Differences and Sameness

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Differences and Sameness Diferences and Sameness: Abstract Secularity in the Case of Nicholas Roerich1 The article explores the conceptual structures behind secularity and associated concepts such as immanence versus transcendence and progress versus anachronism by drawing on the life and Mi You and Eszter Szakács activities of Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947). Roerich was a Russian painter, theosophist and archaeolo- gist. He established his reputation both as a spiritual leader and as a painter mixing syncretic religious symbols, from Orthodox Mi You (由宓) is a curator, researcher, and academic staff member at the Academy of Christianity, Theosophy to Tibetan Buddhism. Together with his Media Arts in Cologne. Her long-term research and curatorial project takes the Silk Road as a figuration for deep-time, deep-space, de-centralised and nomadic imageries. Under wife, he pursued—and ultimately failed—to establish Shambhala this theme she has curated a series of performative programmes at the Asian Culture (paradise in Tibetan Buddhism) in the area from Tibet to South- Center Theatre in Gwangju, South Korea, and the inaugural Ulaanbaatar International ern Siberia, in a time of great geopolitical tension. Media Art Festival, Mongolia (2016). Her academic interests lie in performance philoso- phy, science and technology studies, as well as philosophy of immanence in Eastern and Western traditions. She is a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany) We argue that Roerich’s enterprise emerges from the ruins of and serves as advisor to The Institute for Provocation (Beijing). multiple broken orders: the empire/transnationalism, tradi- Eszter Szakács is a curator and editor based in Budapest. She has worked at tranzit.hu tionalism, mysticism, religiosity and Communism on the one since 2011. There she is curator-editor of the ongoing collaborative research project hand, and nation-state, modernity, scientism, secularisation and Curatorial Dictionary that has been realised as an online dictionary with various offline liberal democracy on the other. His curious path transgresses research events, among other work. She was co-editor of the book IMAGINATION/IDEA. The Beginning of Hungarian Conceptual Art. The László Beke Collection, 1971 (Budapest/ ideological divides and points to the categorical limits of the Zurich: tranzit.hu, /JRP|Ringier, 2014) and has since 2016 been co-editor of tranzit.hu’s dichotomies they produce. His legacy is appropriated today by online international magazine on art and culture Mezosfera. Her research interests various, often conficting lines of thought, canonising him in include concepts of internationalism in art and curatorial discourse, especially in relation to Eastern Europe. From 2013 to 2016 she was a guest lecturer at the Art Theory and the context of Russian art, esoterism, and in Russia’s revived Curatorial Studies Department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. geopolitical interest of Eurasia. 156 157 Svetoslav Roerich. Portrait of Nicholas Roerich, 1928. Oil and tempera 1 Nicholas Roerich [Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh], born in Saint on canvas. Courtesy The State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow. We would like to thank the V-A-C Foundation Petersburg in 1874, is today a renowned, and also infamous, fgure in as well as Beatrice von Russia and the Western world, especially in the US, as well as in Asia. Bismarck, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer and Roerich was a versatile fgure: already in his youth he was drawn to Maria Mkrtycheva who archaeology and ethnography, throughout his life he published liter- made it possible for us to participate in 2016 in the ary works, he was an especially prolifc painter, in the 1910s he was a 5th Moscow Curatorial successful stage designer, and he was regarded by many as a guru and Summer School. The Curatorial School was a leader who, as a makeshift diplomat, was capable of exercising pow- that year based at and er and convincing people at the highest levels to support his cause in around the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow, Central-East Asia. which also houses a major collection of paintings by Nicholas Roerich and his son Svetoslav Roerich. We would also like to thank Kathleen Reinhardt for Nicholas Roerich and the the many discussions and ideas we had together Debated Roerich Legacy Today about Nicholas Roerich at the 5th Moscow Curatori- Upon his father’s wish Nicholas Roerich studied law in Saint Petersburg, al Summer School. and art at the Academy of Arts in the landscape studio of Arkhip 2 Kuinji.3 Throughout his career, Roerich created more than 7000 Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA, and paintings of various themes and series, and his oeuvre is often con- London: Harvard University textualised within the broader art movement of symbolism.4 At the Press. 2007. turn of the twentieth century Roerich belonged to the conservative 3 part of Russian art circles, and was not always well-regarded by the Klimentieva, Victoria. Nicholas Roerich: In search more European lenient, Art Nouveau-style group and magazine Mir of Shambhala. MA disser- isskustva (World of Art). Nevertheless, he collaborated with them, tation. Graduate School of the University of Texas. and in 1910, after the movement’s heyday, he became its chairman.5 This essay aims to examine and problematise 2009. p. 6. Roerich’s most notable and highly regarded theatre design works some aspects of the conceptual history of secularity in the case study 4 for Borodin’s Prince Igor (1909), and particularly Stravinsky’s Le of the Russian theosophist and painter Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947). Leek, Peter. Russian Sacre du Printemps (1913) were the productions of Sergei Diaghilev, Painting. Bournemouth: More precisely, it looks at conjunctions of secularity and politics Parkstone. 2005. p. 256. co-founder of Mir isskustva and later founder of the Ballets Russes, through the tracing of Roerich’s messianic life project to bring about who trusted Roerich as an expert in ancient history and Russian 5 the mystical kingdom of Shambhala, a pan-Buddhist state in Cen- Klimentieva, op. cit., pp. medieval architecture.6 tral-East Asia—a plan that also coalesced various conficting strands 9-13. of political ideologies. Following Charles Taylor, we treat secularity 6 In his early period, including his stage designs, ancient Slavic culture as it arises from the modernisation process of European societies, Ibid., p. 14. characterised the theme of his works, such as in his 1905 painting Slavs through which religion is taken as only one option among other ways 7 on the Dnieper.7 This period was infuenced by journeys and observa- of self-fulflment and human fourishing, and the latter as an indica- Troncale, Joseph C. “The tions made in 1899 along the ancient trade route from Lake Ladoga to transcendent as theatre tor that self-sufcient humanism has never existed on the same scale in Roerich’s paintings”. In Novgorod, and in 1903 and 1904 to a range of old Russian cities—such before in European societies before the Enlightenment.2 Manju Kak (ed.). Nicholas as Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Uglich, Vladimir, Suzdal, Pskov, Izborsk and 158 159 Smolensk.8 Especially after his marriage to Helena Shaposhnikova Roerich: A Quest and A 11 him as their guru, making a peculiar case of the intertwining of the Legacy. New Delhi: Niyogi Ibid., p. 178. in 1901, he turned towards mysticism and Eastern religions (Helena Books. 2013. p. 201, p. 204. secular and the religious, and even the occult, on these missions.11 Roerich also acted as a medium to communicate the messages of 12 8 See especially McCannon, higher powers), and together they created their own school of mys- Leek, op. cit., p. 256. John. “Competing legacies, Roerich’s highly complex life project, and particularly his political ticism, the theosophy-based Agni Yoga in the 1920s. competing visions of ties and motivations, however, contain still many nebulous parts, 9 Russia: the Roerich Troncale, op. cit., p. 204, movement(s) in Post- due also to the fact that many ideologically opposed forces are His “oriental” interest also signalled a shift in his paintings in the p. 209. Soviet Russia”. In Birgit trying to claim Roerich’s legacy as their own.12 The reception and Menzel, Michael Hage- mid-1910s: he departed from the theme of the roots of Russian cul- 10 meister, and Bernice contemporary interpretations of the Roerichs over the last decades ture, and based his painterly work more on Eastern mysticism and Another significant facet Glatzer Rosenthal (eds.). have been just as manifold as the activities of the family itself. After of Nicholas Roerich’s life The new age of Russia: spiritualism, creating “philosophical landscapes”.9 This metaphori- is the so-called Roerich occult and esoteric dimen- Nicholas Roerich and his works were made to be forgotten in Sta- cal-mystic interpretation of the world subsequently defned the style Pact/Banner of Peace sions. Munich: Kubon & linist Russia, because of their religious-occultist path, his rehabilita- that pushed for interna- Sagner. 2011. pp. 348-369. and the iconography of Roerich’s work, which he practised until his tional alliances for the tion started in the late 1950s. As John McCannon outlines, George death. With their two children, later Tibetologist Yuri (George) Ro- preservation of cultural 13 Roerich returned to the USSR from India in 1957 at the invitation of heritage and that essen- Ibid., pp. 349-350. erich and later painter Svetoslav Roerich, the couple emigrated in tially served as a basis for Nikita Khrushchev, and a major exhibition showcasing Roerich’s 1918, after the October Revolution, from Russia to Finland, subse- the unesco charter for 14 painting was organised in 1958 in Moscow, thus re-canonising Ro- the “Protection of Cultur- Ibid., pp. 350-351. quently to London, and then to the United States, and they fnally al Property in the Event erich as an artist—but not as person of occultism, not to mention settled in India in the 1930s.
Recommended publications
  • Theosophy and the Origins of the Indian National Congress
    THEOSOPHY AND THE ORIGINS OF THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS By Mark Bevir Department of Political Science University of California, Berkeley Berkeley CA 94720 USA [E-mail: [email protected]] ABSTRACT A study of the role of theosophy in the formation of the Indian National Congress enhances our understanding of the relationship between neo-Hinduism and political nationalism. Theosophy, and neo-Hinduism more generally, provided western-educated Hindus with a discourse within which to develop their political aspirations in a way that met western notions of legitimacy. It gave them confidence in themselves, experience of organisation, and clear intellectual commitments, and it brought them together with liberal Britons within an all-India framework. It provided the background against which A. O. Hume worked with younger nationalists to found the Congress. KEYWORDS: Blavatsky, Hinduism, A. O. Hume, India, nationalism, theosophy. 2 REFERENCES CITED Archives of the Theosophical Society, Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras. Banerjea, Surendranath. 1925. A Nation in the Making: Being the Reminiscences of Fifty Years of Public Life . London: H. Milford. Bharati, A. 1970. "The Hindu Renaissance and Its Apologetic Patterns". In Journal of Asian Studies 29: 267-88. Blavatsky, H.P. 1888. The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy . 2 Vols. London: Theosophical Publishing House. ------ 1972. Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology . 2 Vols. Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House. ------ 1977. Collected Writings . 11 Vols. Ed. by Boris de Zirkoff. Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House. Campbell, B. 1980. Ancient Wisdom Revived: A History of the Theosophical Movement . Berkeley: University of California Press.
    [Show full text]
  • PDF SVA Handbook 2020–21
    2020/2021 SVA Handbook SVA • 2020 / 2021 20 /21 SVA Handbook CONTENTS President’s Letter 2 The College 3 Academic Information 9 Student Information 23 Faculty Information 44 General Information 55 Standards, Procedures, Policies and Regulations 69 SVA Essentials 93 2020–2021 Academic Calendar 113 Index 119 SVA.EDU 1 THE SVA HANDBOOK provides faculty, students and administrative staff with information about the College, its administration, services and processes. In addition, the Handbook contains policies mandated by federal and state regulations, which all faculty, students and administrative staff need be aware of. In this regard, I would especially like to call your attention to the sections on attendance (pages 12 and 46), the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (page 85), Student Disruptive and Concerning Behavior (page 74), Title IX procedures (page 84) and the SVA policy on alcohol and drugs (page 70). We look forward to the 2020–2021 academic year. Our students, this year from 45 states, one U.S. territory and 49 countries, will once again pursue their studies with the focused guidance of our renowned professional faculty. DAVID RHODES President August 2020 2 SVA HANDBOOK THE COLLEGE Board of Directors 4 Accreditation 4 SVA Mission Statement 4 SVA Core Values 4 History of SVA 5 Academic Freedom 6 First Amendment Rights 6 SVA Student Profile 7 SVA.EDU 3 BOARD OF DIRECTORS The Interior Design program leading to the Brian Palmer Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design is ac- Joseph F. Patterson credited by the Council for Interior Design Anthony P. Rhodes Accreditation (accredit-id.org), 206 Grand- David Rhodes ville Avenue, Suite 350, Grand Rapids, MI Lawrence Rodman 49503-4014.
    [Show full text]
  • Download 2017 Guide
    The Department of Youth and Community Development will be updating this guide regularly. Please check back with us to see the latest additions. Have a safe and fun Summer! For additional information please call Youth Connect at 1.800.246.4646 EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALS • STRENGTHENING FAMILIES • INVESTING IN COMMUNITIES T HE C ITY OF N EW Y ORK O FFICE OF THE M AYOR N EW Y ORK, NY 10007 Summer 2017 Dear Friends: It is a great pleasure to share with you the 2017 edition of the New York City Youth Guide to Summer Fun! From performances and events in our wonderful parks and green spaces to sun-filled trips to our beautiful beaches to the vibrant cultural festivals, concerts, and sporting events that take place across the five boroughs, there is so much for New Yorkers and visitors alike to look forward to as the summer season begins. Thanks to the efforts of the Department of Youth and Community Development and its partners, this guide ensures that young New Yorkers will have no shortage of exciting, educational, and memorable activities to experience with their families and friends this summer. The hundreds of low-cost and free events happening in our city in July and August are sure to pique the interest of any young scientist, athlete, bookworm, foodie, movie buff, or music lover. Every New York deserves the opportunity to participate in the many wonderful things the five boroughs have to offer, and we are determined to give our residents of all ages and backgrounds the chance to experience the energy and excitement that have long defined our city.
    [Show full text]
  • Theosophy in Action by Roy Mitchell Theosophy in Action
    Theosophy in Action by Roy Mitchell Theosophy in Action by Roy Mitchell This work of 1923 was published by the Blavatsky Institute of Canada as a memorial to Mr. Roy Mitchell who was the Founder and guiding genius of the Institute. FOREWORD Theosophy in Action deals with problems with which Theosophical students are particularly concerned and for this reason it may have a more limited appeal than the two books of Mr. Roy Mitchell which were published earlier by the Blavatsky Institute. The Exile of the Soul presented an ancient, but now seldom discussed, approach to the mystery of the duality of man's being. The far-reaching implications of the ideas presented there by Mr. Michell have not as yet been fully explored but later psychologists may acknowledge that in The Exile, Mr. Mitchell had anticipated some of their fondest theories and had suggested a basic clue to the understanding of the dichotomy of man's nature. Through Temple Doors :Studies in Occult Masonry was, as the title implies, an approach to Masonic symbolism in terms of the universal language of symbolism. Both these books have interested many readers who have little or no concern in Theosophy or the Theosophical Society. In Studies Mr. Mitchell sets forth the original idea behind the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875. Its work was to be that of an 'interpreter'; it was not to impose any new creed or dogma upon mankind; its members were to be students who were concerned with 'studying and explaining with sympathy, with kindliness and with insight' those basic ideas which they had found had survived through the ages and which were of the essence of world religions and philosophies.
    [Show full text]
  • Painting the Masters. the Mystery of Hermann Schmiechen
    Painting the Masters The Mystery of Hermann Schmiechen Massimo Introvigne (UPS, Torino, Italy) Besançon’s Forbidden Image One of the first books where sociology of religion met history of art was L’image interdite. Une histoire intellectuelle de l’iconoclasme, published by French social historian Alain Besançon in 1994 Iconoclasm vs Iconodulism The controversial book argued that Western art history is defined by opposition between iconoclasm (i.e the idea that the sacred should not be represented visually) and iconodulism (i.e support for sacred images) Although the terminology dates back to the Byzantine iconoclastic riots of the 8th century (right), modern Western iconoclasm originated with John Calvin (1509-1564) and became culturally dominant after the Enlightenment Iconoclasm: not against art, but against an art representing God or divine spirits Besançon’s definition of iconoclasm is not identical with some dictionary definitions of the same word. For him, iconoclasm is not against art and may even promote it. It only excludes from the field of art the representation of God and divine spirits or beings Image of Byzantine Emperor Leo III (685-741) on a coin: Leo, a leading iconoclast, was obviously not against representing himself Abstract Art as Iconoclasm Besançon* also argued that: 1. Iconoclasm is a distinctive trait of modernity, and abstract art is its most mature fruit 2. Symbolism, at first sight anti-iconoclastic, by substituting the Christian foundations of sacred art with a very different esoteric spirituality, in fact prepared the way for abstract iconoclasm 3. Several abstract painters, including Piet Mondrian (1872- 1944) passed at one stage through symbolism (Evolution, 1910-1911, left) * … with whom I do not necessarily agree Besançon and Theosophy Besançon claimed to be among the first social historians to devote serious attentions to Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891) and other Theosophical classics.
    [Show full text]
  • Christianity and Theosophy
    Christianity and Theosophy “Theosophy is an Eastern religion, isn’t it—sort of like Hinduism or Buddhism?” That question is wrong in two important ways. First, Theosophy is not a religion at all, but a way of viewing human nature and the world that is compatible with the nondogmatic aspects of any religion. Second, Theosophy is no more Eastern than it is Western—it seeks for what is in common to all cultures and religions and attempts to complement East and West with each other. Theosophists belong to many different religions: among them, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity; and within Christianity to churches such as the Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and many others. Theosophy presents the wisdom of the West to the East and the wisdom of the East to the West. Theosophy within Christianity The word Theosophy, meaning “divine wisdom,” designates an ancient outlook that recognizes within the many outward forms of religion an inner core shared by all of them. Theosophy and Christianity agree in their essence. Christianity provides a unique way of expressing the Wisdom Tradition of Theosophy, and Theosophy can enrich an understanding of the inner side of the Christian Way. The New Testament itself frequently alludes to profound religious truths lying underneath the outer words of the biblical text. Frequently we come across such passages as “I speak God’s hidden wisdom.” We read that some things are beyond human comprehension, but “these it is that God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:7-10). The Apostle Paul goes on to tell recently converted Christians that he is unable to impart such wisdom because “indeed, you are still not ready for it, for you are still on the merely natural plane” (1 Corinthians 3:2).
    [Show full text]
  • The Texts of Alice A. Bailey: an Inquiry Into the Role of Esotericism in Transforming Consciousness
    THE TEXTS OF ALICE A. BAILEY: AN INQUIRY INTO THE ROLE OF ESOTERICISM IN TRANSFORMING CONSCIOUSNESS I Wightman Doctor of Philosophy 2006 University of Western Sydney. IN APPRECIATION This thesis would not have been possible without the care, support, enthusiasm and intellectual guidance of my supervisor, Dr Lesley Kuhn, who has followed my research journey with dedicated interest throughout. I also acknowledge the loving kindness of Viveen at Sydney Goodwill, who has continuously praised and encouraged my work, and provided me with background material on the kind of activities that the worldwide community of Alice A. Bailey students are involved in. I sincerely appreciate the role my husband, Greg, played, as my cosmic co-traveller. Without him this thesis would never have materialized, his tireless engagement throughout these years has bolstered my drive to proceed to the very end. Finally, I acknowledge my children, Victoria and Elizabeth, for tolerating my reclusive behaviour, and giving me the space I have needed to write. Philosophy, in one of its functions, is the critic of cosmologies. It is its function to harmonise, refashion, and justify divergent intuitions as to the nature of things. It has to insist on the scrutiny of ultimate ideas, and on the retention of the whole of the evidence in shaping our cosmological scheme. Its business is to render explicit, and –so far as may be – efficient, a process which otherwise is unconsciously performed without rational tests (Alfred North Whitehead 1938:7). TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Letter Code for the Bailey Texts v Abstract vi Chapter 1 Researching the work of Alice A.
    [Show full text]
  • Blavatsky the Satanist: Luciferianism in Theosophy, and Its Feminist Implications
    Blavatsky the Satanist: Luciferianism in Theosophy, and its Feminist Implications PER FAXNELD Stockholm University Abstract H. P. Blavatsky’s influential The Secret Doctrine (1888), one of the foundation texts of Theosophy, contains chapters propagating an unembarrassed Satanism. Theosophical sympathy for the Devil also extended to the name of their journal Lucifer, and discussions conducted in it. To Blavatsky, Satan is a cultural hero akin to Pro- metheus. According to her reinterpretation of the Christian myth of the Fall in Genesis 3, Satan in the shape of the serpent brings gnosis and liberates mankind. The present article situates these ideas in a wider nineteenth-century context, where some poets and socialist thinkers held similar ideas and a counter-hegemonic reading of the Fall had far-reaching feminist implications. Additionally, influences on Blavatsky from French occultism and research on Gnosticism are discussed, and the instrumental value of Satanist shock tactics is con- sidered. The article concludes that esoteric ideas cannot be viewed in isolation from politics and the world at large. Rather, they should be analyzed both as part of a religious cosmology and as having strategic polemical and didactic functions related to political debates, or, at the very least, carrying potential entailments for the latter. Keywords: Theosophy, Blavatsky, Satanism, Feminism, Socialism, Ro- manticism. In September 1875, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891) co-founded the Theosophical society in New York City. Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907), lawyer and journalist, was elected its first president. Blavatsky, however, became the chief ideologist, drawing authority from the com- munications concerning esoteric matters she claimed to receive from the mysterious ‘Mahatmas’ (or ‘Masters’).
    [Show full text]
  • Theosophy Intro.Pdf
    THEOSOPHY AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY COURSE FOURTH EDITION by John Algeo Department of Education THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA P. O. Box 270, Wheaton, IL 60189-0270 Copyright © 1996, 2003, 2007 by the Theosophical Society in America Based on the Introductory Study Course in Theosophy by Emogene S. Simons, copyright © 1935, 1938 by the Theosophical Society in America, revised by Virginia Hanson, copyright © 1967, 1969 by the Theosophical Society in America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission except for quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA For additional information, contact: Department of Information The Theosophical Society in America P. O. Box 270 Wheaton, IL 60189-0270 E-mail: [email protected] Web : www.theosophical.org 2 CONTENTS Introduction 4 1. What Is Theosophy? 7 2. The Ancient Wisdom in the Modern World 17 3. Universal Brotherhood 23 4. Human Beings and Our Bodies 30 5. Life after Death 38 6. Reincarnation 45 7. Karma 56 8. The Power of Thought 64 9. The Question of Evil 70 10. The Plan and Purpose of Life 77 11. The Rise and Fall of Civilizations 92 12. The Ancient Wisdom in Daily Life 99 Bibliography 104 FIGURES 1. The Human Constitution 29 2. Reincarnation 44 3. Evolution of the Soul 76 4. The Three Life Waves 81 5. The Seven Rays 91 6. The Lute of the Seven Planes 98 3 INTRODUCTION WE LIVE IN AN AGE OF AFFLUENCE and physical comfort. We drive bulky SUVs, talk incessantly over our cell phones, amuse ourselves with DVDs, eat at restaurants more often than at home, and expect all the amenities of life as our birthright.
    [Show full text]
  • Off* for Visitors
    Welcome to The best brands, the biggest selection, plus 1O% off* for visitors. Stop by Macy’s Herald Square and ask for your Macy’s Visitor Savings Pass*, good for 10% off* thousands of items throughout the store! Plus, we now ship to over 100 countries around the world, so you can enjoy international shipping online. For details, log on to macys.com/international Macy’s Herald Square Visitor Center, Lower Level (212) 494-3827 *Restrictions apply. Valid I.D. required. Details in store. NYC Official Visitor Guide A Letter from the Mayor Dear Friends: As temperatures dip, autumn turns the City’s abundant foliage to brilliant colors, providing a beautiful backdrop to the five boroughs. Neighborhoods like Fort Greene in Brooklyn, Snug Harbor on Staten Island, Long Island City in Queens and Arthur Avenue in the Bronx are rich in the cultural diversity for which the City is famous. Enjoy strolling through these communities as well as among the more than 700 acres of new parkland added in the past decade. Fall also means it is time for favorite holidays. Every October, NYC streets come alive with ghosts, goblins and revelry along Sixth Avenue during Manhattan’s Village Halloween Parade. The pomp and pageantry of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in November make for a high-energy holiday spectacle. And in early December, Rockefeller Center’s signature tree lights up and beckons to the area’s shoppers and ice-skaters. The season also offers plenty of relaxing options for anyone seeking a break from the holiday hustle and bustle.
    [Show full text]
  • 145 1 Empire and Occultism
    NOTES 1 Empire and Occultism 1. Eric Mahoney, Religious Syncretism (London: SCM Press, 2006). 2. Quoted from Speech Genres, 2, by Joseph Roach, Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 187. 3. For magic and the marvellous, Gordon in Valerie Flint, Richard Gordon, Georg Luck and Daniel Ogden, The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, vol. 2, Ancient Greece and Rome (London: Athlone Press 1999), 168ff. 4. Roger Griffin, Modernism and Fascism: The Sense of a Beginning under Mussolini and Hitler (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). 5. Griffin’s introduction to Ben Hutchinson, Modernism and Style (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), xii; idem, Terrorist’s Creed: Fanatical Violence and the Human Need for Meaning (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 53, 73. Key terms from Griffin’s work will intermittently recur in this study. 6. Suzanne Marchand, German Orientalism in the Age of Empire: Religion, Race, and Scholarship (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010). 7. Ibid., 256 for the ‘reconvergence’ point. 8. Mahoney, Syncretism, 118. 9. Gary Lachman, Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality (New York: Tarcher/Penguin USA, 2012); Stephen Prothero, The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012); Joscelyn Godwin, The Theosophical Enlightenment (Albany: SUNY Press, 1994). 10. Martha Shuchard, Restoring the Temple of Vision: Cabalistic Freemasonry and Stuart Culture (Leiden: Brill, 2002). There are Masonic ‘survivals’ and Cabalistic allusions in Theosophy, but these did not greatly impact on the art world. 11. Catherine Wessinger, Annie Besant and Progressive Messianism, 1874–1933 (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1988); Gregory Tillett, The Elder Brother: A Biography of Charles Webster Leadbeater (London: Routledge Kegan Paul, 1982).
    [Show full text]
  • In Theosophy's Shadow Vanity Whispers
    In Theosophy’s Shadow Vanity Whispers In Theosophy’s Shadow Vanity Whispers v. 13.10, uploaded to www.philaletheians.co.uk, 7 August 2013 Page 1 of 9 THEOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHISTS SERIES IN THEOSOPHY’S SHADOW VANITY WHISPERS Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it. — Blaise Pascal 1 HIS ARTICLE IS INTENDED mainly for those attracted to the New Age books of Alice A. Bailey (AAB). Her claim that her teachings came from the same Oc- T cult Brotherhood that taught HP Blavatsky (HPB), the founder of the modern Theosophical Movement, is not valid. This short piece is not about whether Bailey’s writings are inspiring, wonderful or contain any truth; but simply whether HPB and AAB had the same mentors, as claimed by Bailey. Bailey’s guide professed to be the same Djual Khool that was one of HPB’s teachers. Bailey also declared that her guru was the same Master Koot Hoomi that Blavatsky knew. This paper will propose that the so-called Tibetan and the Hierarchy of Masters portrayed in Bailey’s books, were not Djual Khool and the Adept Brotherhood known to HPB. Bailey asserted that her teachings are grounded in and do not oppose in any funda- mental way Theosophy as lived and taught by HPB and her Gurus. This assertion is false. Her books are rooted in the pseudo-theosophy pioneered by CW Leadbeater (CWL). For example, one of CWL’s favorite revelations was the return to earth of “Maitreya” the Christ.
    [Show full text]