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 he 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.