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wikimediacommons.com - Nicholas Roerich
In 1876, Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich, one of Russia's greatest artists, married Helena Shaposhnikov a pianist and author who later translated Helena Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine. They joined the London in 1919, but a year later, the Roerichs founded the Agni Yoga Society, which espoused a living ethic encompassing and synthesizing the philosophies and religious teachings of all ages.
In 1904 Roerich began the first of a series of religious paintings dealing with Russian saints and legends and angels. Later paintings depict masters and saints of the Far East. These are the heavenly beings and hierarchical masters of the Great White Brotherhood, who the Roerichs believed watched over and guided the destiny of mankind. Many of these painting have “treasure” in the titles as in
The Treasure in the Mountain
and Hidden Treasure. It is clearly not material treasure that he refers to, but rather the spiritual treasures that lie hidden, yet available to those with the will to seek and find.
In 1949, The Nicholas Roerich Museum was established near the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. Many of Roerich's paintings can be seen there, making it one of the most extensive collections of Roerich's work in the world. I visited the museum in 1998 and spent most of an afternoon gazing at the dozens of paintings that fill its three floors.
Between 1916 and 1919 Roerich wrote a collection of sixty-four poems that were published in Russian, under the title Flowers of Morya, and subsequently published in English as Flame in Chalice. These were messages to mankind from the ascended master El Morya. If you want to understand the symbolism in Roerich's paintings, these poems paint with vivid words some of the images that Roerich later painted with a brush, and give an understanding of the meaning behind some of the symbols.
In 1923, the Roerichs traveled to India and met with Indian scientists, artists, and writers. Before long, they began an expedition through untracked regions of Chinese Turkestan, Altai, Mongolia and Tibet where few Westerners had ever set foot in order to study the religions, languages, customs, and culture of the inhabitants.
Roerich wrote about this expedition in Heart of Asia, and he again painted with words a vivid account of the land and its people. However, the verbal paintings are nowhere as vivid as in the five hundred or so paintings that resulted from the trek. In Kanchenjunga, Sikkim Pass, His Country, The Great Spirit of the Himalayas, and the Banners of the East series, we can see philosophical concepts and ideas giving rise to visual images, with the majestic mountains of Northern India providing the physical setting.
In The Path,
the figure of Christ leads the way along a tortuous path through the Himalayas, a metaphor for the difficulties and obstacles confronting those on the spiritual path. Eastern religious figures and concepts appear in the paintings, important among these being the images of the Lord Maitreya, who is “destined to appear on earth for the final destruction of the wicked, the renovation of creation and the restoration of purity.”(quoted from The Theosophical Glossary, by H. P. Blavatsky)
The trek was at times exhausting and dangerous. Roerich recorded thirty-five mountain passes from fourteen to twenty-one thousand feet in elevation that they had to cross. In spite of obstacles, wherever they went the Roerichs' belief in the essential goodness of man was reinforced. Roerich's Banners of the East series of nineteen paintings depicting the world's religious teachers: Mohammed, Jesus, Moses, Confucius, and Buddha, and the Indian and Christian saints and sages, was a testimonial to the unity of religious striving and the common roots of man's faith.
Also prominent in many of Roerich's paintings is the image of the Divine Feminine and the destined role of women in the coming new age, and we can assume that what Helena Roerich wrote to a friend in 1937 reflects Nicholas' own point of view: “...woman should realize that she herself contains all forces, and the moment she shakes off the age-old hypnosis of her seemingly lawful subjugation and mental inferiority and occupies herself with a manifold education, she will create in collaboration with man a new and better world... Cosmos affirms the greatness of woman's creative principle. Woman is a personification of nature, and it is nature that teaches man, not man nature. Therefore, may all women realize the grandeur of their origin, and may they strive for knowledge.” (published in Letters of Helena Roerich 1935-1939, vol. II)
Nicholas Roerich depicted the divine feminine in such paintings as She Who Leads, Madonna Laboris, and The Mother
of the World. 
This painting is one of Roerich's most inspiring images, rendered with majesty in deep tones of blue and violet. It's one of my favorite because it's filled with symbolism.
Notwithstanding Roerich's artistic and literary endeavors, his greatest achievement was his Pax Cultura. Also known as the Roerich’s Pact, Pax Cultura ("Cultural Peace" or "Peace through Culture") is the motto of the cultural artifact protection movement he founded, and is symbolized by a maroon on white emblem consisting of three solid circles in a surrounding circle.
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According to the Roerich Museum, "The Banner of Peace symbol has ancient origins. Perhaps its earliest known example appears on Stone Age amulets: three dots, without the enclosing circle. Roerich came across numerous later examples in various parts of the world, and knew that it represented a deep and sophisticated understanding of the triune nature of existence. But for the purposes of the Banner and the Pact, Roerich described the circle as representing the totality of culture, with the three dots being Art, Science, and Religion, three of the most embracing of human cultural activities. He also described the circle as representing the eternity of time, encompassing the past, present, and future.
The sacred origins of the symbol, as an illustration of the trinities fundamental to all religions, remain central to the meaning of the Pact and the Banner today." It's also thought that the three dots were connected to the three dots in El Morya's signature as signed by various messengers.
On April 15, 1935 an international treaty known as the Roerich Pact was signed by the United States and 20 Latin American nations, agreeing that "historic monuments, museums, scientific, artistic, educational and cultural institutions" should be protected both in times of peace and war, and identified by their flying a distinctive flag, the Banner of Peace, bearing the Pax Cultura emblem. The Soviet Union signed the treaty in 1959. The scheme was to be a cultural analog to the Red Cross for medical neutrality. Although the symbol has been superseded by a UN cultural symbol, it's still used today by Roerich groups.
The Roerichs envisioned artistic and cultural pursuits bridging political differences. An American painter or dancer could learn techniques from an East Indian painter or dancer, and in this way bridge cultural differences. By learning the skills of art, music and dance, the traditions and world views of all cultures would be shared and respected. They envisioned beauty and knowledge creating a universal language that could unite all nations.
In The New Era Community, El Morya said through Roerich, "The Great Helpers of humanity do not abandon the Earth so long as sufferings go unhealed. Wholehearted fellowship can easily heal the wounds of a friend — but it is necessary to develop the art of thinking in the name of Good. And this is not easy amid the day's hustle and bustle. But the examples of the Great Helpers of humanity can encourage and infuse new forces."
I consider Nicholas and Helena Roerich among the Great Helpers of humanity who have blazed a trail for us to follow.