The mystique of Maidan

The historic centre of Kyiv lies beneath a truly mystical veil. And this city is arguably one of the most enigmatic places on the planet, where a passage leads from our world into another, parallel one.

Ancient cities were built in accordance with "cosmic architecture". Galaxies in the Universe form according to special laws, and the settlement pattern of great cities seems to repeat them. There are, say, ring galaxies. And a city like Moscow has a ring structure as the pattern of its growth. There are spiral galaxies. Kryvyi Rih, stretching 116 kilometres in length, is a copy of one of them. Historians assert that the settlement pattern of Kyiv is spiral-shaped, like a peculiar shell curling clockwise. The city centre is the area of today's Maidan.

Until the 10th century, the area around today's Maidan was called Perevisyshche and was a marsh. Where Sofiivska Street begins today stood the Liadski Gates, which led to the upper town. And what is a marsh — it is nothing other than a place of power. Countless old legends, divine apparitions and historic events are bound up with such places.

Of course, there were no real quagmires in that marsh. In the Slavic world, "goat marshes" usually meant small lakes or ponds with marshy, reed-overgrown banks, where owners grazed their cattle without any risk. Old-timers remember the pond (the so-called Goat Marsh) and the dam with the mill. And yet the ground where the drained marsh once lay is believed to be saturated with strong energy.

Today all the rivers and waters lie underground, but that does not mean their power has gone anywhere; the city of Kyiv is one of the most beautiful cities on the planet, rich in its mystical stories and events. In 2001 the Maidan underwent a major reconstruction: many new monuments, sculptures and fountains appeared. In the centre of the square stands a tall white column crowned with the figure of a maiden (Berehynia — a Slavic protective spirit) holding a guelder-rose branch, symbolising Ukraine's independence. Near the unearthed remains of the ancient Liadski Gates, a monument in the form of gates was erected, topped with the figure of the city's patron, the Archangel Michael.

Beneath the square a large shopping centre, Globus, was built. After the Globus mall appeared on the Maidan, with its dome-like transparent roof resembling a flying saucer, and the huge column with the winged Berehynia, acting like an antenna or a tall pyramid — the Maidan's energy grew far stronger! Since then, the people who gather on the Maidan want to change everything while at the same time wanting everything to stay as it was before.

In the winter of 2000–2001 the Maidan saw the "Ukraine without Kuchma" protest rallies, and in 2004 it became the centre of the Orange Revolution. On 21 November 2013 thousands of Ukrainian citizens came out onto the Maidan to protest the refusal to sign the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU. After the violent dispersal of the demonstrators, the protests flared up with renewed force — this time against the illegitimate Yanukovych regime.

And what is happening on our Maidan now is known to the whole world.

At the very moment when we least expect it, life throws down a challenge to test our courage and our desire for change; it does not allow us to pretend that nothing is happening, or to excuse ourselves by saying we are not ready yet. The challenge must be answered without delay. Life does not look back...

I live nearby, outside Kyiv. The day before the events on the Maidan I managed to photograph an unusual sky:

That is no horizon and no forest — it is a black cloud that has descended to the earth. The round spheres in the photograph are orbs, the subtle-material bodies of the dead, clots of cold bioplasm. On 26 January 2014, in the year of our Lord, Pope Francis delivered an address calling for an end to the violence in Ukraine. After the address, two children and the Pope himself released doves of peace from the balcony.

And, oh horror: no sooner had the symbols of peace fluttered out of the papal residence's window than a seagull and a raven attacked them.

The seagull plucked the peacemaker's tail feathers, and the raven seized the innocent white bird firmly in its talons.

Whether it happened by chance or by someone's design — there are no accidents.

Kyiv is the Jerusalem of the Rus land. It will endure through its prayers. And no black ravens, let alone seagulls, hold any terror for it. For everything to stay as it was, something will still have to change.

All numbers and dates carry a special magical meaning. If we take the most recent date, 19.01.2014, and reduce it to a single number: 1+9+1+2+0+1+4=1+8=9, we can discover what this day holds. Nine is the symbol of universal success, of utter perfection, the greatest of all elementary numbers. It contains everything — all of life, the entire cycle, the full circle of 360 degrees (3+6+0=9), from birth to death; it holds all the numbers from 1 to 9. It unites the traits of a whole group. And as the threefold three, it makes the unstable stable. It is the triangle of threes (3x3) — the complete image of the three worlds, Yav, Prav and Nav (the manifest world, the divine law, and the spirit world in Slavic belief); "the foundation of all reason; the perfect meaning of every verb (word), the mind of the being of all forms; the number nine... expresses the divine idea in all its lofty power." It is the number of initiation into the mysteries of life, death and rebirth — the number of the highest mental and spiritual activity.

In every field of occult calculation, whatever its purpose, the number 9 is regarded as the most important. Nine is the symbol of physical strength in every form and is connected with everything material.

The number Nine, representing man and all that belongs to the physical and material side, is a symbol of force, energy, destruction and war in their most overwhelming qualities. Applied to ordinary life, it signifies energy, ambition, aspiration, the drive and capacity for leadership — power. It stands for iron, the metal from which weapons are made.

The number Nine is the emblem of a cause that can never be destroyed, for Nine, multiplied by any number, always reproduces itself; it is also the number of ending, of completion. The number of Neptune. The number of THE FLOOD.

I am no politician. Do not ask me questions about politics. But if you have questions about yourself, you may call me.