Five Spirals for December - #5 Song of the Morning by Nicholas Roerich

Song of the Morning, 1920, Nicholas Roerich. Nicholas Roerich Museum, NY.
Geometry: 2023, DS.

"The Awareness of beauty will save the world."

- Nicholas Roerich

"The pursuit of refinement and beauty was sacred for Roerich. He believed that although earthly temples and artifacts may perish, the thought that brings them into existence does not die but is part of an eternal stream of consciousness—man’s aspirations nourished by his directed will and by the energy of thought. Finally, he believed that peace on Earth was a prerequisite to planetary survival and the continuing process of spiritual evolution, and he exhorted his fellow man to help achieve that peace by uniting in the common language of Beauty and Knowledge.

...Nicholas Roerich died in Kullu on December 13, 1947. His body was cremated and its ashes buried on a slope facing the mountains he loved and portrayed in many of his nearly seven thousand works.

As he wrote: 'Let us be united—you will ask in what way? You will agree with me: in the easiest way, to create a common and sincere language. Perhaps in Beauty and Knowledge.'"

 - All quoted text above was sourced from Roerich.org. - the first (and most comprehensive) port of call for all things Roerich. But, the story of Russian Symbolist painter, Nicholas Roerich and his wife Helena is unusually extensive. The couple's Neo-Theosophical spiritualism was particularly influential in the States in the earlier half of the 20th century; so influential that there is actually a term for it: Roerichism. It is hard to believe that the Roerichs somehow faded into obscurity in America during the latter half of the century but they did.

(Note: Nicholas Roerich was first introduced on this blog in the Nijinsky post.)

"In December 1923, Roerich and his family arrived in Darjeeling, India in search of a mythical kingdom called “Shambhala”. Not to be found on any map, the Roerichs travelled across 25,000 kilometres of uncharted road to find the Kingdom that the Buddhists, Hindus, Tibetans and local healers so firmly believed in.

According to legend, with the spread of materialism, humanity would deteriorate and the people of Earth would unite under an Evil leader. This leader would attack the Kingdom of Shambhala with  terrible weapons and that’s when he would be defeated, ushering in a new Golden Era of peace and harmony. "

- Via the fascinating article: Explore the Himalayas : Paintings by Nicholas Roerich. Regarding the legend of the "evil world leader"... well, if prophetic, the question might be: which one?

The Hunt, 1937, Nicholas Roerich.

"Through the desolate summits swept raging intermittent gusts of the terrible antarctic wind; whose cadences sometimes held vague suggestions of a wild and half-sentient musical piping, with notes extending over a wide range, and which for some subconscious mnemonic reason seemed to me disquieting and even dimly terrible. Something about the scene reminded me of the strange and disturbing Asian paintings of Nicholas Roerich, and of the still stranger and more disturbing descriptions of the evilly fabled plateau of Leng which occur in the dreaded Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred."

- A paragraph from At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft. Interestingly, Lovecraft references Roerich's "strange" paintings of the Himalayans several times during the tale. The painting above might be an example of what Lovecraft had in mind.

"Through his spiritual journeys into the Himalayas, Roerich also developed a deep sense of the role that the feminine principle had in the evolvement of humanity. Several of his paintings depict this importance, particularly, The Mother of the World. The Letters of Helena Roerich, written by his wife, explains the importance of this work: “The ‘Mother of the World’ is at the head of the Great Hierarchy of Light of our planet. Read in the Cryptograms of the East the narrative about the Mother of the World, and accept it as the highest reality.”

Helena Roerich further explains the inspiration for the painting, 'The star of the Mother of the World is the planet Venus. In 1924 this planet for a short time came unusually near to the Earth. Its rays were poured on Earth, and this created many new powerful and sacred combinations which will yield great results. Many feminine movements were kindled by these powerful rays.'"

- Via this Theosophical article: Nicholas Roerich: The Treasures Within.

Roerich was very close to his wife Helena. One might say they enjoyed a soul-mate relationship. Both were feminists and it was their belief in the World Mother that brought them into conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church (see: Sophiology) . Inset left is one version of the Mother of the World painted by Roerich in 1937.* The reference to Venus as the Mother's Star is interesting, and in the course of this post we will meet another reference.

***

There's something very special about the woman in Roerich's Song of the Morning.

To begin with, she's extremely beautiful. She's a brown woman... possibly Mongolian... with a fruit-of-the-earth, nuts and berries kind of beauty... but, she has another outstanding feature...

...she's a tall woman... perhaps, very tall., perhaps, even tree-like. You can tell by her physical relationship to the antelope she's dancing with. I believe the antelope actually represents a female member of an Eastern Indian species: the Blackbuck antelope (also here). Odd that Roerich should choose a female member of that species; her coloring is rather bland. The male of the species is a bold black and white... almost as black as an object appearing in the top of the painting... and one you could not see in the detail I first provided... but one you can see inset left below. But, more about this later.

In any case, the male - as far as coloring goes - would have really popped out of the background. The one Roerich chose doesn't. But, he was a good artist, so, why did he choose the dun-colored female and give it horns? Apparently, there are some female Blackbuck who, in reality, do have horns... which, when you think about it, is a little weird. Why do some female blackbucks grow horns while other females do not? But, that's not our present concern. We must assume that, as a Symbolist, Roerche had something else in mind.

Regardless, the important thing is that the tall, beautiful woman in the painting is not merely a woman who has managed to tame or domesticate an antelope. The woman is a Goddess - possibly Gaia - and she and her companion are dancing at the top of the world. And, you can tell it's the top of the world. The morning light in the sky is of a kind travelers can find no where else on this planet.

The Goddess, and we will assume she is that, wears a red gown and swirls a green/ochre-colored, translucent scarf or shawl above her head. Hers is an ancient gesture. The colors are not garish, but subdued... authentic colors of the earth. She wears jewelry, but, once again, the beads, the bracelets are not ostentatious: they belong to her... she does not belong to them.

It was something about the angle in which she held the scarf above her head that clued me in about the golden triangle. The triangle is echoed in the position of her arms. The spiral which she and the antelope create is almost self-evident.** At a rapid glance, the dancers recall the formation of a musical notation - the G or Treble cleft. And this might not be an accident. Roerich did not refer to the painting as a "Song" for no reason. Not that it's as much of a song we "hear" but what we sense as some variety of music. The sort of music implied by Lovecraft in the quote posted:

"Through the desolate summits swept raging intermittent gusts of the terrible antarctic wind; whose cadences sometimes held vague suggestions of a wild and half-sentient musical piping, with notes extending over a wide range, and which for some subconscious mnemonic reason seemed to me disquieting and even dimly terrible."

However, the music we subliminally hear is not remotely terrible. It is the song of the morning... and, somewhere there is a morning star although invisible. This is what the spiral tells us. This is what Roerich knew. And, while he didn't necessarily design this painting with a golden spiral in mind, the spiral still managed to slip in unawares. Perhaps, it was the physically inaudible, intangible "half-sentient musical piping" in the background that allowed this seemingly mathematical "notation" to emerge.

And, now, we'll turn to that ominously black object perched on the roof ledge of the goddess's massive pink palace. It appears to be the silhouette of a peacock - its tail folded and out of the frame - turned away from the scene below. Now, if it were an actual peacock (inset right) it'd make a prettier picture... but, I'm thinking that this wasn't the painter's intention. Once again, Roerich was a Symbolist. He was also a hermetic Theosophist, so, he would have had knowledge of alchemy and its many symbols. The peacock turned away is - in this vignette - part of the past. It is black... symbolizing an earlier stage of the Great Work. The scene that we enjoy is the end result - the harmonious whole - of the alchemical accomplishment cauda pavonis, here described (and where the wonderful peacock image was found):

"...in many alchemical texts, the peacock’s tail stage, or “cauda pavonis,” appears as a stage where a multitude of colors appear, much like the iridescent tail of a peacock. This stage is emblematic of chaos, diversity, and the blossoming of potential. It’s the period where the material being worked upon breaks down, revealing its constituent parts in a dazzling display. This breakdown is essential because it paves the way for the unification that follows."

We also have this information (found in the lovely article, Peacock’s Cry of Soul’s Splendour, where the image inset left, and the video below was found):

"Interestingly, as can be read on an excellent website dedicated to constellations, the words “peacock” and “paean,” i.e. ‘a hymn, a song joy and triumph’ are related... The cry of the peacock in the poem becomes a true “mystical call,“ a voice from beyond addressing directly our incorruptible essence – the Soul – and beckoning us to cross the threshold of awakening."

Inset left is a plate from the alchemical text The Splendor Solis by Salomon Trismosin. (Also identified as Splendor solis oder Sonnenglanz, 1531–32, and attributed to Jörg Breu the Elder, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. See here.) This is Plate #16  entitled: Venus, the Peacock’s Tail. And, we can see Venus (with Cupid), flying overhead in her dove-drawn chariot. Meanwhile, a number of happy humans are engaging in benign pursuits... some cultural such as music, dancing, or reading poetry... some feasting or practicing the romantic art of seduction. Life is, for them, a perpetual picnic in the sweet spring air.

As it should be for all of us.

Happy New Year!

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* Note on the spiral in Song of the Morning:  The spiral in this image is particularly mesmerizing. There's a better version... slightly larger; it's dimensions lie somewhere slightly outside of the frame. Perhaps the right side of the painting had more image area at one time. If so, I wish it were still there. I don't know about you, but I'd love to see more of Roerich's enchanted world.

(Update, 1/5/24) That being said, I have looked at many of Roerich's paintings online - most of which feature rolling landscapes - and I've come upon only two spiral paintings: Song of the Morning (featured) and Mother of the World (shown earlier).

I'm including the latter with it's spiral here (inset right). Interestingly, the full golden triangle in the image continues till it reaches the bottom of the painting intercepting the two small human figures, one of whom carries a small chest, and another which reads from a large book.

For a similar use of the triangle see: Carlo Crivelli and the "Queen of Heaven."

“Above Them is She Who veiled Her Face, She Who wove the Web of the far-off Worlds, She the Envoy of the Unutterable, the Ruler of the Intangible, the Bestower of the Unrepeatable.

By Thy Command is the Ocean silenced and the Whirlwinds trace the Invisible Signs.

And She Who Veiled Her Face shall stand Alone in Vigil, amid the Splendor of Her Signs.

And none shall mount the Summit. None shall witness the Effulgence of the Dodecahedron, the Sign of Her Power.”

- A very interesting hymn to the Mother of the World found on this Roerich Museum page. I believe this is the first time I've found any reference to an entity whose "power" is represented by the dodecahedron... and that this entity is a She is very exciting to me. The Phi in Aphrodite unfolds...

Venus has a new ride... and she's coming your way soon!