the mysteries of the Universe, fatalism and the stellar hour of Fortune, which is sure to strike.”
“Have you finally remembered me?” came the voice of a woman suddenly appearing in the room. “To whom will I bring good luck?”
“Good luck?!” I chuckled. “There are only ghosts here! Better tell me, who are all these people who hate me so much chasing me away?”
“Here is your Pars of Fortune, the point calculated mathematically shows the Sphere where you are lucky,” the Guardian hugged me with his wings. “Success in the knowledge of the Mysterious World, in professions related to the Past, for example, archeology or mythology, with agriculture, or in the political arena. In the Sign of Virgo, it gives success in intellectual activity, literature, philology, philosophy and religion, applied arts and artistic crafts, administrative and performing activities, in Secret Knowledge and politics. Politics and Secret Knowledge are repeated twice, mind you.”
“I strengthen the connection with the ancestors and the craving for your home. I give an inheritance and leave a legacy. Under the condition of hard work and humility, you’ll gain glory in your earthly Motherland, perhaps posthumously,” Fortune stated. “A similar situation was with the King of England Charles I, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne Franz Ferdinand, the Indian politician Mahatma Gandhi, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the American president John F. Kennedy, as well as the poet Walt Whitman and the astrologer Walter Koch.”
“Were they famous people?” I asked to clarify.
“One can become famous for bad deeds! The degree of my location,” continued Fortune, “means conservatism and attachment to traditions, hard trials and the role of a scapegoat, as a result, a thirst for solitude. Your support is the tree of your aristocratic family. If you don’t give up and don’t get angry at the world, you’ll become a versatile and very modest person with a pronounced transformation of Consciousness due to the events survived.”
“Fortune is friends with Selene and Sirius,” the Guardian added. “Chances and happy accidents are given to you by Heaven. Excellent relationship with the Sun means rapid social rise, celebrity and fame in society; with Mercury gives success in the Sphere of the Word, for example, in writing. Good relationship with Pluto makes you influence the masses.”
“I am not a friend of Saturn,” Fortune remarked, “you get obstacles and delays with inheritance and real estate. Perhaps they are constantly taken away at the last moment. However, your departure from Earth will be lightning quick!”
I looked at the key bunch and found that there was only one key left on it. To that room?
“What is that chest in the closet?” I asked, noticing the glow emanating from it.
“The treasures you inherited,” Fortune smiled. “Look inside!”
I found there an album with black and white photos, my great-grandfather’s glass, a pre-revolutionary book of fairy tales illustrated by a famous artist, garnet beads, a curl of black hair, a hand-embroidered handkerchief, epaulets with stars, a newspaper clipping, a patent for some invention, several letters and a fountain pen.
“Small spool but precious! The smallest gold coin is the richest!” the Guardian whispered, stroking me with his wing. “Look around! Why don’t you notice, my soul, how many friends you have?!”
“Friends? Is there anyone here but us?” I was surprised and looked around the room.
Suddenly, the faces on the icons came alive and whispered, radiating powerful streams of Light. I approached them, and each Saint blessed me for life. They looked at me with Universal Love and filled my soul with it.
Library of the Universe
“Is the next House as well nice?” I chuckled bitterly.
“No, there are different leeches,” the Guardian smiled.
“Leeches are what or who?”
“More likely who,” the Guardian replied evasively.
“Isn’t the already shown enough to stop wanting to live?”
“No, Rukh. If the soul isn’t recalled back, it hasn’t done everything yet. You may not understand why you are kept in an earthly body. Most likely, you won’t even pay attention when you complete some of your real tasks.”
“Can I refuse incarnation?”
“What on earth are you thinking! Would human life exist if souls could refuse to descend into the world full of pain and suffering? Everyone would refuse! To live in Heaven is not to serve on Earth!”
“My great-grandfather, what did he do on Earth according to Heavenly plan?”
“He dedicated his life to music. He played the flute at the Bolshoi Theatre, was a virtuoso, toured extensively, gave solo concerts, taught at musical colleges, including the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music, published several flute books that are still used by teachers. He was personally acquainted with the Italian musician and flutist Leonardo de Lorenzo, was a friend of the famous Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, and of many representatives of the artistic elite of his time. Separate works and entire symphony concerts were dedicated to him. They wrote about him in different countries. You’ll be given his perfect ear and sense of rhythm, graduate from music school with a piano degree and invited to the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music where he once taught. You’ll be faced with a choice – follow in his footsteps or not.”
The book opened at the page with “The Piano” story. A ghost girl tried to put her best friend, the piano, in good hands, but it couldn’t bear the separation from the mistress.
“Her transparent fingers ran over the keys, and the room was filled with magical sounds. The waves of vibrations, exciting and taking the soul to its Great Primary Source, seemed to have moved Grigory into some Other Reality, and when the silence reigned back, he was in a state of stupor for a long time. What had that music been? Who had played it?”
Awakening
Ouranoupoli
“Oh! I was waiting for you! Let’s go for a walk!” Dimitra exclaimed as she met me returning from the Akathist reading, and her intonation foreshadowed a storm.
A walk for the locals meant to walk three houses up from the Tower towards the border with Athos and come back slowly. In case of a long walk, in addition, to go down from the Tower to the pier and return to the Tower. If the walk was global, plus five houses along the sea street and back to the Tower. When Kiri’s father was insisting on giving me a ride in his car from the sea street to the central one, with a house between, I refused, but I couldn’t refuse Socrates’ offer to ride with a breeze from the sea street to the street following the central one, since the distance had been already doubled.
Dimitra was born in a house with their icon shop opposite the Tower. Her parents still lived there. Dimitra’s own house as cottage next to Nicolette’s house was 5—7 minutes walking from the Tower. For local residents, such distance was subject to travel by bus, car or motorbike, and walking from the Tower to the border with Athos, where I read the Akathist, was almost a feat.
Dimitra resolutely headed upward.
“What’s happened?” I asked.
“Let’s go and look for Vasilios! You have no idea! Evil is not enough for these relatives! I don’t know about Russia, but we celebrate a great holiday on the 1st of May in Greece. We all get together at my place in the fresh air around one big table. We all – me and …” Dimitra went on with her list of cousins, brothers and sisters, she had twenty of them, as well as more distant relatives.
“Yes, we also celebrate the 1st of May,” I said.
“So here it is! Vasilios is my best friend!