Text versions, translated from Polish
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(...) because the past no longer casts its light upon the future, human reason wanders in darkness (...)
Alexis de Tocqueville

Please, lend me your ear – listen to my words, for they speak of what is most important.
For You, for me, for Her and for Him.

It is hard to believe that 80 years after the war, THIS! is coming back.
Powdered over, polished, and enriched with new ideas.
It raises its brown head and grins shamelessly.
Some say it bares its bloody fangs in a mocking smile, while others see a flirtatious smirk.
Here and there, it has sharp claws – unblunted by years of dormancy.

THIS! can be recognized by aggression, discrimination, hatred.
By inciting violence and spitting on those who think differently.
By homophobia.
By evil, carefully masked.
And by the fact that THIS! is irredeemable, blind to the truth.

It loves to wallow in religious dressing.
Gott mit uns!
In God we trust!
С нами Бог!
God is with us – only us!
The rest – to the abyss!

There is nothing wrong with religions and faith.
As long as they are not instruments for hypocrites who say one thing and do the exact opposite.
Who do not burn out eyes and ears with their duplicity.

THIS! is known by its deeds!
Roman Brandstaetter was right in his „Litany for Deliverance from Foolishness.”

It is easy to see how THIS! operates and where it is heading.
It divides people – turning them against each other.
THIS! spreads disinformation, half-truths, and lies.
Through the media, the internet, from the pulpit.
So that no one can tell truth from manipulation and deceit.

THIS! knows everything best!
It preaches, dictates, coerces!

THIS! unites its followers because they see that THIS! works.
When they incite, their faces are menacing, twisted with malice.
Who is not with us is against us!
It was like that then, and it is like that now.

People against people... People against subhumans... People???

Fortunately, THIS! is plain to see.
If nothing changes – THIS! will engulf us.
All that will remain are THIS! and fools before their screens, enraged fanatics, mindless slaves.
And a race of tyrants drowning in wealth, finishing what THIS! set in motion.

The last chance!
THIS! will not fade away on its own.
THIS! thrives on indifference and fear...

THIS???
THIS!!!



Roman Brandstaetter: "Litany for Deliverance from Foolishness”

Motto: Why has folly clung to us so strongly?
Above all, because we do not fight it with all our courage, nor do we strive with all our zeal for liberation.
Seneca: Letter IX to Lucilius

Deliver us from folly, Lord!

We are stale and useless salt.
We do not know how to live,
We do not know how to think,
We do not know how to see,
We do not know how to listen,
We do not know how to foresee anything,
We do not know how to draw saving lessons from misfortunes.

And so we climb
—A horde of people
Possessed by the lust for conquest—
Up the steep ladder of illusions,
And its rungs crack and break
Under the weight of our reckless steps.
Doing everything against common sense
And the innate tendency to endure.
We walk an imaginary path
To an imaginary goal.

In our defeats, we see victory,
In victories, we do not see the seeds of downfall,
In nonsense, we seek meaning,
And speech,
That privilege and pride of our chosen nature,
We have turned into an instrument of empty chatter
And ugliness,
Of venomous lies,
Upon which we try to build
The greatness of man.

God of infinite wisdom,
Creator of the perfect cosmos
And the most beautiful earth,
Of the immortal soul
And the brain, and gray matter,
And the five senses, and free will,

Deliver us from the predatory claws of folly,
That dark-eyed temptress,
Luring us at every corner of history
As at the street corners,

From the cause
Of our foolish intentions and actions
And falls,
And barren lives,
And grant us the wisdom of purification.

To Us,
Sons of the earth,
Stale and useless salt.

Based on true events...


In memory of Krzysztof Berbeka, Maciej Berbeka and those who never returned from the MOUNTAINS.
For all those who love the mountains.

The year 2000.
Icy cold.
Jacek Berbeka wheezes and coughs violently with every breath.
He hears a fizzing hum and a pounding in his head.
In rhythm with his heartbeat.
He has a goal.
The summit.

A rush of adrenaline.
A shot of endorphins.
Another whistling breath, torn from his lungs.
The next one.
One more.
Each like a milestone.
Like the final chord of a life symphony, played in a roaring blizzard.
He does not give up.
He fights!
Exhausted and aching, he struggles upward.

He has experience with eight-thousanders.
Gasherbrum II, Cho Oyu, and Shishapangma – solo in alpine style.
Gasherbrum I with Krzysztof Wielicki, Carlos Carsolio, and Ed Viesturs.
In thirty hours.
Nonstop, from base camp to the summit.
A constant hunger, as with all mountaineers.
It is like a drug!
The goal of life.
Sometimes a one-way road.
No return.
Such is the price of love for the Mountains.

Today's battle is his fifth eight-thousander and his second attempt to summit the world's highest peak.
Mount Everest without oxygen?
Him, as the first Pole?
With weather like today, it is madness!
A howling, hurricane-force wind, sweeping up clouds of snow, grows even stronger.
It aims to hurl him into the abyss, to obliteration.
It wants to kill, penetrating with frost.

Like his father Krzysztof on March 18, 1964, at Dent d'Herens in the Matterhorn massif.
Like his brother Maciek on Broad Peak.
He does not yet know about his brother.
That will happen in thirteen years.

Eight thousand meters.
The death zone!
A person there is a shadow of themselves.
Hours pass.
Pain tears at his body with every movement.
Eight thousand four hundred meters.
Exactly as two years ago when, close to death, he turned back.
A trauma for a climber.
Bad Jack is tough and relentless.
He is a highlander from Zakopane.

He climbs stubbornly on: eight thousand five hundred, eight thousand five hundred fifty, eight thousand five hundred ninety…
Eight thousand six hundred meters.
That damn wind pulls even harder, carrying death on its wings.
Again, it brutally tries to sweep him into the abyss.
Eight thousand six hundred fifty meters.
The limit of human capability.
Interrupted remnants of breath.
He cannot feel his hands. He cannot feel his legs.
He knows he cannot climb further if he wants to return.
Unless he no longer assumes a return…
A choice between life or death.
He makes the decision with the last bit of his consciousness.

END!
He gives up.
He carefully turns back.
He still needs to descend to base camp.
Too bad, there will be “only” four eight–thousanders.
Survival is the greatest success!
A sober judgment and the right choice!
It is incredibly difficult, in this state and in these conditions, to maintain rational thinking and judgment.
Many have failed…


At exactly the same time, on the other side of the world, Jacek Berbeka lit a fire in the fireplace.
He made his favorite aromatic tea, with homemade raspberry syrup, slices of lemon, orange, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger.
He devoured a fascinating book about Himalayan expeditions in one breath.
Such books are best read in winter, in the warm comfort of home.
In summer, it is not the same.
Ha, what an achievement!
A soft couch, the fire dancing in the fireplace, warm slippers, and a mesmerizing brew.
He did not continue the family climbing tradition.
He strayed from it.

Kismet!

Kraków, unlike Zakopane, is too far from the mountains, so maybe that is why he did not absorb that unique atmosphere and mountain adventure.
That is why do not ask me why they go there, about the brotherhood of the rope, do not judge – because you have to be them to know and understand!

In high school, Jacek Berbeka from Kraków, with his classmates – Pałson and Marabut – and Jacek Berbeka from Zakopane, the future outstanding mountaineer, met on the under-construction A4 highway.
Bad Jack, with his friends from AWF, was breaking the world record for multi-day, nonstop cycling.
Instead of going to classes at "Ninth", the boys went to cheer and help the cyclists.
It was more exciting than studying.

Shared roots. Same first names, same surname, and yet the future wrote two different scripts on the newly emerging highway… of life.

Both love the mountains, each in their own way.
Jacek from Zakopane still climbs. He is a high-altitude guide.
Jacek from Kraków still reads about Himalayan expeditions in the quiet of his home.

When they meet, they do not talk about those who never returned.

They do not feel the need.

They carry them within themselves!

Moshe Rappaport woke up at dawn, drenched in sweat, his face twisted with anger.
He hated dreams in which his long-deceased father appeared.
Deep inside, he felt that these dreams always brought changes in his family's life.
And Moshe did not like changes.

Echoes of their strange conversation still rang in his semi-conscious mind.
– You, Moshe, have a great Gift! – said his father.
– I cannot reveal what it is, but use it wisely and with great care.
– But, Tate, me – a simple melamed [1] in the cheder [2] ?
– What Gift? I know nothing about it!
– A great Gift, - Moshe. – You are named after the Prophet, and you have a Precious Gift, – his father insisted.
– Go to the Desert Mountain at dawn tomorrow – there you will find it!
– But Tate, tomorrow the Tzadik Reb Levi Kohn from Hebron is coming, I have waited so long for him, I was supposed to hear his teachings at noon.
– Oy, Oy, oy, – Moshe, – the Tzadik will not disappear, and I tell you – you must go to the Desert Mountain tomorrow.

Moshe slowly got out of bed, wiped the last drops of sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, and fell into deep thought.
– Of course, everyone would like to have a Gift, though it's absurd because it's just a dream illusion. But still, just in case, out of Jewish caution – he will go and check.
– Who knows? At worst, he will lose the whole day.
And the precious teachings of the Tzadik.

The sun was mercilessly burning, and the air on the horizon, scattered with sharp desert rocks, seemed to tremble in rhythm with his heartbeat, or maybe even faster.
From time to time, the wind stirred up clouds of Judean dust.
Moshe sat, rhythmically rocking in the shade of the great Desert Mountain, meditating.
He waited for the Gift.
Many hours passed, and nothing happened.
He struggled with thoughts pressing into his mind about childhood and the profound teachings of the Tzadik that he would miss today.

When the sun was at its zenith, he fell into a strange lethargy, or maybe it only seemed so, as a children's rhyme began to echo in his head:

– entele kiepele sigite ciaj, rapete kapete aj, waj…
– entele kiepele sigite ciaj, rapete kapete aj, waj…

After some time, he woke up and decided to return home.
– I am old and foolish; who believes in dreams? – he thought in resignation.

Noon was approaching. The hall was filled to the brim with pious Jews and townsfolk.
Even on the floor, people sat eager to hear the enlightened teachings.
A scholar of the scriptures, greatly respected for his wisdom, the Tzadik Reb Levi Kohn of Hebron, slowly stroked his long, gray, pointed beard, as was his custom, and began his teachings.

– Shalom, Shalom, God–fearing Jews, – Reb Levi began, then said in an exceedingly serious tone:

– entele kiepele sigite ciaj, rapete kapete aj, waj…
– entele kiepele sigite ciaj, rapete kapete aj, waj…

At first, the listeners thought: – What an unusual beginning to the teachings! The wisdom of the Tzadik is truly great!
But as time passed, and he kept repeating this one strange, rhyming phrase over and over, a murmur of bewilderment began to spread through the room, turning into concern.
– What is this supposed to be? What is happening here? – questions arose from all around.
Reb Levi Kohn closed his eyes, inspired, stroking his beard, and did not stop repeating faster and faster:

– entele kiepele sigite ciaj, rapete kapete aj, waj…
– entele kiepele sigite ciaj, rapete kapete aj, waj…

The confused students of the Tzadik lifted him by the arms and quickly carried him out of the hall.
– The Rebbe is unwell today, he is indisposed, – they explained.

Moshe Rappaport, eating his evening meal with his family, struggled with all his might against the fatigue of a whole day spent in the scorching desert heat.
His eyes were closing with sleep.
His son Yehuda, after the meal, said:
– Tate, you have nothing to regret about missing the Tzadik's teachings today because today Reb Levi Kohn went mad.
– Instead of his teachings, he just kept repeating a strange children's rhyme over and over…
– Meshuga!
– You never know what lurks even in the wisest man! – Yehuda wondered.

But Moshe never heard these words from his son because he had already peacefully fallen asleep, deeply exhausted.
He dreamed of the Great Gift he did not have…

And then…

Moshe Rappaport woke up at dawn, drenched in sweat.


Glossary of Hebrew Terms:
[1] melamed (Hebrew) - a teacher in a Jewish school (cheder).
[2] cheder (Hebrew) - a Jewish religious school.
[3] meshuga (Hebrew) - a madman, insane person.

Central Europe – now known as Poland. Bronocice.
Fifty-three leagues to the northeast of Kraków.
Three thousand and five hundred years before Christ.
Or perhaps even before.

Dobromysł.
Such was his name.
An only child was he.
And a solitary soul.
Of the ancient Slavic people he came.
His father, Wszebor, and mother, Budzisława, and all the tribe held him in wonder.
For visions unknown, dreams beyond reach, and foresight did oft come to him.
As if he bore a gift unseen.
And the ceaseless search for Truth did ever fill his heart.
Yet knew he not what was to be revealed unto him.
Nor did he foresee that he should create the first earthly carriage,
Four wheels to its making, drawn by three beasts,
A craft beyond his time.

He loved to wander alone in the endless forest.
There, he let his thoughts roam.
Upon a glade within the vast wilderness, he lay.
He watched the sun’s course, the heavens above,
The creatures of the land and all that grew.
At night, he gazed upon the myriad stars flickering in the firmament.
He felt a bond with all of creation.
As if he were part of something vast and eternal,
That had existed since time beyond knowing.

– Whence came I, and all that is around me?
– And for what purpose is it here?

And it came to pass that one day he fell into a deep trance,
And it seemed his soul was loosed from his body,
Wandering through realms unknown.
– Fear not, Dobromysł, for lo, I am infinite love!
– I am God, Almighty and One.
- The Creator of man and all that is!

– Go forth, Dobromysł, and tell thy kin, the Slavs,
that they must walk in righteousness, commit no evil,
and cast all wickedness from their hearts!
– For truly, mine ancient adversary, **Bies** the Deceiver, shall seek to lead them astray.
– To bloodshed, to greed, to lust, to falsehood and fear he shall drive them.
– Yea, to terror and despair!
– Yet I say unto thee, man is given a choice – good or evil.
– And upon death, each shall be judged in just measure.
– Speak these words, Dobromysł, in My Name.
– Lo, I grant thee wisdom, the gift of prophecy, and the skill to craft works beyond thy age.

– I give thanks unto Thee, O Almighty – all shall I do as Thy will commands! – answered Dobromysł.
And thus it came to be.
Among his people, he preached the will of the Almighty God until the end of his days.
He created tools beyond the dreams of his time.
Among them, a carriage with four wheels.

Yet, as a Prophet, he knew that the Truth revealed to him would, in time, be replaced by other beliefs.
It would be forgotten, erased, or claimed by others.
He also foresaw that in this very place – one day to be called Bronocice – near the Prehistoric Mound,
future generations would, over 5,500 years later, uncover a clay vessel adorned with the images of his four–wheeled cart.
And those very drawings on the vessel would stand as testimony to his timeless gift, bestowed by the Almighty.
But would they be properly understood and widely shared?
Or would they be diminished and hidden from the eyes of the world?

But that, indeed, is another story…


Epilogue: You praise the foreign, yet know not your own…

I strongly encourage you to learn about this groundbreaking and—perhaps for reasons unknown—little-known archaeological discovery in Poland.

A unique Neolithic vessel, adorned with remarkably realistic depictions—including the world's oldest known four-wheeled cart—was unearthed in 1978 in Bronocice, just 53 kilometers from Kraków.
The vessel is over **5,500 years old**—older than the Great Pyramid of Cheops and even predating the pictograms of carts from the Sumerian city of Uruk on the Euphrates.

A comprehensive and fascinating account of this **groundbreaking yet largely forgotten discovery** was written by **Michał Książek** in *Przekrój*: The First Roadside Tree.

*Przekrój* published photos of the reconstructed **Bronocice Vessel**.
In my story on YouTube, I included original photographs of the vessel, taken by **Paweł Kamiński**.

Special Thanks:
To Paweł Heszen – my dear friend, a writer, poet, and dreamer.
Without him, and without an extraordinary chain of events—filled with coincidences bordering on destiny – I would never have found my way to Bronocice.

To Paweł Kamiński from Działoszyce – an enthusiast of local history, a passionate photographer, poet, and civic activist.
A firsthand witness to the Bronocice excavations and a living encyclopedia on the vessel and its history.
His photographs of the original, priceless **Bronocice Vessel** are of invaluable importance.
By some extraordinary stroke of fate, our paths crossed.

Once…
Now…
In the future…

In the village, they called him "the blind old man". Maliciously.
They envied him for having a son in a government position.
As long as it was warm, he hobbled through the orchard, filled with the scent of grass and apples.
– Who knows? Maybe this is my last summer? – he thought, sitting among the trees in his favorite rocking chair.
He felt the sun’s rays penetrating his body. They brought back old images, stirred memories, gently awakened his senses.
He was on the border between wakefulness and sleep. Or maybe he was dreaming?

– How to fix the world? Change everything. So that there would be more goodness and happiness.
– Why are there so many wars, so much hatred and suffering?

He knew! It was because of politics – or rather, those in power. Like his son.
Rulers – the gods of the modern age. Power intoxicates. It grants wealth, privileges, and fame.
It feeds the ego. It blinds. It enslaves.
For centuries, the same rule has applied: Divide et impera! – Divide and rule!
People tear each other apart, and no one watches those in power. Masters of manipulation and their deceitful media do not create supporters, but followers.
It’s easier to govern the blind, the vengeful!
The ignorant hold the cards and spend our money on weapons.
It is in their interest to fuel wars. To research and determine what to promise the little people, what to say each day to gain more support and win elections.
Then, for years – anything goes, there’s no hell to fear!
Absolute power – the greatest drug in the world. Some at the top are bloodthirsty narcissistic psychopaths with egos inflated beyond all limits.

– Why does this keep happening? – He was blind, but the whole world…??
Madness!
Why don’t people think, analyze, and choose wisely?
Centuries ago, the uneducated masses had no access to knowledge – but today?
In totalitarian states, it is somewhat understandable, but in democracies?
Why do intelligent people so often grant power to the wicked, the foolish, the squanderers of their money?
Power over their lives and the future of their children? For scraps of empty promises that will never be fulfilled?
Absurd naivety!
Because that’s how the system works? That must change!

Now!

Enlightenment! The knowledge struck him like lightning!
– My God, it’s so obvious what needs to be done. How has no one thought of this before?
His idea brought justice. For everyone. Without exception. In such an attractive and obvious way that it would soon take over the world.
It would be a new, brilliant, ideal system of brotherhood among people and nations.
Compared to his theory, democracy seemed like a prehistoric joke.
There was still hope…

The blind man smiled with confidence.
– I must tell everyone about this, – he whispered.
He took a deep breath of the apple – scented air.
– Just a little rest first.

The blind man’s heart beat slower… and then stopped.

THIS STORY WAS WRITTEN TO COMMEMORATE THE EIGHTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ, AS A WARNING AGAINST THE DESTRUCTIVE CONSEQUENCES OF HUMAN EVIL!

(…) Upon that day, when the Zoroastrian stone turneth black
and no mark upon it may be discerned,
– by thunder and fire shall the world meet its end.
Mothers shall weep that they hath borne their children.
The Fourth Book of the Apocryphon of Zohar (…)

More than three thousand seven hundred years ago.
The prophet Zarathustra wandered through the arid mountains of Asia.
God revealed to him the beginning and the end of all things.
The silent shapes of the rocks bore witness to their meeting.
One stone, in particular, caught the Prophet’s attention.
Perhaps because of its snow-white color, or its oval form, or perhaps because of the black
symbol upon it – a symbol that was a letter, yet also a number, and which transformed into an unknown sign.
He felt an unearthly power emanating from it.
He took the stone and gifted it to a Jewish scholar who was visiting him.
As an eternal testament to his encounter with God.

The stone awoke.
It had been torn from the place where it had rested for centuries.
It knew it had a terrible mission to fulfill.
It embarked on a journey across the world – a journey that would last for millennia.
To mark the passage of time until the very end of ends.
With each horror it witnessed, its once pristine whiteness dulled, then greyed, then darkened – drawing ever closer to the black symbol upon it – a symbol that was a letter, yet also a number, and which transformed into an unknown sign.
Thus it would continue, until the world was consumed by fire.
Then the stone would turn black.
Just as Zohar had foretold.

No one would ever know if the darkening stone was merely a sign of evil – or if it brought forth the very evil in which it took part.

The snow-white stone with the black symbol smelled the leather of the scholar’s satchel and felt the swaying of the camel.
It heard the calls of the guides.
In Judea, in the valley of Elah, by a desert rock that all stumbled upon, it slipped from the scholar’s pouch.
It was this very stone, in the tenth century before our era, that was hurled from David’s sling to strike down Goliath.
The stone was no longer white.
When David became king of Judah, he heard a whisper in his mind:
"Take the beautiful Bathsheba – the wife of the warrior Uriah – and send him to the front lines, that he may die."
And so it was done.
King David paid for his sin with the death of his first child, born to Bathsheba.
The stone grew greyer.

King Nebuchadnezzar II turned the stone between his fingers – found within the ruins of Solomon’s Temple, which he had razed upon conquering Jerusalem.
He gazed into the hypnotic black symbol – a symbol that was a letter, yet also a number, and which transformed into an unknown sign.
At last, he enslaved and exiled the Judeans to Babylon.
The stone darkened in his hand.
Or was it merely an illusion?

Five centuries later, wandering the desert, the stone was found and carried in the robe of Jesus – some called him the King of the Jews.
For forty days, the evil one tempted him.
After his crucifixion, the stone with the black symbol was won by a Roman soldier, casting lots for the garments of the Messiah.
The stone changed color.

Years later, when a legionnaire used it to strike the fatal blow during the stoning of Stephen, its grey deepened.
What became of it in the following centuries, no one knows.

Traded by merchants, the stone arrived by ship in England.
King Henry VIII Tudor enjoyed holding the exotic stone, brought to him from the Ottoman Empire by Thomas Cromwell.
The king stared at the enigmatic black symbol – a symbol that was a letter, yet also a number, and which transformed into an unknown sign.
He thought of another wife, and how he might make himself head of the Church.
For the next two centuries, the stone bore witness to the injustice and cruelty of monarchy.

It darkened further during the French Revolution, as it stood among the terror and the thousands of executions.

In Yekaterinburg, on the night of July 16–17, 1918, the air was stifling.
In the basement of the Ipatiev House, the unsuspecting Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, five children, and servants posed for a so – called "documentary" photograph.
They held cushions filled with jewels.
Among them was a stone – stolen by imperial spies during the French Revolution.
Soon, surrounded by the smoke of gunpowder, they were all dead.
The jewels and the stone passed into Bolshevik hands.

Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg, head of the ERR confiscation unit of the NSDAP, oversaw the plundering of Scythian gold in Crimea.
Among the artifacts, he found a stone with a strange black marking.
He gifted it to his friend – SS Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höß, commandant of Auschwitz–Birkenau.
There, the stone darkened most of all.

After the camp was liberated by the First Ukrainian Front, Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev took the now deep-gray stone from the commandant’s desk as a trophy of victory.
A stone with a black symbol – a symbol that was a letter, yet also a number, and which transformed into an unknown sign.

Years later, it fell into private hands in Kyiv.
It witnessed the atrocities of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.
With each new horror, it grew darker.

Mossad agent Aaron Levi transported the mysterious stone to Israel.
The Ukrainian authorities sought isotopic dating – to understand why this strange stone changed color.
His plane was struck by a Hezbollah missile and crashed onto Palestinian territory.
All aboard perished.
The stone was seized by the Palestinians.
As it endured the horrors of the Middle East, it turned to anthracite.

Time passed. The world remained unchanged.

On that day, the time for radical change arrived.
China’s Politburo Standing Committee made a secret decision – to start a war.
General Wang Tsu of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force ordered the attack on the United States and Europe.
The stone was now nearly black, its symbol barely discernible – a symbol that was a letter, yet also a number, and which transformed into an unknown sign.

On this day, the time for radical change had come.
The Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China made a secret decision – to initiate war.
General Wang Tsu, commander of the Rocket Force of the People's Liberation Army, issued the order to attack the United States and Europe.
The first strike was to be swift, carried out alongside Russia and Iran, launching hundreds of conventional missiles.
Then, air forces and ground armies would follow.

The stone darkened, turning nearly black, so that the symbol upon it – a symbol that was a letter, yet also a number, and which transformed into an unknown sign – was barely visible.

Then, catastrophe struck!
Due to a single faulty line of code in the software, an outdated, automated Russian nuclear response system, linked to the so – called Dead Hand, was activated.
Russia, without human intervention, launched 1,783 multi – warhead nuclear missiles at the United States and Europe!

There could be only one response.

At that moment, the Zoroastrian stone turned completely black.
And the symbol upon it – a symbol that was a letter, yet also a number, and which transformed into an unknown sign – was no longer discernible.

The ancient stone chakras, which had guarded the world since time immemorial, began to tremble.
Then they shattered – disintegrating into black dust.
There was no more protection. No more salvation.

A blinding flash!!!
Fire and an infernal heat fused with a deafening thunder that swept across the globe.

Then came the darkness of an age – long nuclear winter.

The first ray of sunlight touched an oval, blackened stone protruding from the molten earth – a world scarred by atomic fire.
Through the obsidian blackness, a faint BRIGHTER symbol began to emerge – a symbol that was a letter, yet also a number, and which transformed into an unknown sign.

A mark not carved by human hands…



Historical Context:

1. Zarathustra https://youtu.be/kx-Su7m1HTA?si=rvEav5eB-sPtiXuX

2. David and Goliath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath

3. King David https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David

4. King Nebuchadnezzar II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebuchadnezzar_II

5. Jesus https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temptation_of_Christ

6. The Stoning of Stephen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Stephen

7. King Henry VIII Tudor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VIII

8. The Reign of Terror https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_Terror

9. Murder of the Romanov Family https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_the_Romanov_family

10. Alfred Rosenberg RSS NSDAP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Rosenberg

11. Rudolf Höß, Höss, Hoess - Auschwitz https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Höß

12. Ivan Konev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Konev

13. Liberation of Auschwitz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_of_Auschwitz_concentration_camp

14. Russian Invasion of Ukraine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine

15. Katsa Mossad https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsa_(Mossad)

16. Conflicts in the Middle East https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_modern_conflicts_in_the_Middle_East

17. Chinese Rocket Forces https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Liberation_Army_Rocket_Force

18. Dead Hand, Perimeter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand

Thank you, Professor Kinga Paraskiewicz – orientalist and Iranist, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at Jagiellonian University, for linguistic consultations regarding Old Persian, Avestan, and Pahlavi languages, as well as for materials that deepened my knowledge. I am grateful for your selfless help and patience.

Central Asia.
Presently, the northeastern border of Iran.

One thousand seven hundred years before Christ.
More than three thousand seven hundred years ago.
Or earlier.

Scorching heat!
A monstrous blaze poured down from the sky like molten, red-hot gold.
The hottest place on Earth!
Yellow-orange, desert mountains trembled on the horizon with their eternal rhythm.

The one who knows – Zarathustra.
The Chosen One.
He knew he was a Prophet.
He awaited the hour when revelation would come upon him, when the light would shine forth, and he would receive grace.
The priest Zarathustra wandered for years through the desert mountains of Central Asia.
He sought Truth.
Unchanging and absolute Truth.

When he turned thirty, one day, after emerging from the river following a ritual bath, it happened.
With his entire being, he felt a wondrous, supernatural presence.
– Who are you? – Zarathustra asked in his thoughts.
– I am Vohu Manah, Bahman – Good Thought.
– As the Chosen One, I shall lead you, Zarathustra, before the presence of Almighty God.
– Lead me, Bahman, I have awaited this!
– Then let us go before Ahura Mazda, God Almighty!
Lord of All Things.
Creator of all.
The True and Only God.

And so it came to pass.
In less than the blink of time, Zarathustra perceived with all his senses an indescribable joy.
In a single moment, he understood the power of the Divine Being.
There are no adequate words to describe Him.
He has always been.
He is now.
For all eternity, He shall endure.
Almighty and All-Knowing.
Creator of all existence.
The Beginning and the End of things.
Lord of the Heavens, the Universe, and all things visible and invisible.
Oneness, Multitude, and Infinity.
God Almighty!
All in all.

And in a flash of a moment, through the Lord’s power, Zarathustra perceived the incomprehensible.
Great mysteries were revealed to him.
He beheld what had been from the beginning of the world.
He also saw what must come at its end.
He came to know the source of good, as well as the nature and cause of evil.

Then Ahura Mazda, God, unveiled to Zarathustra the origin of all things.
In the beginning, there were two twin spirits, acting in thought, in word, and in deed.
One good, the other evil.
And the good would not exist without the evil, just as the evil could not be without the good.
These twin spirits established life and non-existence, until the end of the world's existence.
Life was established by the Good Lord, Ahura Mazda.
Death and non-existence – by the Evil Spirit, Ahriman – Angra Mainyu.
The Good Lord dwelled above, in infinite light.
Ahriman, however, below, in impenetrable, eternal darkness.

And it was so that at the moment of creation, a ray of light penetrated the darkness.
The Evil Ahriman realized that he was not alone, but that there was something else—something good.
Drawn by the supernatural light, he ascended toward it.
He wished to seize it, capture it, and destroy it.
But the Wise Lord, Ahura Mazda, desired that the Evil Ahriman choose good and urged him toward it.
Ahriman thought: – Behold, I have seen the weakness of Ahura Mazda. Thus, I shall choose evil!
Then I shall be the sole Lord of all.
I shall strike the world He has created with cunning.
Then, with malice, he tainted the world and defiled all the works of Ahura Mazda.

Then time began to flow.
Humans and all creatures began to age, fall ill, and die.
Ahriman spitefully poisoned the earth, making it a desert, salted the waters of the seas, caused plants to wither, and finally corrupted the pristine purity of fire by creating smoke.
From those days began the Great Chaos, and the eternal struggle between good and evil engulfed the whole world.

And the Almighty Lord God, Ahura Mazda, said to Zarathustra:
– I am He who, on the day of man's creation, gave him reason and free will, so that he may choose between good and evil himself!

– Behold, truly, I reveal to you the Eternal Laws that mankind must observe – spoke Ahura Mazda in thought:
– Noble Thoughts.
– Righteous Words.
– Good Deeds.
– And with that, love for all living beings.
– Moreover, assistance to the poor and the weak.
Only this much, and yet so much!
– Know that every man has his share in my struggle against the Evil Spirit.
The eternal, uncreated being—the deceiver: Angra Mainyu – Ahriman.

– Each person, after death, will be justly judged for their deeds.
– The righteous shall rejoice in my presence for eternity, while the wicked shall relive all their iniquities in the presence of the mocking Ahriman.
– Just as their victims suffered.
– They shall endure both physical and spiritual pain, the same they once inflicted upon all living beings.
– And it shall come to pass, at the end of ages, that the time of the world's redemption will arrive.
– Only I know when that shall be.
– I shall defeat Ahriman, and I shall forever separate evil from good.
– I shall establish the perfect order, known as Asha.
– The dead shall rise again.
– Ahriman, the Lord of Wrath, his demons, and his abyss, along with the wicked, I shall purify in an act of salvation with my power and mercy.
– The Divine World shall come into being, which will be united with the entire universe for all eternity.

– You have seen it all! – said Vohu Manah.
– Go forth, Zarathustra, and proclaim the faith in the One God, who exists uncreated and eternal.
The Source of all being, the Creator of all things, of visible and invisible entities, of the physical and the spiritual – Ahura Mazda.

– So shall I do. – This shall be the purpose of my life! – replied Zarathustra.

Seeing the cruel and harsh burden of time upon the earthly world, in spirit he asked Ahura Mazda:
– Eternal Lord, why do You allow great injustice, wars, violence, plunder, and all suffering of the innocent? Why do You not prevent it? – After all, You are Almighty, and You can do anything!

And Ahura Mazda answered him:
– I have given mankind reason and the Gift of Free Will.
– Man contemplates within his conscience what he must do and how to do it.
– How could I, as God, change this and take from you the Gift of Free Will, with which I have bestowed upon you?

– Verily, I say unto you:
– Freedom, granted to man, is sacred—even for God Himself.

– Such is the order of things! – said Ahura Mazda at last.
– I have grasped a fraction of Your Wisdom – understood Zarathustra.
And he did as the Almighty Lord God commanded him.
He spread the faith in His Name all the days of his life.

As a Prophet, he saw time and knew that his teachings would be erased over the millennia, while parts of them would secretly be claimed by other beliefs.
And he also saw that the struggles of the followers of these beliefs would hasten the end of time.
So it must be before the earthly world passes away.
For the Gift of Free Will shall endure until the end of all ends!

And Zarathustra gained certainty that whoever murders, plunders, deceives, and lies, and commits all manner of evil in thought, word, and deed—even if he claims to do so in the Name of God—
In truth, he is a worshiper of Ahriman, the Lord of Darkness and the Father of all Evil.
He is but an instrument of his wickedness.
And he shall suffer what all those he wronged have suffered.
A punishment both terrible and severe!

So it was, so it is, and so it shall be for all days, until the end of all things.

Until the stopping of time.


Epilogue:
Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest monotheistic religions, professing faith in one God.
Scholars have long debated the period in which Zarathustra lived.
Greek historians such as Plutarch and Diogenes Laertius believed that he lived around six thousand years before Christ.
Researchers have generally placed his lifetime between 1000–1700 BCE.
These disputes over dating may stem from ideological, religious, and theological concerns.
Accepting the life of Zarathustra as occurring around 1800 BCE or earlier would challenge the authenticity of both the origins of Judaism and Christianity.

Let us therefore set aside the question of Zarathustra’s time.
Let us focus instead on the records contained in the foundations of this religion, known as the sacred books of the Avesta.
These are a compilation of ancient texts, including the Yasna, which contains liturgical prayers, and the Gathas—the oldest hymns and psalms.

Hundreds of years before the emergence of Judaism and Christianity, they spoke of:
– The One Almighty God.
– The creation and the beginning of the world.
– The defilement of God’s creations by the Evil One.
– The struggle between good and evil.
– The free will given to mankind as a divine gift.
– The future coming of a Messiah born of a virgin.
– The ultimate triumph of God over the Evil One.
– The dwelling place of the righteous with God.
– The dwelling place of the wicked with the Lord of Evil.
– A purgatory—a place where souls, having committed as many good deeds as evil, await in nothingness for God’s return.
– The final judgment.
– The resurrection of the dead and the salvation of all mankind.

Like other religions, Zoroastrianism has several schools (denominations) that differ in doctrine.
For example, the Parsi diaspora in India, influenced by Christianity, regards Ahura Mazda as the Almighty God, as I have described in this story.
However, this view is disputed by Zoroastrian reformist schools, which advocate for the purification of the religion from 19th-century influences, asserting that God is not yet omnipotent until He defeats Ahriman.

Here is a link to the website of Polish followers of this religion:
Polish Zoroastrian website.
As well as a link to a blog by Polish Zoroastrians:
Polish Zoroastrian blog.
Additionally, here is a comprehensive lecture on the influence of Zoroastrianism on Christianity:
The influence of Zoroastrianism on Christianity.

Reading the Old and New Testaments, one gets the impression that the Creator—who is, after all, Infinite Love—has been attributed, throughout history, with petty, sometimes even brutal and vengeful behaviors.
Behaviors that are all too human.
Such actions are entirely inconsistent with the Mercy of the Almighty God.
It seems that in the Old Testament, God often thinks in a human, rather than a divine, manner!
One may wonder—how did this happen?

Let us use our reason and free will to explore this question, for we have been granted them!!!

Intriguing discussions on these matters can be found in lectures by Professor Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò, an eminent scholar of ancient history and Judaism, and Professor Marcin Majewski, a distinguished biblical and Christian theology researcher, available on YouTube.

I encourage you to explore information on Zarathustra online, using the original Avestan terminology.

For English readers, here is an excellent article by Professor Kinga Paraskiewicz:
Thus does not speak Zarathustra

I also highly recommend the monumental six-volume work The History of Christianity by Warren H. Carroll.
It is a meticulously documented combination of engaging narrative and deep historical knowledge.
It reveals often-overlooked, scholarly, and objective events concerning Christianity and the Church throughout history.
Even a cursory reading of Warren H. Carroll's History of Christianity will cast familiar religious teachings in an entirely new light.

Explanations regarding the illustrations:
The Spirit of Good Thought—Vohu Manah—one of the Amesha Spentas, was not depicted as a white-winged angel (he is usually represented as the moon or a white jasmine flower).
Similarly, Druj Ahriman was not depicted as a horned devil.
However, due to our Christian associations, I have used such imagery for illustration.
Interestingly, Professor Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò, in his YouTube lecture titled "How Judaism was formed?" states that angelic figures in Christianity have their origins in Persian religion.

Among fascinating trivia—did you know that Freddie Mercury, the legendary lead singer of Queen, was a devout and practicing Zoroastrian?
Freddie’s family, being Parsis—Persian Zoroastrian exiles who settled primarily in India—preserved this religion.
Source: Freddie Mercury's Zoroastrianism

Thank you, Professor Kinga Paraskiewicz – orientalist and Iranist, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at Jagiellonian University, for linguistic consultations regarding Old Persian, Avestan, and Pahlavi languages, as well as for materials that deepened my knowledge. I am grateful for your selfless help and patience.

Central Asia.
Presently, the northeastern border of Iran.
One thousand seven hundred years before Christ.
More than three thousand seven hundred years ago.
Or earlier.

Scorching heat!
A monstrous blaze poured down from the sky like molten, red-hot gold.
The hottest place upon the earth!
Yellow-orange desert mountains trembled on the horizon with their eternal rhythm.
Or perchance – was it but an illusion to him?

He who knoweth – Zarathustra.
The Chosen One.
He knew that a Prophet he was.
He awaited that sacred hour when the revelation would be granted unto him, when the light should shine forth, and grace descend upon him.
For years the priest Zarathustra wandered through the burning desert mountains of Central Asia.
He sought the Truth that had ever been.
The Truth immutable.

And when thirty years had passed him by, upon a day he stepped forth from the river after a ritual bath, and lo!
It came to pass.
At once, with all his being, he felt a wondrous, supernatural presence.

– Who art thou?" – Zarathustra in his thought did ask that being.
– I am Vohu Manah – Good Thought – Bahman."
– As the Chosen One, I shall lead thee, Zarathustra, before the face of the Almighty God.
– Lead me, Bahman, for this have I awaited!" – spake Zarathustra in thought.
– Then let us go before the face of Ahura Mazda – the Wise Lord!
– The Lord of All Things.
– The Creator of all.
– The True and Only God.

And so it was done.

Not even the blink of time had passed, when, deep within his soul, with all his senses, Zarathustra felt ineffable joy.
In that moment, he beheld the boundless might of the Divine Being.
No fitting words exist, for truly, none can there be, that might describe Him.
Since primordial time, He hath been.
Now He is.
Unto the ages of ages shall He endure.
Almighty and All – Knowing.
The Creator of all existence.
The Beginning and the End of all things.
The Lord of the Heavens, the Universe, and all things visible and invisible.
Oneness, Multitude, and Infinity.
God Almighty!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!All-in-All.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And in the flash of that moment, Zarathustra beheld through the power of the Lord what is incomprehensible.
Great mysteries were by Him revealed unto him.
He saw what had been since the beginning of the world.
He perceived that which must come to pass at its end.
He discerned the source of good, and likewise the essence and cause of all evil.

– Behold, verily, I reveal unto thee the Eternal Laws which every man must obey – spake the Lord Ahura Mazda in thought:
– Noble Thoughts.
– Righteous Words.
– Good Deeds.
– And love unto all living beings.
– Moreover, aid unto the poor and the weak."

– Only this much, yet so much indeed!

– Know this, that every man doth partake in my struggle against the Evil Spirit.
- The Eternal, Uncreated Being – the Deceiver: Angra Mainyu – Ahriman.

Then the Lord Ahura Mazda revealed unto Zarathustra the beginning of all things.
In the beginning were two twin spirits, acting in thought, in word, and in deed.
One was good, the other evil.
And it is thus, that the good could not exist without the evil, nor the evil without the good.
And so it came to pass that these two twin spirits established life and non – being, until the end of the world's existence.
Life was established by the Good Lord, Ahura Mazda.
Death and non-being – by the Evil Spirit, Ahriman – Angra Mainyu.
The Good Lord dwelled above, in endless light.
Ahriman, however, below, in eternal, impenetrable darkness.

And it was thus, that at the moment of creation, a ray of light pierced the darkness.
The Evil Ahriman perceived that he was not alone, but that there was something else– something good.
Drawn by the supernatural light, he ascended toward it, seeking to seize it for himself, to capture and destroy it.
Yet the Wise Lord, Ahura Mazda, desired that the Evil Ahriman should choose the good, and sought to incline him towards it.

But Ahriman spake in his heart:
– Lo, I have seen the weakness of Ahura Mazda.
Therefore shall I choose evil!
– Then shall I alone be the Lord of all things.
– By guile shall I strike against the world He hath created.
And so, with malice, he defiled the world and corrupted all of Ahura Mazda’s creations.

Then did time begin to flow.
Men and all living things began to age, to fall ill, and to die.
Ahriman, with malevolent spite, poisoned the earth, making it a desert, salted the waters of the seas, brought about the withering of plants, and, at last, corrupted the once-untainted purity of fire by creating smoke.

From those days forth began the Great Chaos, and the eternal struggle between good and evil engulfed the entire world.

And thus spake the Almighty Lord God, Ahura Mazda, unto Zarathustra:
– I am He who, on the day of man's creation, gave him reason and free will, that he might choose between good and evil by himself!
– Each man, upon his death, shall be judged justly according to his deeds, and shall mete out unto himself his own punishment.
– The righteous shall rejoice in My presence for eternity, and the wicked, in the presence of the mocking Ahriman, shall suffer all their iniquities, just as their victims suffered.
– They shall endure both bodily and spiritual torment, the very pain they once inflicted upon all living beings.
– And at the end of the ages, on the day known only to Me, the time of the world's redemption shall come.

– On that day, I shall vanquish Ahriman, and forever separate evil from good, and I shall establish the perfect order, known as Asha.

– The dead shall rise again, as they were in their glory.
– Ahriman, the Lord of Wrath, his demons, and his abyss, along with the wicked, shall I cleanse with My power and mercy in an act of glorious salvation.
– Then shall the Divine World come to pass, which for all eternity shall be united with all creation and with the universe entire.

– Thou hast beheld all things!" – spake Vohu Manah in thought.
– Go forth, then, O Zarathustra, and proclaim the faith in the One God, who doth exist eternally, uncreated.

– The Source of all being, the Creator of all things, of visible and invisible entities, of the corporeal and the spiritual – Ahura Mazda.
– Worship Him as the Lord of Wisdom, whose very emanation is love, truth, order, and justice – called Asha.
– Proclaim unto all, that beside Ahura Mazda, there doth exist another being, uncreated and eternal, yet wholly different from the first – named Ahriman, called also Angra Mainyu.
– A being murderous, malevolent, deceitful, harmful, and ruinous.
– Devoid of all wisdom, the adversary of all good.

– So shall I do! That shall be the purpose of my life! – thus spake Zarathustra, swearing before the Lord.


And when Zarathustra beheld the cruel and grievous burden of time upon the earthly world, in spirit he questioned the Lord Ahura Mazda:
– O Eternal Lord, wherefore dost Thou allow such great iniquity, wars, rapes, plunders, and all the suffering of the innocent?
– Wherefore dost Thou not prevent this?
– For verily, Thou art Almighty and canst do all things!

And Ahura Mazda answered him in thought:
– I have given men reason and the Gift of Free Will.
– Man doth deliberate within his own conscience what he must do and how he shall do it.
– Upon the ending of his life, each shall justly judge himself.
– For his wicked deeds, he shall suffer the punishment that he himself shall righteously lay upon himself.
– The evildoers shall suffer before the mocking Ahriman for their misdeeds, just as their victims suffered.
– They shall endure the bodily and spiritual torment which they inflicted upon every living being.
– Verily, I say unto thee, they shall taste all the sufferings which they wrought upon the innocent.
– But he who is just and righteous shall receive a great reward, dwelling with Me and rejoicing for all eternity.
– How then should I, as God, change this and take from thee the Gift of Free Will, which I Myself have bestowed upon thee?

– Verily, I say unto thee:
– Freedom, granted unto man, is sacred – even for God Himself!

– At the end of time, when the wicked and the sinful have atoned for their punishments, – – My Infinite Mercy shall encompass the vile and the unrighteous, and even the father of all evil and iniquity – Ahriman.
– Such is the order of things!" – thus spake Ahura Mazda at last.

– Lo, I have grasped a part of Thy Wisdom – Zarathustra thus understood.
And he did as the Almighty Lord God had commanded him.
He spread the faith in His Name all the days of his life.

For as a Prophet, he beheld time and knew that his teachings would be erased through the millennia, while part of them would secretly be claimed by other beliefs.
And he saw that the strife of the followers of these beliefs would hasten the end of time.
Yet so it must be before the earthly world doth pass away.
For the Gift of Free Will shall endure until the end of all ends!

And so Zarathustra gained certainty, that whosoever doth murder, plunder, deceive, and lie, and committeth all manner of evil in thought, word, and deed – even if he believeth himself to do so falsely in the Name of God – verily, he is a worshiper of Ahriman, the Lord of Darkness and the Father of all Evil.
He is but an instrument of his wickedness.
And he shall suffer what all those he wronged have suffered.
Verily, such punishment is terrible and severe!

Thus it was, thus it is, and thus it shall be for all days, until the end of all things.

Until the stopping of time.


Epilogue:
Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest monotheistic religions, professing faith in One God.
Scholars have long debated the period in which Zarathustra lived.
Greek historians such as Plutarch and Diogenes Laertius believed that he lived around six thousand years before Christ.
Researchers have generally placed his lifetime between 1000–1700 BCE.
These disputes over dating may stem from ideological, religious, and theological concerns.
Accepting the life of Zarathustra as occurring around 1800 BCE or earlier would challenge the authenticity of both the origins of Judaism and Christianity.

Let us therefore set aside the question of Zarathustra’s time.
Let us focus instead on the records contained in the foundations of this religion, known as the sacred books of the Avesta.
These are a compilation of ancient texts, including the Yasna, which contains liturgical prayers, and the Gathas—the oldest hymns and psalms.

Hundreds of years before the emergence of Judaism and Christianity, they spoke of:
– The One Almighty God.
– The creation and the beginning of the world.
– The defilement of God’s creations by the Evil One.
– The struggle between good and evil.
– The free will given to mankind as a divine gift.
– The future coming of a Messiah born of a virgin.
– The ultimate triumph of God over the Evil One.
– The dwelling place of the righteous with God.
– The dwelling place of the wicked with the Lord of Evil.
– A purgatory—a place where souls, having committed as many good deeds as evil, await in nothingness for God’s return.
– The final judgment.
– The resurrection of the dead and the salvation of all mankind.

Like other religions, Zoroastrianism has several schools (denominations) that differ in doctrine.
For example, the Parsi diaspora in India, influenced by Christianity, regards Ahura Mazda as the Almighty God, as I have described in this story.
However, this view is disputed by Zoroastrian reformist schools, which advocate for the purification of the religion from 19th-century influences, asserting that God is not yet omnipotent until He defeats Ahriman.

I present a link to the website of Polish followers of this religion: Website of Polish Zoroastrians.
As well as to the blog of Polish Zoroastrians: Blog of Polish Zoroastrians.
And also, a link to a comprehensive lecture on the influence of Zoroastrianism on Christianity: The influence of Zoroastrianism on Christianity.

Reading the Old and New Testaments, one might perceive that the Creator—who is, after all, Infinite Love—has, throughout the centuries, been ascribed in the Bible with base, petty, at times even brutal and vengeful behaviors.
Behaviors all too human.
Such actions befit not the Mercy of the Almighty God.
It seemeth that in the Old Testament, the mind of God doth resemble that of man more than that of the Divine!
One might wonder—how did this come to be?

Let us then employ our reason and free will, for verily, they have been granted unto us!!!

Intriguingly, these matters are discussed in lectures available on YouTube by Professor Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò—a distinguished scholar of ancient history and Judaism—and Professor Marcin Majewski—an excellent researcher of the Bible and Christian theology.

I encourage an online deepening of knowledge regarding Zarathustra, in accordance with the terms preserved in the Avestan language.

In English, an excellent article by Professor Kinga Paraskiewicz is also available:
Thus does not speak Zarathustra.

I also recommend the monumental six-volume work The History of Christianity by Warren H. Carroll.
It is a masterfully documented combination of captivating narrative with meticulously presented historical knowledge.
It reveals often hidden scientific and objective events concerning Christianity and the Church throughout history.
Even a cursory reading of The History of Christianity by Warren H. Carroll shall cast into a wholly different light the facts which, since childhood, have been instilled in us with unwavering persistence in religious lessons.

Explanations regarding the illustrations:
The Spirit of Good Thought—Vohu Manah—one of the Amesha Spentas, was not a white-winged angel (he is more often depicted as the moon or a white jasmine flower).
Likewise, Druj Ahriman was not depicted as a horned devil.
However, due to our Christian associations, I have chosen to use such imagery for representation.
Interestingly, Professor Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò, in his YouTube lecture How Judaism Was Formed?, states that angelic figures in Christianity have their origins in the Persian religion.

Among intriguing curiosities—did you know that Freddie Mercury, the legendary vocalist of Queen, was a devout and practicing Zoroastrian?
Freddie’s family, being Parsis—Persian Zoroastrian exiles primarily settled in India—maintained this religion.
Source: Freddie Mercury's Zoroastrianism.

It was in a time more ancient... than ancient... is ancient...
Bent and withered.
A Vatican scribe.
Greatly wise and learned in all the sciences.
A guardian of the wisdom of ages past.
Within cold chambers, he had long transcribed the sacred books.
And studied tongues foreign and forgotten.

With each letter he traced, with each page he copied, his heart,
beating to the rhythm of the church bells, lifted in a mystic dance.
To him, the art of writing was prayer,
and the texts transformed into eternal testimony of the Almighty’s presence.

Time had left its merciless mark upon him.
His hands, like the gnarled roots of ancient trees, had grown stiff.
Thus, he could no longer write.
Yet he could still read the sacred books.
And so he studied them diligently.
He pondered the essence and nature of the Almighty.
And the origin of the eternal evil that had always tormented him.

One day, he stumbled upon parchment hidden behind the books.
With trembling, aged hands, he grasped barely legible manuscripts.
They spoke of a Persian Priest and Prophet named Zarathustra.
The Avestan text shook him to his core!
Zarathustra had lived thousands of years ago.
Through the spirit of Good Thought, the One Almighty God—Ahura Mazda—was revealed unto him.
And He unveiled to the prophet the beginning of all things.

The scribe began to read:
“And thus it was:
In the beginning, there were Two Twin Spirits, acting in thought,
in word, and in deed.
One Good, the Other Evil.
And it is thus, that the Good could not exist without the Evil,
nor the Evil without the Good.
And it came to pass that these Two Twin Spirits established Life
and Non-Existence, until the very end of the world.”

– Had Zarathustra beheld our Lord? – The scribe pondered deeply.
– Is the Almighty both good and evil at once? – he questioned in dread.
– Is He the Creator of all that is seen and unseen?
– Then must evil, too, come from His hand!

This thought consumed him like a vile worm burrowing ever deeper,
and, heedless of hours or days, he could not cease his deliberations.
His eyes sank into hollow shadows, and his face grew pallid,
as though his very soul was fading.

It was said that, at night, he wandered the corridors of the Vatican,
with but a flickering candle.
Its pale light cast shifting shadows,
which crept behind him like phantoms.

His lips, cracked from prayers and tormenting thoughts,
whispered words that struck fear into the hearts of his brethren:

– Quis es, Omnipotens? – Who art Thou, Almighty?
– What art Thou?
– Art Thou but Good, or art Thou also Evil?

The monks who crossed his path averted their gaze,
not wishing to see such a specter.
Some whispered that the Devil himself spoke through him.

His superiors, enraged at such blasphemy,
saw in him a weight upon their order,
a millstone cast around the neck of a drowning man.
Those who had long harbored envy toward him began to conspire.
– Heresy! Speech accursed for all eternity! – they murmured,
and their tongues were as sharp as blades.
They bided their time,
awaiting the moment to lay their accusations upon him.

On that night, when the full moon gazed down from the heavens like the eye of God,
the scribe beheld a great and unknown symbol upon the door of his cell.
A mark, etched by a hand unseen.
None other had perceived it.

That mark was a letter, yet also a number,
and beyond that, it became a sign of some supernatural force.
Despite his learning, he did not know it.

His soul trembled, as if he stood upon the very threshold of revelation.
For he knew – what had come was not of this world.
Something ancient stirred deep within him.

His hand shook as he reached to touch the symbol,
which had been carved by means beyond human understanding.
It burned beneath his fingers,
as though it contained both life and great power.

That mark held a secret, a force,
and yet, with it, an unshakable unease.

And then, from within his cell, as soft as a whisper,
came the faint creak of the floorboards.

He stepped inside, glancing around in fearful hesitation.
There, space and time themselves seemed altered
– the air was heavier, thick with something unseen,
and time moved more slowly.

In the corner, where but a moment before had been only emptiness,
a figure now stood.
Its form wavered and trembled at the edge of consciousness,
a shape shifting between existence, light, and shadow.

Its eyes burned with an otherworldly glow,
both benevolent and terrible.

His heart stood still.
– Quis es? – he whispered, barely catching his breath. – Who art Thou?
– Ego sum qui sum – he heard a voice that could not be described.
It resounded as a multitude of voices at once.
– I am that which I am.
– But dost thou know what I am?

The figure raised its right hand, and in that moment, the candlelight was extinguished.
– Evil is not separate from good as thou hast thought – the being spoke.
– It is thou – human reason, frail and weak, that divideth what is one.
– For I am the beginning and the end, light and darkness,
hope and fear.
– I am all.
– I AM EVERYTHING!
– I tell thee – in every man, good and evil exist in My likeness!

– That is blasphemy… – the Scribe whispered, feeling the words stick in his throat.
– Art Thou God, or art Thou a demon?
– Dost thou truly not know? – the figure with luminous eyes replied.
– Once, thou didst ask whether the Almighty created evil – thus thou hast asked Me.
– I am the echo of thy doubting thoughts, the shadow of thy faith.
– I am that which thou fearest.
– I have come to dispel thy doubt.

The Scribe felt a coldness that pierced him to the very marrow.
He could not move, as though his body had been frozen in time.
He understood that he now stood before a truth no human mind
could ever fully grasp.

It was more... than more... can ever be more...

– Then know, mortal, that... – he barely heard the words, for the door to his cell swung open.
He trembled.
It was the guards of faith, his brethren, come to seize him as a heretic.
They found him kneeling on the ground, his face turned toward an empty corner.
His eyes were wide open, like great dark lakes, as though gazing upon
something unseen by any other.

– I listen, O Lord, I listen… – he whispered.

– In the name of the Holy Inquisition… – the words reached him.

He stood upon the pyre, surrounded by wooden stakes, as the flames consumed him.
Through the licking fire beneath his feet, he saw the door of his cell
and that mysterious symbol once more,
a letter that was also a number, which became a sign of something supernatural.
He gazed upon it and felt no pain.
He loved God infinitely!
Regardless of whether He was but Good or Duality itself.

– No one in earthly life shall know this truth! – he understood within his soul.
And in the final moment, a thought echoed in his mind:
– I am happy.
– Before His Presence shall I stand, and then shall I ask.

– Quis es, Domine?

Who art Thou, O Lord?

Dawn was breaking.
A silence as deep as an unplanted field lay over the earth.
The aged Prophet rested his silver – haired, time-worn head upon his weary hands.
He desired nothing more.
He knew he was dying – after all, he was a Prophet.
He felt the morning chill.
It pierced him to the very marrow.
A breeze carried the familiar scent of damp earth and fallen leaves.
His heart beat unevenly, and his thoughts swirled in restless currents.
– This is the end – he thought. And yet, the beginning of something new.
He was curious about it.

Everything was unfolding along the path foreseen long ago by him and those like him.
– The perfect time for final reflections on the World – he mused with sorrow.
– What is this World?
– What is Man?
Others had pondered the same before him. Had it changed anything?
– Nothing. Not in the least!

The Prophet had always been intoxicated by the beauty of the World.
Millions of colors, in an eternal dance of light and shadow, painted a magical canvas beneath his closed eyelids.
Mountains, rivers, forests, and seas harbored the great mysteries of millennia.
Enchanted within them were stories long forgotten.
In this endless spectacle of nature, the Prophet beheld the great miracle of birth, the purest act of creation,
where new life emerged effortlessly from the abyss of nothingness, bringing hope…
And love.

But the World also held monstrous shadows.
And terrifying evil.
Wars carried the screams of agony, and death reaped its harvest of the innocent.
A wound, poisoned by greed, desecrated Mother Earth,
shattering the ancient harmony and leading only to tragedy.
An unquenchable fire of lust and avarice consumed human hearts.
Passions and lies, stained with betrayal, swirled in a chaotic, grotesque dance.
Humanity was forever lost in its own danse macabre.
To deceive, to plunder, to seize all!
And to kill!
So it had been since the beginning. So it is. So it shall be.
There is no changing it!
The warnings of Sages, Seers, and Prophets—utterly in vain!
The old Prophet knew that the World must drown in blood.
Time was running out!
For the Prophet. And for the World – he saw it with terrifying clarity.
– Man, created in HIS image and likeness? – he muttered at last, a bitter mockery in his voice.
– Hah, someone, thousands of years ago, must have written one sentence too many…
That was his final, conscious thought.
Then, without care, he drew his last breath.

And he died…
As the World shall die.
And mankind.

A normal day.
At the same moment, in different places across the world, extraordinary events unfolded.

In Jerusalem, in the Me’a She’arim district, Ryfka Rosenkrantz shattered a mirror.
– Oh, how I loved that mirror – she thought sadly.
– Oy, oy, oy, seven years of misfortune may come!
– Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo! – she spat three times, undoing the omen in the Jewish way.

In Midtown West, New York, Patrick Murphy was celebrating his stroke of luck. He had just won $188 million in the lottery.
– I’ve wired the transfers! – One million each to start! – he announced to his family.
– Now, at last, we shall truly live – he added.
Then he collapsed to the ground.
Dead.

In the town of Sitapur, Rama Devi gave birth to a child with two faces, four arms, and four legs.*
Fear spread throughout the entire region.
The child’s father, Ramphal, said: – We are blessed!
– It is a sign! – the townspeople murmured. – We must ask the Guru what it means.
– It is already the second such child in the area this year – they whispered.
After much discussion, they sent Samir Jabbi, a scholar of the sacred scriptures, to Guru Amar Sahib.
The girl smiled with one face, while the other wept.
Two of her hands pressed together as if in prayer, a third clenched into a fist, and with the fourth, she made an obscene gesture.
She would surely have run away on all four legs, but she did not yet know how to walk.

In Moscow, inside the Senate Palace, the President of Russia, after lunch, hiccupped four times, lost sight in his right eye, began rapidly blinking with the left, and started walking backward while clucking like a chicken.
He was taken to an underground clinic, where an ophthalmologist, Academician Fyodorov, and a team of neurologists were called in.
The military was placed on permanent combat alert.

The custodian of Wawel Cathedral, Rev. Prelate Zbigniew Szyszko-Firlet, pressed his head once again against the stone.
He was in the underground chambers of St. Gereon’s Church, inaccessible to visitors.
Silence rang in his ears.
He had a vision.
– So little time left! – he realized.

During a live CNN news broadcast, anchor Jenny Kirsch rolled her eyes upward and gobbled three times like an enraged turkey.
Then she puckered her lips like a trumpet and, bulging her eyes, began making the sounds of an old locomotive.
– Choo, choo, choo!
– Choo, choo, choo!
The news producer glanced at the script, and after the sixth train sound, he cut to commercials.

In Johannesburg, on a hill in Witwatersrand, an archaeologist’s assistant, Raymond Cork, unearthed a skull and bones of an Australopithecus.
It was sweltering.
Darkness clouded his vision.
Raymond suffered a stroke.
When he regained consciousness, he began speaking in fluent Sanskrit.
– Shanti, shanti – शान्ति (Sanskrit: śānti) – he repeated like a mantra.

Aside from these events, at that moment, nothing extraordinary occurred.
Everything was as usual.
People were born and died, children left for school.
Insects pollinated flowers.
Markets bustled with trade, people ate and drank.
A normal day.
There were no lightning bolts, no thunder, no angelic trumpets.
No sign of the foretold Armageddon.

And then..., God stopped time…


*authentic fact
Birth of a child in India with two faces, four arms, and four legs: WARNING - shocking video!
About the Wawel Chakra: Chakra
Australopithecus bones: Science Stop

What is time?
The clock pondered… between… and… between.

It could have stopped and thought about it longer, or perhaps it only seemed so…
Its heart—its trembling pendulum – whispered to it that time was the work of God.
He was the Creator of time, and He would end it at the end of ends.
– Without time, there would be nothing – neither good nor evil – it mused.

– There would be no life!
– There would be no death!
– Everything would stand still, like a scene on a fairground painting.
– There would be no it either.
– For what use is a clock when there is nothing to measure?

– I wonder what it will be like when God stops time one day?
– Will the hearts of clocks then shatter…?
– I believe that God has a plan for that… – it sighed with hope.
– He does!!!
– As God always does…!

For as long as it existed, it had struck the quarters in tones.
Lower tones for the half – hours.
And the lowest of all for the hours.
It was good at counting.
It never made mistakes!

It believed itself to be good.
Deep in the soul of its tightly wound spring, that was what it wanted to be…

It measured the time of birth, from the first breath, and the time of the final sigh…
It accompanied everything, always…

People wished to turn back time, to undo mistakes, to make different choices – but no one ever succeeded.
Perhaps, though, it had been deceiving them, never measuring time quite the same for all?
The old ones would say:
– The older we grow, the faster the hours, months, and years slip by…
– Do something about it!

It could not!
And now, even the clock itself was unsure… had time passed?
Was it flowing? Or merely standing still…?

It had no time to ponder further, for between had just passed.
Between... and... between, meant for reflection, was over.
It had to keep measuring time.

Until the very end…

closing your eyes, sleep draws near
visions of old days reappear
that fleeting moment, that sudden spark
time now faded, lost in the dark

teachers, the newsman at the stand
vanished, gone to a distant land
friends and strangers, lost from view
will they return? you have no clue

…i whisper to you,
                           -i, your PAST…
i wear your face, your golden hair
all you have felt still lingers there
…i whisper to you,
                           -i, your PAST…

and do not judge, do not condemn
trust not the liars who preach again
with god on their lips, but hearts of stone
their fathers’ cries are hell’s own moan

…i am the one,
                           -i, your PRESENT…
i hold your thoughts, i see your mind
no wish or secret stays confined
…i am the one,
                           -i, your PRESENT…

what must now come will still unfold
no hand can change what fate has told
with you or without you, the day moves on
yesterday’s set, today’s not gone

…i call to you,
                       -i, your FUTURE…
a whisper felt, a chilling sign
that life itself may break in time…
…i call to you,
                       -i, your FUTURE…

Anushka[*] has already spilled the oil…

---

Annushka[*]
The final spilling of oil by Annushka in The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov symbolizes the inevitability of fate and determinism.
Unknowingly, Annushka set in motion a chain of tragic events, sealing Berlioz’s fate (his death).

From the bottom of my heart, I wish you:
To enjoy life in good health.
To love and be loved.
To believe that everything still lies ahead of you.
To see in the darkness what truly matters, what counts, what is dear.

May you:
Find someone who will never betray you, even when they could profit from it.
Never betray a friend, even when you could gain from it.
Know how to listen and truly see another person.
Have faith in people.
In the world.
Not fear the future.

May you:
Greet each day with a smile and joy.
Not judge, even though others do.
Forgive.
Fly boldly into the future on the soft wings of your angel.

I know how difficult all this is.
But it depends on you!

Slow down for a moment!
Pause, and think about what truly matters!
Maybe the word “I’m sorry”?
A kind smile.
A good word.
A deep gaze into someone’s eyes and a touch...
Love and friendship.
A tear of emotion welling up.

There is still so much good you can do – and that is the only thing worth rushing for…

Crazy Poem – Wild and Hot:
I have gathered cones, a pot,
Then I ate them on the spot,
Oh, how tasty! Crunch, crunch, crunch!
Mmm, delightful, what a lunch!

OMG, they scratch and burn,
Twist and churn at every turn,
I ask myself, where’s the sense?
Soon I'll face the consequence!

So I grab a pack of pills,
A drop of tonic, cure my ills,
Now my guts push left and right,
Where will those cones go in flight?

Which way out, the top or low?
Oh dear Lord, I do not know!
Only two ways, that is clear,
Think it over, guess, my dear.

I can feel the end is near,
Some will laugh, and some will sneer,
But, my friends, you do not see,
I am out, I roam the street!

Sweat is dripping, heartbeats race,
Pressure’s rising, what a place?!
I can't hold it, let it blow,
Let the battle dust cloud grow!

As I thought it, so I did,
Then I woke up—what a hit!
Yet the poem isn’t through,
Still a bit insane, yet true.

Now the moral, take it, chap,
Consequences clap your back!
Here's another, mark it tight,
For all loners left and right,
Dream or real, it matters not,
Life’s a struggle, hard and hot!

Third and last one, heed it fast,
When in trouble, run to the vast!
It sounds simple, maybe plain,
Yet believe me—wise, not vain!