“Nothing built on the unstable foundations of that world lasts forever”, Lord Padmasambhava shrugged. “It had a good run; eight hundred years or so. Also, it was in decline for quite a while already. Now, the University of Nalanda has moved to the higher ground”, he grinned and showed hundreds of souls around him in the apple orchard.

“It’s a great loss for the Earth, though”, Kay nodded seriously and sipped her coffee.

“It’s a great loss for the Earth when a wise person dies. It is a great loss for the Earth when unique copies of valuable books are burned. It was a great loss when the library of Alexandria was burned. It was a great loss when Constantinople was sacked by the crusaders. It is also a great loss for the Earth when nothing improves for centuries, and nobody does anything with those books. It’s a place of loss, and nothing is ever safe there while Mara reigns. You know that better than I do”, he smiled at the Mind of God. “Everything we build there is temporary, and against forces that are certain to erase it eventually”.

“Still, please accept my sympathy for the pain of loss that you’re experiencing, Paddy”, she grinned. “You’re not fooling me with the impermanence talk”.

“There’s no fooling you, sweetheart”, he smiled bitterly. “But we all knew what was to happen when we saw the trajectory of Islam. We also see the trajectory of the Mongols. But the Europe is waking up from its long decline. The wars of conquest are shuffling the deck of cards, and who knows what results of it all will arrive here for us to witness. Even Mara himself, trying to do his worst, sometimes sets things in motion that bear good fruits”, he pointed to two young angels talking to one of his wives.

…

“Lady Jess, aren’t you Gods jealous when people worship other Gods more?”, the little girl asked. “I mean, in church they told us that God is a jealous God and he doesn’t like it when people worship anyone else”.

“You mean, will I be mad at you and your brother because you came to learn from me how to worship Lady Hypatia better?”, the Goddess smiled at the girl, who nodded shyly.

“Not even a little bit, Hilde. In fact, we are very happy to help you worship other members of our family. I think it is the same as how you would feel if someone wanted to do something nice for your parents or brother. How would you feel about that?”

“It would make me very happy and I would be glad to help them in any way I can”, the girl smiled.

“But why did the priest say the God is jealous, then?”, Albert asked.

“It is hard for me to know exactly what he meant, as I am not him. However, a God would feel bad if people worshipped things that are not manifestations of the Absolute – for instance, if they worshipped Satan, who is evil, or if they worshipped evil spirits, or gods that are made up and false, and would get their souls lost. But you worshipping my sister Hypatia makes me feel great – and even the priests would agree that it’s fine if you worshipped Jesus more than his Father, because they are the same God”.

“I hate Satan”, the boy frowned. “He made us freeze and starve in his world, and he then tried to buy our Father’s soul when he was desperate to save us. Satan is evil. Why don’t you Gods kill him, so that he can do no more evil?”

“He is indeed evil”, the Goddess nodded. “And we wouldn’t mind getting rid of him at all. But it’s a complicated thing. You see, before Satan created that evil world, there were only four Gods. Now, there are fifteen. Also, the angels now have useful things to do, and they are growing spiritually. You and your Mother wouldn’t have been born if not for that world. It’s the lesson Lady Kay taught us – she is very powerful, and she could go back in time and make it so that Satan never got the opportunity to make that world, and create all that suffering. But if she did that, most of her family would never have been born. Would you choose Satan never to have made Earth, if that meant you and your sister and your mother would stop existing?”, she smiled.

“No”, both children waved their heads. “That would be terrible”.

“So, you agree that Satan did serve some good purpose, even if he is evil and he will do even more evil in the future?”

“Yes. Sure, he tried to trick Father out of his soul, but after he died he asked our Lady for help, and she cried and sent a part of her soul to us. He didn’t plan for this, but it still happened, because good people reacted in good ways to his evil”, Hilde nodded.

“And so in the future, many such things may yet happen, that we don’t know of at this time. We could kill Satan now, but then some God like Lady Hypatia or myself would not be born. Would you want that?”

“No”, Hilde replied. “You and our Lady are wonderful and kind, and even if Satan did terrible things, and many people suffered, you are worth it”, she nodded emphatically.

“Thank you, sweetheart”, the Goddess smiled at her. “So, you see now why we let it all happen?”

“Because being able to do something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea”, Albert nodded. “You could easily stop evil, but then you would also stop some great good things from taking place, and that would be terrible”.

“There’s one more thing I would like to know”, the girl asked. “There used to be an equal number of girl and boy Gods before, and now there is one girl more. Isn’t it now unbalanced? Does it mean the girls can make boys do something they otherwise wouldn’t, because there’s more of them?”

“It doesn’t matter. Even if the Gods were all girls and there was only one boy, we would never do anything he would disapprove of, because we all love each other. If one of us is unhappy with something, we would never do it. We would try to find out what would make him happy, and then we would do that. Intentionally making one of our family unhappy is unthinkable for any of us, and we all try to make each other feel happy and loved. You see Lady Kay talking to my husband over there?”, she pointed, and the children nodded. “She heard that terrible things happened on Earth in the place where Lord Paddy learned, lived and taught others. The Muslims came and burned everything down, and they killed many Buddhists. She thought he would be unhappy about this and so she brought him coffee and tries to console him”.

“Oh. So that’s like when my sister was hurt and she cried, and I held her to make her feel better?”, the boy nodded.

“Exactly. The idea that girl Gods would use their numbers to do something boy Gods would not like, that would never happen. It just means that more girl Gods will bring coffee and come to talk when a boy God is sad, the way Lady Karuna came to my husband”, she smiled. “Also, when Lady Hypatia was sad about your family, the boy Gods consoled her and Lord Shiva grew angry with Satan and swore vengeance, and he in fact took her tears and brought them down to Earth to you. When one of the girl Gods is distraught and doesn’t know what to do, all the boys get together to help”.

“This is awesome, and we want to be like that, too”, the children nodded.

“Well, that’s why we’re here”, the Goddess smiled.