Blessed work in most cordial terms.
Ref: Letters to America
A historical account:
JPC: S, Below is some further correspondence to me from Daniel Entin, who is the
Director of the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York. It shows there was no such
animosity coming from Nicholas Roerich towards Alice Bailey. NR and AAB were
both on a board of advisors to an Agni Yoga school in New York. In the very early
years, there were good relations between Helena and Alice until 1934, as she
recommended the Arcane School in one of her published letters. Although Daniel
Entin and other Agni Yoga scholars, including the Agni Yoga Society archivist, all
confirm that the opinion of Helena Roerich took a downturn with the 'Letters to
America' in the 1950s, which were compiled from earlier papers.
It matters not what has been written on this subject or what quotes anyone may have
drawn upon for some sort of context to it. What is of interest is the historical fact
that those 'letters' were written by Helena Roerich. As far as I gather, Svetoslav
Roerich and Nicholas Roerich did not hold the same views as she did in later years.
Those letters are remarkable and a stark warning from history to us all. I don't think
anyone was hoarding them as such. Some are on the www and shortly will be on the
Polaris group forum. Those unreleased 'Letters to America' were first released on a
Yahoo! Agni Yoga forum. They were known to some Russians, but until
August-September 2002, they were not translated or in general release, as you
know.
The letters were compiled and translated by some Russians from Russian into
English. We are assured they are authentic and genuine. I have only extracts, and
perhaps there is more, but I do not know for sure. It is generally accepted by the
esoteric community and some Agni Yoga scholars that they are the written thoughts
of Helena Roerich. I see no reason to discount it. For whatever reason or personal
misguidance, those words were said, I do not know why.
Indeed, we must consider that relations between AAB and N Roerich were cordial if
we consider the following indication from a 1929 letter.
Jeremy. April 2005.
“Alice Bailey visited today N.K. [Nicholas Roerich]. She spoke about cooperation and
that all great men should meet in our House.” (Z.G. Fosdik, My Teachers. Meetings
with the Roerichs. 25/11/29.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is correspondence from Daniel Entin to me, which I subsequently
titled, "Blessed work in most cordial terms". From Daniel Entin, Director of the Roerich Museum:
“Jeremy,
Today I came across a document that I have never seen, and I'd like to present
relevant parts of it here. I always like finding archival materials that challenge
perceptions and opinions, especially those that challenge dogmatic certainty.
I have always had a suspicion that Nicholas Roerich's opinions about Alice Bailey
were somewhat different from -- maybe I should say less intense than -- Helena
Roerich's. I knew that in 1929 Nicholas Roerich, while in New York, invited AAB to
tea, and gave her a Tibetan shrine as a gift. They discussed the possibilities of
collaborative work. But the only documents about this were two letters from AAB to
Nicholas Roerich, thanking him for the visit and for the gift. Until today, there was
nothing from Nicholas Roerich himself, in which he expressed his own opinions. This
morning, a letter rose to the top of a heap.
In June or July 1938, Alice Bailey wrote to Nicholas Roerich in Kullu, India. Because of
the collapse of the institutions in America, she did not know how to obtain Agni
Yoga books. She asked how to get them for her students. The letter I found was from
Nicholas Roerich, in which he let her know precisely what books and how many
copies of each were available from Kullu, and offered to send her whatever she
wanted. He also told her how to get them in New York from Sina Fosdick (then
Lichtmann), and then launched into a bitter few paragraphs, in great detail, about the
betrayal and the collapse. All of this was written in a style that was warm-hearted
and friendly to Bailey.
Then, he wrote the following:
"We constantly are reading your books and have much occasion to speak about your
blessed work in most cordial terms. We shall be glad to hear of your further plans
and Mme Roerich and we all are sending to you and your husband our sincerest
wishes. In anticipation of your good news and trusting you are both keeping in best
of health".
In Spirit with you, Nicholas Roerich.
It is clear from Nicholas Roerich's response that Alice Bailey had written to him
about her plans, and about something that caused him to say "In anticipation of your
good news...". We can't know what that was, but it is evident that the relationship
was a cordial one, just as he wrote.
I'm now throwing a new ingredient into this soup because that is the only way that
we each can come to some resolution in our own hearts about matters subject to
much dogmatic expression".
Daniel Entin.
Director Roerich Museum. 2005.
Also:"..But Nicholas Roerich did go beyond civility. He was quite warm, I thought, in his
expression.
Also, in the late twenties, Svetoslav Roerich and Natasha Rambova founded a school
in New York to explore and study, and teach, the full spectrum of the world's
religious and esoteric traditions. Nicholas Roerich and Alice Bailey were both on the
Board of Advisors.
All these facts should go into the soup of historical resources, for those who care to
conduct dispassionate research. I still owe you the date for the first known negative
letter from Helena Roerich about Alice Bailey. I do know, without any doubt, from
the evidence here and testimony of people who were involved, that those opinions
remained the same through all the years".
Daniel Entin.
Director Roerich Museum. 2005.
"The first known (to me and to our archivist) date in which Helena Roerich wrote
criticisms and rejections about AAB and her work was February 9th, 1931, to the New
York group. As I said, everything she wrote subsequently (and I have seen lots of such
letters, written to various disciples) was essentially the same until the end of her life
in 1955. I don't know what conclusions we can or should draw from any discrepancy
with what Nicholas Roerich wrote in his letter to Alice Bailey. Each of us can think
about it if it is of any interest at all. Nothing in the Teaching is changed by it, one way
or the other".
Daniel Entin.
Director Roerich Museum. 2005.
........................................................................................................................................
10 Aug 2002 --- In agni-yoga@y..., "taramirabai" <taramirabai@y...> wrote:
Greetings friends,
I am hoping that someone who reads Russian can translate this paragraph from "sangha-net" regarding Mrs. Roerich's opinion of Alice Bailey. It is entirely in Russian. Here is the link:
http://sangha.net/ab-letter.html
I would be ever so grateful for the translation. Thank you.
Tara Mirabai.
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Message: 3 Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 12:53:32 -0700 (PDT) From: Malcolm Schosha <malcolmschosha@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Re: Can someone please translate this from Russian?
I was not aware of this letter of HR, however I knew from conversations with Sina many years ago that she was very negitive on the subject of Alice Bailey. On the other hand, she characterised Roberto Assagioli (who she knew was very close to Alice Bailey's work) as "a very wise and cultured man". This, coming from Sina, was no small compliment. I never asked, but I think she must have had a meeting with him when he visited NYC.
Malcolm Schosha.
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Message: 3 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 08:03:46 -0400 From: Daniel Entin <dentin@bellatlantic.net> Subject: Re: Re: Can someone please translate this from Russian?
Dear Tara,
And it would also be wrong for anyone to treat your inquiry with disrespect or impatience. So I apologize to you.
Here at the Society we (try to) follow a simple rule that was given to us by the Roerichs themselves, never to express an opinion about another teacher or teaching, even when asked. Such questions and such answers lead only to contention and separativeness. Now that the question has been asked again, and a translation put here, I'd like to point out that at the very end of that letter, EI stated that, with the approval of the Master, she instructed Nettie Horch to welcome all Bailey students and to start discussion groups and classes in Agni Yoga. Unfortunately, a lot of Agni Yoga followers who consider themselves to be warriors of the Teaching (there are many of those, especially in the ex-USSR) ignore that open-hearted example and prefer to criticize and attack the Bailey students, even to the extent of sometimes invading their meetings and brandishing that letter. So you see why your simple inquiry stirred up more than you expected.
Welcome, we are not usually so touchy! At least you woke some of us up from our summer doldrums.
Daniel.
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Message: 5 Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 17:58:38 -0400 From: Daniel Entin <dentin@bellatlantic.net> Subject: Re: Re: Can someone please translate this from Russian?
Yes, I'm pretty sure Sina met Assagioli. He was probably discreet, though, about his roots.
Daniel.
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Message: 6 Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 22:10:39 -0000 From: "malcolmschosha" <malcolmschosha@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Can someone please translate this from Russian?
--- In agni-yoga@y..., Daniel Entin <dentin@b...> wrote: Yes, I'm pretty sure Sina met Assagioli. He was probably discreet, though, about his roots.
Daniel, Sina seemed quite clear on the connection with Alice Bailey. RA had a unique and remarkable spiritual presence.
Malcolm.
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Message: 2 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 10:47:47 +0200 From: "Vladimir Paraschiv" <vparaschiv@iap.li> Subject: RE: Re: Can someone please translate this from Russian? The translation
This is a quick traqnslation of the fragment.
Vladimir Paraschiv
........................................................................................................................................
A fragment from E. I. Roerich's letter on A. Beiley:
Many naive people believe, that dark forces operate only through evil, debauch and crimes. How mistaken they are. In such a way operate only rude forces and forces of small degrees. Much dangerous are those, who are coming under the light of Teaching. You know already such an example. In America exists a numerous society, and its chief receives the doctrine from a teacher, that do not hide his name, naming himself Tibetan Brother. We know, who is hiding under this pseudonym. HIS POWER IS GREAT. And the purpose of this teacher, (through the) personification ostensibly of the Teacher of White Brotherhood, is to entice as much as possible quite good and useful people to his personnel , which otherwise could help Effectively the Great Plan of Lords, the Plan of rescue of the planet. And these Unfortunate, having no true discernment of heart's fires, are Flying as moths toward destructive black fire that is sizzling them. Ignorance and absence of intuition pushes them to the embraces of darkness and deprives them for a long time, if not for ever, of beneficial Influence and attraction of Rays of Great Citadel of Light. The Armageddon is menace, you see Forces of darkness are fighting for their own existence, the despair makes them so serried and pertinacious in the achievement of their purpose. The Prince of this world has many talented, conscious and unconscious helpers, and it is fondly to think, that they are not able to operate in a subtle manner. They are very refined and inventive and operate according to the consciousness of their victims. But all of them are deprived of heart's warmth. I have the books of this Tibetan teacher, they are extremely dry. One book refers to " WHITE MAGIC ". I was told, that the best pages are borrowed from the teaching of White Brotherhood. It is interesting to notice, that the chief of this Society for the greater prestige for himself and for enticement of followers of our books, recommends them (books) to their members and have established Classes for studying books of Agni Yoga. In such a way interlace on the Earth darkness with Light. The network of darkness is plaited by skilful hands. Many members of this Society are coming to us, asking to establish the same classes and groups for join reading and discussion of books of Teaching. Only from the present Fall and with the Higher Approval, I entrusted Mrs. Horsh to start such groups on a more wide scale. Also not without interest to note, that drivers of such wide Society are, at the same time, on service of secret police.
Many terrible things happen today in the world. A lot of disgusting witchcraft is spread in the whole world. Certainly, as always, the most large centres are also the centres of the main dark forces. All fiend (devil incarnate) has crept out on the surface of the Earth. Ignorant masses are their best weapon.
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Message: 1 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 17:13:32 +0200 From: "Vladimir Paraschiv" <vparaschiv@iap.li> Subject: RE: Re: Can someone please translate this from Russian?
Dear Daniel,
Unfortunately, in my translations could be found some mistakes. There is a missing part of a phrase
"Many members of this Society, attracted by the analysis and study of Agni Yoga books, are coming to us, asking to establish the same classes and groups for join reading and discussion of books of Teaching."