Nicholas and Helena Roerich: The Spiritual Journey of Two Great Artists and Peacemakers

I love Nicholas Roerich as an artist and made the pilgrimage to the upper west side museum filled with his works. Many of the paintings depict scenes of the Himalayas and Central Asia. This is the story of the epic trip he and his wife and son took across the Himalayan passes and through the Gobi desert. It is an easy read and fun. And I suspect there is much more to this story than is included in this volume, but it's a good place to get the overall picture. For example, the apparent fact that Roerich was largely responsible for the all seeing eye on the back of the dollar bill was missing. He had the idea of creating a new country in Central Asia. It's hard to tell from the book if he was just a dreamer, a real mystic or involved in political plots. But a good read to get the overall story.

This book offers a brutally chronological life story of Nicholas and Helena Roerich, two talented artists with often nutty ideas. Fans of Nicholas' paintings are offered details of his travels, and shown possible sources of inspiration for his hundreds of powerful paintings, rich in symbolism and meaning. Followers of Helena are likewise provided with a glimpse of her personal life that inspired her Agni Yoga teachings. Unfortunately, this work often raises more questions than it answers, brushes over curious events with huge question marks, and sometimes makes the Roerichs seem comic.The Roerichs were members of the over privileged (bourgeoisie) who escaped Russia after the "Reds" took over there. They soon found themselves in New York, steeped in the mystical spiritual movement known as the Theosophical Society, which was popular among the rich and bored before the market crash of 1929. One common theme among the Theosophists seemed to be that Tibetan Buddhism (then recently "discovered" at cocktail parties in the West) offered some kind of hidden secrets to the afterlife ... or whatever one may be looking for at a séance.Sadly, most Theosophists did not know Buddhism from sick'em. The resulting spiritual melee that ensued in the West in the name of this movement has overcast Buddhist teachings with ignorance that continues to this day. In this light, Professor Roerich's search for Shambhala throughout Asia at times paints a picture similar to the original "De Vinci Code" quest -- grandiose in conception, superfluous in meaning.After setting up an art institute in New York, the Roerichs travel to India, where they begin a five-year journey north through the Himalayas, eastern China, Russia, then back through Mongolia and Tibet. During these travels, Helena supposedly received telepathic messages from their "Tibetan Master," who apparently no one other than Helena and Nicholas have met. There are no photos of the "Master," which is even more suspicious. It is quite obvious to any one familiar with Buddhism that this "Master" is none other than Helena herself, dishing out esoteric messages to build support from her followers and fellow caravaners. Indeed, the messages of this unseen "Master" sounds just like Helena writes and never coveys any teaching that rings anything remotely Buddhist. When Drayer's mentions that hired hands of the Roerich caravan were smoking opium, the reader is left to wonder if everyone on that trip was high.Meanwhile, during these years of caravanning, Nicholas is apparently looking under every stone for the lost Buddhist Kingdom of Shambhala. We learn that Professor Roerich actually believes that it is his destiny to uncover this kingdom, where he will be the leader of the New Russia, a new spiritual empire of light and peace. Where he cannot find it, he paints it. This indeed may be his greatest teaching, whether intended or not. As far as we know, he never found Shambhala, but his beautiful paintings suggest that rather than a physical place, it is a merely a spiritual destination where one cannot travel by foot.One will not find critical scholarly work in this story of the Roerichs. For example, it is mentioned only in passing that the Roerich's were waiting outside the office of Felix Dzherzhinsky, head of the CHEKA, when the man "suddenly dropped dead in his office." Only in a footnote at the back of the book does the author mention that Dzherzhinsky was the head of the precursor to the KGB. (His statue was the same that all those protestors in Moscow back in 1991 tore down from the front steps of the KGB headquarters during the fall of the U.S.S.R. due to his well-known brutality.) So, the burning questions include: how on earth did the Roerich's get an appointment with him and what were they going to talk about? Drayer never says nor speculates. Nor does she take any particular notice of the fact that the Roerich's were accompanied from Moscow to Mongolia and into Tibet by N.V. Korashevski, apparently a Colonel of the Soviet Army. Nicholas clearly leaned "left" as long as Russia was with him.Drayer does not seem to make much of these details. One wonders whether President Roosevelt knew about them when his agricultural secretary later sent Roerich into Japanese controlled Manchuria on a supposed mission to find drought resistant weeds. Apparently, Wallace, then the U.S. Agricultural Secretary, was actually a Theosophist himself, and picked Roerich for the job. Roerich believed that the real mission (clearly not known to FDR or the US State Department) was to set up the New Russia kingdom ala Shambhala in the Gobi Desert. The trip turned out to be a complete embarrassment for the US government. Professor Roerich returned to India to joint Helena, where they would remain for the rest of their days.There is no doubt that the Roerichs were very talented arts who inspired many. Nicholas' paintings are powerful and moving, unique in style and expression. The Roerich family dedicated themselves to messages of peace. For example, the US and many other countries actually signed a pact to adopt a flag raised over cultural and artistic centers to protect them from being bombs and pillaged. This is a wonderful accomplishment to which many leaders today should aspire.The Roerich story reminds this reviewer of "The Life Aquatic," a Wes Anderson comedy film about independently wealthy "explorers" whose grandiose adventures inspire close followers with moment-to-moment excitement, while the rest of the audience shakes their heads from afar with compelling curiosity. In the end, nonetheless, the beautify and power of the paintings of Nicholas Roerich, and the writings of Helena, remind us that artistic expression and freedom can turn any journey into an unforgettable spiritual experience.

Ruth captures the spiritual journey of the Roerich's really well. I am enjoying their adventures all over the world and especiallythrough the Far East, it was very hard during the early 1920's to travel the silk road. I did not knowthe contribution they made to art and culture until this book. A marvelous read.

Well documented. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Really interesting and well-written book - great for bed-time reading. I love spiritual biographies and this is outstanding,

I've studied the spiritual writings of Helena Roerich, the Agni texts, so I was hoping this book would go into some detail about how the writings came about. I was disappointed. The book is more of a blow-by-blow travelog of the Roerichs' travels through Asia in the early 20th century. Mildly interesting, for sure, but not exactly what I wanted. The reproductions of Nicholas' art work are nice, though.

This book is so embarrassingly badly written - only on page 23 and I can't bear to read another page. Were I psychic I might know what is sometimes being discussed as she uses occult terminology without proper explanation as to what something means. I suspect she was talking about channelling information from one brain to another and goes on to say that this is the only way the Roerich's could learn this information (what information you might ask, like I did and why only through channeling?). If you know all about Roerichs you can fill in the missing pieces. Suddenly, on p 23 (my end point), he's 47 and that's more than half his life - wait a minute, he was just married a few pages earlier. Drayer also brings in people like the Bolms (who the heck are they and what did they do with their lives?), talking about a reunion and how Roerich's have changed but since when, why, who are these friends, where did they know each other? Needs a good editor to help out Ms Drayer who does have passion for her subject.

wonderful stuff!!!