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[Alexandr Korol]

There are four seasons of the year. Everywhere you look, the number four repeats again and again. These are some kind of groups, but something fits into them. For example, the zodiac is divided into four elements and twelve zodiac signs. The twelve months are divided into four seasons. And I just couldn’t understand how this could be, why there is no information about it. Why twelve hours? Why twenty-four hours? I just didn’t get it. But I remembered and noted to myself that wherever numbers repeat — like the 12 Labors of Hercules, the 12 zodiac signs, and the 12 months — that it’s not by chance. I paid attention to all these numbers, and naturally, I focused on the number eight, because for me, eight symbolized the knowledge of everything. Looking at it in the plane, a square has four corners — that represented for me the material aspects — and then there were another four corners representing the spiritual. I perceived it exactly like that. And then I started to conclude that you can’t reject the material and only love the spiritual, because at first I had that extreme view. Then I realized that material cannot exist without the spiritual, and spiritual cannot exist without the material either.
Next, also at the end of 2010, I paid attention to an icon. The icon did not have any hidden symbols on the surface, but the meaning was still hidden, though not as a symbol. It was the icon of “Sophia the Wisdom,” and it depicted her three daughters: Faith, Hope, and Love. I assumed that since Hope and Love had come to me, then Faith and their mother Sophia should also come. I understood that these were like steps, like qualities — that if I come to know Faith, Hope, and Love, then I will come to Sophia, that is, to philosophy. And philosophy is what? Love of wisdom. And philosophy is what? The Philosopher’s Stone. And I thought, “Wow! This hidden meaning is even present in religion, in the church, in Orthodoxy.” And this kindled in me a wandering interest in Christianity and especially the Orthodox Church. Before, I wouldn’t say I disliked the church like many people do, because modern youth often aren’t interested. No, I could often go to church with my parents or relatives, or just enter one while walking around the city, and I was always curious. But when I was little, I didn’t really understand what it was or what it was for, I understood it somehow but didn’t truly realize it. And now I started to look at it all from a different angle. I realized that my city has so many churches, and there’s so much divine and religious imagery