Roses and thorns

I recently skimmed Daniel Andreev's curious work “The Rose of the World”. The author was a Russian mystic arrested by the Soviet authorities in 1947. Written during the 1950's (to a large extent in prison), the work wasn't officially published until 1991 by the author's wife Alla Andreeva. Daniel passed away already in 1959. The English translation by Lindisfarne Press is an abridgement, leaving out all sections exclusively dealing with Russia and Russian history. “The Rose of the World” is often referenced by the Anthroposophical offshoot around Robert Powell, but seems to be otherwise unknown in the West.

I can't say I was overly impressed by Andreev's work. It comes across as a somewhat exotic version of Theosophy or Anthroposophy, complete with annoying neologisms. An entire glossary is needed to explain the author's newly coined terms, including Witzraor, Skrivnus, Shrastr, Rarugg, Agga and Bramfatura. Our Earth is called Enrof and belongs to a wider cosmic system known as Shadanakar. The Planetary Logos (who incarnated as Jesus Christ) and his bride Zventa-Sventana are opposed by Gagtungr, a planetary demon resembling the Devil in more traditional systems. Humanity is on an evolutionary path towards higher spiritual perfection, a path that will eventually lead to the creation of a world government and the Rose of the World, a syncretistic pan-religion incorporating Christianity and other traditions of Light. A wide assortment of demonic beings oppose this development, preferring instead to create an satanic anti-humanity.

Jesus Christ (who seems to have lived on Atlantis and other unknown continents in earlier incarnations) partially failed in his mission, which wasn't supposed to end with his crucifixion. Rather, Jesus was supposed to have turned the world into a kind of paradise through a gradual, centuries-long evolutionary uplift of humanity. Andreev claims that such a thing actually happened in the world of the “daemons” (not to be confused with the demons), where Jesus had incarnated at an earlier point in time. The daemons (a kind of spiritualized humans) readily accepted Jesus and has therefore evolved further than terrestrial mankind.

Since God is all-good, evil is the result of creatures misusing their free will. The demons are responsible for all evil and suffering in the world, including death, karmic retribution and hell. Thus, the hellish realms where sinful human souls are tortured are really the creation of powerful demons, not of God! Some of the hells are of relatively recent vintage. The most important heavenly realm seems to be Heavenly Russia. Interestingly, there is also a kind of satanic Russia, complete with dark versions of St Petersburg and the Kremlin! Sometimes, the author gets unintentionally comic, as when he claims with an entirely straight face that the similarities between the demonic Raruggs and flying dinosaurs aren't co-incidental, since (of course) the Raruggs *are* flying dinosaurs… Another curious notion is the claim that certain fiction characters in novels are really a kind of undeveloped spirit-beings who get to live a fuller life by being incorporated into works of fiction here on Earth!

I'm not entirely sure why anyone would want to uncritically accept Daniel Andreev's works over those of, say, Rudolf Steiner or Valentin Tomberg. Andreev comes across as a well-meaning but confused visionary, trying to make sense of his spiritual experiences with varied degrees of success. Knowledge of his sources might have been helpful, but isn't provided since the publisher claims that we are dealing with a genuine revelation.

In my opinion, “The Rose of the World” only deserves two stars, although I admit rating a religious work is somewhat difficult…