I was surprised to see Gabriel when he came to visit me again.

I woke early that morning. Immediately I felt his presence, standing by my bed. I lay still for a moment, verifying that yes, it was Gabriel. I recognized his power and loving spirit. I looked up at him and he held out his hand to me. Mine slipped into his as easily as if we were old friends.

“I want to show you something,” he said, pulling me up to follow his long stride. I saw that once again we were moving towards the grey corridor that led into the realm of the dead.

However, before we reached the entrance that led down to the nine depths we had previously visited, he swerved off to the left onto a faded path that led to an overlook, which was bordered by a stone ledge about twelve feet wide. Gabriel stepped to the edge and turned towards me.

“Just a moment,” he said.

He moved behind me, and I stood silently as he fastened something that felt like a harness onto my back. I heard a click, and something snapped slightly between my shoulder blades. I tensed my shoulders instinctively and a pair of wide white wings unfurled.

“Try them,” Gabriel said.

I lifted my shoulders and felt a rush of air behind me. I shifted again and saw that I could control the massive attachments through the movement of my shoulders and shoulder blades.

I looked at Gabriel, amazed.

“You will want wings where we are going,” he said.

Turning, he launched smoothly off the ledge. Glancing back, he swung over slightly to make room for me to follow. Gingerly I stepped to the edge and furled and unfurled my wings tentatively. I wafted up beside the huge being.

“Good,” he said. “We are going to the realm of the dead for some of the beings who are not human. We are going to the hell of the demigods.”

Quietly we glided downward. Occasionally, I flexed gently to capture the light wind and propel myself forward. I grew used to the peaceful process of flying, and the effort ebbed from my consciousness.

I looked around. I saw mountain ranges in the distance, and slopes and hills on both sides of us. Peering closer, I saw entrances to caves scattered among the rocks.

The atmosphere grew thicker as we descended between the hills. Suddenly, I felt fury in the air. I glanced over at Gabriel but his face was serene, as usual. I ignored the feelings and adjusted my speed, thrusting my face ahead to help muscle my way through the intensity of the emotion.

We approached the entrance to a cave. Folding his wings, Gabriel dropped lightly to the ground. I followed. A voice raised in anger could be heard coming from inside the cave. Gabriel and I passed through a rock entry and walked down a short hallway. We moved to the right side and I touched the rock wall. It felt dry and solid. We rounded a curve into a large, open cavern.

A woman stood in the middle of the cavern, speaking to a small group of women gathered around her. They scattered as we approached but the woman did not seem to notice us. She continued speaking. Her strident voice made my hackles rise. I noticed that the feathers on the top of my wings stiffened too.

She sounded hoarse, as though her rant had been long enduring.

“All that strutting and posturing before petty, insignificant weaklings who have no power flowing through their veins. My daughter is worth a thousand of them. He shall die, regretting the day that he devastated our family with his vile abuses. He is no husband to me.”

I whispered to Gabriel, “Who is she?”

“Clytemnestra,” he said.

I looked at him in amazement. Clytemnestra was the wife of an ancient king named Agamemnon. He was the brother to the husband of the beautiful Helen. King Agamemnon had led an army in the war to get Helen back from Troy. I vaguely remembered the story.

Agamemnon had been advised by someone to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, the daughter of Clytemnestra and himself, in order to push forward when his fleet heading to war was stuck by adverse conditions from some gods.

The king deceived his wife and daughter and offered the young woman as a sacrifice. When he returned home to his kingdom, Queen Clytemnestra killed him for it. Later she was killed by their son in revenge.

“I didn’t know she wasn’t human,” I said.

“She is a demigod.” Gabriel replied. “Her father was Zeus.”

“I thought that was a rumor. She and Helen were sisters, but I thought Helen alone was of immortal descent.”

“No. Both are the offspring of a union that Yahweh forbade. Trouble comes from those unions, as he knew would be the outcome.”

I thought for a moment.

“Their spiritual realm is different?’ I questioned, “I thought you see angels and God and visions in the spiritual realm?”

“You do. That is the spiritual realm of humans. But spirits themselves have a different spiritual realm that is inside the first spiritual realm. Angels travel here, as well as higher powers and rulers of the spiritual realm, such as the ancient gods and their offspring.”

“I thought that gods were imaginary.”

Gabriel laughed. “Many people think that angels are imaginary too.”

I paused. We were speaking quietly but the ancient queen paid no attention to us.

I said, “I know the gods were active in ancient Greece and times like that. Do you mean that they were real and everything they said was true?”

“Not everything they said was true. The gods are a type of higher angel and can be heard and seen easier than regular angels, such as Michael and myself. In the Bible, they are referred to as powers and principalities of the air.”

“The gods used to be actively involved with humans, until Yahweh put an edict out against them for having children with humans, and after he started to lift up Jesus, and they sank into legend. As an example of their lying, the claim that God created them and then told them to create humanity is false. It drew the attention of humans to them, away from the true God, who is the Creator of all. It gave them a lot of power, which was often abused. Coveting power is what has Clytemnestra trapped in this scenario.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is the sin of lust. Lust is an extremely intense desire. In Clytemnestra’s case, it is a raging thirst for power. Lust is similar to, but often more powerful than, coveting.”

“Our Creator was wise to warn people from coveting what others have. Each of us have our own gifts and it is pointless and self-centered to desire to have another’s gifts or property. We were created in perfection and that which is within us will bring us joy individually and help us to fit in with the rest of creation. If you need something, ask Yahweh for it and he will provide for you, just as he did for others who serve him. Ask him and then wait on him until he answers. This is true for humans, angels, and gods.”

“Clytemnestra covets power. She is a powerful being, a mixture of human and angelic descent. She married a powerful king but desires her own power. Also, she is furious about what Agamemnon did to their daughter.”

My heart felt a twinge of sympathy. If I remembered correctly, King Agamemnon had claimed he would marry Iphigenia to Achilles, another demigod. To Queen Clytemnestra, that would have been a powerful and suitable union for their daughter.

“What can appease that anger? Surely there is some righteousness in it?”

She grieves as a forceful queen, seeking power for revenge, and not simply as a mother. Clytemnestra wraps that hunger for power tightly around herself, and her fury burns within it. What may have begun as a righteous desire for justice has been overtaken by her craving to possess the power of revenge. That lust blinds her. Because of it, she cannot see beyond her own fury, and she cannot truly hear.

“But what about the justice for her daughter?”

“Where is her daughter?”

I looked around. I didn’t see her, but I hadn’t seen all of their hell.

Gabriel said, “She isn’t here. She is peaceful and happy and purposeful and prosperous. She is in eternity and is herself and has been healed.”

“Therefore, Clytemnestra could be comforted, as we all are comforted, when someone passes on from earth to  eternal dwellings.”

I wondered why he said ‘we all’. Did he mean himself and other angels?

I asked, “Is there any possibility that she can get past this and be comforted for her daughter and let go of her quest for power?”

Gabriel raised his shoulders slightly as if to say, it’s possible, but his expression looked skeptical.

He said, “Clytemnestra is innately an extremely powerful being because of the mixture involving the realm of the gods and of the humans. That intense combination makes it harder for her to let go. She has tasted that power. She has the experience of speaking out and being heard, of her will being carried out, of her authority being recognized. It takes humility to give that up.”

I thought, well, she was a queen, and she is a demigod, so that makes sense.

Although I hadn’t said anything aloud, Gabriel answered.

He smiled slightly. “Well, take me, for example. If I lost my authority, my concern would not be to have the power back, but to have the will of Yahweh accomplished.”

“Clytemnestra seeks to retain her authority and enforce her will for revenge. Her lust is so strong that she can’t see that justice has been done, and her daughter is happy. Her love of power has kept her eyes on herself, rather than on what is actually occurring.” 

“Look and see, Sister!” he said. “Note how long it takes for beings with that much power to change.”

My heart glowed at the word sister. I took a tentative step towards Clytemnestra. Gabriel raised an eyebrow at me but watched as I approached and laid my hand on the troubled queen’s arm.

There was a pause, then she shuddered, and turned to me.

“Who are you?”

“I’m from the future,” I said.

Of course, I wasn’t really from the future. I was there in real-time in the spiritual realm. But to her it would seem as though it was from the future because she didn’t realize that her time on earth was long past.

“What do you want?”

“I want to tell you something from your daughter, Iphigenia.”

“From my daughter…!”

Instantly her eyes flared with fury.

I went on. “From where she is now. She is happy and she is looking forward to seeing you again.”

Clytemnestra’s brows furrowed for a moment, and I thought she might answer. Then, her eyes glazed and she turned away. I heard her mutter, ‘the murderer!’, her face back to a scowl as she left me.

I walked back to Gabriel. We backed out of the cave into the open arena before unfurling our wings and flying a short distance deeper towards the massive horizon.

I gazed ahead at corridors branching and stretching out in the distance. One dim pathway appeared to head downward. I saw caves and nooks and crannies.

Someone rushed past us, streaming down one of the corridors. We stood there silently for a few moments. My mind was whirling.

Gabriel glanced over at me.

“Let’s get you home,” he said. “There is more to learn another day.”

Soon we were back atop the ledge overlooking the hell from the other dimension. Gabriel reached behind me and unhooked my harness; folding, then throwing the wings over his shoulder, before leading me up the corridor.

The colors brightened as we emerged into my living room. I saw my notebook on the sofa, a pen ready beside it. I moved towards them, but Gabriel turned away.

“I will see you soon,” he called out. I heard a flutter and he was gone.