Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2010, Page 126
illustration of Nicholas Roerich. Except for Blake who followed the theosophy of Emmanuel
Swedenborg, all of the artists mentioned drew from the metaphysical well of the
Theosophical Society and related occult teachings. Specifically, two leading Theosophists
published a small tome illustrated with images of extrasensory reality that inspired early
abstract painters. The book Thought Forms by Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater
appeared in 1906 with dozens of colorful abstract images. Among western Modernists,
historians credit Kandinsky with making the first completely abstract or non-objective
paintings around 1911. He was influenced by Thought Forms. He was not alone in this
venture. Artists had been experimenting with colors and forms to represent emotion (Van
Gogh) and sound (Scriabin) for years but to me Kandinsky became the most important
modernist theoretician. He wrote that his art came from a mystical source or ―inner
necessity‖ in Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Kandinsky maintained that his approach to
painting paralleled new advances in science with Einstein and psychology with Freud. He
would ―reveal‖ that same hidden reality explored by physicists, musicians, and
psychologists. He often named his paintings ―improvisation‖ and ―composition‖ asserting
their musical connection. Kandinsky remains one of the most influential artists of the
twentieth century.
I wanted to participate in whatever it was that drove Kandinsky to produce his images. If I
could tap that source then my art might also be truly ―original.‖ Eventually I began to read
the works of Helena P. Blavatsky (1831-1891), the same Theosophist that Kandinsky found
so important.i Blavatsky (HPB) also inspired a host of imitators that claimed to be mediums
or channels for ―Masters‖ that guided the affairs of human kind from spiritual dimensions.
These ersatz guardian angels belonged to a secret group called the Great White Lodge
(Great White Brotherhood). Occultists and mystics including Emmanuel Swedenborg and the
early Rosicrucian Brotherhood that greatly influenced the foundations of Freemasonry also
claimed contact with these mysterious adepts and angels. I did not know then that the
majority of these adepts have no verifiable historical existence (Johnson, 1994).
Among all the artists I studied, Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) was the most ardent imitator
of HPB‘s mythological system. His signature art style combined elements of Gaugin‘s Post-
Impressionism with an Oriental flair for composition. Roerich and his wife Helena (died
1955) established the Agni Yoga Society in the early 1920s in London and New York and
later at a residence in northern India. Lately, Agni Yoga has become popular in Russia with
millions of devotees (Stasulane, 2005). The Roerichs claimed that Blavatsky‘s mysterious
Master Morya guided them to form Agni Yoga (AY). The first publication of the AY series of
esoteric teachings was Leaves of Morya‘s Garden (1924). I bought and read nearly all in the
series of fifteen plus volumes.ii
In 1978, I learned that Elizabeth Prophet (1939-2009) claimed that her daughter Tatiana
was the reincarnation of Helena Roerich! Prophet developed dementia in the mid 1990s but
from 1961 to 1996 she led a large New Age cult, Church Universal and Triumphant.
Intrigued with the connection to Agni Yoga, I subsequently read several of Prophet‘s books
and listened to many of CUT‘s audio taped dictations. Despite my wife‘s objections, I
attended a major CUT conference near Los Angeles in March 1979. Several thousands of
devotees attended that conference. After four days of chanting, interacting with CUT staff
members, listening to channeled lectures from the Ascended Masters, and little sleep, the
effect on me was palpable enough. My wife believed that she had lost me to another world.
During our divorce process five months later she said, ―You are not the same man I
married.‖ We had been together for seven years and our daughter was almost two years
old. What happened? Many studied opinions about how cults cause quirky conversions and
―sudden‖ personality changes might apply to me, but I was already primed after years of
deep interest in groups that used Theosophical teachings including the ―I AM‖ Activity and
Gurdjieff‘s Fourth Way.
illustration of Nicholas Roerich. Except for Blake who followed the theosophy of Emmanuel
Swedenborg, all of the artists mentioned drew from the metaphysical well of the
Theosophical Society and related occult teachings. Specifically, two leading Theosophists
published a small tome illustrated with images of extrasensory reality that inspired early
abstract painters. The book Thought Forms by Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater
appeared in 1906 with dozens of colorful abstract images. Among western Modernists,
historians credit Kandinsky with making the first completely abstract or non-objective
paintings around 1911. He was influenced by Thought Forms. He was not alone in this
venture. Artists had been experimenting with colors and forms to represent emotion (Van
Gogh) and sound (Scriabin) for years but to me Kandinsky became the most important
modernist theoretician. He wrote that his art came from a mystical source or ―inner
necessity‖ in Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Kandinsky maintained that his approach to
painting paralleled new advances in science with Einstein and psychology with Freud. He
would ―reveal‖ that same hidden reality explored by physicists, musicians, and
psychologists. He often named his paintings ―improvisation‖ and ―composition‖ asserting
their musical connection. Kandinsky remains one of the most influential artists of the
twentieth century.
I wanted to participate in whatever it was that drove Kandinsky to produce his images. If I
could tap that source then my art might also be truly ―original.‖ Eventually I began to read
the works of Helena P. Blavatsky (1831-1891), the same Theosophist that Kandinsky found
so important.i Blavatsky (HPB) also inspired a host of imitators that claimed to be mediums
or channels for ―Masters‖ that guided the affairs of human kind from spiritual dimensions.
These ersatz guardian angels belonged to a secret group called the Great White Lodge
(Great White Brotherhood). Occultists and mystics including Emmanuel Swedenborg and the
early Rosicrucian Brotherhood that greatly influenced the foundations of Freemasonry also
claimed contact with these mysterious adepts and angels. I did not know then that the
majority of these adepts have no verifiable historical existence (Johnson, 1994).
Among all the artists I studied, Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) was the most ardent imitator
of HPB‘s mythological system. His signature art style combined elements of Gaugin‘s Post-
Impressionism with an Oriental flair for composition. Roerich and his wife Helena (died
1955) established the Agni Yoga Society in the early 1920s in London and New York and
later at a residence in northern India. Lately, Agni Yoga has become popular in Russia with
millions of devotees (Stasulane, 2005). The Roerichs claimed that Blavatsky‘s mysterious
Master Morya guided them to form Agni Yoga (AY). The first publication of the AY series of
esoteric teachings was Leaves of Morya‘s Garden (1924). I bought and read nearly all in the
series of fifteen plus volumes.ii
In 1978, I learned that Elizabeth Prophet (1939-2009) claimed that her daughter Tatiana
was the reincarnation of Helena Roerich! Prophet developed dementia in the mid 1990s but
from 1961 to 1996 she led a large New Age cult, Church Universal and Triumphant.
Intrigued with the connection to Agni Yoga, I subsequently read several of Prophet‘s books
and listened to many of CUT‘s audio taped dictations. Despite my wife‘s objections, I
attended a major CUT conference near Los Angeles in March 1979. Several thousands of
devotees attended that conference. After four days of chanting, interacting with CUT staff
members, listening to channeled lectures from the Ascended Masters, and little sleep, the
effect on me was palpable enough. My wife believed that she had lost me to another world.
During our divorce process five months later she said, ―You are not the same man I
married.‖ We had been together for seven years and our daughter was almost two years
old. What happened? Many studied opinions about how cults cause quirky conversions and
―sudden‖ personality changes might apply to me, but I was already primed after years of
deep interest in groups that used Theosophical teachings including the ―I AM‖ Activity and
Gurdjieff‘s Fourth Way.
