13. THE DEATH

Victor remained hanging on the gallows by his foot throughout the night and most of the morning. With the noon approaching the sun came over the tops of surrounding trees and with lack of any breeze it was getting quite hot. He was suffering terribly from thirst and felt that he might pass out at any moment. Perhaps he did at least for a while until, still with his eyes closed, but with increasing conviction, he became aware that he was being watched. Was it a hallucination, or was someone standing near him? He had to force his bloodshot eyes to open and when he partially succeeded he thought that he caught a glimpse of something red. It looked like the hem of a coat worn by someone who stood motionless a few paces away. Victor was far too exhausted to move his head sufficiently and give himself a better view. But there was another thing he could see from his position. On the ground, in the green moss, there was a long, bowed and sharp blade, which was sending a reflection into his weary eyes. The immediate effect was strange. Rather than being alarmed, he had a sudden craving to hold it against his parched throat, to caress the cool metal with his burning cheeks. Then he noticed the shaft that was attached to the blade, and he knew that it was a scythe and that it belonged to the red-coated figure. He shuddered.

- Go! Go away!

In an extreme anxiety Victor tried again, and this time he managed to whisper:

- I don't want you here!

- Why don’t you want me?

  Victor heard the calm voice close to his ear. He did not want the figure come any closer; he wanted it to go away!

- You are the Death, and you came for me.

- I am the Death, and I came here to help you. See?

  Victor felt a light touch of fingers on his forehead and found that he could now move his head quite easily. Not only that, his whole battered body was suddenly feeling marvellously revitalised. He could now look properly and satisfy his growing curiosity about the Death's appearance. It turned out to be the traditional skeleton, partially covered by a red coat, with a blue hood over the scull. The most repellent sight was that of the finger bones grasping the handle of the Death's deadly instrument. He must have somehow communicated his feeling of disgust to the figure in red.

- Do I look so ghastly to you? I must apologise. It's just that I'm used to appearing in this guise, it's expected of me and over all the time I have become so accustomed to it! But if you find it too revolting to look at this can be rectified in a moment.

The Death turned away for a second or two, and when it turned back to Victor it threw back the hood. With it the Death assumed the countenance of a middle-aged man. An abstemious face, with the grey eyes set very deep, staring without a trace of malice at the hanged man. He could see that the corners of the Death’s thin lips were even beginning to turn up in a trace of a grin.

- Is this better? In the lore of some peoples I even assume the semblance of a woman. Tell me if that would make you feel more at ease.

- No, thank you, this is just fine.

Victor was amazed how his condition had changed, a minute ago he was at the point of total exhaustion, with all his muscles hurting and his blood suffused eyes barely able to see. Now his body felt as if gallons of fatigue poured out of it, soaked in without a trace by the spongy moss below his head, giving almost a feeling of buoyancy. Is this what death is like? But where is the valley of the shadow of the death, where is the tunnel one is supposed to move through, at least according to those who came near to death and had returned back to life?

- Am I dead?

This was reasonable question, or so it seemed to Victor.

- No, you are not dead.

- So, is this not yet the end?

- Have you really imagined that with my arrival the end always comes?

- Do you not impersonate the end of human existence?

- Listen, to call me the end of existence, life, or whatever else, that would be ignominy. Not that it would offend me personally. I'm used to being called all sorts of names, or even worse, I’m used to having the knowledge of my existence consciously suppressed, buried deep in human consciousness. What I'm uptight about is the reputation of my office. On the part of humanity it tends to be greatly misunderstood, and the latest trends make the prospects of any exoneration appear even bleaker.

- Why don't you look at it from our angle? We all know that you exist, and that try as we might we won't escape the blade of that scythe that you have so been holding in your hands with such charming tact. By the way, could you put it away while we are talking? You have almost convinced me that you mean no harm, but that thing still makes me feel a little nervous.

This time there was definitely a smile on the Death's face, as he complied with Victor's wish and put his instrument away, leaving it leaning against the upright of the gallows. He then sat down cross-legged on the moss and looked up to Victor.

- I know, it must be perturbing to have the threat of my interference constantly pending above your heads, but trying to suppress this irrevocable fact is no solution either. I am the great enigma of life, people should philosophise about me, and they should strive to learn more about me, to better understand me. If they did that they would find that I'm really their friend, that I have their well being uppermost on my mind. Do not all their pains and their sufferings begin the very moment they are being born? Do not these agonising experiences continue for years afterwards? Am I not the only one who can liberate them from their torments? What is it that they should really be afraid off?

The last was obviously meant as rhetorical question, and as such it demanded Victor’s answer.

- Do you mean the birth?

- Precisely. 

The Death said that like a schoolmaster after receiving the correct answer from his pet student, and he continued in much the same manner.

- Why would you think do the newly born children cry? Because they already anticipate the agonies, the anguish that they'll have to endure. And those who are present at their birth, what do they do? They rejoice! Shouldn't they really be crying?

- Why? Every birth is a happy event.

- Perhaps you are right and perhaps it is so, from the human point of view, which is limited. I'm mainly pointing to the absence of any logic in the human behaviour. They fear me, the Death, so why do they celebrate the new arrivals? Can’t they see what it implies? Can’t they understand that it heralds their impending doom, that it can mean only one thing? They will eventually have to depart this world, to make room for the newly born.

- I can see your point. Without you, there would have to be a total chaos in the world.

- Naturally. After all, there are some people who do understand. Otherwise they wouldn't have invented some stories in which, for a refreshing change, I do play a positive role.

- Oh, I see. I’m sure that I know one, just allow me to rake my memory… Yes, I have it. A man strikes a deal with you that you'll point out to him the people around him who are marked to die. He becomes a famous doctor, because he can select those patients who are curable, and refuse the rest. But when he refuses to heal one rich man who is marked to die, this man somehow discovers his secret and waits in an ambush for you, manages to catch you and puts you under the lock and key in his cellar. He gains a new lease of life, but of course it is to no avail, because he can no longer enjoy his wealth, as he soon finds out. For instance, he can’t even have his favourite meal of roasted chicken, because without your assistance he can’t kill any. Having spent the whole afternoon chasing headless chooks in the yard, in a total frustration, he decides to let you out for a minute and that, naturally, is the end of him.

- I didn't know this story and it's very nice. What becomes of the doctor?

- I can't exactly recall. I suppose that he loses his clientele and goes back to whatever he did before he met you.

- Good. There is a flaw in the story, though. I would never agree to such a corrupt deal, of course.

- I think that you were forced to do it.

- Still, I would never make a deal with any doctor. It’s not that some wouldn't try to bargain with me. And this bargaining bit is going to get worse.

- What do you mean?

- As you no doubt realise, I operate from the timeless zone and can therefore observe the past and the future. The medical sciences are poised to make great advances. Like everything else, it will have its positive and its negative aspects.

- Tell me about the positive ones, please.

- People will live longer.

- Is that all?

- Isn't that what they always dreamed about? It's the quality of lives of some of them that worries me the most. If their bodies and their brains could retain a reasonable level of productiveness, that's fine with me, and I might even close both my eyes to let them enjoy themselves in this world a little longer. But how would you like to go on living for years, just lying on a hospital bed surrounded by various instruments, unable to move or do anything, being artificially fed through some tubes attached to your veins, and having iron lungs doing your breathing for you?

- That's horrible! Is that what's going to happen?

- That's not all. Various organs will be taken from the not quite dead bodies of some people and grafted to the bodies of others.

- Couldn't you prevent it from happening?

- I'll keep trying, but all I would be able to do is cause the bodies to reject the foreign organs and, of course, in their stealthy ways the medicos will find out that this can be counteracted with some drugs and, sadly, for a time at least, I'll be cheated out of the game.

- Where will the supply of organs come from?

- That's going to be the main problem that will eventually cause the practice to halt. At first, it’s going to gain a popular support, because people are easily taken in by anything new and promising, particularly when it appeals to their emotions. But there will always be more potential receivers of organs then available donors, and the shortage of suitable organs in due course will attract various criminals and black marketers, who will stop at nothing to get what they want. The rest you can easily imagine yourself.

- When people realise that their lives might be in danger, they will turn against it.

- It will do some good, too. It will make some people think more about their lives and come to understand the eternal truth, which states that truly alive is only the person who is willing to die while still full of life.

- And that while their appointment with you can be postponed, it cannot be cancelled altogether.

- You told me a story, and I’m also going to tell you one. This one is true, and it happened to me in Baghdad. I was having a conversation, similar to this one, with a wealthy man. He wanted me to clarify for him what had happened to his former servant, who went missing some time before that. He said that this man arrived home looking extremely agitated, muttering something about seeing me at the market square making some gestures in his direction. He naturally concluded that I was after him, so he turned around and run all the way home, to beg his master's help in an attempt to escape from me. The master, while sceptical about his servant's chances, nevertheless lent him one of his stallions, and that was the last time he saw the servant or the horse. He now wanted to know: Was I at the market square on that day, was I making those gestures in direction of his servant, and did I catch up with him? It didn't take me long to recall the whole incident. I told him that I indeed was at the square and that I was making those gestures. This was so simply because I was genuinely surprised when I saw the nobleman’s servant still on the Baghdad square in the morning. I knew that we had a meeting scheduled for the evening of the same day in Samara, many miles away from Baghdad!

Victor laughed at the Death's story.

- Do you often talk to people, the way you did to that man and the way you talk to me now?

- I cherish every opportunity to have a nice talk, so I'm always available for a little gossip, unfortunately most of the time I’m not perceived by people. Mind you, my presence does not always herald a person’s passing to the other side, in fact most of the time this is not the case at all, so there usually is no need for any panic on their part. I’m around when it’s time for a person to change the course of their life. I assist these changes and I help him or her to bury the part of their old personality that is destined to die.

-        You amaze me. But what you say really does make sense.

-        Of course it does. During your life’s journey you encounter many death experiences, some of them quite drastic, others less so. You must realise that in a certain sense you die every night. Your sleep is only a mild form of death, and when in the morning you wake up it is like being reborn.

- I think that I'm beginning to understand you. You have a controlling power over all parts of our bodies and over every cell that forms it. They die and new ones are replacing them. A similar process goes on in our minds. The old ideas die and new ideas take their place. We never have quite the same physical body that we had yesterday, and we are also constantly revising our ideas and building new systems of thinking, which are based on our latest experiences.

- You do understand, indeed. I only have to add, that the two of us are really associates. At first you were more like a silent partner to me, but your recent trials have speeded everything up. Your old personality is about to surrender to the new one, and our meeting here today will further enhance the process of your initiation.

- Can I ask you something? I hope I’m not holding you back from your work and causing some hair-raising problems.

The Death laughed.

- Ask anything you like, I have taken the time off, so that we can converse.

- Does that mean that no one can kill a chicken at this moment? But I better be serious. Today is Friday, the thirteenth. I already know that there are no coincidences, that everything in this world has a meaning. Tell me, why did you have to choose this particular day?

- I didn't choose it, you did.

- Did I? Well, perhaps I wanted to know more about this number, which so often causes people to panic.  Somehow it's become associated with you, hasn't it?

- True, most people mistrust Friday, they loath number thirteen and, of course, they fear death. This superstition about Friday the thirteenth only came to haunt your kind relatively recently, with the arrival of Christianity. Each era has its peculiar superstitions, and this one became firmly associated with the story of Jesus' betrayal. There were twelve men in his company and Judas, the traditional traitor, was the thirteenth in the group and the odd one. Central to the Christian myth, is the idea of self-sacrifice. You, too, are the odd one - otherwise they wouldn't have hanged you here upside down. This of course gives you the advantage of seeing things inverted, so use this opportunity and tell me which of the two protagonists would have made a bigger sacrifice, was it Jesus or Judas?

Victor thought hard for a few seconds.

- Jesus sacrificed his life and then, according to the scriptures, he rose from the dead. Judas also died, but without his betrayal, Jesus' sacrifice could not have taken place.

- The two men worked in a tandem, and they are the pair of opposites that form one singular being. Jesus' sacrifice, revered and lauded by many generations, is counterbalanced by the scorn and condemnation that has been Judas’ lot. So, in a sense, he is the one who had to surrender more. He had relinquished his whole reputation. For the two thousand years that followed people would spit merely upon hearing Judas' name pronounced, they would scold him, abuse him. Number twelve, the number of self-sacrifice, therefore really must belong to Judas.

- In that case, does Jesus represent the symbolical number thirteen?

- Yes, he does. Thirteen is also my number, the number of resurrection, of regeneration. When people finally comprehend this they will cease to hold this number in such contempt. Judas' true role in the drama of Crucifixion will then also be better understood and appreciated.

- Is number thirteen a blessed number?

- All numbers are blessed and there is a secret hidden behind every one of them. In this era, the mystery that surrounds the number thirteen is deeper than it was in the past and then it is going to be in the future. At present, only the true initiate knows that it is the higher Self, standing in the circle of his destiny, like Jesus encircled by his disciples.

- Or like the king Arthur, at the round table with his knights.

- That legend has the same meaning, and those who were in possession of this kind of knowledge had created it. The search for the Holy Grail is a symbolical journey of self-discovery.

- But there are other rituals where the number thirteen is used. The covens of witches, for instance, also have thirteen members.

- I'm glad that you've mentioned this. It just proves that everything has its positive and its negative side.

- Yes, those who practise magic often proclaim that there are two versions, the black and the white...

- ... and that what they practise is the white version, of course. Never believe any such tales. There has ever been only one kind of magic, and it only has one colour and that colour is grey! Magic can be practiced by anyone, by any group of people, and for any purpose, be it good or evil. Only, when it is overused it tends to slip into the darker tone, because more often than not the ultimate aim is towards the acquisition of personal powers.

- By whom?

- By the leader of the circle. This is why everything depends on the inner qualities of the leader, of the thirteenth person, who is standing in the centre of the circle of magic. Only when he or she is capable of making sacrifice, and not only on the members' behalf, but also in the interest of the whole of mankind, the forces generated by the circle can be positive and beneficial. When such is the case, however, we no longer find ourselves in the realm of magic, because we have moved onto the initiatory path.

- What happens when the leader does not have the qualities you have described?

- It then becomes what is known as the left hand path. Members of such groups are usually exploited, mentally, physically or sexually abused, and they thus pay for their ignorance and for the blindness through which they fell for the sweet promises and personal charm.

- What about necromancy, the invocation of spirits of dead people?

- It's much the same story. There are warnings against such practices prominently displayed in the Bible, and they are there for a good reason.

- Could you enlighten me further on this subject? You assist people in their passing into the afterlife, and surely you must know a lot about it.

- If you insist. Let’s imagine that a human soul is ready to pass on to the next dimension. After my intervention it becomes freed from its earthly burden, of the coarse material body. Now finding itself in the much finer emotional or astral body, as it is also known, it moves more or less speedily through the lower astral regions, to establish itself in the realm that is appropriate to the level of its advancement. However, like its recent earthly venture, even this stay is going to be only temporary. Sooner or later, again according to its level of development, the soul also has to leave the astral body behind and move even further. You may call it the second death, if you wish.

- What lies beyond that?

- I cannot tell you exactly, as this is beyond my sphere of activity. All you need to know is that the departed soul’s next body is made up of even finer matter, and that the soul now becomes more focused on the mental side of its development. But let's go back to the moment when the soul had departed from Earth. What stays behind?

- The dead body, of course.

- Is the body immediately dead?

Victor was not sure where the Death was trying to lead him. But then came the illumination.

- Well, the body is not quite dead. The hair, for instance, also the beard and the nails, keep growing for some time, even after the heart had stopped beating.

- And, what comes next?

- The body slowly decomposes. The soft parts relatively fast, but the bones can remain, even for many centuries.

- That's what I wanted to hear. Something is therefore left behind, traces of what once was the vehicle of a human soul. A shell, we might call it. Now, what would you say, might stay behind when the astral body, in time, is also discarded by the soul?

- A similar shell?

- That's it. This shell, or we might call the astral corpse, also retains some of its previous vitality. Moreover, such a corpse might retain a certain amount of energy somewhat longer than the physical corpse may do, because it is made up of a finer substance. It could even maintain a certain, limited degree of consciousness, and it is therefore capable of some actions. Now, let's return to the physical body after death, where does that go?

- Usually it is buried into the ground.

- The astral corpse, too, tends to sink as low as it can. It gravitates into the lowest parts of the astral regions, where it slowly dissolves. Now, imagine that a kind of a wall divides the two realms, the physical from the astral. It is only an analogy, of course. The barrier is quite strong, but not impenetrable, so that occasionally something leaks through it, sometimes a distant echo can be heard. This goes unnoticed most of the time. Even when people do observe something out of the ordinary they are more likely than not going to dismiss it, or they might call it a supernatural event. Still, some do become curious and they try to forcefully break through the wall, and with the help of individuals who posses some degree of psychic powers they occasionally succeed in forcing a small breach. What are they most likely to encounter?

- The astral corpses?

- It is probable, isn't it? If that happens, a certain degree of communication or interaction might take place, but scarcely of a very high order. Naturally, the curious humans might also contact some recently departed souls, but hardly any of those who have become more evolved, because such souls would have already left the lowest parts of the astral plane and reside a much higher realm. Those who have not left yet are invariably the individuals still full of earthly passions and obsessions, which they are unable to easily throw away. Such as former alcoholics, recipients of dubious fortunes that they still jealously keep on guarding, even when it can be of no further use to them. Even the souls of executed criminals might lurk there, still full of bitterness and revengeful thoughts. Incidentally, here I present to you another strong argument against the capital punishment. Getting rid of a criminal on your side might indeed make it impossible for him or her to commit more physical acts of crime, but it could turn them into an even more dangerous, because unseen and unsuspected, instigators of other crimes! Such entities may often lie in wait immediately behind the other side of the wall, waiting for any opportunity to make some contact. When a candid spiritualist makes it possible for them, they may readily oblige by declaring themselves to be the spirit of a departed relative, and they could even cunningly provide some proof of their identity. These may be shaky, but the naive can be easily fooled, especially when they genuinely wish to believe what they are being told.

- I take it that you do not recommend trying to make any contacts with the other side.

- I didn't quite say that. Sometimes these occur naturally, and an awareness of continuation of life beyond the physical boundaries enhances a person's spiritual progress. But they should not be forced.

- Our meeting, too, happened naturally?

- You did not exactly call me, did you? It happens to be one of the more pleasant tasks called for in the course of my official duties, to initiate those, who have warranted it, into the mysteries of Death.

- Thank you very much.

- Not at all. It was a real pleasure meeting you. I want you to walk away from this little tête-à-tête with the understanding that the two of us have now become partners and companions. But now, you'll have to excuse me, because I really must go

Victor felt a heavy blow on the top of his head and immediately he lost consciousness. When he came about he realised that he was lying on the soft moss. From the beam above his head hung a remnant of the rope, and Victor wondered if it was the scythe of his visitor, which had cut off the noose that had held his ankle. With a great deal of difficulty he tried to focus his sight in the direction where he thought to have last seen him, and there was a shape of a standing figure. The form nevertheless looked different, and it certainly did not wear the red coat of the Death.

The face that leaned down to him he recognised. He could also see that it bore an expression of concern.

- Sorry for the bumpy ride, but I couldn't help it. I’ve been searching for you since yesterday and when I finally found you, I thought I came too late. You looked as though you'd had it and being so worked up I cut through the rope without thinking that it might harm you. But the fall seems to have revived you! How do you feel now?

- Thanks, I'm quite all right, I think...

- Except for that ankle. It looks rather badly swollen.

- Would you believe that I had actually talked to the Death?

- I certainly would. I, too, had a nice little talk with him.

- Where?

- On the executioner’s cart. Apparently I was the only one who could see him, and he rode all the way with me. In fact, it was you, who interrupted our jolly conversation.

- Sorry, I didn't know that.

- You know what? I won't hold it against you that you made me stay longer in this valley of the tears. Provided that you never mention that lump on the head that I just gave you!

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End of Chapter 13

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