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[Alexandr Korol]

Chapter 10. Choosing Worlds

From the latest information. So, the system first highlighted and emphasized that I should read about the Phoenix. And what’s surprising is that again it’s immediately about mythology. Again, it’s about rebirth, about immortality, as if everything continues – the theme of death and immortality. But then, just one sign after another, and within a day, from all sides – through movies, through people, through pictures that people send me – all signs were about the labyrinth. And I decided to read. Wikipedia says: “A structure (usually in two-dimensional or three-dimensional space) consisting of intricate paths leading to an exit (and/or paths leading to a dead end).” But further, it’s interesting. It says: “The connection of the labyrinth with myths can best be understood by familiarizing oneself with religious rituals dedicated to the Egyptian god Osiris, who, according to Egyptian beliefs, was once the king of Egypt. Osiris was the god of the dead, or the god of the afterlife. Every year, the death of Osiris was reenacted in an Egyptian mystery. Amid loud wailing and lamentation, a ritual sacrifice of the sacred bull Apis, symbolizing Osiris, took place. This wailing turned into joyful exclamations when the priest announced to the people the joyful news of Osiris’s resurrection. Through these mystical rituals, the Egyptians linked their hopes for life and believed that every person, not just the pharaoh, after death, became like Osiris. It was believed that the labyrinth, with its intricate system of passages, protected the god-king in this life and the next from enemies and even from death itself.” So again, the theme of death and again the theme of immortality. And further: “According to one version, ‘labyrinth’ in its original meaning refers to the dwelling place of the deity with a double axe, symbolizing the two horns of the sacred bull. Worship of this bull was part of Minoan (Cretan) religion. Michael Ayrton, who proposed his model of the Cretan labyrinth, writes: ‘The life of every person is a labyrinth, at the center of which is death, and perhaps even after death, before finally ceasing to exist, a person goes through the last labyrinth.’ In light of this understanding, the mythological rescue of Theseus from the labyrinth symbolized his second birth, liberation from death.” And further: “Writer Marcel Brion argues that this is ‘an allegorical depiction of a person’s life and the difficulties that the soul must overcome in this world and the next before achieving the blessed state of immortality.’”