The Master And Margarita

 

So I started praying to Jesus asking for some kind of sign that he was not only real, but existing in the current time which I inhabit. You see I am having some trouble accepting that Jesus can still be valid today, thousands of years after his death when the Christian church is failing to be relevant. So, soon after I find myself absent mindedly reviewing my book collection, and I discover a book on my personal shelf, dedicated to my best books, a book that I have never seen before. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I look at it for a while and wonder why I do not know of its existence, and then I take fright as to why it is on my personal book shelf. Where did this book come from and why am I seeing it now for the first time? Did someone put it there, and why haven't I noticed it before, and how long has it been there? This is strange and feels somewhat uneasy and sinister. However if I have been praying for a sign, this certainly fits the bill. If Jesus has brought me to this book, I had better do something with it. In a fit of mania I take a baby wipe and clean my finger prints off the cover, then touching only the paper edges I remove the book to the garage and file it in a garbage bag where a book of evil belongs. When I return to the lounge I feel better, and less nervous about finding this text, but I still have a dilemma. Do I read this book?

I look it up on the internet instead and find that the story is related to Jesus, the devil, Azazel, Witches and Freemasonry. My jaw drops. I have to read this book. However, rather than read the copy I have found, I decide to search for it as an audio book online, and quickly obtain a copy for listening to. This way, whoever put the book on my shelf will not know that I have read it, because I literally haven't.

And so I start to listen to the story, but the lesson is not at all clear to me. I don't know if you are aware of this piece of classic Russian literature, but in brief it is the nasty and disturbing story of a writer (The Master) who cannot publish his work and receives terrible criticism from peers which drives him crazy and so he burns his novel and gets himself committed. His mistress doesn't know he has been locked away in a mental hospital and herself despairs at the loss of her partner and tries to commit suicide. Meanwhile the devil and his retinue arrive on earth on what seems to be a periodical visit to terrorise and kill Russian citizens that interest them due to their greed and arrogance in what have been referred on the internet to as masonic related rituals. Satan appears to his victims as a learned professor and his cohorts as an illusionist with broken Pez nez, a buffoon thug who is blind in one eye, and a large cat with a taste for guns and brandy (Behemoth). After terrorising most of Moscow, the Mistress is turned into a witch, who takes revenge on her lovers critics, and they jointly host a Spring Ball for the dead. The writer is then enslaved and he and his witch are ultimately killed by the thug Azazello (Azazel). As a nested, polymorphic, recursive narrative, the writer's book appears as chapters of the book itself and is an alternative story of Jesus's trial and execution with many accepted facts of the story replaced with potentially more pragmatic plot points. The story ultimately resolves with the devil leaving Moscow for the underworld and taking with him the writer and his partner, they make a quick stop in limbo to release Pontius Pilate from his torment and to place at Jesus's request the writer and his mistress in a place of peace, a cottage for them to spend eternity together in.

What is the lesson for me here, and why have I been lead to this story? On the face of it seems to suggest that I have had a run in with Satan and his cohorts, but is there something more going on? I don't see it right now, only the parallels with my own experience, perhaps in time I will understand why I have been lead to this novel.


 

What's your view of the book and its meaning?

 

22/08/15

 

So i've slept on this subject, and upon reflection think i've identified a meaning. In the novel Jesus is still relevant in the present day, however does not appear and instead uses a proxy called Levi Matvei, aka Mathew the evangelist. It is Levi who approaches Satan with Jesus's message and request.

So what I understand from this is that Jesus must still actually valid in my present day, and that is his sign, however he may only send a message via a proxy as in the story. So perhaps I am not going to get conversation with the Christ after all.

 

 

24/08/15

 

 

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