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[Alexandr Korol]

And, essentially, I began to examine only the underworld, began with it, and further, after that, came the fourth world — the afterlife. It turns out, I as if examined only two worlds — the underworld in the fourth volume and the afterlife, that is the world of the dead, in the fifth volume. And these two worlds, they are as if on one side, as if I described all this as a world, you know, under the moon. And now I have moved into some other polarity, into the other opposite of the coin, where I am now describing the world of the sky, and further will describe the world of the earth, and that these are the same worlds as the underworld and the kingdom of the dead, but simply already under the sun. But this again I need now to speak out so directly, even for myself, for my own mind, so that the boundaries are properly lined up, so that in all this information I and the reader following me on the path of this novel “Alternative History” do not get confused.

“Slavic mythology. The Tree of Life (Old Slavic and Old Russian drevo zhivot’noe) — in the Slavic folk tradition a variant of the World Tree, in folklore a motif reflecting the concept of the biblical Tree of Life planted by God in the midst of paradise. The folklore motif reflects the idea of the World Tree, modeling the world (‘the threefold tree’ of Slavic songs, where in the crown dwells the nightingale, in the trunk the bees, at the roots the ermine).” You see, again this division of worlds is happening. “Finno-Ugric mythology. In Udmurt mythology the World Tree — Pispу puzhy — extends into three worlds: the lower (where the god Kildysin reigns), the middle (where the god Kuaz reigns), and the upper (where the god Inmar reigns). Its symbol is preserved in embroidery, in particular on the corners of syulyk — headscarves with which married women covered themselves immediately after the wedding.” You see, all this already existed, and now we are returning to all this that was lost. “In Kabbalah the Tree of Life is depicted with ten interconnected elements, representing the central symbol of Kabbalah. This tree represents the 10 sefirot of the power of divine reality. The pantheistic and anthropomorphic emphasis of this emanational theology interprets the Torah, Jewish rituals, and the goals of existence as a symbolic esoteric drama of unification in the sefirot, restoring the harmony of Creation. Since the Renaissance, Jewish Kabbalah has been an important tradition in non-Jewish Western culture, first through adoption