Azrael’s life significantly improved since he became a God. The reason for that wasn’t that the Gods treated him any better. In fact, he thought, they treated him as if he were a God before, and continued treating him the same now, which is to say, they loved him and showered him with every form of kindness. He smiled. They are the best people in all of Creation. Literally. Having them as friends and family was an incredible joy.

The reason why his life improved was the smiling, dignified woman at his side.

“My Lord and husband, I think it might be advised that I stay away from the Christians as they arrive. I’m not sure I will be completely impartial, and in any case, if they see me and start cursing me as a godless Pagan witch, like they did in Alexandria, their odds at achieving spiritual recovery after Earth might be diminished. Also, I might become angry at them”, she mused as she leaned into his side.

“You mean, you wish for them to see you here in charge of their fates and you’re feeling justice and empowerment, and then you’re feeling guilty over it, and your feeling of equanimity and justice advises you against taking advantage of your position and implementing what might be a petty revenge?”, he smiled.

“You are absolutely correct, my Lord”, she whined, ashamed of herself.

“Don’t you think it’s exactly what they need for their spiritual growth, if any is to take place at all?”, he pressed. “They expect your place to be occupied by Simon Kefa, whom they call Saint Peter, and expect him to hold the keys to the heavenly kingdom. They are self-righteous, even if they commit vile crimes, as they think they have been washed clean in the blood of their saviour, and our job is merely that of a concierge in a hotel, showing them their rooms and meal schedule. They think themselves absolutely righteous by virtue of belonging to the right cult and espousing the right beliefs. A clear demonstration that it is not so is in fact paramount if anything is to become of them. In fact, I would recommend non-Christian Judges to greet Christians, and vice versa, because there are many non-Christians who are arrogant in their belief that Christians are stupid, inferior and wrong”, he explained as he held her.

“You guys are so cute, I wish I could take your picture and put it on my bedroom wall, so that I can always look at you and smile”, Zina told them.

“You don’t have a bedroom”, noted Azrael.

“I can make one”, Zina grinned mischievously, as the Piercing Insight blushed. She was relieved, tough.

“So, you are telling me to trust my first instinct, although it might look petty?”, she asked.

“Yes, because your feeling of justice is advising you correctly, and your first instinct was correct. They truly need to see you here, in your full glory, power and authority of God behind you, because remember, you got your authority directly from Lord Vishnu, the Father of their Lord Jesus”, he reminded her. “You are fully in your right to be here. They, however, need to tread lightly, and they absolutely need that experience in their lives, so that they would truly learn the humility they keep talking about, and yet it remains elusive whenever they talk to someone who doesn’t share their beliefs to the letter. They already had multiple internecine fights over orthodoxy, and more are sure to follow. Allowing them to take their prejudice to Heaven would be counterproductive and ill-advised”.

“So, you’re saying I can just be myself?”, she prompted.

“That’s why you are here. The Lord appointed you to be here because he trusts you. He trusts you. He doesn’t want you to become someone else, or to censor yourself. You are valued, worshipped and loved for what you are. We need you as you truly are, and the souls you have been put in charge of need you as you are”, he bowed and kissed her brow, as she blushed from his praise and melted into him.

“I guess I will have to live with that”, she sighed and smiled.

“Incoming”, warned the Love of God, smiling at them, but pointing at the shimmer before them.

…

“Greetings, angels of the Lord. My name is Aurelius Augustinus, servant of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in his name that I greet you, and surrender myself to your justice and mercy”, the man bowed.

Hypatia was impressed. “Greetings, Bishop. I am Hypatia of Alexandria, a Judge of karma”, she curtsied. “I will be happy to answer any of your questions and be your guide in your post-Earth experience”.

The man was shocked. “If I am not mistaken, you were not Christian in life. You rejected our Lord and Saviour, and salvation is possible only if one accepts his redemptory sacrifice on the cross, where he washed away our original sin, as well as other sins of our former lives, so that we may enter into the glory of God”, he was thinking out loud. “And yet, the Glory of God is immediately obvious from your holy presence, Lady Hypatia. It is clear and undeniable. The blessing and authority of God is obvious from your presence, which means something is clearly wrong with my thinking, and this makes me anxious and disturbed, and I can’t find peace until you explain how all of this is possible”, he bowed to her, completely distraught.

“Please, calm down, revered Bishop. Let me first tell you that I am well aware of your person and writing. You are highly esteemed in learned circles, and I have read some of your works. Second, you are wrong to think that I rejected Christ. In fact, I was in his holy presence just moments ago, where I bowed before him and kissed his hand. Rejecting him would be a terrible thing, as he is a family member and a friend”, she smiled, to his utter consternation.

“But you were a neoplatonist pagan who argued with the Christian bishop of Alexandria constantly!”, he exclaimed.

“I did. The bishop is a villainous fool, and to argue with him and reject his foolishness is a sign of virtue, which everybody should exercise, if only for the sake of moral and mental hygiene”, she laughed. “However, I have read your holy scriptures, and there is not a single thing your Lord said or did, that I disagree with or disapprove of”.

“But how is it possible that you didn’t accept Christianity in life, then?”, he inquired, still completely confused and upset.

“There are multiple reasons for that, the first and foremost being that I already had my own philosophical framework, which in my humble opinion works much better than the disjointed and often chaotic and contradictory Christian ideas, and I find further evidence for that in the fact that your Christian scholars are increasingly adopting neoplatonist ideas and framework themselves. Also, your ideas about ‘accepting Christ’ or ‘accepting Christianity’ are incredibly shallow for a man of your intellect. Did Christ himself not say: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven?”

“Truly, he did”, affirmed Augustine.

“I will now ask my holy husband, Lord Azrael, to testify as to who put me here and why”, she turned to her man.

“She was appointed to be the Judge to the dead by the Father of your Lord Jesus, and the Lord expressed his full faith in her and gave her the authority”, Azrael confirmed solemnly.

“I fully accept her holy authority, and it is also in abundant evidence”, nodded Augustine. “But how have I misunderstood the concept of redemption and salvation?”, he wondered.

“You accepted the mistaken Jewish concept that salvation is about sin, and obedience to law. It isn’t. It is about the light of transcendence, about the ability to see it, and decision to follow it always”, she nodded seriously. “The entire process in which Father broke the ceiling of the earthly hell, blasted the pure light of Christ through it, and sealed the cracks open, so that the light would always shine through them and point the way out of darkness; that is salvation and redemption”, she continued. “The problem isn’t that you have sin. The problem is that your souls are immersed in the darkness of Satan, and wallow in despair, finding stupid and sinful things to amuse themselves with. But now that Christ shows the way, and the light keeps being visible, salvation is an option for all who choose it”, she finished, glowing with the wisdom of God.

“And you and I have both chosen it and followed it; it’s just that we had different labels on the jars with the same honey”, Augustine mused. “You would have made a wonderful Bishop, my Lady, had you openly embraced Christianity, and if the Church allowed for female priests”, he smiled.

“Christ agrees”, Azrael nodded. “He said she would have been one of his best disciples were she alive at his time”.

“Then I am honoured to have been put at your mercy, Lady of God, for one who is praised by our Lord himself, and appointed a Judge to the dead by the Father, must be the holiest person of a character most pleasing to the Lord, and I feel greatly blessed to be in your holy presence”, Augustine bowed deeply, glowing blue with the light of God.

“You would have been a great guest lecturer at my academy, holy Bishop”, smiled Hypatia. “I would have greatly appreciated if you had given lectures on Christianity there. Alas, it wasn’t destined to be”, she smiled.

“Come”, she invited him. “Let’s talk more”.

…

“What is this infamy?”, yelled Bishop Cyril of Alexandria. “A heathen whore of Satan to greet me here? May Lord Jesus Christ judge you for your sins and cast you to the eternal darkness, you witch!”, he growled and cursed menacingly.

“Thank you for your wishes and recommendations, Bishop, but I am needed elsewhere”, she smiled; she turned her sight inwards, made a hand motion and he was gone.

“That one requires some cooldown, I would say”, she turned to her husband.

“Indeed”, he confirmed. “But I’m afraid they made him the doctor of the church down there, so there’s more where that one came from”, he waved his head disapprovingly.

“Satan is working his deeds within the Church”, Zina added, bringing coffee. “That is unfortunate, but not surprising. The dividing line between good and evil, between transcendence and the satanic, doesn’t go between nations, and between religions. It goes within them and through them, and within every soul”.

“Indeed”, nodded Lord Azrael. “The only way to be certain that you’re on the right side is to be in God’s holy presence, and of it. If you’re not, what salvation and ‘right side’ are we even talking about?”, he nodded, and sipped from his cup.

“This is not actual coffee, you know that, right?”, Hypathia raised an eyebrow.

“I know”, Zina smiled a conspiratorial smile. “But unlike the actual coffee, this actually tastes great, so let’s not give them ideas”, she winked.

It was the least intimidating gathering of high-ranking individuals she ever took part in. In fact, the relaxed men and women sitting in a lounge over a beverage looked everything but intimidating. And yet, when Zina introduced her to her parents; the young woman in her twenties and a polite, kind man in what appeared to be early thirties, who were introduced to her as Lady Shakti and Lord Shiva, it wasn’t intimidating. No, nothing of the sort. Neither was it frightening. What she felt looking at their eyes was something she didn’t expect to feel once she became a Goddess. She thought Zina the Love of God and her husband Buddha, the Teacher of the World, were the most impressive people she would ever have the honour of seeing. Now, however, meeting the “parents”, she fought the instinct of dropping to her knees and kissing their feet.

“You two are the Alpha”, she stuttered as she looked at the God-couple. “You are the Beginning, the Origin. You created Time, Space and Thought. To call the two of you ‘Gods’ feels like an act of disrespect. I feel like I could meditate on you for millions of years and just slowly absorb things that you are, and it would be the best possible use of my time. The hair on my head stands on end when I’m near you, so much that I probably look like a hedgehog”, she managed to smile, as she curtsied to the young couple.

“Be at ease, wise one”, Lady Shakti embraced the older woman, who felt as if she were hugging the primordial Light of God emanating from The One, and understood that it might be exactly the case.

“I am right, am I not?”, she asked them. “You actually are the Primordial Principles?”

“Psst!”, hushed Lord Shiva in a mock-conspiratorial voice, with a finger before his lips. “Don’t tell anyone”, and he hugged the incredibly impressed Goddess, who felt such honour in his presence, that she trembled like a leaf.

“So, how are your impressions so far, young Lady?”, a deceptively younger man asked, acting in such a kind, supportive way that it miraculously put her completely at ease.

“I found my husband, now that I didn’t have to fear being courted for my flesh alone, since I no longer have any”, she smiled back. “I don’t know how he wasn’t a God already, though, with his incredible virtues and wisdom”.

“I was waiting for you, Goddess”, Lord Azrael embraced her from behind and smiled. “I, too, am overjoyed to finally have joined the family in earnest”, he joked.

“You were always family, Azrael”, Zina smiled and hugged him, as the others nodded in assent.

“Speaking of which, allow me to introduce you to the others”, smiled Lord Shiva.

…

“You are the Omega”, the stunned woman couldn’t help staring at Lord Vishnu and his wife. “You are the Ultimate Manifestations, the Goal”, she bowed deeply, trembling like a young tree in the wind.

“Rise, Piercing Insight”, Lord Vishnu smilingly embraced her, as her Title changed, and she blushed so hard she looked like a radish.

“Now you know how the rest of us feel around these four”, joked Lord Azazel as he bowed to the Lady.

“I don’t think I will ever get used to it”, she curtsied to the God and smiled back.

“Nobody ever does”, the Mind of God smiled as she embraced her new sister.

“I am very sorry for your experience with my supposed followers”, Jesus bowed and felt quite embarrassed.

“No”, Hypatia waved her head decisively, as she curtsied to the Lord with great respect. “That mob was the same as the one that wanted to stone you in every village you preached in, and spat at you as you were whipped on your way to Golgotha”, she kissed his hand.

“You know about my life?”, Christ was taken aback.

“Of course. I taught mathematics and astronomy to many Christian students, and we talked about you and your life a lot. I probably know more about you than that supposedly Christian mob that tore my body to pieces. Had we been contemporaries, I would have followed you everywhere as one of your apostles. Lack of respect and admiration for your holy person never participated in the reasoning behind me not being a Christian. I merely conceptualised things in a different way that felt less constrained than what I perceived the Christians to be; their thinking was too formulaic for my liking, and yet, the other point of dispute I had with them, your resurrection and the afterlife, is where they proved to be decisively in the right, and I regret not believing them”, she mused. “However, the ease with which the bishop sicced his mob on me, and the hatred and cruelty which they displayed, showed that I was not entirely wrong to keep my distance from them, as they embraced beliefs that felt more Jewish than Christian in their essential nature”.

“Tell me, what do you think, how much did your gender play a role in how they treated you?”, asked Magdalena as she came to embrace her.

“There was definitely a certain glee in how they tore my clothes off and tried to strip me of my dignity as they were killing me”, she nodded. “Part of it was definitely vindictiveness and desire to punish a woman for daring to be, I don’t know even what”, she shrugged. “However, that is a completely misguided line of thinking, because if you look carefully, the same mob did the same thing to your holy husband. They stripped his clothes off, whipped him, and made him carry his patibulum to the crucifixion site, as they mocked him for daring to think he were a God. That attempt to debase, to strip one of dignity for daring to be less than mud under their feet, this is a fundamentally satanic urge, and has nothing to do with my gender; only with how they perceived my spiritual and social status”, she answered, still holding the Goddess in her embrace. “They will try to humiliate a woman in a slightly different way than they would a man, but the intent and most of the actions are exactly the same. Also, it would be unjust and hateful to God to blame men as a gender for any of that. Yes, men crucified Christ, but Christ was also a man. Men were dismissive of you, any yet you adore a man. Men tore me apart, and yet other men learned from me every day in the Academy, they were extremely kind and respectful, and when they spoke of me behind my back, they spoke words of praise. It was not women who gave me high status in society, but men. It was not a gender war of any kind, nor was I a poor woman in a men’s world who rose up despite men’s efforts to put me down. No, it was the contrary. My honoured Father taught me mathematics and astronomy, and it was men who supported me, respected me and gave me honour at every turn, while women, in fact, gossiped and gave me nasty looks, trying to make me feel as if something was wrong with me. So, I bear witness to the virtue and goodness of men in my life, as much as I bear witness to the malicious and vile sinfulness of the mob that ended it”, she concluded.

“I wish I had you as my disciple”, nodded Jesus. “You would have brought me and my Father honour, unlike those sectarian satanic miscreants who made me ashamed before you”, he bowed to her again.

“I repeat, you have nothing to be ashamed for, my Lord. Your noble deeds bear testimony to your noble and godly character, as their deeds bear testimony to their own. This is why you are a God, and what they are, I don’t know, but I can’t say that I want any of it in my life, either”, she grinned.

“And likewise, they tried to deprive you of your dignity, and all they did was make it shine even more brightly, my Lady”, Jesus kissed her hand. “For it is not what others do that affects our dignity, but our own actions alone”.

“So, dear Goddess, what would you want to do now?”, Lord Vishnu smiled at the woman.

“My Lord, were it at all possible, I would want to join my husband in his work. I don’t know what qualifications I need to possess, but I am willing to undergo whatever training and education necessary. I find his work to be noble, compassionate and worthy, and a wife must always support her man”, she smiled.

“By all means”, Vishnu nodded, and her Title changed again. “You are in fact vastly overqualified, being a Goddess, having a human experience behind you, and furthermore, being a teacher and a Lady of great insight and discernment, not to speak of your overwhelming wisdom and compassion”, he bowed with great respect, as she blushed again. “Your husband will show you the practical details as you go, but all in all, we are all exceptionally honoured to have you”.

The recent days were eventful, to say the least. Azrael didn’t complain, because it gave him plenty of material for philosophical discussions with his two best friends. Since they just happened to be Gods, those discussions were incredibly deep and satisfying, and he noticed changes in himself. His soul frequency became deeper, and due to karmic benefits of helping distressed souls, he also grew bigger. In fact, he now rivalled the size and colour of Mary of Magdala when she first arrived, and he seriously doubted there was a more advanced angel in heaven. To him, that didn’t mean much. Conversations with Buddha and Zina, however, did.

“Everything changed since Lord Vishnu performed that ritual”, he mused. “And not just Christianity. Have you seen the Neoplatonists, Mahayana Buddhism, and Vedanta? Hindu descriptions of the Gods are sometimes uncanny in their accuracy, when they get it right. There’s a simultaneous breakthrough of philosophies and religions based around transcendental reality that is the One Principle beyond all manifestation, and also ethics based on compassion, kindness and calm acceptance of worldly things. When we compare them to the ethical systems of antiquity, where people thought they will be rewarded by the Gods if they killed more people in more brutal ways and conquered more land, this is astonishing”, he finished.

“Also, the belief that soul survives physical death and continues to have a meaningful existence seems to be spreading, and is no longer limited to Christianity alone, although Christianity has actual evidence”, Buddha noted. “This looks like an anchor that solidified ideas and things that used to be easily dismissible, because the argument for them was essentially ‘it would be terrible if it were otherwise’, and the response would be ‘terrible things happen daily, so, if anything, that is an argument that the most terrible explanation is more likely to be true’. Now, the answer is ‘Christ rose from the dead on the third day’. There are witnesses. It’s a physical fact, not a hypothesis, not an ungrounded Platonic theory”, he added. “Also, the heroic acceptance of death by the Christians, as they were brutally persecuted by the Romans and blamed for whatever the current problem was, added significantly to the credibility of their cause. And also, something else started taking place, that none of us expected. Karmic nucleation catalysed by the increased strength of the transcendental connection”, he looked both pleased and shocked.

“You want to say that ‘blanks’ are growing souls when they hear the enchanting talk about God and the beautiful and immortal Heaven, and participating in acts of love and kindness that seem to be more common”, his wife giggled and kissed his neck. “You intellectuals seem to be working hard on making things hard to understand, because you want to make them general and abstract, and by doing so, nobody understands what you’re talking about anymore”, she pretended to be annoyed.

“It’s not just that”, Buddha ruffled her hair and kissed her hand. “People used to listen to all kinds of stories before, and this didn’t happen. I’m saying that reality is starting to respond at the most basic level, where that world-illusion is based on reality, reality that was first cracked open by Lord Shiva, and then further tilled by Lord Vishnu. As stories resonate with truth, the ‘blanks’ are nucleating and starting to grow real souls. They start primitive, but since human bodies are much smarter than what such primitive souls would normally have access to, they grow into complex structures very quickly, and that seems to accelerate with further incarnations there. There wasn’t enough time to see where this is going, but it’s as if that whole world is growing souls and doing something. It’s hard to tell what the end result will be, but it’s an extremely noteworthy development”, he finished, struggling while his wife was trying to find his ticklish spots to make him laugh.

“So, we will soon be dealing with a completely new soul-type; no longer grown in the astral nursery, or incarnated in a mature form from heaven, or grown from a tear of God or some artefact, but grown on Earth, from the bottom up”, Azrael continued, while those two were both listening very carefully, and fooling around like children, to his great amusement. “Illusory as that world may be, it’s all still taking place within the mind of God, for there indeed is nothing else. And when you’re in the mind of God, God is indeed the most fundamental reality of your existence. If things could grow out of God in heaven, I see no theoretical reason why they could not grow out of God on Earth, as well; the Veil is the same anywhere”.

“And by the way, I love you two, and the way you are acting”, he smiled. “I only wish I had a wife so that I could do something like that with someone. But barring that, watching you two is a great pleasure”, he bowed smilingly.

“She will come”, Zina hugged him. “It would be against God’s nature and Will for it to be any other way”.

“I do hope so”, Azrael nodded and hugged his friend back.

…

“The Christians are starting to become a problem”, Buddha told his angelic friend. “They are turning from a virtuous, transcendentally-bound persecuted minority into a vicious, self-righteous Middle-Eastern monotheistic cult that uses God as if he were their property, and a club they are entitled to use for bashing the ‘infidels’. After a few centuries of persecution and growth, they are now powerful enough to use force as an argument, and since they are philosophically undeveloped, they aren’t really doing well in arguments. Also, other nasty aspects of their faith, inherited from Judaism, are showing their ugly head”, he concluded, lost in thought.

“That is true. However, look at the bright side. Ever since that sheepiest of all sheep, Simon Peter, the sheep have been awakening left and right. It also mobilised incarnated angels, giving them a transcendental tether to which they can attach themselves and focus; it mobilised the incarnated demons, whose proclivity for family life and useful skills and arts has gained a transcendental meaning, and we had more souls that were aware and in good condition, despite their often terrible deaths, than ever. Yes, we always had fanatics and hotheads, and the blessed Lady Kay had to do further splicing of the astral plane in order to accommodate for their specific needs. You can’t put rabid fanatics among the normal souls, and those rabid fanatics are still pretty nice souls overall, just immature and lacking perspective. It would be good if this fanaticism could be mellowed down theologically on the Earth itself, but I’m afraid that’s beyond my pay grade”, smiled the Angel of Death.

“If by ‘fanatics’ and ‘hotheads’ you mean people like those few who called you Satan pretending to be an angel of light in order to lead them astray from the true faith in Jesus Christ the Lord, and God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, making the sign of a cross in front of you and expecting you to be struck by the lightning of God for the blasphemous act of telling them how things actually work, then I both agree with you, and stand in awe of your incredible tolerance and kindness, my friend”, smiled Buddha, as his wife giggled behind him.

“Talking about fanatics and their victims, I think we have incoming”, Zina pointed at the emerging shimmer in space, suddenly serious.

…

Her terror and shock started to subside, once pain was no longer there. The absence of pain was incredibly blissful, and she could see again. That felt wonderful, regaining her eyesight after they cut her eyes out with shards of pottery, which they used to scrape flesh off her bones and tear her to pieces, slowly, torturously, and with bestial glee. Everything happened so chaotically, with such unexpected fury and hatred, that she didn’t even get around to being angry at her murderers. She was just terrified and in pain, losing control of her life, losing her eyesight, and losing life itself in the end. But it didn’t feel like it; it felt like she lost pain, blindness, fear, helplessness and her assailants. Her life was more hers than ever. Her senses were better, her mind was quicker, and the calm bliss she felt appeared to be the baseline of her new reality.

The problem was, it didn’t look possible. Of course, Plato spoke of his analogy with slaves bound in a cave, who perceive mere shadows of the reality outside, but it would be a stretch to think that this could be a description of an actual reality of a soul’s relationship with the physical world, and a greater ideal world beyond. If anything, she thought that she participated in the ideal world through the course of her work on mathematics, astronomy and teaching.

Maybe she is in the process of dying, and this is her dying brain comforting her? Maybe it will all end in mere moments? Regardless, she decided to relish in the experience, for the absence of pain was so luxurious, so peaceful, and there was no mob screaming insane things and most vulgar profanities at her, as they tore her flesh. She shivered at the recollection, and tried to push it away.

At some point, she perceived a change. The space around her felt different, and seemed to solidify in form of a room with three… people? No, they just looked like people, because she could feel profound spiritual light beyond their form. Are they Gods? As she tried to understand who they were, their identities became known to her, as if by some magic. Two were Persons of God, which probably meant they were Gods, but their names were unfamiliar. Definitely not the gods she knew. Also, not The One, although they felt like First Manifestations. She didn’t know how she understood that, but the more she thought of it, the more certain she was; or were they the Final Manifestations? They were extremely holy, and incredibly kind. Also, she knew they were husband and wife. “Plato was right”, she thought.

The third one, the closest, identified as the Angel of Death, and was a wonderful, powerful, incredibly deep being of dark blue and deep purple light, and she intuitively felt that he, because it was a ‘he’, was on the utmost precipice of becoming a God himself, and was a friend of the God-couple. She felt such deep kindness and love between them, that tears instantly welled up and her soul seemingly just exploded from the beauty of their existence, and they didn’t even say a word yet. “Where are my manners”, she thought. “Those are the most beautiful beings, or perfect philosophical entities, I have ever seen, and I haven’t even introduced myself properly”.

“Greetings, honoured Gods. I am Hypatia of Alexandria. Please be kind and patient with me, for I am confused as to the nature of this new reality I found myself in, and I must beg you for explanations and your kind guidance”, she bowed and smiled, in the most dignified way she could manage in her condition.

“Greetings, Lady Hypatia; or, should I rather say, angel Helena?”, Azrael, bowed, as he cleared the veil of memory in her soul. This was usually something he did later on in the process, but the Lady in question was so stunning, so self-possessed, powerful, beautiful and kind, despite her most horrible death, that he treated her more like an equal, and less like a patient.

“Azrael? This is you? I now remember seeing you before, many times. How many lives? Nine? And before, in Heaven? It’s still unclear, but I think more so because I’ve changed, than due to any memory lapse. And you’ve changed as well. You are greater, stronger, kinder, so much kinder and more loving than before. You used to be cold, distant, calm and self-possessed, but now you are amazing, and honestly my heart just flows to you, and I am afraid I might commit some unintended transgression”, she blushed. “And please call me Hypatia. Helena was a caterpillar, whilst I am the butterfly”.

Azrael was stunned, for a reason unlike any in his long experience. He looked at the super-angel in front of him, her deep purple and indigo hues and enormous size, her incredible handling of the situation, and understood that something fatally and irrevocably changed in him.

“My Lady”, he bowed. “Take my hand, and see into my heart”; and they felt each other in earnest.

She was astounded, because as she felt him, his incredibly pure soul, his oceanic mind and his love and admiration for her, her heart responded in ways she never thought possible, for it wasn’t an emotion. The One ripped through the Veil in her heart, and claimed her as himself, and not just an abstract her, but her as a woman who finally met her husband, whom she could worship and adore in the safe knowledge that she was The One who worshipped The One, for they were both persons of God.

And so the words of the Love of God came true, and the Gods were twelve.

Azrael had to leave the Gods to go back to his work, and it always saddened him a bit. He loved the Gods dearly, and he felt most like himself, and most fulfilled, when in their company. Hearing their thoughts and feeling their emotions was like seeing what he, himself wanted to be, and hoped for; only externalised, in form of incredibly lovable beings. He sighed.

The souls that just survived suffering and death, often a terribly excruciating death, needed him, and his work was important.

Besides, two of his work buddies were Gods themselves, and they made his job incredibly fulfilling. He smiled at them, for no particular reason; just that he was happy that they are there.

A soul shimmered in. “My name is Simon Kefa, a disciple of our Lord Yeshua the Christ”, he managed to say. He was obviously distraught by the incredibly torturous death by crucifixion he just experienced, and Azrael immediately felt compassion for the man. However, this was going to be tricky.

“I am Azrael, the Angel of Death and a Judge by the law of God. I am here to answer your questions and help you in any way possible”, the angel bowed to the man.

“Lord Angel, tell me, is my name written in the book of life? Was my life pleasing to the Lord? Am I saved?”, the man stuttered.

“Ah”, sighed Azrael. “I see that you conceptualise God as some combination of perfection, a lawmaker and a ruler, which is typical for the Middle Eastern despotisms. You think that God in his perfection made a perfect Law that he gave to men, your tribe in particular, and there are so many different rules and demands, that one is bound to break some of them, and then God in his perfection will condemn him as lacking”, he smiled.

The man looked confused. “You make it sound as if it weren’t so?”

“Furthermore”, added the Angel of Death, “you think that the role of your teacher Jesus was to pay an infinite, universal price of sacrifice for all who are lacking in some way, but accept his Lordship, so that they can have eternal life with him in Heaven”, he nodded.

“Is it not so?”, Kefa was now completely confused.

“It’s a very strange and unnatural distortion of the truth. It’s not completely unfounded, but no, it is not so”, the angel was serious now. “God is indeed perfection, many different perfections in fact, but God is not unreasonable, or unkind, or cruel; his justice is not what you think it is. If you asked God what his justice was – and I would know – he would tell you that justice is a state where all of Creation manifests all that God is, in his full glory and perfection. Injustice is a state where this is not manifested, or it is hindered, or tampered with. And punishment for not being of God is, well, not being of God. We do, indeed, have a hell, but it is not a place for those who were found lacking. All of creation is filled with beings who are found lacking in some way, and only ten are perfect. No, hell is a place for those who are so cruel, insane and evil, that we would normally destroy them, but we decided to postpone it, because some chance for their redemption might still present itself later in time. You don’t have to fear hell”, Azrael smiled.

The man was hugely relieved. “Thank you, Angel of the Lord”.

“You seem to think that the only alternative to hell is the eternal glory of the Lord”, the angel’s face grew more serious now. “But that goal is so incredibly high, that it consists of far more than merely not being condemned for your rotten nature. No; not being condemned and being perfect are different things altogether. There are many things you would need to understand, and many transformations of spirit you would have to endure, in order to become perfection, of the kind your perfect Lord demanded”, the angel nodded to the man.

“Please, guide me, Angel of God. Show me perfection. Leave me not in darkness and ignorance”, the man bowed sincerely, and Azrael was moved. He looked at his colleagues, they all nodded, and he waved for the man to follow him.

…

Simon Kefa looked around, and saw a place that was not a place, but peace, light, love and fulfilment itself, and his soul rejoiced. Out of the light, a figure appeared, infinitely glorious and beautiful, made of light that was so bright, that the beautiful light of his surroundings was like darkness in comparison, and yet it didn’t hurt his eyes, but filled them with incredible joy and wisdom that radiated from the person. “Lord Yeshua…?” he bowed and asked.

“Close enough”, the person of God spoke with a female voice, to his great confusion.

“You wanted to see what perfection looked like, the perfection your Lord demanded, the perfection of being One with the Lord, in mind, will, nature and body”, the angel bowed. “May I introduce you to my Lady, the hundredfold-worshipped Person of God, Lady Mary of Magdala, the Eternal Wife of Christ”, he bowed again, with a smile of inner bliss welling up.

The man shook as if hit by a whip, in wordless panic and fear., all of his prior confidence crumbling.

“Yes, Kefa, it’s me. The disciple he loved the most, the true Church of Christ. I am glad that we meet again, although I see that you fear that I will take my vengeance upon you now, and that your scheming against me might come with a terrible price”, she grinned mischievously. “Your fears are unfounded. If you can recall, I am not like you and your fellow apostles. I cared only about my Lord, and gave no heed to your pecking order. I did, however, see your disregard of me as disregard of my husband, for he and I are one mind and one flesh, and we have been so since I first lay eyes on him. And you”, she pointed at the man who had shrunken into himself and shivered out of incredible shame and embarrassment, “You did well. You overcame your sectarian prejudice when Paul worked to embrace the ‘heathens’ as well as the Jews. You understood that all those ‘laws’ of yours need to be relaxed because you’re not saved by law, but by Christ. You were strong, indeed as a rock, as my Lord called you”, she nodded in approval. “It is also true that your head was as hard as one, but you actually worked against it, and you also retained a good general direction and provided a good example to the Church”, she continued and looked him straight in the eyes. “I see why Azrael brought you here. He loves me and he remembers the tears I shed as I recalled how you dismissed me, depriving the Church of its soul, and he wanted you to see me now, to show you the truth of your actions, so that you may learn humility. Has he succeeded?”, she asked the shivering man.

“My Lady, I am so sorry”, he sobbed. “I somehow convinced myself that Christ favoured you unjustly, merely because you were his wife, and now I see what you were his wife exactly because you deserved to be held in most favour”, he bowed as he wept. “I was jealous of you, because I couldn’t understand things you and the Lord talked about, and especially as you shared subtle emotions that I could not partake in, and I convinced myself that none of it matters, and that he taught us men everything that actually matters for salvation, and what he had with you are merely things between a husband and a wife”, he blushed in shame. “Please forgive me, because I am merely a foolish fisherman and I was too stupid to know what I was doing”.

“I see you already met my wife, Kefa”, another voice was heard, this time indeed of Christ. “Welcome”, Jesus approached and embraced the trembling man.

“I failed you, my Lord”, the man cried. “I betrayed you once more, and I set your beloved wife aside, instead of having her as our anchor and a source of wisdom. Have I condemned us all?”

“No, Kefa. You did mostly well, but you also made mistakes. Fortunately, my Father in his wisdom accounted for that, and he says it matters not, for if the knowledge I shared with Magdalena was too much for the twelve disciples, it would also be of no use for the wider Church; it is in fact good that the power of Satan was spent on keeping her marginalised, while a simple message was spread far and wide”, he nodded as two more people shimmered in; Goddess Zina and an angel of blue vajra.

“May I introduce apostle Paul”, she smiled as she brought the man forward. “Kefa, I think you owe him some explanations”, she winked and bowed out.

The angelic being couldn’t separate his eyes from Christ and his bride, and after bowing to the former, decided to address the latter.

“My Lady, are you indeed Mary of Magdala?”, Paul asked.

“I am”, the Goddess smiled.

“And you are the beloved wife of our Lord, the disciple he most loved?”, he inquired further.

“That is correct”, Christ interjected, and the Goddess nodded in assent.

“I was told”, and he looked at Peter with eyes that flamed like daggers, “That Mary of Magdala was just some clingy woman who hung along after Christ evicted a herd of demons from her in an exorcism”, his voice was calm but full of righteous fury. “She was even conflated with some repentant prostitute whom the Lord forgave. And now I see the truth, that she is the perfect God, wife of the perfect God”, he bowed to the Lady, and turned back to the man. “Peter, how do you explain this blasphemy?”

“I have no explanation for you, Paul, other than I’m a sinner and a fool”, Kefa trembled. “I was jealous of her, and I convinced myself of what suited my pride. The rumours we spread about her, diminishing her reputation, the way old women gossip and slander, they were lies, and I’m afraid I am guilty of the sin of bearing false testimony, as we all were, for all the apostles shared a jealousy of her and were happy to spread lies”, he cried. “I am truly sorry, for this was truly a terrible thing to do”.

“This explains the strange atmosphere that was in the air every time I asked who the apostle John was, or who the “most beloved disciple” was, or how come John and Mary of Magdala seem to be interchangeable in scripture”, he nodded. “Now it all makes sense”.

“My Lord”, he addressed Jesus, “I don’t feel that it had greatly influenced the message we were spreading among the nations”, he mused. “In fact, if I had to explain Lady Mary and her role, I think it would have complicated things without actually adding anything. I feel she is perfect, and she is what every faithful one of your followers should aspire to become. She loved you, and in that love and in the wisdom you taught her she became perfect. She was loyal to you and reached the end of her race victorious. However, even Peter was loyal and bore his cross with dignity, praising your name. I am not sure this will end as poorly as Peter seems to think”, he scratched his head.

“You are right, wise one. My father told me the same thing. Had Mary assumed primacy in the Church, it wouldn’t have actually helped anything, since the things she knew, and others did not, were in fact beyond anybody’s ability to understand. If the apostles failed to grasp them, everybody else would surely find them beyond their ability as well, which would have in fact made the message more complicated and harder to spread, as you rightly noticed. So, as much as I regret that they had not treated my beloved wife with appropriate dignity and respect, the harm to the Church will be negligible, and you are the person most responsible for this great success, for which I salute you”, Jesus bowed to Paul, who didn’t know where to look out of embarrassment. “The problem Peter caused with this will not interfere with salvation itself, but the whole Church now has his issues with women. This is regrettable, and will cause problems down the line, but other than making women feel they are somehow less than men in the eyes of God, it will also unjustly flatter men, who will assume too much about their primacy”, he waved in disapproval. “From what I can tell, they seem to be turning my mother into some kind of an asexual virgin-mother deity and they think it balances things out”.

“What is to become of me, my Lord?”, trembled Peter. “I have sinned greatly, and I deserve punishment”.

“No, you don’t. You’re an ass, and you caused issues with your obstinacy, but you are otherwise a good man, and the only punishment to you is that you failed to do some good things that would have allowed you to partake in more of God’s glory”, smiled Christ. “You placed limitations on God and in turn you got to be limited, and shared your limitations with others. Go with Azrael now, and learn. He will show you truth, and help you shed your limitations, and spread knowledge to others”, Christ ordered, and Peter bowed out in gratitude.

“As for you, Paul, you are such a pleasant surprise to us”, Jesus turned to the other man. “You never met me in person, and yet you figured it all out better than the disciples who shared bread with me every day, and without you, the message would have died like a flame under a cup. You inflicted such a wound to Satan, that my light will shine through it and keep gnawing at him until his death. Go with Lady Zina; she will tell you more, for there is more”, he concluded as the angelic Paul glowed with his praise, and bowed out as well.

“So, I am to be a repentant demon-ridden former harlot, and your mother is to be forever a virgin”, Magdalena smiled. “What great service have they done for God as a woman”, she waved in dismay.

“Yeah, that is going to be a problem, and it is going to unbalance things, actually harming men more than women”, he confirmed. “However, the upside is more than worth the downside. There is now a justified belief in transcendence of death. It’s no longer a Platonic fantasy that can be easily dismissed. There is understanding than afterlife is better than earthly life, which it is. There is understanding that God demands love, kindness, humility and tolerance, rather than submission and sacrifice of goats and cows. And I think both you and my blessed Mother will somehow survive this human nonsense, as you are rightly adored by all the Gods and angels and other worthy souls, starting with myself”, Christ embraced his smiling Goddess.

“Wait, what?”, his Mother shimmered in. “What was that about the virgin thing?”, she tried to contain herself from bursting into laughter, as Magdalena snickered.

“Father, I’d like to talk to you about the results of my life on Earth”, Lord Jesus addressed Lord Vishnu after the meeting of the Gods took a more relaxed turn, as Mary decompressed and was now chatting vigorously with Lady Zina and Lord Buddha about their Earth experiences, which were both similar and vastly different. It seemed that she got her frustrations out of her system now.

“I see you are distressed over possibility of failure”, nodded Krishna. “You need not be, for you did well”.

“How would I not be distressed, Holy Father? I expected my disciples, of all people, to follow my commandment to love each other as I loved them, and almost instantly after my departure they marginalised my wife, whom I loved the most, who was supposed to be the soul of the Church, the holder of the deepest knowledge, and also so close to me that she was in essence my own flesh. And why? They were jealous, they fought for power, and they edited her out of written testimony so thoroughly, that she will seem like a peripheral figure, and they hinted that “the most beloved disciple” is some fictional guy named John. So, basically, it’s not something that just happened to them by accident. It took premeditation and planning. They removed my wife, who was of one mind and one body with me, and now they are going to do who knows what in my name and with my authority, and I’m afraid Satan is going to adopt, distort and redirect the movement into something that is more useful than harmful to his intentions. And also, I thought my sacrifice would deprive him of his power and authority over that world. That obviously didn’t happen. So, I failed”, he sighed despondently.

“I pretty much expected things to go like this, so be not worried”, Vishnu patted his son’s shoulder. “I would be a poor planner if I planned for absolute success and didn’t account for the Enemy’s efforts. Everything you said is true, and yet it doesn’t matter. Yes, your disciples were influenced by their lower nature, and Satan surely helped, and they marginalised your wife and thus sabotaged the spiritual core of your teaching. That is now lost. However, the teachings never last. The core is always lost within a generation or two after the death of the founder. So, the loss of the spiritual teaching is the least of my worries, as it was destined to happen within a century. Also, complex, sophisticated teachings are the least effective there, because they assume a target audience that doesn’t exist; essentially, if Mary had knowledge that only she managed to grasp, and your other students didn’t, what are the odds that someone from an even wider circle would have benefited from it?”, he asked rhetorically, and Jesus didn’t answer.

“Exactly”, Vishnu nodded. “So the teachings are more less useless. However, since you put so much effort into teaching her, Sanat Kumar thought she was the prime target and invested huge efforts into neutralising her completely. Also, since he had more holes than plugs, he needed to leave most of it open, which meant other students, whom he deemed harmless due to their previously demonstrated cowardice and propensity for succumbing to societal indoctrination and habit. Also, he thought students will try to cover up the fact that you were crucified because it’s the most shameful death, and you don’t want to brag with your supposed Messiah being crucified by the Romans. He also ignored everyone from the outer circles. Which means he ignored Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the Church, and he ignored the apostles, thinking they are measly cowards who will keep to themselves and possibly preach to a few Jews, which will come to a bad end because the Jews fear Roman persecution over supposed Messiahs. Which is how we win”, he winked at Jesus, who still didn’t understand it

“Kid, think”, his mother interjected. “Kefa and others will have a seriously guilty conscience over what they did to Magdalena. It’s not a small thing. They will fear your anger and punishment after death, and Kefa especially fears it because he trice betrayed you already, and this is now strike four. They will not cower in some basement now. Also, we need someone outside of that circle, who is actually capable of spreading the message, someone smart, eloquent, heard-headed and fanatical, convincing and educated. Father gave a vision to Saul the Persecutor, and he had a spiritual conversion, that will make him into the most ardent and fanatical spreader of the news about your crucifixion and resurrection, literally making the whole world know, and he’s theologically so much better than those shepherds, tax collectors and fishermen you taught, it’s not even funny. He’s one of the young bright hopes of the Sanhedrin, and he also has fire under his butt because he persecuted the Church and fears divine punishment if he slacks, so he’ll throw himself into the jaws of death for you. So, essentially, Sanat Kumar spent his resources neutralising Magdalena who would have sat in some hut and taught a mystical teaching to dozens of people over her lifetime, and opened himself to dozens of highly motivated people who are mostly dumb as rocks, but who will now be organised and prodded into forming a universal theology, not just a Jewish sect that worships death of a descendant of David, that only a handful of Jews would care for, but spreads good news that Death does not reign supreme”, she smiled and rubbed her son’s shoulder.

“Oh”, said Jesus. “So you really thought this through”, he smiled. “Did I even make any damage to Satan? I’m afraid that part failed completely”, he mused.

“The problem with testing your hypothesis by getting yourself killed is that you can’t try something else if you fail”, answered Vishnu. “And yes, he is still in charge there. But he had to cede ground in order to save himself from repercussions of torturing and killing you. All who follow you out will be allowed to do so. However, he will of course do his worst to obfuscate things to the point where the very idea of who you are will be so vague or polluted, that this will be a hard thing to do. But it doesn’t matter, because you rose from the dead on the third day. The witnesses saw you, and they are spreading the good news. The concept of soul outliving the body, and there being another, better world in the afterlife, combined with the bright highway of light you carved into that world, is the only thing that matters to me. As far as that is concerned, everything was a resounding success, and people down there now have a reasonable hope in place where there used to be only despair”, he concluded.

“We must not become complacent, though”, Lakshmi added. “The Enemy will be working. Sabotage the message. Introduce similar-sounding but spiritually vacuous alternatives. Blame your followers for all kinds of disasters and persecute them. Spread slander. Incite your followers to commit abominable acts. Based on what we’ve seen so far, this is certainty rather than conjecture. We can also expect attacks from unknown directions, which are hard to account for since they are unknown; basically, he didn’t think of them yet, but we expect that he will. This is not a fight we expected to win now. It would be sweet if we did, but we are not so optimistic as to count on it. But, you scored a big hit and it will count”, she finished.