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I glanced at Andrea. I thought she might say something, but she looked amazed as I did.
One of the actresses, possibly the youngest, raised her hand. “I’d like to say something, but I need to know who I’m speaking to.”
“Hagia Sofia.” pp. 188-189
At this state, she could make miracles so people kept coming to follow her. All she did was to see what was happening in another reality. The young
actress’s mother, now that she’s dead, lives in a place outside of time and so was able to change the course of events, whereas we human beings can only
know about the present. But that’s no small thing: discovering a dormant illness before it gets worse, touching nervous systems and unblocking energies are
within the reach of all of us. p.192
However, many people believed that Athena’s ability was a menace. They started threatening her.
“As I was saying, I’ve been receiving death threats. I’ve been getting anonymous phone calls. They insult me and say I’m a menace, that I’m trying
to restore the reign of Satan, and that they can’t allow this to happen.” p.253
Athena realized that many people considered her as a witch, which means she had to be prosecuted so she could not awake the reign of Satan. She then decided to
disappear by pretending to be murdered so she could be free from those threats. It wasn’t my idea to make it look as if she’d been murdered. Athena wanted to
disappear and asked me if that would be possible. I explained that if the courts decided that the state should have custody of her child, I couldn’t go against the
law, but when the judge found in her favor, we were free to carry out her plan. p.264
Therefore, Athena failed to be a teacher.
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4.2.2. The True Meaning of Athena’s Struggles
This session discusses the true meaning of Athena’s struggles. Previously, Athena’s struggles always ended up in failures. This session discusses the true
meaning behind those failures.
4.2.2.1. Athena’s Struggle in University
Athena believed that degree was not an important thing This doesn’t mean that they’ve managed to find the kind of work they wanted.
Not at all; they went to university because someone, at a time when universities seemed important, said that in order to rise in the world, you had to have a
degree. pp. 27-28
Though she failed to get a degree in engineering, she succeeded in achieving love. According to Maslow’s 1987, love is categorized as social needs. Athena loved her
husband and her son. The love shared among Athena and her husband can be considered as fatuous love because they eventually got divorced. As proposed by
Sternberg 1987, in fatuous love the commitment is motivated largely by passion without the stabilizing influence of intimacy p. 341. Meanwhile, The love shared
among Athena and her son can be considered as companionate love. Sternberg 1987 stated that companionate love is a kind of love that’s intimate and have long term-
commitment, as it’s a usual kind of love shared between family members p. 341. Athena’s motivation to enter university was to get a degree in engineering. She
sought for accomplishment and success. According to Maslow’s theory of motivation
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1987, this kind of need categorized as esteem needs, where the urge to attain a degree of importance emerges.
4.2.2.2. Athena’s Struggle in Her Marriage
Through her marriage, Athena had achieved one of every woman’s dreams— got married and had a baby.
“People think that a woman’s only dream is to get married and have children. And given what I’ve told you, you probably think that I’ve suffered a lot in life.
It’s not true, and, besides, I’ve been there already. I’ve known other men who wanted to ‘protect’ me from all those tragedies. p. 26
That statement showed Athena’s strong will to be different. She believed that she should accomplish one of her dreams—getting married and have children—just
because she had found the right guy. However, getting married in a young age was a very radical step, and when she was asked to consider this she only replies using lines
by Robert Frost. I asked her to give it some more thought before taking such a radical step, but
she quoted these lines by Robert Frost: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. p. 28
It can be seen that Athena wanted to be different from any other common people. Athena’s motivation to get married was because she loved her husband. She
sought for affection—and of course the need of giving and receiving love. According to Maslow’s theory of motivation 1987, this kind of need can be categorized as
social needs since it was related to interaction with others. However, Athena’s
