"Sacred fire: Panentheism in Nikolai Roerich's art and philosophy" Ninety-six years ago tomorrow, fighting broke out in a Paris theatre. Jarring woodwind notes and pounding feet echoed the rhythmic, ritual drumbeat during a controversial performance that has since passed into legend. A hysterical audience rioted as if possessed, seeming to join in the revival of the ancient tribal ritual being performed on stage - a theatrical work of genius that was the result of an unprecedented collaboration between composer Igor Stravinsky and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky. The set design, costumes and script were the creation of Nicholas Roerich. The performance was “The Rite of Spring,” on the surface at least, a homage to primitive, pagan Russia. It combined image, form, sound, colour and movement in a ritualistic tour de force that celebrated the oldest archetypal motif that has haunted man’s ontological quest for self-knowledge: of death, rebirth and sacrifice. If Roerich’s work can be subdivided into “periods”, the first being his exploration of the Stone Age excavations and ancient traditions that preoccupied his early years, then this was the climax of his second, theatrical period. He had previously created the set design for Borodin’s Prince Igor in 1909, under the direction of Sergei Diaghilev. When in search for inspiration for Diaghilev’s next production, it was to Roerich that Stravinsky turned. To this day it remains unclear whether the original idea was conceived by Stravinsky or Roerich as although at first Stravinsky maintained that it was entirely Roerich’s concept, following a rift between them he later claimed that it was his own. Contemporary accounts are conflicting and contradictory, yet according to author Mike Jay, Roerich had already completed a long essay on the origins of art in the year
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before he met Stravinsky, to be realized in the “Rite of Spring.” According to the same author, the Stone Age world that Roerich and Stravinsky brought to life in the Rite of Spring would be the beginning of the quest that ultimately took Roerich to the Himalayas” in search of perennial truths that would lead mankind towards the reconciliation of opposites and spiritual ascent.
The storyline of the Rite of Spring follows that oldest of mythological themes– of sacrifice-death, and rebirth. It is traced through a series of dances that first celebrate the Earth and Nature, and Act I is aptly named “L’Adoration de la Terre” (Adoration of the Earth). Following a demonstration of dualistic conflict through a ritual dance depicting two rival clans, and the appearance of the elder sage, Act 1 ends with an explosive dance glorifying the Earth and nature. Act two is far more ritualistic in content, portraying a mystical dance of young maidens, of whom one is chosen as the sacrificial victim. Following an evocation of the tribal ancestors, the ballet ends with the sacrificial dance – where the chosen maiden dances herself to death to ensure that Spring will return, and thus guarantee the regeneration of Nature itself. All of the artistic elements converge to reflect the inner tension of the dancers - whereby, as explained by modern choreographer Millicent Hodson of the Joffrey ballet, “the idea of ordeal by rhythm is actually experienced by the dancers due to the difficulty of the choreography “ – that ordeal adding to the dynamic tension shared with the audience. The sacrificial rite portrayed in the ballet is an echo of the Slavic Midsummer festival, known as kupala, and the maiden’s sacrifice reflects the Slavic myth of the marriage of goddess Morana to her brother, the sun-God Yarilo, a familiar motif found in most Indo-European mythologies and strongly echoing the myth of Persephone.
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This archetypal motif of initiatory sacrifice and rebirth in a framework of a primordial tradition in fact seems to be at the heart of Roerich’s work. The “Rite of Spring” seemed to encapsulate all that Roerich’s work represents: a vision of living nature, man’s struggle to reconcile with her unforgiving cycles and his own imperfect nature, and the ultimate reconciliation achieved through the harmonisation of man’s intellectual, perceptive and spiritual faculties through art. According to composer and writer Stuart Isacoff, who provided the musical score for performances celebrating the work of Roerich and some of his contemporaries: “The spirit of the mystical tradition shared by Roerich and others of the Russian avantgarde is a vision that bridges music, color, movement and soul by creating works that dissolve the walls separating these different aspects of experience.” This concept of removing the barriers between these aspects of human experience is identical in its phenomenology to the concept of initiatory sacrifice as performed in the Rite of Spring – for the purpose of initiation is to break down the barriers between the material and spiritual realms through the use of ritual, with the aim of reintegration of the self and the divine, and the awakening of those dormant faculties able to perceive beyond the material plane.
It is at this point that I would like to clarify the somewhat imposing title of this presentation: “Sacred fire: Panentheism in Roerich’s art and philosophy”. Panentheism is a notoriously perplexing philosophical term, often confused with the very similar “pantheism.” Put simply, “Pantheism emphasizes God's presence in the world but panentheism maintains the identity and significance of the non-divine.” Pantheism denotes that the world, seen as a living universe, “is” God and “in” God, whereas Panentheism essentially accepts that the whole is more than a sum of its parts
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– so all is within God – but has its own identity , purpose, and will, while God is something more than the manifest universe – yet both of these not only interact, but the actions of each has visible repercussions on the other. Thus, rather than conceiving of a universe where everything must necessarily be pre-ordained, since all material manifestation is subject to divine will, in the case of panentheism, the various elements of the universe have their own consciousness and evolutionary path. The ancient polytheistic religions are by definition panentheistic, as each deity is no more or less than an emanation of the divine, though not the whole. Also by definition, there is an inherent dualism present in the panentheistic worldview – a dualism that lies at the heart of the human condition and the reconciliation of which has been the goal of esotericists and mystics since the beginning of mankind’s quest for meaning. It it is at the core of the hermetic axiom “as above so below” which forms the basis for the Western esoteric tradition that informs the Theosophical system which Roerich was to embrace – three years after having created the Rite of spring. The concept of Sacred fire is met time and again in esoteric and mystical traditions. It can and has been taken to mean many things, from the “divine” spark in the soul of Man to the catalyst beginning the alchemical process. It appears repeatedly in much of Roerich’s work, from his paintings to the Agni Yoga system – where the Sanskrit word “Agni” refers to the primordial fire at the heart of the universe. It is also closely related to the concept of a Perennial Philosophy, or primordial tradition, best summed up by scholar William Stoddart: “The central idea of the perennial philosophy is that Divine Truth is one, timeless, and universal, and that the different religions are but different languages expressing that one Truth.”
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In the images we see here we have tangible evidence for Roerich’s exploration of these ideas. The first one, painted in 1920, is “the Language of the Birds”. This hides a reference to one of the most mysterious and playful of esoteric concepts. Also known as the language of the gods, or the green language, or langue verte, it is thought to be a form of language utilizing a play on words, sounds, double meanings and even images, whereby an esoteric secret can be concealed through cleverly constructed verbal or visual riddles. According to the mysterious French alchemist Eugene Canselliet, writing on his mentor, the elusive Fulcanelli, the language of the birds is to be found most often in slang and wordplay, and ultimately it can be shown to point back to the “sacred language spoken before the time of the Tower of Babel”. It remains a popular concept in some esoteric traditions and continues to exasperate scholars and novices alike. The second painting at the top is the “Chalice of Christ”, painted in 1925 and included in Roerich’s series “Banners of the East.” While there was little space to include others from this series, they include images of Mohammed, Confucius, and other prophets and sages from various world religions – whereby banners could perhaps be interpreted as precursors or messengers of wisdom. The third painting, “Serpent of wisdom” from 1924 seems to be both a celebration of the divine feminine in various forms and a reference to the multifaceted symbolism of the serpent – wise yet deadly, the Leviathan of the Old Testament and alchemical ouroborus of the Western tradition, the archetypal dragons of the East . Roerich may have meant any or all of these – though my sense is that he deliberately left space for the viewer to interpret the image according to his own inner response to it. This impression is strengthened by the last image, Mother of the World, also from 1924. An archetypal figure, this is Mary, Isis, Sophia, the Shekinah, Dakini or Tara… whether she is sorrowful, at peace, or emanating waves of harmony and love is once
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again in the eye of the beholder. All of these paintings are from Roerich’s first year of travels in the East – and all of them reflect his quest for the sacred perennial philosophy at the root of all of humanity’s attempts to understand and approach the divine. The concept of a quest for a pristine truth at the heart of the primordial tradition dates back to the Renaissance, springing from interpretations of Platonist and Neo-Platonist teachings. It is a recurrent theme in much of what is defined as the Western Esoteric tradition and once again, encompasses the Theosophical teaching which Roerich adhered to and expanded on. Taken together with the idea of panentheism and its inherent dualism, it would appear that to Roerich, each and every aspect of the Divine was yet another messenger, another emanation of the divine to be embraced, internalised and through creativity, to be reborn into the world to inspire others travelling the same path while also constituting a form of theurgy, or god-making, in the sense of drawing elements of the essence of a given deity into the material plane, and thus into one’s own life. Through coming to know these emanations, or intermediaries, one could come into closer contact with one’s own divine aspect, and thus add a little more to the collective consciousness in order to draw the material world closer to the spiritual plane.
Reflections of the Romantic currents that preceded Roerich are strongly evident in his thinking; informed by the concept of the ‘sublimity’ of myth and poetry,i of the “universe as the self-development of a primal, non-rational force that can only be grasped by the intuitive powers of men of imaginative genius,”iiand the notion of the faculty of the imagination being able to manifest and give form to events in the physical world. According to German philosopher Franz von Baader, the damage
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caused by the inherent duality of the universe “was first noted by poets and artists, and in this way poetry and art or sculpting may have been invented.” It is also the artist’s duty, we are told, to manifest those fragments of divine beauty, and indeed, “this striving after the primal inner aspiration of an Ideal […] should be the focus for all outwardly effective creations of poetry and art of man.”iii These early theosophers – not to be confused with the Theosophists of Mme Blavatsky’s theosophical society, conceived of the media of art and poetry, as the primary vehicles for the expression and exposition of this philosophy through the concept of a primeval and “original, universal, and divinely natural language of humanity.”iv According to the great minds of that generation, including Antoine Fabre d’Olivet, Louis-Claude Saint-Martin and elaborated by Novalis, Schlegel, and Ballanche, the poet was seen respectively as “the recipient and transmitter of revelation and a divine universal language,” “a priest who will lead humanity to its eschatological fulfillment by relinking the world here below and divine transcendence,” and “poetry is the intuitive faculty of penetrating the essence of beings and things.”v
If this is to some extent the philosophical atmosphere which Roerich inherited, then it comes as no surprise that as he developed the Agni Yoga teachings together with his wife Helena, in a world torn apart in the wake of WWI and the Russian Revolution, he wrote the following: Life thunders - be watchful Danger! The soul hearkens to its warning The world is in turmoil - strive for salvation In creation realise the happiness of life, and unto the desert turn thine eye
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Try to unfold the power of insight That you may perceive the future unity of mankind We possess the power to create and destroy obstacles Thought is lightning The spirit in revolt shatters the bolts of the prison
The essence of Roerich’s teaching in the Agni Yoga system is that human consciousness needs to evolve in order to be able to receive the primordial light – or sacred fire – emanating from the divine source – and that if humanity and our planet are to fulfil their potential, we need to be able to consciously accept this powerful energy and transform it into a constructive force – for like all archetypal forces, it also has the power to destroy if not harnessed. In order to receive and make proper use of this energy, our consciousness must be in the proper state to receive it – a long and arduous process, eventually achieved through the refinement and purification of the subtle forces at the root of our emotions, perceptions, and thoughts. The Roerichs were firmly opposed to the idea that this process should be undertaken through asceticism or withdrawing from the world, but considered it vital that this heightened awareness be achieved while one is very firmly rooted in reality, and that through the creative process, one should be able to begin to bridge the material and the divine. So it seems we have come full circle, from the Rite of Spring as a public initiatory ritual experience of death and rebirth, presented so as shock the senses into an awakening and in Roerich’s words, cause the spirit to revolt and break the bolts of the metaphorical – material – prison, with the message that creativity in all its forms, is the key to our own spiritual ascent and the reconciliation of the duality between man and the divine. Roerich used his own considerable talent to lay the path for others to
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follow, and our presence here today, in celebration of the enduring beauty and dare I say, magic, of his work, is testament to the belief expressed in the words of Albert Beguin; that: If a common myth haunts the minds of poets and initiates, it is the myth of Prometheus: the man who wins divine powers and achieves his own salvation, and the salvation of the entire universe, through his own efforts.� That seems to have been the inspirational message and driving force behind Roerich’s work. Finally, let us not forget that poetry, above all, means poein – to create.
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i
Isaiah Berlin, ‘The Counter-Enlightenment,’ Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas (London: 1955; Pimlico, 1997), pp. 1-24 (p. 5) ii
ibid., p. 17
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ibid., p. 243 cf. Arthur Versluis, ‘Benedict Franz Xavier von Baader,’ in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, pp. 148-154 (p. 150) iv
Arthur McCalla, ‘Romanticism,’ in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, p. 1002
v
Antoine Fabre d’Olivet, La langue hebraïque restituée, (1815-1816) F. Schlegel, Novalis, Athenaeum (1798-1800) Pierre-Simon Ballanche, Vision d’Hébal (1831) - Orphée (1829) cited in Arthur McCalla, ‘Romanticism,’ in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, p. 1001
Fiery World II 19. Fiery World III 378. Letters of Helena Roerich I, pp. 227-229, 7 June 1934.