Devil: A Nonexistent hodgepodge (Maelinhon)

“People who don’t like it when others laugh at their religion should adhere to a less amusing religion!” 

(c) From the Internet

Lying in shavasana, contemplating phenomena 🙂 Recently, I heard an absolutely brilliant phrase: “Bulgarians have God, while for Turks, it’s Allah.” I rushed into the backyard and shouted with all the might of my cynical lungs. For I see here the most fantastic attack with the forehead against the wall, when a person, accustomed to swimming in the collective unconscious, faces a blind corner and lack of information in the well-known field. The pattern says one thing, logic says something completely different, and the skull cracks at the seams. A delightful sight. But this prompted me to ponder a rather long-standing topic, namely — about the unification of “gods” and the attempt to replace the natural Yin-Yang dualism — with a false one, revolving around “good and evil”. Actually, so the concept of “devil” appeared in religion, and then in folk art. And from there, it was just a stone’s throw away to the collective unconscious, from where this infection spilled over into conditional esotericism. 

Let’s talk again about dualism, but from a different perspective. Slightly more historical, because in a topic like the Devil (Satan, Lucifer, what else do people google?), we can’t do without a historical excursion. How did such a figure emerge, if it didn’t exist in the original religions of the world, including Judaism and Christianity themselves? Who invented it and why introduced the very concept of dualism with “good guys in white” and “bad guys in black.” This will be the third article in the series on dualism, the previous ones were about Kolyada and the Wheel of the Year. 

Historical Excursion

In polytheistic religions, dating back to ancient times, there was never a Devil, nor any concept of dualism in general. That is, the world was perceived correctly: everyone and everything coexisted, each with their own interests and quirks. For some people some gods were kind, for others — other ones were, but overall, gods were neither evil nor good; they were all different, much like humans. There are no absolutely evil or absolutely good people, or absolutely smart ones. Everyone changes, can be moody, can be sad, can be dumb, can have conflicts, etc. There were gods of drought and diseases, tricksters, but they were not embodiments of universal evil and were worshiped along with all the other gods and goddesses. Well, you were unlucky enough to run into a goddess in a bad mood today. It happens. The same picture was true for the Jews, who (like many other peoples) practiced polytheistic monolatry. This is when you believe in and recognize ALL the gods and goddesses of the earth but WORSHIP only one deity. You have to agree, that’s a pretty healthy approach to the issue. The Jews acknowledged them all but worshiped the god Yahweh. Also known as Ygweh, also known as Jehovah. According to their mythology, he was one of the 70 sons of the supreme god Iye. Yahweh had a large entourage, a wife, children; he sat on the divine council with other deities. He had no adversaries, antagonists, and the like, but he was not the supreme ruler over all.

People back then saw themselves as part of a larger world. We live here, we’re like this. And over there, beyond the wall, there are some other beings who interact among themselves, have their own interests, and live their lives. And we interact with them too, help them with something, sometimes even sleep and have shared children. There are many myths with plots about the connection between humans and non-humans, which was still possible given the then-density. And this gave rise to the myth of telegony, by the way. Later unconscious people connected the idea with dense bodies. For example, if in some Celtic village a maiden lived and occasionally slept with an elf or a dalram, then her subtle body properties would change significantly due to this connection. She would absorb energy from the partner that was not typical for humans, and then, after marrying an ordinary person and having children, would pass on to the children… all sorts of things. And the children would turn out a bit “different,” peculiar, more resembling their long-eared ancestor than their father. This is the property of the subtle body; it doesn’t work with the dense one; nobody denies biology here. The same goes for myths about Nephilim and all that. Ancient people believed that “wise men and heroes are born from unions with gods” 🙂And then Enoch came along and fucked it all up.

Yahweh was certainly engaged in his sandbox, but he did not come into direct contact with people, for him the physical world was a part of his laboratories and a testing ground. So history holds some episodes when he lost it and blew something up or “reset” a segment of space, but overall, he conducted experiments with particle density and didn’t delve much into people’s affairs. It was only later, with the emergence of the Ch(ristian) egregore, that he began to look at his creation from a more gastronomic point of view.

As the dictatorship of this god came in on THAT side, the world on this side began to densify and solidify. Seeing and interacting with the subtle plane became more difficult; the least perceptive people couldn’t see anything anymore. That’s when the caste of priests, previously not so numerous, began to actively grow. In other words, intermediaries appeared between humans and non-humans, who saw and sensed better than others, conveyed messages, and so on. And that’s where it all began 🙂 Because if you’re not seeing with your own eyes but someone else is describing what they see to you, like to a blind person, then who knows if they actually see it or not? If they do, how do you verify it? If they don’t, whose interests are they serving by “seeing”?

And so it happened with the priests of the god Yahweh.

The formation of orthodox monotheism began in the 8th – 6th centuries BC when priests declared that Ygweh could only be worshiped in the Jerusalem temple and only through them. Any other options were deemed incorrect because they alone saw everything correctly and had direct contact with the Almighty, while everyone else did not see, distorted, worked for themselves, etc. There was no metaphysics involved, their goal was to gain an economic monopoly in the region since priests were entitled to the best portion of offerings and payment for ritual services, and these individuals were highly interested in not diluting the flow of benefits from the parishioners. Numerous local kings, who wanted to centralize power in their hands with the help of priests, also helped in the creation of the monopoly. That is, the meaning of the emerging monotheistic religion was to cleanse the territory from all other faiths and priests of other cults. You can understand why. From that moment on it was no longer about religion, but about money, meat and hot girls. All the laws, myths, and dogmas were intensely rewritten to fit this idea rather than reflect the real state of affairs.  And since people were losing contact with the other side, they had no choice but to take their word for it. The other side stopped actively interfering and giving signs as well, so the way was free – tell whatever you want.

Priests in ancient times had a favorite pastime, a global hobby if you will, which was rewriting various myths and legends to fit their own narrative. And it reached a peak in that period. So, if a cool myth about the destruction of an entire country by some deity like Shiva fell into the hands of priests of Ahriman, they would immediately replace Shiva with Ahriman. Others would replace it with Thor. And yet others — with Yahweh. Each inserted their own god into a favorable role and the enemy’s god into a negative one. Then they would swap the “bad and good” gods to fit the current political agenda. That’s why ancient mythology often operates with the same clichés, identical stories, and tropes, like global floods, the virgin birth of a god, resurrection from the dead, and so on. It includes both real names and plots, as well as completely fictional ones, all in a chaotic order. It’s more like fanfiction than information. The only exceptions are the few and more ancient myths of “distant” peoples, like the Maori or Aleuts, who have preserved a few original stories.

“European” myths, just like Middle Eastern myths, have been rewritten and reshaped so many times that trying to find any sense there… It’s easier to buy a pack of pasta, you know, the ones shaped like letters. Spread them out on the table and rewrite the resulting mass of text. There will be much more sense in it than in almost any mythology that has come down to us, I guarantee.

The priests wanted to live well and monopolize the dough along with power, and for that they needed levers to control people. So, they had to come up with some justification, WHY you should specifically carry your money and pay them, rather than doing it yourself or getting it for free from someone else. That’s why many things were invented on the fly and in such a way that they were difficult to verify. For example, to make heroes more abstract, to make bounties only posthumous, and to base ideology not on objective reality, but on what someone somewhere saw in a dream or on drugs. Try to check whether he saw all that or not? And if a respected priest claims it, challenging him could even be life-threatening, so people eagerly swallowed everything that was offered.

Thus arose Orthodox Judaism. And no, there’s no Satan there either 🙂 In the new version, there was one almighty god, but without a retinue and family, although the Jews had previously had a cult of his wife Safiyah. Further development of monotheistic mythology was done by editing polytheistic legends, by replacing all the local names with the name of Yahweh. Therefore, in the biblical myth of the flood, Yahweh first decides to drown all living beings, and then suddenly decides to save them, although in the original Sumerian myth, the flood was arranged by the angered god Enlil, and humanity was saved by Enki. If we replace both names with Yahweh, we get the well-known copy-paste. According to this version of monotheism, Yahweh personally allowed humans to eat meat after the flood. How they lived without meat before that and didn’t die of pellagra is a mystery. In Orthodox monotheism, there’s also no devil-snake who tempted Eve — there, it’s just a simple talking snake, one of the smartest creatures created by Yahweh, an ordinary being. Orthodox monotheism also denied the immortality of the soul (The Pentateuch of Moses) because it was believed to blur the distinction between humans and gods.

All this confusion and ambiguity gave rise to a big problem: everyone understood it all in his own way, and a part of followers followed him. As a result, Judaism was flooded with a shitload of sects, each claiming to have the correct way of worshiping Yahweh, differing only in minor ideological details. And others are worshiping the wrong way. There were a lot of them! Some sects accepted the idea of immortality or working in a unified temple, while others did not. Some had one cult, others had another, and so on. This horde was constantly at each other’s throats, literally killing each other over these details, which caused a lot of problems for the local authorities. They, in general, had no interest in ideological quarrels, but they didn’t like that the common folk were occupied not with useful activities but with quarrels about “who worships the deity incorrectly here.”

Do you feel how the perspective shifts as the density increases? People no longer talk about the other world, about the subtle realms, about what they see… They only endlessly argue about ideology, cults, rights to temples, and so on. In other words, about human affairs.

Yahweh, of course, remains silent.

The situation reached a boiling point in the middle of the 2nd century BC when the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes lost his patience and decided to put an end to this chaos. He ordered the desecration of the altar in Jerusalem, which was the source of most of the squabbles, and mandated the installation of polytheistic altars. Sacrifices were to be made on them, effectively banning monotheism. In response, the Maccabee brothers organized a rebellion. It was the first uprising in history where participants believed they were fighting for god, and their physical victory would lead to the reorganization of the universe and the resurrection of the dead. Before this, wars were only for tangible specifics 🙂

From the perspective of orthodox monotheism, they were heretics because they supported the idea of the immortality of the soul. Additionally, their ideology introduced a certain son of god who would rule the world. He had enemies — certain chthonic creatures associated with neighboring kingdoms (oh, how convenient — whoever is against us is a creature!). The divine son was supposed to defeat them to rule the world. It was asserted that when this victory occurred, everyone who died fighting for the monotheistic god’s glory would physically resurrect and live forever. Their enemies would also resurrect but suffer eternally (Daniel 12:2). Thus, based on monotheism, militaristic propaganda was developed, giving rise to the myth of the afterlife, even though before this – like all have – there was reincarnation and all that. There was no concept of heaven and hell before this; this is also a part of the “unverifiable” ideology because it’s easier to call for action when the results cannot be verified. If someone died, how could you know if they ended up in heaven or not? But if a priest claims they did, then you too should fight and die for the idea.

Speaking of dual faith. The name of this family, Maccabee, translates from ancient Hebrew as ‘hammer,’ in the sense of a weapon. But when forcing a square peg into a round hole, to the Slavs it sounded like ‘puppy sowing’ and in honor of these remarkable people, they began to celebrate the holiday of Maccabee (only Slavs have such a holiday and there is a coincidence with hearing the family name and poppy seed which sound like “Mac”). With wreaths and poppy seeds. Quietly, don’t shout, we feel your pain 🙂.

This farce ended in 63 BC when the Romans arrived on Jewish territory, seized all the lands, and put King Herod on the reigns, who was supposed to put an end to this madness. The Romans were incredibly tolerant of any religions and gods, but they couldn’t stand chaos, so they kept these psychs under control. Since then, people have been saying nasty things about officer Herod.

And now, about the Devil. Imagine the situation: you’re a priest, you’ve settled well in life. You provide a connection with the deity and command through you to bring him meat, money, and hot girls (or boys). And in return—posthumous grace, victories on the battlefield, favor and respect. And you tirelessly assure everyone that your god is the greatest god, and all others are just a crowd, they can’t do anything to you because you’re the most righteous under the cover of the Supreme God.

But here’s the problem — some armed people come (who happen to worship the crowd), and like in that vulgar joke, they give you all a ‘cunts’. They drive you out of the temples, establish their own order, and don’t allow you to continue enjoying the monopoly. They also put their czar, who is silent to the point of pain in the testicles on the topic of money cuts. It’s kind of awkward, you know! You have to admit that you fell into a puddle and lost, and your god didn’t help you, didn’t stop the enemies, and didn’t do anything at all. Questions naturally arose among the people! And the guys had to come up with explanations, lie, come up with new versions of what was happening, so as not to get a new batch of punches from their own fellow citizens. For example, they began to say that they had visions in which new information was received.

So the biblical character Enoch issued a statement about how he traveled to heaven and the angels told him about how those who died in battles for their god would go to heaven after death, sit on golden thrones, shine, and blissfully await the victory of the sons of light over the sons of darkness. Do you feel a smell of dualism here? He also claimed that the elims, the sons of heaven who once descended to earth to have relations with earthly women, committed a terrible sin, thereby falling and remaining forever bound to the earth. They taught people such dirty deeds as metallurgy (?), textile production (??), magic (???), and meat-eating (!!!). They also became the kings of polytheists and the parents of their cursed kings. Cursed — because they gave us a nice female vagina, of course. Thus, in the minds of sect followers the idea was formed that they were not fighting against some pathetic Romans or the descendants of Herod but against the fallen angel Satan himself, whose blood flows in the veins of the enemies. And that’s why it’s so hard to defeat them!

Ideologically screwed-up fanatics organized rebellions against the Romans every ten years, which culminated in the great Jewish war. But even that was lost. To justify themselves and keep people in the sect, the priests declared that they couldn’t defeat the Romans because the mighty Belial was on their side! And they vividly described a certain opponent of Yahweh, a great dark god/infern, who fights for their enemies and harms us all. I mean, it wasn’t us who screwed up, it was our enemy who got a big patron, and that’s why we’re so fucked up! But we’re good guys.

People swallowed it. The word “Satan” itself translated from Aramaic as adversary, one who opposes and withstands. It wasn’t a proper name, it wasn’t a person, it was a title initially bestowed upon Belial, and then the whole mix. Belial probably almost swallowed a ruler from such claims, but then this story started rolling like a snowball. Because it was a very convenient version that could be endlessly speculated upon and used to convince people that the world had fallen under the control of some evil that needed to be overthrown (look for the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Book of Jubilees). So, in the end, in the dim minds, essentially, all Roman and other gods and goddesses were united under this name because the Romans worshiped them. The Jews began to consider that any polytheistic deity = Adversary of Yahweh, and therefore — Satan. Ironically, there was some sense in this, considering that an iron curtain of dictatorship was already being closed from the other side, but people perceived it in this twisted way.

The humor lies in the fact that the squabble over the color of ribbons didn’t go away; this new concept of “Good god vs Evil Demon” fit perfectly into the minds of the Jews, and the madness continued with renewed vigor. Numerous sects began accusing each other of praying not to Yahweh, but to Belial, while simultaneously insulting peaceful Roman cults. So, the guys weren’t just fighting Satan, but more so among themselves 🙂 Each group called those who worshiped their god differently, accomplices of Belial, slanderers, and false witnesses (by the way, hence the Jehovah’s Witnesses). In Greek, “libeller” would be diabolos, from which the new version of this mess originated. In other words, the name “Devil” became entrenched in religion with the first translations of the scrolls into Greek.

Then came the story of the incarnation of Emmanuel the son of Yahweh, who in an inopportune moment declared himself the son of Yahweh on Earth. You can imagine WHAT KIND of heated ground this statement fell on. And how it ended. But his appearance laid the groundwork for a new round of squabbles among sectarians, and later — for the emergence of Christianity, which shifted worship from the father to the son and introduced the cult of martyrdom and suffering. And which immediately also split into a bunch of sects that beat each other over ideological issues, each considering only their theory correct. The Romans were astounded; their life hadn’t prepared them for this.

There were so many Jewish and Christian sects that it turned into a real farce. With each new innovation in ideology, there were those who disagreed and split off into separate sects. As a result, there were a huge number of them, and they occasionally borrowed things from each other but never became one organization. Some believed that John was the real messiah, not Jesus. Some were sure that their god had no name, while others believed it did. Some believed in abstaining from meat, while others didn’t. Some believed in the immortality of the soul, while others didn’t, and so on.

One of the monotheistic sects deserves special mention, as they believed there was a true god-creator and a pathetic imitator of Yahweh who just attached himself to the great one, so everyone else was wrong altogether. They believed that Jesus was the son not of Yahweh but of that true god.

So, from this environment, Satan emerged. Initially, this figure was invented to justify their colossal failure in war, and then everything spun up… The funny thing is that as a result of the endless rewriting of myths, borrowing, and finger-pointing, the investigation has, as the old joke goes, “outed itself” 🙂 For example, in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, the Devil tempts Emmanuel with “authority over all the kingdoms of the world,” while in slightly earlier chapters, it was exactly this and with the same words that Yahweh himself promised!

The Devil and Dualism

Here’s a classic joke: they sent a Chukchi, a skilled reindeer herder, to Moscow. When he returns, everyone asks him, “So how was it THERE? What did you learn?” And the Chukchi replies: “The yurts there are as big as mountains, really! And I learned that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels aren’t four people, but two, and Glory CPSU Glory  isn’t a person at all!”

Ironically, most of these “name” characters did indeed exist from that side. In the subtle history, there was indeed dictatorship and power seizure, dissidents, struggle, their own prophets, and prisoners of conscience. There was a consolidation of power and closure of access for people to that side. But people only heard bits and pieces from this grand historical process. And those bits were interpreted to suit, not as they actually were. And then the shop closed.

Over time, the Greek word diabolos and the Aramaic word satan merged into a mishmash, rolling down the mountain to the bottom, picking up anyone who didn’t manage to escape. So, whoever the sectarians declared as enemies of Yahweh at different times ended up on the mixed list, they became the Devil. There was an elim named Lucifer, and graha Shukra, who in Indian myths often appeared as a wise serpent, and even the Dalramian prince Artan. He’s still alive, and precisely because of all the above, he has such big, expressive eyes 🙂 He’s been in shock since the time of Caesar.

All that “spiritual activity” (which was really degradation) shifted from the subtle realm to squabbles among themselves, politics, wars, and self-interests. People stopped seeing and focused on what supposedly visionary priests told them. Then emperors and kings joined this process, which was advantageous to them, and they began to stretch this mishmash onto their agendas. And the agenda where you can blame the non-existent Devil for all troubles — well, that’s just incredibly tempting! Because now any failure in the eyes of the people wasn’t “our king is a fool” but “the king bravely fights against the forces of Evil, and it could have been worse!” And then this contagion from the East began to engulf all other religions and concepts like a symbiotic monster, presenting everything as itself. Some found it beneficial, others couldn’t resist. They shifted calendars, appropriated the holidays of the Wheel of the Year for themselves, and anyone who opposed was immediately branded a Devil or his accomplice.

Thus, we have centuries of multifaceted and chaotic propaganda, endlessly mixed and rewritten from top to bottom, fiercely copy-pasting plots and techniques from each other. Can you imagine the mishmash that existed even before all translations! Then they translated the mishmash into Greek, edited it, translated it again, edited it again to fit the current situation… And so it went on for centuries.

In short, a packet of pasta is still more ideologically and historically true than a book starting with the letter “B.” With a book starting with the letter “K,” the problems are even greater because it grew out of an already existing cauldron when Yahweh’s companion wanted her piece of the pie.

Further all this was abundantly polished by folk art, molded from this brew apocrypha and fanfictions by virtue of the mind. Or rather, the lack of it. Thus, over many centuries, the figure of Satan-the adversary, turned into something very strange. He was like an elim, and at the same time, a demon and a horned monster, also a speaking serpent, yet a man. Beautiful and terrifying simultaneously, with some murky set of options and unclear motivation to do evil for the sake of the process itself. It was no longer “four people,” but a bunch of twelve. And since the melodious Aramaic words appealed greatly to the ignorant people of subsequent centuries, they started attaching anything they could find to it. From Leviathan and Baal to names from Lemegeton and Dalram. And in any unclear situation, it was said that it was not meant literally, but symbolically, allegorically, metaphorically! Damn it, where can one find something literal to read?! If you’re all about symbols and allusions.

As a result, in the popular imagination, everything merged into one unappetizing heap, which was not only unpleasant to sort through but even to touch. And from this, the Lemegeton grew, as a kind of spin-off from the main fanfictions. Now, hope you understand the depth of the fall of the “Satanists”. Some people invented a figure from scratch, then others invented ideology for it, and these fanatics went about banging their heads, not in front of god but before the devil. And then it all flowed into esotericism, and the belief that cursed demons prevent poor people from living began to flourish wildly. They bewitch, corrupt, lead to debauchery, and all that. It all stems from the same foundation. They themselves invented it, believed it, scared themselves, and now perpetually “fight” against an opponent who hasn’t even shown up due to their non-existence in reality.

The funniest thing about all of this is that essentially none of these characters actually did any of the above in general. And they didn’t really interact much with humans. I think Artan and Belial have better things to do than run around inciting people to do crazy stuff. People are perfectly capable of messing up their own lives without any help. But this idea that “we’re the best, but we can’t win because the Forces of Evil are doing something against us” perfectly fits all human vices. It’s very convenient to justify anything this way. It’s not me being an idiot and weakling, it’s the demon messing with me and there are such enemies against me! It’s not that I’m doing all sorts of crazy stuff, it’s the evil forces tormenting me. In short, gather all human nastiness and vices, personify them, and slap them onto old stew-like myths — and you get the perfect excuse for anything in life.

And notice that this approach applies not only to these characters but also to any European and Middle Eastern mythology that has come down to us. Because this egregore ultimately chose a tactic not of openly attacking opponents but of parasitism and forced symbiosis, where they replace any meaning and any name with themselves. You open any article about gods and goddesses — it starts off fine. There’s this goddess, for example, Morrigan. It talks about her activities, myths, and so on… And then it’s ALWAYS there: “Considered to be an aspect of the archangel Michael. Considered to be an incarnation of the Virgin Mary.” And you’re like slamming your head against the wall, with a meme-worthy shout of “What the hell?!”. Considered by whom? Why?! What does “considered to be an aspect” even mean? Where did you even pull this idea from that gods and goddesses aren’t separate entities but all universally considered aspects of something convenient to you? Where’s Morrigan, and where’s Michael? Is she a piece of the multifaceted Ma, with one aspect being like this, and another being different?

I am not taking this from nothing, I recently read such nonsense in an article on Zen, when I was looking for Slavic names for the Wheel of the Year. 

And after all this people ask in the comments, “What language is better to read the holy book in, so that its important and sacramental meaning is not lost? You can read it in Vietnamese, it doesn’t make much sense. It’s all fanfics on copy-paste from copy-paste from copy-paste from copy-paste + 2000 years of corrupted phone. If you want meaning, look for it yourself. With your own eyes, in space. 

Instead of conclusions

It turns out that everything was fine until the separation of the Dense World from the Subtle World. The former came to be called the Frozen, and not without reason: it indeed froze in its spiritual development somewhere in the early centuries. That is, the Subtle world with all its population continued to live, changes occurred, faces and epochs changed, rulers and treaties changed. And the Dense world forever froze in this mess of dogmas and images that cunning priests invented for the sake of profit thousands of years ago. And it applied well to all the problems embedded in their heads.

In fact, people don’t need religion at all. Neither one kind nor the other, at all. Morality, spirituality, ethics, compassion, and universal (even universal) values do not need religion, cults, or rituals. Nor, even more so, intermediaries. It’s all about spiritual development and awareness, finding oneself and one’s place in the world, and all this comes only from within, but never from the outside. Therefore, religions (or rather, teachings) like Buddhism and Taoism emphasize self-development rather than worshiping someone. Although even there, this infection has managed to cause problems.

There’s no need to endlessly search for a face to bow down to and pray to for something, so that the face might condescend. And what’s even more ridiculous is for some dude to stand over you and check from a book whether you’re hitting your head right, or if you need another hit with a stick on top.

What could be more humiliating? And it’s even more stupid to blame your vices on another face, when you were allegedly forced to do something for which you were kicked in the ass and got in trouble. It’s you, it’s all your own personal shit. Deal with it yourself and don’t blame it on the infernos.

What people really need is to find their place in the world and to develop into something greater than they are. Every individual has tremendous potential, but with a bunch of “ifs”. If they overcome their patterns and fears, if they work through their phobias and mental problems, if they break out of the vicious circle of religious sects, if they find their purpose… If, if, if. It’s always easier to hit your head on command and believe that all your problems are from the Devil. But he was never there and never will be. 

(c) Mylene Maelinhon \ Material of the Marginal Metaphysics project

Reposts of this material are welcome only with the author’s name and source of the material indicated. Theft of information, text, or parts thereof is severely punished, and I’m not talking about lawyers. Observe honesty and respect others’ work, then this respect will come back to you a hundredfold.

Thanks for the help in working on the material to Tsemra Igly and Elizaveta Dobrotvorskaya. The article uses materials from lectures on Bible studies by Yulia Latynina.