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 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.

“No way!”, Zina shouted in shock.

“But I see now that it is true”, she recovered and turned inwards to look.

“You were Mandragora the demoness. We called you the poisonweed. But I still can’t believe it. You are the most amazing person; when you came from Earth you were even more impressive than my husband the Buddha, and he was the most impressive person who ever came from there; the most pure, wise and aware”, she fumbled words in shock.

“Look who’s talking”, smiled Lord Shiva, and ruffled her hair as she started smiling. “The Love of God herself”, and everybody gasped, as Zina’s title changed and she blushed so hard she was almost purple, and silently and worshipfully kissed Shiva’s hand as her tears welled up.

Mary’s eyes glistened with tears, as she smiled and nodded. “Indeed, that used to be my name. I had many incarnations on Earth since; this was my seventh, and Lord cast all those seven demons out of me as he opened my eyes to God’s light”, she turned to look at her husband adoringly. “I can’t say those lives were what you would call demonic. I had families, I learned to love, to nurture and care, and it changed me, but I was completely Earth-bound. I was so intoxicated with the idea of family life that I kept returning to relive it again, and I was a young woman in this last life when I joined the people who listened to John the Baptist. It changed something within me, as I started feeling that there’s something more to the world, to life, to reality, than just having a family and obeying commandments and customs diligently”, she reminisced, and looked into distance.

“And then he came”, she gripped the arm of Christ firmly. “One look at him, and my soul was filled with such light, such reality, truth and meaning, that everything demonic left me forever, and I cast away my old name. I followed him ever since, and loved him with my entire soul. We were married in Cana of Galilee, where his blessed Mother annoyed him into miraculously making more wine, as it was the duty of the groom”, she smiled, as Lakshmi smilingly bowed and mouthed “guilty as charged”.

“She was my most advanced, most beloved disciple”, Jesus continued. “She intuitively grasped the meaning of everything I taught, and spiritually progressed at an exponential pace, which caused some jealousy from my other disciples”, he grinned. “I had to remind them to be respectful more than once”.

“You don’t know how it feels to be here, what it’s like for me, Adonai”, her tears started streaming down her face. “This is heaven. I mean of course it is, but you don’t know what it was like when you were gone. Kefa and others summarily dismissed me and basically sent me to the kitchen with other women. They didn’t want to hear anything I had to say, as if I were a creature somewhat smarter than a goat, but nowhere near a man. I couldn’t believe that those were the people who were with you, who saw how you treated me and other women, who saw that you looked at each person as a person, and individual, and not a category or a class”, she continued sobbing. “They didn’t even try to make me feel less because I was a woman; they just assumed it as if it were an absolute truth. I felt such injustice. Not because I was a woman, because I loved being a woman. With you, it was everything I could ever dream of. But they thought I would have taken the leadership of the Church after you were gone, and they felt as if it were an abomination for a woman to lead, so they completely marginalised me. I never wanted to lead anything or compete with men, so I felt it as a grave injustice. I just wanted to be asked about you, so that I could relish in the memories, but nobody cared. It was as if they thought there was nothing of consequence I could possibly know, being a mere woman. Initially, I felt terribly disrespected and humiliated, and angry because of the injustice, but soon I got my senses together and started meditating on you, reliving the memories, thinking about your teachings, going back to the details of how your consciousness felt when you were the presence of God. I worked on purifying my emotions, thoughts and actions. I attained multiple initiations and spiritual experiences, and I continued meditating until my body crumbled from under me and I returned to you”, she smiled through tears.

“And you can’t even imagine how it feels for me here”, she smiled more brightly. “I was greeted by the honoured angel Azrael, and the precious Goddess at his side, Zina the Love of God, and the first thing I felt here was being truly seen for what I am as a person. They saw my naked soul in its truth, and talked to it directly. I felt seen, acknowledged, listened to, understood and loved. It was as if I was in your presence again, Adonai”, she leaned into her husband’s side.

“And then I saw the rest of the women and men of God here, and what most shocked me was how natural and free they all were in their mutual respect, how they saw each other and how recognition flowed naturally as worship, respect and love, without inhibitions, and how the women are lovely and feminine, how men are powerful and masculine, and they absolutely and unconditionally adore each other with their entire being, and my heart just bursts with happiness at the sight. Being among them is everything I would ever have wished for, had I known enough to be able to dream of such wonder”, she choked on words, as Zina and Kay rushed to embrace her.

“Most worshipped and respected Goddess, I bow to you, again and again”, spoke the Angel of Death. “I have seen many things, wonderful and terrible alike. I spent eons in Heaven, surrounded by my own kind, the spirit-crystals of vajra. I was there when the first souls started arriving from that hellhole they call Earth, where Satan rules supreme, and I saw Gods and Goddesses in tears and shock, as the souls insane from trauma retold their tragedies, and I saw lady Zina dying from pain on the floor. I saw the most holy mother of your Lord in tears as she tried to console the sobbing Light of God who gave birth to Time and Space, the most terrifying and powerful Lady Shakti. I saw the terrible and awesome Lord Shiva in tears, and I saw his power set loose in anger as he cracked the world and killed the fool responsible for this tragedy, planting the tears of the Gods in the foundations of Earth, which is how the mother of your Lord was conceived. I saw corrupted angels speaking horrible blasphemies, and I saw the blessed Lord Buddha appear before me as the purest, brightest crystal of blue vajra straight from the Earth, without any adaptation, addressing me and the blessed Lady Zina with full awareness and knowledge; and I’ve seen them both becoming Gods within hours. However, seeing you arrive today is the most impressive thing I have ever seen”, he bowed deeply. “Had you been in Heaven where I spent most of my long life, you would have scraped at its ceiling, as the most powerful, purest and the most subtle, gentle and fearsome being there. You were so close to godhood, that you indeed achieved it within minutes from arriving. I don’t know which is more awe-inspiring; your kindness, your intelligence or your power. I don’t wish to offend anyone, but people who marginalised you and treated you as anything less than the most awesome angelic being in existence, are at a great loss, and they are to be pitied”, he bowed to her again, as she smiled at him angelically and tried to bow, as much as it were possible, with everybody hugging her.

Zina knelt at Mary’s side and took her face in her hands, looking straight in her eyes. “Sister, I was never a very intellectual person when I was human, so I was never in your position; the usual female role in our culture gave me everything I wanted. But I can imagine what it would have felt like for my husband, were he a woman-buddha trying to get people to listen, and I see you and your frustration and pain. I am so sorry you had to experience that”, Zina kissed her sister’s forehead and touched it with her own.

Her husband sat down as well. “Don’t sell yourself short, my Lady, for you are the first person ever to beat me in an argument, and so thoroughly that I accepted you as my guru and begged for your guidance, and became a God at your side when I worshipped your wisdom”, he gently moved a lock of hair that was in front of his wife’s eye.

“This”, Mary both sobbed more powerfully and smiled like a sun. “This is heaven. Let me just stay here and experience this forever and I will wish for nothing else”, she looked at the two of them. “The way the two of you see and treat each other, is heaven”.

“Jesus, bro, what the fuck have you been teaching your disciples there, man?”, Azazel looked at the Christ with mock consternation.

“I don’t think mine were that much better, either”, Buddha added, scratching his head in slight embarrassment.

“He tried”, Mary defended her true love. “He taught by example, he warned, but it is as if some things are so profoundly culturally ingrained, people just assume them. People assume women are stupid, especially if they are beautiful, and especially if they are feminine, and I was both”, she recalled.

“I fail to see how that follows from anything”, Kay looked shocked. “Beauty, femininity and mental capacity are three completely independent variables”.

Mary started laughing so hard that she stopped crying. “Thank you for this, sister. For being such a crown proof of their foolishness, as you embody everything those men would consider impossible; for in you, all three of those variables are converging into infinity, and yet you exist here, as the most real and wonderful comfort to me”, she smiled and caressed the beautiful, feminine face of God’s Mind.

“Do you miss it?”, Goddess Lakshmi whispered in her husband’s ear.

“I do, somewhat. He was here on my chest since the dawn of time; content, feeling my presence, as I did his.”, Vishnu replied. “But I was only his custodian, my love. It is now time for him to have a life of his own, and safely”, he sighed.

“An analogy crosses my mind, and I think it’s quite appropriate, since he is the necessary component of a new life. He is to you what her eggs are to a human woman. She guards them, limits unworthy access to them, but in the end, their ultimate fate is not to remain with her, but to become her future children”, he smiled.

“It is an apt analogy”, he smiled back.

…

A being of brilliant white light shimmered in, and solidified in form of a man; his spiritual structure obviously Divine, the white light glowing in golden hues at the edges, with a brilliant ruby light in the heart.

Unlike the other souls, who appeared in the reception room, he appeared directly in front of Lord Vishnu, as that is what he felt as his true home.

“Hello son”, Vishnu smiled at him, and came to embrace him. “Welcome back”.

Lakshmi took in his spiritual identity. Son of God, Saviour, Redeemer, Christ; Lord Yeshua; Person of God, Male. “Wow”, she bowed.

“Father; my Lady”, he bowed back. He took in the sight of his father and sighed with contentment of finally coming home, where he belonged. Then he looked at Lakshmi. “My Lady, you feel incredibly familiar, but I’m not sure how or why”.

She giggled. “You’ll see soon enough, Lord Yeshua. I don’t want to spoil your surprise for the time being”.

…

A silhouette of a woman shimmered in, of white light. She took in her surroundings, and saw Lord Yeshua, ran to him and embraced him, and he embraced her in return, for it was his mother, Maryam. Her light glowed stronger, solidified, grew deeper, incredibly deeper, and Christ felt the hair on his head rise from the intensity of raw power of destiny, fulfilment, glory and fortune that emanated from her holy presence, and he couldn’t believe what he was feeling. He looked at her, and froze in shock.

Lady Lakshmi was smiling back from his embrace, completely blissed out, as her holy tear returned to her heart and brought back memories.

“Hello, my son”.

“Mother??”

…

“My disciples would have a fit if they saw all of you. Belief in one and only God is sort of a cornerstone of our religion”, Jesus mused.

“Well, they are sort of right”, the Mind of God smiled at her brother, completely blissed out because she finally got to meet him. “If they are talking about the unmanifested Absolute, on the other side of the Relative. I am indeed One”, she switched into First Person. “If they are talking about instances where God became a person, they already had a problem with you and Father being one, or when you talked about the two of you being distinct persons, with separate areas of knowledge and jurisdiction. We are all persons of God in exactly the same way as you and your Holy Father, and your Holy Mother, while we’re at that”

“I’m still trying to digest that. So, Father didn’t just select any good woman at random. You are saying that my actual, Heavenly Mother, Lady Lakshmi, the actual wife of my Heavenly Father, Lord Vishnu, shed tears of compassion over the suffering of souls on Earth, and one of those tears became Mary my earthly mother, and my Heavenly Father impregnated her with myself, because it was perfectly within his right since she was in all reality his wife, so it is right and proper that she bears his son, and I am in fact one of the primordial entities, born out of the Primordial Chaos at the beginnings of Creation, at the very beginning of Time, and I was a Jewel of enormous attractiveness that was so dangerous to normal souls that Father took me and bore me around his neck ever since, and then let me be born on Earth to be the saviour of mankind?”, he scratched the back of his head. “The Jewel part I actually remember now, but the part with my mother is still a shock. I regret treating her as if she were an ordinary human woman, now that I know this. I’m sorry, Mom”, he smiled remorsefully at the blissful Lady.

“Son, don’t worry about it. You called it as you saw it. But now that I have the memories of giving birth to you, it’s completely blissing me out. Even if it were in a barn”, she laughed.

“Aren’t we having a bit of a precedent here”, sounded Lord Azazel? “As far as I can tell, you are the only male Person of God since forever who doesn’t have a female counterpart and wife?”

“Ah, that”, Jesus grinned mischievously. “Let me just say that I have a surprise of my own, to repay my Mother for shocking the living daylights out of me”, he laughed. “And you, dear Sir, are called Azazel, and you are not a demon, but a person of God, and you are married to this lovely girl who is apparently my sister, on the Mother’s side, and she is the Mind of God, which I have no problem believing?”, he laughed again.

The girl came to hug him and cuddle. “Mysterious are the ways of the Lord, as your people would say”, she laughed. “And what’s the surprise about…?”.

…

At this point Azrael thought he saw everything; however, as an incredibly pure, deep indigo-violet angel shimmered in from Earth, he understood that this belief might be unfounded.

“Hello, Azrael; it is a pleasure to meet you again”, she smiled at him with such depth of wisdom and kindness that he stood there like a statue. “I am Miryam ha-Migdalit”, she said in a voice that both felt as if it could melt the coldest heart, and cut through hardest steel.

“Mary of Magdala”, translated Zina. “We were from the same region on Earth”.

“Hello Zina, nice to meet you. I know the Angel of Death since before, and interestingly, they know of his new role and his name on Earth now. I don’t know you, my Lady, but I would be immensely glad if I did, for I can feel the deepest Love of God from your heart, and I love you as if you were my own sister already”, she bowed.

“The feeling is mutual, Lady Mary”, the Goddess curtsied and smiled to the super-angel, her own heart glowing in response.

“I had a different name before, which no longer matters, for I wish to be known only as Mary now”, the super-angel smiled. “And now, may I implore you to lead me to my Lord and Saviour, who was known on Earth as Yeshua, or Christ?”, she curtsied pleadingly to the Lady and the angel.

“By all means, Holy Lady of God”, Azrael bowed, and showed her the way.

…

The three holy persons shimmered into the room. As the woman noticed Jesus, she ran towards him, fell to her knees before him and embraced his feet, starting to cry. “It was cruel of you to leave me there alone for so long, my Lord”, she wept, and he slowly and gently lifted her up and embraced her, as the rest of the family took in the sight.

The crying woman started changing structure, as she drank in the presence of her Lord; finally, after all those decades had passed. Enormous power, as if dark lightning or gravitational shear from a black hole, shook the place, as she transformed into a brilliant light, for the Absolute became the woman.

“Mother, Father, I would like you to meet Mary of Magdala”, Jesus announced. “My most beloved disciple”.

“My holy wife”.

“I get how you got permissions to enter the Earth system and access the Jewel. I get how you could impregnate a woman, especially since it’s an incarnation of your wife’s compassion, essentially a part or an aspect of your wife, so you had permission to give her a child. I can see how you created a synthetic karmic body for that being. But what is the soul? That wouldn’t have bothered me earlier, but now I know about the sparks of the Absolute that emerge in particularly holy circumstances and then the karmic body develops around them, and that manifested spark seeks to return to its origin, and it finds it only when it becomes a God, or becomes a part of one. So, honestly, I can’t figure out what you did, and I am begging you to explain it because my curiosity about it is torturing me”, Lord Buddha smiled at Krishna.

“He’s right, Father”, Kay was deep in thought. “One can easily create a karmic structure, and that structure will be a soul for all intents and purposes, but what you did here was essentially make a new God, and since it’s not an incarnation of any of us, and you can’t just make a God out of nothing, because that would defeat the purpose of Creation, I agree with Lord Buddha and I can’t understand what you did, either”, she voiced her confusion.

“Also, there was talk about an attack on Sanat Kumar, and since that sounds very interesting, I’m dying to hear about it”, smiled her husband and looked curiously at Lord Vishnu.

“I’m glad you guys are paying attention”, Krishna grinned. “With all the brain power in the room, there’s no hiding anything from you, and I wouldn’t even want to”, he bowed to them. “You are right, I couldn’t conceive a son, and hope some random soul latches on or fulfils that role. I couldn’t just take a random soul with its own karmic structure and force it into the role, for it would be a violation. I also couldn’t just create a new soul because I would be using my own spiritual substance, and it would reintegrate into myself after death, and I didn’t want that. I wanted to make a true new person of God, one that is also legitimately ancient in its own right, has origins deep in the roots of Creation itself and is a manifestation of the nature of the Absolute through the Relative, and also, one that is mine”, he smiled.

His wife froze in shock, and then smiled like the sun itself. “The Kaustubha jewel is gone, it’s no longer on your chest”, she pointed out. “You used the all-attractive manifestation of the inner bliss of the unmanifested God, wrapped it inside a synthetic karmic path and gave it a life on its own”.

“You are indeed as wise as you are beautiful, my beloved”, Krishna bowed to his wife. “Yes, that is exactly what I did. The Kaustubha jewel, the Light of the World, is now growing to be our son”, he confirmed.

“Mara is going to go absolutely crazy with desire, trying to corrupt it or make it his own”, Buddha nodded knowingly. “That thing is at least equal in power to the Jewel made by Shiva and Shakti, and that one is an independent Power of Creation. This one is Fulfilment and Light itself, that feels like looking at the very meaning of Life and the blissful nature of the Absolute as an external thing. You were wise to take it onto yourself and wear it, because your nature is so blissful in its own right, that the jewel is completely lost on it, looking like any other part of your own body. Since the only ones ever seeing the Kaustubha jewel are the ones who see your glorious person, it poses no danger to anyone, because that structure on its own would act like such a powerful attractor, it would distract souls from their own personal path, like some very powerful addictive drug they couldn’t pull themselves away from. And now, you took that drug and made it into an attractor that will draw souls toward it and cut a path towards transcendence, where they will continue looking for it when it is gone from the world. But Sanat Kumar will try to make it a part of his world, or integrate it with the Jewel he controls in some way”, Buddha was thinking out loud.

“Or absorb it into himself, and make himself a God, as he always wanted to be”, Lord Azazel continued this line of thought. “In any cases, it will be a bait he wouldn’t be able to resist, and it will drive him even more mad than he already is, which is quite something. And if you want to get him in a condition where he will make a mistake, that’s exactly how you would approach it”, he nodded appreciatively.

“How do you know Mara so well?”, Buddha was impressed. “This sounds exactly right, like you know his soul inside-out”.

“I do, in fact. He used to be a fellow demon, and I spent ages listening to him conspiring against the Gods, inventing his own weird philosophy that shifted between egalitarianism and self-aggrandisement, as in his madness he sought to rationalise a way out of his own insignificance and weakness, rather than making good choices that would change his condition”, Azazel nodded darkly. “I probably know more about him than he himself does, and at some point I looked at him, and looked at myself, and realised that he in his madness and evil is what I will become unless I do something radically different”, he smiled.

“Which, judging from your current state, you obviously did”, Buddha smiled back.

“Indeed”, Azazel nodded. “Sanat Kumar hated the Gods with incredible hatred, and wished to somehow either have their power and rise above them, or to make all power irrelevant so that he will not be inferior. He will resort to egalitarianism when victory doesn’t look possible; but put the Kaustubha jewel within his grasp, within his realm of power, and he will get absolutely insane from desire. And then, he is likely to make mistakes”, Zee nodded appreciatively. “Lord Vishnu is as wise as he is wonderful, which is why we all look up to him”, he bowed.

“What exactly is the vector of attack?”, wondered Lady Kay. “He will try to corrupt it by either seduction or threats. I assume that won’t work, because that Jewel will think about only two things – the source of his own light, and his beloved Lord Vishnu, in whose company he spent his entire exstence. At this point, I don’t even think he can tell the difference between the two, and I don’t blame him, for there indeed isn’t one, as Lord Vishnu is the Absolute, only manifested. There’s nothing Sanat Kumar can offer him that would entice him in any way. What can he offer him, to be the king in his world? That will sound as enticing as guarding some stable. So let’s go further; the Jewel rebuffs Satan’s advances. Satan grows angry in his frustration, and enters the ‘you will pay for this’ mode. He threatens with the stuff he threatened Athena with; he’ll throw all kinds of humiliation and suffering on him, but unlike Athena, this one isn’t arrogant and foolish. He doesn’t boast, threaten or invite Satan to do his worst. He simply shrugs and says it will be as his Lord commands, thinking of his actual Lord and Father. Sanat Kumar goes insane with frustration, and actually subjects him to worldly horrors uninvited”, she hypothesised.

“If he does that, it’s game over for him instantly”, Lord Shiva interjected. “The axe of karma falls, head goes plop. He has to know that, and that’s why he’s always being so careful not to get caught in any outright action. He makes their victims doom themselves, while he pretends to offer tests and trials of character and true spiritual choice, which is actually useful”, he nodded. “Which means his attack on your son will take form of some trial of faith – of the kind where he proves his faith and loyalty to God and dies, or he is saved from a terrible ordeal by choosing to belong to Sanat Kumar”, he looked at Vishnu as if asking for confirmation.

“That, indeed, was my plan”, Krishna bowed and smiled. “The best way to attack Sanat Kumar is to offer him something he desperately desires, and which will make him desperate enough to get himself into a situation where any realistic outcome is a loss”.

“You actually don’t expect him to get himself killed. You think he’ll see that and avoid the trap”, grinned Azazel. “But you think he will avoid the trap in such a way as to doom himself strategically in the long run, and he won’t see that one”, he looked at Vishnu appreciatively, as the Mind of God cuddled into him adoringly.

Lord Shiva grinned at him appreciatively and they fist-bumped. “I like the way you’re thinking”, he nodded. “But let me try to guess what the actual plan is. The option of the Kaustubha giving himself to Satan willingly is completely off the table. Only Satan is foolish enough to even try it. But then he will think that he can pressure him into it with terrible torture. That also won’t work since the Jewel will pray only to Lord Vishnu and surrender to his will. Sanat Kumar will either have to blink, or let him die. Will he blink and spare him in the last moment?”

“No. His vanity will be hurt and he will be the woman scorned, so to speak. He will gloat at Kaustubha’s suffering and will enjoy his death. However, then he’ll be in a pickle. He’ll have to present this as some kind of a trial of faith, but in this case it would be a very thin explanation. He was too obviously involved, and the ‘test’ excuse is too thin here”, Azazel scratched his chin. “I don’t get this part, there must be something more”.

“He will have to permanently cede some part of his authority”, Shiva guessed. “I don’t know how or what”.

“All who accept and follow my son will have a way to eternal life”, Vishnu smiled. “His suffering and death will buy this, because Sanat Kumar will have to allow it in order to evade punishment. It will be the only way to appear justified. He cooperated all along, and made the conditions so that the Son of God could prove his glory, so that all the faithful and true can follow him to heaven”, he grinned. “He’s truly such a good and misunderstood character”.

“He’ll allow it because he thinks he can bury it all under a pile of false teachings, alternative similar-sounding false teachers and all the other stuff he always did”, Buddha mused. “But there was talk about an undeniable proof, and of resurrection?”, he looked at Vishnu.

“Yes, both. My son will die, spend a few days dead, then come back to his resurrected body, interact with numerous witnesses and then finally ascend to Heaven. I had enough access to arrange it. Also, Sanat Kumar won’t be able to either prevent it or work on completely covering it up, because remember, he needs to present himself on actually enabling the full glory of God to be shown so that the righteous believers will be saved. He presents himself not as the enemy of God and righteousness, but as a righteous person who hates fakes and hypocrites and works to unmask them and ferret them out. If he shows that he’s actually the enemy of all that is good and works on its destruction and failure, the axe falls and he dies”, Vishnu nodded.

“But he will of course invent lots of reasons to doubt, as if to test faith, and he will present all kinds of alternative narratives about your son later on”, Buddha added. “It’s just what he does”.

“Indeed”, nodded Azazel.

“But while we are at this, I have a question”, Kay interjected. “What are we actually trying to do here?”, asked the Mind of God.

“What do you mean?”, asked her husband.

“It’s simple. The Jewel was created to solve a problem. The problem is stagnation of the souls, and lack of proper motivation. The fact that Sanat Kumar got hold of it was the worst case scenario, apparently, but everything was seemingly designed to accommodate for that possibility. He’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing – his worst. The results are apparently following prediction; some souls are doomed by their arrogance, some have snapped from their stupor, some are moved towards enlightenment. It’s working. So, may someone please explain why we are fighting?”, the girl asked, truly puzzled.

Vishnu nodded and smiled. “The place he made has multiple functions. The first, most fundamental is that it is the alternative to the Kingdom of God. It is a place where beings like Anthea can go after they expressed their desire to belong to the Kingdom of Satan, rather than the Kingdom of God. They can have him as their god there, for whatever it’s worth. Were it the only role that place is playing, we would be unconcerned, and wouldn’t interfere; for a time, of course, because their choice is that of ultimate doom. However, there is another function that place is serving, and that is a playground of obligatory choice for the undecided. Most souls entering didn’t do so the way Anthea did – after having made a clear choice for the satanic and against the divine. Most go there either because they are stupid, ignorant, naive, arrogant, or undecided. And so, the reason we interfere is, essentially, Zina. She is the ultimate reason why Lord Shiva grew angry and cracked that place. She is the reason why I sent my son there to be born, to teach, to show, and to be tortured, to die and rise from the dead showing them perspective and hope. I knew why Zina almost died there, without hope, thinking that place was all there is, and that isn’t a fair thing to do to souls who went in foolish or undecided, but ended up being as wonderful and loving people as she did. So, I’m giving them hope and perspective, and if some want to reject it and choose the fate of Anthea, they are certainly free to do so. However, if they choose the life of love and kindness, they will now also be free to have hope, faith and perspective”, he concluded.