13. Telegony can be overcome

‘Anastasia, I heard that the wise-men knew how to overcome the phenomenon of telegony, i.e., the consequences of previous relationships. If a woman has had a prior relationship, then the first man, as is now known, will undoubtedly exert an influence on the appearance and character of a child fathered by another man — the woman’s husband, for example.

“If they go through the wedding rite you spoke of, does that mean that the consequences of the woman’s previous relationship will be eliminated once and for all?”

“Vladimir, the child does not always have to resemble the previous partner. When the new events in the woman’s life and the sensations of her feelings are sufficiently bright, the information about prior unsuccessful relations will be erased. Still, the Vedruss people had a rite which could help erase old, unwanted information. It purifies both the man and the woman, and three thoughts must participate. Whose thoughts those are, try to guess on your own.”

“It would be better for you to tell me yourself, Anastasia. My brain is overtaxed as it is from too much information.” “Fine, I shall tell you. But it is very important that people learn to draw the conclusions they need for themselves.”

‘At some point they will learn, but for right now you had better explain it, seeing as how the question is so important.”

“Then give me a full formulation of a question as to what interests you.”

“What d’you mean, a ‘full formulation’?”

“Vladimir, you are aware, are you not, that this phenomenon touches not only women, but, in equal measure, men. A man’s previous relationships can also exert an influence on his future children. And the most upright and chaste girl can bear a child which is not her own, if the man is not a virgin. You know about that, Vladimir?”

“Yes, Anastasia, unfortunately I do. I read how one soldier on his way home from army service had too much to drink at the railway terminal and slept with an Asian prostitute. He came back to his village and married a girl who had been waiting for him. They produced a child who had swarthy skin and slanting eyes. Everybody started blaming the girl, but there wasn’t a single Asian anywhere in the vicinity I thought, though, that it wasn’t really that necessary to bring up the subject of men.”

“It is vitally necessary to talk about men too. They are to play the principal role in the rite.

“The rite consists in this. The man must set up their bed in the open air under the stars on the spot where the couple live in natural surroundings. He should prepare the bed for himself and the woman. They should fast for three days and sleep three nights under the stars. And before they go to sleep, each time the man should wash the woman and himself with spring water. The man should rub the woman down with flaxen fabric, but not rub himself down, just get the water drops off himself with his hands. The man should be still wet when he lies down in the bed with the woman. During those three days they should not let themselves indulge in intimate relations.

“While they are falling asleep under the stars, on the first night they should forgive each other for all past transgressions and right away, right from that very first night, visualise their future child.

“The man should think about how their child should be like the woman, and the woman about how the child should resemble the man.

‘After these three days have gone by, they are free to engage in fleshly intimacy, while the planets will erase all the information they might be harbouring about the past, about children that have never been conceived.

“But before entering into intimate relations, the man has an obligation to place a garland upon the woman’s head. In the normal Vedruss wedding rite this is done by the girl: she places the crown on the head of her chosen one, but in this variant it is the man who is to crown the woman.

“This rite does not necessarily pertain to couples who have jointly sought out and found their own domain and have started to live in it.”

“Why not?”

“The search itself, and the first three days of preparing the site, will purify them if they spend three days thinking of their future child without actually conceiving it... “

‘Anastasia, what about the third thought? Tou did say three thoughts had to take part at the same time.”

“Yes, I said that, and in the case we are looking at there were three thoughts. By the third night, while the man and woman were sleeping under the stars, they were already receiving help from the thought of their future child.”

‘And where might he have been?”

“Where all children await earthly embodiment before con-ception.

“So here, Vladimir, is the whole rite which a great wise- man came up with and freely offered to people. He himself rejoiced at how effective the rite proved to be, and there was a subsequent increase in the number of happy families.

“Did you understand everything, Vladimir, and can you now try your hand at telling people about this rite?”

“Of course, I understand, and I shall tell it all in time.” ‘And you will not add anything to this account of mine?” “No, I shan’t.”

“Then I can say that the rite will not be effective.”

“In what way? Why not?”

“There is no participation on the part of our ancestors’ thought.”

“Yes, I remember your grandfather saying that we need to apologise to them.1 I shall remind my readers of this. Although it’s still not entirely clear to me why it is up to our generation in particular to apologise. After all, we were not the ones responsible for hiding their culture from people’s eyes, or for its demise.”

“Of course one could think that 'we are not to blame’. But it would be better if a different thought came to mind.”

“A different thought? What kind?”

“Upon our generation has fallen the great honour and grace of restoring the culture of our forebears, to bind up the torn threads that have remained, linking us with them. Only then will great discoveries begin to take place among mankind. Only then will their thoughts be able to help ours. For now, their thoughts — in view of our lack of understanding — feel constrained to withstand us.

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