Elena Ivanovich Roerich (1879-1955)
Eng Wiki,
Ru Wiki was the wife of the perhaps better known Russian painter Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich (1874-1947)
Eng Wiki,
Ru Wiki. If anyone is interested in Wiki details and isn't intimidated by some translation, the Russian Wikis are substantially longer, which reflects that the associations around their work have been more active in Russia and in a broader sense in the area of the former USSR.
The initial curiosity was to find out more about the work of the artist Nicholas Roerich, which led to a follow-up post about
The Rose of the World by Daniel Andreev, and comments on an except from the transcripts where the Roerichs are mentioned beginning with this
post in Session 15 April 2000.
What was left were some so-called prophecies made by the Elena Roerich, with a couple attributed to her husband even. Initially I thought, okay a post in
Predictions and Prophecies and done. In the preparation for the post, I began to look for the references and discovered several had taken the predictions somewhat out of context, and began to wonder if there is a tendency in some groups to be occupied with prophecies regarding what will happen and less about the basis for how the "prophets" reached their conclusions, how they lived their lives and viewed life as a whole. Applied to this situation, if I just went ahead and posted the alleged predictions of Elena Roerich with a sole focus on prophecy, would that be fair?
In general, what the Roerich were writing can be glanced from the Wikis and similar biographical accounts. If one wishes to read then there are some options:
Elena Roerich
English I am not sure all has been published, she wrote many diaries and letters and while very much has been typed up, some discussion and work has been ongoing until rather recently.
Nikolai Roerich books
English Among his "works" were besides writings around 7000 paintings.
In this article,
Predictions of Nicholas and Elena Roerich about Russia. there are alleged quotes. In this post, it will just be one of them, which translated gives::
Prediction of Nicholas Roerich: "My rod is over Russia. Russia is a country of future greatness. The Creator strengthens it with spiritual benefits."
However the context is missing and the source is not listed. Roerich Karelia has on the VK page a
post, but again, there was no exact reference. After more searching I found the forum of a group that has worked on typing up the content of diaries of Elena Roerich, moreover they have also screenshots of the original handwriting. Not that it is readable, but it is still something. Although I could not find the exact wording there are indications and expression that are close to what was claimed.
Re: Notebook No. I ("The Call", 24.03.1920 - 24.02.1922) [1]
Message URUSVATI'S TETRADS » 20 Aug 2019, 23:27
[...]
Reversal 63.
12/XI-1921. Morning. Teach Ch[istyakov] to prepare the Russians for the role of bearers of the Spirit, the darkness
--------------------------
Typist's name: Natalia
Start date of typing: 11.06.2021
End date of typing: 11.06.2021
Editor's name: Belaya
Start date of editing: 23.09.2022
End date of editing: 23.09.2022
Re: Notebook No. I ("The Call", 24.03.1920 - 24.02.1922) [1]
Message URUSVATI'S TETRADS » 20 Aug 2019, 23:28
Turn 64.
--------------------------
dispersing and approving the Light. Ch [istyakov] can show a selfless work of love for the spiritual development of young people, which will become the basis of the Russian movement. M [oria] pr[inal] R[ossia] management. When we build Russia in the desert, we will reveal a strange Ruler, and He will descend from the ancient walls and overshadow the minds.
Russia is the future. Leave It to Us to decide. The worthless ones will leave. A plan for the development of a New Race is being wisely decided. You are in it too. Our power needs workers who have seen the path of Russia. R[erikh] will explain the importance of the idea, and Urusvati will give you the paths of the books.
To Ch[istyakov]. Moria will be with you in love and wisdom. Combine your new wisdom with your life that is unknown to others.
"Power,"
explanation of the vision. A hand holding a round object, and two other hands holding an elongated object on something dark. All of this was presented to M. M[oria]. Moria accepted the scepter of Russia's governance.
During the vision, a voice said in English, "You must know that He is the King. You must remember that He is the King." You must remember that He is the King. The Teacher's voice is K[ut -] X[umi].
Visions from November 12 to 13.
1. The Teacher's hand revealed two blue rays of startling beauty and power from a cylindrical object of purple electric color. The effect of these rays was felt all over the body.
2. The Teacher's hand pressed a metal plate covered with some signs to my chest, there was a strong feeling of touch.
3. The Teacher's hand was pointing at the clock face. A star shone in place of the number eight. The Teacher's hand moved the hands, and paused slightly at the number 2, then moved to eight, where a star shone, and from the star two rays lit up - blue and pink-purple, which, combining their radiance, gave a pure royal purple [English: royal purple].
4. The Master's hand revealed a crown with a glittering stone.
[...]
On a different page in the thread:
Re: Notebook No. I ("The Call", 24.03.1920 - 24.02.1922) [1]
Message URUSVATI'S TETRADS » 20 Aug 2019, 23:34
Turn 74.
[...]
8/XII-1921. Evening. [Present] P [etr] Al [lekseyevich] H [istyako] V. My sweet soul, where are you going? The revealed Good is close to you and your path is not through earthly India. Do not expect consolation from the leaves of books, but from the mountains of Tib[eta] the fragrance of the knowledge of truth will invisibly enter and comfort your heart, but carry My message to young hearts. By My image you will know My chosen ones, and you will bring stones to the temple of the Living God. Calm your spirit and work for the benefit of the motherland.
My shield is over R [ossia] and I have blessed the Battle of Kulikovo. I will send signs, and the Russian heart will rejoice. Show your cheerfulness. A hand, I suppose. Quite.
Note:Looking up
Battle of Kulikovo it took place in Russia in the 14th century.
The above excerpts read like a variety of interdensity communication, and maybe it is. What she said about Russia took place many years before WWII, in fact
Vladimir Lenin was still the head of what in the year following the above writings,1922, became the USSR, the civil war had hardly finished and
Leon Trotsky was an important person. How could Elena Roerich come up statements like these about Russia at such a time?
Who was the "Moriah" Elena Roerich had contact with?
It is easier to ask the question than to answer it. Below are some notes:
Morya (Theosophy) mentions
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891).The
Russian Wiki for
Morya (Theosophy) writes in relation to Elena Roerich:
The source base of Agni Yoga (Living Ethics) is the same as that of Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine", translated into Russian by Elena Roerich [15]. According to the creators of the Living Ethics, Nicholas and Elena Roerich, the teaching arose in the process of communication between them and the "Great Teacher", known in theosophical circles under the name of Mahatma Moria[16]. This communication continued in the 1920s and 1940s [17]. The question of the existence of a person who could be identified with the Roerich Mahatma Moria also remains controversial to this day [18] [19]. From Elena's diary entries Roerich notes that at the first stages, so-called automatic writing was used for communication[20] [21], further recordings were obtained by clairaudience[21] [22], which, according to her own statement, Elena Roerich possessed. Later, she claimed that she herself did not use automatic writing to contact the Great Teacher[23]. The basis of the Agni Yoga teaching consists of 14 books with texts described by Elena Roerich as a record of these conversations. The last of these books, Above ground, was first published in 1990.
Elena Roerich's diaries are a chronicle of her communication with Mahatma Moria, or the Great Master: information obtained by clairaudience, answers to questions, visions, and comments on what is happening[24]. Roerich considered herself clairvoyant and clairaudient[25], but she did not consider this mediumship and wrote in her letters:
"From the books of the Teaching, you can see how much Vladyka M. warns against all magic and in what strong terms Vladyka speaks against mediumship and any violent mechanical methods for opening centers recommended by irresponsible pseudo-occult schools. Where Lord M. is, there are no mechanical techniques or magical signs. " [4]
The opinion of Agni Yoga devotees about Elena Blavatsky's contacts with Teachers is reflected in some modern philosophical publications in Russia. So, Doctor of Philosophy Viktor Frolov, Executive Secretary of the International Center of the Roerichs, in the article "Short Philosophical Dictionary" informs:
Blavatsky did not call herself the creator of the system, but only the guide of Higher Forces, the keeper of the innermost knowledge of Teachers, Mahatmas, from whom she received all the theosophical truths [26].
Dictionary of Russian Philosophy in the article about ElenaBlavatsky authorship of a supporter of the doctrine of "Living Ethics"[27] Candidate of Philosophical Sciences Larisa Krashkina gives the following interpretation of Mahatma Moria's collaboration with Blavatsky:
In 1851, in London, Blavatsky met with her Teacher Mahatma Moria, a descendant of the Punjab rulers in India … <... > On behalf of the Mahatmas, B.[lavatskaya] was the first messenger of hidden knowledge in the West [28].
In
The New Age of Russia. Occult and Esoteric Dimensions [One of the editors, Birgit Menzel, has
a pdf on her Academia page.] there is a the chapter by Markus Osterrieder,
Political Occultism and Social Messianism in the Activities of Nicholas Roerich
According to Theosophical tradition, the “Masters” were beings of ineffable spiritual development and wisdom; the most famous ones were Koot Hoomi and Morya, supposedly residents of Shigatse in Tibet. At the same time, already
Elena Petrovna Blavatsky (hereafter referred to as HPB) claimed that they were incarnated, mortal men in flesh and blood. In this, the Roerichs, who joined the Theosophical Society in London in 1920, made no exception. They claimed to have met the Master Morya for the first time on March 24, 1920, in London’s Hyde Park, the same spot where HPB also met her Asian teacher. Since this initial encounter, the Roerichs claimed to have received regular messages from “Morya”; indeed, on the same day, Elena Ivanovna began to note down the content of the spiritual messages transmitted to her.13 They came to believe that their Guide (they used the English word), who preferred to call himself Allal Ming or “A-Lal-Ming“14, was “the spiritual teacher of Tibet”15 and the “spiritual leader of the Pamir [region]”.16
As in the case of HPB and other leaders of the Theosophical Society, the researcher is confronted with methodological choices: The first is to dismiss such “communications” as pure bluster and to range them altogether in the realm of fantasy or as an expression of some mental illness like “a special form of epileptic mania”.17 Nevertheless, the source material does suggest that throughout the 1920s and 1930s the main inspiration for the Grand Plan remained the steady flow of the alleged “astral communications” transmitted by Elena Roerich, who acted as a medium.
Even if there is reason to question the origin of these communications, one has to admit, as John McCannon has remarked, that “it is incredible just how much of his plan Roerich was able to accomplish”,18 including the securing of fundings and diplomatic permissions for two expeditions into a highly sensitive area—the core region of the Great Game, as well as the building of a vast network of followers and financers ranging from Paris to New York and Harbin.
The rising influence of Eastern spirituality among Europeans and Americans was closely related to burning political questions such as the condemnation of imperialism, social and economic reform in the colonies and in contested areas like Central and East Asia, national and religious autonomy. For instance, both HPB and Annie Besant, like many Theosophists, were politically rather on the left and very strongly engaged in emancipatory causes.20 Besides, it has been recognized by a growing number of scholars that the phenomenon of occultism must be rescued from its status as an “irrational indulgence” as well as from rather partial concepts of “rationality” and “consciousness”, and that on the contrary an involvement with the occult was an important driving force of the intellectual avant-garde.21 The attraction exerted by Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim spirituality cannot be exhaustively explained in the context of 19th century racial theories and the notion of racist “Aryan superiority”.22
In the case of Russia, the importance of the social factor, the idea that Asia was destined to be a potential ally in the fight against the oppression of the fossilized European imperialist powers, grew ever stronger in the course of the 19th century. In the culture and religion of the Eastern Slavs there existed already in the pre-Christian period a strong Iranian (and this also includes a Zoroastrian and later Manichaean) subtext, demonstrated by linguistic influences, 23 which continually surfaced especially in numerous chiliastic folk beliefs, legends and sectarian cosmogonies.24 However, a similar influence can be discerned in several schools of Mahayana Buddhism, Shi’ite and Ismaili Islam.25 One can add that it was a common topic among occult and esoteric groups in East and West that the 19th century had come to an end by closing the Dark Age or Kalī Yuga, that a New Age of spiritual Enlightenment and social reform would dawn, although some details and especially the interpretation of the spiritual consequences varied drastically. In the same period, religious millenarism had reached a peak, most of all in regions of the world where political conflict, ethnic or social oppression and injustice created the necessary climate for revolt.
When, after the European rediscovery of the Zend-Avesta in the later part of the 18th century,26 the Zoroastrian legends about the eternal struggle of the agricultural peoples of Iran against the nomadic peoples of Turan27 spread across Europe, they were embraced by the Russian intelligentsia as a fitting description of the social situation in the Tsarist Empire. They could be interpreted in terms of a historic dualism between the agricultural soil and the steppe, especially following the conquest of the Central Asian territories in the mid-19th century. But whereas Dostoevsky still spoke in terms of a White Man’s Burden, the mission of the Russian khristianin – krest’ianin (“Christian peasant”— in Russian the words sound almost identical) to carry agriculture into the nomadic regions of Asia,28 outlooks began to shift
in the 1860s, when among the radical Left, the first hopes appeared for a renovation of Russia on the basis of her association with the Asian East. For such thinkers in their nascent Eurasianist mood, “Europe–Iran” turned into a synonym of stagnation and the old world. “Asia–Turan”, on the other hand, became the symbol for the chaotic ferment that was necessary to overthrow the rigid tyranny, the krivda (injustice and lie) of the Tsar and to create a new, just world built upon pravda (justice and truth). Even Aleksandr Herzen (1812–1870), after his disappointment in the revolutionary Europe of 1848 and his resultant ideological approach to Russia’s Slavophiles, pointed out that the focus of the world revolution would lie not in Europe but in the Turanian East, whose peoples, wrote Herzen, had received from Western civilization nothing but unhappiness, and who therefore would rise against the entire Teutonic-Latin world. Eventually Herzen came to bless in his paper Kolokol in 1860 the influence of the potentially revolutionary Turanian ethnic elements on Russia, even stating (from his London exile) that the Mongol yoke had protected Russia against Roman Catholicism and had saved the village community (mir) from destruction.29
Similar views could be found among narodniki such as Sergei Iuzhakov (1849–1910) who in 1885 spoke of the impending collision of Russia and Britain in a struggle for Asia in terms of a struggle of peasant Russia against shopkeepers’ England. The colonial exploitation by the British would result in nothing less than the death of Asia.30 Another vostochnik (“Easterner”) and champion for the Asian cause, prince Ėsper Ukhtomskii (1861–1921),31 believed at the time of the Boxer Rebellion (1900) that “in the community of Russia and Asia is contained the future solution of the Oriental question”. He also thought that “the bonds that unite our part of Europe with Iran and Turan, and through them with India and the Celestial Empire, are so ancient and lasting that, as yet, we ourselves, as a nation and a state, do not fully comprehend their full meaning and the duties they entail on us, both in our home and foreign policy.”32 Ukhtomskii was acquainted with Theosophy and a practicing Buddhist from the age of 15. His links with Buriats and Tibetans were surrounded with secrecy. While he was in no way disloyal to Tsar Nicholas II, to whom he introduced Agvan Dorzhiev in 1898, he saw the Tsar as a potential liberator of the Asian peoples because of the way Russia was treated and rejected by the Western powers.
And there will come a day, when the Orient shall arise from its slumber, awakened and irritated by the stormy elements of the oppressing white
race. Like our mythical Ilya Muromets, the Orient shall then feel a mighty power in itself and shall demand to say its word. […] And Europe shall tremble. But neither threats nor violence nor accidental victories shall be able to accomplish anything […]. In the eternal conflict between Europe and Asia, Russia shall decide in favor of Asia. Another judgment is not possible where the judge is the brother of the complainant.33
Like other Buddhists who were inspired by the teachings of Tibetan lamas and were familiar with the legends associated with the Kālachakra Tantra (“Wheel of Time Tantra”) ritual, Ukhtomskii referred to the messianic advent of the so-called “Last King of Northern Shambhala. ”This “Shambhala of the North” was considered to be a mythical land, thought to be situated somewhere far to the north of Tibet,34 a “Land of Quietness.” On his travels through Central Asia in 1845–1846, the French Catholic Abbé Huc (Évariste Régis Huc, 1813–1860) came across an occult brotherhood under the command of the Panchen Lama called the Kelan. Their members believed that their leader would be reborn in the future in a country north of Tibet between the Tien-Shan and the Altai range, and that this country was connected to the prophecies of Shambhala. After the future Chinese conquest of Tibet, so it was told, the New Country in the North would be the cradle of the renewal of Buddhism, the dead would be resurrected, and the Panchen Lama as the Universal Ruler would then crush the forces of evil and spread Buddhism over the entire earth.35
Many elements of this tale would later resurface in the spiritual instructions of the Buriat Lama Agvan Dorzhiev and of “Allal Ming” and the Roerichs.
Moriah is, incidentally, also a name mentioned in the Old Testament/Jewish Bible. The Wiki has:
Moriah /mɒˈraɪə/ (Hebrew: מוֹרִיָּה, Mōrīyya; Arabic: ﻣﺮﻭﻩ, Marwah) is the name given to a region in the Book of Genesis, where the binding of Isaac by Abraham is said to have taken place. Jews identify the region mentioned in Genesis and the specific mountain in which the near-sacrifice is said to have occurred with "Mount Moriah", mentioned in the Book of Chronicles as the place where Solomon's Temple is said to have been built, and both these locations are also identified with the current Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Samaritan Torah, on the other hand, transliterates the place mentioned for the binding of Isaac as Moreh, a name for the region near modern-day Nablus. It is believed by the Samaritans that the near-sacrifice actually took place on Mount Gerizim, near Nablus in the West Bank.
Many Muslims, in turn, believe the place mentioned in the first book of the Bible, rendered as Marwa in Arabic in the Quran, is actually located close to the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. There has been a historical account of rams' horns preserved in the Kaaba until the year 683, which are believed to be the remains of the sacrifice of Ishmael – the first son of Abraham, who most Muslims believe was the son Abraham tied down and almost sacrificed, and not Isaac.
More on the Roerichs, especially the artist Nicholas Roerich
From a picture in an art museum to the painter, to his wife, to a prediction, to channeling, to Moriah, to Blatvatsky, to Theosophy, to occult and esoteric interests of the Russian intelligentsia... In the book
The New Age of Russia. Occult and Esoteric Dimensions Birgit Menzel writes on page 12:
People engaged in occult or esoteric thinking and practices had to go underground or were sent to the GULag. Yet, we must not forget that there were uses
of the occult by the Soviet state. These ranged from trading the life of the theosophical Buddhist mystic Nicholas Roerich in exchange for U.S. dollars and
Soviet propaganda abroad in the 1920s and 30s to experiments with mind control and psychic warfare for political and military reasons, which was also
practiced in the U.S.3
The reference given (3) has:
For Roerich see Robert C. Williams, “Mysticism and Money: Nicholas Roerich,” In: Russian Art and American Money. 1900–1940 (Cambridge/Mass.: Harvard UP, 1980), 111–147. For Russia see Henry Gris, William Dick, The New Soviet Psychic Discoveries (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1978), chapter 3. For the U.S. there are numerous studies. One of the first was José M.R. Delgado, Physical Control of the Mind. Toward a Psychocivilized Society (New York: Harper & Row, 1969); Alex Constantine, Virtual Government, CIA, Mind Control Operations in America (Venice, CA.: Feral House, 1997); John Marks, The Search for the ‘Manchurian Candidate’. The CIA and Mind Control (New York: Norton, 1991).
Following one of the above leads, one finds in
Russian art and American money, 1900-1940 on page 5. Btw I don't think they actually immigrated to the US, or for that matter that they gave up on Theosophy entirely, rather they adapted it.
Then the hunt took a turn for the better. Records of the State Department were well indexed and very rewarding. They offered nothing about Grunwaldt or Havens but produced reams of material on the painter Roerich. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, Roerich had immigrated to America (in 1920) and become much more than an ordinary painter. A one-time theosophist, he donned Tibetan prayer robes, claimed that his paintings had healing powers given them by masters living somewhere in the Himalayas, and bilked well-meaning Americans out of thousands of dollars. The British suspected Roerich of being a Soviet agent, an Indian nationalist, or both, and denied him a visa to India in 1931. The State Department found him a nuisance, and only the patronage of Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace sustained Roerich in the 1930s, when he organized the Roerich Peace Pact to protect museums in time of war. He then fled to India one step ahead of Internal Revenue Service agents who had found his Roerich Museum guilty of tax fraud. In Roerich's case the archives revealed that he was not simply an artist in search of his lost St. Louis paintings but a cultural phenomenon in American life at a point where, once again, art and money changed hands.
"bilked well-meaning Americans" that came from a country where there in some financial circles had been significant support for getting the Russian revolution going that devastated millions of lives, and later support for the rise of a Germany that a few years later would lead to the loss of still more millions of now Soviet citizens - and these could not get pretty decent Russian art for pennies? Well, almost:
The Roerich material helped me realize that behind the buying of Russian art in America was an extraordinary sales campaign by both the Imperial and Soviet governments. As my research progressed, it became increasingly apparent that Russian art was a valuable export commodity intended to earn credit—economic and political—in the United States, especially in the years prior to American recognition of the Soviet Union in 1933. A crucial figure in this campaign turned out to be Dr. Armand Hammer, now the multimillionaire owner of Occidental International and M. Knoedler and Company art galleries. I knew of Hammer as a pioneer in early Soviet-American relations, a shrewd trader who had gone to Russia in 1921, obtained concessions to mine asbestos and to manufacture pencils, and then left Russia around 1930 with truckloads of precious Russian art objects—icons, chalices, paintings, and jeweled Faberge treasure—which he sold through department stores in America (beginning with Scruggs, Vandervoort & Barney in St. Louis).
Just to check if the "well-meaning Americans" got nothing for their money,
one page has:
Works by Nicolas Roerich are highly prized items at auction. They are collected by bidders of all nationalities. Nowadays, prices for these objects can rise considerably under the auctioneer's hammer. Oils on canvas are particularly popular, with buyers from all over the world. The price at which they sell on the art market ranges from €30 to €8,217,720, at the moment, a substantial difference but one that says a lot about the value that can be attributed to these works. In 2013, his oil on canvas Madonna Laboris, dating from 1931, sold for €8,217,720, whereas it was estimated at between €936,960 and €1,405,440.
Roerich may have made a lot of money, but looking back in the history of art, how many of the now famous painter actually did? Returning to the book, there is a whole chapter about the Roerichs, beginning page 111:
MYSTICISM AND MONEY
Nicholas Roerich
*
The world of Roerich is the world of truth. —Leonid Andreev
The Roerichs are not my friends. The Roerichs are crooks. —Henry A. Wallace, 1944
Nicholas Roerich was one of the pioneers who worked for closer relations between the Soviet Union and India. —Viktor F. Maltsev, USSR Ambassador to India, 1974
Leonid Andreev was the father of the Daniel Andreev, the author of The Rose of the World. The chapter in the book continues:
NICHOLAS ROERICH always saw a close connection between art and money. Some said that he even convinced Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace in 1935 that the symbol of the Great Pyramid from the Great Seal of the United States would be appropriate for the dollar bill. Wallace, in turn, conveyed the suggestion to Henry Morgenthau, secretary of the treasury. Morgenthau went along with the idea, only to find out later that some viewers of the new bill thought he must belong to an esoteric and cabalistic religious cult. He did not. But his fellow cabinet member Henry Wallace was indeed highly enamored of one of the 1930s' greatest faith healers. Roerich came to America as a well-known Russian painter, but he made his reputation as a religious mystic. And his desire to join art, especially Russian art, and American money went far beyond the mere design of the dollar bill.
It is possible that Roerich came up with the idea for the addition to the Dollar bill, but he may in the story above as well have been the fall guy, or someone suggested for him to suggest it. There was no lack of high level "home grown" initiates in high places, nor was there later later change to the design in that respect.
The Roerichs came after the generation of Elena Blavatsky, who was born in Dnepropetrovsk in Imperial Russia and they were contemporaries of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, and Boris Mouravieff. I don't know who Mouravieff knew, he was the youngest, but Ouspensky and Gurdjieff probably knew many kinds of people.
The initial idea to look beyond the claim of prophecy turned out to be more fruitful and frustrating than I had imagined, but then there is also:
Session 23 July 1995
A: Now do you see the benefit in slowing down and not having prejudices when asking questions of great import? You see when you speed too quickly in the process of learning and gathering knowledge, it is like skipping down the road without pausing to reflect on the ground beneath you. One misses the gold coins and the gemstones contained within the cracks in the road.
I'm still not entirely sure there are "gold coins" and "gemstones", but it did show some of the complexities of history, and if there will be more to add in the future, this was at least a beginning.
