but many questions remain unanswered and the topic of the stone, or is it stones, is just one of them.
Reading through the posts in the, Roerich Chintamani blog, mentioned earlier, there is a summary of the findings. Though the author is very occupied with the meteorite hypothesis, there is more to this story than meets the eye.
The Roerichs’ Stone: A summary of research findings
Following from clues in their books and other primary sources, the Roerichs’ talisman, sometimes known as ‘Chintamani’ but generally called ‘the Stone’, was a palm-sized mineral object which can be identified as a piece deriving from the giant iron meteorite named Armanty in the scientific record, or in its original locality Mongon-temee, ‘Silver Camel’, and Mongon-tosh, ‘Silver Saddle’. The giant meteorite weighed about twenty-eight tons and formerly lay at the site of its fall in Mongolian territory in the foothills of the Altai mountains, the co-ordinates of whose impact pit are suggested as 46 52′ 37″ N, 90 58′ 35″ E. The location would therefore have represented the place described by Helena Roerich as the ‘foundation of Shambhala’ – the symbolic earthly focus of the sacred realm of Shambhala as the Roerichs would have understood it. The meteorite itself is no longer at this site, having been removed to Urumqi by the Chinese in 1965, but that is another story which is completely unconnected with the Roerichs’ activities. It is an open question whether Nicholas and George Roerich visited the site while they were in Mongolia in 1926-27; a cryptic account in Nicholas Roerich’s book Himavat, although evidence of the connection of the Stone to Mongolia, refers to an episode during their venture in Inner Mongolia in 1935. A question also remains about the present whereabouts of the Roerichs’ Stone, but the presumption must be that it is now in Russia. At present the best evidence of its actual appearance and characteristics is a photograph of it taken in 1923 held in the archives of the Roerich Museum in New York.
Here the author is referring to:
The Chintamani of the Roerichs: Tales of an extraterrestrial talisman: 2 February 25, 2012 – 1:32 pm: 2
The material evidence
[...]
The image depicts a palm-sized mineral object whose appearance is broadly consistent with descriptions provided by Mme Roerich in her
Legend of the Stone. One of these states that the Stone was to be kept in ‘the shrine brought from Rothenburg’ – which can be identified as the casket, familiar to the Roerichs’ followers from paintings, in which the Stone was kept – and describes the Stone as ‘shaped like a human heart’; another describes the object in the shrine as having ‘the shape of a flat fruit or heart, oblong in form’; and yet another says that the ‘fragment’ was ‘the length of [a] little finger’ and had the appearance ‘of grayish luster [sic] like a dried fruit’. Each description differs slightly, but it may be reasonable to conclude from the context in which they are mentioned that she was not describing unrelated objects.
The Chintamani Stone sent to the Roerichs in Paris in 1923. This version of the picture has been widely published in Russia, although usually altered by highlighting; this copy is closer to the original
The above place, Rothenburg, could be
Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Eng Wiki, the German
Wiki is more detailed), or a small place north of Lucerne in Switzerland. If the German location is intended, then it is 60 km south of Würzburg and and about the same west of Nüremberg. The English Wiki has:
Today it is one of only four towns in Germany that still have completely intact
city walls, the other three being
Nördlingen,
Dinkelsbühl and
Berching, all in Bavaria.
The U.S. Assistant
Secretary of War,
John J. McCloy, knew about the historic importance and beauty of Rothenburg, so he ordered U.S. Army General
Jacob L. Devers not to use artillery in taking Rothenburg.
About
John J. McCloy, there is:
He undertook much work for corporations in
Nazi Germany and advised the major German chemical combine
I.G. Farben
Rothenburg, a town with a population of just 12,000 appears to have been well connected.
The author of the article continues:
[...]
Within this shape there is a solid circular shape of notably darker coloration. Alla Shustova suggests this may have resulted from the removal of a portion of the Stone which was set in the legendary ring of King Solomon – the notion that he possessed such a piece in his ring was stated in Mme Roerich’s Legend of the Stone. The photograph shows the Stone placed on an embroidered cloth, identifiable as that covering the casket Nicholas Roerich is seen holding in the well-known portrait painted by his son Svetoslav, and in which the Stone was said to have been wrapped when contained in the casket. In the centre of the cloth is a piece of Christian iconography – the IHS monogram, an abbreviation of Jesus’ name – and surrounding it is the prominent design of a radiant sun. The inclusion of roses in the floral embroidery suggests the cloth may have been an item of Rosicrucian significance.
[...]
Or was it rather that in that dark spot, it was not so much that something had been removed from the stone itself but more that another stone had previously been set there?
[...]
The embroidered cloth in which the Stone was wrapped in the casket
IHS but is there also an 1118, the year the The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the
Knights Templar were founded? Hard to say, but again this case, no pun intended, is shrouded in secrecy.
[...]
The casket, front face
The casket, back face
One problem with this "material evidence" is that the above stone, probably was just one among others. In the same post, there is:
On occasion, those who are supposedly closest to the Roerichs’ teachings make statements which seem to introduce inconsistencies into the understanding of the Stone derived from primary sources. For example, the author Ruth Drayer states in her book Nicholas & Helena Roerich about the ‘finger-length’ fragment that, while confirming it was a piece of the Chintamani stone received in Paris, it was a stone which she wore, which does not accord with it being kept in the casket. When I asked her for her source for this, Ruth stated it came from Mme Roerich’s book At the Threshold of the New World, but she added that what she had ‘pictured’ was ‘that she carried it in her pocket’. As far as is known, Mme Roerich’s writings only go so far as to state that she was instructed to keep the Stone ‘close to her’, seeming to indicate that Ruth’s statement was an interpretation of this phrase. Gvido Trepsa, picture researcher at the Roerich Museum, suggests that statements about a stone worn by Mme Roerich refer to one of the twenty-four small stones she received from an unidentified source in 1932 at a house she was staying in ‘beyond the Rothang Pass’ in the foothills of the Himalayas. Twelve of these were kept by her and twelve given to Esther Lichtmann, Sina’s sister-in-law, to take to America to give to co-workers. Presumably these are the stones Alla Shustova is referring to when she states that the Roerichs received other meteoritic stones containing ‘Moriy’ from their esoteric teachers, which were sent to co-workers. Further confusing the picture, Daniel Entin states from an ‘anecdotal’ source that the stones possessed by Mme Roerich and her husband did not derive from the Chintamani Stone – a fragment of which was said to be in the casket – but from another undisclosed source, and that the stone Nicholas had was larger than that of his wife. A clarification of this from Daniel has been sought. For the purposes of this enquiry, ‘the Stone’ discussed will be taken to be the talisman understood to have been contained in the casket, whose appearance is revealed in the photograph.
There is some reason to believe that Sina Lichtmann – or Sina Fosdick as she became after re-marriage – was one of a very small circle of people who may have known more about the Stone than was ever published by the Roerichs. In an exchange of letters with her when she was Director of the Roerich Museum, she replied to my questions about the Stone saying that she was unable to add to what was already available in the Roerichs’ books, adding intriguingly, ‘I am not permitted to do so’. That the photograph belonged with Sina’s papers, as Gvido Trepsa suggests, could support the notion that the Roerichs shared with her confidential information about it. Daniel Entin, who succeeded her as Director in 1983, has ventured the opinion that today there undoubtedly exist those who have this information, but states that he is not one of them. Some might consider that his apparent reluctance to clarify the facts is difficult to reconcile with his pre-eminent custodial position. For his part, Daniel states that, rather than taking sides on differing or unconfirmed research findings, he prefers to understand how each such interpretation arises.
The article
The Roerichs’ Stone: A summary of research findings continues, but the idea that the meteorite piece is THE stone, is not entirely convincing. Perhaps that is partially the reason the dialogue in the Session ended:
Q: (L) What was the significance of this diamond?
A: Energized.
Q: (L) By what?
A: Not by: for.
Q: (L) Energized for what?
A: Link.
Q: (L) Link to what?
A: Your move.
Q: (T) For the wave?
A: No, Terry, we are reminding Laura that this is not 20 questions.
Based on what is now known, could other questions be asked? Would it even be relevant, or are the remaining mysteries a minor sideshow, not worth bothering about?
