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"And then there was hastly and it is headed for worse and worse disasters! This is the beginning of an entirely new stage of huainingthe atnorant as the humans round whom they swirled ' "

"Surely soreed with you "

"Yes, some were as vehement, but as Michael said, 'Trust in God, Memnoch, Who has done this God knows the Divine Scheme '

"Michael and I had the ues Raphael and Gabriel and Uriel had not come down, by the way, as part of this mission And the reason for that is fairly sio the same way It's a laith them, a custom, aa vocation, that two are always on hand in heaven for the call of God; and never do all four leave at once In this instance, Michael was the only one anted to come

"Does this Archangel Michael still exist now?"

"Of course he exists! You'll meet him You could meet him now if you wish, but no, he wouldn't come now He wouldn't He's on the side of God But you'll be no stranger to hiht be surprised by how sympathetic Michael can be to my endeavors But my endeavors are not unreconcilable to heaven, surely, or I would not be allowed to do what I do "

He looked sharply at me

"All those of the bene ha elohim whom I describe to you are alive now They are immortal How could you think it would be any other way? Now, there were souls in Sheol at that tier exist, not in any form I know of, but perhaps they do in some form known to God "

"I understand It was a stupid-sounding question," I admitted

"As you watched all this, as it filled you with fear, how did you relate it to God's statement about nature? That you would see humankind were part of nature "

"I couldn't except in tery and Matter The souls were energy; yet they retained a knowledge from Matter Beyond that, I could not reconcile it But for Michael, there was another view We were on a staire not? The lowest anic matter constituted the lowest steps These diseels It was all one flowing procession to Michael, but then again, Michael trusted that God was doing all this deliberately and wanted it this way

"I could not believe this! Because the suffering of the souls horrified me It hurt Michael too He covered his ears And the death of the souls horrified me If souls could live, then why not let all know!

And were they dooloom? What else in nature remained so static? Had they beco the planet, moons that could scream and cry and weep?"I asked Michael, 'What will happen? Tribes pray to different souls These souls becoer than othersLook at the war everywhere, the battle '

" 'But Memnoch,' he said, 'pri in Nature eats and is eaten This is what God has been trying to tell you since you first began to cry out in protest at the sound of suffering frood-spirits are expressions of humans, and part of humankind, born of hurow in strength to where they canpeople exquisitely, they are nevertheless born out of Matter and part of Nature as God said '

" 'So nature is this unspeakable unfolding horror,' I said 'It is not enough that a shark shole the infant dolphin and that the butterfly is crushed in the teeth of the ho chews it up, oblivious to its beauty It's not enough Nature o further, and spin from matter these spirits in torment Nature comes this close to Heaven, but is so far short of it that only Sheol will do for the name of this place '