“Out of Russia comes again the hope of the world”
— Edgar Cayce

Russians played a significant role in the revival of the esoteric sciences in the modern world. The flamboyant Russian Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891) founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 and to this day her writings continue to be studied by seekers of arcane knowledge. The Russian Orientalist and painter Nikolai Roerich (1874-1947), with his wife Elena, developed the school of Agni Yoga. Roerich received many of the world’s highest honours for his prodigious humanitarian, cultural and artistic endeavours. The books of the Russian journalist P.D. Ouspenski (1878-1947) still enjoy a wide and influential readership. While groups devoted to the ideas of his enigmatic spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff (1866-1949) are active throughout the world. And all these gifted thinkers shared the conviction Russia had a special destiny to fulfil in ushering in a new Golden Age civilisation.

 Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), who established the Anthroposophical movement, taught that the Slavic “folk soul” would play a major role in the future development of a new spiritual humanity. (Russians constitute the largest Slavic nation.) He saw the Slavs as a spiritual bridge between the Orient (East) and the Occident (West). According to Steiner, the religious thought of the Orient belongs to the past; the Occident’s philosophical-scientific thought to the present; the Slavic soul will bridge the two and create a pathway to a spiritual future. More than any other national soul, claimed Steiner, the Russian folk soul strives to realise the world of the spirit. In Russia the synthesis of the highest features of both Eastern and Western cultures would one day be achieved.

“Its geographic location places Russia between two extreme, monolithic cultures — between the materialist countries of the West and the passive, world-denying countries of the East. It is appropriate that Russia creatively unite these extremes,” wrote Nikolai Belotsvetov, one of Steiner’s leading Russian followers.

Russia In Prophecy

But it is not only the founders of the twentieth century occult revival who heralded Russia’s special destiny. In the predictions of the famous British clairvoyant Count Louis Hamon (1866-1936), who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Cheiro’, we find remarkable references to a spiritual mission for Russia. Cheiro, whose best selling 1926 Cheiro’s World Predictions has been described as a prophetic “history of the last seven decades,” wrote:

The day will come when Russian waste of blood — the blood he has and will yet pour out like water — will make ‘a new heaven and a new Earth…’ …the mysterious Aquarian Age has commenced its dawn across the world, and already its first rays have revolutionised Russia…

Remember these words were written years before the Second World War claimed the lives of more than 20 million Russians.

A new idea of government will little by little spread from [Russia], which will completely revolutionise Europe, Asia, the Far East, and Russia will become the most powerful nation in the history of modern civilization.

Russia, however, having for its zodiacal ruler the sign of Aquarius... and Uranus, will recover more quickly from revolutions or disaster and will advance more rapidly towards the achievement of its purpose….

Alice A. Bailey who, like Cheiro, went to the United States from England, also saw a unique role for Russia in ushering in the New Age civilisation. Over thirty years ago, with Russia firmly behind the communist iron curtain, she predicted:

Behind the closed borders of that mysterious and magnificent country [Russia], a great and spiritual conflict is proceeding, and the rare mystical spirit and the truly religious orientation of the people is the eternal guarantee that a true and living religion and culture will finally emerge. Out of Russia…will emerge that new and magical religion about which I have so often told you.

Throughout the readings of the ‘Sleeping Prophet’ Edgar Cayce we again encounter amazing references to Russia’s special place in the cosmic plan. Cayce said:

In Russia there comes the hope of the world, not as that sometimes termed of the communistic, or Bolshevik, no; but freedom, freedom! That each man will live for his fellow man! The principle has been born. It will take years for it to be crystallised, but out of Russia comes again the hope of the world. (Edgar Cayce, 1944, No. 3976-29)

Over a decade earlier Cayce had predicted:

... for changes are coming, this may be sure — an evolution, or revolution in the ideas of religious thought. The basis of it for the world will eventually come out of Russia; not communism, no! But rather that which is the basis of the same, as the Christ taught — His kind of communism! (Edgar Cayce, c. 1930, No. 452-6)

On Russia’s religious development will come the greater hope of the world. Then that one or group that is the closer in its relationship [with Russia] may fare the better in gradual changes and final settlement of conditions as to the rule of the world. (Edgar Cayce, c.1932)

[In Russia] a new understanding has come and will come to a troubled people… (Edgar Cayce, c.1938)

All these predictions were made at a time when Russia was in the totalitarian grip of the materialist dogma of Marxism-Leninism. Few people could have conceived of Russia, the homeland of atheistic communist revolution, as crucial to worldwide spiritual rebirth.

The fall of communist ideology and the dramatic events stemming from the collapse of the super power Soviet Union gave fresh impetus to these predictions of Edgar Cayce, Alice A. Bailey and Cheiro. Before his death G.I. Gurdjieff, one of the most amazing spiritual teachers to come out of pre-revolutionary Russia, told his students: “Remember what now I say, begin in Russia, finish in Russia.” While the Indian guru Osho, an equally enigmatic and controversial teacher, is reported as observing:

Russia seems to be a land of destiny, not only for its own people, but for the whole world. It was the first to revolt against capitalism; it is going to be again the first to revolt against dictatorial communism. The future is of a democratic communism, a communism rooted in the freedom of man...

As we enter the twenty first century, humanity still waits for what Edgar Cayce called the “new understanding”, the “revolution in religious thought”, what Alice A. Bailey termed “that new and magical religion.” Could it be Russia, a land that has endured so much in this twentieth century, will finally fulfil its prophetic destiny in the new millennium? Revolution, civil war, famine, two world wars, political repression….were these just part of a catastrophic cleansing process signalling the end of one cycle and the beginning of a new, superior cycle in which Russia will discover its true cosmic mission? On the eve of the third millennium the real question seems to be: “Are we ready to receive that ‘new understanding’ soon to come out of Russia?”