I have pronounced stage drama skills. Lion needs listeners for self-realization.”

“Are there many listeners in the desert?!”

“The smallest gold coin is the most expensive, although you are interested in the global, since Lion is the king of beasts, and kings don’t think small things. The king generously takes his subjects under his guardianship, so you tend to patronize and help others. Drive away from yourself those who are cunning, running and dodging in every possible way. What do you see there, in the oasis?”

“The Lion King?” I supposed, noticing a strange man in a crown, with a book and a pen in his hands.

“King David, prophet and forefather of Christ. He reigned for forty years and was considered an ideal ruler, although at first, he guided sheep like an ordinary shepherd, but courageously fought with a lion, protecting them. Then David became a brave warrior. He united Israel and returned the Ark of the Covenant, the stone Tablets with the 10 Commandments, to the Tabernacle on Mount Zion, where his earthly 70-year-old body was buried. David planned to build the Temple, but it was his equally illustrious son Solomon who did it. However, possessing eloquence and creative gifts, during his lifetime on Earth, David played musical instruments perfectly, and as a result left an indelible mark as a psalmist. His hymns from the Book of Psalms are still recited in Orthodox churches.”

“Did Solomon write something too?”

“Yes, but I suggest returning to the Lions. In communication, they are straightforward, though domineering and sometimes stubborn. I despise traitors and cowards, but I tend to deify those who give me Knowledge. From the moment of incarnation, the thirst for knowledge will grow in you, as people say, by leaps and bounds, which disposes you to read, but not all that glitters is gold, look for wise books. Travels and new acquaintances contribute to the increase of knowledge and inspiration.”

The City-on-the-Water appeared on the horizon.

“What a beauty! How did it end up here in the desert?”

“It’s a mirage, Rukh, though realistic enough. The City-on-the-Water exists in earthly reality, and you’ll definitely visit it. At least, because I’m his symbol,” the Lion purred, and we descended to the central square of the mirage City and wandered to the main Cathedral.

“It’s all lions here!” I exclaimed.

“The winged lion with an open book is a symbol not so much of Venice as of Mark the Evangelist. His relics were smuggled out of Alexandria occupied by Muslims. The body was hidden in a basket and covered with pig carcasses so that non-Christians, who considered the pig a forbidden animal, couldn’t touch the cargo. Since then, the relics have been in Venice in the main Cathedral. Mark’s mother was a preacher of Christ, believers gathered in their house. As a result, Mark became a disciple of the Apostle Peter, from whose words he wrote the Gospel. Mark founded Christian Church in Egypt, became the first bishop of Alexandria, he is considered the patron Saint of the Copts, Egyptian Christians who called Mark ‘the God-seer’. He died on the way to his execution, having been sentenced by the pagans in 68 AD.”

“Why is his symbol a winged lion and not another animal?”

“Many prophets, including Ezekiel in the 6^th century BC, had access to the Subtle World and saw a creature with four faces – the Tetramorph: a man, a lion, a calf and an eagle. The revelation of John the Theologian speaks of 4 separate beings – the guardians of the 4 corners of the Throne of God, the 4 parts of Paradise, later of the 4 elements and East-West-South-North directions. In the 4^th century, Saint Jerome substantiated the connection between the Evangelists and their images. The beginning of Mark’s Gospel is ‘A Voice of One Calling in the Wilderness’, which early Christians associated with the roar of a lion. Lion is a symbol of power and omnipotence, and one of the central themes of Mark’s Gospel is the theme of the power and omnipotence of God. People argued about the correct distribution of the Tetramorph symbols among the Evangelists, but it was on Mark that there were no disagreements. Moreover, it was his Gospel that was used by Matthew and Luke when writing their own.”

“So you are the patron of writers?” I smiled.

“Evangelists are patrons of writers. You’ll find the icon of the Four Evangelists on Earth and remember me,” purred the Lion. “Perhaps you’ll remember me earlier, in Venice. It’s no coincidence that it attracts writers and poets, some are even buried on its island-cemetery.”

“Are poets singers of psalms?”

“Poets are writers who express thoughts concisely. In fact, writers are magicians. The word is a great thing, Rukh. It can be used to kill and resurrect, to change Time, events and scripts of Destiny. You can view hypothetical scenarios, having retired to the desert, and then rewrite them, turning the desired chain of events into the right direction with the Word, after which it materializes on Earth.”

“It’s too complicated,” I sighed.

“Lions are enterprising and resourceful, but always lack time,” said the Lion thoughtfully. “Your Sphere of the Word starts in the degree of popularity, fertility, writing talent, foresight. It’s the degree of facing the Truth, ‘a figure with the face covered with a veil, sitting on a rock, points to a brightly radiating Eye in the air directly in front,’ so a stargazer of the Silver Age described this degree. The soul, often alone, is endowed with prophetic power, it’s able to see Another Reality, eclipsed by the crowd.”

Library of the Universe

“Did you enjoy the trip?” the Guardian asked, taking a seat in the Reading Hall.

“The Lion is just a big cat. I don’t know which is better, to drown at the bottom of the raging sea or to die of thirst in the desert.”

“The desert is the inner state of your soul. What have you seen?”

“King David and the City-on-the-Water with St. Mark’s Cathedral.”

“Not bad. By the way, King David had a magical seal, which he inherited to his son Solomon, the sign of an eight-pointed star on a ring that has power over the spirits of the Lower Astral.”

“I haven’t seen the ring.”

“It’s for the best, since you are not allowed to practice magic.”

“The Lion said I could rewrite the scripts of Destiny!”

“You are able to read various scenarios of the Future in the Tablets, but you must not violate the Laws of Heaven by breaking the Matrix, like hackers do with IT-programs in order to change the codes within certain areas.”

“I don’t understand. What is the Matrix? How can it be hacked?”

“The Time Space Matrix. For now, remember that the Sun controls your Sphere No. 3 and is the most powerful planet, along with the Moon. Your strength is in the Word, Rukh! A good story is that ‘Cat’s Name’.”

“What name?” I was surprised.

“Alice. So they call cats in some countries. The story is written on behalf of a dog.”

“I have never understood human nature, and probably I will never do. But why people, who, unlike dogs, have the gift of speech, are not able to understand themselves and each other just to be happy?”