by Stan Mason
‘You mean like the Cosmic Joker or the Soul Gatherer,’ I cut in sharply in an accusing manner.
‘Indeed,’ she continued bluntly. ‘You’ve been made aware of things which were never meant to learn.’
‘And the icy cold was very uncomfortable to say the least,!’ I savaged with an element of anger in my voice. ‘What did I do to deserve that?’
‘You left your post as the head of the Great Chain of Being with a view to go to the great black wall... not only once but you wanted to go there a second time.’
‘I was doing no harm,’ I told her defensively. ‘I admit that my curiosity got the better of me but if angels answered my questions I wouldn’t have been in that position.’
‘You must give full regard to the rules,’ stated the angel bluntly. ‘Just because you have a greater consciousness than most spirits doesn’t mean you can run coach and horses through the rules doing anything you wish.’
‘What relationship does the Cosmic Joker have with the angels here?’ I demanded caring little for the respect I should be showing her.
‘You will not stop, will you?’ she countered angrily refusing to answer the question. ‘You’re a mere Seraph and should not be involved with such enquiries.’
‘You were the one who sent me to the Desert of Ice where I met the Cosmic Joker,’ I uttered sharply. ‘And, in effect, had I not left that cabin when I did, you would have lost me for ever. I would almost certainly be a dead soul by now. That is reprehensible, so don’t lecture me about rules and enquiries!’
My dander was up and, for the first time since I had passed away, so much so that I almost lost my temper as a spirit, if indeed that was possible. Unfortunately, the Angel of Redemption was less than impressed by my austere uncompormising attitude. Consequently, she rounded on me in no uncertain terms her face showing her deep displeasure.
‘Are you willing to continue to be punished for your misdemeanours indefinitely?’ she demanded with an element of anger in her voice. ‘Do you want to go on suffering because of your refusal to obey the rules and the need to have your questions answered?’
I shrugged my shoulders carelessly. ‘I have not disobeyed any rules!’ I countered sternly.
‘You were given the task of controlling the revision of the Great Chain of Being yet you continued to remain absent for most of the time. I consider that absence is a disregard of the rules.’
I buckled at the accusation which I was forced to admit. ‘I can’t help it,’ I bleated sadly. ‘My consciousness forces me to do things which displease the angels here. I do not intend to disobey the rules.’
She paused to think about my dilemma for a short while without speaking and then came up with a possible solution.
‘I’ve made a decision,’ she suggested sagely. ‘I’m going to send you to the School of Rules. Once there you’ll be asked to interpret the rules and rewrite them in your own way. By that method, you’ll begin to understand them much more clearly... especially when you’ve rewritten them in your own words. It may be the only solution to solve the problem.’
‘I’m here at your mercy,’ I told her candidly. ‘It has never been my intention to break any of the rules. Do with me as you wish but I can’t promise never to ask questions.’
She stared at me for a while, then she spread her great white wings, rising to a much higher level, and flew out of an open hole at the top of the room in a most gracious manner. I was left standing there feeling relatively warm after my freezing experience in the Desert of Ice. There were some blessings after all. At least I wasn’t fighting a storming blizzard, walking in thick snow, or having my soul taken by the Soul Gatherer.
Within an instant, I found myself in a classroom sitting behind a small desk. Before me stood a lower ranking angel because it was quite clear that he didn’t sport a pair of wings. He moved forwards and backwards in front of a large blackboard with a long piece of chalk in his hand. I looked around the room to observe that there were a number of other spirits sitting at desks and I presumed that they were all there because, like myself, they had continuously broken the rules. The teacher addressed the class sombrely as though he had been given a task which he disliked immensely but which he had been forced to undertake.
‘Listen carefully,’ he began, staring at his pupils with a grim expression on his face. ‘The first rule I want you to rewrite in your own style and in your own words is the one which states that no one, for any reason whatsoever, is allowed to contact anyone from their past life.’ He paused to allow his words to sink in and I noticed an element of resentment from some of the other spirits. ‘Now some of you have already been indicted on this score which is the reason why you’re here,’ he went on. ‘Listen to me carefully.’ His voice changed into a loud vociferous tone. ‘IT MUST NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!’ He returned to his normal speech without delay. ‘I want you to write this rule in your own words with any comments you wish to make on the scrolls in front of you.’ His voice moved up a few decibel levels as he shouted again. ‘GET IT OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM!’
I stared at him dourly before picking up the pen on the desk and staring ahead bleakly. There was nothing I wished to write down on this issue especially as I was innocent of any misdemeanour of this kind but I had to do something without risking his wrath when he came to marking the papers. I hesitated for quite some time before putting pen to paper with an ineffective commentary.
‘My days on Earth were painful and disappointing,’ I began. ‘My wife died five years before my demise and I knew very little about my family because we were never close to each other. In fact I cannot recall ever visiting them or them coming to our house. As I was the oldest person in the family, everyone else was much more junior and they went their own ways as younger members of families tend to do. I had no friends and all my teacher colleagues had passed away so there was no connection with them any more. During my latter years I was a lonely old man, looked after by social carers employed by the local council, who brought me food, collected my pension, and paid my bills... with my own money of course. I know no one with whom I would wish to contact on Earth and therefore I have no intention of ever doing so. This is my declaration on this issue... this is my word! However, I wish to make one particular comment in that mediums on Earth sometimes contact the spirits of people who have passed away. In such cases, where contact is made from Earth, is it permissible for those in Heaven to respond?’
As soon as I laid down the pen, the scroll vanished from my sight to land on the teacher’s desk. It was too late to erase the last comment after I recognised that I had asked yet another question. The action operated by the teacher tended to anger me because the speed at which incidents such as transporting me to different places and whisking scrolls from my grasp without warning irritated me greatly. However, those incidents seemed to occur most regularly in Heaven.
‘Jeremiah!’ called out the teacher in a loud sonorous voice, although no other spirits appeared to hear him. ‘I’ve read your comments on the first rule. The question you asked at the end is answered by the rule itself. No one may be in contact with anyone from their past life. That is first and final. Now... you may proceed to the next rule.’
‘What is the next rule?’ I asked almost biting my tongue for asking yet another question.
His eyes raked my spirit form before he answered. ‘To obey the commands of all higher-ranking angels without question,’ he returned sharply.
A fresh scroll appeared like magic on the desk in front of me and I raised my pen again to start writing. ‘I have never refused to obey an order of any high-ranking angels since my admission into Heaven,’ I wrote swiftly. ‘At all times, I have been a model of obedience. Despite this, I have been severely punished twice. Once at the Pit of Desolation and once in the Desert of Ice. However, such punishment was not because I refused to obey an order given to me. I have to admit that the Angel
of Retribution pointed out to me that my absence in the Great Chain of Being was a refusal to obey an order. However, I did outline the revision plan and I returned to the place where it was being rewritten to check that everything was in order. My deputy, Duke, is very proficient and I intended to return there regularly to check that everything was in order. I consider that this is not a disobeyance of any rule. That is my declaration on this issue. This is my word.’
I laid down my pen and instantly the scroll left my desk to arrive in front of the teacher. His eyes scanned the text briefly and he looked up at me once more.
Almost instantly, another piece of parchment landed before me on the desk. I looked up at the teacher whose face seemed to take on an evil expression. I presumed that he disliked all that I had written but not of it could be retracted now.
‘You are not to approach a higher authority for any reason unless requested to do so,’ he called out the third major rule as though having his teeth pulled out.
Without hesitation, I picked up the pen again and began to write hastily. ‘I have never, nor do I intend to do so, approach a higher authority in Heaven. It has always been the other way around whereby higher-ranking angels have sought to approach me. I am tired and fed-up at being summoned by angels who tell me what to do but refuse to answer my questions. No one will provide any answers and I’m feeling totally frustrated. I believed that Heaven was a place of peace and goodwill... that I would meet God, or a Supreme Power, if there is one... that I would find Jesus, if he was indeed the son of God... and that all my enquiries would be readily responded to. However, I find that none of this has happened and I consider that none of it is real. In truth, it appears that the atheistic views held by me in my past life were true... that Jesus was simply an ordinary man with good peaceful ideals at a time when the oppression of the Romans was too harsh to bear... that no one will answer my questions because of mysteries which exist in Heaven that are kept secret from anyone else. Perhaps the Dark Side and the Light Side of Heaven are in some ways intermingled. This is my declaration on this issue. This is my word.’
The scroll departed from my desk at the moment I laid down my pen. The teacher’s face was a picture as he read it. Confusion could be seen in his eyes and he became extremely angry as he read the text.
‘Jeremiah!’ he spat, waving the scroll wildly in front of him. ‘You are incorrigible. Not only do you have too much consciousness but you’re filled with utter resentment. This exercise is clearly a waste of time for you. There is no doubt that you are not fit to be a spirit in Heaven.’
‘Not fit!’ I countered with fury growing in my essence. ‘Why am I not suitable? I’ve done everything asked of me. I’ve been an Accompanying Angel, a Correcting Angel, I’ve followed the rules. What more do you want of me?’
‘You’re too disruptive as a spirit,’ he returned sharply. ‘You even went to the Black Wall of Hades.’
‘So that’s what it’s called,’ I retorted quickly. ‘It’s the other side of Heaven... Hell!’
I winced as I heard the loud peal of bells in the near distance. I knew that they were ringing out for me. However, what did they expect of me. I couldn’t help but say the word ‘Hell’ in my anger. To my mind, I was greatly provoked and for that reason I felt exonerated.
‘I suppose you’re going to recommend more punishment,’ I advanced miserably. ‘Well bring it on. I’m ready for it this time.’
He paused for a moment to stare at me directly surprised at my precociousness. No one had ever countered him in such a way before. He had met many angry spirits, wild spirits, those with high consciousness, some embittered with hate in their minds, but he had never met someone quite so highly audacious as me. It threw him for a short while but he soon recovered.
‘I’m going to have you sent to the rotator,’ he said eventually.
‘What’s that?’ I asked with an air of indifference. Having gone through the punishments of the Pit of Desolation and the Desert of Ice, I didn’t think anything else would concern me too much.
He sat down at his desk in the front of the class, with his hands clasped tightly together and his head down as if in deep prayer. In that instant, I found myself in a contraption that was spinning through the air like an astronaut training to fight gravity in a whirling machine. The constant revolution caused me to feel quite dizzy especially as my feelings had been returned to me. I had no idea how long I would be able to stand this kind of punishment and my first instinct was to call out at the top of my voice as I had done in the Desert of Ice, promising to obey every rule in the future. However this time I knew my efforts would be pointless so, as I whirled around at tremendous speed, I kept my mouth shut. Certainly, I was resentful but I felt I had every reason to be so. No one had ever answered my questions. I hadn’t seen God or a Supreme Power. Heaven was the exact opposite to anything I had every envisaged when I was alive. What did they expect of me? I couldn’t continue to exist in the same way other spirits spent their lifeless existence simply following rules, learning about the universe, and dealing with details which were meaningless. I recalled the meeting with my dead wife and her relatives. They were like zombies moving around Heaven in slow motion disinterested in everything that was happening, being led by an invisible force which took them absolutely nowhere. I couldn’t continue like that even as a spirit... and then there was the Cosmic Joker and the Soul Gatherer on the Dark Side. Had I come across something terribly sinister unexpectedly? Was that meeting with the Cosmic Joker really accidental. Perhaps it was yet another test I was being put through. However, it was quite clear to me that the remarkable meeting raised a number of questions of which no one intended to answer. Such were the mysteries of Heaven!
In the meantime, I was trapped in a revolving machine which not only sped around at tremendous speed but twisted wildly as it did so. At first, when my spirit body became reformed to enhance the punishment more, I felt a rise of nausea but, shortly afterwards, I grew responsive to the rhythm of the contraption which tended to ease my discomfort as my thoughts overcame the awful revulsion to the rotation and twisting to some degree. I considered that I might be able to stabilise my body to the momentum as soon as my metabolism adjusted to the speed and the twisting in the same way as an astronaut would become used to the function in a training programme. As I circled round and round continuously, I wondered how many years I would remain in this punishment. Whatever the angelic hierarchy were trying to do to suppress my consciousness, and my newly-found resentment, it didn’t seem to be working. In fact, my resolve appeared to be strengthening all the time and I despaired that it would never become diminished in any way to satisfy the senior angels. I had no idea where this attitude would lead me in the end. Eventually, the punishment would be terminated and it was possible that the hierarchy would run out of ways to redress my case. So where did that leave me in the end? The only possibility was for me to be reincarnated to start me off again on Earth in another body with a new mind in another location with different parents. In that case, I might eventually return to Heaven, after a period of years, as a much more suppressed spirit... fitting to the satisfaction of the angelic hierarchy.
The spinning and twisting continued in the meantime and my thoughts, as well as relative ease, must have reached the controlling angel through telepathy. He quickly realised that there was no point in punishing me further in this way on account of the fact that I was so resentful of everything and everyone in Heaven. Consequently, forcing the punishment on me was pointless. Quite shortly, the twisting stopped and then the spinning slowed to a halt. Within an instant, I was transported to a small room that was bare of any furniture. Once again, I was confronted by the concerned Centurion who shook his head in dismay.
‘I really don’t know what to do with you, Jeremiah,’ he uttered sombrely. ‘You fail to fit into any category here and your attitude is one we seem unable to suppress. I’m loathe to let
you be reincarnated because I believe you have a role to play here. The work you put into the Great Chain of Being was absolutely superb and, at the moment, it’s progressing well but you clearly have lost interest in the project. We can’t have you picking and choosing your own particular topics which you feel suit you. the most... not that you’ve found one yet. Your attitude to the workings of the universe was monstrous and you’ve shown a similar degree of disinterest in the Great Chain of Being. What are we going to do with you?’
I can answer that question,’ I replied vigorously. ‘What I would really like to do is to sit down with a senior angel and have all my questions answered. If that were done, my attitude might change after I received the appropriate replies. Are you willing to let that happen?’
The Centurion huffed and puffed for a short while and then clasped his hands in front of him and lowered his head as if in prayer, exactly in the same way as the teacher had done. After a short while, it appeared that his telepathic request to a higher source had been answered and he turned his attention towards me.
‘It shall be so,’ he advised me slowly. ‘You will have the right to be with the Angel of Innocence who’ll respond to all your questions in turn.’
I sighed with relief at the prospect of having my mind satisfied with positive replies to all the thoughts passing through my head. In that moment, I found myself in another room facing the Angel of Innocence. We sat opposite each other on wooden seats staring at each other’s faces for a short while without speaking. He was a relatively young man for a senior angel, dressed completely in white, with his large wings folded behind him.
‘What do you want to know?’ he asked in a deep voice that sent shivers through my spirit form.
‘Are you prepared to answer any questions I put to you?’ I began hesitantly.
‘That’s why I’m here,’ he replied confidently indicating that he would do so although I doubted whether he was telling me the truth.
