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[Alexandr Korol]

everywhere, so many depictions of ancient Greek gods in my city, Saint Petersburg, so many angels, so many interesting symbols carrying some secret, hidden meaning. Even back then, I understood that the philosopher’s stone was actually my city, Saint Petersburg. Then I started searching on the internet — this was still at the end of 2010 — looking for the oldest and rarest icons I could find. Suddenly, I come across the icon “The Unburnt Bush” and I’m stunned. I see that it has this eight-pointed star, one red and the other green. I was shocked. I realized that all this was no coincidence. And imagine, all this happened within a very short time — from September to December 2010 — I was 20 years old then. I couldn’t understand how this could be, that it was the same thing, even in the Bible. So naturally, I began searching for the rarest, most intriguing icons with hidden meanings. I find icons where the halo is not just some golden disk behind the head, but an eight-pointed star. I think, “How can this be? Why is the halo an eight-pointed star? What does this mean?” Then I find a halo in the shape of a triangle — God’s halo is a triangle. I think, “Oh! The last time I saw this triangle was in Freemasonry, with the eye.” Then I see it depicted on various cathedrals. What is this? It’s the all-seeing eye. Oh! Interesting. So, the Freemasons borrowed this symbol. And it turns out the church uses this symbol too. Wow, what is this all about?
And then? Next, I started to open the Bible. Naturally, for some reason, I decided to start with the New Testament. I always had the association that I should read the latest holy writings. I knew there was the Old and New Testament, and at that time, my association with the Old Testament was, “Why bother if it’s no longer relevant and it’s over?” That’s what I thought back when I was 20. I was interested specifically in reading the New Testament. And again, I was only curious about reading the beginning and the end; I didn’t want to read the middle — I wanted to read just the beginning and the end. And when I started reading from the beginning, naturally, I was surprised that there was again some kind of formula. Since childhood, this curiosity seemed to never leave me — why 12 hours, why 24 hours. And it seemed like all these numbers somehow matched up, but no one could explain it to me. For me, it was like a fixed idea, like the meaning of life was in this, and nothing else was more important — work, study, personal life,