The Man who spoke to "gods" - Part 2

Yorick, insecure by Thor's strict and angry face, repeated his question.
Thor's eyes gleamed and he said, his voice roaring like a wild storm.
"I'm not your servant, you poor man! I shall not solve troubles you got yourself into merely because you didn't keep a lid on your anger. And do not ever dare to call a doom at somebody in my name! You proved by your behaviour that you are not a hair-breadth better than those two! Examine your conscience and swallow your pride, otherwise you will fail in your vocation, and you will impose misfortune on yourself! Your today's behaviour will aggravate your vocation in the future anyway. Therefore, strive to fix it as soon as possible! Now go and be better!"
With these words he had left scared and ashamed Yorick, who spent the rest of this night brooding how to fix what had happened.
In the morning Snorri asked him what happened since he looked so downhearted. He told him everything about his lapse and his pride.
Long time he looked at him sternly: "It's good you have the endeavour to fix your mistakes. After you have cast off your false pride, we shall continue with your education."
Yorick wondered all the time about how to undo his acts. Sprouting pride he felt over his seeming exceptionality among people was no longer a problem for him. Thor's righteous anger and Snorri's condition had pierced right into his heart. He realised his wrong-doing. Now he only longed to settle the matter with those two hunters. He knew what to do, but it was hard to gather up all the courage he needed. Having seen that the longer he hesitated the harder it was for him, he finally, after two days, made his mind up . He got up and began to act, strengthened by his decision. As the hunters were about to hunt, he appeared before them suddenly, and said with an earnest face:
"I feel sorry for what happened and what I said. Your comments and my remembering of all former jibes made me angry. I realised though, that it gives me no right to lose control and certainly not to call Thor's lightning bolts on you. I'm ashamed for that. I asked Thor for forgivness and now I ask you both. Forgive me, please, my imprudent words and acts."
One of the hunters surprised by Yorick's honesty and candidness, and ashamed for his doings came up to him and shook his hand: "Forgive us as well. Our behaviour towards you was wrong. I'm sorry for that."
Yorick shook his hand with joy and relief. The second hunter passed them by merely with a grin and without even glancing at Yorick. The other hunters watched the man with disapproving faces. But the hunting time was pressing them so they greeted Yorick cheerfully and set off after their duties.
Yorick was worried at the other hunter's rejection. So gladly he would have reconciled with him too. Snorri explained him, that now it depended only on him. He offered his hand asking for forgiveness and if the other rejected, it's his concern. Necessity of settlement would be attained otherwise and Yorick did not have to rack his brain as long as he stayed candid, and honest, and without a false pride.
Yorick's education proceeded succesfully, so merely a one year passed and he already knew most of the stories about nordic gods. He learned of their acts and wars, that these gods /Asa-Gods/ waged against their enemies /Vanir/ even before they allied, and about their realm Asgard, about the world of Vanir - Vanaheim, about the world of men - Midgard, about the underworld, and the more he knew the bigger was his respect for gods and their mighty acts, but also he feared them. They acted just as unpredictably as people, and their nature was actually not better than people's. During the learning Thor had not appeared once, but know, because Yorick had a certain level of knowledge, they met again. In dream, Yorick saw himself standing before Thor's altar, whilst Thor appeared with rumble before him. He looked so wild, maybe even wilder than ever before.
"You've learned a lot about us, Yorick. You can recount the most of our stories rather fetchingly. Tell me, what gods do in your opinion, and how do they affect the world you live in? What do they have in common with the world?" asked Thor, accompanied by a distant roar of thunders.
Yorick answered in accordance with recently acquired knowledge: „You, gods, are creators of the world and you take a heed for it to be developed according to your wishes. You fight against those who are defiant, and you prepare for Ragnarök, Doom of the gods."
But Thor said: „You answered according to what you've been learned, but do you truly think, that these stories are real? I tell you, these are only twisted stories created by you, men. We did not create the world. We only manage matter that surrounds you. We form it according to the great laws, that work in the entire world. Ask yourself: Do you really think, that if we were so unpredictable and moody, would the world be as it is?! That the world wouldn't pass into the destructive chaos by our fault ? No! Everything, including us, is submitted to the strict higher order! Think about it, man, and then we may go further..."
With these words Thor vanished and left amazed Yorick alone. In the morning, he spoke to Snorri about what he dreamt. He shook his head pensively:
"I was amazed even before, how could gods manage the world with their wildness and moodiness in the manner in which the world is working. According to our stories, that we recount, it would never be sure, that summer would follow spring, or downright winter, whether a stone would fall down or would fly up to the sky. I believed these thoughts to be blasphemous and repented of them. But now they seem to have been based upon a right sentience. But don't tell others for now, they wouldn't understand it."
"But what do we do now?" asked Yorick. „Our stories are wrong and we still don't know the truth. What are our gods like in fact?"
"I don't know the answer. Do as Thor commands, Yorick. Think about and listen to what your heart is telling."
He dedicated next few days to strenuous thinking. He researched, examined, sought for logical discrepancies as far as he got a headache from that. "Not this anymore," he  thought, "this will get me nowhere." What did Snorri say? ...listen to your heart? So he passed from the vain reasoning and began to put his heart into the stories as well as to the real world. It did not take long and the stories about gods seemed ridiculous to him. Gradually he felt out that there was also a certain grain of truth in most of them, but it was usually so twisted by people's fantasizings and desires for wild adventures, that it was almost unrecognizable. With this understanding, a live desire for true knowledge began to wake up in him. He longed for truth. When he got on that point, Thor appeared to him in dream. But he looked somewhat different. He no longer looked so wildly abristle and his face was calmer. He was robed the same though, but he looked more grand than before anyway. His nordic wildness was gone suddenly, and he looked somewhat nobler ..... lighter? He answered Yorick's untold question:
"People, who can perceive us partially in dreams, can see us through the veil of their consciousness, through their conceptions of us that distort the image which they're given. In accordance with the absurd stories they're taught, they see us as cruel warriors, but reality is different. You've begun to leave the wrong conceptions about us and so the false perception became clearer. My appearance that you see is still distant from reality, but it's more real and more true from the one you saw before. One day, you will be able to see me as I really look, and we won't have to be limited only to dreams. When it is so depends only on you. Follow me now."
So Yorick followed Thor. When they came to a nearby forest glade, Thor turned to him and told to him to look around attentively. Yorick gazed around. At first he saw nothing but grass and trees of a surrounding forest when he suddenly saw some creatures. They were everywhere, in grass, and on trees, and in the air, simply everywhere where he looked. Beautiful motion reigned everywhere, everything lived singing and working on the right progress of life.
"All of these creatures take care of this earth, and plants, and animals, of all elements, even of all Midgard, and of the entire planet. As you see the smallest are needful here as well. You people, you don't even know what you miss, infatuated and inclining merely to matter. Each of these creatures that you can see has their leader above, whom they ask for next task or advice. This leader has their leader again and so on, and eventually in this hierarchy you would come up to us who you call gods. We are the highest rulers of these creatures taking care of matter, but we are not gods. We are merely servants of The One who alone is The Only God - The Creator of this world and universe.
We form matter and manage creatures, subordinates to us, fully by His will and wisdom, and this service returns us the greatest joy. We couldn't do otherwise. But you, people, you aren't our subordinanates, you are to be the conscious servants here in matter together with us, and we are to ennoble this world in joint work. But as you yourself already feel, you do nothing like that, and that's all to your harm. Those of you that can still percieve higher spheres have not managed to get above our sphere, sphere of creatures that take care of corporeal worlds. And they started calling the highest creatures, that they saw, gods. They observed how we connect, and form, and divide matter with a great power given to us, and they considered us the creators of your world. But it's wrong! This corporeal world as well as the sphere we belong to, and also the sphere where your true home is, all these worlds, this entire Creation, including all of its inhabitants, these all have been created merely from Will and Grace of the Highest God. We all are His creatures, and we differ from each other only by that that we come from different levels and have different roles here.
The Highest God - he is the higher power I was speaking about - not Odin. Odin is the highest ruler of our kind. But he himself is, too, one of the servants of The Highest God. But now, don't ask me anything, Yorick. I leave you alone so that you can accept internally everything what you have been told. Think about it in the same way as you examined the truthfulness of your stories about us, and you will find comprehension."

                                                                                                                           *

In the morning, when Yorick woke up and realized what Thor had told him, he felt almost dizzy. But this time, he did not mention Snorri anything about what had happened.  He was well aware of importance of the knowledge he had been allowed to take, and altough Snorri was a wise man, now he probably could not understand everything at once. First, he himself had to understand it fully, and get into it, and stand in it firmly, and just then he could bring knowledge to others. Otherwise, he would have seemed untrustworthy and could have not properly shaken the old perception of the world of the rest of the inhabitants of the village. They would have laughed at him, and they would have not been able to separate the wheat from the chaff which they so far had gripped in their hands.
Indeed, it was not easy even for Yorick to accept all that had been given to him. But he was tenacious and persistent in his going for his goal. By moving forward also his inner felling that he was on the right path was being strenghtened. Later, he found out that he could percieve the creatures shown to him in dream by Thor in his daily consciousness as well. He began to befriend with them and in his affectionate approach he was giving them something of his own, he was blessing them unwittingly. And these creatures was giving him in return their immense knowledge about nature. From the knowledge of healing herbs, through advices about how to grow crops in fields better, to the warnings about upcoming natural disasters. These and many other things besides were the return of elemental beings for his love, and through Yorick the whole village benefited thanks to this. Knowledge about elemental beings was accepted by villagers quite easily, for about them were many myths, and profit from cooperation with them convinced also the still-untrusting. As the time passed, there was no man who would have believed these creatures to be evil or spiteful. Quite the contrary, people began to treat nature far more wisely, and the thought that even in the deepest forest they were not alone but among many friendly beings was much to their joy and was rousing the desire to grasp nature more deeply. Now they were thinking their house, were they lived, was not their only home but the whole Earth was who welcomed them with open arms, and the more they would ennoble the Earth, but not only for themselves but truly would ennoble for every creature in balance and harmony with the entire vicinity, the more open would be the loving arms of Mother Earth for them.
At the right time they were provided the knowledge about their gods being the rulers of all of these creatures. And Yorick said a lot to them about these creatures being wise and just and helpful, just like their rulers, to all that lived in harmony with nature and its laws. The villagers accepted these laws that work everywhere in nature easily and wholly, for there was also a reflection of these laws in their folk wisdom. Laws that the same comes to the same, the heavier falls and the lighter soars, and as you sow so shall you reap. The only thing necessary to have been explained was that these laws did not stand solely for matter alone but for their souls and acts too. And about that Yorick explained in many instances. Thor and other higher elemental beings gave him many instances thanks to which he could explained the laws of nature to the listeners. Still, it was but a preparation for the hardest part of Yorick's vocation. He had to tell them that their gods are actually no gods, that their true home lies somewhere else, higher, and that everybody is a servant of The Only Lord and Creator of all worlds. But first he had to take in the whole knowledge about what he had known merely by indications so far.

                                                                                                                            *

Several years had passed and Thor appeared in front of him. It was the first time when he saw him in his daily consciousness, and Thor was in his true shape. There was no resemblence to the Thor he had known from human stories. Now he could saw a grandly radiant and dignified-looking being.
And Thor said: "Go to bed earlier today and ask Snorri not to rouse you in the morning. I will come to you at night and show you somebody who will tell you more about you, men, so your sleep may extend."
Yorick did as he had been told and went sleep earlier. Thor joined him in dream and led him up to higher spheres. Yorick was dumbstruck by the splendor unfolding before his very eyes. The higher they ascended the purer, more brilliant and more magnificent were the worlds he saw. After a certain time they left physical worlds behind and     were traversing worlds that were homes of elemental beings. If Yorick had not seen it he would not have believed it was possible but the world of natural beings was even more beautiful then the brightest physical worlds. They wandered eventually to castle shining with rainbow colors. Lily-white peristyle of the inner temple blinded by its shine from afar. It was the place where they came to halt for the first time.