And it is to such people that I turn and try to explain: the grace of the Orthodox sacraments does not protect those who do not agree with Orthodox teaching. "Having asked for the union of faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit, let us commit ourselves and one another and all our life to Christ our God" – this is the condition for the validity of the Holy Chalice in us. It is impossible to reconcile the Theosophical faith with Orthodox Communion.

The Roerichs want to supplement Orthodoxy, which is too "narrow", in their opinion, with "tolerance" and "openness", they want to renew the Orthodox tradition in the light of "the latest achievements of science and culture". The irony, however, is that their very appeal demonstrates an inability to notice the changes taking place in the modern world.

Ten years ago, religion was a little-known book and cultural space. And so it seemed that "tolerance" meant the ability to buy books of different religions, put them side by side on the home bookshelf, and from time to time read a few pages from one book, then from another... But in the following years, religion broke free from the captivity of books. It has become a reality, drastically changing, and sometimes breaking the fate of real people. It turned out that "spiritual experience" really is experience. It turned out that what these books are talking about is more than real. The spirits threw off their symbolic-allegorical clothes and began to communicate directly with some excessively gullible readers. The world of religion turned out to be diverse and dangerous. A variety of "spirits" came into "contact" and did not disdain to appropriate other people's names to themselves. In these conditions of the rising dust storm, which brings all the astral-cosmic garbage into our world, to call for "openness" and "breadth", to recommend censoring the ancient Testaments at the behest of new newcomers means to maim people. In case of a dusty gust, the eyes should be squinted, not opened. The "narrowness" and "narrow-mindedness" of Orthodoxy in these conditions is simply a means of survival, a necessary technique of religious security.

After the opuses of "contactees" appeared on the book market, claiming to be a continuation of "Agni Yoga" (and the contactees claimed that Helena Roerich herself dictated these books to them from another world, or that the same Mahatmas who instructed the Roerichs got in touch with them), the Roerichs themselves began to warn that there are many fakes in the world of dreams, voices, contacts and visions. Christians have been talking about forgeries for a long time. Therefore, it is all the more necessary to pay attention to the centuries-old warnings that have always come from the Orthodox Church: "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God" (1 Jn. 4,1).

And how to "test" spirits? – To do this, we need to turn to the ascetic, monastic tradition of Orthodoxy and familiarize ourselves with the signs of "delusion", seduction, which are described in it. The spiritual experience of people can flow from completely different sources. "Revelation" is not a guarantor of truth. The question is who exactly "opened". God, or not... By the trace that this "revelation" left in the soul of the contactee and in his written works, in his preaching, one can judge who this person met.

Therefore, a comparison of what the Holy Fathers preached, what the Gospel says, with what the creators of the Theosophist say, is the way to diagnose their spiritual state: who is really the spirit who, in communication with Blavatsky and the Roerichs, sometimes called himself by the name of Christ...

One should not neglect the experience of church thought and spiritual warfare. After all, our Creeds are "road signs at the crossroads of the Christian faith, warning of the danger that was once avoided with their help."

***

The proposed book contains polemics with the main publications with which Roerich's preachers responded to their excommunication from the Church. Acquaintance with the ways in which the Roerichs conduct polemics with Orthodoxy is useful not only for those who have already encountered Roerich's appeals on their way. The same methods are used by other sects that disguise their occultism under Christian garb.

Надеюсь, эта книга поможет не только понять, что именно отталкивает православных от теософии, но поможет осознать – что именно радует нас в Православии.

1. МАСОНЫ И ШАМБАЛА, ИЛИ МОГУТ ЛИ ВРАТЬ МАХАТМЫ?

2000 лет христианства будут отмечать все. Но смысл этой дате будут придавать разный.

Для христиан это символ вечности христианства, и в третье тысячелетие нашей истории мы входим, уверенные в том, что миссия Церкви будет продолжаться и за пределами 2000 года.