Omraam Mikhaël
Aïvanhov

The Life of a Master in the West***********************************
Copyright © 2008 by Louise-Marie Frenette.
Copyright © 2009 by Prosveta US Dist.

Journey with Omraam
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
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photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the
copyright holder.
Translated from the French by Violet Nevile.
Original Title: La vie d’un Maître en Occi-

dent.
Copyright © 2008 Editions AdA.
Book cover photo: © Editions Prosveta,
France.
Louise-Marie Frenette’s Website:www.lmfrenette.com

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov Copyright ©
2016

Contents
Who is Omraam Mikhaël
Aïvanhov?
1

Part I.
Youth
Cha
Chap
pter 1.
Everything is Foreshadowed inChildhood
6
Cha
Chap
pter 2.
‘Hear, my Son…’
38
Cha
Chap
pter 3.
The Aspirations of Adolescence
82
Cha
Chap
pter 4.
Illumination
132

Part II.
The Disciple
Cha
Chappter 5.
The Beginning of a New Life
172
Cha
Chap
pter 6.
Year After Year I Worked…
210
Cha
Chap
pter 7.
The Seven Lakes of Rila
277
Cha
Chap
pter 8.
The Wondrous Powers ofThought and Word
299
Cha
Chap
pter 9.
I Will Give You a Precious Stone
333

Part III.
Brother MichaelCha
Chappter 10.
God Gives Freely
367
Cha
Chap
pter 11.
An Attempt at a FraternalCommunity
421

Cha
Chap
pter 12.
The Conspiracy
452
Cha
Chap
pter 13.
Prison505
Cha
Chappter 14.
The Beauty we Create Aroundus539Part IV.
The Master
Cha
Chap
pter 15.
The Land of the Devas
564
Cha
Chap
pter 16
16..
A Spiritual Master
590
Cha
Chap
pter 17
17..
The Path of Light
636
Cha
Chap
pter 18
18..
A New Springtime of Love
676

Cha
Chap
pter 19.
I Am With You Even MoreThan Before
712
A Word from the Author
722
Chronology
726
Sources and Bibliography733

Who is Omraam
Mikhaël Aïvanhov?
‘He was my best friend, said the old man
called Kyril. He was also my spiritual
Master.’ And reaching into his pocket hebrought out a photograph of the man
who had been his guide, his model, hisfriend. We were sitting on a bench in asmall garden in Sofia. In front of us was
the grave of Peter Deunov, the founderof the brotherhood which had been
Mikhaël’s spiritual family. The roses, thevine-covered trellis laden with grapes, thewarmth of the sun… all spoke to us of theold brotherhood estate, now reduced tothis tiny park in the midst of the Bulgarian capital.

The year was 1992, and I had undertaken
to write a biography of Omraam Mikhaël
Aïvanhov, this great Bulgarian-born spiritual Master, who had traced a new path,a way of life which he called ‘the path ofLight’. In the course of seven long yearsof research I was to find that he was evenmore extraordinary than anything I could
have imagined; a creator of beauty, love,and brotherhood for the whole humanfamily; an architect of a new age on earth.
‘You were born four hundred years too
soon,’ he was told. Yes. As we listened
to him, in France, in Switzerland, or in
Canada, we sometimes had the same
thought. What he wished for humanity
still seemed so remote, so difficult toachieve. And yet he himself was so mucha part of the incarnate world, and histeaching was so well adapted to our needs
that we knew we were right to hope. And
we still hope. Indeed, our hopes growstronger and stronger.
As one era drew to a close and another2

– the era of Aquarius – began, Omraam
Mikhaël Aïvanhov spoke constantly of
brotherhood and love, of light and purity,of all that can help the children of thisworld to rediscover that they are the sonsand daughters of God.
The power of his teaching lies in this: it
is of primordial importance to transform
ourselves, but it is equally important totransform the world into a garden of paradise. Today, men and women, even children, are becoming more aware than everbefore of the necessity of helping eachother, of becoming one family united inlove and peace.
A Golden Age for humanity – that was
his vision: a universal brotherhood
embracing the whole of humankind; thekingdom of God become an earthly reality. This is why, when he spoke of Rama,the great legendary being who brought
about a Golden Age to the world in the
distant past, his voice resonated with3

such enthusiasm. He saw what it couldbe.

4PART I

YOUTH

1

#

Everythingis
ForeshadowedinChildhoodOmraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov was born inthe little village of Serbtzi in Macedonia
at the dawn of the 20th century. It wasin the early morning hours of January 31,
1900, as the first cockcrow announced thelight of a new day. Grandmother Mountain, massive with its domed summit,
watched over the sleeping village. In thegardens the trees crackled in the bitter
cold, but in the house of Mikhaël’s parents, a great fire blazed in the hearth. To
the surprise of those present, the newborn did not cry: ‘When a child returns
to earth, it cries. But I didn’t, I was told. I
smiled.’1
Mikhaël was born early, at eight months,
and Dolia, his mother, feared for his life.
Before the day was out, she had the village priest come and baptize him. In the
Macedonian villages at that time, life wasso harsh that the chances of survival were
slim for a premature baby.
Dolia had lived with her husband’s family
since she had married Ivan Dimitrov at
the age of fourteen.2 She had become part7

of a large family of farmers, all of whom,
men and women alike, shared in thework, taking turns laboring in the fields
or tending to domestic chores. In therural areas – particularly in these isolated
villages – families helped each other,pooling their efforts with their neighbors,
sowing and harvesting together in one
plot of land after another.
Like all the children in her village, Dolia
had learned to work in the house and garden since the age of four. When her turncame, she labored with the others in thefields until nightfall, carried heavy buckets of water to the field-workers, or
looked after the many children. She was
not an ordinary woman. Short and slight,
she possessed a great inner strength.
Spontaneous and outgoing by nature, gay
and generous, she was full of affection forher family and friends. She rapidly
became an indispensable element of harmony in her new family who learned torely on her kind heart and ready sense ofhumor.

8

At the time of Mikhaël’s birth Dolia wastwenty-four, and matured by the traumas
and hardships of life in an unforgiving
environment. Her first-born, a boy, haddied as an infant, and her second child,a girl, was about six. In her ten years ofmarried life she had already experienced
the loneliness suffered by many womenat the time. Conditions in the mountainvillages were so precarious that the men
often went to seek their fortune in thetowns or with the charcoal-burners in theforests. With hope and physical strength
as their only resource, they left theirwives and children, convinced theywould soon find the work that would
make them rich. The successful ones visited their families briefly every two or
three years, returning home for good only
when they could no longer work.
Like many other married women, Dolia
had endured her husband’s absence forlong periods at a time. A few years after
their marriage, Ivan had established his
own charcoal business in Bulgaria, in a9forest on the outskirts of the Black Sea
port of Varna. It was a long way from
Serbtzi and his visits home were rare.
Mikhaël’s childhood was thus marked by
the absence of his father, but also by theconstant political and social upheavals,
by insurrections and terror. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Macedonia –like Bulgaria and most of the Balkans –was still subject to Ottoman rule. The
region, whose population included some
two million Bulgarians, was in a state ofsocial and economic stagnation. Covetedby its neighbors, it was the arena of ongoing skirmishes between Turks, Serbs,
Greeks, and Bulgarians, all of whom laidclaim to it. For decades, the people had
known nothing but armed incursions,abortive popular uprisings and cruelreprisals. Again and again, at the firstwarning of the approach of soldiers, thewomen fled to the woods with their children to hide.
More than once Dolia had to flee into10

hiding. As Mikhaël was to recall later:‘One day my mother had to leave thehouse in a hurry and run to hide in theforest. She was carrying me in her arms
and we hid in a tree, but we could not staythere because it was full of ants.’
In addition to difficulties of this kind,
Dolia experienced other personal sorrows: not long after Mikhaël’s birth, her
seven-year old daughter died suddenly. It
was not in Dolia’s nature, however, topine or withdraw into herself. She went
about her work, taking her full share of
responsibility in her husband’s family
and in that most precious duty of all, theeducation of her son.
***
We have learned of the events of
Mikhaël’s youth from his own accounts
as well as those of his mother, his family
and their friends. In her old age, Dolia
was like all grandmothers: she liked to tellher grandchildren about the important11

events of her life. And later, Mikhaël,who lived in France from the age ofthirty-seven, would stimulate his audience by interspersing his talks on spiritual, philosophical, and cultural subjects
with first-hand accounts of his youth, of
his experiences, of the ordeals he had
endured and the discoveries he had made.
One of the events which occurred in his
early childhood seems to have had realimportance for him, for he talked about it
many years later. Dolia also told the tale.
One evening the family was all gathered
at home with some neighbors when
Mikhaël, who was only a few months old,suddenly stood upright and took a few
steps unaided. Everyone was astonishedfor he was far too young to walk, and in
the midst of the exclamations of surprise,
one of the old women in the room
declared: ‘That child is really out of theordinary! I foresee a brilliant future forhim.’
But Dolia remained silent. She was wor-

12

ried: the fact that her baby had walked
months before his body was ready forsuch an effort was in itself mysterious,
but she also had the feeling that the incident had a special significance for his life.
Instinctively she was afraid of possible
repercussions and glanced anxiously at
two of the women present who weregreatly feared by the villagers. They weresaid to practice black magic, and no one
who had seen the terrifying effects of thiswas inclined to take the matter lightly.
None of the villagers dared to refuse
them admittance to their home.
That night Mikhaël suddenly becamevery ill and his condition worsened
rapidly. Dolia sent at once for her mother
who was a skilled healer, but even she
was hard put to it to save her grandson’slife. Mikhaël was eventually cured, but hewas late in learning to walk.
He would say one day:
I interpreted this incident later and real-13

ized that I had to be subjected to a very
severe trial before being able to walk.
And this is what happened. I saw thenthat everything is foreshadowed in childhood, but we pay no attention. There isan extraordinary science here.3
Mikhaël’s grandmother, Astra, had been
one of the countless victims of thosetroubled times. In 1875 or thereabouts,
she had been widowed and her life
thrown into disarray when her husband
was killed and their house destroyed during an armed raid on the village. Pregnant
at the time with Dolia – Mikhaël’s mother– she found herself alone and forced towork as never before to provide for theneeds of her family.
Astra was a remarkable woman. She was
widely known for her skill as a midwife
and reputed to be one of the region’sfinest healers. As has always been thecase in countries in which medical services were unavailable, those who lived inrural areas were accustomed to call on a14

local healer for help in sickness. For themost part these were women with a keen
intuition and an exceptional knowledgeof nature – gifts often passed on frommother to daughter – which enabled
them to relieve suffering and sometimes
to cure even serious illnesses. In theregion of Mount Pelister, toward the endof the 19th century, people came from far
and near to consult Astra. Thanks to her
knowledge of the healing properties ofplants, she successfully treated people
suffering from a variety of illnesses. Manyof her remedies included secrets handed
down from ancient times, particularly
those involving the beneficial propertiesof aromatic plants, the magnetic currents
found in certain spots on earth, and theinfluence of sunlight and stars on thehuman body.
Astra’s work as a midwife meant that she
was often called out at night. Without
hesitation and seemingly tireless, sheoften trudged miles through deep snow
to a distant cottage or farmstead. Pay-

15

ment for the services of a midwife traditionally consisted of a towel and a pieceof soap. Rarely did she receive more. And
as the financial rewards for her work as
a healer were hardly more lavish, sheearned barely enough to support her
small family. From her patients she
received a great deal of love and gratitude– veneration even – but times were hard
for all, and money was scarce.
***
Mikhaël was probably four or five when
he first took part in one of his country’s
most beautiful customs. On New Year’sDay, small boys became the messengers
of good fortune, invested with the power
to call down blessings on their neighbors
and friends. Warmly wrapped up against
the cold and carrying a twig of dogwood
decorated with colored ribbons, theywent from house to house, tapping each
person present with the twig while reciting wishes for good health and abundant
harvests in the new year. The adults

16

thanked them by putting an apple, some
sweets or a sugar bun into the bag carriedby each child.
Some of Dolia’s neighbors, eager toreceive the first blessing of the year from
Mikhaël, begged his mother to send him
to them very early, before the other children. Dolia awakened him before dawn,
dressed him, and before they set out
together, made sure that he remembered
the greeting he was to recite. It must havebeen hard for the small child to brave thedarkness and battle against the snow andthe cold wind, but he knew the meaningof what they were doing, for Dolia had
explained it to him, and he did his best.
The deeper meaning of this custom
remained forever in his memory, forwhile still a young child, he had begun todiscern the symbolism of the little things
which made up his everyday life.
Four things to which Mikhaël was particularly attracted were significant: he loved
threads and every kind of string, the17water gushing from a spring, fire, and talltrees. These four ‘childhood passions’, ashe called them, played an important partin his development, pointing him very
early in life toward the reality that eachone represented. Threads came to symbolize the complexity of relationshipsthat bind human beings and the different
elements of creation to each other. The
clear, transparent water that flowed fromthe ground spoke to him of purity. The
fire that gives light, warmth and life led
him gradually to a ‘solar’ philosophy. Talltrees awoke in him the love of heights.
At the age of four, with infinite patience,
he picked up and treasured every scrap ofstring, every thread of wool or cotton hecould find. One room in the family home
had a particular fascination for him: in it
was a loom and around the walls hungskeins of brightly colored thread. From
the doorway, he watched his cousin
weaving, spellbound by the movement ofher hands as they danced over the warp,
gradually transforming the separate

18

threads into a piece of cloth. It was thenthat he began to have his first dim perception of the true meaning of threads,
which speak not only of binding andunbinding, but which can be woven into
something useful, beautiful and durable.
One day when the weaver was out,
Mikhaël ventured into the room andstood by the loom, gazing with fascination at all the bright threads stretchedover the frame. Suddenly, moved by anirresistible impulse that seemed to wellup from the depths of his being, he seizeda pair of scissors, and barely conscious ofwhat he was doing, cut them all off theloom. He was still there, clutching his
precious harvest of colored threads,
when his cousin found him. And what a
to-do followed: seeing her loom strippedof all its threads, the poor woman criedout in horror, and as other people arrived,a bewildered and angry tumult surrounded him. But Mikhaël, although herealized that what he had done waswrong, clutched the beloved threads to19his heart, hearing only the small voice
within which spoke to him of theirimportance. Telling of the incident years
later, he said: ‘I just looked at them. I
could not understand why they were so
upset!’
It goes without saying that he was punished by his mother, who had to spend
the best part of the night repairing thedamage. Only years later did he really
understand the hidden symbolism of thisstrange childhood passion. In previous
incarnations, he explained, he must havebeen aware of the significance of threads
and learned to tie and untie them:Obviously, at that age, it was unconscious, but there was certainly a hidden
intelligence urging me on. It was simply
in order to show me that nothing happens by chance, for the day I understoodthose childhood passions which seemedso strange, I discovered a whole wonderful world. Life itself is simply a questionof threads, nothing but threads…4

20

The correspondences linking the physical and the spiritual worlds never ceased
to fascinate Mikhaël. Throughout his life
he worked to create links between these
two worlds.
His second great passion, his love ofwater, was born in him when he was not
yet five. While exploring the land aroundthe family home, he found water bubbling from a tiny spring and flowing away
under the foliage. Intrigued, he lay facedown in the grass for a long time, watching this marvel of nature. In the days andmonths that followed, the spring drew
him like a magnet. Fascinated by thetransparency of the water, he spent hours
gazing at it, astonished to see that it neverstopped flowing. If someone asked where
Mikhaël was, the answer was always:‘Mikhaël? He must be by the spring.’ And
that is where they found him.
The image of the spring took root deep
within his mind. As a child of Aquarius,
he was always drawn to water: rivers,

21

waterfalls and the sea were a constantsource of wonder and delight to him.
Of his four childhood passions, however,it was his love of fire that was foremost.
The fires set by the peasants to burn off
weeds or stubble, the oil lamp that lit theevening meal, the tiny votive light thatburned before the holy icon, the flamesblazing in the fireplace, all these manifestations of fire enchanted him. At the ageof five he began to light his own little firesof straw or twigs, just for the pleasure ofwatching them burn. For a time, no one
caught him in the act, but eventually thisdangerous pastime ended in neardisaster. One day, while exploring his
parents’ hay-loft, he found some rotten
straw, so black and ugly that he decided
to put a match to it. ‘It’s too old. It must
be burned,’ he told himself.
Without hesitation, raking it into a heap,
he set it alight and watched the leaping
flames, thinking he had never seen anything so beautiful. Before long, however,22his delight changed to concern as the fire
became more than he could handle andhe realized his helplessness. Suddenly,
alerted by the smoke, the adults camerunning in with buckets of water tothrow on the blazing straw, while the little boy, still half engrossed in his delight,
began to realize that this new escapade
was serious and would certainly cost him
his supper. Taking to his heels, he ran totake refuge with his grandmother Astra.
For Mikhaël, Astra was the good fairy
who always protected him and cared for
him when he was ill. In his eyes she wasa truly exceptional being. Her hands wereskilled in bringing little children into theworld, and her immense knowledge
enabled her to restore sick people tohealth. Many years later in Paris, Mikhaël
spoke of her several times, and in his talks
there are references to her remarkable
lore and the wisdom and skill she manifested. He would say that it was becausesuch great love overflowed from her that
she had received the gift of healing.

23

A special relationship of tender affection
and understanding united the old woman
and her grandson, and if one of his
pranks ended badly he would always run
to hide with her. He was convinced thatno one would know where he was andhe was always surprised when they found
him there. But it was his grandmother’s‘clairvoyance’ that really astonished him:
She always seemed to know what wasgoing on inside me and I could not understand how. But as soon as she saw theanxiety in my eyes, she immediately said:‘Aha, I see you have been up to mischiefagain! 5
And sure enough, on the day of the fire in
the hay loft, seeing that anxious look in
his eyes, she exclaimed: ‘Ah, you’ve done
something naughty again!’‘How do you know?’ asked Mikhaël
uneasily.
‘I can see it in your face!’ she replied, andto give him time to summon up the24

courage to face his mother, who ruled
him with great firmness, she added:‘Never mind! Come and hide with me.’***In spite of the remorse he experienced
after that disaster, his love of fire did notdiminish any more than his love of water.
In his words:
Ever since I was born I have had a special leaning toward fire, and although,when I was young, I used to set fire tobarns, later I understood that I would do
better to leave physical fire alone and set
fire to my own heart and the hearts ofothers.6
Instinctively, he sensed the role of waterand fire in nature, and his passion forthem presaged their importance in his lifeand his teaching. The beauty, the purity,and the symbolism of these two elements
would always be a source of nourishment

25and inspiration to him, as well as key
instruments in his spiritual work.
But fire and water were not the only natural phenomena for which he had a passion; there were also trees. He had a special affection for the tall poplars in the village, whose leaves whispered in responseto every breath of wind and whose soaring trunks made him dream of greatheights. As soon as he was strong enoughto climb from branch to branch all theway to the top, he would perch there forhours, looking out over the surrounding
countryside. Delighting in the beauty ofnature that revealed itself to him in all
its splendor, he felt like a bird, ready to
spread his wings and fly. Dolia knew thatwhen Mikhaël was not near the spring,
he was sure to be found in the highest
branches of a tree.
This passion for heights revealed amarked tendency in his character whichbecame constantly more imperative, aninnate impulse to look at everything from26

the highest possible point of view. Later,
he would recall the experiences of hischildhood and use the example of a childperched at the top of a tree, who can see
things that his father, in spite of his great
learning, is incapable of seeing fromground level. He would speak of theimportance of placing oneself above circumstances and events, so as to see farther and understand more clearly themeaning of life.
***
The natural environment in which
Mikhaël spent his early childhood washarsh. Serbtzi was in a rugged, mountainous part of Macedonia, dominated by thegreat mass of Mount Pelister. At the
beginning of the 20th Century, physicalconditions in these parts were still very
primitive. The houses were without comfort, and people slept on beds of straw
covered with mats. In winter, the snow
and icy winds made all outdoor work27

painfully laborious, and the villages were
cut off from each other.
Most of the schools were one-room huts,
built of a wooden frame filled in with
mud and straw. They were heated bywood-burning stoves, and if anybody had
the misfortune to break a window it was
replaced with paper to keep out the cold,
for there was no money to buy a newpane of glass. In winter it was the duty ofeach of the thirty or forty pupils to finda log in the forest and carry it to schoolwith them. If some of them forgot theircontribution, the cold gradually crept
back into the classroom toward the endof the day, making it impossible for thechildren to pay attention to their lessons.
During his first year of school, Mikhaël
was enthralled when the teacher read theBible account of creation. It was a revelation of such beauty that he was eager toshare it with his family. As quickly as possible, he learned the story by heart, andwhen he was ready to recite it to them,28

he did so with such detail and contagious
enthusiasm that the adults listened inastonishment, taken aback both by his
knowledge and his talent as a storyteller.
For the rest of his life, Mikhaël had a special fondness for the Book of Genesis.
The picture of God, whose word createssuch wondrous things, remained alive in
his mind for many years.
On his sixth birthday Mikhaël received abooklet about St Athanasius, whose feast
fell on that day. Captivated and deeply
moved by the beauty of a life of great
purity and loving dedication, he decided
then and there that he too would become‘impeccable’.
This little book marked an importantmilestone in his life and followed on adecision he had made two years earlier:‘At the age of four I had made up mymind not to marry.’ This was a surprising
choice in one so young, and although he
did not understand it himself, he was29deeply convinced it was the right thingfor him.
As with all true mystics, his great sensitivity urged him not only to seek beautyin the world around him but also to withdraw into himself in search of the divine
source within. While still a small child he
was capable of concentrating for hours at
a time on some phenomenon of nature,and he often went off alone to reflect onsome words of his mother or grandmother that he had taken to heart. But hewas a high-spirited child, and as he sometimes said, ‘my behavior was not always
very orthodox’, and the emotions triggered by the life of St Athanasius weresoon eroded by the reality of life at school
and the difficulties occasioned by his
impetuosity.
Indeed, the little boy’s turbulence wasoften a problem for his neighbors and acause of concern for his mother. Thereis no doubt that the energy and exceptional inner strength with which he was30

endowed would prove indispensable forhis future work, but his curiosity about
everything often led him into trouble.
Although his family were ready to recognize that he meant well, they could not
help but be angry and administer punishment when his good intentions ended indisaster. When the neighbors, exasperated by his experiments with fire and the
explosions of his firecrackers, complained to his mother, she always stoodup for him and asked them to be patient.
‘You don’t know what he’s really like. He
is troublesome now, but just wait: you’ll
see how he turns out.’
She often thought back to the day of hisbirth. The priest who had baptized
Mikhaël, a holy old man much venerated
by all the villagers, had surprised everyone by drinking to his health. They knewthat he never touched alcohol, but thatday he raised his glass in the traditional
toast: ‘Na Zdrave!—Good health!’ Then,
turning to Dolia he added: ‘Truly, I have31never known such a thing. This child isdifferent from others. He is destined for
great things, but he will have to choose
between good and evil.’
Dolia told her son one day that she had
consecrated him to God from themoment of his conception. She could notknow then that he would one day becomea great spiritual Master and guide forthousands, but she dreamed of having achild who would be ‘a true servant ofGod’, who would devote his life to spiritual work. While she was carrying him,
she had constantly wished for him all thatwas most beautiful and perfect, and while
he was growing up she always appealed towhat was best and most noble in his character.
Mikhaël used to say that his mother had
been his first model. The education she
gave him left an indelible mark. With
unerring intuition she always found simple words and images which appealed tohis heart and mind and helped him

32understand that his turbulent energies
could be used constructively. She wasalways calm and never beat him for his
pranks, neither did she try to force him tochange. Instead, she appealed to his intelligence by painting a vivid picture ofwhat he would become if he behaved
badly or, on the other hand, if he learned
to control his impulses.
‘Now you know what is in store for you.
The choice is up to you,’ she used to say,repeating the Bulgarian axiom:
Krivdina do pladnina; pravdina doveknina: That which is twisted will last
until noon tomorrow; that which isstraight will last for all eternity.
Her methods had a powerful effect on thechild. Each time she spoke to him in thisway he longed to throw himself into herarms and beg for forgiveness. ‘But
although I cried for hours, for she had
touched me deeply, I didn’t do so. My
pride held me back…’ Dolia had appealed33

to the best in him, to his most noble ideal,
and he could not forget her words. His
love for his mother went very deep, andthe example of her patience, her selflessness, and her love played a crucial role in
his life: ‘It was she who taught me to loveand respect all women.’His grandmother Astra was also an
important influence in his life. He spentlong moments at her knee listening tofantastic stories, to mystical legends andfairy-tales, vivid accounts of the epic battles between black and white magiciansin which good triumphed over evil. Naturally, Mikhaël was always on the side of
the white magicians, and although heknew in advance that every tale would
end in the victory of good, like all children he thrilled to a whole array of emotions as he listened to the dangerous
adventures of his heroes.
In the absence of Mikhaël’s father, theessential task of forming and guiding thegrowing boy fell to his mother and grand-34mother. These two exceptional women
were always by his side to sustain him
with their love and wisdom, to help him
to discover his innate possibilities andteach him to channel all his forces in theservice of light. They had no way ofknowing what the future held for thischild—the extreme poverty, and the derision, calumnies and betrayals that hewould have to endure before his mission
would be fulfilled—but they prepared
him to the best of their ability for his
future work.
Some of the family elders also had considerable influence on him. Most of themhad no book-learning and had never been
to school, but their attitude manifested
such kindness and dignity that Mikhaël
considered them living examples. He had
a special admiration for one old man who
was also called Mikhaël. When he talked,
weighing every word and every gesture,
he seemed to the child the personification of wisdom. Like Astra, he was a wonderful story-teller, and whenever he came35

to spend the evening with the family, heregaled Mikhaël with tales of the triumphof love over hatred, of light over darkness.
These old folk tales, full of esoteric symbolism, nourished the child’s mind andstimulated his ideal to become a true
champion of the light.

Notes
1.

O.M.A., Talk on August 13, 1978.

2.

In Bulgaria, as in Russia, children are calledby the family name to which is added thefirst name of their father. Thus Mikhaël
would be called Mikhaël Ivanov Dimitrov,meaning Mikhaël, son of Ivan Dimitrov. For
most of his life he would be known as
Mikhaël Ivanov. Note that the final ‘v’ in
Bulgarian is pronounced as ‘f’. This is why,
when Mikhaël first went to France, hewould spell his name as ‘Ivanoff’ so that it
would match the pronunciation. It was only36

later that the surname Ivanov was changed
to Aïvanhov.
3.

February 3rd, 1963.

4.

‘We must Never Sever the Link’ in Cosmic
Moral Law.

5.

March 27th, 1945.

6. Three Kinds of Fire’ in The Splendours of
Tiphareth.

37

2

#

‘Hear, mySon…’
In 1907, a few months after Mikhaël’s seventh birthday, a tragic event changed thecourse of his life. One day, as he waswalking by himself outside the village, he
saw a troop of armed men on the road.
They were still some distance away but
approaching rapidly. In alarm, Mikhaël
ran as fast as he could toward the village,

shouting a warning to a group of peasantsat work in the fields and gesturing tothem to flee. With great presence of mind
he led them to the river where they would
be concealed by the tall reeds that lined
the river bank. With his mother andother members of the family and all thevillagers who had been warned in time,
Mikhaël spent the rest of the day and wellinto the night plunged to the neck in theicy water, while the soldiers looted andset fire to the houses, shooting all those
who had been unable to flee.
That night Dolia made up her mind toleave with Mikhaël and join her husband
in Varna, in the north-east of Bulgaria.
Sadly, this meant leaving Astra, who
decided to remain in the village withthose who planned to rebuild theirhouses. For Mikhaël, who had such aclose relationship with his grandmother,
the departure from Serbtzi must havebeen deeply distressing. In haste, with asmall group of villagers who had alsodecided to leave, Dolia and Mikhaël set

39

out for the north, traveling mainly onfoot or in mule-drawn carts, avoiding
towns and villages for fear of meetingother bands of marauders. After a while
they were able to board a train that tookthem to the Black Sea coast.
In 1907, Varna, the ancient Black Sea portof Odessos founded by the Greeks in the
6th Century, was a city of some 40,000
inhabitants. On their arrival, Dolia and
Mikhaël found temporary shelter with a
Macedonian friend, while Ivan looked forsomething more permanent in the vicinity of his office in the Turkish quarter.
The accommodation he found for them
was a single room in the home of another
Macedonian friend. It was a spacious
house in Pleven Street—now renamed
Kapitan Petko Voïvoda Street—which
had once belonged to the bey, the Turkish
governor of the district, and the present
owner had taken in several families of
Macedonian refugees, each of which
occupied one room.

40

For the little boy, the difference between
this new home and his former environment was extreme. At the time, the Turkish quarter was virtually a slum, alabyrinth of narrow, dusty alleys and miserable shacks in the south-east of thetown, close to the sea. Many of thehouses had a secret door concealed
within the walls leading into the next
house—a useful precaution in these troubled times, when the Ottoman police
were still very active.
Relations between the families of theneighborhood—Turkish, Macedonian,and Bulgarian—seem to have been amicable enough, and the children spoke
both Bulgarian and Turkish. But all that
Mikhaël saw and heard was unfamiliar,
not least the Turkish priest—the Mullah—who occasionally visited the ownerof the house and his numerous tenants.
There were no more fields of wheat, nofresh vegetables or milk. All their food
had to be bought from the market stalls
or shops.

41

Although Mikhaël’s parents were quite
well off at this time, they always lived simply like those around them. It was
because of his work that Ivan had chosen
to live in the poorest quarter of the town,
but his business had been established forabout ten years and was now a prosperous concern with twenty or more
employees working in a large tract of forest outside Varna. He was in a position to
make plans for his son’s education.
After the first few months, Mikhaël
began to feel more at home in the town,
but his first spring in Varna must haveseemed very different from that he had
known in his native village. Here, thepeach and almond trees were coming into
flower, and the occasional walnut tree
was breaking into leaf in the backyards
and spare plots of land. Even the Turkish
quarter took on a festive air when its few
meager trees began to blossom, but it
could not compare with Serbtzi, wherewith the coming of the first warm days,

42the whole of nature seemed to burst out
in an explosion of joy.
Every year on March 1, it was the custom
for young and old alike to celebrate theapproach of spring by wearing a red andwhite pompon or bow, while the girls
plaited ribbons in their hair. The significance of this age-old tradition had long
been forgotten, but it was still honored
both in town and country. Naturally,
Mikhaël knew nothing of the symbolism
at the time, but many years later heexplained that red and white represent
the masculine and feminine principles atwork in nature.
The decorations were worn until theappearance of the first storks, omens ofgood fortune, when it was the custom foreveryone to make a wish. Dolia, like all
the other mothers, made two little balls of
red and white wool for Mikhaël to wear,
and soon the coming of the storks gave
him the opportunity to make one of thosewishes that are born only in the hearts of43

children. For weeks after those first daysof spring, every bush, railing, or lamppost
was decorated with discarded red andwhite pompons and ribbons.
For Mikhaël, the highlight of this period
was the feast of Easter. His family, likemost Bulgarians, belonged to the Orthodox Church. Each evening Ivan lit thesmall votive lamp in front of the icon in
their home while the family prayed
together for God’s protection during thenight.
The people of Bulgaria had been Christian since AD 865, during the reign ofKing Boris I, and throughout the five centuries of Ottoman rule the majority had
held staunchly to their Christian faith.
But the dioceses in Bulgaria were subject
to the Greek Orthodox patriarchate ofConstantinople, and little by little, Greek
had replaced Bulgarian as the language inthe churches and even the schools. At the
beginning of the 20th century, however,the vernacular was beginning to come44

into its own again. Not many years
before, Konstantin Deunovski, the priest
in charge of the local parish, had restored
the liturgy in Bulgarian. Ten years later, it
was Peter Deunov, the son of this priest,
who was to become Mikhaël’s spiritual
guide.
During the week before Easter a greatbustle of preparations went on in all thefamilies. On Holy Thursday, quantities
of sweet rolls had to be baked, and hardboiled eggs painted. The first egg wasalways painted red, the color that symbolizes life, and placed before the family
icon. Other eggs were then painted all thecolors of the rainbow. Toward eight ornine o’clock on Saturday evening, thefaithful gathered in the church for the
liturgy that would last until the earlyhours of Sunday morning. For Mikhaël,this was the high point, a ceremony that
was a magical manifestation of light. The
shimmering vestments of the celebrants,
the golden crown studded with precious
stones, the voices of men and women ris-

45

ing in great waves of sacred music thatfilled the church, the shadows that gradually receded and disappeared as the congregation lit their candles—all thisimpressed itself indelibly on his memory.
Looking at the multitude of flames that
lit the people’s faces, that dissolved thedarkness and illuminated the gold of theicons, he had the impression1 thatcohorts of fire were on the march.
But the ceremony lasted for several
hours, and he was relieved when at last
he could go out into the fresh air and joinother children in the game of striking
their eggs together, each attempting to
break others while keeping their own
intact. The broken eggs were eaten on thespot, while the one that survived unbroken was placed before an icon in the
church until the following year, as a symbol of life.
***
At the age of eight Mikhaël was already46very attentive to all that went on aroundhim. Each experience in these years ofchildhood was necessary to his future
understanding of the inner workings ofthe material world: he was eager to see
how things were made. He adored fireworks and everything that had any connection, however remote, with fire. Thelong moments he spent reflecting on eachnew discovery were vital to his intelligence, which sought instinctively to draw
the right conclusions from the phenomena stored in his memory. Paradoxically,
he often seemed to be absent, as though
his soul floated on a higher plane, as
though his spirit had not fully taken possession of his body.
As he explained later, the first years oflife are a special period during which achild often lives outside itself, as if in acloud, while subconsciously preparing toreceive the spirit. The length of thisperiod may vary considerably; in his caseit lasted until he was nearly nine. Insteadof mixing with other children and taking

47

part in their games, he often stood aside
and reflected about things.
For no apparent reason I was subject tooccasional feelings of sadness that swept
over me. In the eighth month of her pregnancy my mother had had a deeply distressing experience, and that distress hadtaken root in me. I have always had tostruggle against this tendency. … As achild I would watch other children playing without joining in their games. I
would not play or run about or sing withthem. I just stood and thought.2
It was during his eighth year that hebegan to associate more with other children, but in such a neighborhood
Mikhaël’s choice of playmates was very
limited. Most of the children he met in
the streets were wild and unruly. The
urban population of those times was
deeply marked by interminable years ofcivil war and a brutal political regime, andthe children, left to their own devices,
often formed gangs and fell into bad48

ways. On several occasions they tried tolead him astray and persuade him to steal
or join in their vandalism. They soon
learned that although his dynamic temperament and his openness and eagerness
to explore and learn about everything
made him as adventurous as any of them,he could never be persuaded to wrong
another human being.
My mind was busy with other things.
What would I have become if I had
joined them? Why did I refuse? I havethought a lot about that since. In any
case my doings were not always very
orthodox! I often got up to mischief, I set
fire to things and set off explosions, but
I refused to join those ruffians. I was aruffian myself, but all alone. I was notabout to join the others. Independent andfree… And the invisible world waswatching over me.3
At the same time, he was so guileless andso ignorant of their sly ways of avoiding
punishment that he often became their49

scapegoat. When they took to their heels
after some misdeed, he remained glued tothe spot with nothing to say in his own
defense. And as he never named the true
culprits, he was often beaten in theirplace. Even his mother punished him
sometimes, when he had been with agroup of children that had done someserious damage. But Mikhaël was notcompletely naïve: after igniting a firecracker he was quick to run away, eventhough he knew he would have to face
the music when he returned home, forthe neighbors would have already complained to his mother.
One day, however, having been falsely
accused yet again, he was so upset by his
parents’ lack of understanding that hedecided to leave home. Not knowing
where to go, he wandered down
Dounavska Street to the railway station,
where he spent some time watching thepassengers coming and going, and thinking about his situation.

50

Suddenly, the busy scene lost all interestfor him. Anxiety gripped him when herealized that, for the first time in his life,
at eight years old, he was faced with aserious problem that he was quite unable
to resolve by himself. Night was comingon; it was growing rapidly colder, and in
spite of his unhappiness, he was beginning to be hungry. Above all, he had no
idea where he could sleep that night.
Unable to bring himself to return home,
he decided that his most urgent problem
was to find somewhere to spend thenight. Leaving the station, he set out
briskly in the direction of the sea. To his
relief the solution soon presented itself inthe shape of a large bale of straw. ‘That
will do perfectly,’ thought Mikhaël tohimself, and it was with a sense of real
freedom that he slipped under a layer ofstraw and, forgetful of his empty stomach, was soon fast asleep.
Meanwhile, Dolia was scouring thestreets in search of him. As the evening
wore on she became more and more wor-

51

ried, unable to prevent herself from imagining all the terrible things that might
have happened to him.
Early next morning Mikhaël was awoken
by a railway worker, who asked him what
he was doing there.
‘I’ve left my family…’‘What, left your family? Go home rightaway or I’ll hand you over to the police!’
Mikhaël plucked up courage and madehis way home, where his parents greeted
him with exclamations of joy. His
mother, who understood him so well,hugged him close, without a word of
reproach.
Reassured and comforted by such a welcome, Mikhaël realized that nowhere in
the world could he be better off than withhis own family. He had to admit in allhonesty that in leaving home he had
wanted to make his parents feel that they
misunderstood him. Speaking of this in52

later years, he said that afterwards his‘inner counselors’ had talked to him at
length about his behavior, and he hadtaken what they said to heart. But mosthuman beings, he added, behave in thisway toward their heavenly parents: theywant to be free and independent, so they‘leave home’ and look for happiness elsewhere. ‘We want to punish God for reprimanding us and trying to get us to mend
our ways.’***
The happiness that Mikhaël enjoyed in
his family lasted barely a year and a half.
In the autumn of that year his father fell
seriously ill and within a few days wasat death’s door. Realizing the gravity of
his illness, Ivan worried about leaving his
wife alone to fend for herself, Mikhaël,and Alexander, the new baby of threemonths, and advised Dolia to marry agood friend of his. On October 3, 1908, he
died.

53

Dolia knew nothing about her husband’s
business and was at a loss to know what
to do to save it. A number of people took
advantage of her ignorance to cheat her
out of her due, and by the time they had
had their way, she found herself at theage of thirty-three with two children, inmourning for her husband, and almost
destitute. Her anguish was so great that
her health was seriously affected for along time.
In this time of distress Mikhaël did hisbest to take care of his mother. He prepared the meals, looked after his baby
brother and tried to keep their roomclean and tidy. He had been doing his
share of domestic chores for some time bythen, so it was not this aspect of the situation that he found hardest: it was his
mother’s extreme desolation that alarmed
him. Not quite nine years old, he felt terribly young and helpless. One day, at last,
help was forthcoming: the Macedonian
friend who had sheltered them on theirarrival in Varna appeared at the door

54

laden with a big bag of food. She hadcome to take care of his mother and thebaby.
As soon as Dolia was up and about again
she took steps to save her little family
from utter ruin. After discussion with theshareholders of her husband’s businessshe finally succeeded in obtaining somecompensation for all she had lost: she wasgiven the use of a house in Dounavska
Street, not far from where she had lived
for such a short time with Ivan.
Their new home was a small, rustic house
built of wood and cob in the Turkish
style, divided into tiny rooms. A separate
kitchen in which they could have theirmeals was built at right angles to the mainbuilding. Part of the ground floor was set
off from the house to serve as a stable, andto Mikhaël’s great delight, a buckthorn
had taken root in the floor of the stableand grown out through the window,
shading the front of the house with its
luxuriant foliage.

55

The security afforded by this little house
was relative, for Dolia had no income,and in those times it was almost impossible for a woman alone to provide for herself and two children. Once the period ofmourning was past, seeing no alternative,
she agreed to marry the friend Ivan had
spoken about, a widower with one smallboy. In the course of their marriage theywould have two daughters and a son.
Now, at least, Dolia was not alone, but asher husband was not always able to earnenough for their needs, with time theirextreme poverty only seemed to getworse. In spite of her efforts to save every
penny, Dolia often found herself unable
to provide the children with the foodthey needed. Like all housewives of her
country, she spent long hours spinning,weaving, or sewing their clothes, but she
had no money to buy shoes for them, andfor years they went barefoot.
Later, Mikhaël would say that it was thedifficulties of this life of poverty that had

56allowed him to cultivate the most essential moral qualities and acquire strengthof character and will-power. The obligation to rise above material privations had
helped him to develop his innate mysticism. Like so many other young children
in those troubled times, he was deprivedof a father, but Dolia, his unassuming but
tireless guide and mentor, was a little
lamp that illuminated his path.
In the spring following his father’s death,an apparently insignificant incident
threw a tiny ray of light on one of the
aspects of his future. Several comrades
arrived one day in great excitement to tell
him that the gypsies had pitched theirtents in the town. Nomadic gypsies orromanies were a familiar part of the Bulgarian landscape. They claimed to havecome originally from India—their language contained a number of words ofIndian origin—and every spring they
moved from village to village, campingwith their tents and caravans wherever
there was work to be had in the fields. On

57

the outskirts of the towns they set up as
showmen, fortune-tellers or tinkers.
One of the gypsies that had just arrived in
Varna was a well-known clairvoyant, andMikhaël decided to go with his friends tosee her. He had long been familiar withthe existence of clairvoyants and healers,and his mother had often told him amazing tales about the famous clairvoyant
Cortez. What would this gypsy woman
have to say about his future? As soon as
he approached, without looking at his
hand as was customary, she said: ‘You
have many enemies.’‘How can I have many enemies?’ asked
Mikhaël in astonishment.
At nine years old… Many enemies? Flustered and obviously ill at ease, the oldcrone added:‘Don’t worry. You have many friends aswell.’
But Mikhaël protested:58

‘Why do you keep saying something different?’
Her only reply was a surly mutter:‘I can’t tell you more than that. Everything is mixed up in my head.’
Without looking at him, she held out her
hand as though to ask for money, butalmost immediately withdrew it and hurried off to her wagon. Mikhaël went home
disappointed that the old gypsy woman
had not lived up to her reputation. It was
only many years later, faced with thedestructive forces that would try to crush
him and destroy his work, that he was toremember the old woman’s words and theveiled prediction they contained.
***
During the school holidays, Mikhaël had
his first experience of work when he wastaken on as an apprentice by the local
blacksmith. For months he had been
watching from a distance as the smith

59worked. Each time he saw a piece of metalchange from dense, opaque black to a
glowing, incandescent red, his fascination grew, and he was drawn back again
and again to the spectacle. What
impressed him the most was to see that,when put into the hot coals, the metal
itself became like fire, and became burning hot, malleable and luminous.
One day he made up his mind: abandoning his observation post by the door, hewalked boldly into the smithy and asked
to be taken on as an apprentice. He was
hired on the spot, and the first thing helearned was to pump the bellows that
kept the fire hot. Not long after this, his
dream came true: the smith, seeing his
perseverance, agreed to teach him tohammer a piece of incandescent iron andgive it a new shape.
Mikhaël watched closely, and each time
the big burly man in his leather apron
brought his hammer down on the anvil,
he did the same, trying to keep to the60same rhythm. To his delight, every blow
produced sheaves of sparks which fell all
around them. Many of the sparks burned
his bare feet, but he continued undeterred. In the evening he returned homeexhausted, his feet covered with blisters,
and proudly handed his mother thetwenty stotinki (cents) he had earned thatday.
Mikhaël’s apprenticeship at the forge
lasted several weeks. It was an opportunity for him to observe and reflect on thephenomenon of fire, on the behavior of
the smith, and on the effect the work had
on himself. This, his first job, seems tohave been an event of importance in his
youth. In later years, he was fond of talking about how a flame communicates itsheat and light to metal. He compared ahuman being to a piece of iron, sayingthat each of us, in contact with divine fire,is capable of becoming radiant, luminous,
and full of warmth.
His love of fire led to other discoveries

61as well. One day he noticed that this element that had such a vital role in nature
could be extremely beneficial for hishealth. Intuitively, he understood that awood fire contained subtle, curative elements.
It is only now that I understand what
I did. My subconscious must haveretained memories of a past in which fire
had played a role in my life. I held myhands out to the flames and through thetips of my fingers I received the solar
energy, the life and health that filteredinto me. … The vital energy of trees canbe transformed into health, happiness,and joy if you know how to do it … and I
went to sleep with a feeling of great loveand gratitude for the warmth. When I
woke up I was cured…4
It was about this time that Mikhaël first
discovered music, and it came about
through his encounter with a strange
character known to the inhabitants of
Varna as ‘the madman.’ Once a well-62

known conductor, he had lost his mind
owing to a great personal tragedy. Since
then, asking permission from no one, he
had taken up residence in the clock tower
near the cathedral and spent his days
wandering the streets, a beatific smile on
his face. When children laughed at or tormented him, he simply smiled and patted
them on the head. Sometimes, to thedelight of passers-by, he broke into loudand soulful song.
It was this eccentric being who first introduced Mikhaël to music. He became fondof the little boy who listened with suchrespect to his singing and who never tried
to bait him. When Mikhaël climbed tothe top of the clock tower in search ofhim, the old man welcomed him warmly
and sang for him. Little by little, the childbecame familiar with the music he heard
in this way, and soon he was proud to beable to say:‘Sing me something from Trovatore. Singan aria from Aida.’

63

At this, the old man would close his eyes,
letting inspiration come to him. Then, his
expression radiant, he would jump on thependulum of the great clock and swing
from it, singing all the songs his young
friend asked for. There was something
about those arias that appealed to
Mikhaël’s sense of the romantic. Poetic
scenes filled his imagination and mysticalsensations seemed to flow through hiswhole being. He listened to his strange
teacher for hours, often joining his voice
to his, and was soon able to sing a great
many classical arias. These new horizons
transformed his life and from then on hedeveloped a passionate love of music.
Once a child discovers music, other doors
are open to him, for there is a subtle link
between the arts, each one stimulating
and nurturing the others. Thus Mikhaël
also learned to love the theater and thecinema, but as he had no pocket-money
he could never buy a ticket for the performances. One day he decided to try toslip into the cinema by mingling with the64crowd of spectators, and to his delight, no
one noticed or stopped him. Emboldenedby his success, he returned again andagain, often seeing the same film or playseveral times in succession. Before long,
this became much easier when some of
the actors befriended him and gave him
free tickets.
Stimulated by the theater, his powers ofobservation developed rapidly. In theyears that followed, Mikhaël studied with
passionate attention the subtleties of theactors’ technique. Some seemed to him
colorless and without personal magnetism. Listening to them he was astonished
to realize that their tears, laughter, andanger were all equally unconvincing.
There was a hollowness behind theirwords, while others could so easily maketheir audience laugh or cry, or transportthem to a world of dreams. An Armenian
called Chaxtoun was particularly
remarkable: as soon as he came on stage
a thrill of anticipation ran through theaudience. Even when his back was

65turned, his whole being vibrated withsuch an emotional charge that the audience held their breath.
In spite of his youth, Mikhaël sensed theinvisible reality underlying the things heobserved and was deeply struck by therealization that the spiritual essence emanating from a human being is capable ofmoving great numbers of people, even themost apathetic. Also, when he saw two
actors having a drink together one day,after quarrelling violently moments
before on stage, he realized that the theater reflected life. Those actors were likeenemies, who, meeting in the next world
after death, understood how stupid they
had been to fight over things of no importance. Once they realized that the purpose of all the obstacles, criticism, andopposition they had encountered was toteach them something and stimulate theirdevelopment, they were able to embraceand forgive each other.
***66

That year, Mikhaël’s life entered a newphase. He was now nine, and his childhood was slipping away. The death of his
father, his mother’s illness, his new
responsibility toward his young brother,
the self-discipline that his work in thesmithy had required of him—all thesethings had matured him and preparedhim for the powerful spiritual shock thatcame to him at this time.
Once again, it was a book that occasioned
the event. Without fully realizing what it
was, he borrowed the Book of Proverbs
from the school library, and although stilla little young for reading matter of thiskind, was bowled over by certain passages
about wisdom. He had the feeling that
one in particular was directly addressedto him:Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,and do not reject your mother’s teaching;
for they are a fair garland for your head,and pendants for your neck. My child, if
sinners entice you, do not consent.

67

The effect these words had on him was
extraordinary. Of course, he did notunderstand all that Proverbs said about
wisdom, but he took the book home toreread the passages he liked best, thosethat filled him with ardor and nourished
his ideal of becoming a great sage.
Touched to the depths of his heart, hisgaze turned inward:
There was a great upheaval within me:tears and sighs, and the longing tobecome a saint, a prophet. What a transformation! I cried for three days andnights, asking God to forgive my ‘crimes.’
Not that I had committed any crimes,
but in my conscience I felt that I had!5
This new impetus to his heart and mind
was the beginning of a spiritual ascentthat continued without flagging amid all
the difficulties normal to a growing boy.
From this time on, he was committed to apersonal quest for wisdom, and the orientation of his life began to take shape. Having been ‘absent’ until the age of nine,68he had suddenly taken possession of the‘three rooms of his house’—mind, heart,
and will. Everything was changed, and he
did his best to live according to the precepts of the Book of Proverbs. With lightness of heart he determined to avoid any
experiments that might endanger his own
peace of mind and that of his neighbors.
But at that age, in spite of his spiritualardor, the shock of his encounter with
Solomon’s wisdom could not transform
him completely. As he himself admitted,
the flame that had been lit within him
gradually burned lower as the year wenton, and his dynamic temperament led
him to revert to his favorite pastimes.
And even when I was a little older, ten
or eleven, I still set off firecrackers andexplosions with black powder. I just loved
that! But, of course all the neighbors
came pouring out of their houses and I
took to my heels… That was cowardly,
I know, but if I hadn’t run away there
would have been nothing left of me. My

69instincts told me that, you see. I had
developed my own radar, my antennae…
But, of course, running away couldn’t
save me, because by the time I got home
my mother had heard about it from theneighbors.6
The strategic battles waged by the children of the neighborhood also provided
a good outlet for his surplus energies.
Before he completely discarded the waysof childhood, two more reminders would
be necessary, one when he was ten, theother two years later.
One day, out for a stroll with a comrade,he came to a peddler’s stall and beganbrowsing through a booklet about a saintwho had mastered his passions andbecome a great sage. Reluctantly, he put
the book down, thinking, ‘Ah, if only I
could buy it!’
‘It’s only one lev,’ said the peddler.
For Mikhaël that was a lot of money, and70

regretfully he turned away and walkedon.
‘If heaven lets me find the money,’ he said
to his friend, ‘I’ll buy the book and givewhat’s left over to a beggar.’
Suddenly he stopped; there at his feet
was a lev. The book was his! Back in his
room, he lost himself in the story, andonce again an overwhelming enthusiasm
for beauty, purity, and wisdom swept overhim. At the same time, he reproachedhimself bitterly for his failure to live up
to his ideal of perfection. Concentratingwith all his might, he repeated over andover again: ‘I will be a saint, a prophet.’
It was in the summer following his
twelfth birthday that another booksounded a final alert. Mikhaël was spending the summer holidays in the forest
outside the town with his stepfather andhis fellow charcoal burners. While making himself useful in small ways, he spentmuch of his time watching the men at71

work as they cut two-foot lengths ofwood, stacked them in a tall pyramids,
and then covered them with soil, taking
care to arrange small vents to ensure theminimum ventilation required. Two
weeks were spent on these preparations,and another two weeks passed before thewood was completely charred and readyfor use. The sacks of charcoal were thenloaded on a donkey cart and taken to thetown for sale.
The charcoal burners, who were fond of
the young boy and treated him as theirown son, built a tiny cabin for him in atree, which he could reach by a ladder.
One day, to give the boy something to do
to while away his time, one of them tooka small book from his pocket and handed
it to him. When Mikhaël saw that it wasa book of the Gospels, he climbed up into
his tree to read it in peace.
The Gospels were not unknown to him,of course, for he heard passages read
aloud every Sunday in church, but his

72encounter with them that day in the quietof the forest was an experience of a
totally different kind. As he read, his fascination grew, and the compassion andloving kindness of Jesus moved him
deeply. It was when he reached thedescription of Jesus delivering a man ofthe demons that possessed him thatsomething happened in his soul: he had avivid sensation of being actually in Palestine with Jesus. He saw the poor wretch
whom no one could control; he saw Jesus
drive the demons from him and send
them into a herd of swine; he saw theswine hurtling down the cliff and drowning. Unable to detach his gaze from theman who had once been possessed andwho now sat at Jesus’ feet, whole and perfectly calm, he found himself admiring
his intelligent, sensitive face, his eyes illuminated by a new light of hope. And hesensed the crowd standing all about,dumbfounded by the metamorphosis
they had witnessed.
Mikhaël found himself immersed anew in73the atmosphere of Solomon’s wisdom.
He could think of nothing but that poor,crazed man who had been restored to his
senses:Again I wept. Again I determined to
become a saint and a prophet. Again I
saw myself as a worthless creature who
spent his time pestering others. My
mother had always taught me to behave
wisely and rationally, but my good resolutions had never lasted very long. But
this time was different. This time everything within me was in tumult becauseof that passage that had so impressed me
and particularly because of those few,
simple words describing the man sitting
there, his mind restored to a state ofpeace and quiet.7
That long holiday in the midst of nature,
far from the noise of city life and the distracting presence of his boisterous comrades, gave Mikhaël the setting he needed
to assimilate this new spiritual experience in which Jesus had become his

74model. He felt happier and more at homein the forest than anywhere else. In thepresence of all those trees he had a deep
sense of contentment that seemed to risefrom some mysterious memory hidden in
the very cells of his body.
It must have been shortly after thisencounter with the Gospels that heresolved to purify himself by fasting. As
his mother recounted, at the age oftwelve, he and two comrades decided to
fast for as long as possible.
They went and hid in a cabin on the
shore of a nearby lake. His friends soonabandoned their fast, but as they kept
Mikhaël’s hiding place secret, I spent several days searching everywhere for him,
until one of the boys made up his mind
to tell me where he was. When I finallyfound him I gave him the most severe
scolding he had ever had from me, after
which I burst into tears. Then I took him
home and gave him a cup of light broth.

75

Although in this case the two other boys
had been unable to stay the course, there
were many occasions on which Mikhaël’sfriends followed his example. His influence with them was already considerable,
and without realizing it himself, he wasoften their leader.
***
The social context in which these children were growing up was extremely violent. Periodical outbreaks of war andinsurrection ravaged the country, and thepolitical situation was as unstable as thatof Macedonia. The Ottoman yoke had
been thrown off in 1908, but the country
was still not at peace. Four years later, in
October of 1912, church bells rang out in
Varna
and
throughout
Bulgaria,
announcing the mobilization of all themen fit to fight. The First Balkan War had
begun. It did not last long: on December
3, an armistice was signed, and when thepeople of Varna learned that Turkey had

76lost almost all its territories in Europe,
they poured into the streets to celebrate.
Like all the children of his time, Mikhaël
had often heard of the atrocities perpetrated under Ottoman rule, and on the
day of the armistice he joined in the general enthusiasm. Accompanied by a few
friends, he ran to the Turkish legation
with the intention of pulling down the
Ottoman flag, the symbol of tyranny andinjustice. Of course, it was he who
climbed onto the roof, but just as he managed to remove the flag from its staff, thepolice appeared, and his comrades vanished into thin air. With no time toescape, Mikhaël was left, still clutching
the flag, to face the music alone.
Flanked by mounted police, he wasmarched through the town to the police
station and told to wait. At first, standing
in a corner of the room watching themen, he thought they looked very severe
and felt sure he would be punished. Perhaps he would even be put in prison. But77

it was not long before he realized that thepolicemen could barely conceal theirsmiles as they whispered among themselves. In the end, with a half-hearted
reprimand that deceived no one, they
sent him home. Amused by the audacityof this young boy who had done something they were not at liberty to do, they
could not find it in their hearts to punish
him. They knew that for him and his
comrades that flag represented oppression and tyranny. All children dream ofheroic deeds, and Mikhaël was no exception.
For the next few years, he spent his summer holidays doing temporary work invarious factories and workshops. The
experience satisfied his eagerness to learn
about life, to understand his fellow workers and the complexities of human relations. Also, he was delighted to be able
to contribute what little he earned to thefamily’s finances.
The different settings in which he78

worked provided ample matter for observation and reflection. His first experience
was in a tailor’s shop and lasted no morethan a day, for he soon found the work
too foreign to his nature. To have to sit
down all day long was torture to him, andafter only a few hours he was so overcome
with boredom that he fell fast asleep.
A little later he applied to a local candy
factory which was hiring workers. The
foreman explained the task to him, but
Mikhaël did not begin immediately. Only
after watching the other employees to see
how they carried out the different tasks
did he start to work with concentrationand precision. On that first day in the factory he was surprised to learn that theworkers were free to eat as many candies
as they wanted. Enthusiastically availinghimself of this permission, he was puzzled to see that each time he helped himself, his fellow workers exchanged
amused glances, but it was not long
before he understood, as his appetite forsweet things vanished. He was never to79forget the lesson: too much of a goodthing spoils all the pleasure.
At another time he worked in a factorythat produced pastels. By then he was
beginning to be at ease in the working
world, and once he had mastered thetechniques he had been shown he ventured to invent a new method by which
he achieved the same result as his fellow
workers in less time and with less effort.
His initiative won him a bonus from his
employer, who had been watching thisenterprising young worker.
Thanks to these summer jobs, Mikhaël
learned the rudiments of several different
trades, including that of mason and carpenter. All that he saw and experienced
during these years became matter forreflection: the way people worked, theway their work affected them, the relations between employers and employees,
their discussions and disputes. He gained
valuable insight into the problems, joys,
and pains of their daily lives.

80

Notes1.

Our references to Mikhaël’s thoughts or
feelings or his state of mind are strictly
based on his own reflections described in
his talks. The same is true for the reported
dialogues.

2.

May 5, 1943.

3.

July 29, 1980.

4.

August 24, 1958, and ‘The Power of Fire’ in
The Fruits of the Tree of Life.

5.

1960 (Exact date unknown).

6.

Ibid.

7.

July 17, 1966.

81

3

#

The
Aspirationsof
AdolescenceAt the time of Mikhaël’s youth, a child
who wanted to learn had no problem
finding books, for most towns and villages in Bulgaria boasted a reading room.

In fact, the public reading room was considered, together with church and school,
to be one of the pillars of society. Mikhaël
was already a regular visitor to the school
library, and several of his teachers, awareof his thirst for learning and the extreme
poverty of his family, were always readyto lend him books.
At home, however, he did not have thepeace and quiet he needed for study andreflection. His brother Alexander and his
stepbrother were both much younger
than he, and he now had two baby sisters.
Dolia, seeing how much he suffered fromhis lack of privacy, managed to arrange asmall room for him, with a window looking out onto the roof of the kitchen. Thisroom soon became a cherished haven inwhich Mikhaël passed long hours reading
and learning to meditate.
His reading had already introduced him
to the major themes of initiatic science ofancient Egypt, Greece, India, and Tibet,
and at the age of thirteen he encountered83the Buddha, who was to become for him
a model second only to Jesus. Influenced
also by his study of Hindu philosophers,
he began to practice yoga in order, as hesaid later, to develop his will-power andhis ‘secret faculties.’ A book by the American yogi Ramacharaka, author of several
books about Hatha-yoga, made a powerful impression on him. On learning thatthe aim of Hatha-yoga—based principallyon a technique of rhythmic breathing—was to lead adepts to the mastery of
their thought processes through breathcontrol, Mikhaël began to practice these
exercises every day with unrelenting
resolve. Between the ages of twelve andfifteen his psychic and spiritual development seems to have been extremely rapid.
But books on spirituality were not the
only kind that interested him; he also
devoured adventure stories, and the novels of Jules Verne in particular opened
fascinating new horizons. He sensed that
authors like Verne, who were capable ofdescribing as yet unknown physical phe-84

nomena, must possess a highly developed
intuition which gave them direct accessto the invisible resources of nature. It wasalso in this sense that the study of chemistry held his attention for quite sometime. With his mother’s permission, hetransformed the horse’s stable into a laboratory, and by some prodigy of economy
known only to herself, Dolia bought him
a glass retort. His predilection for fire anderuptions being well known, no one wassurprised when the first thing he did was
to make some explosive.
Mikhaël was passionately interested ineverything around him. His temperamentcontinually drove him to get to the bottom of things, to investigate and extract
the last drop of life-giving sap from every
new discovery. The more he learned, themore convinced he became that every
physical phenomenon was matched by acorresponding spiritual phenomenon.
Thus the drop of mercury, like a bright,
mobile jewel rolling in the hollow of hishand, showed that impurity tarnishes and85

divides, whereas purity ensures integrity
and unity. Once broken into smaller
drops and sprinkled with dust, the mercury could never become one again.
Gradually, however, Mikhaël was nolonger content to confine his experiments to the physical plane. The objectof his quest was on another level, and heturned his attention to the study of psychic phenomena. His first introduction to
the books of Louis Jacolliot opened marvelous new perspectives on the powers ofthought and the existence of mysterious,
invisible forces that could be used byhuman beings in the visible world. Jacolliot claimed that while in India he had
witnessed public demonstrations of the
fantastic powers of fakirs: he had seen
them plant a seed and within a few hours,by the power of thought alone, cause it togrow and produce flowers and fruit.
Mikhaël’s reaction to this was to reflectthat the tremendous power behind such
exploits should be used for a nobler pur-86

pose than to impress the idle onlooker.
He was determined to work on a higher
plane than such fakirs. But first heneeded to find out whether he was actually capable of getting results throughmental concentration alone.
One of his first experiments took place in
the Morskata Gradina (the Garden of theSea), the park that runs along the shoreof the Black Sea from north to south of
Varna. Seeing that all the seats in thepark were fully occupied, he focused ona man sitting on a distant bench, repeating in his mind: ‘Get up. Go on, get up!’Within a few seconds the man stood up
and walked away, and Mikhaël sat downin his place. He was still young enoughto have a great sense of satisfaction as hetook that seat… he had earned it!
He repeated the experiment several times
to be sure that the result was not a question of chance. In the same way, he practiced sending mental suggestions to his
friends, directing them from a distance87

to make some harmless gesture: he persuaded one of them to take off his beret,another to pick up something from theground. On one occasion, seeing a comrade coming toward him, he concentrated on his right foot to make him stop
walking. But when he saw the boy pause
and lean against a tree with a worried
expression on his face, he was overcome
with remorse and hurried over to reassure him as best he could. Fortunately,
everything was soon back to normal.
By the time he was fourteen, Mikhaël had
begun to be aware of the mysterious powers of his own subconscious, and withthis came a glimpse of the breathtaking
possibilities before him. Judging by theexperiments that absorbed his attention
at that time, he was already familiar withconcepts recognized by many different
philosophies. He was aware, for example,of the existence of man’s subtle bodies—astral, mental, causal, buddhic, andatmic—and of the system of the chakras,

88those subtle force-centers lying along the
spinal column.
Exactly when Mikhaël discovered thathuman beings have the power, consciously or unconsciously, to leave their
physical bodies and move about on theinvisible planes is not known. He may not
yet have been familiar with the spontaneous disassociation that is often triggered by the trauma of an accident or asurgical intervention, but we do knowthat several years later he was able toenlighten an ex-serviceman who told him
that, when in a coma, he had found himself outside his physical body and had
watched the surgeons at work on him as
he lay unconscious on the operatingtable. But certainly, by the time he was
fourteen, Mikhaël knew that the great
mystics experienced phenomena of thissort, and it is evident that he had alreadydiscovered them for himself, for he began
to introduce his friends to the idea thatthey too had this power.

89

From his extensive reading, he knew that
if you can induce a ‘higher state’ in people, they will be capable of supernatural
perceptions. He wanted so much to givehis friends a chance to perceive these newhorizons, in particular the splendors of
the invisible world that were beginning to
be revealed to him. When he proposed
experiments of this kind to his friends,
several of them agreed to let him hypnotize them. To be on the safe side, heinvited their parents to be present. On
his very first attempt, he succeeded in
putting his subject into a disassociation
trance, and the parents saw for themselves that their son could feel nothingin his physical body, for his etheric bodywas detached from it. One day, however,
Mikhaël had great difficulty in bringing a
subject out of his trance, and recognizing
the dangers of this science which could
so easily be used to dominate others, heabandoned it once and for all.
The experiments of those early years
were no more than a preparation for90things of far greater importance which
lay in the future. It is impossible to say
how many techniques he attempted tomaster before abandoning them when herealized that they could be used to exploit
others. Later, he always advised everyone
not to use such practices without a very
serious reason.
***
If the power of thought was one of
Mikhaël’s most important discoveries
during his adolescence, the yoga of nutrition was another. At the age of fourteen
he had an apparently banal experience
which caused him to reflect on the hidden properties of food. One morning his
mother found that she had nothing togive him for breakfast before he left home
for the day. She did, however, have someflour, and with this she made a small
bread roll for him. For Dolia, bread was
the one great staple that could always be
relied on when one had no money to buy
anything else. While kneading the dough91

and thinking of her eldest son, who sooften had to make do with an inadequate
diet, she infused it with all her energy,
every ounce of her strength. When
Mikhaël came home that evening, heasked: ‘Mother, what did you put intothat bread?’
He was both intrigued and impressed, forhaving eaten it he had not felt hungry forthe rest of the day. Dolia told him: ‘WhileI was making it, I prayed that it would
sustain you and give you strength.’
Mikhaël found that his mother was far
wiser than most of his teachers. He could
not count the number of times she had
given him good advice. But as usual, he
needed to understand for himself thequestion of the energy contained in food.
One day, when he had nothing to eat but
a small piece of bread and a morsel ofcheese, it occurred to him that he shouldchew each mouthful for a long time soas to draw from it all its hidden qualities.
The result of the experiment was aston-92

ishing: a powerful sensation of wellbeing, joy, and peace flooded him, and hebecame aware of a host of subtle energies
flowing from the food into his wholebeing.
His intuition thus confirmed, he reflectedthat the food we eat possesses a secret lifeof its own, far beyond its physical properties, and that it is important to eat slowly.
Gradually, he understood that the mouth
is especially designed to absorb the subtler energies contained in food, while thestomach assimilates principally the physical elements. On the other hand, he alsobegan to see that his digestion was greatly
influenced by physical conditions, as well
as by his feelings, at the time of eating.
He noticed, for instance, that his muscles
were sometimes tense during meals, andrealizing that this tension drained energy
from his body, he began to do a few simple exercises of relaxation before eating.
For him, nutrition represented a form of
yoga, a beneficial exercise, a life disci-93

pline. He ate only when he was hungry,
partly because he felt much better when
he did so, but above all because hewanted to ‘subordinate the ordinary wayof life to the spiritual life’. From this timeon, in taking what he needed to sustain
the life of mind and body, he always tried
to choose elements that were pure: waterfrom unpolluted springs, natural food,books that inspired and elevated themind.
In spite of these options which shouldhave contributed to his fitness, his healthat this period was not good; the povertyof his family and constant privations left
him an easy prey to infection. During thegreater part of the year he went barefoot,wearing his one pair of sandals only when
it snowed in winter to make them last
longer. In the mornings when there was
no food in the house, he went to school
without breakfast and sat through hisclasses, drowsy from hunger. Fortunately,when he fell ill, his mother always managed to pull him through, and he devel-94oped a lasting gratitude for the devotion
and patience with which she nursed him.
Dolia, learning from her mother’s example, had developed her own gift for healing. Sustained and guided by the principles that had guided Astra, she had also
followed her intuition and made discoveries of her own. In particular, she hadfound that by passing her hand lightly
over a patient’s solar plexus she could
sense the nature of the ailment and thetreatment that was called for. Mikhaël
often saw her helping people in this way
and wanted to know how she did it:‘Mother, how do you heal? What do you
do to a patient?’
Dolia reflected for a moment before
answering.
‘On my own I am weak, but when I am
with someone who is ill, I forget everything else and put my whole soul into
healing him. I start by calling on God, on
his power and love, and think of nothing95

else. My love for the sick person is so
great that my soul becomes a conductorof universal love, and when I pour thatlove into him he is healed.’
For Mikhaël, always so keenly aware of
the importance of links, Dolia’s words
were truly a source of inspiration. ‘She
says she is weak, but her love is powerful,’
he thought to himself. Thanks to her
great faith, she was a humble intermediary, holding in her hands, as it were, thewire through which a powerful current
flowed from the divine world andrestored the sick to health.
This was the current that Mikhaël wasconstantly seeking in his own life, thislink with the spiritual worlds which canbe forged into an indestructible bondthrough prayer and meditation. At thisstage of his life he was striving for it withso much ardor that he had difficulty inpaying attention to life at school, which
seemed to him unutterably boring.

96

***
At the Kniass Boris Lycée—the King Boris
School—which he attended until the ageof fifteen, Mikhaël was considered a
mediocre pupil. ‘I was the class dunce,’
he often said, adding: ‘I know you don’t
believe me, but it’s perfectly true!’ At anage when his fellow pupils were thinkingof renown, a future profession, marriage,
and children, Mikhaël was thinking ofsomething quite different. The truth isthat he was passionately interested inanything that could contribute to his
spiritual growth and attached little
importance to everything else. The teachers, not knowing quite how to judge a boy
who failed to conform to the establishednorms of behavior and whose mind wasso free of conventional stereotypes, gave
him only average marks.
Because of this great longing to become
perfect and full of love, I devoured books,
meditated, and did all kinds of experiments. My studies suffered as a result.

97

I was simply not interested in anythingat school—neither the teachers nor thebooks.1
For his intellectual formation he reliedmore on the public libraries and reading
rooms than on school, and it was only
thanks to his exceptional memory that hemanaged to assimilate what was taught inthe classroom, for, as his parents could
not afford to buy even the basic school
texts, he had to borrow them from hisclassmates and skim through them during recreation periods. In class he always
sat at the back, where he went unnoticed
and was rarely questioned by the teachers
so that he was free to pursue his own
reflections and concentrate on essentials.
Accustomed to examining all that heheard and read, and filtering out anythingthat seemed superfluous or trivial, his
mind was developing freely, unconstrained by academic norms. In spite ofhis dynamism and the influence he hadon his schoolmates, Mikhaël preferred toremain in the background and rarely98intervened in group discussions. If it had
not been for his integrity and his exceptional openness to others, no one would
have noticed him.
The most important aspect of his school
experiences was the understanding hegained of his fellow human beings.
Observing the teachers, he recognizedthat some were dreary and governed byroutine while others had the presence
and personal magnetism he had seen incertain actors. With the same clearsightedness, he observed his fellowstudents and determined not to become
like so many who recited the lessons byheart without understanding what they
were saying. Mikhaël never tried to be topof the class: such an ambition simply
made no sense to him. The undeniableinfluence he had over his comrades was
not that of a brilliant student, it was far
subtler. Years later, one of his teachers
described the young Mikhaël to her son:
As a boy he was extremely intelligent

99

and had exceptional inner strength. He
was always surrounded by a little groupof comrades who were very attached tohim.
On the rare occasions that the teacher
called on Mikhaël to answer a question,a murmur of pleasurable anticipation ran
through the classroom. Then, knowingthat he needed a moment in which to collect his thoughts and find somethinginteresting to say, pupils and teacher alikewaited in silence. Even when he had notbeen able to study the lesson, he was usually able to draw on his extensive reading
and recount an adventure or an excerpt
from a play that had struck him as important. His vivid imagination and sense of
fun led him to integrate into his tales
amusing details that lightened the austere
atmosphere of the class. In spite of themselves, even the most severe teachers had
to smile, and most of them, slightly perplexed by the extent of his knowledge,gave him a passing mark.

100

World War I brought many changes atthe school. When Bulgaria allied herself
to Germany in 1915 in the hope of regaining her Macedonian territories, many of
the teachers were called up, and those
who replaced them did not always havethe necessary competence. Three of thesesubstitute teachers left a lasting impression on Mikhaël, each for a different reason.
The first, a math teacher, was incapableof maintaining discipline in his class. The
boys laughed at his mannerisms andamused themselves by goading him into
losing his temper. But Mikhaël felt sorry
for him and refused to join in. He recognized that it was the man’s sensitivity andlack of control over his own emotions
that somehow caused his pupils to be sounruly. One day, when the teacher had
stormed from the class, slamming thedoor behind him, Mikhaël leaped to his
feet and spoke up in his defense: ‘I was
so indignant that I was almost insulting!’
And because of their affection for this101

quiet boy from the back bench, his classmates promised to mend their ways. But
their good resolutions lasted no morethan a few days, and it was not long
before the teacher gave up the unequal
struggle and resigned.
He was replaced by a little man who,
though outwardly insignificant, had aperfect grasp of his subject and wasalways completely calm. The discipline inhis class was exemplary. The contrast
between this teacher and his predecessor
gave Mikhaël much food for thought. He
began to realize that quite apart from theknowledge and competence of a teacher,it was something that emanated from himthat made others react as they did. This
teacher was no less sensitive than thefirst, but he won the respect of his pupils
because of his inner strength and emotional control. Also, he had a quality ofpresence which the other had lacked.
The third teacher, a violinist, was a stiffand silent man, whose dry, authoritarian102manner intimidated his pupils. One day,probably following a discussion about therhythm of respiration, Mikhaël abandoned his usual reserve and talked to him
about the Hindu breathing techniquesthat he had been practicing for sometime. To everyone’s surprise, instead ofsnubbing him for his impertinence, theteacher questioned Mikhaël about hispractices, relaxed visibly, and accepted
his offer to lend him a book on the subject.
Human behavior was a topic that neverfailed to fascinate Mikhaël. At that time
he was already beginning to formulate his
ideas about will-power and about the selfmastery that enables one to keep control
of one’s emotions. In his view, sensitivity
was very important: it was far better tobe sensitive and to suffer than to be likea stone. Commenting on this later, hewould say that the more one develops
spiritually the more sensitive one
becomes, but he always insisted on the103importance of developing self-control
and sensitivity in tandem.
At this period of Mikhaël’s life, his ideal
towered before him in the distance, likethe glittering peak of a mountain. To
reach that peak he would need tremendous will-power, of that he was convinced, and he set about reinforcing his
will in every way he could think of. In his
family, his neighborhood, or at school,
the need for self-control arose manytimes a day, and he took every opportunity to practice it. In fact, his resolutecharacter sometimes led him to commit
gratuitous acts of bravado in order toprove his courage to himself—or to his
comrades. At school, he drilled himself toendure the offensive behavior of an arrogant youth who, believing himself to bea writer of genius, constantly heapedridicule and sarcasm on those whom heconsidered less gifted. ‘I never answered
him,’ Mikhaël said later, ‘because I practiced a special kind of yoga.’ On one occasion, however, after humiliating some of104

his schoolmates in public, the bully
turned his attentions on Mikhaël once
again.
Mikhaël’s mysterious influence in theschool was probably a source of envy tothis boy, who hoped to provoke a reaction by insulting him, and for once
Mikhaël caught fire. Jumping to his feet,
he looked his adversary in the eye andproceeded to describe his character as heread it in his face, until, completely
deflated and speechless, the boy sat
down. From that day on, his attitude
toward Mikhaël changed radically and hebegan to seek his company. He who had
been used to attacking others without
risk of retaliation had finally come up
against a strength that commanded his
respect. He had discovered that silenceand patience are not necessarily signs of
weakness.
Mikhaël’s friends could not help but realize that his basic orientation was toward
the spiritual life but that there was not a105

trace of bigotry in him. He was as capable as they of youthful enthusiasm, andhis fiery temperament made him eager for
new experiences, always ready for ventures that kindled his interest. The only
activities in which he systematicallyrefused to take part were those that might
wrong others. He always took an interest
in what was going on in his neighborhood and saw that several of his young
comrades were fast becoming delinquents. At a certain period during his
adolescence, he witnessed several tragic
incidents, and although he rarely talked
about them in later life, they remained
vivid in his memory. One day he spokeof having seen some of his comrades
gunned down by the police as they tried
to run away. Others had been caught andsent to prison.
Without going into detail, he declaredthat he had always retained a certain
independence and freedom, and that hehad been ‘protected by the spiritual
world’ from the difficult milieu in which106he was growing up. He was already conscious in those days of a strong bond with
the invisible beings that dwell in light.
***
Adolescence, the age of noble sentiments,
utopian dreams, and heroic decisions wasfor Mikhaël a period in which to explore
a variety of emotional and intellectual
experiences. Like other youngsters, hedreamed beautiful dreams which faded
one after the other. At the age of fifteen,
it was time to make specific practical decisions about how he should work toward
his ideal. What would he do in life? What
field would he choose?
At one point his ambition was to be ascholar, a university professor. Later, hebegan to write mystical poems and tales,weaving spiritual truths into a tapestry ofvisions and prophecies. He put a stop to
this phase when he realized with a lucidity beyond his years that much of thepoetry he liked aroused hazy, melancholic107

sensations within him and made him
hypersensitive and vulnerable. It debilitated him by imprisoning him in theworld of feelings. He was already awareof the moon’s influence on human beingsand knew that the world of emotion was
linked to the lunar cycle. Sensing intuitively that true poetry, the poetry thattouches the most sensitive chords in thehuman heart, belongs to the higher, more
spiritual planes, he resolved to linger nomore in the world of the emotions, but
to ‘look for true poetry in the sun’.
Although he continued to rank poetry
above both music and painting, he nolonger composed any. He turned his
attention instead to philosophy and science.
At this period his most cherished dream,that of becoming a true sage, was growing
ever stronger and more insistent, pushingother ambitions into the background. He
was spending more time in the practice of
yoga and in meditation, and when not at
school, he read for hours. His thirst for108knowledge was fuelled by the works ofthe great authors of all time, available intranslation in every good public library.
Mikhaël perused all the major philosophical and spiritual works he could find andsoon became familiar with the sacredscriptures of humanity’s great religions.
The spiritual teaching of Gautama Buddha had a special place in his heart, andhe continued to read everything he could
find on the subject. Among his favorite
Western authors were Emerson, Berkeley, Steiner, Blavatsky, Spinoza, andParacelsus.
One day, exploring the shelves of alibrary, he discovered a book on palmistryby the French author Adolphe Desbarolles and became passionately interested in the art of divination by reading
the lines of the hand. What first caught
his attention, however, were the writer’scomments on the nature of magic: ‘Magic
is a comparison between two worlds’. Until
that moment Mikhaël had thought ofmagic as ‘the ability to command the spir-109its and work miracles’, but pondering
Desbarolles’ statement in relation to his
long-standing awareness of the importance of links, he realized that it
expressed an important truth:
You cannot compare two things unlessthere is a link between them. That iswhat a comparison is, therefore, first andforemost, a connection. True magic is thecomparison between the divine and thephysical worlds which is made possibleby the link between them. Without thislink there can be no magic… The wholeof my philosophy is based on this little
thread, the fragile link between the twoworlds.2
From his earliest youth Mikhaël had beeninterested in how different realities canbe linked. Later, in his teaching, he would
give different examples of formulas that
could be used to activate that link andharness the forces of the invisible world
for one’s own benefit and the benefit ofothers. One might say, for instance: ‘As

11
1100

the sun rises in the heavens, so may thesun of love rise in my heart…’ He compared this link to a power line carrying
an electric current which can be transformed into the diverse forms of light,
heat, or movement. In the course of his
life, as he penetrated the heart of thisidea, the elements of nature became an
integral part of his spiritual work.
At this time, wanting to understand what
people hoped to find in the practice ofmagic, and having heard that spiritualistic séances were being held in a house in
Varna, he decided to go and find out forhimself. A few sessions were enough toconvince him that the participants weremainly seeking to satisfy their appetite
for money, power, and sensual pleasures.
It was not what he was looking for, and hereturned to his books.
His interest in the art of palmistry having
been triggered by Desbarolles’ book,
Mikhaël now began to study it seriously.
Whenever his friends allowed it, he took111

an impression of their hands in plasterof Paris so that he could study them atleisure, making careful notes of his observations. If no plaster was available, hewould sprinkle a little powdered charcoal
on a person’s palm and take a print on
paper. His natural aptitude for clairvoyance was developing steadily, and after
examining the prints he sometimes told
his friends what he saw in their future.
Years later, some of them were impressedto find his predictions coming true. Onein particular, a musician at the height of
his career, was to say that he had beena shy, self-effacing adolescent when
Mikhaël had foretold a brilliant future forhim in music.
The recent discovery of radio waves
opened yet another field of spiritualreflection for him. It is not clear whether
his research in this field began when he
was fifteen or some years later, for whenhe spoke of crystal sets in his talks it wasalways in reference to the spiritual discoveries of his youth. When he said, ‘I

112

was very young at the time…’ he could
just as well have been twenty-five as fifteen. We do know, however, that crystal
sets were already available in 1913, and atsome point, Mikhaël, who could notafford to buy one, built one of his own.
In order to tune in to a station, he only
needed to position a needle on the surface of the crystal, and he was quick to
see in this crude but effective instrument
a symbolism which could be applied tohis everyday life: contact was achieved only
if the needle touched a live spot. Also, henoticed that he was not always capable offinding that spot. The analogy between
this phenomenon and the spiritual life
was plain:
I understood that if we are incapable ofpicking up the countless messages andcurrents that crisscross the universe, it isbecause we have not tuned our crystal
sets to the right wavelength. So, this iswhat we must try to do every day: tune
in to the transmitter, that is to say, adopt

113

the proper attitude, turn toward that
Polar Star whom we call God. Only if we
do this shall we obtain his blessings: light,
love, joy, and health.3
All these dreams, all this research led
Mikhaël to a succession of choices, eachof which brought him imperceptiblycloser to the role he was to play in life.
When he decided not to dedicate his lifeto science, it was because he understoodthat he was destined to tread a different
path. In his own mind he had to admitthat ‘to become a brilliant scientist at the
University was nothing’ compared tospiritual research. When he turned hisback on the dangerous ambiguities ofspiritualism, it was to pursue the study of
palmistry, an art which presented no suchdangers. And when he gave up writing
poetry, it was to turn to philosophy andalso to music, for which he was developing an ever greater need.
This need was so intense, in fact, that heconstantly regretted being unable to play114

an instrument himself. Seeing his more
prosperous schoolmates arriving formusic lessons with their guitars or violins
only accentuated the feeling, for he knewthat his family could never afford the violin he longed for. One day, however, he
received an invitation which compensated in large part for this lack: the sisterof one of his neighbors, an excellent
pianist, invited him to come and listen
while she played. After this, he spenthours, sitting cross-legged in a corner ofher studio, learning to analyze the effectthe music had on him and, above all, touse it to ‘fill the sails of his meditation’,as the wind fills the sails of a boat. Often,
he paid little attention to the music itself.
It was simply a great force, an impetuous
wind that lifted him and sped him toward
the sublime regions to which his soul
aspired.
***Music was not the only heaven-sent gift
Mikhaël received at this period. A friend

115

gave him a prism, and with a sense ofwonder he discovered the splendor of theseven colors contained in sunlight. From
this moment on, the thought of the sevenrays was always with him, and that small
piece of crystal became the starting pointof a life-long reflection on light. He juggled with fascinating ideas: white light isone, but when passed through a threesided prism, it is refracted into seven different colors. Similarly, every humanbeing is a prism with three facets—heart,
mind, and will—which, when correctly
positioned in relation to light, receives all
the wealth of the seven colors, symbols of
the seven virtues.
In order to understand the physics of therefraction of white light, he began to
study scientific texts and conduct experiments which opened new horizons forhim but which also gained him a growing
reputation as a very strange boy. Undeterred by what others might say abouthim, he daubed the window of his roomwith red paint and meditated in the col-116

ored light that filtered through the glass.
After studying the effect of this color fora few days, he washed off the red andrepeated the experience with orange, andso on through the spectrum. When it
came to violet light, he found to his
astonishment that flowers wilted and his
friends fell asleep after being exposed fora time to the special atmosphere it created. As for himself, he soon found that
violet light helped him disassociate fromhis physical body and ‘fly away to otherworlds’.
Intrigued by these discoveries, he went
on to other experiments. He mounted
different colored sheets of cellophane on
a cardboard frame and spun it in the lightof a powerful lamp, so that enchanting
nuances of color were projected on thewalls. Seated in the lotus position, he
contemplated all this beauty around andwithin him, as his soul soared andexpanded in space. Through closed eyelids, he felt that he could actually see thebrilliant light and color in which he was117

sheathed. His heart overflowed with love,and his sole desire was to pour out his life
for the good of all humanity.
One day while meditating, he wasinspired to create a design that would be avisual representation of perfect harmony.
After several attempts, he finally drew acircle, on the circumference of which heplaced six circles of equal diameter, thus
creating the stylized form of a rose. He
then painted the figure with the colorsof the spectrum. Intuitively he had rediscovered the ancient symbol of the Rosicrucians. Having written beneath therosace the opening words of St John’s
Gospel, ‘In the beginning was the Word’, hehung it on his wall. The contemplation ofthis perfect geometrical figure gave himan extraordinary sense of well-being. But
he was still not satisfied, and to enhance
its effect, he found a way of spinning it
slowly on its axis.4
His passion for beautiful colors led him
to discover realities that astonished him,118

so far were they above those of the visible
world. He had a clear perception, forinstance, of the correspondence between
the seven colors of the spectrum, theseven notes of the musical scale, theseven days of creation, the seven bodies
of man, the seven heavens, and the sevenarchangels before the throne of God. As
his intuitive perception of the link
between colors and virtues became
stronger, he drew the logical conclusion:
by being as pure as prisms, human beings
allow divine light to enter them, thus
becoming capable of developing thevirtues that correspond to the seven colors. Every time Mikhaël gazed at his mystical rose, he was transported to a dazzlingworld of peace and happiness. With thepassing months the symbol seemed to
grow and blossom within his soul.
***
While all these spiritual experiences werea source of great joy to Mikhaël, they also
led him to demand more and more of119himself. He scrutinized his life, his behavior, his activities, and concluded thatwhat he saw was a disaster. Disgusted byhis ‘mediocrity’, he resolved to replace itwith something very great that would
demand such striving that he would
never have time to tire of his efforts. He
implored heaven to transform him:
For years, when I was young, I would
implore Heaven to transform me. I
would say, ‘What can I do for you? I’mfeeble, stupid, mediocre, worthless. Do
you really want me to be like this for the
rest of my life? I warn you, I shall not bemuch use to you like that; in fact you’ll
have a great deal to complain about! So,
hurry up and take it all. Make me die,
if you like, but come and take possessionof me. I can’t go on living as I am now.
Send some Angels to help me, send me
all kinds of pure, noble, intelligent creatures. It will be to your advantage
because, if you don’t answer my prayer,
I’ll never do anything right and it will be
all your fault!’ And my threats seem to120

have done the trick. They realized that
this troublesome fellow had got themwith their backs to the wall! After muchdiscussion and scratching of heads, theydecided that they had better give mewhat I was asking for because, if they leftme as I was, I could do a lot of damage.5
His occasional reflections about thisperiod of his life show that he judged
himself very severely, and in the light of
his desire for perfection could see only
his weaknesses and failings. His sights
were set so high that he could not be satisfied with what he had already achieved,
and the religious education he hadreceived meant that he was constantly in
conflict with what he saw as evil. Fortunately, he did not allow his spiritual exercises to isolate him from others, and hispractical common sense, his generosity,and his openness to others certainly
saved him from going to extremes.
Thanks to his practice of meditation andcontemplation, he was gradually learning121how to control and transform his nature
without destroying himself.
We are not very well equipped to fightagainst evil, whereas evil is extremely
well armed, it has a huge arsenal to backit up, and in the face of that we are powerless. Only heaven, the divine dimension within each one of us, is allpowerful. Heaven has all the means it
needs, but we… who are we to stand up
to the forces of evil? When I was young,I too was taught to fight against evil, totry to uproot and annihilate it, and thatis what I did. But I was torn apart, literally dislocated by my efforts, because it
is totally exhausting to fight continually
against yourself, against something you
do not understand, and this was what I
was doing. Later, when I began to reflect,
to look for other ways, and to link myself
more and more to the divine world, I
understood that this was not the rightmethod.6
In later years he often spoke of a very122

intense phase of spiritual work thatbegan when he was fifteen, as though allthat had gone before was totally negligible. And yet, judging from his own
accounts, two years previously he hadalready realized the importance of regular
meditation and conscious breath control
in achieving inner equilibrium. He would
one day tell a group of his followers thatthe practice of rhythmic breathing could
be of incalculable benefit to one’s intellectual, emotional, and psychic life: ‘It
can even help to balance our sexual energies and make it easier for us to contact
the most exalted entities of the invisible
worlds.’
It was at this time that Mikhaël left schoolin order to devote every minute to his
spiritual exercises and research. His mind
and heart were already steeped in the ageold truths of initiatic science, and hebegan now to study other texts treatingof Hindu philosophy and ancient theosophy. But in spite of the inner peace that
this work brought him, he was very much123alone. He had barely known his father,and there was no one in his immediatesurroundings to whom he could turn for
guidance in his spiritual development.
His mother was a constant presence oflove and solid common sense, but neither
she nor anyone else was in a position towarn him of the danger of prolonged
breathing exercises without the supervision of an experienced guide. His family,
who witnessed his strange behavior,sometimes wondered if he was notslightly deranged. Why did he not behave
like other boys of his age? His experiments with color, his unusual eating
habits and frequent fasts seemed ridiculous.
At the age of fifteen, by strength of character alone, Mikhaël had already surmounted many of the difficulties inherent in the harsh conditions of the times.
Progressively he had succeeded in harnessing his prodigious energy in the service of a spiritual ideal. Ready to sacrifice124everything for that ideal, he was gradually
becoming utterly fearless. And yet he wasconvinced that he needed a spiritual Master. Following his intuition, he began
searching in earnest for the being who
would help him to develop and channel
both his spiritual impulses and his exceptional psychic powers.
This deep-felt need to put himself in thehands of a sage was the expression of ademanding conscience. In the East, aspiritual Master has always been considered the greatest treasure any humanbeing can possess, and those who choose
the path of spirituality are capable of giving up all their worldly goods in order tofind a true Master. Born at the frontier
between East and West, imbued as he waswith Hindu and Buddhist philosophy aswell as the teaching of the Gospels,
Mikhaël adopted this attitude wholeheartedly. All his life he would say thata spiritual Master inspires and stimulates,that ‘he is a link with heaven, a path that
leads to the summits’. It is the mental

125

image that a disciple forms of his Master
which becomes his true inner Master,and it is this inner Master who opens thedoors of the spiritual world to his disciple.
There can be no doubt that the models
that Mikhaël chose at different ages corresponded to and answered the needs ofeach phase of his life. In his early years
it was naturally to his mother that heturned. Later, Jesus and Buddha became
his chosen models. At the age of seventeen, without in any way relinquishinghis close bond with them on a higher
plane, he strove to resemble Peter
Deunov, the spiritual guide he was to findon the physical plane. Many years later,
after the death of Peter Deunov, when hehimself was recognized to be a spiritual
Master, he often spoke of a ‘timelessbeing’, the Master of all spiritual Masters,with whom he had had a special relationship since the age of twenty. Also, at thecenter of his life there was always the sun,that unique model, dispenser of light,126heat, and life. Often he would say: ‘I want
to be like the sun.’ But above all it was
the desire to resemble his heavenly Father
that most consistently inspired his
efforts.
At the age of fifteen, however, he was stillsearching fervently and sometimes withpainful intensity for his first spiritual
guide, and the words of the Austrianphilosopher Rudolf Steiner were often in
his mind: ‘When you love an exceptional
human being, that love creates a bond
between you, and the qualities of that being
enter into you.’ These words sparked a conviction that was to accompany him all his
life: to model oneself on an exalted beingis always to one’s advantage, for that ideal
spurs one on to greater heights.
In the hope of finding such an ‘exalted
being’, Mikhaël began to attend the sermons of Orthodox priests and Protestantministers, but he always returned home
disappointed by what he had read on
their faces while they commented on the127Gospels. Refusing to be deterred by eachsuccessive disappointment, he listened todozens of speakers. Finally he gave up
and returned to his books, consolinghimself with the biographies of exceptional beings, the great benefactors ofhumanity. What he read stimulated him
and nourished his thirst for perfection
and beauty, but the painful fact still
remained: he found himself as alone as
if he had been in a desert. Family andfriends ridiculed his quest and criticized
his unusual behavior, reproaching him
for his all-absorbing interest in the thingsof the spirit. The few with whom hesometimes spoke of what was closest to
his heart showed only lukewarm enthusiasm for his ideas.
The general lack of approval, however,failed to turn him from his chosen path,and he continued to call on the higher
beings in whose existence he firmly
believed. In fact this perseverance anddetermination were characteristic of him
throughout his life. Even as an adolescent128

he was not easily daunted by mockery
and criticism. This did not mean that he
was indifferent to the opinion of others,
but he was gradually learning to masterhis feelings and be free to pursue his goal.
His convictions were based on his spiritual experiences and were too deeply
anchored within him; they did not allow
him to be intimidated or discouraged.
And yet, the living, visible guide helonged for was still no more than a dream,
and at one point his solitude became soacute that he felt the need for something
concrete to cling to, some physical symbol of that unknown spiritual Master. He
found an old armchair, which he carefully cleaned and set in a place of honor
in his room. The empty chair represented
for him both a promise and a sign that his
Master would soon reveal himself.
One day, thanks to his many hours ofreflection and meditation, he had a flashof intuition, a certitude that somewherein Tibet or India there existed a brother-129

hood of high initiates dedicated to helping humanity, to spreading the light. He
had a strange but clear conviction that hehad known and worked with these beingsin the remote past, and that they would
play an important role in his life. From
this point on he considered them his spiritual companions and thought of themconstantly, receiving from their presence
an extraordinary mystical impetus. At thesame time, the sun, source of light in theworld, remained a constant inspiration tohim.
Mikhaël was truly a solar being. Even as ayoung boy he seems to have understoodthat the mightiest and most perfect fire,
the fire that is never extinguished, wasthe sun itself. And as his understandingof the vital importance of light grew, so
did his love for it. For him, the sun would
always be the most perfect image of God,the one great source of life, light, andwarmth on earth. Already at this time,
whenever he had the opportunity, heattended the sunrise and spent long130hours meditating in the park, where hehad a view over the sea to the east.

Notes
1.

January 19, 1946.

2.

‘We Must Never Sever the Link’, in Cosmic
Moral Law.

3.

‘A Question of Attitude’ in Love andSexuality II.

4.

For an explanation and illustration of the
Mystic Rose, see ‘Au Commencement était
le Verbe’ in Au Commencement était le Verbe.

5.

‘Justice’ in Cosmic Moral Law.

6.

‘Working on the Personality’ in The Key to
the Problems of Existence.

131

4

#

Illumination
Mikhaël had reached a key period of hislife. He had worked long and with singlemindedness to open his mind to wisdom,
to purify his heart, and to strengthen his
will. He had tirelessly implored God tocome and dwell within him, and now he
was ready to receive the Spirit. When hespoke in later life of the illumination hereceived at the age of fifteen and a half, helinked it to the mystical experience triggered by the Book of Proverbs at the age

of nine. This later experience, he said,
was the occasion on which he took possession of himself for the second time.
It was during this period that an essay
entitled The Over-Soul, by the American
philosopher Emerson, had an very powerful effect on him. At about the sametime he came across a text which
described the human aura and the splendors of the invisible world. The combined influence of these two books wasto be decisive, but it was apparently thedescription of Buddha’s aura that led him
across the threshold of ecstasy.
One summer morning, as usual, he went
to the seashore to watch the sunrise, andclimbing a slight rise, sat down in an
orchard. He had been meditating for a little while when he sensed the presence ofheavenly beings around him. Suddenly
bathed in a nimbus of brilliant light, he
was plunged into a state of ecstasy.
The sparse references he made to this133

illumination in later life evoked an imageof dazzling beauty, but he clearly foundit impossible to express the essential coreof the experience. It could never be
described or shared with others. We
know only that he saw ‘a mysterious
being’, one of those heavenly entities thatmanifest as pure light, the sight of whichleaves such a profound impression that a
mystic feels as though he had seen God.
Later, he commented:
I had never abandoned my desire to
become like Buddha, like Jesus. This was
still primordial in my mind… and it wasso beautiful that I was beside myself. To
see such a being, with all those colors,
all that light! He was almost invisible
in the extraordinary luminosity that surrounded him. I found myself flooded withlight. I was in a state of bliss, of ecstasy
so immense, so powerful, that I no longer
knew where I was. It was a delirious joy;it was heaven; it was the universe! Ever
since then I have felt that if God were not
all beauty I could not believe in him. It

134

is beauty that remains in my mind as theone essential: neither power, nor knowledge, nor wealth, nor glory. Only
beauty!1
The vision he had been granted was perhaps that of his higher self, that cosmic
element that is an integral part of every
human being and of the same nature as
the divine spirit, a particle of God, a luminous quintessence. In a state of ecstasy, amystic looks into the mirror of God andsees this part of himself which is divine.
And it is when the identification of thetwo ‘selves’—the higher and thelower—is achieved that he is united withthe universal soul and attains true selfknowledge.
Immersed in an ocean of ineffable beauty,
Mikhaël was beyond the common
bounds of time and space. His wholebeing seemed to expand without limits.
The illumination was so intense and therapture so all-absorbing that he felt as
though he were on fire. He felt his brain

135

burning. His whole being seemed to havebecome a living flame. And just as this
divine illumination became more than hecould bear and he sensed that he wasabout to be reabsorbed into cosmic light,
he lost consciousness.
The loss of consciousness is a frequent
corollary of ecstasy, a protective mechanism that the visionary must accept inorder to avoid destruction. The intensityof the light and the expansion of beingbrought about by divine love is so greatthat the physical human envelope needs
this protection when it reaches the limitsof its capacity.
Did Mikhaël’s illumination last a few
minutes or a few hours? He never said.
But when he recovered consciousness
and found that the state of ecstasy had
vanished, a sense of desolation swept
over him. He felt like a dry, empty husk
and strove in vain to recapture thatexquisite joy, for he could not resign himself to living without it. After a mystical136

experience of such intensity, he felt that
all that had gone before was mere heedlessness and mediocrity.
For days, he was barely aware of being onearth. His mind still absorbed in the contemplation of the splendors he had discovered, he could neither sleep nor eat.
His only nourishment came from thedivine forces that had filled his being, andhis yearning for the beauty of the invisible world awoke in him the overwhelming desire to create the harmony of thatworld here on earth. Many years later,
speaking about certain spiritual experiences, he explained that in ecstasy all thewastes in one’s organism are burned
away, that the mystic’s being is totally
renewed and purified. His physical bodyis changed and transfigured; even the texture of the skin is transformed and theface illuminated. He added:
In this contact with divine grace which
enfolds you and warms you through andthrough, you feel yourself inundated by137

an infinite sweetness, peace and happiness. This is the greatest privilege. You
can only weep with pure, wonderfulemotion. At that moment you are readyfor any sacrifice; you glimpse eternal life;
you see the greatness of God.2
Spontaneously, Mikhaël began to live inever more conscious union with thebrotherhood of glorious souls that hebelieved in. As though by a miracle, hefound a book which confirmed his presentiment of the existence of a community of exalted beings who for centuries
had gathered in the Himalayas to help
and enlighten humanity. Deeply movedby this corroboration of his intuition,
Mikhaël called them his ‘Himalayan
Brothers’. He thought about them constantly, calling upon them and uniting
himself with them in his mind, participating in their work of love and light. He
contemplated ‘the splendor of this brotherhood of glorious souls’ who, free of all
hatred and rancor, dwelt in perfect harmony and devoted themselves to the138good of humanity. The revelations hereceived from them filled him with joy.
Mikhaël was overflowing with such happiness that he had only one thought: todevote his life to helping others. In his
eagerness to share his divine experience
with his family and friends, to enable
them ‘to vibrate as he had vibrated’, hedescribed to them the beauty of a life
lived in the light of the spirit. He lentthem the book that had so inspired him,
convinced that if they read it, they too
would be electrified, impelled to transform their mentality and their way of life.
We know from one of his teachers andfrom members of his family that although
Mikhaël’s friends had always been
impressed by his intelligence and his
knowledge, they remained skeptical
about his spiritual practices. But now
they became aware of a new, subtle quality that emanated from him. He was nolonger the same. He seemed to be lit fromwithin, to be incandescent. Hoping to139

achieve a similar fulfillment, some ofthem began to meditate, to study initiatic
science, or to adopt a vegetarian diet, but
although Mikhaël did his best to help andencourage them, he saw that they soon
tired of their efforts. ‘Why do you persist
in nourishing your old mentality?’ heexclaimed. ‘Get rid of it! It is the cause of
all your problems. Put something betterin its place.’
But not one of them really understoodhim, and eventually he left them in peace.
He was alone with his sublime ideal, andthe realization that there were none toshare it often distressed him deeply. How
could these truths have such an effect on
him and none at all on others, he wondered. When he saw their indifference tothe beauty of the spiritual life, he blamed
himself for being unable to convince
them. ‘I felt so small and inadequate,’ heconfessed one day; ‘I was sure I was notintelligent enough to convince them.’
In the long run, many of his comrades140

jeered at him and held him up to ridicule,for they could not feel at ease with his
ideas. They found them too exalted andthe demands he made on himself too
stringent. They were unwilling to follow
him on the steep slopes leading to thesummit. But their derision did not deter
him. His passion for the light continued
to radiate from him. His whole life wasnow firmly founded on a certainty thatwould become the corner-stone of his
mission.
Mikhaël did not owe his personal initiation to an earthly spiritual Master. His
ardent efforts had been rewarded withthe greatest gift a human being canreceive from the spiritual world: he hadalready found the inner guide who would
be always with him. It is clear that, likeother great beings before him, the divine
seal was upon him. This period of his life
was one of profound inner initiation.
Between the ages of fifteen and seventeen
he was to know the joy of frequent mystical experiences, and by the time he met

141the spiritual guide who was to accompany him on the physical plane, he would
have mustered all his forces, tested his
capacities, and purified his whole being.
The irresistible impetus that drove him
to seek the purest form of Christconsciousness—that inner consciousness
that links a highly advanced human being
to the divine principle at work in creation—obliged him to distance himself toa certain extent from his family and closeacquaintances. Henceforth nothing
would stop him. Ceaselessly and singlemindedly he pursued his work, reachingsuch a state of physical exhaustion that,
before the year was out, he would beovercome by a life-threatening illness.
To say that Mikhaël was absorbed by his
spiritual work to the exclusion of all else
would be inaccurate. An unerring
instinct always brought him back to thephysical world and its countless possibilities. He enjoyed using his manual dexterity to draw, to do odd jobs, or to make142

something useful. Mindful above all of
the demands of family life and his
responsibilities as the eldest son, he continued to take temporary work whenever
he could find it. For two months in thesummer of 1916, while World War I was
still raging in Europe, he was hired as asecretary in a food rationing center.
As always, he enjoyed watching thosearound him. The supervisor of his section was a tall, stout man with a loudvoice, and Mikhaël noticed that it waseasy for him to impose his opinion on theother employees, who never raised their
voices. And yet he was very popular withthem, for he was always cheerful andfriendly. This made Mikhaël reflect on his
own behavior. As he once said: ‘I always
spoke softly, with the result that everybody made me wait.’
We find here, not for the first time, oneof the paradoxes of his temperament: inspite of his strength of character and allthat he had already experienced, there

143

were still times when he was paralyzed by‘unbelievable shyness’. His friends may
not have noticed it, but for Mikhaël it wasa hidden sore. It irked him to have to walkup and down in front of a shop before hecould summon the courage to go in, orto stutter and stammer when he had tospeak to a stranger.
One day he decided to cure himself of
this affliction by autosuggestion. In theevening, before going to bed, he focusedon a bright spot placed in the center ofa circle and repeated to himself, over andover, that his shyness was cured. He pictured himself doing all the things that hewas too shy to do in real life. He repeatedthe exercise more than once, and thanks
to his powers of concentration, theresults were remarkable. Several times he
was able to induce in himself a state of
hypnosis and fall into a deep sleep, andbefore long he found that he had rid himself completely of the problem that had
caused him so much embarrassment.
Talking in later years about this and other144

youthful experiments, however, he
always emphasized that, at the time, he
had not known of the danger to the nervous system of methods of this kind. He
was always careful to warn people against
attempting such exercises without suitable preparation.
At some point during this period hebegan to frequent one of the principal
bookshops in Sofia. The capital was some
280 miles from Varna, and although at
the time of Mikhaël’s youth the journeyby train cost nothing, the trip must havetaken him most of the day and brought
him home late at night. On his first visit
to this shop, he was leafing through somebooks on the shelves when the owner,
who had been watching him, picked up
two or three booklets and handed themto him, saying: ‘Look, this is what you
should be reading.’
Mikhaël looked at them and wondered
what could be so interesting about them.
He had already read so many articles and145brochures which had left him unsatisfied.
Nevertheless, he smiled at the man gratefully, saying: ‘I believe you sir. Thank you
for showing me the best you have.’
Returning to his perusal of the shelves,
he picked out several books by Rudolf
Steiner, whose work he continued to
study. How it happened he never knew,
but on his way home he was cruelly disappointed to find that he had lost his
books. This was a great blow, for his contribution to the family expenses left him
little money for his own intellectual
nourishment. The pamphlets, however,were still in his satchel, and he began toread them.
They were like nothing he had ever read
before. The plain, simple language spoke
directly to his heart. At the same time,
many of the questions in his mind foundanswers that were intellectually satisfying. The author of these booklets, Peter
Deunov by name, lived in Sofia, andMikhaël thought to himself: ‘He is head146

and shoulders above all the others. How
can I meet him?’
As it turned out, he was not to meet him
for several months, but his quest for a
spiritual Master was finally drawing to aclose. He had begun to glimpse a light at
the end of the tunnel. It was still dim, still
no more than a promise, but it was there.
Later, he often returned to that shop in
Sofia, whose owner lent him books andinvited him to sit in his office, where hecould read in peace. Mikhaël and theolder man were soon fast friends.
***
His burning thirst for knowledge, for all
the knowledge of the universe, drove
Mikhaël to read without pause frommorning to evening and often late into
the night. There were days when hedevoured six or seven hundred pages,
often reading while eating so as not towaste time. The flame that burned within
him since his ecstasy was so intense that147

he went to extremes with his meditations
and breathing exercises, not noticing that
he was seriously undermining his health.
Having become accustomed since thedeath of his father to frugal and insufficient meals, he often made do for thewhole day with some raw cabbage or bits
and pieces from his mother’s store of
pickled gherkins, peppers, and celery. He
did not mind the sensation of weightlessness induced in him by this inadequate
diet. On the contrary, he took advantage
of it, for it made it easier to disassociate,but he grew thinner and thinner, and his
face became deathly pale. And as henever had enough sleep, he often dozed
off at the most inopportune moments.
Not knowing how to improve the situation, he thought it was enough to force
himself by will-power alone.
Mikhaël’s mother watched all this withdeep concern. Convinced that the evilcame from his books which influenced
his thinking and led him to extremes, she148threatened to burn them. Mikhaël’s only
response was to lock himself in his room
to avoid such a catastrophe. When she
knocked on his door and pleaded with
him to go to the park for some fresh air,
he refused to give in. Repeating gently
that she must not worry, that he would golater, he continued to do the only thingthat seemed to him worth doing.
Dolia wept. She was at her wit’s end. Herneighbors and the other members of thefamily kept repeating: ‘You must not let
him go on like that. He’s going to die!’One day, defeated by her own fears andthe insistence of others, she threw
Mikhaël’s books into the fire. But eventhis did not deter him: he continued his
spiritual exercises, his deep breathing,
fasting, and meditations as before. Speaking many years later of his behavior at
this time, he said: ‘It was so exaggerated
it was a kind of madness.’ He felt that he
was devoured: ‘Ah, but it was such aflame, such light…’

149

Once again Mikhaël’s family and friends
were convinced that he had taken leaveof his senses. They could not understandthat he was simply ‘mad with joy’. They
could not know that the ecstasy that had
triggered this seeming folly was the culmination of a long maturing, the climax
of the spiritual work he had accomplished since the age of twelve. Such
excessiveness is almost inevitable in theseforceful and determined beings who aredestined to accomplish great things, but
for their family and friends, the need forsuch extremes is hard to understand.
They often cannot accept the seemingly
outrageous discipline, the superhumandrive toward perfection of one who has
grown up in their midst and whom they
believe they know well.
In the period between his illuminationand the first meeting with his longsought Master, Mikhaël had other mystical experiences, but we do not know
exactly when or in what order theyoccurred. About the most remarkable of150

these we know little. When he spoke of it,
he said only that one day, while doing his
deep breathing exercises, he felt a drop offire enter his lungs and inflame his wholebeing. The sensation filled him with suchinexpressible delight, such an exquisite
sense of sweetness: ‘I could only weep ina transport of joy. I was in ecstasy.’
Later he understood that this fire had
been a drop of ether, of prana, a particleof the cosmic spirit, of the fire that is
capable of melting and transmuting obsolete forms and creating a new being. As
usual, he spoke modestly and withdetachment of this exceptional phenomenon, and yet it seems that what he experienced that day was a second birth, thebirth in the Spirit by which a humanbeing is consecrated for a sacred mission.
This pervasion of his being by the ChristSpirit took place without witnesses;
those he lived with saw no more than apale reflection, a new radiance in him,
whose source remained a mystery.

151

Also in this period, he was snatched one
day from his physical body and borne faraway to the heart of the cosmos, where
all is music. Suddenly he found himself as
one with the universe, at once rock, tree,
flower, mountain, and star. Vibrating in
unison with the powerful currents thatpassed through him, he became acutely
aware of the essence of all being:
The whole world sang… the stars sang;plants, stones, and trees sang. Everythingsang. And the harmony was so glorious,
so sublime that I felt myself expanding
until I feared that I would die. … I wish
you might all hear what I heard, if only
for a few seconds. It would give you somepoint of comparison, some idea of thetrue nature of music.3
Mikhaël had achieved, that day, one of
the rarest and most beautiful experiences
it is possible for a human being to have.
He had attained a truly exceptional levelof vibration. But the human body is not
built to withstand such stress for long,152

and the ecstasy lasted only a few seconds.
If it had lasted any longer, it might wellhave put an end to his existence in thisworld,4 and sensing that he was in dangerof being pulverized, he cut it short:
It was fear that brought me back. Not
the fear of death, but the fear of being
unable to continue my work on earth. If
you have been given a task to accomplishon earth, you have to go through with it. I
could not simply abandon it.5
In the months and years that followed,
his yearning for the joy of that precious
experience was so great that he could not
avoid a sense of regret at having put an
end to it, a regret all the more poignant
because he could never hear music toequal it on the physical plane. But the
memory of those indescribable moments
steeped in the music of the spheres would
continue to give him courage in difficult
times and serve as an absolute yardstick:his appreciation of a piece of music wasnever governed by the norms commonly153accepted in society but by that measurealone. He was to say later that each planet
has not only its own particular color, butalso its own note, and that the symphonyof those notes varies with each hour ofthe day.
This intensely mystical period of
Mikhaël’s sixteenth year was, nevertheless, fraught with certain dangers. His
ardent temperament led him sometimes
to the edge of the abyss, and his prolonged exercises of pranayama nearly
ended in disaster. Yogic breathing techniques are based on an ancient traditionof Hindu mysticism which attaches great
importance to the role of the spinal column and its seven chakras or ethericforce-centers. At the base of the spine lies
the formidable force known as Kundalini,
which has a close affinity with sexual
energy. When aroused by the use of certain techniques, it can release tremendous psychic forces.
Mikhaël did not know enough to be on154his guard against the danger of practicing
certain techniques without guidance. He
probably did not know that the ancient
Sanskrit treatises of pranayama weremade intentionally obscure in order toprevent neophytes from experimenting
with them without the supervision of askilled teacher. One day, while engaged
in rhythmic breathing, he was suddenly
seized by an agonizing pain and felt as
though his brain were about to explode.
His whole being was on fire. Appallingcurrents flowed through him, and he suffered atrociously. Sensing that he was inmortal danger, he was gripped by terrible
fear and made a tremendous effort to subdue the Kundalini-force and oblige it toretreat. Summoning all the strength ofwhich he was capable, he concentrated
his thoughts and called on the powers of
the invisible world to save him, and at last
succeeded in putting this extraordinary
force to sleep again.
Had Mikhaël not escaped this destructive
power, he might well have lost his mind155or died in terrible torment. And yet thistrial by fire was something he had to go
through; without doubt, it belonged tothe body of knowledge and wisdom heneeded in order to teach the great truthsof initiatic science. Later, when talking ofthese things, he never encouraged anyone to awaken the Kundalini-force. On
the contrary, he always emphasized thatthe best way of furthering one’s evolution
was to purify oneself, to work patiently
and with perseverance to perfect oneself.
The virtues and psychic gifts and powers
would come quite naturally, he maintained, when one was ready for them andcapable of controlling and using them inthe service of light.
***
Early in 1917, worn out by his frequent
fasts and excessive spiritual exercises,
Mikhaël fell seriously ill. He had recently
become interested in the methods ofhydrotherapy with which the German
therapist Sebastien Kneipp obtained156

many cures. In the hope of purifying his
system and regaining his physical energy,
Mikhaël decided to try the Kneippmethod. For several weeks he took hisbaths in the old stable that still served
him as a laboratory, but the unheatedbuilding with its floor of packed earth
was so cold that he ended by catching achill. He became so ill and sank so rapidly
into a state of deep torpor that his
mother, fearing the worst, called in a doctor who diagnosed typhoid fever and put
the household in quarantine. Dolia
nursed her son night and day, watchingover him while his condition graduallyworsened. Burning with fever and racked
by fierce headaches, Mikhaël alternatedbetween a state of delirium and longer
periods of total prostration.
For a whole month he hovered between
life and death. In his periods of delirium
he clamored for books. He wanted nothing else, only books. He did not think
about getting better or even about thepossibility that he might die. He was157

interested only in learning, in knowing
everything there was to know, in reading
all the books in the world. Restless andtormented by a burning thirst, he continued to ask for philosophical, spiritual,and scientific works. In particular, hebegged for those of Spinoza, one of his
favorite philosophers. In their anxiety,his parents did their best to satisfy him.
Somehow finding those precious books,
they brought them to him and laid themon his bed. Mikhaël, barely conscious,
would mumble his thanks and clasp thebooks lovingly for a few moments before
putting them by his pillow, with the feeling that he was getting better. But when
the fever brought back the delirium, hebegged for still more books.
At one point the tiny flame of life burned
so low that it seemed certain to fail altogether. Dolia was in tears, convinced that
he was going to die.
But Mikhaël was not yet destined to leavethis world. Throughout his illness some-158thing had continually been at watch
within him. In his lucid moments he had
often been aware that it was within his
power to work mentally to cure himself.
He was far too weak to concentrate forlong, but whenever possible he willedwith all his might to accept the sufferingin every fiber of his being and allow it topurify his organism. Years later he made astrange but certainly true comment about
his recovery: ‘I cured myself through suffering.’ When at last he was out of danger
and his strength was slowly returning, his
craving for books had disappeared. He
continued to read, but never in the sameway.
Mikhaël’s ‘terrible illness of purification’,as he called it, seems to have been an integral part of the intensely mystical phasehe was going through. It was also the prelude to a vision that made a deep impression on him. One evening, when in thestate of somnolence that lends itself particularly well to such phenomena, he had
a vision of a tall, arrogant being splen-

159

didly clad in black. Looking at the darkeyes in which a terrible intent smoldered,
Mikhaël sensed that this being, whose
whole demeanor spoke of power andauthority, wished to possess him andcommunicate that power to him.
Almost immediately there appeared asecond figure in stark contrast to the first.
Dressed all in white, he was radiant withlight and inexpressibly beautiful. His eyes
spoke only of love and benevolence.
In a flash of intuition Mikhaël understood that he was being given a choice.
Fascinated though he was by theimmense powers this dark being seemed
to be offering him, deep in his heart he
was fearful of something terrible thatemanated from that somber visage. Suddenly he understood: the forces of darkness and destruction were trying to win
him over to their side and use him fortheir own ends. Turning back to the second apparition, he felt irresistibly drawn
to him because he had ‘the very face of160

Christ, the image of sweetness, goodness
and self-sacrifice’. There was no possible
hesitation, and the instant his choice was
made, the being of darkness vanished,
while the being of light gazed at him fora moment with an expression of infinite
sweetness before disappearing in his
turn. It was the splendor of this beingthat he was to describe in later years. ‘I
can never forget it,’ he said. ‘I was dazzled
by his beauty. It was the beauty that captivated me.’This vision constituted a milestone in
Mikhaël’s life. He sensed that he had
been absolutely free: free to choose
between putting his considerable psychic
powers in the service of his own selfinterest or in the service of light. Thatnight he made up his mind that he would
use those powers only in the pursuit of aselfless spiritual goal.
Other choices he made at this period
were equally unequivocal. He was deeply
impressed, for instance, by a text of161

Paracelsus in which he states that the lossof a man’s semen is a loss of life. Mikhaël
would say later that his encounter withthis statement played a decisive role in his
life, that it led him to reflect at length on
the question of sexuality and to make animportant decision. A decision that waspossible only because he already shared
the conviction of Paracelsus. Resolving
not to give physical expression to his sexual energies but to sublimate them in theservice of a mystical goal, he would use
them throughout his life as one uses
hydraulic pressure to raise water to the
top floor of a building, the ‘top floor’
being a symbol of the mind, the brain,
the seat of the ‘thousand-petalled crownchakra’. Without repudiating or stiflingthese energies, he would graduallydevelop a balanced philosophy of sexuality deeply respectful of human beingsand their evolution.
***
During his long convalescence in the162winter of 1917, Mikhaël began to hear talkof Peter Deunov, the author of the booklets his friend at the bookshop had given
him. He was said to be a spiritual Master,a clairvoyant and musician, who had agreat many disciples. On the insistence ofChurch authorities, who disapproved ofa teaching which drew not only on theGospels but also on the ancient tenets ofinitiatic science, Peter Deunov had been
expelled from Sofia and was now living in
Varna. He had taken a room in the Hotel
Londres, not far from where Mikhaël’s
family lived.
One day while Mikhaël was taking some
gentle exercise out of doors, he saw a manof medium height and vigorous appearance coming rapidly toward him. In an
instant he had passed, but not before
Mikhaël had glimpsed his face. Moved tothe depths of his being, he murmured tohimself: ‘That must be Peter Deunov!’
The face he had seen expressed such
nobility that it could belong only to him.
Incapable of thinking of anything else, he163made inquiries which confirmed his intuition. It was truly Peter Deunov. Without
hesitation, Mikhaël set out for the hotel
to make the acquaintance of the author
whose writings had so inspired him.
When he was shown into his room, he
saw a grey-haired man whom he recognized instantly as the one who had passed
him in the street. He was sitting at a tableplaying the violin, while the person withhim sang softly in accompaniment.
‘When you knocked,’ said Peter Deunov,‘we were singing a song that I am composing. You can sing with us.’
A little taken aback by this unexpected
greeting, Mikhaël obediently sat down
and tried to sing with them, but his vocal
cords refused to make a sound. Without
seeming to notice Mikhaël’s embarrassment, Peter Deunov continued to play his
violin, humming the melody with theyoung woman, who was a member of thebrotherhood he had founded. Gradually164Mikhaël recovered his composure andbegan to sing with them.
When the song was complete and written
down, Peter Deunov laid his violin on thetable, turned to his guest, and engaged
him in a lengthy conversation. From time
to time he picked up the Bible, read a passage, and commented on it. Mikhaël’s
hunger for clear and honest explanations
was at last satisfied, and he would say
years later that from the first time he met
Peter Deunov there had been an ‘inexplicable bond’ between them. It was asthough they had recognized each other.
Mikhaël was eager to learn Peter
Deunov’s opinion on many subjects, particularly on the question of clairvoyance.
By then he already knew a good deal
about spiritual, extra-sensory, and occult
phenomena and was familiar with thephilosophy of several initiatic schools ofboth East and West. But here at last wasa man reputed to be a great clairvoyant,165

who could speak from personal experience.
Mikhaël’s first question, ‘How can I
become clairvoyant?’ received an answer
that surprised him. Instead of explaining
a method, Peter Deunov simply said:‘Through love. You must develop yourlove. Your clairvoyance will be far greater
if you work in this way.’
Mikhaël was touched to the quick. On
reflection he realized that until then hehad been looking for ‘deep mysteries, forthings that transcend concrete realities’.
That very day he decided he would nevermake a deliberate effort to develop thegift of clairvoyance, but would work only
by means of love. The ability to see invisible realities on a higher plane would growwithin him naturally, without any special
exercises or conscious effort. He knewthat although certain methods are effective, they can also be dangerous, for they
can destroy a person’s inner equilibrium.

166

From that day on, he ‘worked to understand the truth and to sense the beauty
hidden in all things, in trees, in flowers,
in fruit’. In his eyes this was the highest
form of clairvoyance.
I understood that the ordinary kind ofclairvoyance does not rise above the levelof the vicissitudes of our lives, and that
there is a higher form of clairvoyance
which is open to the immensity of God’s
glory.6
After this first meeting, Mikhaël often
saw Peter Deunov at dawn, as he walked
through the park on his way to the sunrise. At this early hour the Morskata Gradina was deserted, and Peter Deunov
would gravely lift his hat to this youthof seventeen who went out so early eachmorning to contemplate the rising sun.
***
Mikhaël’s boyhood was coming to an
end. He would soon be an adult.

167

A study of his life as a child and ateenager reveals a certain number of paradoxes. When he talked about those years,
he would say, on the one hand, that hehad been very limited, a mediocre student, and someone who was always making experiments which annoyed otherpeople. On the other hand, he spoke ofspiritual experiences which were decidedly out of the ordinary, saying: ‘You see,even if you are small and weak, if you put
your hand in the hand of your heavenly
parents, you can end by transforming
yourself.’
Each successive spiritual experience,
beginning at the age of six, corresponded
to a phase of his awareness of God’s presence in his life. By awakening his desire
to be useful to humanity, each new phasebrought him also to a new awareness of
his friends and family. His enthusiasm,
his yearning for perfection and his
instinctively fraternal spirit made him
long to share with them all the treasuresof beauty and light he had glimpsed at the168height of those experiences. This concern for others is so strongly present in
his life that it must be seen as one of theprincipal traits of his character.

Notes
1.

December 9, 1968.

2.

January 28, 1951.

3.

April 19, 1945.

4.

‘Everything in the universe moves andvibrates. Nothing is totally immobile.
‘When an object reaches a certain level ofvibration, its molecules disintegrate anddecompose, returning to the original
elements and atoms from which they came.
These atoms, obeying the Law of Vibration,
fall apart in their turn and become once
more the countless corpuscles of which they
were composed. Finally, when the
corpuscles themselves disappear, we can saythat the object is composed of Etheric169

Substance.’ Le Kybalion, Bibliothèqueeudiaque, Paris, 1917, p. 97 (Our translation).
5.

August 21, 1954.

6.

August 1, 1963.

170

PART IITHE DISCIPLE

5

#

The
Beginningof a NewLife
In the course of history, Bulgaria, thehomeland of Orpheus, was variously
known as Thrace and Moesia before
receiving its present name. A land of

ancient myths lying at the frontier
between East and West, it was particularly well placed to serve as one of theprincipal cradles of the esoteric tradition
in Medieval Europe.
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov sometimes
said that the Mysteries, taught for thousands of years in the temples of Egypt andIndia, had also been faithfully preservedin an initiatic center deep in the heart of
Bulgaria’s Rila massif, known only to true
adepts. One of these ancient adepts, themysterious Magus Boyan who had developed great psychic powers in the courseof his initiation in India, was at the originof a charismatic religious movement in
Bulgaria known as the Bogomils. The
spiritual renewal inspired by this movement, however, was short-lived, for the
Bogomils boldly condemned those inhigh places for their dissolute way of life,
with the result that many were exiled orburned at the stake. Some, fleeing the torment in Bulgaria, settled in other European countries where their ideas influ-

173

enced such initiatic movements as theKnights Templar and the Cathars.
It is in the spiritual tradition of initiates
such as the Magus Boyan that Peter
Deunov takes his place. His teaching
rested on the key elements that were
those of the Bogomils—the light, selfmastery, and purity—but had none of
their austerity. Neither did he teach thatthe physical world was created by thepowers of evil, as did the Bogomils andCathars. In his turn, Omraam Mikhaël
Aïvanhov would say that the Cathars’
yearning for liberation was based on theirperception of life on earth as a terrible
misfortune, and this, he insisted, was anerror: our task is to work here in the physical world, to bring about the kingdom of
God on earth.
Peter Deunov, born in the region of
Varna in 1864, was the son of an Orthodox priest. After studying theology andmedicine in the United States, he had
returned to Bulgaria in 1895. There he

17
1744

undertook an intensive and wide-ranging
study of phrenology, traveling to towns
and villages throughout Bulgaria to study
the relationship between human character and temperament and the shape of theskull. It seems that he also devoted muchtime to meditation, laying the groundwork for a spiritual brotherhood. It wasin 1900, at about the time of Mikhaël’sbirth, that he began to give public lectures, and nine years later, with a goodnumber of disciples at his side, he organized the first in a series of summer conventions for his followers near the small
town of Ternovo, half-way between Sofia
and Varna.
Peter Deunov’s explanations of the esoteric meaning of biblical texts breathed
new life into traditional Christian doctrines, but it was not long before his work
met with strong opposition. The rapid
rise of this spiritual movement whichdrew inspiration not only from the
Judeo-Christian tradition but also fromancient initiatic teachings was a source of175

concern to religious authorities. A teaching based on light and the notion of cosmic justice implicit in the doctrine ofreincarnation seemed to be a condemnation of their own teaching and way of life.
In 1917, the government yielded to pressure exerted by the Bishops and expelledPeter Deunov from Sofia.
Hardly had the exile settled in Varna—atown he knew well, having spent part ofhis youth there—than he began to give
public lectures. He was then fifty-three
and recognized by many as an authentic
spiritual Master. His talks soon attracted
a large following, for his words manifested a vision of reality which was bothoriginal and profound and spoke to a
deep need in his contemporaries. His
style, however, was unusual: he sometimes interrupted his discourse to hum a
melody that had suddenly come to him.
Gradually, he developed and refined it
and asked his audience to sing with him.
He was also an accomplished violinist

176

and over the years composed a great
many mystical songs for his fraternity.
Mikhaël soon became one of Peter
Deunov’s most devoted followers, but
Dolia wept when she learned that he wasfollowing a teaching that was not sponsored by the Church. As a fervent member of the Orthodox community she had
difficulty in understanding her son’s
enthusiasm for the brotherhood. In an
attempt to allay her concern, Mikhaël
tried to interest her in the spiritual philosophy that was becoming so importantto him and invited her to attend some ofPeter Deunov’s talks with him. To pleasehim, Dolia finally agreed, but her firstcontact with the brotherhood was not a
success. Peter Deunov continued to beharassed by the religious authorities, andsome of his enemies had followed him to
Varna, where they attempted to hinder
his spiritual work by hiring hooligans tocreate disturbances during his talks. It
was a veritable persecution, and Dolia
wanted no part of it. ‘Don’t worry,

177

Mother,’ Mikhaël tried to reassure her;‘the Master says that the police will be
there next time to protect us.’
The protection materialized as promised:
several policemen were stationed in theback of the hall before the lecture began,and Peter Deunov spoke without interruption. However, this was not enough toconvince Dolia to attend more meetings.
Her path was not that of her son, but she
respected his options. ‘If this is what isright for you,’ she told him, ‘then I am
with you.’
Deeply grateful for the freedom she gavehim, Mikhaël lived in a permanent stateof joy and enthusiasm. At last he hadfound what he had sought for so long: aspiritual Master who was closely linked
to the divine world, a sage whose life wasdevoted to the enlightenment of humanity. And this sage dispensed a teachingwhose source lay in the highest spheresof the invisible world, a teaching which
had been preserved for centuries in the178ancient temples of the world. As Peter
Deunov once said to the members of his
brotherhood:
Do not say that the doctrine I teach wasinvented by someone called Deunov. Say
that it is the teaching of the Fellowshipof Light. Tomorrow someone else willappear, with another name. The greatness of all those who have come into theworld lies in their transmission of thetruth just as it was given to them by
God.1
For Mikhaël, it was the beginning of a
new life; his quest for perfection was now
channeled in a more definite direction.
He felt extraordinarily rich to have found
one of the most precious treasures thatany human being can have: a spiritual
Master. He realized that this new teaching confirmed and brought into perspective all that he had discovered and practiced in the last few years, and this gave
him great joy, for although he was awareof the dangers inherent in his excessive

179

exercises, he could not always restrain
himself. He knew that he needed a guidein order to make progress in the spiritual
world and looked to Peter Deunov to give
him the advice and teach him the methods he needed. One day he told Peter
Deunov of a terrifying experience he had
had. Many years later, he referred again tothat experience:
My longing to study these things was so
overpowering that one day I disassociated from my physical body andlaunched out into space in search of thearchives of the cosmos. I reached sucha great distance from the earth that I
began to be afraid when I found myself
in this unknown space. Being out of mybody, I had consciously reached the universal archives, and I was suddenly facedwith that great universal abyss which is
spoken of in the Bible. I do not know why
I was suddenly afraid to enter. I felt
myself to be so far out in space that I
was filled with dread, and to my shame I
turned back. […] That was my first expe-

180rience with the archives of the Universeand I talked to the Master about it […] I
told him that I had been afraid of disintegrating, of seeing all my cells disappear
in space. Fear is a truly terrible state ofmind. […] When you find yourself very,
very far from the earth, with nothing
underfoot—for we always feel the needto cling to terra firma—it is a terrifying
experience. […] The Master confirmedthat I had, in effect, reached the universal abyss, but that as I was not yet readyto enter, it was as well that I had turned
back. I thought a lot about that experience and I learned a lot by it. I meditated
at length and began to be more prudent.2
The failure of his first attempt to penetrate the most sacred regions of the universe incited him to ponder and weighthings more carefully. Peter Deunov, whorecognized the efforts he was making,often encouraged Mikhaël to come andtalk to him in his hotel room. The young
man always arrived for those interviews
with a series of questions, and as the181answers he received were often abstractand symbolic, he was obliged to reflect at
length in order to understand their hidden meaning.
To help him remember what he hadheard, he developed a method all his own.
Instead of taking notes during the interview, he tried simply to become a receptacle, to absorb his Master’s words not with
his intellect but with his heart, in order tograsp the beauty and the spiritual dimension of Peter Deunov’s words. Back in his
own room, he concentrated on what had
passed between them, reviewing thewhole conversation in his mind over andover again, until he remembered every
word, every detail. Only then did horizons open before him that he could nothave imagined during the meeting. Convinced that whatever he received throughthe intermediary of Peter Deunov was
precious beyond words, he practiced thismethod faithfully for many years.
In one corner of Peter Deunov’s room182

stood a large incense-burner, and in cold
weather he would revive the fire by stirring the coals with a small poker. As
Mikhaël watched, captivated by the graceof his movements, he reflected that thesubtle harmony of his gestures could not
fail to have a profound influence on thosearound him. But if the young Mikhaël
was a skilled observer, he soon saw thatPeter Deunov was as well. When hewalked to the door at the end of an interview and turned to say good-bye, he sawthat his way of walking and of opening
the door were being closely observed.
Struck by this, he began to scrutinize his
own gestures and correct anything that
did not seem aesthetically pleasing.
Mikhaël’s desire for perfection frequently
led him to the Master in search of advice.
One day, knowing of his skill as a phrenologist, he asked Peter Deunov to analyze his features and tell him how to correct the faults they revealed. The Mastercomplied, and his comments seem tohave impressed the young Mikhaël

183

deeply: ‘Your forehead,’ he told him, ‘isdesigned in accordance with the musicallaws of divine harmony.’
He added that his chin expressed stability, and then gave him some advice about
how to correct the aspects that were not
perfectly balanced. When Mikhaël said
that he too would like to study phrenology, Peter Deunov smiled and replied:‘You already have that science withinyou.’This response may have seemed surprising, but as Mikhaël was to say later, he
had begun to realize that while the Master was answering a question he often
knew the answer already, and that Peter
Deunov was simply bringing to the surface truths that lay hidden within him.
After his long and lonely quest in theworld of books, Mikhaël found great
comfort in the burgeoning communitythat had become his spiritual family. The
teaching he was studying so ardently ful-184

filled his aspirations, for it embraced not
only initiatic science and philosophy, butalso meditation, prayer, music, methodsof breath control, and even rhythmic
physical exercises designed to harmonize
the whole being. In this teaching hefound light, wisdom, and brotherly love.
‘This is the new life,’ he said to himself,‘a life that is all giving, not taking.’ But
what could he give? Certainly not money.
His only wealth lay in his love and histhoughts, and these he dedicated wholeheartedly to the Master Deunov and his
spiritual mission. Every morning, hedevoted himself to this work, picturingPeter Deunov as inexpressibly beautiful,surrounding him with a wealth of magnificent colors, projecting on to him
every imaginable quality and virtue. Hispassion for subtle links urged him to
unite mentally with this spiritual Masterat every possible moment, for in his eyes
he was a vital link in the ascending chainof highly evolved beings that binds us to
the Creator. By uniting with him, thereby

185forging a bond with the most sublime
hierarchies, he received an abundance of
spiritual benefits which both fuelled andintensified his hunger for perfection, hisquest for God.
***
Mikhaël was not to enjoy this ideal situation for long. Toward the end of 1917
the time came for him to do his military
service. He was devastated. The very ideaof being a soldier horrified him, for hewanted no part in any form of humanviolence. He, whose ideal was one of love,sharing, and mutual support, had alreadyspent his whole life in a world ravaged
by wars and insurrections, a world of terror and brutality. And now, with the FirstWorld War in full spate, the Balkans weretragically affected by the conflict.
As soon as he received his conscription
papers, he went to tell Peter Deunov. ‘I
was crying,’ he said later. ‘I did so want to186stay with him and continue going to thesunrise.’This reaction is revealing. Of all the sacrifices military service would demand ofhim, the most difficult to accept was theseparation from his spiritual Master andthe impossibility of practicing the ‘yoga
of the sun’. To his surprise, Peter
Deunov’s response was to laugh, andMikhaël, hurt by this apparent indifference, fell silent. But then he thought tohimself: ‘I cannot expect a great Masterto share in the sorrows of a little disciple
like me.’ As he was to learn later, Peter
Deunov often assumed an air of gaiety
in the face of another’s sadness in order
to dissipate the negative vibrations andinduce a more positive reaction. After a
few moments, however, his expression
changed completely, and looking at
Mikhaël with the love of a father, he said:‘You will soon be freed in an extraordinary way. You have no idea what heaven
has in store for you.’187

In truth, Mikhaël’s military service wasbrief. Shortly after his arrival in camp hefell ill with jaundice and was transferredto the infirmary, where he was treated bya sergeant whose medical competence
was limited to the use of tincture ofiodine. Peter Deunov’s prediction soon
came true: Mikhaël was declared unfit for
military service and sent home to recuperate. When he was better, althoughstill pale and thin, he went to see Peter
Deunov, who told him: ‘Your liver has
been damaged.’‘What should I do to get better?’‘Every morning before eating, you must
drink a cup of water. Drink it slowly,
chewing each mouthful and concentrating on what you are doing. You must also
talk to the water. Tell it, “Dear water, weare going to work together to repair whatis wrong in my body.”’
Perplexed, Mikhaël thought to himself:‘Water? That is his remedy?’ Without

188

really believing in it he neverthelessobeyed, for he was convinced that it
could only be to his benefit to follow his
Master’s advice, even if it were mistaken.
While he knew that genuine Masters
who work with the forces of light neverdemanded submission from their disciples, he also knew that obedience wasvery beneficial, for it could help one toacquire humility.
Mikhaël began his treatment and withthe first mouthful experienced an extraordinary sensation: it was as though hewere tasting water for the first time. It was
an elixir on his tongue. As an agreeable
light-headedness took hold of him, his
consciousness seemed to expand andbecome keener and more receptive.
While his thoughts focused on the purewater, his whole being responded to themysterious properties of this element heloved so well. Before long, he felt his
strength returning, and the extreme
exhaustion resulting from his recent illness was soon a thing of the past.

189

Peter Deunov had reminded him of areality with which he had long beenfamiliar without fully understanding allits implications: the subtle, secret properties of water. But Mikhaël was still notsatisfied and began to look for ways of
improving his health further. Meditatingon the unity indispensable to a human
body, he thought to himself, ‘The organs
function well only if they obey a higher
authority which regulates their activity.
How can I make contact and communicate with that authority? How can I
enable it to take possession of its inner
kingdom?’ He thought of the cells andorgans of the body as ‘a realm that wasgoverned very imperfectly by its humanowner’, and he pondered how to communicate with the true king of that realm.
By means of fervent meditation he succeeded in raising his mind to the level ofhis higher self, that omniscient elementthat dwells in every human being, and it
was then that the existence of an
extremely potent point at the back of his

190head was revealed to him. He began toconcentrate on this spot and permeate itwith all the light he could imagine. Years
later he would tell his followers that byfocusing the mind on this spot it is possible to communicate with one’s higher
self, so that it infuses new energies into
one’s cells.
I can give you an exercise which consistsin concentrating on the occiput, theregion at the back of your skull. Try it fora few minutes and you will notice thatsomething begins to happen: your wholebody begins to vibrate and you feel as
though sparks were coursing through you.
But this is not an exercise that should becontinued for long: as soon as you feela tension, a tingling, as though you had
touched a nerve center that made yourwhole body vibrate, it is time to stop. The
first few times you must be very careful
and be sure not to go on for too long.3
Gradually, thanks to his regular efforts,191

the physical debility he had suffered foryears disappeared.
From this point on, although he now hada spiritual Master with whom heintended to work for many years to come,Mikhaël knew that he would continue tomake important discoveries on his own,
almost independently of Peter Deunov’s
influence. His later comments on thisperiod of his youth are revealing: all his
experiences and discoveries sprang froman inner dynamic, not from any external
stimulus. Since his illumination, his
invisible guide had been continually present within him, and it was he who
inspired his spiritual work, while Peter
Deunov was the touchstone of his
progress, the sage in whose presence hegained perspective on many things andlearned to confirm his intuitions and discoveries. Peter Deunov’s role seems tohave been to provide occasional concise
explanations that served as a leaven for
the ideas already taking shape in
Mikhaël’s mind, and to guide him with192

care toward that which he needed tolearn, but in fact—as Mikhaël himself
was to say—he was guiding Mikhaël
toward an unknown Master who
belonged to another dimension.
In the spring of 1918, Peter Deunov
offered Mikhaël the occasion for a very
special spiritual experience: by teaching
him to use the technique of disassociation more effectively, he led him for the
first time to the causal plane, one of thehigher planes of being, each of which has
its specific vibratory field and which
together constitute the different levels ofenergy in the cosmos. At the time, Peter
Deunov was a guest in the home of a disciple who lived among the vineyards tothe north of Varna. One day when
Mikhaël went to see him there, he invited
him to return early the next morning,saying that he wanted to take him up into
the hills for the sunrise.
In his teaching, Peter Deunov attributed
great importance to the sun and encour-193

aged everyone to attend the sunrise during the spring and summer. He taught
them to assimilate the sunlight in order
to transform it into virtue and communicate it to others. It is clear that he did
not teach them to consider the sun as asort of God or object of worship, but simply to nourish themselves with its light at
the moment when its energies were mostbeneficial.
At the prospect of this excursion
Mikhaël was too excited to sleep thatnight, and in his anxiety to be at their
meeting place in good time—the house
where Peter Deunov was staying wassome distance from his home—he was up
long before dawn. He was so happy to bewalking along beside the Master—’I was
as proud as Punch to be with him!’—that
he could not stop talking, but he ended
by noticing that Peter Deunov only
smiled and barely answered. The message
was obvious and Mikhaël fell silent.
The sky grew gradually lighter, and the194only sound was that of their footsteps on
the path as Mikhaël prepared himself tomeditate. They reached the highest
slopes just as the sun burst into view, rising over the sea. Speaking of this experience many years later with some of those
who followed his teaching, Mikhaël
would say: ‘The color of that great solar
disk was so marvelous that I longed todrink its light.’ And he suggested thatthey too learn consciously to breathe in,to drink in the light of the rising sun; tosee it as a veritable elixir of physical andspiritual health.
After a short meditation and somebreathing exercises, Peter Deunov said:‘Now we are going to lie down.’
He stretched out on the grass with hisback exposed to the sun’s rays andMikhaël, overcoming his first surprise,
did the same. He soon felt the heat of thesun warming his skin through his clothes.
His back became a great battery charged
with solar energy, and pervaded by a deep195

sense of well-being, he sank into a statethat closely resembled sleep. When hecame to himself, he had the impressionthat Peter Deunov had returned at thesame moment. Although he had no clear
memory of what he had seen, he sensed
that he had experienced something
exceptional; his whole being reverberated with a mysterious bliss. Peter
Deunov, smiling at him, asked: ‘Do you
know where we were?’‘No, Master,’ replied Mikhaël; ‘I would beglad if you would tell me.’
‘We went to visit the causal plane, but theentities that received us told me that you
must not be allowed to remember what
you had seen. That is why I was obliged
to draw a veil before your eyes. But you
can feel, can you not, that something
happened?’‘Oh yes, Master. Yes!’
Mikhaël knew that what he had experienced was important for his soul. It

196

seemed to him that the very air was filledwith vibrations from the higher planes,
that the whole of nature was enchanted.
After a moment of silence, the spell was
broken when Peter Deunov took somefood from his knapsack and they ate
together before going down to the town.
For the rest of that day, Mikhaël lived in
the memory of the morning’s experience,and from then on he often accompaniedPeter Deunov to the sunrise. After a long
meditation they disassociated, and theMaster guided his young disciple withextraordinary love and attention, giving
him the opportunity to learn ‘the realitiesof the invisible world.’***
While it was given to Mikhaël to become
familiar with the realities of worlds
unknown to most human beings, he was
not allowed to remain in ignorance of therealities of the physical world in which
he lived. At the age of eighteen he wascalled on to make one of the important197

decisions that his future mission requiredof him. The occasion was provided by a
man who had been a consul in the UnitedStates and who had recently returned to
Bulgaria after traveling about the world.
Author of several books about spiritualism and passionately interested in magic,
he had brought back from his travels all
kinds of fetishes, magic mirrors, and ritual robes which he intended to use in his
experiments. Once he became presidentof a group of spiritualists, however, he
had been obliged to admit that his psychic abilities were meager, and he waslooking for a young man gifted in thisway to help him implement his plans.
One day Mikhaël received an invitation
to the ex-consul’s home in a fashionableneighborhood of Varna, and a dazzling
proposal was put to him: in exchange forhis services, he was offered a good salary,
free room and board, and the use of alibrary well supplied with books on theoccult sciences, magic, and extra-sensory

198

phenomena… ‘And whatever else youwant,’ added the consul.
Word of the abilities, the purity, and thespirituality of this exceptional young
man had reached his ears, and with his
assistance he could foresee extremelyinteresting prospects in terms of communications with the spirit world. He wasprepared to pay a good deal for his collaboration. For Mikhaël, this was the classic temptation of wealth and power: unrestricted access to an excellent library, thefreedom to experiment with extrasensory phenomena, and the money thatwould enable him to help his mother andlive at ease himself. His first reaction,
however, was to consult Peter Deunov
and to do as he advised. When Peter
Deunov counseled him in no uncertain
terms to have nothing to do with the exconsul or with magic of any kind, he was
not surprised; he had already arrived at
the conclusion that the truly magical element in the ascent toward perfection was
the presence of a spiritual Master, and199

that psychic accomplishments were ofsecondary importance:
I did not know much about humannature, about the cupidity and perversion of men or the fascination of danger.
Fortunately, as I did not want to be led
astray, I never did anything without consulting my Master, Peter Deunov. There
are a great many different ways of selling
one’s soul to the devil! You do not needto make the kind of pact with the devil
that is described in books on witchcraft;you only need to obey the dictates of yourown selfishness and greed. Each time you
do so your soul loses some of its light.4
At the age of sixteen Mikhaël had alreadychosen between the two beings who had
appeared to him in a vision. But that did
not dispense him from the successive
choices that all human beings have to
make to reinforce an initial decision,
however firm. Free will remains, and our
options must constantly be renewed. Fortified by Peter Deunov’s wisdom, he per-200

severed with his spiritual exercises, working continually to purify his motivations.
Speaking later of his psychic powers—and in particular of his clairvoyance—he said that at that period he had
sensed a great inner effervescence, andthat he often had revelations about people’s past lives. Whenever possible, he
asked Peter Deunov to verify the truth of
those revelations. But before long he realized that to reveal such things could be
dangerous, that he had no right to lift theveil that divine wisdom draws over the
memory of human beings: ‘If they knew
what terrible things they had done toeach other in the past, how would they
react today?’
Mikhaël’s dearest wish was to help his
friends to advance, but how could he be
sure of what he could tell them without
doing them more harm than good?
Because he was in doubt about this headopted the habit of denying his gift ofclairvoyance. It is evident, however, that201

he perceived emanations and the aura
surrounding each human being, an aura
which cannot lie, for its colors express
the physical and spiritual state of healthof the individual. Occasionally he could
even see the luminescence of Peter
Deunov’s aura and capture the fragranceof the spiritual perfume emanating fromhim.
Peter Deunov, aware of Mikhaël’s decision in respect to his clairvoyance andknowing his interest in the art of divination by chiromancy, warned him that it
was an extremely subtle science which
was very difficult to master.
‘If you want to understand what a handreveals,’ he explained, ‘palmistry alone is
not enough. You also have to use
phrenology, which studies the shape ofthe skull, and physiognomy, whichenables you to know a person’s characteras indicated by his facial features.’
Mikhaël thus began to study the three202

disciplines together, and not long after
this, Peter Deunov held out his hand for
him to read. Deeply moved, Mikhaël
examined it in silence and was immediately struck by the length of the line of
Saturn. Then he noticed a line whichstarted at the Mount of Venus and, crossing the life line, the head line, and the lineof Saturn, ended on the other side of thepalm. The Master, who had been watching Mikhaël’s expression, asked:‘Do you see that line? What does it
mean?’‘It is the line of great ordeals,’ replied
Mikhaël without hesitation. Then,instinctively looking at his own hand, hesaw the same line. For a moment he was
speechless. So that was it! Peter Deunov
knew that he had the same line. He had
only shown Mikhaël his hand to help him
to understand something important: he
too would have to endure great ordeals.
‘For the time being you will have the best203

possible conditions and receive the help
you need to advance,’ said Peter Deunov.
‘Heaven will give you many blessings. But
a time will come when the forces of darkness will put obstacles in your way andtry to prevent you from going forward.’‘It should be possible to get by,’ said
Mikhaël with a smile, unable to grasp allthat those words of warning implied.
The Master then decided to reveal further aspects of the ordeals that he would
have to face later, and after listening
attentively, Mikhaël asked when thesetrials would take place.
‘In the twenty-sixth year,’ replied Peter
Deunov.
‘In my twenty-sixth year,’ thought
Mikhaël to himself. But he was mistaken.
He was then eighteen, and Peter
Deunov’s ambiguous answer meant that
his worst ordeals would begin twenty-six
years later. And in fact it was in 1944 thathis ‘descent into hell’ began and contin-

204

ued until he touched the depths in 1948.
Not wanting to impose too heavy a burden on Mikhaël, Peter Deunov had been
deliberately vague.
In the meantime, the fraternity was growing rapidly and counted several hundred
members who considered each other as
brothers and sisters. In this they were
heirs to an age-old tradition of mankind,for human beings have always had thenostalgic dream of one great family inwhich they could live in a spirit of loveand mutual support. Throughout theages, many such fraternities have seen thelight of day in different countries, different social classes, and different religions.
The members of Peter Deunov’s brotherhood strove to express this ideal throughthe harmony of their life together, and asa reminder in times of difficulty that they
all belonged to the same family, they
addressed each other as ‘brother’ or ‘sister’.
By 1919, the summer conventions at Ter-205

novo had been a regular feature for ten
years. The site of the gathering lay among
the vineyards on the outskirts of thetown, and as there was only one small
house, the participants camped in tents
and held their activities in the open air.
This year Peter Deunov had arranged for
Mikhaël and one of his friends to join
them, and when they arrived from Varna
they found several hundred participantsalready gathered from the four corners of
Bulgaria. Mikhaël and his friend, at nineteen years old, were the youngest.
During this convention Peter Deunovtalked at length about light. He asserted
that the science of light and color would
be the dominant science of the future,and that light, seemingly so inoffensive,
was in reality the greatest force in creation.
That summer was a time of great happiness for Mikhaël: he was happy to be withhis spiritual family again, and above all
he was happy because of his relationship206

with Peter Deunov. One day, in conversation with a woman who often acted as
Peter Deunov’s secretary when he traveled, Mikhaël spoke of the Master’s kindness, affection, and consideration. In
return he received a warning which
opened his eyes to other aspects of thelife of a disciple and prepared him forwhat was to come. The woman
exclaimed:‘Brother Mikhaël, you will see later on!
He is like that with the brothers and sisters in the beginning, but after a while hebecomes much more severe. That it how
it was with me, and I thank Heaven thathe shakes me up from time to time. You
do not yet know what a Master is.’In effect, it was this same summer thatPeter Deunov began to treat his young
disciple differently:
At Ternovo we had to build a path. We
had collected all the cement, flagstones
and other things we needed. We both207

worked but it was the Master who began.
Then I saw that my work did not look
much like his. I was so eager and sohappy to be doing this job with the Master that I was going too fast. But the
Master had engaged me in this work toteach me something. He found that theflagstones I had laid were uneven; they
were not lined up correctly. I corrected
my mistakes, but the Master found othererrors and so on until the end. He did
not say anything while I was working,but once I had finished he found fault
with it. […] The Master was re-educatingus. He obliged us to see that our attitude
and that of society was too mediocre—it
was incapable of building character. He
stimulated us to seek perfection in every
area of life.5

Notes
1.

L’Enseignement du Maître Deunov, by a groupof Bulgarian disciples. Publication E.T.

208

Courrier du Livre, 1990 p. 62. (Ourtranslation)
2.

June 14, 1944. He spoke of this experiencein the context of explanations about the
Akasha Chronica, the mysterious subtle
matter which exists in the cosmos andwhich records all that happens in theuniverse; all thoughts, words, and actions.

3.

‘The Higher Self II’ in Know Thyself: Jnana
Yoga I.

4.

‘Youth, a World in Gestation’, in Youth:
Creators of the Future.

5.

April 2, 1944.

209

6

#

Year AfterYear I
Worked…

Ternovo, one of the ancient capitals of
Bulgaria, is built on a cluster of steep
rugged hills. Mikhaël liked the picturesque little town with the river Iantra

winding through it, but he loved evenmore the beautiful countryside all
around. That year, after the summer convention, he decided to remain there with
one of his friends and devote all his timeto spiritual work in this peaceful natural
setting.
The two youths were lent an empty villabelonging to a member of Mikhaël’s family. Surrounded by trees, the house stoodin the middle of vineyards not far fromthe town. On entering the house one of
the first things they did was to open thewindows, but in one of the rooms theyfound the space between shutter andwindow filled with honeycombs, and aswarm of bees at work. Fascinated by thespectacle, they watched for a long timeand agreed not to disturb them. Fromthen on, Mikhaël lived in that room as
though in a hive, observing the different
phases of the bees’ communal life. The
delicious, heady perfume that filled theroom helped him to meditate. Ever after,
he had a special affection for these tiny211

creatures who ‘give us a magnificent
example of an advanced form of society’.
This two-year retreat in Ternovo was animportant phase in Mikhaël’s life. He
read and meditated to his heart’s content,
often into the small hours. Without fearof interruption, and with the heady perfume produced by the bees to help him
to disassociate, he was free to multiply his
out-of-body experiences and explore
space—as he called the regions to which
he traveled in his astral body. His one
desire was to understand the structure of
the universe and see how all its different
elements hang together. Utterly fearless,taking little care for his life, he succeededin reaching the loftiest spheres of theinvisible world. As he would say later, he‘explored the higher worlds of ideas andarchetypes, the laws and principles thatgovern creation’.
Year after year I worked with only one
idea in mind: to contemplate and comprehend the structure of the universe. For

212years, it was the only thing that interested me. I spent days and nights out of
my body, striving for a clear vision of thatstructure, of the bonds that tie all thedisparate elements together. I knew thateverything else was unimportant. The
only thing that mattered was to see theoverall structure.1
At one point he began to concentrate on
the distant past of humanity. To go millions of years into the past was a terrifying experience, for he found himself infront of ‘nothing’. After many otherexperiments he attempted to project himself billions of years into the future, andonce again was seized with dread. Whenhe spoke about this second experimentlater he did not explain the reason for his
fear. He simply concluded by saying that
eternity is not a temporal reality, it is astate of mind, and that we all have thepotential to change a great deal in ourpresent state by concentrating on the
future; that through concentration, ‘you
can touch a nerve center of eternity

213

which is capable of sweeping away all thatexists’.
Although his experiments were sometimes terrifying, he did not let this deter
him. His thirst for knowledge of theinvisible world continually urged him on.
All these perceptions, ecstasies, and discoveries were part of the inner initiationthat had been working within him eversince his illumination. The perfection of
the symbols he saw and described so
vividly is a clear indication of the spiritual maturity he had already attained. He
would explain one day that if one meditates for a long time on an idea, a geometrical form which corresponds exactly
to the idea on which one is meditating
will gradually take shape in one’s subconscious—or superconscious.
He continued his exercises of mental
concentration, working with the powerof thought so as to become more andmore capable of tuning into the wavelengths of the higher worlds. And he con-214

tinued, always with the same enthusiasm,
to share his discoveries with his friends.
But he had not lost his love of mischief
and was quite capable of doing something spectacular just for the fun of it.
Many years later he told of one such incident:
When I was still very young there werecertain exercises that I loved to do. One
day I was with some friends at the topof the Musala, and the lakes of Rila andthe other peaks were hidden by fog. It wasso thick that we could barely see eachother. Just for fun, I asked my friends,`Do you want to see the view? Tell me
what you want to see and I’ll show it toyou.’ Well, one of them asked to see thethird lake—or perhaps it was the fifth—I
do not remember exactly. I had climbed
the Musala so often that I knew exactly
where each lake or peak of the PirinRhodope mountains was, so I stretchedout my hand in the direction of the thirdlake, the fog cleared, and the lake
appeared. Of course, they all exclaimed215

in surprise. Then I lowered my hand, andgradually the lake was once more hidden
by fog. Then someone else wanted to see
the Macedonian mountains. I stretchedout my hand in that direction and once
again the fog lifted and the mountains
appeared. After that the sun came out.
My friends were absolutely dumbfounded. For the first time they understood how powerful thought can be. This
story is absolutely true. I know that theinvisible world is listening to me. I cannot lie to you.2
After relating this incident he added that
if it is possible to act on external clouds
it is even easier to work on those that
obscure our inner world. By mentally
focusing rays of light on them, one candispel them and regain inner peace andjoy.
In spite of the intensity of his research,
Mikhaël was never satisfied. Consciousof the importance of continual purification to allow the currents of divine life216

to flow freely within him, he decided to
fast for ten days. After two or three days
he experienced a thirst which continued
to increase as the days went by. He wasobsessed by water. All his dreams wereof springs and rivers at which he drank
without ever quenching his thirst. On theseventh day he picked up a piece of fruitand sensed that when he breathed in its
perfume he received a subtle nourishment that satisfied him completely. It wasthen that he understood more profoundly than ever a truth that he wouldrefer to all his life: fruit—indeed, allplants—contain subtle, etheric elementsthat can nourish us if we are not too satiated to assimilate them. For the last threedays of his fast, before gradually resuming a normal diet and his usual rhythmof life, he continued to nourish himself
solely on the emanations of fruit.
At this period of his life Mikhaël often
continued his spiritual exercises far into
the night, with the result that he wassometimes too tired to awake in time for217the sunrise. Although he regretted this,it seems that he could not resign himself
to working less. One fine day, however,something happened that enchanted
him: at dawn a small bird alighted on his
window-sill and began tapping on theglass with its beak. The following morning and every day after that, the bird
returned and took up its tapping, andMikhaël responded as to a friend: ‘All
right. I’m getting up at once!’
Then he put some bread-crumbs on thewindow ledge and the bird, singing merrily, flew off in search of others to join in
the feast, while Mikhaël thanked heaven
with all his heart for this gift of joy fromthe kingdom of the air. Mikhaël had
always had this special relationship withbirds. Throughout his life, they often
served as messengers to bring him
answers he was waiting for from theinvisible world. At one time or another,most of his friends witnessed such incidents which pointed to a rare harmony

218between a human being and the natural
world.
Years later, one of those friends, a young
man called Alexander, described to hisdaughter his first meeting with Mikhaël.
We met on a train. I was seventeen at
the time and was traveling alone. Standing in the corridor outside my compartment was a young man, a little older
than myself. He must have sensed that I
was looking at him, because he suddenly
turned round and smiled at me with an
extraordinary expression of radianceand warmth. I was tremendously struckby the spiritual beauty that shone fromhim. I stood up and went out to the corridor and leaned on the window besidehim. We talked about all kinds of thingsand discovered that we both lived in
Dounavska Street: he at one end in the
Turkish quarter, and I at the other end.
Then he talked about his Master andtold me that he was on his way to a convention at Ternovo. At first I wanted to219

go with him, but finally we decided that
we would meet again in September in
Varna, and he would give me some books
and take me to the Master’s talks.
This was the beginning of a lasting
friendship. Alexander became a memberof Peter Deunov’s brotherhood andattended his talks regularly. In the Spring
he accompanied Mikhaël when he went
to meditate in the park at sunrise. One
morning as they were sitting on a benchin front of the rising sun, a bird came andperched on Mikhaël’s shoulder. Mikhaël
was deep in meditation and did not stir,
but Alexander was distracted andwatched his friend for a long time. After awhile, as the bird remained perfectly still,
he could not resist murmuring:‘Mikhaël, you know there’s a bird on yourshoulder?’‘Yes, I know,’ replied Mikhaël.
Then, opening his eyes, he talked to thebird with all the affection a human being220

can feel for a small animal. It was obviousthat there was a genuine communication
between those two beings, so different
from each other.
The bird listened, added Alexander, andseemed to respond with little movementsof its head. There was such tenderness inMikhaël’s gestures and such an extraordinary light in his face that I have always
remembered that moment.
***
Mikhaël seems to have had many friends,
but he would say later that in Bulgaria he
had always remained in the background,and those who knew him confirm this.
Yet there is ample evidence that he had
remarkable influence on his contemporaries. According to his family andfriends he was much sought after andpeople were always coming to ask his
advice. He attracted them like a magnet.
With the fire that burned within him andhis radiant energy drawn from the higher

221

planes, he was a being who led others
irresistibly toward new horizons. One
might think that people would have been
uneasy in the presence of such intensity,
but his high spirits and unfailing sense ofhumor always gave it balance. Also, his
affection for his friends was so genuine
and warm that they easily forgot thesupernatural and almost intimidating
aspects of his behavior, his research andhis work.
At one point, several young friends went
to live with Mikhaël in Ternovo to pursue
their spiritual work in a favorable atmosphere, and gradually the house became afocal point of spiritual life in which otheryoung friends found encouragement andsupport. They spent their days reading,meditating and working in the house andgarden.
One day they were surprised to see ayouth, dressed in rags and with every
appearance of being a fugitive, emerge
timidly from among the vines. Without222

hesitation, they welcomed him andoffered him something to eat. The boy
was trembling with fear, but gradually,
reassured by their attitude, he told themhis name was Dimitri and he was being
hunted by the police. He had belonged toa group of anarchists of which only hehad escaped death; all his comrades had
been executed. Mikhaël and his friends
invited Dimitri to stay with them as longas he wished. It was a courageous gesture,since at the time—two years after the endof World War I—violence was rife in the
country and the political situation wasincreasingly unstable. Groups of agrarians, communists, fascists, anarchists, andMacedonian revolutionaries all contributed to the general unrest, which waseven further intensified by the presenceof thousands of refugees from the devastated war zones.
Dimitri had long conversations withthese young men whose ways astonished
him: they were vegetarians, they meditated, they loved to watch the sun rise,223

and they lived in an atmosphere of harmony. It was the integrity of his own
character that had first led him to rebel
against the injustices of society and join
the anarchists in the hope of building abetter world through violence. But bitter
experience had opened his eyes, and he
was spontaneously drawn to the philosophy of love and peace that inspired his
new friends. Yet it was difficult for him
to believe in this sudden reversal of his
fortunes. To hide or flee at the first signof danger had become second nature tohim, and the adaptation to a life of peace
did not come easily. Mikhaël, observing
him with affection, thought to himself: ‘It
is as though he missed the torments ofthe past.’ Gradually, however, Dimitri’s
native qualities reasserted themselves
and blossomed in the friendly atmosphere of the group. He became particularly attached to Mikhaël and remained
ever after a faithful friend.
In the meantime, Peter Deunov hadreceived permission to return to Sofia

224

and was now giving lectures in his own
home. In many ways, however, his work
was becoming increasingly difficult. In
the past he had often had to take a standagainst those who wanted him to makelife easier for them or who sought his protection and hoped for miracles. In theiranger and disappointment some of themturned against him and began to spread
criticism and false rumors about him, andhe was now faced with a difficulty that
confronts almost all spiritual guides: thebitter recriminations of one-time disciples.
Several young brothers, worried by thesenegative rumors, went to consult
Mikhaël, who was vehement in defenseof Peter Deunov. He had far too much
respect and affection for the Master tobelieve such criticisms or to question his
decisions. But this time of difficulty forPeter Deunov was also a period of trial for
Mikhaël. He was nineteen, and the young
men with whom he lived often turned tohim, confident that he could enlighten

225them and give them good advice. It was
not a role that he chose for himself. On
the contrary, he had stayed in Ternovo inorder to devote himself to a life of contemplation. But in spite of his desire toremain in the background, he could nothide the fire that burned within andshone from him. And it was here that
another test awaited him. Just as he had
known the lure of power at the age of sixteen, it was inevitable that he should now
be tempted by the exercise of authority.
Later, he spoke with the utmost simplicity of how, during his second year withPeter Deunov, he had once spoken ‘as a
Master’ to some members of the brotherhood.
As soon as he had spoken, he realizedthat he was in danger of seeking glory forhimself, just as three years earlier he had
been in danger of using his powers forhis own ends. He reproached himself bitterly for having abandoned his habitual
discretion and self-effacement. It was at
this point that Peter Deunov’s attitude,226

for reasons known only to himself,changed radically. From then on, he
ignored Mikhaël completely. Commenting later on the Master’s reaction,
Mikhaël said: ‘If you only knew how I suffered! How I regretted what I had done!’
Adding that, in reality, it had been no
more than a childish mistake, but thatPeter Deunov must have seen it as thesign of a danger from which he wanted toprotect him.
Mikhaël’s inner strength coupled withhis deliberate self-effacement aroused
admiration in some and envy in others.
When the latter spread the rumor that
the Master was displeased with his decision to live in Ternovo with his friends,
Mikhaël became the object of criticism
and denigration. He also suffered greatly
from the change in his relationship withPeter Deunov, and for years puzzled over
his apparent coldness. He could notknow that the Master had decided tokeep him in the background until it wastime to entrust him with his unique mis-227

sion: to carry his teaching to France.
Occasionally, however, Mikhaël was
deeply moved by a rare and unexpectedgesture of approval and support on thepart of Peter Deunov. One of his bestfriends, a young guitarist called Ivan
came to see him one day and told him:
‘Mikhaël, I was just talking about you
with the Master. He said you had one of
the keenest minds he had ever met; thatyour intelligence was as fine as a thread ofsilk, capable of penetrating everything.’
Mikhaël understood the message, which
seems to have had special significance forhim at this stage of his life. Peter Deunovmust have known that what he said toIvan would be passed on. The attitude of
indifference he had adopted towards his
young disciple was probably intended tofortify him in preparation for his future
work. He knew how much Mikhaël loved
him. He also knew both his extreme sensitivity and his exceptional innerstrength, and apparently had decided to228

deprive him of the consolations of a personal relationship. His attitude toward
Mikhaël was often enigmatic. The explanations or advice he gave were not easy
to understand, often no more than aglimpse of light through a half-opened
door, for he knew that nothing would
deter Mikhaël from exploring new horizons, that he was capable of finding for
himself all that his soul needed. Peter
Deunov was leaving him free to advancealone so that he might reach his fullpotential more rapidly.
Mikhaël thus went forward alone but
never in isolation. As often as possible
he participated in the three- or four-day
excursions Peter Deunov organized to
Mount Vitosha, a 7, 500 foot peak to thesouth of Sofia. The Master would set out
in the middle of the night accompaniedby the most courageous of his disciples,giving them an occasion to fortify theirwill and powers of endurance. The ascentlasted several hours, taking them firstthrough a thick forest crisscrossed by a229

confusion of streams and torrents, andthen, once above the tree line, to a desolate landscape of gigantic boulders which
streamed down the slopes like great petrified rivers. From the summit, animmense, level plateau strewn with enormous rocks, they contemplated the
grandiose spectacle of the rising sun.
In addition to these excursions, which heloved, Mikhaël joined the other membersof the brotherhood as often as possible
for meetings in Peter Deunov’s house. He
would slip in quietly and take a chair atthe back, or if the room was full, remain
standing by the door. When the Master
entered, those present greeted him byraising their right hand, palm forward, tothe level of the forehead. As the Master
responded in kind to this beautiful,ancient form of greeting, his face seemed
to glow and become radiant. Mikhaël,who had sometimes wondered why his
expression changed at this moment, realized that the ambience born of the respect
and love of his disciples was an inspira-230

tion for him, a stimulus which manifested
as light on his face.
While listening attentively to what the
Master was saying, Mikhaël often
watched the expressions on the faces of
thosepresent.
The
spontaneous
exchange between speaker and audiencealways fascinated him. In his eyes, every
teacher was a medium, and it was theambience created by the audience thatenabled him to communicate the message
dictated by the spirit.
Paradoxically, it was Mikhaël’s desire tocome as close as possible to Peter
Deunov’s thought that led him to remainin the back of the hall. The physical distance stimulated the powers of perception not only of his eyes, but also of hissoul and his mind. After a talk, he listened silently to the discussions between
the Master and his audience, observing
that some of the disciples presumed togive Peter Deunov advice publicly. The
Master listened to them, sometimes

231putting them in their place, but more
often than not smiling at their vanity andletting them have their say. As for
Mikhaël, in the course of these discussions he did not try to attract attention
or display his knowledge. If he had once
been tempted to assume an attitude ofauthority, he had since renounced it completely.
***In the school of Pythagoras, one of theordeals least expected by new students
was the flood of scorn and unfair criticism to which they were subjected, sometimes for a long time. Very few were able
to endure the corrosive effect of suchtreatment, but those who did so wereadmitted to initiation.
Instinctively, from the first moment of his
relationship with the Master he hadsought for so long, Mikhaël longed toundergo ordeals that would purify hisheart and strengthen his character. In the232course of these first two years, he often
begged Peter Deunov to chastise him, to
put him through the ‘seven retorts’, thetraditional vessels of the alchemists inwhich mercury is separated from amalgam or other impurities by volatilization.
He repeated that he was willing to be
ground to powder and put through firein order to be purified and become an
exceptional being. Each time he spoke inthis way, the Master listened closely andsmiled without speaking. For months,
Mikhaël wondered: ‘Does he agree? Willhe do what I ask?’
When he was twenty the time came forhim to be put through the first retort.
Peter Deunov’s attitude of indifference
was already painful to Mikhaël, butsomething more painful still had to be
faced. One day, probably in 1920 during
a convention of the brotherhood at Ternovo, he was put to the test in a way that
affected that most sensitive part of his
being: his attachment to his spiritual
Master. After speaking to the brothers

233and sisters gathered around him in the
open air, Peter Deunov suddenly turnedon Mikhaël and one of his friends in bitter condemnation. Feeling himself thetarget of all eyes, Mikhaël was paralyzed
with shock. While the Master rebuked
him, it was all he could do to maintain acalm expression that revealed nothing of
the deep hurt caused by the harsh words
and pitiless tone of voice.
Later, as the participants silently dispersed, most of them shunned this disciple who had been so publicly denounced.
His own reaction was to withdraw toreflect and fast. In the days that followed
Mikhaël told himself repeatedly thatPeter Deunov must certainly have had areason for lashing out at him in this way.
‘With all my might,’ he said later, ‘I
worked to purify myself with light.’
Then, pale and thin, but with his soul‘reaching toward the heavens’ hereturned to see the Master. As he entered
his room, his whole being expressed therespect and trust which had never fal-234

tered, and he spoke as a child to hisfather:‘Master, purify me. In your great wisdom,root out all that is useless and bad in me. I
want only to be like you.’
The light within Mikhaël was so brightand the fire so intense after those daysof purification and fasting that he had ‘asensation of burning, as though flames
were leaping from my mouth’.
This phenomenon in which flames blaze
from the face of a mystic in a state of spiritual concentration is well known tothose who have studied the lives of great
saints and visionaries. An intense workof purification floods the face with light,
and the mystic experiences a burst oflight streaming from the center of theforehead, between the eyebrows. Mikhaël
was aware both of what was happening to
him and of Peter Deunov’s amazement.
Suddenly, the Master’s face was transfigured. Smiling lovingly at his young dis-235

ciple, he shook hands with him, and thesmile and the grip of his hand expressedsomething quite out of the ordinary. But
he did not say a word, and Mikhaël, who
never expected any favors, accepted hissilence.
This exchange, sober though it was, sufficed; the message he read in it was all therecompense he needed. He already knewthat initiation, which once took place ina temple, was now given in everyday life
when it was least expected. It was thisrealization that spurred him on to fortify
his will so that he would be capable ofaccepting whatever vexations and humiliations came his way. Instinctively, helearned to use the fire that had burned
within him since the age of fifteen to propel himself ever forward on his chosen
path. Peter Deunov saw this clearly, andduring this same period at Ternovo, hesaid: ‘Mikhaël, part of your fire has
become light.’
***

236

His public ordeal, however, had serious
consequences. In the fraternity, many ofthe brothers and sisters avoided him,
convinced that one thus stigmatized by
the Master must be wholly contemptible.
Some even became his sworn enemies
and in the future would do him great
wrong. They may well have had reasonsof their own for their antagonism: thecandor with which Mikhaël expressed his
opinions and his absolute frankness were
often disconcerting and inconvenient;
his habit of analyzing everything in thelight in order to discern and discard all
impurities left no room for complacency.
Whatever their reasons, Mikhaël sensed
that, from now on, if he was to preserve
his integrity and be faithful to the unerring intuition that he called ‘the God
within’, he would have to accept thatmost of the brotherhood considered him
to be disgraced. Keeping a firm grip on
his sensibilities, he bore in silence every
manifestation of enmity and derision,
every petty vexation. But he received
with gratitude the occasional encourage-237

ment of those who came to tell him,
alluding to the classical ordeals of initiation: ‘Be glad, brother Mikhaël, for the
Master loves you very deeply.’
It was only much later that he himself felt
sure of that love. In the meantime he wasdetermined to bear whatever came, toaccept every ordeal and every demandPeter Deunov made of him. To his mind,true love consisted in striving, come whatmay, to be as radiant as the sun.
The year 1920 was an important one in
Mikhaël’s life. Apart from the ordeal at
Ternovo, he would speak later of ‘anextraordinary event’ that had occurred inthis period. Without giving details, helater alluded more than once to ‘a great
Being’ who had accompanied and guided
him since that time. It is possible that thisevent took place in the mountains in theregion of Rila or on Mount Musala,where he had had several mystical experiences about which he said very little.

238

More is known, however, about one
experience he had at the age of twenty,
for he described it later. It occurred during his first camp at Rila with the brotherhood. One of the most beautiful parts ofthe massif known as the Seven Lakes wasa region greatly loved by Peter Deunov.
From 1920 on, he often camped up there
for a few days with groups of disciples.
Toward the middle of summer the snow
had melted from the highest peaks andthe mountains revealed themselves intheir stark majesty. This splendid region
with its steep slopes and tumbled massesof boulders was well chosen, for while itdemanded considerable physical exertion
on the part of the campers, it also provided an ideal setting for meditation andcontemplation.
Those who took part in the first campwere both exalted and much tried by theexperience. In the first place they werepoorly equipped, having neither tents
nor sleeping bags. In addition, theweather was bad throughout their stay.

239

On these summits, even in summer, theclimate is harsh. The noontime sun is
uncomfortably hot, while the nights areicy. The campers could not sleep for thebitter cold and the gusts of rain sweeping
over them as they lay shivering in theirblankets.
One morning, an elderly sister asked
Mikhaël to accompany her to a higher
altitude. After climbing for a long timethey eventually reached a place in which
nature seemed to have retained its pristine beauty of eternal purity and youth.
The silence seemed as fragile as a crystal
that the slightest sound would shatter
into a thousand fragments.
Settling down on a large rock, Mikhaël
began to meditate. The slopes all aroundwere covered in a deep carpet of moss,
scattered here and there with great boulders. Suddenly Mikhaël thought he washallucinating as the landscape became
wondrously animated before his eyes.
The life that pulsated gently in the nature240

around him gave to each element its own
subtle light. Every stone, every blade ofgrass glowed with a mysterious radiance,and Mikhaël understood in a flash thatevery created thing, from the grains ofsand on the beach to the stars in the heavens, is made of light. Spellbound, transported by wonder, he was unable to takehis eyes from the indescribable beauty
before him, a beauty hidden from humanbeings until they are given the privilegeof seeing it.
It is easy to understand why, after experiencing such ecstasy in the light, Mikhaël
continually sought to contemplate thesplendor of the rising sun which spoke
to him of the splendor of God. Mount
Musala, the highest peak of the Rila massif, which was a long way from the campsite, drew him like a magnet; at times hespent the night at the summit from which
he could watch the dawn coming up andcatch the first rays of the sun as it roseover the surrounding peaks. Ever since
his first childhood meditations high in241the poplars of his home village, he had
dreamed of the summits. In his eyes, thetrue temple of God is nature, at the centerof which the sun, the giver of life, is thecelebrant. He understood that a country’s
highest peak represents its causal body,that subtle body that dwells on the higher
planes of the invisible world. He also
knew that the forces and powers necessary to the materialization of ideas on thephysical plane are to be found on thecausal plane, where the obstacles encountered on the physical plane do not exist.
Ever since his first excursion to Musala
two or three years earlier, in response toa profound intuition about his future, he
was in the habit of linking himself in a
special way with France. Creating an
association in his mind between the highest peak of his own country and Mont
Blanc, he called down light and heavenly
blessings on the people of France.
Strangely, he dreamed of taking to the
French the teaching that filled him withsuch joy, never suspecting that Peter242

Deunov would one day entrust him withthis very mission.
***
At the end of that summer, Peter Deunov
called Mikhaël to him and told him:
‘Mikhaël, you must go back to school andfinish your studies.’Thunderstruck, Mikhaël could only stareat him in silence. He had left school five
years before. He was now nearly twentyone, and Peter Deunov was asking him togo back to the classroom with boys of fifteen. It would take three years to get his
baccalaureate. Above all, in this period of
intense spiritual and intellectual development, his most urgent need was to continue the work that had become themainstay of his life. For a young man of
Mikhaël’s caliber, experienced in the
mystical life and able to communicate
with the subtle realms of the spirit, toreturn to the routine of school would bea great trial. But it was a trial that Peter243

Deunov deemed necessary in order tohelp him to moderate his spiritual experiments and follow the development of
every normal human being of his day.
In fact, it would have been possible for
Mikhaël to study at home and apply only
for the examinations, but Peter Deunov
was adamant: he must attend classes. As
always, Mikhaël bowed to the decision of
the one whom he had chosen as his spiritual Master and, leaving Ternovo,
returned to his family in Varna.
For his mother the return of her eldest
son was a great joy: it was a comfort to her
to be able to count on his presence again.
For the two boys and two little girls, here
was their big brother, home again as anadult after a two-year absence, during
which he had endured many ordeals andknown spiritual experiences more
intense than ever. For his friends he wasstill someone out of the ordinary, still
capable of stimulating them, infecting244

them with his enthusiasm or exasperating them beyond endurance.
Mikhaël’s first weeks at school were
uncomfortable. For one thing he wasobliged to wear a uniform, and Dolia,
knowing how ridiculous it made him feel,found an old greatcoat of his father’s towear over it on his way to school. At the
Lycée the boys laughed at this young man
who was old enough to shave and yetshared the school bench with them. They
were forever pulling his hair and playing
all kinds of tricks on him. Fortunately,
Mikhaël’s sense of humor had not forsaken him. Later, when he recounted
some of the amusing incidents of thisperiod, it was obvious that he had nottaken the chaffing too seriously. His generous smile and friendly ways soon won
over his young classmates, and many ofthem accompanied him after school,
questioning him about all kinds ofthings. He readily adapted himself totheir level and, calling on his imaginationand his gifts as a story-teller, used the245

opportunity to open their minds to realities they had never before envisaged. His
friend Alexander who witnessed all thissometimes pitied him, but Mikhaël only
replied thoughtfully: ‘It’s a trial I have toendure.’All in all, these years at school in Varna
seem to have been profitable for Mikhaël,who took the opportunity to ponder andarrive at a more profound understandingof all that Peter Deunov’s teaching had
awakened within him. Also, his close
relationship with Jesus led him to delve
deeper into the Gospels in an attempt tograsp their hidden meaning, for he had
never found a commentary that really satisfied him. Seated in the lotus positionin his little room overlooking the nearby
roofs, he meditated for hours, until one
day a revelation came to him: the only
way to understand the true meaning ofJesus’ words was to enter his mind. He set
to work immediately, concentrating his
mental powers on banishing all consciousness of himself and the world he246

lived in. In his mind he was in Palestine in
the time of Jesus, walking on the shoresof the Jordan and Lake Gennesaret,
entering the cities of Capernaum andJerusalem. Repeating aloud the very
words that Jesus had said to his disciples,
he concentrated on penetrating his consciousness, on seeing and thinking as
though he were one with him.
Gradually, this work became more andmore important to him. Whenever hehad a moment he returned to it, and little
by little the true meaning of Jesus’ words
was revealed to him. Naturally, his efforts
were not always successful. There weredays when he was disappointed with themeager results, but he persevered, refusing to be discouraged. At other times hislabors were richly rewarded: a dazzlinglight flooded his being and everything
became crystal clear. Transcending all
earthly contingencies, a true communication between two spirits was gradually
taking shape, thanks to which Mikhaël
was able later to give such authentic and247

inspired commentaries on the Gospels.
Those he would give in Paris in 1938 cast adazzling new light on the Parables which
was deeply moving.
In later years he often spoke of having
been profoundly influenced not only byJesus, but also by the Buddha, the two
great luminaries of his youth. He musthave striven to enter the mind of the
Buddha as he had with Jesus, since hewould say later that he had succeeded incommunicating with him at the age oftwenty-two or -three.
In the solitude of his little room, eager
to draw upon every source that spoke of
God and the perfection of the createduniverse, he studied a wide range of spiritual philosophies. He was already familiar
with the Cabbalah, whose definition of
the structure of the subtle worlds satisfied
him deeply. He found great inspiration in
The Tree of Life, with its depiction of thedifferent levels of creation, and in the sixpointed Seal of Solomon with its sym-248

bolic representation of Good and Evil.
This impressive symbol, composed of
two interlaced triangles, contains a representation of the glorious countenanceof God in the higher part of the upright
triangle. In the inverted triangle below isa representation of the devil, a distorted
reflection of the divine countenance. At
the intersection of the two triangles, ahorizontal line separates the air abovefrom the waters below, and across thisline, God’s hands have a firm grasp on
the hands of the Devil. In Mikhaël’s eyes,
this representation of good and evil wasan excellent and unequivocal expressionof all creation as a reflection of God, whomakes use of both positive and negative
forces.
For one in whom the spirit of mysticism
is highly developed, every philosophicaldiscovery seems to lead directly to a spiritual experience; it is an ‘event’ that triggers an inner change, however minute.
One day, reading the Zohar, the principal
book of the Cabbalah, Mikhaël was249

extraordinarily moved by the text, ‘Sevenlights are there in the highest, and thereindwells the Ancient of Ancients, the Most
Hidden of the Hidden, the Mystery of
Mysteries, Ain Soph.’
When I recited these words everything
within me started to vibrate and quiver.
Those seven lights are the seven colors,and each one corresponds to a particularvirtue or quality: purple corresponds tosacrifice, blue to truth, green to hope, yellow to wisdom, orange to sanctity andred to love.3
Conscious of the influence of colors on
a human being, Mikhaël continued towork with them—and his strange experiments continued to astonish thosearound him. His friend Alexander who
had always admired his spirituality andhis intellectual gifts often visited him in
his room. One day he was amazed to seethat Mikhaël had covered the walls with
red paper. ‘Have you gone mad?’ heexclaimed.

250

Mikhaël laughed and explained that it
was Tuesday, the day of the planet Marsand therefore of red, the color of love,
vitality, and energy. For some time he had
been working in this way, surrounding
himself with the color that, according to
the books he had been reading, corresponded to the day of the week. At theage of fifteen, when he first started experimenting with colors, he had noticed that
one extreme triggers its opposite. Thus,
if he switched his gaze to a white surface
after staring at something red, he saw thesame form in green. The phenomenon,
which is well known to painters, had
opened interesting avenues of spiritual
exploration for him.
The symbolism of the planets began to
be of practical importance: thus the redplanet Mars, symbol of strength and war,calls forth green Venus, the symbol oflove, and vice versa. Mikhaël worked withthe characteristic of each color and madeuse of their complementary nature: thedynamic vitality of fire symbolized by red;251the peaceful life of nature symbolized bygreen; the spirituality of violet, and thewisdom and science of yellow.
Every spare moment was used to consolidate the discoveries of his adolescenceand to reflect, among other things, on themeaning of nutrition. In order to be consciously in union with the hidden forcesof food, he ate frugally and preferablyalone. Very often, after his meditation, hetook a mouthful of food and let it dissolve in his mouth until it had completely
disappeared. This sufficed for the wholeday.
***
Thanks to Mikhaël’s dynamic, creative
temperament, many everyday objects orcircumstances served to stimulate his
spiritual centers or chakras. This was thecase with roses. It is well known that Bulgarian roses are unique. They are cultivated for their precious aromatic oil inthe Valley of Roses, a vast expanse bor-252

dered by mountains to the south of Ternovo. In summer, when the flowers are in
full bloom, the fields stretch for miles likean immense, glowing carpet of color.
One day, Mikhaël picked up a rose andbreathed in its scent, and his reflections,stimulated by the perfume and emanations of the flower, became as light as air.
Imperceptibly, his meditation became
contemplation, a profound spiritualexperience with its own special complexion, different from any he had known
before, and one that he often repeated in
the years that followed. He had long sincelearned to use earthly objects as channelsof communication with spiritual realities,
and he sensed that a rose enabled him
to draw upon the most spiritual form oflove. ‘This exercise can even lead to
ecstasy,’ he was to say later.
To the casual observer, one flower ismuch the same as any other, and yet, likehuman beings, each has its own countenance and is inhabited by its own specific253energies. Mikhaël knew this, and when
he went to the flower market to buy arose, he chose one for its color, perfume,form, and freshness. Back in his room, hebegan simply by looking at it with greatlove, treating it as a living being, as ‘anexquisite young maiden from heaven,
who has sacrificed herself to show us thepath that leads to the virtues that arehers’. Each time he repeated this exercise,he experienced an indescribable state ofconsciousness and his mind floated far
above earthly realities. ‘It is even possible,’ he said one day, ‘to reach a state of
ecstasy with this exercise.’In the meantime however, every morning
meant a return to school, to the tiresome
uniform and boring lessons, and yet, allthings considered, the effort and discipline was as good as any yoga or otherexercise to develop his willpower.
Besides, difficulties were not the only
‘blessings’ he received during thesemonths in Varna. One day, toward theend of his studies, someone who knew

254his dream of playing the violin gave him
an instrument. His delight knew nobounds, and he enrolled at the MusicalAcademy, where he gave himself with
passion to the study of music, determined
to become a true virtuoso capable ofawakening the most noble sentiments in
his audience:
When I thought of God or of something
beautiful, I could only envisage a perfect,
harmonious music, and this thoughtawakened certain spiritual centers
within me. Sometimes it left me in tears.4
In the years that followed he was neverwithout his violin. He took it everywhere,
even to the mountains, where hedelighted in playing in the open air withhis friends. Music was as necessary to him
as the air he breathed, and song in particular had a magical power; it was a potent
weapon which he used to dissipate negative feelings, attain certain spiritualstates, or express gratitude. In the fraternity he was always happy to sing with his255brothers and sisters, and when Peter
Deunov composed the sacred song Fir fur
fen, he was transported by the power of its
vibrations. In his mind’s eye he saw ‘processions of angels advancing, driving thedarkness before them’.
In the years to come he would say:
The human voice is superior to the violin
or any other instrument. The most beautiful voices are created by love. Let yourself be filled with love and splendid ideas,
and very soon the vibrations of your voice
will be gentler, warmer, more tender.5
On warm summer evenings in Varna, hisneed for music often drew him to theMorskata Gradina, where a good orchestra gave concerts or played waltzes for
public dancing. Without lingering in the
Garden, he went down the long flight ofsteps to the beach and sat on the sand.
Over his head, the myriad diamonds ofthe Milky Way formed a great river in thenight sky. He often stayed for hours, lis-256

tening to the music and contemplating
the stars.
During this period of his life, however,
Mikhaël experienced some difficult
moments. He confessed later that as a disciple he had known ‘moments of real pessimism’. Whether this pessimism was
triggered by Peter Deunov’s apparent
rejection or by the ostracism he sufferedin the brotherhood is difficult to say.
From adolescence he had had to learn topursue his own course without worrying
about what others thought of him. At
twenty, after the public rebuff at thehands of Peter Deunov, he had had toarmor himself further against the malicious lies that continued to distress him.
Seeking to protect himself without closing his heart to others, he strove to masterhis sensitivity and transform his difficulties into ‘precious stones’ for the soul,using pain as a springboard. In order tovault upwards toward the joy of the spirit,
he first sank to the depths of despondency, sometimes deliberately feigning257

extreme sadness in order to spark the
opposite reaction. He realized, however,that to remain in a state of sadness fora long time could be dangerous unless
one’s consciousness was fully awake andin control.
He applied the same principle to his spiritual life. Having experienced ‘periods ofexaggerated ecstasy’ followed by periodsof drought, he came to the conclusionthat moderation was indispensable in facing the storms of life. This practice ofmoderation, which helped him to rise
above difficulties and trials, would serve
him all his life.
At one point he began to make a rigorous
annual review of his life. For three days
he called to mind and analyzed everything he did, examining the interwoven
threads of his existence, judging andevaluating each one in order to discern‘those that were from God and those thatwere not’.

258

As for his relationship with Peter
Deunov, he did everything in his power
to restore it to its former cordiality, but
this was not easy. ‘My will was strained tothe utmost, my heart was on fire, and hesaw nothing!’ he would say later, addingthat Peter Deunov’s attitude was certainly intended to test his ability to persevere and rise above his difficulties. He
knew that the only thing that really mattered was to ‘remain in contact with hissoul’, and he continued to work mentallyfor his Master and to speak of him with
the innate reverence he had for all great
beings.
On the other hand, as he said himself,
his secret was to continue his work insilence. If he felt unhappy, as sometimes
happened, he noticed that there wassomeone within him who looked on andlaughed, who even enjoyed the situation.
He recognized this being as the one
known in India as ‘the Silent One’.
One day, however, in the most unex-259

pected way, Peter Deunov took Mikhaël’sside in full view of many of his disciples.
It happened at Rila. A young man who
had formerly been a good friend, but who
now held a grudge against Mikhaël following a misunderstanding, had taken to
insulting him and trying to belittle him at
every opportunity. Unable to change thesituation, Mikhaël remained patient andunruffled. But one evening, faced withhis ceaseless insults, he said to himself:‘Humility, restraint, and non-violence
will not cure him; he will go on being
abusive’, and he made up his mind torespond.
Before he knew it, he was fending off his
adversary’s blows and very quickly,
although not as tall or as strong as theother, he managed to get the better ofhim. Thinking that that would be the endof it, Mikhaël relaxed his hold, whereupon the other flung himself at him a second time. Once again, without knowing
how, Mikhaël got the advantage and he
was still holding his assailant down when260

Peter Deunov appeared. At once, the twobrothers sprang to their feet. To
Mikhaël’s amazement, the Master told
him:
‘Stand aside. Leave him to me!’Then he began to chastise the young man
severely until, after a moment, the lattermanaged to slip away. He did not dare toshow his face again that evening. Mikhaël
could not get over his astonishment.
‘How could the Master know who was in
the wrong?’ he wondered. ‘It was theother who was on the ground and needed
help, and yet he sided with me!’ The next
day the attitude of his persecutor wascompletely transformed, and Mikhaël
thought to himself: ‘Why didn’t I tackle
him ages ago?’
Throughout these years Peter Deunov
remained extremely reserved toward
Mikhaël when others were present, butduring the summer camp at Rila in 1922,
he did much to dissipate the negative261

repercussions of the ordeal he had
imposed on him two years earlier. One
evening, several hundred people weregathered near the second lake under thepure transparent blue of the evening sky.
A huge bonfire, fed by dead branches
brought up from the forests below, threw
a fantastic light all around. The only
sound was the crackling of the flames.
After a long silence, Peter Deunov lookedat Mikhaël and said in solemn tones:‘You do not yet know who Mikhaël is.’All eyes were on the startled Mikhaël
who thought to himself: ‘Does this mean
another ordeal?’ But while he braced
himself for what was to come, Peter
Deunov continued:‘No, you do not yet know Brother
Mikhaël. At the moment he is disguised,but one day you will know him. You will
see who he truly is.’Suddenly, all the escapades of his youth
surged into Mikhaël’s mind as he waited262

in alarm for what would follow. But as
the silence lengthened, his first emotion
faded, and he realized that this time Peter
Deunov’s voice conveyed no harshness.
Their eyes met. Flooded with an overwhelming sense of gratitude, Mikhaël
saw that the Master’s face was suffusedwith love. His remark had implied nothing negative, rather the contrary.
In fact, Peter Deunov had publicly shown
his esteem and appreciation of Mikhaël.
Most of his disciples understood the message and hastened to apologize for theirpast attitude, but it did not occur to
Mikhaël to take advantage of this public
endorsement. He remained in the background and continued his work insilence. Unfortunately, however, themelee between him and the other brotherwas to become a cause of scandal. Some
members of the brotherhood used it todiscredit him, for they could not understand Peter Deunov’s attitude toward thisdisciple. Sometimes he put him throughterrible ordeals; at other times he263

defended him or made mysterious pronouncements about him; most of thetime he seemed to ignore him, and yet hecontinued to receive him for long hours
at a time.
***
Mikhaël’s relief was great when he finallyreceived his baccalaureate. He thought hewould once again be free to devote all histime to his spiritual work, but when hewent to see Peter Deunov in Sofia, thefirst thing the Master said was:‘You must go on with your studies at theuniversity.’
Mikhaël knew that this meant renewedsacrifices, but his faith in Peter Deunov’s
wisdom never faltered. After taking leaveof his mother in Varna, he returned to
Sofia, where he registered at the facultyof Physics and Mathematics. Upon his
arrival in the capital, some friends offered
him the use of a room in their home. He
still had to find work to pay for tuition264

and food, however, and whenever hismoney ran out he took a temporary job
on a building site as bricklayer, carpenter,
painter, or odd job man. The wages weremeager, and for years he lived in extreme
poverty. His room was scantily furnishedwith a bed and some blankets received
from his family, a bookcase from Peter
Deunov, and a small table on which hekept his violin. He wrote on his knees, sitting cross-legged on the floor. His clothes
were threadbare; a scarf concealed theabsence of a tie, and for a long time his
only footwear was a single pair of sandals
that served in summer and winter alike.
As he remarked with a smile in later
years, although he had many friends in
Sofia, they did not invite him to their elegant receptions, but rather to informal
meals in the intimacy of the family.
I have always been indifferent to external forms. It’s not so bad now, but for the
first forty years of my life I was dressed
like a poor man: my shoes were ‘ventilated’. I had no tie, and safety-pins served265

as buttons. I spent all my time in themountains. I despised ‘forms’, and that
was a mistake, for form is something
divine. Beautiful content should be contained in a beautiful form, and thatmeans that I was not living in perfection!
Form is really important… For me theinner reality was all that mattered, andpeople did not invite me because I wasnot ‘presentable’. Actually, I did get invitations… but always alone. Everyone
liked me… but not in front of others.
Their affection was hidden. It was thisthat taught me how strange people are:however stupid you may be, if you respect
the forms you will always be welcome.
No one will mind about your brain. They
will say, ‘What does his brain matter aslong as he’s well dressed?6
At the beginning of the 20th century, theUniversity of Sofia consisted of six orseven faculties housed in several old
buildings. Another institution, the Bulgarian Academy, offered additional faculties, and it was here that Mikhaël regis-266tered for courses in mathematics, a discipline which gave him great satisfaction
as it corresponded so well to his sense oforder and perfection. He also studied
astronomy, drawn by its close relationship with mathematics, and spent hours
striving to decipher the correspondences
between the two disciplines. But his
memory for figures was not good, and hetoo easily forgot the formulae he needed.
Less than a year later, realizing that hehad little hope of passing his exams, heabandoned mathematics and transferred
to a different faculty.
This time he chose the faculty of Historical and Comparative Linguistics, where
he took courses in philosophy, education,and psychology. His thirst for knowledge
was as lively as ever. He read a great deal
and studied sufficiently to pass his exams,
but in fact he spent little time at the university. In his eyes, the true university
was ‘that of Peter Deunov, for it was therethat one learned the essential truths valid
for all eternity’. All his spare time was267

devoted to meditation and contemplation. ‘For me’, he would say later, ‘it was aquestion of life or death.’ But he kept all
this inner work to himself. He never eventalked to Peter Deunov about it.
Throughout his years of higher studies, it
was the great philosophical tenets of initiatic science that guided him. The sun
was his guarantor of life, light was his
shield and only weapon, for in his eyes
light was a living spirit.
At the same time, the mountains continued to attract him irresistibly. He could
never ignore the siren-song of the summits, and when the call became too insistent, he threw books, food, and a few
warm clothes into a satchel and left the
town. Free as air, he would spend a few
days on Mount Vitosha or even a few
weeks at Rila. His love of trees had neverdiminished, and the long climb throughthe forests gave him profound joy.
Mikhaël’s unusual behavior irritated his

268

professors who censured him severely.
One of them, hostile to Peter Deunov’s
disciples on principle, excluded him fromhis lectures and barred him from theexaminations. Fortunately, he soon
repented this decision—which would
have prevented Mikhaël from completing
his studies—and authorized him toappear before the examiners.
Mikhaël, well aware of the importance ofa degree, passed his exams and chose forthe subject of his thesis the aspirations of
the young. His research led him to interview a great many students who readily
confided in him their hopes and plans forthe future. Listening with interest towhat they told him, he noticed that veryfew ‘wanted to serve God or work for thegood of humanity’.
After receiving diplomas in philosophy,
psychology, and education Mikhaël continued to frequent the university. Stimulated by curiosity, he moved freely fromone faculty to another, exploring the dif-269

ferent disciplines, following courses inmedicine, chemistry, and physics. He
spent so many years at the university that
his friends nicknamed him ‘the eternal
student’.
***
During those student years, as always, theevents that assumed the greatest importance in Mikhaël’s eyes concerned his life
as a disciple. One such event stood out
among others. Soon after his return to
Sofia, Peter Deunov gave him a special
test that he reserved for the boldest of
his disciples: the ascent of Mount Musala
alone on a moonless night, without alantern.
‘The experience will help you to understand many things,’ said the Master.
Mikhaël waited for a night without amoon before setting out. The dense darkness and the quality of silence created an
atmosphere of dread as he groped his way
through the forest, hoping not to lose his270way. Aware of the danger from wildboars, bears, and wolves, he was also constantly mindful of the steep ravine thatbordered the trail. One false step and hewould fall. Suddenly he sensed that hehad strayed from the path. Poignantly
conscious of his vulnerability and his isolation, he paused and began to pray.
Believe me, in such moments our prayers
become very fervent. I felt that I had
never prayed like that before. A few seconds later, I saw a light which lit up the
path for about two yards in front of me.
From that moment I walked on in thelight, singing and full of joy. I felt something moving within me as though a new
current was flowing through me.7
After climbing for several hours, he cameto a sudden halt as he heard the deep baying of dogs. How could he defend himself
with only a stick against enraged dogs? To
retreat would only incite them to attack.
Standing perfectly still, he listened tothem coming nearer and fixed his mind271

on thoughts of light and the powers of
the invisible world. Never one to remain
long in a state of indecision or fear, hetold himself, ‘What must happen will
happen!’ and advanced resolutely toward
the increasingly ferocious barking. What
happened next was over in seconds. Suddenly he saw two mastiffs the size of small
donkeys bounding toward him. Summoning every ounce of strength and willpower, he thrust his right hand forwardwith extraordinary energy, the two first
fingers pointing straight at them. At thesame moment he felt an electrical current
surge from his whole being, and sensed
the presence of invisible entities allaround. The dogs gave one agonizedhowl as they were picked up and thrown
to the ground by a terrifying force andleft cowering where they fell, their eyes
fixed on the ground.
Once he had regained his breath,
Mikhaël spoke soothingly to the dogs,
and when he felt sure that they would nolonger try to attack him, he relaxed with272

renewed gratitude and joy. But suddenly,
he felt terribly tired, as though all his
strength had drained away through his
hand. Laboriously, he started to walkagain, only to stop moments later, unable
to continue. He sat down on a rock topray and thank out loud the invisible
entities whose presence he sensed andwho had accompanied and protected
him. After a short rest he slowly set off
again, emerged at last from the forest,
climbed the stony slopes and reached thesummit just as the sun was rising. There,on the highest spot in the country, with
the innumerable peaks all around, hethanked God with his whole soul.
That experience taught me that a great
many of the trials and tribulations of life
are sent by the invisible world with the
purpose of teaching us to rely on our
inner spiritual strength.8
This ordeal was not the only one Peter
Deunov imposed on Mikhaël in those
years. He gave him all kinds of harsh273

tasks. On several occasions he sent him
to work in remote hamlets that could
only be reached on foot. More than once,as Mikhaël approached a village, he was
attacked by fierce dogs. The peasants,
often so uncouth and ignorant that they
did not even know how to make bread,
would let him sleep in a hut or in a cornerof a barn. His mission was to live withthem for a time, to talk to them and teachthem things that would help them to
evolve. Little by little he became theirfriend, their brother. Sometimes the relationships became so close that people
who had seemed incapable of emotion
were moved to tears as they confided inhim.
In spite of the great distances, Mikhaël
continued to attend Peter Deunov’s talks
in Sofia. Even in winter, braving rain or
snow, with only sandals on his feet, hetrudged miles through forests infested
with wolves and wild boars.
One day, Peter Deunov manifested his

27
2744

satisfaction with him, saying: ‘You havechanged your skin.’ Although he ignored
Mikhaël in public, Peter Deunov continued to give him an occasional precious
indication, an expression of approval or
support. Each time he made one of his
laconic remarks, Mikhaël had to ponder it
at length to discern the hidden meaning.
On this occasion the allusion was to an
inner transformation, a purification that
expressed itself in a visible radiance.
Despite the undemonstrative nature of
their relationship, the mysterious andprecious bond that had existed from theirfirst encounter was still there. Mikhaël
was extremely sensitive to Peter
Deunov’s reactions, and it seems that thiswas fully reciprocated. Imperceptible
though it was, the Master was never
indifferent to Mikhaël; nothing he said or
did went unnoticed.

275

Notes1.

‘The Law of Affinity: Peace’, in Cosmic
Moral Law.

2.

‘Rise Above the Clouds’, in The Splendourof Tiphareth.

3.

‘Working with Light’, in Light is a Living
Spirit.

4.

November 1, 1966.

5.

April 25, 1943.

6.

May 15, 1947.

7.

See his own account of this incident: ‘The
Master Peter Deunov’, in The Second Birth:
Love, Wisdom, Truth.

8.

Ibid.

276

7

#

The SevenLakes of
Rila
Although the summer camps in the Rila
mountains were called ‘holiday camps’,
the activities had little in common withthe ordinary idea of a holiday. It is truethat the participants were there for arefreshing break from the work and wor-ries of everyday life, but their primary
motive was to continue their apprenticeship with their spiritual Master in theideal conditions offered by the mountains. As the years passed, the durationof these camps was extended from a few
days to a number of weeks. After a monthor two in the mountains, the campers
returned home renewed and purified.
In later years, Mikhaël evoked withenthusiasm the special ambience that
reigned in these camps. Gathering in thevillage of Samokov at the foot of themountains, the campers strapped on
their knapsacks and began the longascent to the Seven Lakes, while a trainof mules transported tents and kitchenequipment. Seven or eight hours of hiking and climbing through forests of evergreens and up steep slopes strewn withboulders, brought them to the first lake atan altitude of 7,500 feet. A little higher,
near the second lake, they pitched theirtents among the clumps of dwarf pines278

called kleks, the only shrubs to survive at
this height.
For the contemplation of the sunrise,Peter Deunov had chosen a craggy spurof rock above the camp which he named
the Summit of Prayer. Under a translucent dawn sky it seemed to thrust out its
mass like the prow of some great ship silhouetted in space. Every morning at daybreak, awoken by the music of a violin,
the campers arose in silence, washed anddressed in the icy air of their tents or by
the lake. As the sky grew lighter, they
climbed up among the enormous boulders to the Summit where they settled
down to meditate and wait for the sunrise. At first glimpse of the rising sun,they sang very softly one of Peter
Deunov’s songs in praise of light. The
Master then talked quietly to them as the
sun climbed slowly into the sky. Years
later Mikhaël declared:
If you were to ask me when the best
moment of my life had been, the moment279

when I had experienced the most wonderful sensations, I would say that it wasat sunrise in the mountains at Rila.1
These days in the mountains were veryfull. The campers did a great deal of arduous walking, climbing endlessly up anddown the steep slopes among the boulders and the twisted branches of thedwarf conifers. They thought nothing of
hiking for an hour every day to reach thelevel ground near one of the higher lakes,
where they practiced the movements of asymbolic dance called the ‘Paneurythmy’.
The Paneurythmy, created by Peter
Deunov, is a round. As the dancers turnslowly to the sound of music, it evokes
the great round of the universe in which
is manifested the ebb and flow of life. The
simple, graceful movements are designed
to unite the dancers alternately withheavenly and terrestrial energies. Peter
Deunov defined the dance as ‘a conscious
exchange between man and the forces ofnature’. Every morning, accompanied by280

a small group of musicians, he positioned
himself in the center of an immense circle
formed by the hundreds of dancers. Hereand there voices could be heard singing
with the orchestra in spontaneous harmonizations that rose and fell in rhythmwith the dance.
After the Paneurythmy, everyone went
back to the camp for a communal meal,
serving themselves from the enormous
cauldrons steaming in the shelter of the
makeshift kitchen. During the rest of theday, every spare moment was taken up
with physical work, much of it very strenuous: meals had to be prepared for thewhole camp, food supplies fetched fromthe village below, newcomers met
halfway and guided to the camp. Amongother things, the men built a stone shelter
roofed with slate and piled up slabs ofstone to serve as tables or as benches
overlooking the lake that Peter Deunov
had named the Lake of Contemplation.
Evening found the campers exhausted,
but the mountains had a mysterious hold281

on them and filled their hearts with suchprofound joy that fatigue and discomfort
were forgotten. They had eyes only forthe beauty of the light that transfigured
the summits.
Peter Deunov often led the campers on
excursion to one of the surrounding
peaks, and at least once each summer tothe summit of Mount Musala. Before
leaving, he explained how to walk all day
without tiring, then, at the head of thegroup, he set out at such a pace that thosebehind were hard put to it to keep up.
In this notoriously unstable mountainclimate, menacing clouds often began togather just as the hikers were ready toleave, and although those who were fearful of being soaked to the skin sometimes
protested, Peter Deunov rarely heeded
their complaints. In rain, snow, or squalls,
after only a few hours’ sleep, they set off
for the summits. There were days when
the lightning fell all around, the rainstreamed over their bodies and the elec-282

tricity in the air became almost unbearable, but their guide strode on without
faltering. His disciples, accepting it as atrial of endurance, followed him stoically.
And as most of these excursions lasted
from ten to fourteen hours, they wereconstantly called on to surpass their own
limits. Once back in camp, exhausted but
happy, they gratefully quenched theirthirst with hot water that had been prepared in the great cauldrons andsamovars. In the mountains, hot water
was of great importance, a panacea forcolds, fevers, and every kind of malaise.
The task of making tea was entrusted toa brother called Tseko. Every now andthen, the campers were startled by thesudden whistling of a samovar, and turning saw this brother climbing the hillside,
the lighted samovar on his back. Tseko
had the face of a brute and a heart of gold.
Although he was almost illiterate, hedreamed of being a poet, and sometimes
recited his compositions before the entire
camp. His verses were often so ridiculous283

that they were greeted with laughter, but
one could not help loving this man so fullof gentle goodness. Surprisingly, after
several years of persevering efforts tocompose poems about the sun, the birds,
the spring, he became a true poet.
Mikhaël, who loved and understood him,
told how, at the end of an evening aroundthe fire, Tseko once stood up, and muchto the amusement of the campers, sang
one of his compositions.
Everybody laughed, but it was so beautiful that the next day the mountains
resounded to the sound of that song […]The example of Tseko should make youreflect. You all have talents and qualities
but fear prevents you from manifesting
them…. Put them to the test. … Everything is worth doing: life demands thatyour talents be brought to fruition.2
Judging from what Mikhaël would saylater about these mountain camps, it isobvious that they were the scene of some
unforgettable moments in his life. For

284

him, mountains represented a link
between heaven and earth. Everything he
did in this setting—walking, climbing,immersing himself in a lake—had repercussions in his inner life and created abond between himself and the beings ofsubtler planes.
We have not forgotten his childhood passion for springs. To contemplate thewater of a spring bubbling from theground still gave him great happiness,and he was overjoyed to find that Peter
Deunov shared his enthusiasm. The Master often asked some of the men to clear
away the dead leaves and grass blocking
the mountain springs so that the musicof the crystal-clear water could be heard
flowing freely. He also asked them tobuild stone bridges over the many small
streams. Few understood why they wereasked to do this kind of work, and were
often surprised at the sense of satisfaction it gave them. ‘In reality,’ Mikhaël
explained later, ‘the Master was clearing
debris from his disciples as well as from285

the springs, and building bridges between
the brothers.’
One of these springs was the main sourceof water for the camp. A constant streamof campers drank from it or filled their
buckets and saucepans. In one of thosesignificant gestures he occasionally madetoward Mikhaël, Peter Deunov asked him
to design a symbol to be carved and put
in place as a channel for the water. The
resulting sculpture is a symbol of Aquarius: a white stone channel representing
two hands, from which, to this day, flows
the pure spring water.
Fire, like water, had a vital role to play inlife in the mountains. Each evening, thecampers gathered around a paved area
where the camp fire blazed. Warmed by
the fire, their faces lit by the leaping
flames, they sang, told of their personal
experiences, recited poems, or gave little
concerts.
Later, we would fall asleep beneath the286starlit sky until it was time to get up,very early in the morning, to communicate with another fire, the fire of the sun.
We went to sleep by the fire, we woke tofire, the whole day was a feast of fire, andour lives were illuminated.3
In the evenings around the fire—as during meals or while out on an excursion—Peter Deunov often closed his eyes
and meditated for a long time, sometimes
for an hour or more, to accustom his disciples to do the same. Before withdrawing
into his own meditation, Mikhaël often
looked at the Master and asked himself:‘Where is he? What is he thinking
about?’ Realizing that Peter Deunovnever put the whole of his knowledge
into words, Mikhaël tried to capture thethoughts that illuminated his glance, tosee people and things from his point ofview. Using the exercises he had developed earlier to penetrate the minds ofJesus, Buddha, and Hermes Trismegistus,
he now attempted to penetrate the mindof Peter Deunov. When in his presence287

he listened attentively to what he wassaying, and afterwards, when he wasalone, continued to imagine that he was‘in Peter Deunov’s head’. Little by little
he sensed that ‘things were becoming
clearer’ and he was beginning to discover
his thought processes.
When he wanted to be alone to meditate,
he would climb above the camp where hehad found a particularly beautiful spot.
For someone so sensitive to cold, it musthave required great will-power andendurance to continue his spiritual exercises in all weathers, at an altitude ofmore than 8,000 feet. He often spent thenight up there under the stars, sometimes
alone, sometimes with a friend. As darkness fell, he settled down between thedwarf trees on a makeshift bed of pineneedles, and warmly wrapped in his blankets stretched out to contemplate thestars until a deep peace filled his wholebeing. The memory of his grandmotheroften came back to him: she had helped
so many sick people to regain their288

health, not only by treating them withherbal infusions, but also by exposing
them to the light of the stars.
What was the effect of starlight on thehuman body? At this altitude, the countless points of light shining in the dark velvet sky were indescribably pure. Contemplating them, Mikhaël sought answers
from them. Intoxicated by their beauty,
he linked himself to the cosmic forcesand entities whose presence he felt sostrongly.
I experienced such immense, such ecstatic sensations that I was far, far fromthe earth. I was carried off to regions inwhich I felt and understood that there is
one thing in life which surpasses all others, and that is to be united to the cosmic
Spirit which is everywhere.4
Recalling these moments in later years, heoften spoke in the name of his companions as well as his own, perhaps becauseof the intense communion that united289

them. ‘There were nights,’ he once said,‘when we were out of our minds withecstasy and wonder!’ At the same time,
he added, their great joy had made themalmost sad because they could not share itwith the whole world.
Mikhaël’s whole being was inhabited by
one essential idea, that of helping hishuman brothers and sisters to achieve
peace in their own hearts so that it might
be realized in human society. Often, seeing the extraordinary peace that reigned
at night, he was seized by a feeling of
astonishment at the thought of all the
antipathy and resentment between individuals, all the wars and acts of revenge.
Seen from the mountain heights, theconflicts between individuals and nations
seemed extraordinarily puerile. The
memory of the cosmic music he hadheard at the age of seventeen was always
alive within him, and he reflected that if
human beings so often treat each other as
enemies, it is because they do not knoweach other. They do not know that they290are all members of one family, of one
symphony orchestra.
One night he kept thinking of his friend
Pasal, a young actor who often appearedin Shakespeare’s plays in a theater in
Sofia. A few months previously, while hewas playing the part of a hero, one of theactors thrust a dagger into his heart, andMikhaël who had been watching closely,
had felt an intense pain as though his
friend were really and truly dying. Thatnight Mikhaël could not sleep. He kept
thinking about his friend, convinced that
he was going to die very soon. He wassure that the pain he had felt had beena presentiment. Shortly after that Pasal
told him about a dream:‘I was in the next world, among a great
throng of people all dressed in white.
Some of them started to question me:
they wanted to know about the place I
had come from, about the world and thebeautiful things that happened there, andwhether I had many friends. “Yes, I have291

friends,” I told them, “but there are also
many people I don’t like—people I hate,in fact.” Then they looked at me in astonishment and said: “You mean to say that
hatred still exists there? But have youlearned nothing yet?”’Pasal had an anxious expression as heasked:‘Mikhaël, do you think that dream meansthat I’m going to die?’But Mikhaël, who had never felt able totell Pasal about the presentiment he had
had that night at the theater, simply said:‘It was only a dream.’ A few months later
Pasal had fallen ill and was soon dead.
With all his gifts he was now no morethan a sad memory.
That evening, as Mikhaël thought of thepeace he longed for in the world, he kept
remembering what the people in Pasal’s
dream had said: ‘But have you learned
nothing yet?’ Human beings have to learn
peace. We all have to transform violence,292

hatred, and ill-will and make room in
ourselves for harmony. Stretched out on
his back with the stars glittering above
him, Mikhaël worked mentally for peacein the world.
One night, enraptured by all that splendor, an idea occurred to him: he imaginedthat the stars had declared war on eachother, a magnificent, glorious war inwhich they were spraying each other withbullets of light. This notion suggested a
new spiritual exercise, and he spent hours
mentally pouring light into the world,
until he fell into the untroubled sleep ofa child. At times he was caught up in
ecstasy and experienced divine sensations that bore him far from the earth.
Often, after a night on the mountain side,
he awakened at dawn to find himself covered with snow. Chilled but happy, hejumped up, collected his blankets andhurried down to the camp in time for thesunrise.
One day he decided to attempt an

293extremely difficult climb on a seemingly
inaccessible summit: he wanted to see
whether, in the course of an arduous
exercise of this kind, he would findwithin himself something that would
warn him not to continue, the somethingthat we call intuition. For this experiment
he chose a particularly beautiful peakformed of a multitude of smooth, verticalridges. No footholds were visible, and yet,inching his way from one knife-edge tothe next, he always managed to find someslight crack or irregularity to hold on to.
As he clung to the rock face, he prayed,
linked himself to God, and listened to his
intuition. Slowly and laboriously heclimbed, searching the surface for every
tiny asperity, and moving foot or handforward only when he heard the inner
voice telling him to advance. Thus, atlast, he reached the top.
The temerity that was such a notable partof Mikhaël’s temperament was always
suggesting new experiments, always urging him to devise new and more difficult294

tests designed to lead to self-knowledge
and self-mastery.
There is a way out of every situation,
and we have to look for it. It is a magnificent thing to venture out, to throw oneself
into action. Spiritual people are often
hesitant and indecisive. They keep asking themselves: ‘Is this right? Is this theway?’ They spend years hesitating, notdaring to enjoy the splendors of the newlife. Did you know that in ancient times
initiation was given not to those whosehearts were full of goodness, but to the
audacious? Those who were not daring
were told that they were not ready for initiation.5
Mikhaël’s constant excursions to themountain summits were symbolic of his
aspirations to attain the heights of thespiritual life. In the twenty years of his
discipleship he climbed Mount Musala
nineteen times, often in difficult circumstances and always with the specific ideaof doing a spiritual work on the highest

295

peak of the Balkans. It was here as
nowhere else that his contemplative soul
could open out and expand, that he wasconscious of the presence of powerfulinvisible entities which stimulated andsustained him. It was here on the mountain heights that he found a deep sense ofpeace. Here he understood that the only
truly important thing in life was to be one
with the cosmic Spirit.
His years of spiritual work were often
rewarded with gifts straight from heaven:stones became animated and luminous;
a fruit was transformed into a receptaclefor divine forces. This was the case one
summer morning on Mount Musala. It
was a glorious day in August, andMikhaël and his friend Dimitri—the onetime anarchist who had become a peaceloving brother—had decided to climb
Mount Musala before joining the campat Rila. Striding along energetically, theyfelt young, vigorous, and full of joy. Afterwalking for several hours in heat that was
becoming increasingly intense, they296

paused to rest and refresh themselves.
Taking a pear each from their knapsacks,
they sat down and began to eat slowly,
savoring it as long as possible. Ordinary
though it was, the action triggered in
Mikhaël’s soul an ecstatic communionwith nature. Later, speaking for both hiscompanion and himself, he said, ‘It wasan ocean of sweetness that swept over us,
as though God himself had been in thatfruit.’ And he added that thanks to thatfruit they had been ‘transported to paradise and the experience opened
immense horizons.’ His consciousness,he said, was awakened, and he was ‘filledwith all the light of the cosmos’.
Often, throughout his life, Mikhaël
spoke of an awakening of his consciousness as though it had been sleeping until
then. The fact is that when he examined
his state of consciousness he was neversatisfied. For him, true love, peace, andinitiation were all states of consciousness, and he was insatiable, always thirsting for God to pervade and possess his297whole being. He worked tirelessly toreplace in himself all that was old andworn, and to become one with the divine
beings whom he called on ceaselessly.

Notes
1.

March 29, 1951.

2.

July 2, 1950.

3.

‘Evening Vigils Round the Fire II’, in The
Fruits of the Tree of Life.

4.

October 26, 1946.

5.

May 9, 1944.

298

8

#

The
Wondrous
Powers ofThoughtandWord

It must have been in the winter of 1926
that Mikhaël found work as a mason to
pay for his tuition and help his family.
His crew was assigned to the site of a newbuilding which was still open andexposed to bitter winter winds. Wearing
only a thin wind-breaker and trousers
with a large tear at the knee, Mikhaël felt
his leg gradually becoming numb underthe bite of the icy wind. By the end of
the day, one knee was so swollen that hecould no longer walk and had to behelped home.
Finding himself obliged to stay in bed, hedecided to take advantage of his forced
immobility to turn to his favorite occupations. The days slipped by unnoticed,
gradually becoming weeks, as heimmersed himself in the study of astrology. Once he felt that he had sufficientknowledge, he drew up his own chart,
and it was here that a painful surpriseawaited him: his horoscope depicted acrude, mediocre human being whosecharacter had nothing in common with300

his own. Whereas the quest for God had
characterized him from childhood, his
chart showed no hint of spiritual aspirations, no trace of the ecstasies or spiritualrevelations he had already known. The
fact is that he had forgotten something
he had known as a child: when he andhis mother had arrived in Varna in 1907,
he had been registered as one year older
than his true age, so that he would be
accepted at the school. This made it
impossible to calculate his true horoscope.
Not before he was fifty years old did his
mother remind him that he was a year
younger than he had thought. Even then,the details were indefinite, for his motherwas not sure of the exact time of his birth.
She remembered only that it had beensome time after midnight on January 31,
1900. The circumstances of Mikhaël’sbirth, in fact, have always been somewhat
obscure, due to the conditions in the
country, the mentality of its inhabitants
and the burning of his village, during

301which all official documents weredestroyed. Also, at the beginning of the20th century in the mountain villages of
Macedonia, years and days were reckoned according to the weather or the seasons. Marriages, births, and deaths weredated by natural events rather than by thecalendar. It is as though Omraam
Mikhaël Aïvanhov was not destined tobe circumscribed by time or defined byastrological analysis.
At the age of twenty-six, however, thenegative implications of this false horoscope constituted a new challenge forhim. Much as he was drawn to this science, to its view of the universe and theweb of relations linking individual creatures and creation as a whole, he could
not help but doubt its reliability when heattempted to draw up his own birthchart. For a serious astrologer—especially
one who studies spiritual or holistic
astrology—a birth-chart is a basic tool, acomposite frame of reference throughwhich to view one’s life and gain spiritual302

understanding.
Mikhaël
eventuallyfound some consolation in the idea that
he had perhaps managed to neutralize thenegative aspects of his birth-chart by his
intense spiritual work. In any event, hecontinued to study astrology and to meditate on the great laws on which it is based
until, ten years later, he was considered
the foremost specialist in the country andwas consulted by several prominent persons.
In the meantime, his knee was not getting
better. One day, some friends who oftencame to visit him decided to chivvy him
into playing a more active role in his
recovery.
‘Why don’t you try to heal yourself?’ they
asked.
‘How can I?’ Mikhaël responded.
‘By the power of thought! You are perfectly capable.’‘I would have to concentrate for a very303

long time,’ replied Mikhaël, ‘and I am toobusy.’
The fact was that his knee was painful
only when he tried to walk, and, deeply
absorbed in his study of astrology, he wasquite happy to stay in his room and work.
Also, in what he thought to be his birthchart he found an indication of a healthproblem that would prevent him fromwalking, and this motivated him to
devote hours to prayer and meditation ina desire to purify himself. But after amonth of being confined to his room, hedecided he had had enough. His knee wasstill purple and badly swollen, and heresolved to try to heal it ‘by the power ofthought, by love, by the spirit’.
Summoning all his mental resources, hecreated a beam of brilliant light andfocused it on the swollen knee. After
concentrating for a long time, he gradually began to feel a gentle warmth followed by the burning sensation of light
penetrating his knee. He continued in304this way until at last he sensed a movement, a tremendous influx of force in hisvery bones. Within a few minutes he fell
asleep and awoke next morning to findhis leg completely healed. Surprisingly,
he himself was astonished by his success,even though this was not the first time hehad experienced something of the kind;he had often achieved spectacular results
through the powers of thought. But, assome of his friends remarked, for
Mikhaël everything was always new. He
never became blasé, or considered himself an expert.
All the evidence indicates that thisperiod of his life was one of immense,
dynamic energy. His whole being was
expanding and he was continually discovering new possibilities within himself.
At one point he discovered that he had
the same gift of healing as his mother andgrandmother. And when he read a biography of François Schlater, an Alsatian
who had healed people by touching theirhands, he was so moved that he almost305aspired to imitate him. But in fact, themeans he already used with great conviction was thought. For him, thought was
the most powerful of all instruments.
When a friend told him about a young
man who had hurt his leg and whose
wound was so badly ulcerated that nothing seemed to do any good, Mikhaël madeup his mind to try and help him. Filling abottle with water from a spring, he concentrated on imbuing it with the healing
elements he knew to be present in nature.
He then gave the young man a small glassof it and told him to drink some every day
until the bottle was empty. The following day the ulcerated leg was completely
healed, without so much as a scar.
Each time Mikhaël discovered new gifts
or powers in himself he was faced withthe same choice: whether to use thosepowers for his own purposes or to dedicate them unconditionally to the service
of God. Peter Deunov, who was wellaware of this, probably intended to give306

him one more occasion to make thatchoice when he showed him a place
where treasure was hidden. It was during
a brotherhood camp on Mount Vitosha,
and after leading Mikhaël quite a distancefrom the camp Peter Deunov told himthat a great treasure was buried justbeneath their feet. Then, without
another word, he turned and went backto his tent, leaving Mikhaël to make what
he would of it.
Peter Deunov was known to be exceptionally clairvoyant and Mikhaël musthave been very impressed, not only by
this unexpected revelation but also by
this proof of his Master’s faith in him.
Did he have any doubts about the existence of the treasure? Probably not, forit was perfectly plausible: it was common
knowledge that highway robbers hadburied gold in various regions of Bulgaria. In fact, treasure hunters werenumerous in the vicinity of the ancientroutes linking the north and south of thecountry. Mikhaël stood for a few minutes

307and watched the figure of Peter Deunov
as he returned rapidly to the camp; then,without a backward look, he followed
him. Speaking of the incident years later,
he said: ‘The other brothers could notunderstand my behavior. They never forgave me for not showing them where thattreasure was hidden.’On another occasion Peter Deunov
showed Mikhaël how to make a dowsing
instrument equipped with a small copper
rod with which to find gold in the
ground. Mikhaël used it once, when he
was dining in the home of some wealthy
friends. His host hid some gold coins indifferent places throughout the house,
and to the amazement of the family andtheir guests, he found them all.
The discovery of such a possibility wasenough to turn many heads, but Mikhaël
never used it again. What purpose could
it serve except to exploit and dominate
his fellow human beings? Had he notalready renounced such use of his psy-

308

chic powers at the age of eighteen, when
he had refused the offer of the retired
consul? His exceptional gifts could easily
have assured him a brilliant career as
healer, clairvoyant, or astrologer, but heknew that his role in life lay in a different
direction. As soon as he sensed that a
particular discipline would not enable
him to help others to free themselves andovercome their difficulties, he abandoned
it. He could easily imagine the depth ofslavery to which he would be reduced if
he sought to exploit those glittering powers.
Although for many years already,
Mikhaël had abandoned any desire to use
his exceptional powers for his own ends,
he had not tried to stifle them, and he
did not fear them. If he saw that his powers of concentration and what he called
the power of thought could be used constructively, he had no hesitation in doingso.
One day, on an excursion with Dimitri,309

they reached a village late at night. It wascompletely dark and not a light could beseen anywhere. The two young men
made their way as best they could
through the village and the vineyard
beyond, hoping to find somewhere to
sleep. Groping their way forward, theyrealized that deep ravines and clumps ofthorn bushes made it a dangerous place.
Mikhaël gripped his friend’s arm, saying:‘I know it’s very dark and we have no-one
to show us the way, but we’re going tofind the best spot, the cleanest and mostsheltered…’
In the darkness he could barely see Dimitri’s eyes.
‘And how are we going to do that?’ asked
his friend.
Mikhaël’s only reply was to turn slowly
around, sending out mental waves of harmony.
Many years later he spoke of the impor-

31
3100

tance of understanding how waves function:
When we emit thought waves they reachout and then return to us. They are likebats: if you let bats fly loose in a roomwith wires stretched across it in all directions, they will never hit the wires. Bats
have highly developed antennae which,thanks to the airwaves produced by theirflight, warn them of the presence ofobstacles. […] If you understand theselaws—which also govern the waves you
emit—you too can sense the obstacles inyour way. Before going forward, youmust send out waves in all directions so
as to explore the ground. If you perceive
disorder, chaos in one direction, do not
go that way; but if you sense waves ofharmony you can go forward safely: itmeans that the way is clear. So on thatday I turned my hand in all directions
until I found the best way. Of course, you
cannot do this unless you have trained
yourself. You will not succeed at your firstattempt. But I was already trained… So I

311

told my friend, ‘Let’s stay here.’ The nextmorning we found that we were, indeed,in the best place. That brother has had
immense faith ever since!1
Mikhaël’s choices were deeply sincere
and his desire to use his gifts for spiritualends was so intense that he was always
trying to infect his friends with his own
convictions. It was with sadness that heobserved one of his fellow-workers, an
exceptional young man who had discovered a natural gift for healing through iridology and used it to become rich andseduce girls and young women who cameto him for treatment. For Mikhaël, it was
not one’s gifts and talents that mattered—however spectacular and lucrative—but the way one lived. The only
way to help and enlighten others was tobe kind, loving, and generous. When hesaw that a friend needed help, he often
suggested simple but effective methods.
It was in this spirit that he suggested thatseveral of them might do well to take a

312new name, in order to trigger an innertransformation. He had long been interested in the meaning of proper names
and in the influence of their vibrations,which, it seemed to him, could be as powerful as the vibrations of colors. A few
years later he was struck by the results.
One of his friends in particular, a violent
person whose original name had a very
negative meaning, was gradually transformed after adopting a new one.
Eventually, however, Mikhaël began torealize that by taking the responsibility ofgiving someone a new name he was perhaps linking himself too closely to theirdestiny and making some of their problems his own, and he abandoned thepractice. It was only many years later,when he had his own followers, that heoccasionally gave one of them a newname, and it was always for a specific reason. Similarly, he decided to do no more
Tarot readings for anybody but himself,
for, as he was to say later, such methods
were too easy. They might be helpful for a313

time but it was not possible to transformpeople by those means. ‘On the contrary,’
he explained, ‘it is only their own efforts
that can help them to advance and perfectthemselves.’***
In Varna, Mikhaël’s mother had always
been the confidant and source of consolation for her neighbors, the person they
instinctively turned to for help in their
troubles. Many of those who were destitute or bed-ridden were cheered by a visit
from Dolia, who arrived with a gift ofbread or a cake hidden under her apron.
One day she did something that was thetalk of the neighborhood for a long timeafter. One of her neighbors, a married
man with a growing family, needed to add
on a room to his house but was unable
to pay for the building permit. The room
was almost finished when the police got
wind of the affair, and news went aroundthat they were on their way to demolish
it.

314

Filled with compassion for the unfortunate family, Dolia quickly decided tochampion their cause. Collecting all thechildren she could find, she gathered
them around her in the room, hung aphotograph of King Boris on the wall,
and waited. When the police burst in,they found themselves confronted by thislittle woman surrounded by a crowd oflaughing children. ‘Madam,’ they said;‘we have a warrant.’‘We’re not moving from here,’ replied
Dolia calmly. ‘Do you have the courage topull the room down around us?’
Disconcerted, the men looked at eachother and after a moment the officer
motioned for them to leave. Once outside
they did their best to conceal their discomfiture from the crowd that had gathered in the street. After this defeat thematter was dropped, for the police, knowing Dolia’s devotion to her neighbors andthe affection and respect they had for her,315

had no desire to stir up unrest in the
Turkish quarter.
Mikhaël’s occasional visits were a great
comfort to his mother, for she missed himvery much. She did not really understandwhy he continued to be Peter Deunov’s
disciple, but to her family and friends she
continued to say: ‘That’s where hebelongs. He’s happy there.’
For his part, when he arrived in Varnaand saw her tired and preoccupied by somany difficulties, he often scolded her
gently and told her not to take everybody’s problems so much to heart.
The friends of Mikhaël’s sisters werealways much impressed by this serious
young man of twenty-six who turned up
from time to time with his violin tucked
under his arm. He knew so many fascinating things about physiognomy music andthe influence of nature on human beings.
Seventy years later, one of them confided:
I was fifteen when I saw Mikhaël for the316

first time. He was so sunburned that I
thought he looked like a Hindu. He had abeautiful, mellow voice. I was studying atheorem about a triangle, and for something to say, I talked to him about it,
whereupon he explained the symbolic
meaning of the triangles he saw on myface, full-face and profile. That day I
learned a good deal about myself and mycharacter!
Mikhaël also played the violin with great
feeling, and although his family admitted
that he was not a virtuoso, they used to
say that there was so much love in theway he played that several people were
healed when he played something specially for them. The fact is that althoughmusic was always a source of joy to him, it
was also a tool. In Sofia, he still lived withthe friends who had given him a room
when he first arrived. As before in Varna,
this gave him the occasion to integratemusic into his spiritual work. One of thefamily who was a professional pianist
would spend hours at the piano, and as317

before in Varna, Mikhaël would sit quietly in a corner of the room to listen. He
had long thought of music as a great windcapable of bearing him to higher planes,
and here was a golden opportunity tolearn to use it more intensively than ever.
As he listened, his eyes closed, he tried todiscern the specific force emanating fromeach piece:
When we listen to a piece of music, wemust first of all know whether it is a force
for good or for ill; what it represents andwhat comparison it suggests. Is it like thewind or like thunder? Is it like a cataract
or a waterfall tumbling down the mountainside? Is it like electricity? Or heat?
Whatever the energy it emits you must
learn to use it. If it suggests the wind, you
can imagine that you are on a ship in fullsail. If it suggests electricity, you can use
it to set in motion your spiritual ‘appliances’, and so on.2
He often joined other friends who weremusicians and spent hours listening to318

them. The friendships of his youth were
without doubt extremely important tohim. Speaking in later years of some ofthese profound and sincere relationships,
he would not hesitate to say, ‘We hadgreat love for each other.’ His friend Ivan
was an exceptionally gifted musician andhis improvisations on the guitar were
often a source of inspiration to Mikhaël.
Thanks to the subtle affinity, the mysterious emanations that flow between two
beings, Ivan’s music had the power topropel Mikhaël to the world of the spirit.
For this he was always grateful, and forthe rest of his life he had a special affection for the guitar because of the mysticalexperiences it had inspired in his youth.
The two young men, both disciples ofPeter Deunov, certainly had a great deal
in common. Their spiritual aspirations
and the similarity of their tastes were abond between them, and in addition to
making music together they often experimented with telepathic communication.
Unfortunately their friendship lasted

319

only a few years, for Ivan died young, andhis premature death was one of the great
griefs of Mikhaël’s youth. Fifty years later
he could still say: ‘He is still with me.’Mikhaël continued his lessons at theConservatory of Music for several years.
If truth be told, he was both happy andunhappy about his studies, for he waswell aware of the flaws in his playing andknew that his fingers would never acquire
the necessary agility. If only he had beenable to learn as a child! Would he ever bea really good violinist? After a few years,
recognizing that he would never be a virtuoso, he regretfully gave up his music
lessons. He kept his violin and continued
to play, but never in the same way.
His role in life was not that of a musician.
Indeed, he had known for a long time thatthe higher beings who guided him ‘put
one obstacle after another in his way on
the physical plane’ in order to help him
to ‘grow on other planes’. Just as they had
barred the route to a specialization in320mathematics, so they now made it clearthat the world of musicians was not forhim. In his mind he heard them murmuring: ‘You cannot lead people to the ultimate goal by means of music. We willshow you another realm, a realm in which
there will also be music; a realm in which
you can act effectively.’ As soon as heacquiesced he felt a powerful urge to turnto inner realities; he was learning to recognize the music that is hidden in all
things, animate and inanimate; everything became music.
The music of the spheres reverberated
still in every fiber of his being, reminding
him constantly that just as the stars, thetrees, and the stones of the earth possess
their own special note, human beings too
are part of the great cosmic choir, of thegreat orchestra whose conductor is theCreator himself. Above all, he understood that he must learn to play as perfectly as possible on the instrument of his
own being. One day, this resolve received
an unexpected stimulus.

321

I was still a student in Sofia, and I was
sitting reading in my room one evening,when I heard a violin being played in
the street. It was so extraordinary that
I went out to see who was playing likethat. And what did I see? A gypsy, an old
man dressed in rags and playing a violin… but what a strange kind of violin!
It was a roughly made wooden box, withsome strings stretched across it, and fromthose strings he drew sounds… sounds
such as I had never heard in even thebest concerts. I was amazed. And all theneighbors had come out on their balconies to listen. When he stopped playing
I went up to him and asked ‘Where does
your violin come from?’ ‘I made it
myself,’ he replied. So then I asked him
if I could have a closer look at it. It was
simply a piece of wood that had been hollowed out, all crooked, and with a few
strings on it. ‘Would you sell it?’ I asked.
‘Oh, no, I’ll never sell it!’
I kept thinking about this encounter: I
could not understand how the gypsy322

could produce such pure sounds from socrude an instrument. How astonished
Stradivarius would have been, I thought.
But then I realized that it is not necessarily the perfection of an instrument thatcounts. It’s something else. It all depends
on the person who plays it. I thought
about this for a long time, and I concluded that I too could make music withan instrument as crude as mine—that
is, myself.
The important thing is to have the willto triumph. We always complain that we
don’t have the right conditions, but thatis just an excuse for doing nothing. If you
knew how difficult the conditions of mylife had been when I was young… You
can have no idea! But I did not counton external conditions to bring me success—and that old gypsy only made me
more convinced. I told myself, ‘I must
produce good things from my difficulties.’
And what was it that I really wanted?
To be useful. This is the overriding desireof my life: to be useful to others, to be323

able to help, console and comfort them.
Night and day this desire is with me. It is
this desire that inspires me to play my violin.3***
In the life and in the mission of Omraam
Mikhaël Aïvanhov, thought was an
instrument capable of tremendous realizations; silence was both a need and ameans of communication; a look was amysteriously potent means of exchange.
But it was perhaps his use of speech, thepower of words, that was the most important.
The only thing I am concerned about isthe wind… the Word. And the Word canachieve wonders. I have never cultivateda talent, I have used only words.4
When he gave advice he spoke with great
frankness, and that advice cut straight tothe heart of a problem. We see an example of this in the way he helped a wealthy
young friend who always looked324

unhappy. Meeting him in the street one
day, Mikhaël greeted him warmly, whereupon his friend exclaimed: ‘You’re looking very joyful. What has happened?’‘Oh, nothing much,’ replied Mikhaël. ‘Ihave just bought some joy. And it costvery little.’
Puzzled, his friend looked at him insilence. He knew that Mikhaël had almost
nothing in the world, and yet he always
seemed to be in a state of supernatural
joy. It was incomprehensible. On theother hand, he knew him well enough toknow that he was not teasing. With asigh, the young man complained that hehad spent a lot of money in his life without receiving any joy in return. Wordlessly, Mikhaël beckoned to him to comewith him, and pausing some distancefrom a poor man selling buttons,
shoelaces, and string, he murmured:‘Look! There’s someone who sells joy. He
stands there for hours in the cold, the325wind, and the rain, waiting for customers.
Go up to him and buy something, shoelaces for instance. Ask him how muchthey are, and if he says they are ten leva,
give him fifty and tell him to keep thechange. When he hears that he will
think: ‘Ah, there are still good people in
the world.’ His faith will be strengthened,
and his joy will be yours too. It will reverberate within you all day long, and it will
have cost you only a few cents.’
Thoughtfully, the young man looked at
the peddler and suddenly a smile lit up
his face. Mikhaël added: ‘You can also pay
a visit to someone who is ill. Take himsome little gift. Tell him that all will bewell; that God is merciful. If you comfort
others and give them joy, you yourself
will become joyful. But when you want
to give joy to someone you must choose
carefully, for not everybody is ready toaccept it.’5
Mikhaël always spoke simply with words
that went straight to people’s hearts. His326

methods were those of all white magicians who, having mastered and refined
their own faculties and feelings, are capable of using the power of words to great
effect. For him, words were powerful
instruments capable of eliciting vivifying
reactions.
One summer, before joining the brotherhood camp, he spent a few days with afriend in the little town of Dupnitza to
the west of Rila. One day, as he was on his
way to join his friend for a picnic in thehills outside the town, he heard that two
murderers were thought to have taken
refuge there. Deciding that he ought togo and warn his friend, he walked on,
never dreaming that the shirt he was
wearing was similar to those of the assassins and would give rise to a serious misunderstanding. Hardly had he reachedthe hill when he found himself surrounded by a crowd of armed civilians
and policemen who pointed their guns at
him and ordered him to stop. He guessedfrom the expression on their faces that327

they had taken him for one of the fugitives. Standing still, he waited for them tocome closer before saying anything. And
what he said was surprising: ‘You havearms, but I have one that is better.’
The police, taken aback, looked at him
suspiciously, and Mikhaël, taking advantage of their hesitation took out the New
Testament he had slipped into his pocketthat morning, saying: ‘There you are.
This is my weapon, and it is more powerful than yours.’
At once, it was as though a tableau,frozen in time, came back to life as thetension went out of all those threatening
countenances. The police asked what he
was doing on the hill and ordered him
to accompany them to the station. As hewalked along quietly, an inner voice kept
repeating: ‘Don’t worry! Everything isgoing to be all right.’ An hour later, hisfriend, who had also been arrested andthen released, came to fetch him andstopped in the doorway in amazement to328

see Mikhaël sitting in the middle of agroup of policemen. He had brought out
his New Testament again and was
explaining a passage of the Gospels.
As they left the police station together,
the two young men were greeted by thecrowd that was waiting for news of thearrests. Learning that the ‘assassin’ was avisitor in the home of an honest citizen,
they burst into applause. Mikhaël’s popularity was assured, and in the days that
followed there occurred a phenomenon
that was often repeated in his life: hisradiance and spontaneous kindness drew
people to him, and suddenly everybody
wanted to confide in him and ask his
advice. For several days, his friend’s
house was besieged by people who
seemed never to tire of listening to thisyoung man whose eyes expressed suchlight and goodness, and who gave suchclear and practical answers to their questions.
When he left Dupnitza to join the camp329

at Rila, some of these new friends went
to find him there to continue their questions and talk about their problems.
Every year after that, whenever Mikhaël
was at the camp near the Seven Lakes,
his friends from Dupnitza hiked up to see
him.6
No one who had anything to do with
Mikhaël ever suffered from boredom. In
his eagerness to stimulate the flow of life
within them, he was not afraid to irritate
them or even, when necessary, to arouse
their anger. Some of them never forgavehim.
One day he had just reached the top of
Mount Musala, when a Protestant pastor
arrived and sat down beside him. Almost
numb with cold, the man still managed topull a Bible from his pocket saying: ‘Do
you know the Bible? Do you read it?’Without more ado he started to preach.
For him, nothing was more important
than the written word. The spirit seemed
to have been forgotten, and he did his

330best to convert Mikhaël to his own narrow views. After listening to him for a
few minutes, Mikhaël lost patience anddecided to shake him up a little and try
to get him to reflect beyond the rigid limits of his militant theories. At one point,
insisting that human beings were more
important than books, even one inspired
by God, he said:
Books can be destroyed, but they canalways be written again, because theknowledge in them will always exist. I
could throw this magnificent book into
the ravine, but I would never throw you
there. You are more important.
The pastor could not help but see his
point. How often in history men had
killed each other in the name of religion,in the name of a holy book! Fanaticism
has always led to destruction. More andmore, Mikhaël talked about the importance of turning to the universal principlethat is the source of all religions, and tohis mind it was the sun that was the vis-331

ible representation of this vital principle.
The language of light is universal; allhuman beings can understand it. It is thelanguage of life.

Notes
1.

June 3, 1946.

2.

‘Art and Music II’, in Know Thyself : Jnana
Yoga II.

3.

‘Préparer l’avenir de la jeunesse’, in La
Pédagogie initiatique I.

4.

March 12, 1980.

5. See his own account: ‘Love is Hidden in the
Mouth’, in The Second Birth.
6.

See his own account : ‘Gentleness andHumility’, in Spiritual Alchemy.

332

9

#

I WillGive YYououaPreciousStone
The estate known as Izgrev—Rising
Sun—was an extensive property recentlyacquired by the fraternity of Peter
Deunov. It lay on the outskirts of Sofia
near Boris Gardens, one of the largest
parks of the city. Close to the entrance
they had built a white house with a lecture hall and a private room for the Master. Over the years, as more and more disciples wished to live together in a fraternal setting, several smaller houses had
been built on the grounds. Each had asmall flower garden, and the absence offences or hedges preserved the overall
impression of one large park. As the years
passed the fraternity at Izgrev expanded,
and more and more visitors came, sometimes from afar, to see this experimentin collective living and meet the Master
whose influence was so great.
When Mikhaël approached Izgrev after aforty-five minute tram ride through thecity, he could always tell whether Peter
Deunov was there or not. When he wasthere, the very air seemed to vibrate, theenthusiasm that animated the community was palpable. When he was absent

334

it was as though the sun had disappeared
from the sky. Mikhaël, struck by theseobservations, concluded that the presence of a Master kindles a more intenselife in the hearts of his disciples.
Mikhaël had a room in the city and spenta good deal of his time in the mountains.
He sensed that Peter Deunov wished him
to remain at a distance from the brotherhood, and although he did not understand why, he was convinced that it wasfor the best. As he explained later, thisdistance helped him to pursue his spiritual exercises in a spirit of detachment.
When he was younger had he not been
a little too possessive in his first enthusiasm at having found the Master he hadsought for so long? He admitted franklythat he had gone to see him very often
to ask for advice, and in his passionate
desire to advance as quickly as possible,
to correct his defects and endure ordealsof purification, he had often stayed too
long and taken up too much of the Master’s time. He never tired of pleading with335

him: ‘Make me someone who will be ofuse to the whole world’. It was only laterthat he realized that the distance Peter
Deunov had asked of him had been necessary so that his Master might ‘write on
him as on a living book, just as the sun
writes with its rays on the earth’.
Each time he returned to Izgrev, his joy
in the Master’s presence was renewed. In
their private conversations Mikhaël
always had many questions for him, andas they talked he rejoiced in the power
and love emanating from the Master.
After so many years he understood thetrue nature of Peter Deunov’s feelings
towards him. Mikhaël was now thirty,
and he continued to listen to every word
his Master uttered with the loving attention he had shown at seventeen. His only
desire was to deepen his understandingof the great truths of initiatic science.
The Master had already imposed many
ordeals on him, each more arduous thanthe last, but he had also let him see that
he was satisfied with his work. Not many336

years later it was Mikhaël he would
choose from among thousands to carry
his teaching to France.
At about this time, in his usual enigmaticway, Peter Deunov gratified Mikhaël withanother public expression of approval.
Interrupting himself in the middle of alecture, he said: ‘Brother Guirev is tuned
to long waves, while brother Mikhaël
operates on short waves.’
Brother Guirev was an intellectual, a veritable encyclopedia, who liked to show off
his learning. In referring to the longer
wavelength of red, the color of materialistic science, in contrast to the short wavesof violet, which represent the spiritual
world, Peter Deunov had described themost prominent and the most selfeffacing members of the fraternity. The
message was addressed to both, and having uttered it, he went on with his talk.
Violet light, that with the shortest wavelength and the highest frequency in the337solar spectrum, was a constant source ofinspiration for Mikhaël. But two of themost important means he used to open
his soul and spirit to the spiritual world
were fasting and silence. More than once,
while still a young man in Bulgaria, hefollowed a practice much recommended
by Hindu Masters and spent thirty daysin silent retreat.
In India, where such methods are used bythose seeking inner revelations, the practice of silence requires great self-control.
How much more so in a country where
few understand the meaning of such athing! Mikhaël had to muster all his innerstrength and discipline. People questioned him, trying to get him to talk; children laughed and teased him. But the
rewards of his silence must have beenvery precious, for he repeated the experience more than once during his twenty
years with Peter Deunov.
***

338

Mikhaël continued to work, to refine andpurify himself so as to be ready for what
was to come. Some of his companions
who had seen the ardor he had brought
to his spiritual exercises for so many years
wondered what he was preparing himself
for. He himself had no clear notion ofwhat it was, but with a determination
which seemed almost sacred, he worked‘to become an instrument ever more flexible, ever more adept in the service ofGod’. As always, his over-riding desire
was to become useful, not only to the few
he lived and worked with, but to thewhole of humanity.
Knowing that this time of preparation
was essential and indispensable—it wasalso of absorbing interest—he spent
twenty years with Peter Deunov. He wasthirty years old but he still did not feel
sufficiently prepared. Convinced that hestill needed to purify his motives, tostrengthen his will, to be more detached,he prayed ceaselessly to the invisible entities whose presence he sensed all around339

him to give him ‘the strength to work forthe establishment of God’s kingdom onearth’.
Friends, recognizing his wisdom and his
experience in the spiritual life, oftensought his advice. But to be Mikhaël’sfriend was never a bed of roses. He asked
a great deal of himself, and although he
was devoted to his friends and very sympathetic, he asked a great deal of themalso. He tried to stimulate them and givethem something vivifying. In his desire tohelp all those he met he was always genuinely interested in them.
Some people found his lofty ideals andhis personal integrity uncomfortable andeven exasperating. Some became angry.
Others were envious of the apparently
effortless influence he had on his companions. But most people sensed that heunderstood them and shared in their personal interests. His spontaneity and sincerity attracted friendship, and although
his outspokenness sometimes brought

340

him enmity instead, he knew that he had
to deal with that as we all have to deal
with light and darkness; both are necessary to life. He would say later that he had
tried to help and encourage those whocalled on him, but that he always directed
them to Peter Deunov, always reminded
them of the aspects of the teaching most
likely to enlighten and encourage them.
He made no attempt to assume the roleof teacher—he probably mistrusted himself in this respect—and recognizing that
humility was essential to evolution, he
preferred to remain in the background.
When he went to Izgrev he did so discreetly. In spite of his profound understanding of Peter Deunov’s teaching, heavoided the dinners and receptions towhich many of his fellow disciples wereinvited to give talks.
The truth is that his whole life was oriented toward something very special andunusual. Since adolescence, his quest for
God had led him to decide not to give341

physical expression to his sexual energies
but to transform them and make use ofthem for his spiritual development. Since
then he had sought inspiration in beauty,
in the subtler dimensions of life. His attitude toward the opposite sex was
unequivocal, and his companions knew
he had chosen to live in chastity. Duringmuch of his youth, however, he had had
to endure the purifying fire of criticism
and derision. His close friends knew how
he spent his time. They respected andadmired him. But others, unable tounderstand how anyone could sacrifice
the things to which most people aspire,
openly sneered at his options which
seemed to them too radical.
Like all the great beings who had traveled
this path before him, Mikhaël certainly
had his own inner struggles, but never in
his long life would he deny the reality of
the human body created by God or its
innate impulses, which are good or evil
depending only on the use we make of them.
He would say later that in his youth he342

had been filled with a great effervescencewhich had sometimes frightened him,
but that when he had discovered its profound meaning he could only thankheaven for all he had received. Several
years earlier, Peter Deunov, who was wellaware of this, had told him: ‘For you,
Mikhaël, a look is enough.’
He had not explained his remark, andMikhaël had reflected at length on themeaning.
The Master had seen the roots, the structure, of my deepest nature and hadsummed it up in a single phrase: I need
only a glance, a look. Later on, I often
used a glance and I discovered some
important laws or, to be more accurate, I
discovered how to look in such a way as
to sanctify oneself, how to be filled withwonder, to feel elated and fulfilled with
only a single glance.1
For his part, Peter Deunov was well awareof Mikhaël’s detachment, of the stability343

of his conduct, and in particular of his
frank and unambiguous attitude toward
women. A few years earlier in the garden
at Ternovo he had witnessed a minor but
revealing incident: Mikhaël, perched on
top of a ladder that was leaning against
the branch of a tree, was lost in the contemplation of nature, when a girlapproached and climbed half-way up theladder to talk to him. Peter Deunov knewthat the two young people were very fondof each other, and although he could nothear what they were saying, he could seethat they were both enjoying their conversation. Finally the girl climbed down,
beckoning to Mikhaël to follow. Peter
Deunov had noted with interest that
Mikhaël remained on the ladder andwent back to his meditation. The incident was so significant in his eyes that
he mentioned it to Mikhaël several years
later.
To Mikhaël’s way of thinking, true purity
was God himself, and in a human being
it was one of the most important virtues.

344

When his friends talked to him of theirproblems, of their sexual desires or obsessions, he was not afraid to assert that theyshould face them squarely, and use themas a starting point for a more profoundunderstanding of beauty. One day, afriend told him of a recent experience
which had disturbed him deeply. With an
expression of despair, he said:‘I don’t know where to turn. I’m so miserable I have even considered killingmyself. I’m incapable of working. I must
get the picture of that girl out of mymind.’‘That’s the wrong way to go about it,’replied Mikhaël. ‘On the contrary, look at
her mentally, and little by little the picture will fade away. You should see thisimage as a blessing, a starting point for areflection about beauty.’
Later, he would often say: ‘True purity
is not what people think. Purity is God
himself. It is the divine world. It is the345

way we use things that make them goodor bad.’ Ever since he had gazed at the
spring in the village of his childhood, he
had constantly striven for purity. But
never would he reject the sexual energies
created by God. Never would he approve
the renunciations of certain narrowminded spiritualists. On the contrary, inlater years he explained how one could
use those energies to fuel one’s ascent to
the divine regions for which all humanbeings are destined. At the time of his
youth, however, it had not always been
easy for him to make his contemporaries
understand his position. More than once
he had been obliged to make his position
clear to young girls or women in the fraternity who had fallen in love with him.
One of the women who attended theBrotherhood meetings in Sofia pursued
him with her attentions. She was a university professor and a brilliant andhighly cultivated poet and philosopher.
Nothing escaped her critical observationand no one was able to best her in an

346

argument. She even argued with Peter
Deunov who was always very patientwith her. From the first moment she saw
Mikhaël she had been mesmerized by his
beauty and the extraordinary magnetismof his eyes. Poetry came easily to her andshe began to write extravagant poems in
his honor. She became so possessive that
she began to station herself beneath Peter
Deunov’s window whenever Mikhaël
was with him in order to overhear theirconversation, and although Mikhaël did
his best to avoid her and insisted that she
leave him alone, she persisted in following him home.
She beseeched him: ‘Brother Mikhaël,this is the first time I have ever loved
someone.’‘You should be singing with joy becauseof your love alone. Tell me, why has it notchanged you? You should be nicer to yourbrothers and sisters, for instance.’
But she was not interested in being nicer,

347

all she wanted was to be allowed to kisshim. But Mikhaël continued patiently totell her:‘It is not allowed. In any case, if you did
you would be very unhappy.’
Refusing to be put off, she continued tosend him poems and love letters in all the
languages she knew. She was foreverknocking at his door, sometimes in tears,
and Mikhaël, with equal perseverance,
continued to resist her until one day, seeing that she was always bothering Peter
Deunov when he himself was with him,
he told her:‘You really do love me, don’t you? You
still want to kiss me? Very well. I will kissyou later, on condition that you neverdisturb the Master again and that you
stop criticizing and contradicting him.’
Commenting this episode later, he said:
It was very difficult for her. She thought
about it, tried to calculate whether she

348

had the strength to do as I asked, andfinished by promising that she would try,
because she wanted the promised
reward. But she was unable to keep her
promise. So I was released from my sideof the bargain also, and I managed to
avoid giving her what she wanted. Fromthen on she changed. She no longer
shouted and insisted on having her own
way. She was unrecognizable. So you see,if someone loves you it is possible to usethat love to help him and get him to seehimself as he really is. If his love is not
genuine you cannot help him. He musthave faith in you; above all he must loveand have faith in God.2
Far from being indifferent to feminine
beauty, Mikhaël always looked on it withadmiration and delight. He neverattempted to ignore it. With astonishingstrength of mind, he succeeded in working exclusively with the eyes, and his
efforts were sometimes rewarded by
unexpected gifts from subtler regions.
During the night, he was often awakened349

by the presence of unreal creatures ofextraordinary beauty.
They were all round me, looking at mein such a way that I felt myself melting
in indescribable love. They did not touchme, just stayed there, looking at me, andall their power was in their eyes. I havenever yet seen such an expression in theeyes of a human being. It seemed to comefrom a great distance and a great height.
The experience lasted for hours. I
learned later that these creatures were
devas, and I understood that they had
visited me in order to show me that there
existed in nature a beauty beyond anything one could imagine.3
Through their absolute purity, light andradiance, these creatures opened up a
new world in Mikhaël’s soul. He received
from them ‘revelations about true love,the love that needs no physical manifestation’.
***

350

By 1930 or 1931, Mikhaël was no longer
attending lectures at the university. He
remarked later that much of what he hadstudied had been a waste of time, that it
had ‘drawn a veil between reality and his
life’, and was best forgotten.
In Bulgaria, before qualifying for a teaching position in Sofia or any major city,
three years of experience in a village
school were required. For his first school
term, Mikhaël was employed in a highschool not far from the capital. It is probably here that he lived in the bungalowthat he once described as ‘so small thattwo people could not be in it at the same
time’. In the classroom, applying educational methods that owed little to prevailing customs, he soon obtained resultsthat surpassed his most optimistic expectations.
Mikhaël had noticed that delinquency
had been on the rise in the country following a popular series of plays about thebandit Zigomar. This confirmed his con-351

viction that the power of suggestion
exerted by theater and cinema has astronger influence on people’s minds andbehavior than church, school, or evenfamily. With this in mind, he organizedand produced several short plays with his
pupils. One of them in particular, theadaptation of a Tolstoy legend about agrain of wheat, was a great favorite withthe parents. Seeking to awaken his
pupils’ minds and hearts to new ideas, heexplained the lines they recited andhelped them to discover the beauty inthem. At home the children talked about
this new teacher who was so unlike thosethey had known before, and their gratefulparents began to pay him frequent visits.
Three or four years later, Mikhaël wasappointed director of a college, and during the few months of this charge he wasbusier than ever. His methods, based ona pedagogical principle of love andpatience, created once again a sincere anddynamic relationship between himself
and the students. Their parents, not352

knowing how else to thank him, brought
him cheese, nuts, and fruit. His office wasoften fragrant with the scent of theirgifts. At the same time, however, heattracted the envy and resentment ofsome of the other teachers, who, unwilling to change their attitude toward theirstudents, opposed him in different ways.
Jealousy always came as a surprise to
Mikhaël. He found it difficult to realize
just how powerful and tenacious it could
be. But in spite of his new responsibilities
and endless problems of this kind, he wasalways full of energy and undertook togive a series of spiritual talks for the peasant population of the region, who
attended in great numbers. They loved
this new director who used such colorful
imagery and expressive gestures, andwho spoke with such humor, peppering
his talks with anecdotes to illustrate his
meaning.
The time was drawing near when
Mikhaël would be called on to leave his353

country forever. Peter Deunov had kept
him in the background for years, andmost of the members of the brotherhood
had forgotten the mysterious remark hehad made one day by the shores of thesecond lake of Rila: ‘You do not yet know
brother Mikhaël; at the moment he is disguised, but one day you will know him.’
In the 1930s, Peter Deunov had begun toreveal certain things to Mikhaël in orderto prepare him more directly for his
future task. One of these revelations wasin the form of an allegory:‘I have in my possession a precious stone.
It is as big as an egg and valuable beyond
words. I intend to give it to someone totake to another country, but as he will
have to travel through a dense forest
teeming with bandits and savage beasts,
I will coat it with mud. Later, when it iswashed, it will shine in all its splendor.’It was a prediction that was to be fulfilled
ten years later, but at the time Mikhaël

354

was not able to decipher the hermetic language in which his future was described.
He was to be the bearer of the teaching,symbolized by the precious stone, and he
was to be soiled in the same way as thegem. Since Peter Deunov had prophesiedin 1917 that the forces of darkness would
oppose him, Mikhaël had known that he
was destined to endure great ordeals, but
the meaning of this allegory of the gemthat had to be soiled in order to be protected became clear to him only whenthose ordeals were imminent. Even if
Peter Deunov knew the nature of thetribulations that awaited Mikhaël, tohave revealed them would only havemade things more difficult for him. Thus
this veiled allusion to the mission hewould entrust to him a few years hence
and which had to be concealed.
He also told him:
‘When you have passed through the narrow gate you will be so transformed thatyou will not recognize yourself. You will355

shine like the sun, and the whole world
will be drawn to you.’
On another occasion he made an astonishing statement:‘You must realize that in the world above
you were free. Before incarnating you
signed a contract in front of an assemblyof all the greatest spirits. You agreed toaccomplish a certain task here below, andyou must now fulfill your promise.’Peter Deunov sometimes told his disciples that before their present incarnation
they had had to agree to carry out a specific task on earth. To Mikhaël he spokeof the signature of a free being, of one
who did not need to reincarnate in orderto achieve perfection and who could be
entrusted with a special mission by thegreat assembly of spirits only if he consented. He did not elaborate, knowing no
doubt that Mikhaël would one day
understand all the implications. Humanbeings are not permitted to know their356

future; even high initiates and great Masters are subject to this rule. Their mission
is revealed to them only progressively inthe course of their life.
Peter Deunov had also said: ‘You came tobear witness to truth’, and Mikhaël often
pondered those words. To bear witness
to truth, he reflected, every fiber of one’s
being would have to vibrate in unisonwith truth; one would have to have theflawless purity of a diamond that bears
witness to the transparency of all diamonds. One day, it occurred to him to ask
the Master:‘When were you best pleased with me asa disciple?’
Mikhaël was then thirty-four. In the seventeen years Peter Deunov had known
him, he had tried and tested him in different ways and followed his progress
closely. He knew that Mikhaël was an
exceptional being who never drew attention to himself. Destined to enlighten

357

and console, he was a being of integrity,
courage, and steadfastness beyond question. Over and over he had proved capable of sacrificing his own tranquility tosupport and defend his brothers and sisters. All this Peter Deunov recognized,
and yet he chose to speak of the apparently insignificant incident in the garden
at Ternovo, many years before:‘You were in deep meditation when thatgirl, who had great affection for you—andyou for her—came looking for you. But
when she climbed down the ladder andasked you to do the same, you stayed up
there and continued your meditation.
That was the moment when I was best
pleased with you.’‘But, Master,’ exclaimed Mikhaël inastonishment, ‘does that mean that it was
the symbolic and perhaps prophetic
aspect of what you saw that pleased you?
It seems to me it was nothing much.’Peter Deunov smiled and said nothing.

358

He had been pleased to see that Mikhaël
remained faithful to the divine world, to
his ideal, to the mission of those who
renounce marriage and procreation inorder to devote themselves totally to therealization of the kingdom of God onearth. But he certainly knew also that
Mikhaël’s unconditional choices, his
frankness and honesty sometimes caused
resentment. Even that young girl in thegarden at Ternovo who had loved him
would, in the future, become one of his
worst enemies under the influence of an
unscrupulous man with whom Mikhaël
would refuse to associate.
***
It was during these years that Peter
Deunov made several important revelations to Mikhaël about his future, predictions he had deciphered in the Akasha
Chronica. While he spoke of these things
his expression took on extraordinary
intensity, his features were transformed
and radiant. Mikhaël would never forget359

those moments, the beauty that suffused
the Master’s face and the accent of truthin his words. Progressively, in the three
years that followed, Peter Deunov
revealed to Mikhaël many things about
himself, in particular that books he had
written in a past incarnation in India had
been a source of instruction for the wholeworld. He told him that he had been especially destined for a work of spiritualassistance to women, and that he would
one day converse with the greatarchangels, rulers of the planets. Theserevelations and promises came as a confirmation and consecration of all that
Mikhaël had already accomplished.
During this period Peter Deunov wasespecially close to Mikhaël, who had
worked so humbly by his side for twenty
years and who was already, without
doubt, an exceptional spiritual guide.
The Master could now allow himself toshow his love for him. Mysteriously, hesometimes called him Iacchoi. The namewas unfamiliar to Mikhaël, and he was360

puzzled by the Master’s use of it. It was
only many years later that he would comeacross it in a book about the Dionysian
Mysteries. There he learned that for thealchemists, the name Iacchus was synonymous with the sun. It also referred to
Dionysus, Apollo, and Osiris. In the Mysteries, the plural form, Iacchoi, was thename given to androgynies, those perfect
beings who possess both the masculine
and feminine principles within themselves. The Master’s use of this name wasonce more an enigmatic reference thatgave Mikhaël matter for deep reflection
and meditation.
I think now that by giving me this namehe was giving me an inkling of what hethought of me. He wanted to tell me that
I was nothing, but that he saw me as one
who could become perfect.4
In these years Peter Deunov was verymuch alive to the threat that the rise ofCommunism posed for the fraternity. In
1937, he invited Mikhaël to his house one361

last time and entrusted him with the mission to make his teaching known inFrance. To prepare the way for him, hegave him three letters that he had dictated to his secretary, Boyan Boëv. The
first stated that Mikhaël was leaving ona specific mission to which his whole life
was dedicated. The second was addressed
to a Polish woman who was in a position
to introduce him to interesting people inParis. The third, dated June 12 and signedby brother Boëv, was addressed to a Bulgarian brother, Anastassi, who also lived
in the French capital. It said:
One of our brothers, Mikhaël Ivanov, isleaving for Paris. He is being sent by the
Master. As you know, he is one of thevery advanced disciples. He is deeply
knowledgeable and totally dedicated,living and working only for God’s work.
The official reason for Mikhaël’s departure for France was to visit the Paris
World Fair: Peter Deunov never disclosed
to his other disciples that he had

362entrusted him with a mission. Knowingthat his choice would inevitably arouse
envious reactions on the part of those
who thought themselves better equipped
for such a task, he chose to say nothing.
On July 18, 1937, after bidding farewell to
his family, Mikhaël boarded the train thatwas to take him to Paris. A small crowd offriends and many of his pupils and theirparents were at the station to see him off.
Many wept when he left, sensing perhaps
that they would never see him again.
Mikhaël could only look at them, hisheart torn. For years he thought often of
those children he had loved and of thebrothers and sisters who had come towish him Godspeed.
He was thirty-seven and was giving up
everything, family, friends, and the country in which he had been born, for thesake of this new mission. Symbolically,
he was selling all he possessed in order tocarry the precious stone to a distant land.

363

Notes1.

‘The Masculine and Feminine Principles:
Exchanges and Relationships’, in Love andSexuality I.

2.

May 17, 1941.

3.

‘The Masculine and Feminine Principles:
Exchanges and Relationships’, in Love andSexuality I.

4.

January 1, 1961.

364

PART III

BROTHERMICHAEL

10

#

God
Gives
FreelyThe train from Sofia, crowded with passengers bound for the 1937 World’s Fair,
made a two-day stopover in Venice andreached Paris on July 22. On his arrival,
Mikhaël was taken in by brother Anastassi, but when he tried to contact thePolish woman who was to introduce him
to various spiritual movements in Paris,
she was away from home and her neighbors had no idea when she would return.
While waiting for her to appear, Mikhaël
set out to discover Paris. For days heexplored the different quartiers, visiting
churches, museums, the famous gardens,
and the second-hand book stalls on thebanks of the Seine. Gazing down themajestic sweep of the Champs-Elysées
for the first time, he remembered withamusement the naive idea he had had of
it at the age of seventeen, when the nameevoked for him the mythical ‘Elysian
Fields, the marvelous abode of the great
spirits of the past’. In dusty old bookshops in the Latin Quarter, he browsed
through rare texts on alchemy. He also
spent many fascinating hours at the Palais
des Découvertes, where visitors canobserve demonstrations of scientificexperiments.
He also used this time to improve his368rudimentary French by frequenting thecinema, the theater and the opera. During the performances he continued as in
the past to note the effect of the instruments and voices on himself and others,
attempting to ‘understand how the different sounds activated the spiritual energy
centers within’.
Back in his friend’s apartment in theevening, Mikhaël retired to his room.
There, listening to the children at play,their cries echoing in the narrow street
below, he pondered his situation. His visitor’s visa would soon expire, and if hefailed to get in touch with the personPeter Deunov had written to, he would
have to return to Bulgaria. The days sped
by, and on the eve of his departure hetried one last time to reach her. Miraculously, the telephone rang as she opened
the door of her apartment, having justreturned from Warsaw. Without hesitation she invited him to come and see her
and began at once to take steps to prolong
his visa. After interminable telephone369

conversations with the immigration
authorities, she was finally successful.
Toward the end of the day Mikhaël was
still with her when the doorbell rang, andhis hostess introduced him to Stella
Bellemin, a woman in her fifties who wasto be one of the most faithful disciplesof the new teaching he had brought toFrance.
Stella had also just returned from a vacation. She had been to Bulgaria and spenta few days at the Seven Lakes of Rila
where she had met Peter Deunov. Afterabout ten days with the Bulgarian brotherhood, she had asked Peter Deunov, inthe presence of his secretary, BrotherBoëv, how she could help to make histeaching known in France. His reply was:‘When you meet the person you are destined to work with, you will recognize
him immediately.’
Many years later when the validity ofMikhaël’s work was being contested,370

Stella remembered that although Peter
Deunov had not named Mikhaël explicitly, there was no doubt that he had beenreferring to him, and that his secretary,
who had been present at the time, understood this perfectly. She would also recall
that, during those ten days in Bulgaria,
nobody had so much as mentioned abrother who had recently left for France.
That evening in her friend’s apartment,Peter Deunov’s prediction was fulfilled:
as soon as she saw the visitor in the sitting room, she knew without a shadow of
doubt that he was the one Peter Deunov
had spoken of. And when she learned
that he had come to France to makeknown the teaching she herself had
recently discovered, her decision was
immediate: she would collaborate in his
work by putting all her resources at his
disposal. Without hesitation—and witha total disregard for convention—sheoffered Mikhaël a room in her apartment
and promised him all the help he needed.
Mikhaël did not accept immediately: he371

needed time to consider the question in
private, but the next day he accepted heroffer and moved to her apartment in therue des Princes, where she had set aside asmall room with an easterly view for himfrom which he could see the sunrise.
Stella was an astronomer, attached to the
Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. Every
morning she left for the office andreturned home only in the evening.
Before long many of her friends heardthat one of Peter Deunov’s disciples wasstaying in her apartment and came tomake his acquaintance. With attention
and the utmost patience, ‘Brother
Mikhaël’, as he began to be called, listened to his visitors and responded totheir questions. And as they came inincreasing numbers, seeking advice,
instruction and consolation, there weredays when the apartment hummed like abeehive. On weekends when Stella wasfree, he devoted many hours to instructing her in the teaching Peter Deunov had
entrusted to him.

372

Toward the end of 1937 the social andpolitical situation in France was deeply
troubled. The threat of war hung over
Europe and dominated every conversation. That autumn the French government passed a law severely restricting theright of foreign visitors to the World’s
Fair to remain in the country, andMikhaël, who had left Bulgaria with only
a temporary permit to visit the Fair, wasnow faced with the necessity of renewing
it every week. But neither the long hoursof waiting nor the harassment, suspicion
and arrogance with which he was treatedexhausted his patience. With tireless regularity, he renewed the legal formalities,
and was so often obliged to be photographed that a great number of photographs from that period still exist.
For her part, Stella observed her guest
closely and could not help but be deeply
affected by his extraordinary radiance.
Drawn to the spiritual life since childhood, she was also an intellectual who
had gained considerable authority in her

373

field. She was not easily impressed, but
in later years she would often speak ofthe deep impression Brother Mikhaël had
made on her. Time and again she saw
people who were harassed and irritable
thawed by a look and a smile from him.
He instilled such rare kindness into a few
simple words that their attitude was often
completely transformed.
One day, an official warned Stella that
Mikhaël was a spy in the pay of the Soviet
Union. She defended him vigorously, buteach week, because of misunderstandingsof this kind, he had to find additional
people of influence to back his request
for an extension of his permit. It was two
years before he obtained a visa which had
to be renewed only every three months,
and it was many more years before therestrictions on him were further relaxed.
But he was never to have citizenship in
any one country. He would always be a
citizen of the world.
In the meantime he remained serene,

37
3744

counting as always on the unfailing support of his friends in the invisible world.
It seemed that his prayers were always
answered. More than once, at the lastminute and under unusual circumstances, he met someone who was in aposition to get his papers renewed. Sometimes it was the Bulgarian legation thatput obstacles in his way; sometimes it was
the French authorities. One day, just twohours before his visa expired, the Frenchpolice demanded that his application be
countersigned by ten French male citizens with substantial financial means.
Half an hour later, ten ‘solid citizens’
arrived almost simultaneously at theapartment. All were among his regular
visitors and all, without a word to theothers, had decided to leave work earlier
than usual and go to see Brother Mikhaël.
Together they accompanied him to police
headquarters.
His friends were constantly astonished by
the unusual events they witnessed, andeven the most skeptical were impressed.

375

They could not help but recognize that hewas surrounded by invisible beings who
assisted him so that his work could go
forward. Their support even extended toseemingly insignificant details: hereceived an unexpected gift of moneythat exactly matched the price of a small
radio he needed; he found at his door aJapanese tea service that he had admiredin a shop window, thinking he could use
it to offer his guests a cup of tea. Incidentsof this kind were frequent, but in spite of
his faith, Mikhaël never seemed to takethem for granted. Each time he was as
astonished and delighted as a child.
***
As Brother Mikhaël’s popularity
increased, the visitors to Stella’s apartment in the rue des Princes became more
and more numerous. Once a week a scoreof people gathered for an evening meeting, but before long the apartment
became too small, and meetings were376

held in the more spacious home of her
Polish friend near the rue du Bac.
Peter Deunov was not unknown in the
French capital at the time; in fact, severalof his disciples in Paris claimed to be
there at his behest, but Mikhaël made nosuch claim. He was simply a Bulgarian living in France, one among a number ofPeter Deunov’s disciples. Without professing to represent Peter Deunov or topossess any special expertise, he talked
quite simply about the major themes ofthis teaching which constituted the warp
and woof of his life.
Although his knowledge of French was
improving rapidly, it was far from perfect.
His audience, however, found little tocomplain about, for his lively humor andvivid imagery more than compensatedfor any shortcomings. But there wereoccasions when his imperfect knowledgeof the language was a handicap: some ofthose who came to hear him were writers,
astrologers and alchemists, and occasion-377

ally, mistaking his limited means ofexpression for a lack of knowledge, one ofthem would presume to give him advice.
Many considered themselves to be initiates, a cut above ordinary mortals, andthey sometimes held forth at such lengththat Mikhaël could hardly utter a word.
Without attempting to correct their perception of him, he simply listened
patiently as they described how they had
passed the ‘second or third degree of initiation’. For his part, he was completely
indifferent to these so-called degrees andhad no intention of establishing them inthe brotherhood. More than once he said
that he had never known what degree of
initiation he had reached, that the brotherhood was not interested in titles andthere were no ‘pundits’ among the members. In his view, each time someone
experienced an expansion of consciousness it meant that they had reached ahigher degree of initiation.
One day Stella invited a friend, who was378

an engineer as well as a seasoned
astrologer, to meet Brother Mikhaël.
They had hardly been introduced whenthe visitor, full of his own importance,
began to question Mikhaël as though hewere one of his students: ‘Do you havesome notion of astrology?’‘Yes, a little,’ replied Mikhaël, who had
been known in his own country as one of
the foremost experts on the subject.
The engineer then mentioned the titlesof several books and advised him to study
this fascinating science which would
open undreamed of avenues for him. Not
in the least perturbed, Mikhaël thanked
him for the information and made a noteof the books he had recommended. One
evening a few months later, intrigued bytalk of Brother Mikhaël’s brilliant interpretations of the major astrologicalthemes, the engineer returned to hear
him talk and was astounded by the extent
of his knowledge and the natural authority with which he spoke. From that379

moment on, his attitude changed completely. In a long letter of apology heexpressed shame at the arrogance of his
behavior and signed it, ‘Your worthless
disciple’.
With his profound understanding of
spiritual astrology, Mikhaël was able tospeak of the great laws that sustain theuniverse in ways that enhanced his audience’s understanding of the world
around them. Several well-known
astrologers attended his talks regularly,
drawing from them a wealth of new andvivifying ideas. In general, however,astrology was not a frequent topic of histalks; he referred to it only occasionallyin order to illustrate or emphasize a pointof the teaching.
During all this time, Stella, who nevertired of listening to him and observing
his reactions, did her best to fathom thesecret of his behavior. Many years later,
she wrote that his actions had often

380

amazed her; his code of conduct seemedso different from that of most people:
He was always natural, humble, unpretentious and sometimes seemingly ignorant, and this astonished me very much.
I still could not understand why he soconsistently concealed every hint of his
exceptional nature and true worth, ofwhich I had received such a clear indication from the very first moment we had
met. […] On first meeting him, the thingthat struck one above all else was theintense light that radiated from him, alight that was imbued with tenderness
and pure, impersonal love.1
In her desire to understand the wellsprings of his action, she observed every
detail: the harmony of his gestures, so different from the abruptness of most people; the kindness that often cloaked his
exceptional inner strength; and the way
he looked at each person with an affection that made no demands on them.

381

Stella could find no discrepancy between
his teaching and his life.
***
Five months after Mikhaël’s arrival inFrance, his students asked him to addressa wider public, assuring him that his
French was perfectly adequate for the
purpose. He finally agreed, and on theevening of January 29, 1938, gave his firstpublic talk in the Luxembourg Hall, Placede la Sorbonne.
On the morning of the talk, Stella’s apartment was without water. Unable to getwater from the washbasin in his room,
Mikhaël tried the kitchen tap but forgot
to turn it off before going out. When
Stella returned from work that evening,
she was horrified to find her guest in the
kitchen, mopping up the flood. At thesight of her expression, Mikhaël could
not help laughing. For him, the significance of the incident was perfectly clear:
the water, symbol of fertility, abundance,382

and life, was a message from the invisible
world. With enthusiasm he explained:‘Don’t you see what a wonderful sign it
is? It is an outpouring, a torrent of love!
My talk this evening will be a success.
The audience will be fully satisfied.’
In fact, the reality surpassed the portent.
His talk, entitled ‘The Second Birth’,turned out to be the first in a series ofmore than five thousand. That evening,
he surprised his listeners with the unexpected precision and aptness of his
French, and the eloquence of his gesturescontributed in no small part to his success. From time to time, at a loss for a specific word, he delighted them by asking
them to supply it. Very often, after hearing their suggestions, he found the elusive word for himself, and the audience
was charmed by his informality.
This first talk was rich in themes central
to his philosophy: the symbolism of fire
and water, the subtler forms of nourish-383

ment; the relationship between the
twelve signs of the zodiac and the four
elements; the spiritual significance of atriangular prism; the symbolism of colors
and their influence on human beings; andthe need to be born again.
To be born for the second time, he said, isto become a living fountain of pure water
which gives birth to a new and thriving
civilization. The religion of such a one is
the true religion of divine love and wisdom. For him, the only true temple of
God is the universe, the sun is High Priest
in this temple and the stars are its votive
lights. To be born a second time is to open
one’s secret, innermost channels so thatthey may be filled with love and wisdom.
It is to be a perfect prism, radiating theseven beneficial forces throughout one’s
own being and projecting them out forthe benefit of all around him.2
Throughout his life, Mikhaël spoke oflight as the ‘celestial water’ that flows
from the world above. His great desire384

was to foster the upsurge of life by ensuring the constant flow of this ‘water.’ His
first public talk, then, was the initial outpouring of the fountainhead from which
his mission flowed. At the same time, itinaugurated a ten-year period during
which he would lay the foundations inFrance of Peter Deunov’s teaching andprepare to bring it to fruition.
After the success of this first experience,
he continued to give weekly talks in a
rented hall. Before long, his audiencegrew in numbers until they overflowed
onto the podium, and a more spacious
meeting place had to be found. The newassembly room quickly became inadequate as well, and people were often had
to stand outside and listen as best they
could.
The style Mikhaël adopted for his talks
was similar to that of Peter Deunov andcorresponded well with his own temperament. Rather than composing a discourse
in advance, he prepared himself by385

spending some time in meditation. On
entering the hall, he greeted his audience,
his right hand raised in the salutationthat had become customary in the Bulgarian brotherhood. The gesture had realsignificance for him. He saw it as an
instrument, a means by which to communicate energy, colors, and life-giving
vibrations. He often said: ‘When you
salute each other, the gesture should be atrue communion; it should be powerful,
harmonious, and alive.’
After the salutation, he remained insilence for a few moments, sensing thestate of mind of his audience. And whenhe spoke, whatever his theme, he always
seemed to address the problems of eachone and to offer the lucid, practical solutions they needed. A period of meditation invariably followed his talk, but thepattern of the gatherings never becameroutine; they were full of life, exuberance
and surprise, for Brother Mikhaël maintained that routine ‘leads to sluggishness
and death’.

386

To relax his audience or stimulate theirattention, he frequently interspersed histalks with jokes and anecdotes, and hislaughter was contagious. Like the legendary story-tellers of the Orient, he peppered his discourse with tales that wereboth amusing and instructive. Particularly fond of Turkish folk-tales about
Mullah Nashrudin learned in childhood,
he was equally at home with the stories
of Alexander Dumas, the Fables of La
Fontaine, or the Tales of a Thousand and
One Nights. These stories were often away of summing up an aspect of his
teaching, but they also served to ease tensions he himself had created in his audience. He liked to say that laughter keeps
the brain flexible, and that the brotherhood was a school for laughter. His own
laugh was so infectious that when hestarted it was impossible not to join in.
Mikhaël found constant inspiration in
the everyday events of life. For him, they
were a reflection of invisible realities, andhe used them as examples to illustrate a387

point of his teaching. One day, somefriends took him to Luna Park, in which
one of the attractions was the Rotor, or‘butter dish’. This was a large circular
platform, and as it spun faster and faster,
those standing near the outside edge losttheir balance and were thrown to theground, while those who stood close to
the central axis remained unaffected.
This carnival ride fascinated Mikhaël,and he often referred to the ‘butter dish’when speaking of the need to maintaina close bond with God, the center of allthings: ‘If we do not want to be defeated
and thrown off balance by life’s difficulties, we must stay close to God, in spite of
epidemics, suffering and wars.’
His ability to recognize vivifying symbols
in nature, in music or sports, in the inventions of human beings or in their professions gave Mikhaël a very practical andconcrete point of view in regard to theexigencies of the spirit. On one occasion
he treated his audience to a special talkafter André Jahan had taken him for a388

ride on his motorcycle. Jahan—whom
Mikhaël called ‘Brother Jean’—had beena champion automobile racer. He hadplaced himself and his professional skills
at Mikhaël’s service ever since his firstpublic lecture and was always ready todrive him wherever he needed to go. Thatday his motorcycle had refused to start,
and when Jean diagnosed a dirty sparkplug, Mikhaël immediately offered toclean it, but when it was put back inplace, the engine still failed to start. After
Jean had inspected it again he said, witha hint of reproach: ‘Brother Mikhaël, inyour zeal you have cleaned it too thoroughly. The gap between the electrodes is
too great. The current cannot pass.’
To Jean’s surprise, Mikhaël exclaimed
delightedly: ‘Oh, that’s wonderful!’With the vivacity to which his audience
was accustomed, Mikhaël recounted theincident and explained why he had been
so delighted:389

It gave me such a good example that I
could use to explain things to you. You
must always remember that if the electrodes of a spark plug are too far apart orif they are dirty, it will not work. It only
takes a tiny detail to prevent an instrument from functioning. The same is truein the life of a disciple. We too have electrodes within us, and if they are too farapart they will not work. […] Everythought, every feeling, everything we eat,every breath we take, every one of ourorgans must be in contact with our life
as a whole. When this is the case our life
will become magnificent, because all our
instruments will function properly andenable us to manifest as we are meant
to.3
In contrast to so many fashionable speakers, Mikhaël always spoke simply, using
ordinary, everyday expressions, illuminating the meaning of life in a uniqueway, and suggesting practical methods ofself-transformation that anyone mightuse. His unpretentious imagery evoked390

an immediate response in many of his listeners, but the very ordinariness of thelanguage he used in speaking about elevated subjects often disconcerted those
who were more intellectually sophisticated. A few were offended when heremarked that ‘even a baby could understand’ what he was saying, but if they persevered they gradually discovered thedepth and complexity of the ideas that lay
behind his words.
Once his talk was over, so many people
crowded around him that it was sometimes an hour before he could reach the
car waiting to take him home. But evenafter a long and tiring evening, he nevertried to avoid them: on the contrary, heanswered all their questions patiently.
From the beginning, many of the Bulgarian disciples of Peter Deunov who were
living in Paris attended these evening
gatherings regularly. Most of them, however, remained reserved in their attitude
toward Mikhaël. In his homeland, he had

391

never been in the public eye or lectured
on the teaching like so many others.
When the news reached Bulgaria that he
was giving public talks in Paris, it was thesignal for a period of great difficulty, notonly for him, but also for the Bulgarianbrotherhood, for many members believedthat he had gone to France and proclaimed himself Peter Deunov’s representative on his own initiative. Even whena number of Bulgarians returned from
Paris and spoke of his work with admiration, the skepticism remained.
During this contentious period, Peter
Deunov’s main concern seems to havebeen to keep the peace among his disciples. In 1937 he had given Mikhaël a letter
which clearly stated his mission in Paris.
Later, in private conversations with otherdisciples, he spoke approvingly of thespiritual work Mikhaël was doing inFrance. Never once, however, did heannounce publicly that it was he who had
commissioned that work. It was hardly
surprising, therefore, that some of his dis-392

ciples concluded that their Master disapproved of Mikhaël’s activity and that it
was only out of charity that he remained
silent. In lieu of any public endorsement,
however, Peter Deunov did take the precaution of writing to Mikhaël personallyto reiterate his approval: ‘Work as God
directs you. I am pleased with what you
are doing. Do as you think best.’ And in
October 1938, his secretary, Brother Boëv,wrote:
You can be sure that what you are doing
has the Master’s complete approval. Pay
no attention to those who are being negative. All those I talk to here hold you ingreat affection.
Mikhaël was well aware of the criticisms
aimed at him. One day he assured his
audience that he was simply passing on
what he had received in Bulgaria fromPeter Deunov and that he always communed mentally with him before speaking. Moreover, he regularly began histalks by quoting a text by Peter Deunov,393

which he then elaborated upon at length.
His deep love for Peter Deunov was evident, and for years he hoped to bring him
to Paris to instruct the French brotherhood himself.
Meanwhile, presenting himself as ‘a disciple of no importance’, he continued to
strive for the virtue of humility. Humility,
he used to say, is a point of view, a way oflooking at things: if we compare ourselveswith an ant, we are bound to think that
we are very big and grand, but if we compare ourselves with a star, an archangel,or a divinity, we become conscious of oursmallness. Humility, in his view, is theone attitude that can stimulate us toachieve greater heights, for, ‘if we think
we have reached the top, we have no
incentive to climb higher. There is
nowhere to go but down’.
As always, Mikhaël was not afraid ofappearing ignorant, and frequently thisled people to underestimate his knowledge or intelligence. The long-term con-394

sequence of this habitual selfdepreciation was that, when the timecame for him to broaden the scope ofPeter Deunov’s teaching, many membersof the brotherhood reproached him forit. Even in those early days, however, it
was evident to many that he possessed avast store of knowledge drawn from the
Akasha Chronica, as well as an exceptional
gift for communicating that knowledge.
He could not behave as though the lightthat flooded his being did not exist, andyet for years he continued to extol the
reputation of Peter Deunov and to minimize his own. He accepted criticism as aninevitable part of his mission and neverallowed it to hinder his work.
His conviction that a Master is a model
to be imitated made him try to think andfeel as the Master he admired so greatly.
His own ideas were too original, however,and his own perceptions too keen to
allow him to model himself indefinitelyon the spirit of any one individual, evena Master. His intelligence was too vast to395be contained, limited and subject to concepts which belonged partially to one
particular period and which inevitably
bore the mark of one particular mind.
Instinctively, through meditation andcontemplation, he drew upon the true
source of all knowledge.
***
In the spring following his first public
talk, Mikhaël encouraged his students toattend the sunrise as often as possible inorder to draw strength and inspirationfrom the light, as was the custom among
the disciples of Pythagoras and otherhigh initiates of Antiquity. When somecomplained that they were too tired to
get up early, he replied that the apparent
fatigue caused by getting up early would
counteract their chronic state of exhaustion:
When you are present as the sun rises,
its rays dissolve the harmful fluidic layersthat surround you, and the seeds that396

God has planted in your soul begin togerminate.4
Several of his followers soon vouched forthe fact that the regular practice ofattending the sunrise left them feelingstronger and more energetic; their complexion cleared, and they became more
emotionally stable. Mikhaël often
assured them that the day would comewhen everyone attended the sunrise andlived longer and healthier lives as a result.
On Sundays, he liked to leave the citywith those who formed the core of theFrench brotherhood and spend the day inthe forest, where he continued to instructthem in initiatic science and introduced
them to the spiritual and physical exercises practiced in the Bulgarian brotherhood. In the peaceful setting of a naturalclearing among the great trees, Mikhaël
was in his element. In May 1939, inviting
his regular students to accompany him to
the forest of St-Nom-la-Bretèche for further practice in the gymnastic exercises397

taught by Peter Deunov, he told themthat these exercises could greatly benefit
their physical and psychic health as wellas their will, their thoughts, and their
feelings. The rhythm with which they
were carried out was fundamental: ‘It is
important to be attuned to the rhythm ofcosmic forces and to carry out each movement slowly and with concentration.’On the appointed day more than a hundred people turned up. Once they wereassembled in the clearing, he explained
how these seven daily exercises could
nourish, reinforce and harmonize certain
centers of the nervous system. Then,
while talking about their symbolism, hedemonstrated each movement. While theparticipants were doing their best to follow his gestures, dark storm clouds gathered overhead, but Mikhaël, seeing theirdisappointment, reassured them with asmile:‘Don’t worry. The clouds will disappear
as soon as we begin to sing.’

398

And indeed, as the first notes of theirsong rang out, the sky began to clear dramatically, as though a great wind had
suddenly risen high above their heads.
After a picnic lunch, Mikhaël spoke
about the beauty of the forest andexplained how to tap the forces of natureand draw energy from the big trees orfrom running water. For him the link
between the two worlds of spirit and matter was an ever-present reality and apotent means of realization in the physical world. The universe is an immense
living organism whose elements, fromthe smallest atom through the angelichierarchies to the supernal God, arelinked. The cycles of nature were a meansof strengthening his ties with the divineworld. He used the phases of the moonor the energies of fire, wind, streams andwaterfalls as a means of selftransformation. He used to say, forinstance, ‘As this water washes and purifies all in its path, so may I be made pure.’399

While he was speaking that day, his gazefollowed the movements of a salamander
as it crossed the space between himself
and the circle of participants and camestraight to where he was sitting. When hestretched out his hand, it remained perfectly still as though waiting for him topick it up, and then sat in his palm,
watching him with its beady little eyes.
Mikhaël looked at it pensively but without comment. The incident was an eloquent illustration of what he had justexplained about the harmony and trustthat is possible between the different
species.
In addition to the gymnastic exercises,
Mikhaël introduced his students to the
Paneurythmy, the symbolic circle dance
created by Peter Deunov. He also taught
basic breathing exercises, recommendingthat they be practiced regularly every
morning after the sunrise.
Saying that the ‘essence of air’—that
which Hindus call prana—is life itself, he

400

explained that deep, conscious breathing
improves the circulation thus causing theorgans of the body to function better: thebrain can think more clearly and theheart and stomach can work more efficiently. After explaining the traditional
pattern of rhythmic breathing—inhaling
to the count of four, holding one’s breathto the count of sixteen, and exhaling to
the count of eight—he insisted thatbeginners should be very careful about
trying to adopt a slower rhythm. They
should do so only very gradually.
By breathing you can extract and distil
an essence from the air—call it prana, orlife, or whatever you please. When you
inhale consciously through your nostrils
the various ‘factories’ in your body work
more efficiently to extract that essencefrom the air. If you breathe unconsciously
they can extract no more than a thousandth part of that essence, and that is
not enough for either your physical or
your psychic life. It is by conscious
breathing that you can get your brain to401think more clearly, your heart to beatand to feel correctly, and your stomach todigest properly.5
While insisting on the beneficial effectsof these exercises, however, he wasalways careful to warn against certain
dangerous methods reputed to promote
rapid psychic development. In the years
that followed, he often explained that thesimplest breathing exercises were themost effective, for they involved no risk
and were beneficial to both physical andpsychic health.
***The brotherhood began to attract moremembers throughout France following atalk Brother Mikhaël gave in Lyon in
June, 1938. The subject of that talk was‘spiritual galvanoplasty’, an original concept to which he attached great importance.
Using the example of the technique ofelectroplating, by which an object is402

coated with gold or other precious metal,
he explained how a pregnant woman had
the power to influence the child in her
womb:
If a woman knows the laws of goldplating and decides to apply them inbringing her child into the world, then,when a seed is implanted in her womb
(cathode), she will put a sheet of gold into
her mind (anode), the gold of pure, lofty
thoughts. The current is switched on andthe blood flowing through her body conveys the precious metal to the seed. The
child grows, clothed in gold and turns out
to be robust, healthy and beautiful bothin physique and in character, and capable of overcoming all difficulties and diseases, all evil influences. Mothers havethe potential ability to work miracles forthe world: it is they who possess the key tothe forces of creation. Within fifty years
women could transform the whole ofhumanity if they applied the methods ofspiritual galvanoplasty.6

403

Throughout his life, Mikhaël often spokeof a dream he cherished. This was an
unusual scheme which would enablepregnant women to benefit from ideal
conditions during the period of gestation. The only problem was, as he said,
that this scheme required a government
with the wisdom to provide accommodation for expectant mothers in beautifully
landscaped estates, with spacious parks,
trees, flowers and fountains. There, themothers-to-be would live surrounded bymusic and color, and be taught how tobring exceptional children into theworld.
Peter Deunov had once told Mikhaël that
he was ‘especially destined to give spiritual assistance to women’, and this was
one of his principal concerns, but he did
not restrict the notion of galvanoplasty
to the realm of physical gestation alone.
Transposing it onto the spiritual plane,
he explained how all human beings canput golden thoughts in their minds and adivine image in their hearts and be con-404

stantly connected to the great central
powerhouse from which the current oflife flows. ’Every human being,’ heinsisted, ‘possesses extraordinary innate
powers of self-perfection, and meditationis one of the most effective means ofachieving self-mastery and inner harmony.’
Within a year after the talk in Lyons, thename of Brother Mikhaël was becoming
well known in Paris. His ideas were discussed wherever there was an interest in
spirituality, and people were eager tomeet him and hear him, for his words
spoke to the highest aspirations of thehuman soul. One of those who had often
been present expressed the feelings ofmany:
As we listened to him, we discovered a
new life. We felt the desire to change ourwhole outlook on life by consciously
entertaining thoughts of love and kindness, and at the same time to improve ourhealth and even to transform our fea-405

tures. We began to realize that we had
the power to acquire all the beauty, all
the wealth of the spiritual life.
In France at this time, it was fashionable
to take an interest in the occult sciences,hypnotism and extra-sensory phenomena. Spiritual groups of every variety
abounded in Paris, and desiring to understand better the milieu in which he wascalled to work, Mikhaël attended some of
their meetings. He saw that many of the
speakers, whether astrologers, cabbalists
or alchemists, were content to dazzle theiraudience with a show of sublime ideas
but failed to speak about how to put theminto practice. Scanning their faces, helooked in vain for a subtle emanation oflight, for some hint of radiance, but inspite of their vast erudition, he found nolight; some, indeed, seemed to emanate
darkness.
As for his own audience, he was wellaware that they were as heterogeneous agroup as any in Paris. There was a small

406

nucleus of those who considered themselves members of the budding fraternity
and who called each other ‘brother’ and‘sister’. But a much greater number
drifted from one spiritual group toanother in search of knowledge, with nointention of committing themselves toanything. At one point, more than forty
spiritual movements were represented
among the audience at Brother Mikhaël’stalks. Many who were interested only inthe occult arts or in a particular disciplinesuch as hypnotism and who were notready to alter their way of life soon
stopped attending the meetings when
they realized that his teaching required
certain hard choices, certain sacrifices.
Finally, among his audience were several
women for whom the attraction was not
so much the spirituality of Mikhaël as hisradiant personality.
Stella, who was in a position to observe
all this, saw that Brother Mikhaël gavethe same love and consideration to all,without regard for age, intelligence or407

social rank. But she could not know thatwithin this group lay the seeds of danger
for him.
As his reputation grew, he was besieged
by invitations to talk, and in the hope of
spreading the teaching he often accepted.
In this way he found himself in contact
with an ever more varied public, but
although he attended their receptions he
was not taken in by their modes and manners. More than once, when his hosts
tried to use him to impress their friends,
he managed to thwart their plans in sucha way as to open their minds to a higher
view of life. His audience did not always
understand his message, but it neveroccurred to him to protect his personal
reputation. If the truth had to be spoken,
he was not deterred by the possibility thatit might offend someone. He knew inadvance that he would be criticized, even
hated, and more than once he suffered
the consequences of his words.
One evening in a gathering of occultists

408and writers, a well-known author buttonholed him and, almost incoherent with
fury, began to abuse him. A hush fell on
the gathering, and Mikhaël, listening instunned silence, wondered what he could
possibly have said or done to merit suchvenom. All of a sudden he understood:
the man had attended one of his talks
accompanied by his mistress. The subject
that evening had been death and immortality, and he had spoken of the true
nature of love, the love that vivifies rather
than exploiting the loved one. After histalk the young woman had asked several
questions about love, and having understood the wrong her lover was doing her
by obliging her to practice sexual magicwith him, she had decided to leave him.
Faced with the wrath of his adversary,
Mikhaël responded with humor:‘Believe me, sir, I had no idea that thatyoung lady belonged to you and that you
had such rights over her. If I unintentionally freed her from your designs, how can
you blame me? The sun has the right to409

shine, and those who have no hats are indanger of sunstroke. You should haveworn a hat!’
At this, everyone laughed and the incident was closed, but for years the writerbore a grudge against Brother Mikhaël.
And then one day he went to see him andtold him that life had taught him a lesson,and that in spite of himself he had cometo regret the harm he had done to several
women.7
From time to time, people approached
Mikhaël and offered to help him in various ways. A young American diplomat,
for instance, who had been struck by his
spiritual influence, told him that if heagreed to live in the United States shewould put her immense wealth at his disposal and do all she could to make histeaching known in her country.
Although Mikhaël sensed that to accept
her proposal would be to put himself
under an obligation to her, the prospect
seemed to offer such advantages that he

41
4100

felt he could not decide without first consulting Peter Deunov. The negative reply
he received confirmed his own feelingand he went quietly on with the work hehad already begun, devoting himself to
instructing those who gathered to hear
him speak.
At about this time, he began to be confronted with difficulties similar to thoseexperienced by Peter Deunov in Bulgaria
when the religious authorities opposed
his work and exiled him from Sofia. With
the intention of destroying Brother
Mikhaël’s reputation, some Church leaders in France launched a campaign ofslander against him. It seems that theyfeared that their own authority would beundermined and were distrustful of any
spiritual activity not within their jurisdiction. Also, these free public meetings at
which a foreigner talked about suchthings as reincarnation or man’s subtle
bodies must certainly be considered suspect…

411

It was true that Brother Mikhaël hadcome to France for reasons that wereentirely altruistic: everything he did wasdone without payment. Within the firstyear, after he had been giving his weekly
talks for eight months, he took an
unequivocal stand in this respect: speaking to a group of regular listeners, hedeclared that he would always work without payment, as Peter Deunov had always
done. ‘Above all,’ he added, ‘God gives
freely and we should do the same.’
His attitude in this regard was always firm
and unambiguous. Throughout his life
he never accepted payment for his talks.
There were people around him, of course,
who contributed voluntarily and anonymously to his expenses, but Mikhaël wasalways content with very little. Later,when he received offers of property—houses or land—he invariably
refused, for his conduct was dictated byhis knowledge of what he termed ‘naturallaw’. He knew that by accepting a giftfrom someone he would be binding him-412

self to that person in the future, and thishe could not do; he owed it to himself andto his mission to remain free of all suchties. It was only forty years later that his
circumstances would be eased somewhat,
thanks to royalties received for his published talks.
As the months went by he continued to
speak of the glorious future that awaited
those who persevered in their striving for
perfection. He often used to tell themthat the highest ideal of every humanbeing was to resemble God, even thoughthat seemed utterly impossible. ‘That iswhat is so wonderful!’ he exclaimed, andhe gave them a prayer which he hadreceived from Peter Deunov and which
he called the formula of the high ideal:
To have a heart as pure as crystal, amind as luminous as the sun, a soul asvast as the universe, a spirit as powerful
as God and one with God.
He knew, of course, that most people413

needed time before they could assimilate
the truths he put before them. Sometimes, he realized, they were frightenedwhen he talked of purity and the beautyof a life given to the pursuit of perfection.
As in his youth, he thought that it would
be enough to show them where truth andsplendor lay, but he was soon disillusioned: some of those whom he had
encouraged and instructed found that heasked too much of them.
Mikhaël never tried to pressure people oruse his clairvoyance or other psychic gifts
to attract or impress. When asked if he
was clairvoyant, he denied it, saying thatat best he could ‘sometimes feel things alittle’. He maintained with complete sincerity that he did not possess the gift ofseeing prosaic, everyday things. In his
view, the only kind of clairvoyance worth
having was that which came as an expansion of consciousness, an awareness ‘ofthings that one has never before noticed,
things that one has been too fast asleep
or too blind to see’. And the best way to414

obtain this discernment was to follow thepath of purity and love of God.
He never encouraged people to consult
clairvoyants, for the good reason that to
do so was not the best way to transformthemselves. He often cautioned against
experimenting with the occult, for he hadseen too many people who had become
psychologically unbalanced by such
experimentation. ‘As far as I am concerned,’ he sometimes said, ‘I would liketo be clairvoyant, but only so that I mightsee angels.’ Involuntarily, however, heoften gave proof of his capacity for seeing
things on a very elevated plane. Over theyears it became clear that he knew thepast or the future of those close to him aswell as the future prospects of society andthe world.
His frequent out-of-body experiences
had taught him that Plato’s ‘world ofideas’ was a reality, a realm that contained
all truth, all the best, purest, and mostnoble thoughts. He asserted that it was415

possible for all these ideas, each in its own
way and according to its own nature, tomaterialize on the physical plane as color,
form, movement, scent, or sound. Many
clairvoyants who consulted him realizedthat he could speak of these materializations because he could see them and hear
their music. They themselves often had
to ask him to explain the meaning of phenomena they saw but did not understand.
On the other hand, people often thanked
him for having helped them: ‘I was ingreat difficulty, and you helped me to
extricate myself.’ Or, ‘I was very ill andyou healed me.’ When this happened,
Mikhaël simply smiled and said that hehad had nothing to do with it; that he hadmany friends in the invisible world whosometimes assumed his form and featuresand did things in his name: ‘These spirits,’ he added, ‘do many good deeds onearth, and they are always glad to let
someone else take the credit for them. It
is they who should be thanked.’416

Physical illness, as he well knew, is oftencaused by obstructions on a subtler plane,
and it was to those planes that he directed
his mental work. One day he went to seea man who was paralyzed and who had
already consulted the most eminent specialists without success. After sitting by
his bed for a long time, listening to him
and observing his reactions, Mikhaël told
him that he could be cured if he wanted
it enough. ‘If you believe with all yourmight, you will be walking in a month or
two.’
When he prescribed certain breathing
exercises, meditations and prayers, thesick man’s family listened with skepticism, but the invalid followed Brother
Mikhaël’s unusual instructions to the letter. Gradually the paralysis was defeatedand he was able to walk again. One day,referring to the case of this man—who
was known to all present—Mikhaël
insisted on the importance of guarding
against the accumulation of poisons in
one’s system, of immersing oneself in the417

torrent of heavenly life through prayer,
meditation and purification.
There are certain extremely poisonous
substances which coat the walls of thebody’s canals with a fluid that prevents
them from functioning correctly. These
poisons are worry, anxiety, discontent,
jealousy and resentment. […] Also, it isessential that our nerve fluids circulate
freely, and for that we need light… The
first thing to do is to improve and cleanse
the canalizations of our body so that all
our cells may be washed and nourishedboth by our thoughts and by our nerve
fluids. You must shine light, therefore,
into all the dark places.8
When Mikhaël defined thought, he knew
what he was talking about. For him
thought—which is so tremendously
potent when it is concentrated—was anatural instrument that he had always
used in the service of good. One day hehad occasion to use it like a flash of lightning to prevent a cyclist from crashing418

into a child. Quite unaware of danger, theyoung boy was riding his scooter directlyin the path of the man speeding down thehill toward him. Mikhaël described theincident the next day:I stopped and watched over the child,concentrating my mind to stop him moving to one side just as the cyclist wentby, and for no apparent reason he suddenly stopped still. The cyclist was furious. He realized that he too had been indanger. I decided to talk to the boy who
was about seven: ‘Listen to me. You havejust been saved from great danger. You
were about to cross the road just whenthat cyclist was coming straight at you.
You didn’t even look to see if it was safe
to do so. You must look, otherwise you
will be killed.’ He listened gravely, and I
added: ‘Can you say thank you to God
for protecting you? Go, now, and be careful.’ As I walked on I could see him
standing there thinking. I think he had
understood me, for I had spoken gently
but very seriously. I wish that you would419

all learn to pause in life and look round,to left and right, in front and behind.’9

Notes
1.

Svezda, Vie et enseignement du Maître
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov en France,
Éditions Prosveta, p. 35f.

2.

.‘The Second Birth’, in The Second Birth:
Love, Wisdom, Truth.

3.

April 3, 1943.

4.

April 24, 1945.

5.

May 15, 1941.

6.

‘Spiritual Galvanoplasty’, in Spiritual
Alchemy.

7.

See his account of this incident: ‘The sunis the source of love’, in Love and Sexuality II.

8.

May 17, 1941.

9.

April 14, 1945.

420

11

#

An
Attempt
at a
FraternalCommunity
Brother Mikhaël talked with such infectious love about Master Peter Deunov,about life in the Bulgarian brotherhoodand the marvelous ambience of theircamps by the Seven Lakes of Rila, thatseveral of his students planned a visit to
Bulgaria in the summer of 1939. He wastempted to accompany them, for the
obligation to renew his residential permit
every week was a severe constraint, andhe thought he might more easily obtaina visa from his own country. But Peter
Deunov, consulted by letter, advised him
not to leave France, warning that hemight never be allowed to go back, andtwenty-five people left for Bulgaria without him.
Jean, his wife Raymonde, and Stella did
not accompany them. Instead they
invited Brother Mikhaël to join them ona trip to Italy. The invitation was tempting and certainly less risky than a returnto Bulgaria, but even a brief absence from
France involved complications, for
Mikhaël needed the authorization of several different departments in order to be
sure he would be allowed back into the422country. After several attempts, however,the necessary permissions were granted
and he set out with his three companions.
They visited the length and breadth of
Italy, camping out each evening wherever
they found themselves. Long before they
had originally planned to go home, however, Mikhaël announced that theywould have to cut short their vacation
and return to France as quickly as possible, for hostilities would soon break out.
Although his companions had seen nosign of imminent danger, they knew better than to discount his warning. Driving
as fast as possible, they crossed into
France just before the frontier closed on
September 3, the very day France andEngland declared war on Germany.
Those who had spent three weeks in themountains of Bulgaria had returned only
three days before.
World War II had begun. From then on,life was very different for the people ofFrance, and when the German army423

occupied Paris a few months later, manymembers of the brotherhood moved tothe country.
During the year 1940, Mikhaël gave only
a few talks; he could do little more thankeep in touch with the many small groupsof his regular listeners who met to meditate together. It was only in the second
year of the Occupation that a few fraternal activities began again as discreetly as
possible. Strict precautions were necessary, for public gatherings were forbidden
and meetings had to be held in the members’ private homes.
Mikhaël’s situation was particularly precarious, for most foreigners were being
sent back to their homelands. To avoid
being expelled from the country, he had
to be careful to renew his papers well inadvance.
In 1942, the constraints of the Occupation became more and more burdensome.
Food supplies were running low and424

meals were reduced to the barest essentials. Severe regulations restricted the
movements of French citizens, and it
became dangerous to gather even in small
groups. In view of this, some of the members of the brotherhood agreed to rent a
house of their own in which they could
live together without drawing undue
attention to themselves.
A suitable villa was found in Sèvres, andseveral people moved in with Brother
Mikhaël. A loft with large windows wasconverted into a meeting room in which
they could meditate at sunrise without
being disturbed. Mikhaël chose a small
room for himself, in which he arranged
his few belongings with his customaryattention to detail. He continued to takecare of his own needs and, as Stella
Bellemin wrote later:
He never allowed himself to be served inany way, even though the group could
well have relieved him of certain chores.
He made his own bed and tidied and425

cleaned his room. He also took great careof his own clothes.1
His visitors were often surprised to find,instead of the ascetic cell they had
expected, a bright room decorated inbeautiful colors and enlivened by several
crystals that caught the light of the sun.
As they were often tired when they
arrived after the journey on the crowded
Métro, Brother Mikhaël urged them to sit
and relax for a few minutes in silence.
Some were ill at ease to rest in his presence, but afterwards they were grateful tohim for his exquisite sense of hospitality,
more concerned with their deep needs
than with conventional etiquette. The
personal attention he gave to each guest
and the frankness and sensitivity withwhich he responded to them soon established an authentic spiritual exchange. At
the time, one of the brothers wrote:Within a few minutes of meeting him,
I was weighed up, illuminated, encouraged and invigorated to the depths of my426

being. I was completely transparent tohim… and when, in a few words and withthe utmost tact, he sketched a portraitof my character, he gave me exactly thenourishment and the medicine I
needed.2
From that year on, Mikhaël gave a shorttalk for the residents almost every day
after the sunrise, in addition to his regular weekly talks in the evening. One of his
favorite themes was that of brotherhood.
He used to paint a glowing picture of alife of sharing and harmony in which all
would open themselves to love. A fraternal center, he said, should be a veritablefocal point of light.
When he talked of brotherhood, he was
not referring principally to a gathering of
human beings on earth, but rather to thegreat family of those of all eras who seek
the light, who have embraced a philosophy of love and justice, and who belong,consciously or not, to one great universal
family. As time went on he often talked

427

about the great Brotherhood of whitelight that exists on a higher plane:
The power of the Great White Brotherhood extends throughout the entire planetary system, and even beyond. It mustnot be confused with the Brotherhood onearth which consists of a handful of men
and women who are for the most partneither wise nor enlightened. The true
Universal White Brotherhood is madeup of all the most evolved beings in existence. The Brotherhood on earth is areflection, a ‘branch office’ if you will,whose purpose is to carry out the plans of
the Brothers above while benefiting fromtheir light and their help. It must become,more and more, a faithful reflection of
the one above.3
In Mikhaël’s eyes, the name of his brotherhood—Universal White Brotherhood—was a marvelous reminder of ahigher reality that could be actualized byhuman beings on earth. The name—in
which the word ‘white’ had no racial con-428

notation—inspired him because it
evoked the energy of the white light that
illuminates the whole of creation.
His enthusiastic temperament led him to
make all kinds of plans for the future. Not
all of them materialized, but he was anindefatigable sower of ideas and impossible dreams which stimulated and invigorated others. Already during his second
year in France, he talked of his dream offinding a piece of land where all those
who wanted to live together in a fraternal
spirit could have a small house of theirown.
His idea of a true brotherhood respected
the differences between people; he did
not encourage them to live permanently
together in one house. The community
he envisaged was more in the nature ofa village in which all the members would
have their own house or apartment: a collective ideal in which all would enjoy thebeauty of music, the arts, and science.
There would be a place for dancing the429Paneurythmy, a library and an educational institute; there would be concerts,
dancing, films, and studios for artists andcraftsmen. There would be a university inwhich comparative astrological researchwould be carried on in relation to different aspects of human life such as the phenomenon of precocious talent, health,healing, chemistry, crystals and theirinfluence, plants and their relationshipwith celestial bodies, childbirth and soon. The role of spiritual galvanoplasty,
the means by which a mother can form
her child during gestation, was also oneof his most frequent themes.
He sometimes spoke of a special plan fora village laid out in concentric circles,with streets forming the radii linking thecircles, and between the houses and thestreet, footpaths lined with trees andshrubs to safeguard the privacy of the residents. With infectious enthusiasm hetalked of the beauty of a spiritual family
in which the members came together atcertain times of the day, but in which the430individuals were free to go about theirown business, to stay or leave as they
wished.
Never, either then or later, did he ask
them to pool their financial resources;
never did he attempt to control their private lives. He used to say, rather, that in
the ideal family no one lays down the law,because where love reigns all is harmony.
Over the years he often affirmed his faith
in the coming of the kingdom of God onearth, which would be a world of love, joy
and song, ‘a world in which all humanbeings loved and respected each other, inwhich none would need to molest others
in order to satisfy their own cravings’.
During the war, he had an inspiring experience which suggested an image of atruly fraternal world. Returning homelate one evening, he missed the last train.
The ticket offices were closed; everyone
was at home behind closed and bolted
shutters, and it was growing colder. Not

431

knowing what else to do, he sat down on
a bench and began to pray.
After a few minutes he heard the rhythmic tread of a German patrol, and hopingthat he would not be arrested for beingout after curfew, he stood up, walked
briskly toward them and explained his
predicament. To his surprise, they
escorted him very courteously to a mansion in which there were a number of officers, and gave him a bed for the night.
Lying in the dark, unable to sleep, he
could hardly believe the strange adventure that had led him to be offered hospitality by the enemy. The next morning
he was invited to breakfast with them. No
one asked him what he was doing there,
and when he was ready to leave, one ofthe officers walked with him to the station.
Speaking of this incident years later, hesaid:‘Just think. If all men and women lived432

in brotherhood and love, you could movefreely about the world and be welcomedwith open arms in every country as members of the same family.’4
During this time of war he continued tosay: ‘Peace means universal brotherhood.
Peace will never be born of violence.’ In
his view, the age of Aquarius would bean era in which fraternal communities
thrived in the world, for Aquarius is synonymous with universality. But in orderto adapt themselves and respond to thehigh frequency vibrations of Aquarius,human beings will have to perfect andrefine their intuition, become more spiritual, be truly fraternal and make room intheir hearts for the love of others.
He often spoke of the mountains, of thewealth to be found in them, of the pure,luminous spirits that dwell at their summits and with whom it is possible to communicate. And in his desire to share withthe members of the brotherhood inFrance the joys he had known at Rila, he433

spoke of spending several months in themountains with the whole group. He also
spoke of his wish to have a center for theBrotherhood near Paris.
At the same time, he was well aware thatmost people were not ready to live in a
spirit of true sharing. Even the few who
lived together in the villa, who had chosen an ideal of brotherhood and were
fully supportive of Brother Mikhaël’s
ideas, found it difficult to adapt to eachother without conflict. In April 1942, hetold them frankly that they were notready to put his ideas into practice. He
added:
Many communities have sprung up in
the West, but many have been unsuccessful because they were founded on selfinterest or commercial and financial
gain, instead of being founded on love
and wisdom. They did not live in a spiritof humility.
It would be another five years before the434members of the brotherhood finallyachieved something more substantial, for
Mikhaël’s enthusiasm for a fraternal community was accompanied by a strong
sense of reality: they needed to prepare
themselves for a long time in advance. In
the meantime, they continued to rent thisfirst villa until 1947 and did their best tolive as a family, taking all their meals incommon.
Mikhaël had always continued to practicethe yoga of nutrition which he called
Hani-yoga, from the Bulgarian word
meaning ‘to eat’. For him, food was ‘a love
letter from God’. It is capable, he
explained, of preserving life and restoring energies, for, in addition to its physical properties, food contains precious
etheric properties, and it is important tobe aware of this when eating, as themouth is a marvelous ‘laboratory’ which
can assimilate even the subtlest elements.
For this reason he asked the residents totake their meals in silence in order tofacilitate this conscious work, adding that435

noise, discussion and arguments during
meals are harmful to health.
He was asking them, in fact, to practicea discipline, a form of yoga: learning to
avoid any noise while eating is an extraordinarily effective way of acquiring true
self-mastery. Explaining that the controlof small things is conducive to inner harmony and a first step toward the controlof larger things, he asked them to refrainfrom even the slightest sound with thedishes or the cutlery. Such attentivenesswas so different from their habitual
behavior that he had great difficulty inobtaining it. He had to keep insisting on
the need for care and respect, reminding
them repeatedly that true silence is both
uplifting and nourishing: ‘You must learn
to remain completely silent, without
moving or even rustling a piece of paper.’As he explained, silence is harmony, and
it is only when we establish true silence
within ourselves that we can really hearmusic. All his life, Mikhaël stressed the436

importance of musical vibrations andtheir subtle influence. He often said that
it was not so much the intellectual understanding of music that was important but
the sensations it generated: ‘Do weunderstand the song of birds, or waterfalls, or the wind in the branches? No, but
we are captivated and enchanted bythem.’Music accompanied all the activities ofthe brotherhood, and Peter Deunov’s
songs had a special place of honor.
Brother Mikhaël insisted on the value offour-part choral singing, because of theequilibrium created by a mixed choir, butmore importantly, because everything in
nature sings with its own voice, and thefour voices represent the four elements.
Years later, speaking of those early days,
one of the musicians in the group said:
It was impossible to associate with him
without feeling called upon to outdo oneself, to give the best of oneself. Things437

that had been ordinary and routine
became a challenge, an occasion forreflection and self-transformation.
Under his guidance, professional musicians were urged to put aside all theirerudition, all the conventions they hadlearned. If they allowed themselves to be
guided by him, it was not long before theyrealized that they had begun to attainlevelsofperception
previously
undreamed of.
During the brotherhood meetings, themore sensitive among them often perceived colors, perfume or music, andsensed the presence of the angelic beings
attracted by the spiritual work. Such
moments gave them a deeply beneficial
sense of joy and tranquility, a keener
awareness of the reality of their spiritual
family.
***Despite the war, Mikhaël did not talkabout politics more than before. It was438not his role to do so. He spoke rather
about the purity that is indispensable forall great achievements, about the sun andthe beneficial influence of its rays, about
the spiritual intuition of the humanheart, about music and about the birth ofa new humanity. In this period of daily
atrocities, he spoke about the love thatalone is capable of resolving all conflicts
and explained how to transform one’s
own nature so as to contribute to thetransformation of the world.
In his view, if war was ravaging Europe,
it was because war existed in the mindsof men and women. People were killingeach other because they did not realizethat they were all members of the same
divine family. He spoke also of prayer, bywhich we are united with the great current that rises ceaselessly from the heartsof all believers. For him, true prayer was
vibrant and alive, free from routine:
If you always recite the same prayer you
will put yourself to sleep and your prayer

439

will be without effect. A formula can be
helpful to someone who really does notknow how to pray, but I much prefer aprayer that is unrehearsed, one that flows
spontaneously. When you ask a favor ofa friend, you speak simply and naturally,
without affectation. This is how you
should pray. […] Picture in your mind adazzling light in which everything pulsates and vibrates. Suns, angels,archangels, all is bathed in the softest,
most subtle light. It is this, this light, thatis the formless image of God.’5
Sensing the anguish that gripped most ofmembers of the brotherhood during the
air raids, he gave them methods to help
them to control their emotions. On several occasions he spoke about fear fromthe initiatic point of view, saying that it
was the greatest enemy of every humanbeing. When, after one of his talks, awoman told him that she was always paralyzed by terror during the air raids, hetold her what she could do to overcome
her instinctive reactions: ‘Breathe deeply440and unite yourself to God; in this way
you will be in command of your cells.’
He himself had always seen silence andimmobility as a means to self-mastery inmoments of difficulty. Speaking to theresidents of the villa after the sunrise on
April 19, 1944, he related that he had often
been walking home from the railway station when the anti-aircraft guns began
firing. In spite of the danger, he always
continued calmly walking. Then one day
when the thunder of the guns seemed
louder than usual, he suddenly felt
impelled to hurry and began to run, hoping to avoid the shrapnel falling all
around him. The faster he ran, the morefrightened he felt, until thoroughly
annoyed with himself, he stopped andwith great effort managed to compose
himself. In conclusion, he noted:
That experience taught me that by running I had triggered the fear that lies dormant in every human being. You must
not think that those whom we call brave441

do not feel fear. In the course of their evolution, all human beings have to experience fear, it is a ‘spirit’ which must be
defeated. The only solution is to grow inlove of God and work with the will andwith purity and justice; in this way fear
will disappear. The first thing to do isestablish this link with God. This has acalming effect. One’s inner light and selfcontrol grow stronger, and all within
becomes marvelously luminous. 6
Mikhaël did not hesitate to tell adolescents as well as adults to face up to fear.
On one occasion he was awoken by the
telephone at three o’clock in the morningand heard the voice of a friend who sometimes sheltered people wanted by theGerman police:‘Brother Mikhaël,’ she whispered; ‘theGestapo hammered on my door a few
minutes ago and woke me up. When I
opened the door they demanded that I
give up a young Jewish boy who is hiding
here. His whole family has been arrested.

442

I managed to persuade them to wait outside, and I have told the boy not to try to
flee. I promised that you would get him
out of this predicament. Can you dosomething?’
Mikhaël, deciding to call on the cooperation of the boy himself, sent him
this message:‘Don’t hide. Keep calm and speak politely
to the officers and you will come to noharm.’
To everyone’s amazement, the boy had
the courage to obey these terrifying
instructions and was not arrested. The
Gestapo questioned him and then told
him to go back to bed. One of the people
who witnessed this scene said that it wasas though they had suddenly forgotten
the purpose of their visit—or perhaps theboy’s confident attitude reassured them.
Mikhaël, for his part, offered no explanation. If people were astonished by his
methods, it was because they did not real-443

ize that he was aware of certain factorsthat were imperceptible to others. Without regard for his own safety, he continued to devote a great deal of time andenergy to giving spiritual help to all those
who appealed to him and who were often
in great danger.
From time to time during these years hewould accept the invitation of friends tospend a week or two at their country
estate. Here, far from Paris he was free tomeditate in solitude and take the time torebuild his depleted strength. His hostess was an energetic woman who had
assumed the task of preparing the meals
for her forty employees. Conditions were
extremely hard; money was scarce andshe was beset by constant problems. One
day Mikhaël, who could see that she was
wearing herself out, told her:‘You’re burning the candle at both ends.
You must rest. I suggest that once themeal is ready you go and rest for a quarterof an hour. Then, when the workers

444arrive, you can come back and servethem.’‘How can I do that? It’s impossible!’
The next day he came to the kitchen aquarter of an hour before mealtime, saying:‘You should go and rest now.’‘But the meal isn’t ready…’‘If you don’t do it, you’ll have a very difficult old age.’
Mikhaël said no more at the time. And
later, when she brought the subject up
again, sometimes justifying herself,
sometimes blaming herself for her indecisiveness, he responded only with a smile.
Eventually she found a rhythm whichenabled her to get all her work done without exhausting herself. ‘Brother Mikhaël
taught me to respect myself,’ she later
confided to Stella.

445

It was at this time that Brother Mikhaël
said:
It is important to know yourself and not
do violence to your physical system. You
can avoid serious damage if you submit
to the rhythm of nature. At one time I
did not know this and I squandered enormous sums of energy trying to swim
against the current of life. No. You haveto learn to wait. There are times when
the tide carries all before it and we haveto stand back and wait until the tide
turns and allows us to move aheadsafely. We want to compete with theocean, get the better of it: we want tobe the stronger. But it is impossible. For
my part I am highly influenced by thesealternations. In the last few days of thewaning moon I am in an almost permanent state of disassociation. I feel that
I am no longer on earth, that I am far
away from you all. My physical body islying down, asleep, but on the invisible
plane I move about and am active. My
friends tell me that at those times they446

feel me near to them. In periods like thisyou should rest so that your cells may be
purified and revivified.7***
The summer of 1944 saw the last monthsof the war in France. In Paris it was common knowledge that Hitler had ordered
the commanding officer to destroy thecity. Large areas could be blown up at any
moment, for it had been systematicallymined, and immense quantities of explosives were stored in the tunnels of the
Métro. While gun battles erupted in thestreets, snipers fired from the rooftops,
and the few pedestrians hurried about
their business as fast as they could. In
August, during the chaotic week before
Paris was liberated, Mikhaël left Sèvres
without explanation and went into thecity, where he stayed for several days. At
one point he found himself on Lafayette
Street, as bullets ricocheted off buildings.
Several people were gunned down before

447his eyes, and he himself was struck by flying fragments of stone.
In spite of the danger, he remained in
Paris, continuing the special work that
had brought him there, and about which
he never gave any explanation. In Sèvres,the members of the brotherhood could
not help wondering what his strange
behavior signified. Experience had taught
them that he never did anything of consequence without ‘an indication fromabove’. They knew also that he continually united himself mentally with all
those who worked with the forces oflight, joining his prayer to theirs to createa spiritual force of great potency. When
Paris was liberated a few days later, they
understood that Brother Mikhaël had
thought it necessary to be at the center ofthe city for this spiritual work. His prayer,
in union with that of all believers
throughout the world, had certainly contributed to bringing about the end of hostilities. Often in the course of his life hedid such things which seemed mysterious448

to those around him, but which werequite natural to him. In his single-minded
desire to bring the kingdom of God toearth, he worked untiringly with light,
acting, as it were, ‘as a prism which
receives the light of the sun and refracts it
in life-giving rays of color’.
Once the war was over, the rhythm of life
gradually returned to normal and in thebrotherhood, as in society as a whole,
people began to breathe freely again.
Toward the end of 1945 the French brotherhood was officially informed that Peter
Deunov had died on December 27, 1944.
The news had not reached them earlier,owing to the difficult circumstances that
had interrupted postal services between
certain countries toward the end of hostilities. When he received the news,
Mikhaël thought back to the previous
December, remembering his premonitory
dreams about Peter Deunov’s death,
which at the time he had not wanted tobelieve. Perhaps he had been unable torecognize the truth of these messages449

because Peter Deunov was too dear tohim, for in spite of them, he had continued to make plans to bring him to France.
This separation was a great personal distress for Mikhaël. It also marked the
beginning of the anticipated period oftribulation.

Notes
1.

Svezda, op cit., p. 55.

2. A. Laumonier, preface to, ‘Michaël Ivanoff’
in Les sept lacs de Rila. Ed Izgrev, 1946. (Ourtranslation)
3. ‘On Participating in the Work of the
Universal White Brotherhood’ in On the Art
of Teaching.
4.

‘The Idea of a Pan-World’ in A New Dawn:
Society and Politics in the Light of Initiatic
Science.

5.

June 7, 1942.

6.

April 19, 1944.

450

7.

June 7, 1942.

451

12

#

The
Conspiracy
Peter Deunov had not misread the signs
when, in 1918, he had told Mikhaël thatthe powers of darkness would put obstacles in his path ‘in the twenty-sixth year’.
The prophecy came true toward the endof the war, when dark forces began toconspire against Mikhaël in an effort todestroy him and annihilate his work. In

June 1944, recognizing the imminent danger, he urged the members of the brotherhood to be attentive to what was goingon around them, not to be swayed by thetactics of those who served the powersof darkness, and to ally themselves constantly with all those who worked with‘white forces’, the forces of light. For
Mikhaël, the four-year period from 1944
to 1948 was fraught with attacks, temptations and ordeals calculated to bring
down even the greatest spiritual master,
saint or prophet.
One such attack occurred in his native
land after the death of Peter Deunov. In
an attempt to counteract any influence hemight still have, some members of the
Bulgarian brotherhood held public meetings in various towns and villages in adeliberate attempt to discredit him. Even
Boyan Boëv, Peter Deunov’s secretary,
weakened by poor health, was drawn into
this campaign and denied having written
to Mikhaël about his mission at the dictation of the Master. A little later, however,453

he regretted this injustice, and admitted
that he had lied.
In spite of the slander, no one could erase
the deep impression Mikhaël had left on
his friends, on the members of the brotherhood, on his pupils and their parents.
In 1945 and 1946, he received many lettersfrom compatriots, assuring him of theiresteem. One of these touched him very
deeply: it was from his friend Alexander,from whom he had not heard for a longtime. Alexander wrote that he had beenarrested by the Gestapo and had spent
several months in prison. During thosemonths he had undergone a profoundtransformation:
In that solitude, shut up between four
walls, I was born again… I experienced
greater spiritual growth than in all therest of my life, and it was your words
which were the primary cause of thisgreat and definitive transformation.
Those words heard in the past still lingered like ghosts in my consciousness,454

and while I was in prison these ghosts
became more spiritual. They came backto me as living figures which represented
my destiny and my future. My dear, dear
Brother Mikhaël, if this single transformation were your only achievement inlife, it would be enough.
But the letters which affected Mikhaël
most profoundly were from those who
had been with Peter Deunov shortly
before his death. The Master had talked
to them about ‘the great white brotherhood on high’ which must be materialized on earth, and had added: ‘It is
Mikhaël who will realize it on earth.’ He
had also said: ‘Mikhaël will experiencegreat ordeals, but afterwards he will go
further than I.’
Even in the French brotherhood Mikhaël
came under attack: a few of those who
had stayed with the Bulgarian brothers
and sisters at Rila in 1939 reproached him
for giving his own interpretation of theteaching. They did not know—or did not455

want to admit—that Peter Deunov himself had written to him to endorse thework he was doing in France.
But the most perfidious attacks camefrom some of the secret societies in Paris,
which attempted to bribe him and gain
control of his brotherhood, for it was
now a factor to be reckoned with. Brother
Mikhaël’s stature and spiritual influence
were such that more than one of theoccult organizations in Paris sought touse him in order to enhance their own
power. Their leaders’ tactics were shrewd:
they praised him publicly, declared that
he was uniquely capable of assuming
great responsibilities in the world, andoffered him wealth and renown if heagreed to fuse his brotherhood with theirown association.
Mikhaël declined. Speaking about one ofthese groups later, he said that although
they had retained certain aspects ofancient Egyptian initiation, their goal
today was domination, and that when he456

had ‘had the misfortune to refuse to join
them’ he had brought terrible reprisals
upon himself.
In addition to these powerful adversaries,
there were those who, seeing him in thelight of their own narrow interests,
offered him expensive gifts or money touse magic for their personal benefit. At
this period he also had to contend withfrequent difficulties caused by women
who fell in love with him. One of them,confident of success, announced that she
was going to marry him. When she sawthat this was not to be, she became oneof his most implacable enemies, and evenwent to the immigration authorities topersuade them not to issue the identity
card he was due to receive. Anotheradmirer offered him her estates and her
immense fortune in return for marriage.
Mikhaël brushed aside all these offers as
unrealistic fantasies. He knew very wellthat any benefits he might gain from such
associations with the rich of this world457

would cost him his freedom. As might
have been expected, however, many of
those whose offers were rejected turned
against him and bore him a lasting
grudge. Some of them were to play a keyrole in the ordeal that was being preparedfor him.
As though all this were not enough, he
was once again being harassed by police
inspectors, who questioned him about
his reasons for staying in France. Fortunately, the officers of the local precinct
knew perfectly well what kind of work
he was doing, for they had interrogated
him regularly during the past nine
years—each time he had applied for arenewal of his residential permit—and
had great respect for him. During the war,
however, the alliance between King Borisof Bulgaria and Hitler had often led to
Bulgarian nationals in France being suspected of espionage. Most of them had
been expelled from France immediately
after the war, but Mikhaël, having
refused to return to his homeland, had458

acquired official status as a stateless person and could not legally be expelled. Fora time he was under close surveillance bysecret service agents who managed toinfiltrate the brotherhood meetings. Thissurveillance ceased when they failed tofind the slightest evidence to justify theirsuspicions.
The year 1946 saw an influx of new members into the brotherhood from the secretsocieties that had failed to win overBrother Mikhaël. Their goal was to infiltrate and undermine the group fromwithin. In particular, they hoped todetect something in his behavior toward
women that could be used against him.
Their efforts were in vain, for his conduct
was so transparent and impartial thatthey could find no hint of impropriety.
For want of anything more substantial,
they spread increasingly insidious andcorrosive rumors impugning his moral
integrity. The climate of suspicion andconflict in the fraternity created by all459

this made it increasingly difficult to see
exactly what was going on.
Mikhaël knew that he could not avoid theordeals that were coming closer andrecalled one in particular that had been
foretold by Peter Deunov: ‘Mikhaël willknow great misfortunes, particularly
through women.’ He was not blind to theprevailing rumors and deceitful maneuvers, but he did not allow them to distract
him. He welcomed all who came and did
his best to enlighten them, for he always
hoped ‘to leave in their souls some traceof beauty and harmony’. In fact, throughout this trying period, he continued histeaching, excluding no one and taking little heed of any possible repercussions. At
the same time, although his tendency wasto ‘invite the whole world to dine at thetable of the brotherhood’, he had always
warned his regular participants not toinvite people who had no notion of spirituality or who were looking for miracles
or ready-made solutions to their prob-

460

lems. One of the brothers remembers
those days:
He was fully aware of the motivations of some of those who came tohis talks, but he remained present toeach person and as attentive as everto their needs. During those difficultdays he seemed to be suffused withlight and inspiration as never before.
Hoping to kindle enthusiasm in the heartof each member of his audience, he spokeof the energy of the sun, of sacred fire,of the music that awakens the chakras, oftrue and universal brotherhood. In April
1946, however, seeing that the mood in
the group was unchanged, he took a very
serious decision. Speaking in a tone thatrevealed deep sadness, he began byreminding them that it was in response to
their own insistence and in the desire to
be useful to them that he had attempted
to be their instructor. And he added:
My failure to convince you to put this461

teaching into practice shows me that itwas very presumptuous of me to undertake the task. Henceforth I abandon myrole as your guide.1
He said no more, and the members of thebrotherhood were aghast. They had recognized long ago that Brother Mikhaël
was a true spiritual Master and they had
no desire to lose him. A ripple went
through the group, as one after the otherstood up and assured him that they sincerely wanted to live in harmony. Several
asked him explicitly in the name of thegroup to be their spiritual Master. Even
those who later betrayed him and bore
false witness against him joined in thegeneral consensus. Stella, who knew who
they were, heard them asserting:‘Brother Mikhaël, you are truly a Master!
We shall always be faithful to you whatever comes.’
At that moment, there was a keen awareness in the group of the gravity of a spir-462

itual commitment and the demands it
made on them. But Mikhaël, althoughdeeply moved, refused to take advantageof the general emotion. Yes, he would
remain their teacher, but on condition
that he continued to be simply their‘Brother Mikhaël’. In spite of his insistence, from that day on those whom hecalled his brothers and sisters considered
him as a Master. As one of those who had
been present at this meeting told us:
The evidence of our own eyes was not
to be denied: his purity and magnanimity, the integrity and fortitude with which
he faced his ordeals, and the clarity withwhich he transmitted Peter Deunov’s
teaching only served to confirm what we
had felt from the moment we first met
him.
Stella in particular defended him faithfully and continued to believe in him in
the face of all opposition. She could
never forget that he had been for her ‘theoccasion of a prodigious expansion of463

consciousness’. Several years later she
would write that he had guided her ‘as asighted person guides one who is blind,to help her to awaken her higher sense ofsight’.
That incident marked an important
phase in the life of the brotherhood.
Something powerful had taken shape: asubtle force, a collective entity now surrounded and protected the members, but
this entity needed to be nurtured andreinforced. Mikhaël’s attitude did notchange; he continued to speak to themwith the same simplicity. Despite the agitation surrounding his person and thesadness he sometimes felt, his visitors
always found him serene. He continued
to insist that they should always verify
what he put before them. On April 25, hetold them:
Do not bother your heads about whether
I am an initiate or not; try simply tocheck the authenticity of what I give you.

464

Before eating, make sure that this ‘food’is pure, unadulterated and true.
In the weeks that followed several people
wrote to him to express their admiration
and respect. But he, as always, kept hissights fixed on a higher world so as not
to forget his own lowliness and succumbto the temptation of pride. Referring tothese letters one day in June, he made it
quite clear that he had no desire to be
praised, that he was content to be an
insignificant servant. He added: ‘Focus all
your attention on the teaching, for it is
the teaching that possesses every virtue.’***
The year 1947, Mikhaël’s tenth year in
France, was to be one of the most difficultin the history of the brotherhood. It
would see both the realization of their
dream of a fraternal community and thetornado that would sweep Mikhaël
toward one of the most painful ordeals of
his life. For his part, although he sensed

465

the approaching storm, he did nothing toforestall its fury. In his New Year message
to the brotherhood, he wrote:
Nineteen forty-seven is poised before us,
as mysterious, dark and impenetrable as
the sphinx of ancient Egypt which
waited to be conquered by the responseof wise and enlightened disciples before
opening its treasure-house and dispensing its blessings.
That year, he faced two opposing tendencies in the way he was perceived by others; the one glorified him, the other did
everything possible to defile him. The
first manifested itself when a film producer, wishing to make a documentary
about the brotherhood, was given permission to film everyday life at the villa.
The shooting took place in an atmosphere of great cordiality. Some time later,
the film was shown in the cinemas of
Paris following the newsreels, andMikhaël went with a few friends to watch
it. The photography was superb and the466

editing was done with great subtlety. The
film ended on a powerful note: it showed
Brother Mikhaël as an immense figure rising with the sun above the terrestrial
globe. Paradoxically, just before being
publicly debased and humiliated, he wasbeing glorified in the most extraordinary
way. This film led to a radio interview
during which he spoke about Peter
Deunov, Bulgaria, and the fraternal
camps at Rila.
The contrary tendency was expressed in asavage attack published in a major newspaper. Some journalists who had been
allowed to visit the villa wrote an article
which attempted to discredit him andridicule the brotherhood. On April 24,
1947, aware of the distress and indignation of the members, Mikhaël told themthat instead of being angry, they should
be joyful about all they had received;
above all, that they must be prepared forthe difficulties to come. He added: ‘Public
opinion will be divided about us.’467

During the following months he took
advantage of several occasions to instill
greater energy and ardor into his followers. On May 1, he spoke to them about
the approaching feast of Wesak. He
explained that each year on the day of thefull moon of May, great numbers of initiates gather in the Himalayas, some physically, others in their astral bodies, to commemorate the birth of the Buddha andwork together with the forces of whitelight.
In the course of this ceremony, which falls
on Monday, May 5, these ‘white brothers’, uniting themselves by means ofpotent invocations to the celestial hierarchies, will work to bring cosmic forces toearth and send waves and vibrations of
the highest spirituality throughout space
for the benefit of humanity.
He urged them to forgive their enemies
and to take special care during these daysof preparation to avoid all negative
thoughts. Knowing that many of them468were afraid of the intrigues going on in
the background, he added:
If you do not light your lamps no one will
be able to see you. We are all afloat on
the ocean of life, and our ship is often indanger of sinking in the terrible storms
that threaten it. If we want to be saved
we must be capable of sending luminous
signals heavenward. Then someone will
come and rescue us.
All those who were able to do so preparedthemselves by meditation for the celebration of Wesak. Four days later, Mikhaël
spoke to them about inner peace anddescribed how a dove had come to him
while he was meditating, settling on his
left hand. ‘It is because of that dove,’ headded, ‘that I tell you now not to grovel,
but to become like birds.’
In the spring of 1947, in the midst of all
the difficulties the brotherhood was experiencing, the members realized a cherished dream. After much searching, they469

at last found a house on the outskirts ofParis which seemed to suit their needs,
and they decided to buy it. The newhouse was at the top of the rue duBelvédère de la Ronce above Sèvres, ona hectare of land bordering the forest.
Around it was the countryside dottedwith occasional houses and clusters oftrees. In the distance, the dim forms of
the Paris skyline could just be seen.
The brotherhood took possession of the
new property that spring, but a tremendous effort of co-operation was needed
to make it habitable. The house had notbeen lived in for eighteen years and wasin a state of extreme disrepair. Several
weeks of back-breaking labor wereneeded to bring order out of chaos, but
this great family worked together in a
spirit of joy which often expressed itself
in outbursts of song. Mikhaël, in grey
overalls and a beret, was everywhere atonce, helping with all the different tasks.
He had lost none of his practical common
sense and had not forgotten the lessons

470

learned in Bulgaria when he had worked
as carpenter, brick-layer and housepainter. One of those who worked withhim remembers:
When he took a paintbrush or trowel
from someone’s hand to demonstrate abetter way to use it, it was because heknew not only how each tool should be
handled, but also its hidden symbolism.
One day, as he went to check on the
progress in the meeting hall, he found ayoung woman on her knees scrubbing thefloor with all the ardor of youth. Hersmile as she looked up at him soon gave
way to an expression of dismay as he told
her that she was going about it the wrong
way: ‘When we do the ceiling the floor
will be dirty all over again.’That evening he talked about how towork and about the symbolism of ceiling,
doors and windows. He explained how
important it was for our spiritual, psychic
and physical life to begin by tidying and471

cleansing the upper levels before
descending gradually to the lower levels,and that this means that we must thinkand use our minds before moving on to
the level of feelings and acts.
When you begin a job you must always
bear in mind certain rules. For instance,things have to be done in a certain order,
also you must clean your tools after use.
If you only knew the profound sciencehidden in the gestures we make when wework… Even if this work seems to be noteven remotely spiritual, the whole universe is reflected in our gestures.2
By June, the greater part of the work was
done: the grounds had been cleared andleveled and the house was ready for occupation. The ground floor was arranged as
one large meeting room. In one corner of
the top floor under the mansard roof,
Mikhaël chose a tiny bedroom with awindow looking out to the east, and asitting-room next to it. On one wall of
this room he hung a magnificent portrait472

of Peter Deunov, and it was here that hereceived his visitors.
At last, the dream of a good number ofpeople who had longed to share a homein which they could live together in harmony was to be realized, and their moodwas euphoric. In spite of the numerous
difficulties, they were full of hope. The
shared work of renovation had given
them the feeling that they were building
a better future together. Even the threatened storm seemed to be receding.
Once the work was completed, Mikhaël
consecrated the property and gave it thename that Peter Deunov had chosen forthe brotherhood center in Bulgaria:
Izgrev. All the members were invited tocome for the sunrise whenever they were
free, and on Sundays they gathered tohear Brother Mikhaël speak, perform thegymnastic exercises and dance thePaneurythmy to the accompaniment offlute and violin.

473

***
This harmonious interlude was shortlived, for Mikhaël’s enemies, who had
tried in vain to find something blameworthy in his attitude toward women, multiplied the rumors and innuendoes. Those
who considered themselves his disciples
felt as though they were being torn apartby the conflicts and slanderous rumors;they could not help but be influenced by
the climate of anxiety. In June, Mikhaël
told them:
I am not asking you to believe me or tofollow me blindly. No. Open your eyes
and you will see the difference between
us and the others. Trust your intuition.
Set it free; allow it to function; release it
from impurities and from its old habits.3
More and more his talks revealed thisconstant desire to liberate his fellow
human beings. His knowledge of humannature told him that an ideal of perfection could never be imposed on anybody.

47
4744

Witnesses tell us that he had neverattempted to attract the masses; on thecontrary, he excelled at screening his
audience. In his talks, he sometimes
began by discussing a seemingly random
variety of subjects, knowing that those
who were only superficially interested
would not have the patience to stay to theend. Then, once they had left the room,he gathered up the threads of these different subjects and wove them into a coherent whole, a complete and well-balanced
picture.
One day, noting the arrogant attitude offour individuals who had just come into
the room, he introduced one subject after
another, skimming superficially over eachone, until at last the four men stood up
and went out, remarking audibly on theinsignificance of the speaker. They had
discovered that Brother Mikhaël was ‘notdangerous.’ As soon as they had left,
however, bringing together all the apparently irrelevant elements, he drew a masterly conclusion.

475

In July, most of his regular students left
Paris and went their separate ways for thevacations. There would be no more talks
from Mikhaël for three months, andwhen the brotherhood gathered again at
the end of September, the climate would
be very different. Mikhaël, who spentpart of his nights in prayer, defending
himself against the various attacks aimed
at him—which even included black
magic—decided to go away for a rest. He
left for the Alps with one of the brothers.
In the mountains one day, he stretchedout on the ground to rest and in a halfsleep had the first of four visions thatwould come to him within the year, symbolic visions of trial by the four elements.
He saw himself standing on a mountainthat was crumbling beneath his feet.
Although the ground was disappearing at
dizzying speed, he sensed that he would
not fall, and began to leap lightly fromrock to rock. Afterwards, he understoodthat the time of his great tests had begun;476this vision heralded the ordeal of earth,designed to test steadfastness of will.
In the meantime, having readied themselves for the attack, his enemies set out
to break him. The man who served as catalyst for the alliance of destructive forces
ranged against him was a mysterious individual who had been living in Paris forsome time, but who professed to hailfrom Tibet. The names he claimed as his
own were those of the most prestigious ofhigh initiates: Sherenzi Lind, Kut Humi,
and many more. His followers called him
King of the World. It was learned laterthat he was an international spy who had
come from Cuba, but for a long time hesucceeded in hoodwinking many people
by means of his considerable occult powers. As far as is known, neither his true
nationality nor his name were everdivulged.
This unscrupulous individual was a formidable hypnotist who used his powers
to influence many people and force them477

to do his will. His aim—which came tolight only later—was to gain ascendancy
over the different spiritual movements
and use them as a cover for his clandestine activities. Determined to take overthe brotherhood, he used every means in
his power to subjugate Brother Mikhaël
and make him serve him. His first step
was to attempt to win the trust of themembers of the brotherhood by speakingof their spiritual guide in highly flatteringterms.
As long as he had not met the man,
Mikhaël avoided speaking about him. As
soon as he met him in the flesh, he recognized him for what he was and realizedthat he had acquired a dangerous enemy.
But even then, faithful to his method ofleaving people to verify a situation forthemselves before forming an opinion, hespoke of him several times in terms whichleft his listeners free to make up theirown minds.
Those who sensed the falsity of the478

Cuban’s claims found this magnanimous
attitude unwise. For a long time, someeven believed that he had managed todeceive Brother Mikhaël. One day however, Mikhaël took three members of thebrotherhood into his confidence and disclosed his true perception of the selfstyled ‘King of the World’. Did he do this
deliberately, acting on the intuition that
his destiny would be accomplishedthrough this man? However that may be,
one of the three betrayed his confidence.
When the Cuban learned that he had
been unmasked, he launched his
attack—although he still endeavored toremain in Brother Mikhaël’s good graces.
His first step was to win over a Bulgarian
who nursed a long-standing grievanceagainst Mikhaël, and to invite to hishome some of the women who had agrudge against him. Fascinated by his
flamboyant personality and rough-hewn,
dominating visage, most of those who
accepted his invitations were easily persuaded to let him hypnotize them, and479

several of them became docile instruments, ready to do whatever he asked.
***
In September the storm clouds broke.
Witnesses in the pay of his enemies officially accused Brother Mikhaël of raping
forty women. The major newspapers
published these allegations in front-page
headlines, depicting him as the mostdebauched satyr of all times and accusing
him of conducting orgies in the forest
with his disciples. No words were too
abusive to be applied to him. Immediately, Izgrev was besieged by journalists,many of whom, armed with cameras,
climbed the trees outside the walls, trying
to spy on Brother Mikhaël’s every movement. He received threats and insultsfrom complete strangers.
On September 28 1947, Mikhaël spoke toa hushed gathering. His usual audience
was there in force, a heterogeneous groupwhich included members of the brother-480

hood, occasional visitors, members ofother movements who were still drawn by
his radiance, and the enemies who had
already secretly betrayed him. After abrief meditation he spoke of the attacks aman in his position can be subject to: thepoisoned arrows, the destructive vibrations, the tornadoes that could eventuallybring him down:
I’m obliged to strive like a tightropewalker to keep my balance. Who canhelp me in this task? Only very few helpme.
And he added that he knew the identityof those who had joined the brotherhoodwith the intention of causing his downfall. After alluding to the implausible
accusations made against him, he addedthat he was willing to continue his work:
If you want me to go on talking to you,to go on encouraging you and giving you
joys of a higher kind, I will stay with you.
But you may be sure of one thing: wher-481

ever I may be, in prison or elsewhere, I
shall always be ready to praise God.
Then, reminding them that it was Peter
Deunov who had sent him to France, heinvited those whom he knew to be his
enemies to speak out openly in front of
the group. Seeing that they were too ill atease to speak, he said:
You say nothing. You accept that I
should remain with you… I ask you thento help me by praying for me tonight. You
need the support of others to evolve. So doI.
At this, trying not to draw attention tothemselves, those who had betrayed him
slipped from the room. By then, however,everyone knew who they were, and theywould come back only when they were
sure of reaching their objective. After abrief pause, Mikhaël concluded the meeting by saying that they were all free toleave him, but that it was in the teachingthat they would find all spiritual riches.

482

At Izgrev and in the other groups, most of
the members passed the night in prayer.
Knowing Brother Mikhaël’s purity andintegrity, they realized that the accusations leveled against him must cause him
the greatest possible moral torture.
During the months that followed
Mikhaël gave few talks. He was often
overwhelmed by great sadness, not somuch because of what he was going
through as because, ‘so few human beingsare capable of committing themselves to ahigh ideal’. This sadness was palpable in
the two or three talks he gave in October.
At the same time, seeking to prepare his
brothers and sisters for what was to come,he repeated that their ordeals would serve
to winnow out some of their number, andurged them to cultivate discernment andwork with diligence to purify themselves.
That autumn was a waking nightmare forthe brotherhood. The ‘Tibetan’ continued his work in concert with Mikhaël’sother enemies who had assembled the483fabricated ‘proofs’ they needed to havehim arrested. Since Brother Mikhaël had
proved to be incorruptible, it did not
really matter what pretext was invoked;
what mattered was to get rid of him andtake over his movement. From several
women, who had been transformed
through repeated hypnosis into theirdocile tools, they obtained signed declarations charging that Brother Mikhaël
had seduced them. Some of these women
seem to have been infected by a currentof hysteria and sincerely believed that
their mysterious hypnotizer was truly the
Master of the world. Others had neverforgiven Brother Mikhaël for resisting
their charms. Still others, who had succumbed to an offer of money or had been
set up in business, signed because they
were in no position to refuse. Certain
witnesses of these events maintain, however, that a large majority of the womenin the brotherhood took no part in thesesratagems.
One day, Mikhaël was given a warning484

which he realized was extremely significant. While meditating in his room hehad the second symbolic vision of ordeal
by the four elements. He saw himself suspended over a pool of dark water swarming with crocodiles which were trying toseize and devour him. The waters rose,
the earth disappeared under terrible
floods, and he saw many of his brothers
and sisters drowning.
After this vision he understood that thedark water symbolized hatred and evil,and he knew that his enemies were determined to crush him. As he would saylater, it is when one is subjected to ordeal
by water that one finds out ‘if one is capable of resisting the temptation of hatred.’He himself did not feel hatred—or if hedid, he refused to give in to it. He continued to work mentally to help his enemies,
constantly picturing them bathed inlight. His ‘dearest wish’, as he confided
to a small group of his disciples, was towin the heart of his most bitter enemies
so that he could help them, even at the485risk of incurring the condemnation of theworld. He raised no objection, therefore,
when the so-called Tibetan, seeking tobenefit from Mikhaël’s reputation, spokeof him as one of his closest associates.
Later that autumn he agreed to participate in a three-day convention to which
all the major spiritual movements wereinvited. He prepared for the event by fasting. At the convention, the ‘Tibetan’, in along saffron robe, spoke at length. When
his turn came, Brother Mikhaël, in a lightgrey suit, walked up the steps and seatedhimself in the lotus position at the frontof the stage, as close as possible to theaudience. A member of that audience
remembers the moment:
His face expressed great serenity, his gaze
was direct and full of warmth, and withhis first words the atmosphere in theauditorium was transformed. Using simple, everyday terms, in strong contrast to
the solemn orations of the other speakers,
he spoke to the people in front of him

486

as to friends. That evening, he revealed
himself in public as never before.
The convention was followed by a lull
before the opening of a new round of
hostilities. Although Mikhaël gave no
more talks until the New Year, heremained readily accessible to thosearound him. They could sense that hewanted them to make their own choices
in complete freedom and without undue
influence from him, and was ready to put
himself at risk to help them to develop
their discernment. It was with this inmind that he invited the ‘Tibetan’ toIzgrev to address the members of thebrotherhood, their friends, and families.
For most of those present, the occasion
was a turning point. The regular students, accustomed to the clear language
and highly spiritual ideas of Brother
Mikhaël, soon realized that the guest
speaker possessed disturbing powers offascination which he used with greatskill. A witness recounted the scene:487

On the wall behind the rostrum was aphoto of Peter Deunov, and beneath it
the armchair which was always reservedfor him. Brother Mikhaël sat to one sidewith his three guests on his left. We sang.
I could sense that part of the circle centered on Brother Mikhaël began imperceptibly to move and to be centered onthe ‘Tibetan’. But not everyone wastaken in. After the meeting several people could be heard to say: ‘The man’s
an impostor. Why did Brother Mikhaël
invite him?’Those who had looked forward to thismeeting in trepidation were deeply
impressed by the outcome, for it gavethem a glimpse—not for the firsttime—of the extraordinary inner liberty
which allowed Brother Mikhaël to takesuch unprecedented action. In spite ofwhat he knew of the influence and powerof his enemy, he had given the membersof his group the opportunity to maketheir own choice.

488

Nineteen forty-seven drew to a close. The
journalists had not abandoned theirquarry, and scurrilous and libelous articles continued to appear in the press. In
spite of this, Mikhaël declared in his New
Year message that the year just ending
had been one of the best in the life of thebrotherhood. It was an astonishing declaration. Speaking of the ordeals they had
experienced, he said that each member
had been tried and tempted in every
dimension of his being: heart, intelligence, and will. Then, referring to his
enemies, he wrote: ‘My only concern is toassist them spiritually.’
The magnanimity with which he treatedhis enemies was not always understood,
but his explanation was invariable: hewas working to help each of them by surrounding them mentally with light, andhe hoped to win their hearts throughlove. He admitted one day that on several
occasions he had been offered the opportunity to use his personal powers to489

avenge himself on them, but that he had
never done so.
The prediction with which he closed that
New Year message was remembered in
the brotherhood for a long time: the coming year, he wrote, would be a year oftribulation, marked by the separation of
the sheep from the goats. ‘The children oflight will seek each other out. They will
join forces and gain strength from eachother.’
During the month of January Mikhaël
took no part in public activities. At home
one night, he had a phone call from abrother who had learned what his enemies were planning and urged him toescape, saying: ‘You must leave the country. They are plotting to have you put inprison.’
But Mikhaël had no intention of runningaway, and refused to abandon his brotherhood and his work. He had consented
long since to the suffering and trials that490

would be part of the life he had chosen,
and that night, more conscious than everof the ferocity of his enemies, he agreed
to go through fire. The moment was, perhaps, a turning point in his mission: on
one side of the balance were the terrible
ordeals that threatened to undermine hiswork; on the other, was the possibility ofescape and a new beginning elsewhere. In
one sense he was free to refuse the bittercup offered to him, but he knew that if hewanted to emerge into the light, he would
first have to descend into the most terrible darkness. Not long before this, speaking about the trials that he and his disciples were undergoing, he had said that
there came a point when all humanbeings had to go through hell:
Jesus descended into hell because thepath to heaven goes that way. Everyone
has to pass through hell to reach paradise. In other words, when you begin towork at overcoming your faults, a kindof hell opens up before you, and for atime you have to make your way through491

that hell. When you emerge victorious,
another external struggle awaits you,and if you are once more victorious, allwill fall silent, no voice will ever be
raised against you again. But until thatlast moment you have to be heroic.4***
On Wednesday, January 21, 1948, Mikhaël
was arrested without warning andbooked on a trumped-up charge at the
local police station. Later, on the strengthof false testimony sworn to by several
women, he was transferred to a cell in the
Santé prison in Paris. Jean, who had beenwith him when the police arrived, wasalso taken into custody but was released
the next day.
The members of the brotherhood, paralyzed by shock, were completely at a loss.
They did not believe Brother Mikhaël tobe guilty, but some were intimidated by
the climate of hostility, or embarrassed toacknowledge that they belonged to his492spiritual family. Only a small nucleus
remained absolutely loyal, and these,with heavy hearts and in constantanguish, tried to decide how to defend
him. Articles continued to appear in thepress, and the brotherhood was surrounded by an ambience of threats, hostility and derision.
A few days after the arrest, Jean was at
Izgrev with his wife Raymonde and abrother called Maurice. It had rained
relentlessly for several days and the threefriends were deeply unhappy. Their spiritual Master was in prison and the brotherhood was divided in itself. Breaking thesilence that had settled in, Raymonde
began to talk of a dream she had had four
years earlier:‘Peter Deunov had just died, and in mydream he arrived at the villa carrying twolarge suitcases. “Where is my son?” heasked. Someone answered, “He’s verybusy.” Peter Deunov replied, “Oh, he’sbusy is he…” then, going straight through493

the wall into Brother Mikhaël’s room, he
put the suitcases down and said: “There,
my son; they are yours.”’
When Raymonde stopped speaking theatmosphere seemed lighter. Jean and
Maurice both knew that she had surprising mediumistic gifts and often received
strong premonitions. They could not
help but be struck by the dream which
symbolized the inheritance that Mikhaël
had received from Peter Deunov: responsibility for the teaching he had brought toFrance.
‘We just have to go on,’ said Jean, standing up. ‘Brother Mikhaël has shown us
the way. He has talked about the futureand I believe in that future. I am sure that
all that he has foreseen will come true.’In the meantime, Stella had thrown herself into the task of preserving the existence of the brotherhood against all odds
and devoted herself heart and soul to thiscause. With the help of the president of494

the association—also called Jean—she
did her best to keep everyone calm andbolster their courage.
Only the deeply troubled climate of postwar society can explain certain aspects of
Mikhaël’s arrest and long detention
before being brought to trial, or the trial
itself which contravened several specificrequirements of the justice system.
Twenty years later Stella was to write thatthe ambience of those times had allowed
what would have been impossible later:
five months after his arrest he was stilldetained at the Santé prison without having been brought to trial.
Mikhaël would speak little about thoselong months of detention in the harrowing conditions of prison and the terrible
treatment to which he was subjected.
Years later, however, referring briefly tohis state of mind at the time, he spokeof the inner voices that attempt to leadhuman beings to despair:495

When I was falsely accused, I, too, heard
the voices that cause one to doubt. No
one is beyond their reach. In 1948 and1949 they tempted me, tried to make me
doubt myself and my ability to accomplish my mission. But I clung to the memory of the luminous experiences I had
had, and my doubts vanished.5
His teaching makes it clear that good andevil are both necessary to life. Just as fire
can be used to warm or to destroy, just as
poisonous plants can be used to kill or toheal, good and evil both have a twofoldtask. What is important is to know how
to use evil and transform it into good. Asa mountaineer uses the irregularities on a
rock-face as toe-holds on his climb to thesummit, or as nature transforms garbage
into nourishment for trees and flowers, so
can we use trials, illness and suffering asa means of rising to higher things. In thissense, what appears as evil to those who
suffer is often a hidden form of good.
Many years later, he would say:496

All that had happened to me—to havethe press present me before the world asa satyr, a monster—was it not the worstthat could happen? I tell you frankly, allthose unfounded accusations, all thatderision, were very hard to bear. There
are times when one would rather die
than be so deeply dishonored. Many people have committed suicide for one hundredth of what I endured. Calumny
works in one like a deadly poison. But
initiatic science was there to show methat it was perhaps the greatest good that
could have happened to me, for it obliged
me to tread an unknown path, to findundreamed-of weapons and resources,
untapped inner energies that I would
never have found otherwise.6
During the five months following
Mikhaël’s arrest, Stella and several others
devoted days and nights to the preparation of his defense. They had engaged ateam of lawyers, but to their despair themost competent of them died just before
the trial, which had been set for June 26,497

1948. They were obliged to fall back onothers who were unknown to them, andthe results were decidedly inferior.
On Saturday, June 26, a dozen faithfulfollowers were present at the Palais deJustice when Mikhaël was brought into
the courtroom, but there was to be notrial that day: he had been brought tocourt only to be told that the hearing had
been postponed. As he was led out, hisfollowers were allowed to shake his hand.
In spite of this delay, his defense teamwas feeling quite hopeful, for that day
one of his accusers had signed an official
retraction. It turned out to be the first ofa series. Also, an unexpected ally had justcome forward: a woman who had been
the pseudo-Tibetan’s representative inFrance had realized, not long before, that
she had been taken in by him. On entering his office unexpectedly one day, she
had surprised him in the act of dictating
a letter to a woman who was one of
Mikhaël’s most virulent adversaries, in498which she was accusing him of rape. Realizing what was going on, this witness had
written to the judge to describe what she
had seen. She concluded her letter byasserting that ‘Mister Ivanov was innocent of all the crimes of which he was
accused’.
The following Saturday, Mikhaël wasagain taken to the courthouse, only tolearn that his trial would take place two
weeks later, on July 17. But this time noone was allowed to approach him before
he was hurried off to prison again.
It was at this point that a voice was raisedin the media in his defense. Acting on
information that would come to the earsof the competent authorities only several
months later, a reputable journalist published an article in Le Populaire, in which
he revealed that the stranger who had
come to Paris claiming to be a Tibetan initiate was in fact a spy in the pay of theSoviet Union.

499

Mikhaël’s trial began at one o’clock in theafternoon of July 17 and was over thesame day. Those who were present as witnesses for the defense described it as a
travesty of justice. The hearings were
supposed to be closed to the public. Several legal stipulations were, however, flagrantly ignored, and a number ofreporters and photographers were admitted. Also, an influential member of thegovernment, the Garde des Sceaux, waspresent throughout the trial. This was agross breach of the law, but it became
known later that he was determined tosee the accused convicted and deported
from France. The witnesses for the
defense, in an atmosphere of hostility
that was almost palpable, sensed theirpowerlessness. When called on to speak,they could barely be heard above theshouts and jeers.
Brother Mikhaël was sentenced to four
years in prison.
At seven o’clock the next morning, Sun-500

day, a small group of his followers gathered at Izgrev to pray together. Their
hearts were heavy, their minds in turmoil,
and their courage at a low ebb. Two hours
later, some of those who had plotted thedestruction of Brother Mikhaël’s reputation arrived in a body. Claiming recognition as ‘members in good standing’ of thebrotherhood, they had come to carry out
the second phase of their plan: to shut
down the center preliminary to taking itover for themselves. Mustering all theirpowers of persuasion, they did theirutmost to demoralize those present andsplit their ranks. But all their arguments
met with immovable resistance, and they
were forced to withdraw in defeat.
Mikhaël’s lawyers appealed against theverdict. In the days that followed, thewomen who had falsely accused Mikhaël
began, one by one, to sign official retractions. Fear, blackmail, hypnotism orbribery had been used to obtain their testimony, and on the day of the trial severalof them had been close to panic when501

they began to understand the consequences of what they had done, andfound themselves obliged to go throughwith it and perjure themselves in court. It
was only when they could look back on
events with some objectivity that most ofthem realized clearly what had happened
to them. Even then there were some who,
for the sake of their families who hadreceived large sums of money, or in an
attempt to protect their own reputations,never publicly acknowledged that they
had lied.
The trial, as might be expected, was theoccasion of a further winnowing among
the members of Mikhaël’s little spiritual
family. As one of them recalled later:
We were revolted by the injustice of theproceedings we had witnessed. We felt
like grains of sand being sifted through aseries of filters of increasingly fine mesh.
Like steel that is being tempered, we
passed from heat to cold, from profounddiscouragement to extravagant hope. As

502

we reflected on what Brother Mikhaël
had said about the divisions and sortingthat was to come, we tried to understandthe meaning of all the suffering he hadforeseen for the brotherhood. But wecould never allow ourselves to despair,
for these were the trials for which he had
so unerringly prepared us.
Nevertheless, their courage and faithwere sorely tried: sometimes they were
faced with offensive articles published in
the press, at other times they received letters from people who spoke of their admiration for Mikhaël’s work and declared
him to be a saint and a Master.
On July 22, Mikhaël was transferred fromthe Santé prison to the huge prison campat La Celle St-Cloud known as the Châtaigneraie, where conditions were slightly
more humane and the rules less stringent.
Stella and Jean, the only ones to be
granted a thirty-minute visit, found him
serene, his face radiating a subtle inner
light. He inquired affectionately after

503

each member of the brotherhood before
giving his visitors encouraging advice
and assuring them of his faith in the victory of light and truth. In prison, he
added, he felt truly free.

Notes
1.
2.

Quoted by Svezda, op. cit, p. 107.
‘What Can We Learn From a House’, inHarmony.

3.

June 26, 1947.

4.

October 12, 1947.

5.

July 14, 1956.

6. ‘Une nouvelle attitude devant le mal’, in La
Pédagogie initiatique. (Our translation).

504

13

#

PrisonAt the Châtaigneraie the prisoners lived
in huge barracks. Well aware of the accusation against the new arrival, the otherprisoners were free with their jeers andinsults, calling him derisively ‘the Magus’,
a title that many of the newspapers had
used. To test him they played all sorts oftricks on him and charged their tobacco
or other items from the prison shop to his
account. But none of his fellow prisoners was completely indifferent to his pres-ence. Some, too deeply disillusioned or
discouraged to trust another humanbeing, simply observed their strange comrade in silence.
One of these men—a prisoner by thename of Lemery—later wrote that it was
the serene kindness that shone from
Mikhaël’s eyes that disarmed even themost relentless. In his desire to be one
voice to speak out on his behalf, Lemery
wrote that he used to watch him as hemeditated for hours, seated in the lotus
position on his bunk, always clean andneat in spite of the difficult conditions,his abundant silver hair carefully combed
beneath his Basque beret. After a vivid
description of the violent disputes of the
card-players at one end of the shed, thedeafening noise, the constant coming andgoing of the various cliques: theswindlers, the pimps, the vagrants withcriminal records, felons of every kind,rotted by vice, Lemery concluded:
And there, far above and detached from506all this slime, lives, ponders, works, andmeditates our living example, one whoradiates peace and whose presencealone, like a ray of sunlight, illuminatesand purifies the oppressive atmosphere ofthat accursed shed—one of the best,
apparently, in this enormous camp of the
Châtaigneraie. […] To be frank, I have toadmit that I hung back for a long time.
I wanted to study the man and get toknow him before I could consider him
not just as a comrade, but as a friendand confidant. It was the sight of the way
he lived, of his attitude toward everyone
that imperceptibly won me over. I was
gradually drawn to him, attracted bywhat he had to say. His love of nature
made me understand that a man who
was capable of standing for long periodsof time behind the bars admiring thedawn at sunrise, as nature awoke to thesong of the nightingale, was not, could
not be, the man described by some of thenewspapers. […] One only had to livewith him and observe him to be convinced of his innocence.1

507

From the beginning, Mikhaël took careful stock of the milieu in which he would
have to live for an undetermined lengthof time. Exerting every ounce of his mental strength, he surrounded himself withlight to ward off the noxious emanations
that he sensed all around him, on boththe physical and the subtler planes. Later,
he would say that he had worked to reinforce his aura to prevent all that fromentering and undermining him.
For if that had happened, it would havegone on growing and might even have
driven me to live as they lived, weakened
my faith and love, and prevented mefrom following my path. Even at night I
worked to strengthen my defenses… For
two years I had to struggle constantly,
not only against that, but also against
the general lack of understanding on thepart of others.2
The two winters he spent in prison wereparticularly cold. For reasons of hygiene
and to dissipate the nauseating stench in508

the shed, prison regulations required thatthe windows be kept open day and night.
With so many prisoners crowded into
one place, the air was thick with thesmoke of their cigarettes, and the open
windows at least assured that there wasa minimum supply of oxygen. Stiff withcold, the men paced up and down theshed for hours on end, stamping theirfeet in an effort to keep warm, but
Mikhaël, sensitive though he was to thecold, spent long hours meditating on his
bed under the open window.
Most of his fellow-prisoners sufferedfrom nightmares, and his nights were
often disturbed by their cries and groans.
Every morning he awoke to the four wallsthat shut out the sun. Every meal brought
the same moldy bread, rancid oil, and rotten, unpeeled potatoes floating in water.
Far from condemning the conduct of theprisoners, many of whom behaved withthe frenzy of rampaging beasts, Mikhaël
could not help ‘seeing them as children,509

full of a wild, unbridled energy, who had
never learned how to behave’. But he also
said that he had never envied hermits somuch as during his imprisonment. He
prayed ceaselessly, asking always for lightand more light, because ‘light always goes
hand in hand with gratitude, not with aspirit of revenge’.
One young boy, member of a gang that
had committed some crimes during the
Occupation, observed him from a distance. On the brink of despair, he wasonly waiting for the right moment tocarry out the suicide pact he had madewith his comrades. The wretchedness of
his life in prison and the thought of what
awaited him afterwards was more than hecould bear. But he could not help being
touched by this prisoner who was so different from the others, whose attitude
was that of a free man, who talked courteously to each one, and who gave to theleast privileged the gifts he received fromhis visitors. Finally, he decided to confide
in him about his plans for suicide. To his

51
5100

astonishment, Mikhaël rebuked him
energetically and talked to him about themeaning of life and its difficulties, before
explaining with great kindness and compassion how he could transform his own
existence if he had the will to do so. Every
day after that, the boy returned withmore questions, reflected on what
Mikhaël told him, and gradually achieved
a certain serenity. His desire to end hislife faded and was replaced by the will totransform it.
Imperceptibly, other prisoners were surprised to find that they too were beginning to trust the newcomer. Something
strange was going on in this shed: here
was a spiritual Master who was a prisoner
and yet manifestly free, who listened tothem, who counseled and instructed
them. Capable of abstracting himself
from the filth, the coarse language, thecruel and amoral behavior, he was gradually restoring the hope and courage of
those who were willing to listen to him.

511

After a time, Mikhaël noticed that at theend of their compulsory outdoor exercise
the prisoners were always exhausted.
Their environment was unhealthy: they
were not getting enough food, and they
took no exercise other than the daily
walk round the prison yard—which
resembled nothing so much as a funeral
cortege. One day, disregarding the suspicious frowns of the guards, he detachedhimself from the procession and began tostep briskly round the yard with anotherman, explaining to him how to walkwithout becoming tired.
Encouraged by his example, someone else
took the initiative of forming a group of
runners. But when the runners returnedto the shed they were more exhausted
than ever. Little by little, Mikhaël’s groupof walkers became more numerous andmore receptive to his ideas, and he began
to instruct them in the value of their
movements, the rhythm most beneficial
to the human organism, and the impor-512

tance of synchronizing their breathingwith this rhythm.
He also took advantage of these occasions to respond to some of the inmates
who questioned him about the eternal
problem of evil in the world. Why did
God allow evil to exist? Why was there somuch injustice? In a desire to help themhe talked about the innate ability they all
possessed to transform their lives, and he
was not afraid to offend by talking openlyof their present situation and the reasonsthat had brought them to it.
He spoke as their friend, meeting themon their own ground in order to help
them to rise above the conditions they
had resigned themselves to. Listening totheir conversations, he realized thatmoney was the god through which they
proposed to avenge themselves on society. One day he undertook to persuade
them that another God existed, andbegan a discussion with a small group. It
was not long before others joined in,513

many of them insisting that they had nointention of allowing themselves to beconvinced.
‘What is God?’ asked Mikhaël. ‘What isthe deity? In a moment you too will beable to prove that God exists. Listen: doyou believe that there are any just peopleon earth?’
A chorus of denial greeted this, but when
Mikhaël insisted: ‘Not even you?’ several
admitted that they considered themselves just. It was society that was at fault
for failing to understand or help them.
‘And are there intelligent people onearth? Are there people who are beautiful?’
All agreed that intelligence existed andthat beauty existed, particularly inwomen and children.
‘In other words,’ said Mikhaël, ‘you admitthat intelligence, justice, and beauty514

exist. What about strength? Do you
know anyone who is strong?’
Yes, they all agreed, and Mikhaël continued:‘So you agree that there is such a thing
as strength. And surely you must admitthat there are other virtues as well? Now,
imagine that all the qualities and virtues
whose existence you acknowledge are
multiplied, amplified and intensified to
an infinite degree. The deity is precisely
that: the sum of all virtues and qualities
carried to an infinite, unlimited dimension. We cannot deny this reality,
because we all possess some fragments of
it. If the deity does not exist, where do
the particles of virtue we possess comefrom? What is their source? It is very difficult to deny this truth. You can certainly
refuse the notion of God as an old man
with a beard and a notebook and pencil
who spends his time recording the sins ofhuman beings, but the virtues, these you
cannot deny or ignore.’

515

His audience stared at him in silence, andhe went on:‘I can even prove to you that although
you don’t realize it, you are all seekingGod.’‘Oh no! Impossible!’ exclaimed one of themen.
‘Yes. You are always thinking of God,
always looking for him,’ insisted Mikhaël.
Turning to one of the men, he asked why
he was in prison.
‘Because of a woman’, replied the man.
‘That means that you are drawn tobeauty, that you look for it. Why?’‘Because it makes me happy.’‘Well, this simply means that you arelooking for God, but in a limited form.’
Turning to the men around him, one
after the other, he continued:516

‘And you, who fight because you likestrength, can’t you see that strength, evenwrongly understood, is God in anotherform? And you, you steal from shops
because you love wealth; but wealth isGod. Wealth belongs to God and comesfrom God, and from now on you must
look for it elsewhere and in other ways.
There are those who desire knowledge or
power, and these too are attributes ofGod. And aren’t those who are looking
for tenderness looking for God? Yes, weare all looking for God; we are all in pursuit of the deity in one form or another. It
is the means and methods we use to reachand lay hold of our goal that are ineffectual, false, twisted, inappropriate andbase. But in reality we are all drawn togreat things, to the one thing that is great,
limitless, infinite.’3
The relationship between Mikhaël andmany of his companions in misfortune
was established only progressively, andthe same was true of his relationship withthe personnel. For the first few months,

517

they made life extremely difficult for him.
The Governor and supervisors even forbade visits from his lawyers. The guards
on duty in his barracks were changed frequently and ordered not to talk to him.
They were warned, on the strength ofsome newspaper reports, that this prisoner was capable of hypnotizing them inorder to escape. At one point, Mikhaël
discovered that one of the new inmates inthe shed was in reality a detective inspector who hoped to trick him into incriminating himself.
One day, a guard approached him andwithout a word struck the Bible he washolding, knocking it to the other end of
the room. When Mikhaël protested andreproached him for his brutality, the man
had the pretext he needed to accuse himof insolence. Surrounded by a detachment of guards, he was taken before theprison tribunal. His companions, watching him go, were convinced that he would
be condemned to that terrible, dark cell518

from which he would return, like somany others, a sick man.
But the outcome of his appearance before
the tribunal was not what they had
expected. When he explained what had
happened, the judges simply smiled andsentenced him to be deprived for threemonths of the meager ration of cigarettes
and wine that prisoners were entitled to.
Mikhaël, who had never smoked in hislife and who did not drink wine, wasgreatly amused. ‘But the other prisoners
were disappointed to be deprived of therations I used to distribute to them’, hesaid later.
Gradually the guards became less suspicious of him. The harshness of their attitude gave way to a certain curiosity and,
finally, to friendliness, for they could not
help but notice that most of the inmatestrusted him and talked to him about theirproblems. It was obvious that Mikhaël
was a pacifying influence in the shed.
Eventually, the guards themselves began519

to seek him out and ask his advice. Pretexting that an officer wanted to see him,
one of the supervisors sometimes cameand took him discreetly to an office where
they could talk without being disturbed.
Even the prison Governor, who had
developed a feeling of genuine friendshipand respect for this unusual prisoner, hadlong conversations with him.
Mikhaël’s inner freedom was such that hecould say many years later:
I found that in the midst of the greatestdifficulties there was always someone
singing within me. In each one of us isthis being who watches and sees everything, who sings and laughs at what goeson.4
During his days in prison Mikhaël continued to listen to his companions, toconsole and instruct them, but it was atnight that he felt truly free. In spirit hecould slip through the bars, send histhoughts out to the world, and work520

mentally with light. He lived as much inhis soul and spirit as in his physical body.
In his New Year message for 1949, Brother
Mikhaël wrote to his ‘dear brothers andsisters’, begging them not to panic, notto see enemies lurking in every corner,
but to remain united and understand that
‘God, who dwells in every visible form,
manifests through even the most terrifying events’. He encouraged them to treat
everyone with love, above all those who
criticized or slandered them.
This is what I have always done, evenwith my worst enemies. They may havecaused my downfall, but who knows: I
may yet touch the depths of their hearts
and souls.
While still in prison he had two visions
symbolizing trials by air and fire. In thefirst, he found himself surrounded by thewild shrieking of a tornado. Sinister faces
peered at him, while objects hurled by thewind were falling all around. Taking shel-521

ter behind a large rock, he could only wait
for the storm to abate. The vision of thetrial by fire came a little later. He saw fires
ravaging the earth and found himself inthe middle of a blazing furnace with thickclouds of smoke swirling overhead.
Again, he succeeded in passing throughthe ordeal and emerging unscathed fromthe fire.
In his first talk after his release fromprison, he described the four visions hehad been given before and during his
incarceration and explained their meaning. The trial by earth is necessary to test
one’s strength of will, one’s steadfastness.
The trial by water is designed to test thereactions of the heart, of the emotions.
The trial by air reveals the equilibriumof the intellect, and the last and mostpainful, the trial by fire, is necessary toburn away all the wastes that prevent thesoul from uniting with the forces of thecosmos. These are, in fact, the same four
indispensable ordeals imposed on initi-

522

ates in the temples of ancient Egypt andIndia.
Endeavoring to understand the fullimport of the ordeal he was undergoingin prison, Mikhaël methodically reviewed
his life up to that moment, and it wasthen that Peter Deunov’s words cameback to him: ‘A time will come when theforces of darkness will put obstacles in yourway and try to prevent you from advancing.’
At the age of seventeen, he had not
known exactly what those ‘forces of darkness’ represented. Also, although Peter
Deunov had foretold great trials, he had
not been at liberty to speak of the prison,and it was only when Mikhaël was
deprived of his physical freedom that heremembered the allegory of the young
man who was entrusted with a precious
stone that had to be carried through a forest.
He understood then what he had notunderstood fifteen years earlier: the precious stone, symbol of the teaching he523

had brought to France, had been horribly
defiled and trampled underfoot. And hetoo, the bearer of this stone, had been
vilely dishonored and slandered, dragged
through filth by those who wanted todestroy him. Just as Peter Deunov had
foretold, he was making his way througha forest infested with bandits and wild
beasts.
When he had recounted this parable,Peter Deunov had said that after his
ordeal, the bearer of the precious stone
would be cleansed of all the impurities
cast upon him; that he would be given
all he needed, and that the gem would
shine in all its splendor. Mikhaël was tosay later that there had been a moment inprison when he had sensed the presenceof Peter Deunov. He had seen an indication of this presence in the changed attitude of the Governor and guards who,
having once treated him with brutality,
began to protect him.
***

524

Two years were to pass, however, before
he was released. Certain charges against
him had fallen under the weight of theirown absurdity, and others had been withdrawn. On March 24 1950, the appeal
court reduced his prison sentence to 30
months, which meant that he was free
immediately. Several prominent people
who had been taken in by the ‘Tibetan’and had used their influence to get
Mikhaël condemned now did everything
in their power to make amends. Years
later the Garde des Sceaux who had beenpresent illegally at his trial was to write
and ask his forgiveness for having influenced the judge. He explained that at thetime he had been convinced of Mikhaël’s
guilt; only later had he found out that thewhole affair had been a conspiracy.
At Mikhaël’s request, the date of his liberation was kept secret from all but Stella
and Jean, who went without a word toanyone to meet him at the gates of the
Châtaigneraie.

525

In view of the complex web of influences
involved in the conspiracy against him,
he was released with the proviso that hewould not live in Paris for the next five
years. It was only in the spring of 1955 that
he was authorized to live at Izgrev. In themeantime he stayed with friends in thesouth of France.
The brotherhood in France had grown
and become stronger in the midst ofadversity and was ready for the reunionwith its spiritual Master. As soon as he
was free, Mikhaël visited Izgrev briefly
and gave a talk to a small group. His face
was emaciated and deeply marked by suffering, but a flame burned in his eyes andhis expression radiated serenity.
He began this first meeting, as always, byreading a text by Peter Deunov. Afterwards, with the utmost simplicity, hespoke of his time in prison and his relationship with his fellow-prisoners. He
touched lightly on his feelings when hehad been slandered and vilified. ‘The526

hardest thing of all’, he said, ‘is to be dishonored.’ But knowing how much his
brothers and sisters had suffered all thistime, and in order to help them to forget
past hardships and concentrate on their
spiritual work, he added:
Perhaps you think I should have enduredthese trials alone. Yes, but if I had, thevictory would have been mine alone. You
had to win with me. […] May all the darkclouds, all thoughts and feelings ofhatred disappear, may the springs of love
flow freely again, and may we truly feelourselves to be children of God.5
The majority of those present wept forjoy. Throughout his life Mikhaël had
accepted the trials that are the lot of all
human beings. He had ‘worked’, as he put
it, on different kinds of problems, on different kinds of suffering and limitations,in order to open a new path. It was thisconstancy that was the measure of his
love, of his capacity for sacrifice. Someyears later, a brother asked him why the527

life of initiates was always marked bytragedy; his answer undoubtedly applies
to himself:
You will remember that Greek mythology
speaks of Prometheus who was punishedfor giving heavenly fire to mankind.
Every savior of humanity shares the fateof Prometheus. Tradition reveals thatthrough original sin the first beings created monstrous entities that peopled theearth. More than once since then, thephenomenon has been repeated becauseof the transgressions of humanity, and itis this propagation of monsters that is thecause of all our misfortunes. In sacrificing their lives, the saints, prophets, andmartyrs wiped out a great part of thedebt owed by humanity. In other words
they opened up part of the path thathumanity must travel. The blood of Jesus
Christ cleansed a great part of this road.
The sacrifices of highly evolved beingsare very precious, because they cancelout the darkness that, on the astralplane, still weighs on humanity.6528After that first brief visit to Paris in 1950,
Mikhaël returned to Pau. There, living ina house surrounded by trees, he followed
a rhythm of life that helped him gradually
to rebuild his strength, devoting themornings to his spiritual life, in communion with the generous sun of thesesouthern climes, and his afternoons to‘giving what he had received’.
Resting on a bench one day after a longwalk in one of the city parks, he noticed
that a woman sitting nearby was glancing
at him. He realized that she must haverecognized him, for his photograph had
appeared in all the French papers two
years earlier. Turning to her, he asked
quietly: ‘Do you believe what they said
about me?’At that, she dared to look him in the face,and her answer was spontaneous: ‘No, I
don’t believe it. It’s impossible. You havethe face of a prophet.’529

After a moment’s hesitation, she added:‘What you went through was terrible.’‘You know,’ he said gently, ‘the surest
way of losing all strength and courage is
to consider evil as an enemy. If you see it
as something that can help you to evolve,
you transform it into good. We must notforget that it is our trials that allow us
to find unknown resources within ourselves. This is why evil is often a blessing
in disguise.’
His new acquaintance was profoundly
receptive to what he was saying, and notlong after this first encounter she was oneof a number of people who visited him
regularly.7
Beginning in June 1950, Mikhaël made theround trip from Pau to Sèvres almost
every Sunday. As before, he gave much of
his time to those who asked to talk to him
privately. On these occasions, many people told him that they had seen him physically before them while he was still in530

prison and thanked him for what he haddone for them. But although he neverhesitated to help those in need, he always
refused to be seen as a miracle-worker
with powers of bilocation. When someone claimed to have seen him in a dreamor to have been helped by his intervention, he alluded to the many spirits who
supported him in his work, saying: ‘I do
not know which one of them helped you
to find your peace of mind or to solve
your problem.’
His talks that year were often very long,and his close friends spent many hours
at a time with him. They were regaining
strength and drinking their fill of lightafter the long months of darkness. Theysang, shared a meal, and listened toBrother Mikhaël as he talked about forgiveness and inner light, about prayer
and meditation, about purity and man’s
subtle bodies, and about the role of musicin achieving harmony. One of those present at these gatherings told us:

531

He was so inspired that we never tiredof listening to him. The atmosphere atthese meetings was unique: the very air
seemed to be suffused with joy. Now andthen a spontaneous burst of laughter orsong arose; the musicians played selections of classical music, and it was withreluctance that we went our separate
ways at the end of the day.
In spite of the negative effects of the trial
and all that had followed, Brother
Mikhaël’s radiance attracted people fromevery level of society. This was a period
of intense activity, and he was constantly
called on to talk in many different places.
Judging from the themes of his talks, thiswas also a period of intense mysticalexperiences. It is clear that since his
ecstasy at the age of fifteen, he had experienced many others, but a talk he gave
on January 28 1951, is so vibrant that it
seems to be the echo of a recent experience. Before speaking that day he had
opened a small book of meditations byPeter Deunov, asking the invisible world532

to show him what he should talk about.
His gaze had fallen upon a text about
ecstasy, which he proceeded to comment
on with particular intensity:
Ecstasy is a marvelous, indescribablestate. One has to experience it to understand. One’s whole being is pervaded bysentiments of self-abnegation, altruism,and nobility. One loves with a love thatembraces all creatures and renounces alltrivial, material pleasures. The heart isfilled with impersonal, selfless, generous
feelings. This gives you some slight ideaof ecstasy. It is something that can beexperienced only when one has admired,adored and contemplated the deity for avery long time.
In spite of their joy at having their spiritual guide with them once again, things
were still not easy for the members of thebrotherhood in those years. The troubled
atmosphere of the past was not wholly
dissipated. Hostile articles began toappear in the press again, and Mikhaël

533

knew that his enemies had not laid down
their arms. In March, he told those who
assembled at Izgrev that he was the happiest of men and was determined not to follow the advice of many people who said
he should speak out in his own defense.
He had no wish to threaten anyone or toappeal to the courts. In his own words:‘Either there is nothing to defend, or
what exists is good, and in this case,nothing can destroy it.’ A few months
later, after the sunrise on April 9, 1951,
he spoke of the darkness in which seeds
must lie before they can germinate, andin doing so threw a ray of light on a profound initiatic truth:
For two years I was drowned in darkness,and it was with joy that I amassed thatdarkness. It was very, very dark, completely black. This darkness is a mystery.
Things are formed in darkness. White ismanifestation; black is formation. A
child is formed in darkness. Darkness isa twofold symbol: for ordinary humanbeings, it is equated with evil, egoism and534

hell. For an initiate, it is a mystery thathas not yet been illuminated or
explained.
In the autumn of the following year, heat last felt free to make an excursion into
the mountains, as in the days of his youth
in Bulgaria. Early one bright Sunday
morning in October, he and several
brothers set out for the Midi d’Ossau, apeak that rises to more than 9,000 feetin the Pyrenees. Once they had reachedthe heights, Mikhaël went off alone for along meditation before giving a brief talkto his companions. As they were about
to start on the return journey, the wholearea was suddenly wrapped in fog andthey could see barely a yard before them.
It was then that an unusual phenomenon
occurred: in front of them, reflected on
the thick white mist, they saw their individual silhouettes, each surrounded byconcentric circles of rainbow-hued light.
Compared to theirs, Brother Mikhaël’s
aura was immense.

535

‘It was a marvelous, overwhelming,
unforgettable experience,’ wrote one ofthose present that day.8
Turning to his companions, Mikhaël said
that the invisible world had allowed themto see their auras reflected in the mist as
in a mirror, so that they might be more
conscious of the subtle dimensions oflife. Then he set off ahead of them, almost
running down the mountain side, and thebrothers watched in astonishment as,with sweeping gestures, he cut a paththrough the mist which folded away oneither side. He seemed to be blazing apath of light.
***
A full ten years passed after his releasefrom prison before Brother Mikhaël’s
reputation was finally cleared of all stain.
Towards the end of September 1960, he
was in the South of France for the summer convention of the brotherhood
where many of his brothers and sisters

536

had joined him for the feast of St Michael
Archangel, when he received a summonsto the Appeals Court in Aix-en-Provence
for the 28th. That morning, as on manyother occasions in his life, his winged
friends were present: as he left his cottage, hundreds of swallows suddenly
appeared, flying low over his car andaccompanying it a great part of the way.
When he returned home later that afternoon, he was able to announce the news
that the Court had at last pronounced his
judicial rehabilitation.

Notes
1.

Reported in Svezda, op. cit., p.93.

2.

February 11, 1951.

3.

Dialogue reported in talk of October 29,
1950.

4.

June 4, 1958.

5.

March 19, 1950.

537

6.

August 13, 1956.

7.

We had this information from one of her
friends.

8.

See Qui est le Maître Omraam Mikhaël
Aïvanhov ?, Éditions Prosveta.

538

14

#

The
Beautywe Create
Aroundus

In the hinterland of the French Riviera,
near the town of Fréjus, Jean owned apiece of land known as the Bonfin. It consisted of a few acres of barren, slatey
ground on which grew one ancient evergreen oak, a few meager pines and fig
trees, and some old vines. In the center,surrounded by thorn and scrub, stood theruins of an old farmhouse. Jean hopedthat one day his land would be a home
for the brotherhood, and while Brother
Mikhaël was absent, he had recruited a
few friends to help him prepare it for
occupation. When Mikhaël visited it in
1947, he had been particularly attracted bya steep hill to the east of the land witha splendid view of the rising sun, whichcame to be known as ‘the Rock of Prayer’.
Three years later, ownership of the Bonfin was transferred to the fraternity, andMikhaël approved its use as a convention
center. From then on, a great deal of landscaping and construction work went on,
but for years the land remained barren.
Tremendous efforts with pick and shovel

540

were needed to build even the most rudimentary structures on the unforgiving
ground. In this country regularly swept
by the mistral, tents and temporary shelters had to be firmly anchored to the land,and even then they were sometimes carried off with all their contents by violent
gusts of wind.
Mikhaël occupied a minuscule caravan
which Jean had built for him out of usedmaterials he had collected over the years.
When the mistral blew, this precarious
dwelling rocked and swayed and threatened to fly away.
Most of the sleeping and living quarters
were makeshift constructions of canisses,
the tall reeds which grew in abundance inthe surrounding countryside and served
to make fences, as well as walls and roofs
for kitchens, dormitories and washrooms. The campers labored long hours
under a broiling sun, clearing the scrub,
digging up dead vines, laying out paths.
When they needed to cool off they tied541

a wet handkerchief on their head. There
were two wells on the property, but theygave very little water and frequently had
to be cleaned and disinfected. Jean was incharge of providing the camp with drinking water: every evening, accompanied by
one or two brothers, he rode down to theriver Reyran on his motor cycle and filledbarrels of water to take back to the Bonfin
in his side-car.
In the summer of 1953, the minimum
equipment was in place for the first summer convention. It was during this convention that Brother Mikhaël sent all his‘friends near and far’ a vibrant message ofhope and of faith in the advent of a new
age for humanity in which he asserted
that the Golden Age of the poets was nofable. His desire to see all conscious
beings sharing in ‘the great work of ournoble elder brothers’ had never abandoned him and was as fervent as ever:
There is nothing more glorious than to
strive with all your strength, all your542

thoughts and feelings for the realizationof this dazzling plan: the kingdom of
God on earth.
And he concluded his message with thesewords:The sun is luminous and it is already rising over the world. The air is pure; spaceis infinite; the spirit is immortal; God iseternal. His beauty is beyond description; his goodness is limitless; his wisdom
is unfathomable, and his love allpowerful.
Gradually over the years, the summer
conventions would be extended fromtwo weeks to three months. Members of
the brotherhood arrived from every corner of France and Switzerland for staysof various lengths, and the coming andgoing was constant. They gathered at the
Bonfin, eager to live together and sharethese new and difficult conditions in a
spirit of brotherhood.
For most of them the change of scenery543

was radical. In the still untamed nature of
the Mediterranean hinterland, they felt as
though they were living in biblical times.
They could walk for hours without meeting another human being, with only theimmensity of the blue sky overhead, thetwisted pine trees and parched scrub all
around, the little black pebbles rollingunderfoot. In the distance rose themountain which had been nick-named leGisant—its silhouette resembled therecumbent statue of a knight on a mediaeval tomb. When the campers wanted
a bath, it meant a half-hour walk to the
Reyran: after bathing and washing theirclothes, they donned their wet clothes
and let the sun dry them as they walked
back to the Bonfin.
As always, Mikhaël was content withvery little. For several years, he occupied
the small caravan built by Jean, before
moving into a tiny cabin which measured
six feet by nine. It was only several years
later that the brothers could afford toprovide him with one of three rudimen-544

tary wooden cottages built with cheapmaterials from a demolition site. Whenhe talked of the spiritual work one could
do in a restricted living space, he was
speaking from experience. Since his
youth he had had years of training in this,
and, as he had said several years earlier:
Even when you are ill, isolated, in prison,or in exile, you can work within yourself.
Difficult external conditions often makeit easier to improve one’s inner state. It isthen that one is stronger, because no help
can be had from outside. When there are
obstacles and difficulties on all sides, one
direction is always wide open: theupward direction. Thus, when you findyourself in the worst possible external
conditions, when you can move neither
forwards, nor backwards, nor downwards, you must not hesitate: move
upwards. Rise to a higher plane. When
we are overwhelmed by every kind of difficulty, we can always enter the worldof the spirit and turn to God. In that545

direction, nobody can put barriers in ourway.1
The work of developing and improving
the Bonfin continued for several years.
Great quantities of top-soil had to beimported before it was possible to plant a
few vines and grow the minimal crops ofvegetables required to feed the campers.
Mikhaël made regular rounds of theteams at work, lending a hand whereverit was needed. Nothing escaped his vigilance, no task was beneath him. But theevenings were a time of relaxation when
he strolled among the tents and talked tothe campers. And always, in spite of thearduous nature of the work, he asked
each one to be mindful of the beauty ofthe environment: ‘The beauty we create
around us,’ he said, ‘is reflected in oursoul.’
In general, however, although he noticed
the smallest details and could wield amason’s trowel or a paintbrush to goodeffect, he left all responsibility for the546physical plane to the campers. His role,
he explained, was to keep water flowing inabundance—water being the symbol oflife and love—for, ‘as long as there iswater, things organize themselves’. The
life he breathed into his brotherhood was
almost tangible in its intensity, and fromtime to time visitors or workers remarked
on it. One summer an Italian carpenter
called Carrodano and his sons were hired
to build several cabins with timber
retrieved from a huge barn which had
been hauled to the Bonfin. One morning
as Brother Mikhaël came down from theRock followed by a crowd of people, Carrodano was perched on the roof of one of
the cabins. Putting down his hammer, hewatched as they came closer. 2‘Mister Ivanoff,’ he called, ‘I understandnow. Today I understand.’‘Ah, what do you understand, Mister
Carrodano?’ asked Mikhaël.
‘I understand what you’re doing.’547

‘And what is that my friend? What am I
doing?’
Then Carrodano, still sitting on the roof
embarked on the story of a rich man hehad once known in his native Italy who
was always unhappy. One day he had
invited Carrodano and his work-mates tojoin him for a drink, in the hope that hewould be infected by their good cheer.
But he only watched them with a gloomy
expression as they drank and sang andlaughed, and finally he left them.
‘So what I have understood, Mister
Ivanoff, is that you are giving the meaning of life to your brothers and sisters.’‘Bravo, Mister Carrodano,’ exclaimed
Mikhaël. ‘But how did you see that?’‘It’s visible on their faces… It was when I
saw you all coming down the hill after thesunrise that I finally understood what you
were giving them.’
Mikhaël’s mission with regard to his dis-548

ciples lay on different levels: he spoke totheir intelligence, their heart and theirwill; he appealed to their desire for perfection, but also to their generosity or
their sense of beauty. He was not blindto the difficulties of a lifestyle based oncollaboration, to the problems that arose
between people of different temperaments, to the demands of a truly brotherly spirit. As he often said, however, allthis constituted a school, a learning
process. A spontaneous sympathy or
antipathy between individuals, for example, was often rooted in a distant past, in aprevious incarnation, and one must learn
to put these manifestations of the personality at the service of the individuality.
To explain the respective roles of these
two natures in human beings, he used theexample of a tree. The personality, likethe roots of a tree, can draw on great
reserves of ‘subterranean’ riches, the raw
materials that are the instincts, passions
and desires. The personality is very powerful, but it has one defect: it tends to549

use everything for the benefit of the ego
or inferior self. The individuality, on theother hand, has received the most beautiful and most radiant attributes: the power
to produce flowers and fruit. ‘All that istruly spiritual is inspired by the individuality,’ he used to say.
Using this example of the tree, he
explained that the personality is as everpresent and as necessary to a humanbeing as are the roots, trunk and branches
to a tree. Whereas the individuality, likethe fruit and flowers of a tree, is notalways present, and it is important that
we learn to recognize where our impulses
are coming from: the personality or theindividuality. The personality is capableof becoming the best of servants, and wemust not be like some ascetics of the pastand try to uproot it. If we give our individuality first place and allow it to govern
and dominate the personality, then ourphysical body can become a basis for the
manifestation of God.

550

The Bonfin was a school; his school. He
asked those who came there to behave as
exceptional human beings, to be pure inthought, word and deed. He gave themmethods they could use to harmonize
themselves with the cosmos, to live inunion with the source of all life, the universal soul, God himself. ‘It is in thiscommunion with universal life that you
will find the meaning of life,’ he toldthem.
A stay at the Bonfin was an apprenticeship in what he called ‘our real work’, thework that harmonizes and unifies allother activities. ‘Never neglect the practice of concentration and meditation,’ heused to say. And as he often referred toprogress in the spiritual life as ‘a work’ tobe accomplished, he was asked more thanonce to explain what he meant.
It is a work which goes on where you
would least suspect it. It is possible toremain completely motionless and silent
and yet take an active part in God’s

551

work. How? By rising to the level of theuniversal soul. Once there, you unite
yourself to it and participate in its work.
Nobody knows what you are doing; noteven you. You can be in several different
places in the universe at the same time.3
The implication is clear: perseverance isan essential ingredient of the spiritualquest, and it was in this sense that heliked to use the popular expression,‘Bonne continuation!’—Keep up the goodwork!—thereby stimulating in his disciples the forces necessary for the continuation and completion of the work undertaken. He knew that the greatest strengthof human beings lay in perseverance inthe face of all that might conspire to hinder their work of self-transformation. In
fact, the transformation he refers to is analchemical process, which he likens tothe change in color of a litmus die when
the last crucial drop of acid or alkali isadded. ‘One more drop! Just one more!
Keep up the good work, until the redturns to blue.’ What matters is to con-552

tinue, to continue one’s efforts until theultimate transmutation is achieved.
***
As the years passed, the Bonfin was transformed. Flowers, shrubs and trees wereplanted, oleander, mimosa and eucalyptus, and a level area was laid out next tothe old oak tree for the morning exercises. The scene that unfolded every day
at dawn must have reminded Mikhaël ofhis days at Rila: the stars were still brightin the sky when the first campers emerged
from their tents. After summary ablutions because of the scarcity of water,
they dressed warmly, took up a blanket
as a protection against the chilly morning
air, and set off in silence for the Rock of
Prayer. A brief climb up some steep boulders led to a slope of sandy soil scatteredwith pine trees which brought them tothe summit where they settled down for
their meditation.
The site is beautiful. Against the gradu-

553

ally lightening sky to the east, the outlines of distant mountains stand out in agraceful succession of dark blue curves,and in clear weather the Mediterranean
can be glimpsed through a cleft in thehills to the south. An hour or so after thesun had risen, Brother Mikhaël turned to
the group for a short talk. Then came thedescent to the camp, the exercises, andbreakfast which was set out on threetables under an awning of reeds.
At noon the talks sometimes took place
in a room in the old farmhouse, but usually the campers remained sitting aroundthe tables out of doors. And when the
mistral blew and a fine layer of dust settled on the soup, everyone was too happy
to care.
But the time had come for renewed
efforts. During the first convention in
1953, Mikhaël encouraged the participants
to spend a little more time in front of thesun in the morning, simply to contemplate it, like children. Five years later, he554

suggested longer meditations and emphasized the importance of the conditions
conducive to real concentration.
Brother Mikhaël’s love of the sun was
contagious. As one who had been close tohim since 1939 said:
As we listened to him we were filled withthe desire to be as radiant as he was.
He who had contemplated the sun since
his childhood. He who had accepted themost terrible ordeals without losing his
inner light. We knew of Peter Deunov’s
warning of the ‘narrow gate’ throughwhich he would have to pass, and we
could see that he had, indeed, emerged‘as luminous as a sun’.
In 1958, during the convention, hedeclared that an immense work was goingon in the subtler dimensions of earth andof the cosmos, and that entirely new elements were beginning to appear in theworld. He prophesied the impending
dawn of a new era that would endure for555

many centuries, during which humanity
would be free from war, disease andcrime. He often said that this new era
would dawn first in the souls of a handfulof men and women toward the end of the20th century, and that a Golden Agewould manifest as love in the hearts ofhuman beings.
All his labors to bring about the kingdomof God on earth bore the mark of his
close relationship with the angels of thefour elements. He did everything hecould to create an elevated spiritual ambience for his disciples, to help them to be
more aware of certain aspects of natureand their own links with her. On August
6, 1958, when running water was at last
installed at the Bonfin, he made it anoccasion to thank the Angel of Water forthis gift, and to explain:
Water represents the fluidic dimension ofnature. It is the earth’s blood… and thiswater is transformed into blood inhuman beings. This is the true blood that556

nourishes all the creatures of nature. You
should meditate on water, for it is a very
profound symbol. When you drink it withlove, respect, and gratitude it is transformed into life, for it is the bearer of life.
No chemical process can exist withoutwater; even precious stones cannot exist
without some particles of water, crystals
cannot form without water. It is thanks
to a minute quantity of water that a precious stone is hard and transparent andcapable of reflecting the sun’s rays… Ask
water to communicate its transparency
to you.
Sometimes at sunrise he asked those present to join in his spiritual work by praying with him to the Angel of Air or theAngel of the Sun; and in the evenings
around the fire, he spoke of the importance of burning all that is old and obsolete within oneself in order to enhancelife. He often spoke of fire and water, thetwo elements that are indispensable tolife. It was his understanding of these two
principles that led him, on August 29,557

1958, to speak of the respective roles of
man and woman:
Man possesses immense energies, but if
it were not for woman, those energies
would simply return to the great cosmic
reservoir. Woman has the tremendously
important role of capturing the spirit, theenergies of the spirit, and creating forms
that allow the spirit to act. It is thanks
to the union of these two principles thatthe earth and the forms that people itexist. The spirit is so subtle that without
woman it could not survive on earth.
Toward the middle of September heannounced that he would leave shortly
for a visit to India. The summer convention of that year had been the last in a particular phase of his own life as well as thatof his brotherhood. He would remain in
India for a year, and when he returned a
new phase would begin. On September
29, he talked at length about the meaningof the feast of the Archangel Mikhaël

558

which falls in the autumn, at the beginning of a season of apparent death.
It is a cycle of disengagement and liberation; the advent of something new. It
is the moment when the fruit is released
from its shell, when seeds are gathered tobe eaten or put in storage for the future.
The feast of the Archangel Mikhaël
began a week ago, and the whole ofnature takes part in the festivities on thatday. The Angels and the Archangels, all
the forces of nature, even the divine
Mother are invited to the celebration. On
September 22 an extraordinary banquet
takes place. But human beings know
nothing of what goes on in nature, andvery few are invited to take part in thefestivities.
During the three months before his
departure for India, several events madea great impression on the brotherhood.
One day, on developing a photographtaken during the meditation after lunch,a form could be distinguished over559

Brother Mikhaël’s head: it was the cabbalistic symbol of the Shin, whose vertical and horizontal lines represent the
masculine and feminine principles
respectively. The same form appeared ona photograph on three different occasions. The phenomenon, which could
have been attributed to unusual reflections of light, was remarkable because thesacred symbol was so perfectly formed. In
the brotherhood it was seen as an expression of the equilibrium that reigns in ahuman being who has developed the two
principles within himself.
On January 1, 1959, Brother Mikhaël told
those gathered at Izgrev that his absence
would benefit them; that it would perhaps allow them to find their true
strength within themselves. He had beenwith them for twenty-one years, and it
was now time for him to go in search ofcertain sacred things that had been conserved in an oriental country deeply
imbued with the mysticism of the great
spiritual Masters.

560

He told them:
You are under the protection of a being
who is all-powerful. It is he, this great
being from on high, who told me: ‘I havetaken them under my protection.’ All
powers are his. For a long time now hehas taken care of me. Several times in
the past forty years I have sensed his presence, but I have never been able to speak
to him. Now, by the grace of heaven, he
has spoken directly to me. I believe what
he says. I know he will take good care ofyou. I have been instructed to undertake
this voyage. I am simply obeying heaven’s
orders.
Brother Mikhaël was entering his sixtiethyear. This allusion to a mysterious being
who had been by his side for forty years
seems to relate to the ‘extraordinary
event’ that had occurred in 1920 andwhich he had mentioned briefly a few
years earlier. All indications are that hewas speaking of the beginning of his rela-561

tionship, at the age of twenty, with theone he called his ‘true Master.’
The date of his departure for India wasset for February 11, 1959. He traveledalone, but more than two hundred people
were at Orly to bid him goodbye. As they
watched his plane fading into the distance, several of them feared that themonths of his absence would seem very
long without the intense life which dwelt
in him and which he breathed into eachone of them. ‘Hold on to the principles oflove, wisdom, and truth,’ he had said in
one of his last talks. What a program forthe coming months!

Notes
1.

December 3, 1950.

2.

See his own account: ‘A Disciple Must
Develop His Spiritual Senses’, in Harmony.

3.

January 4, 1959.

562

PART IV

THE MASTER

15#

The Landof theDevas
On his return from a year in the East,
Mikhaël told the brotherhood: ‘My newname is Omraam Mikhaël.’ It was while
he was in India that he had received thisnew name which seems to have alwaysbeen destined for him. On March 6 heexplained:
The two principles of science, solve andcoagula, are concealed in this name.
‘Om’ produces the vibrations which disintegrate all that is bad or negative. It
corresponds to the solve of initiatic science which returns things to their sourceand spiritualizes them by transforming
them into light. The vibrations of ‘Raam’
have the power to condense and coagulate divine realities and make them tangible. This is coagula.
He never revealed the exact circumstances of the event, but in private hesometimes alluded to three Masters
whom he met during a two-week retreat
in a Himalayan temple. One of thesethree, by virtue of the supernatural power
invested in him, gave him the name of
Omraam. In April, he would say: ‘It wassomeone who was greater than Babaji.’
A change of name is not unusual in the565initiatic tradition. On condition that it iswell chosen—normally by a person ofgreat wisdom—a new name can awaken
new forces in the soul. For this reason,
the quality of its vibrations is of firstimportance. Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov,
who was familiar with the symbolism andpower of numbers, calculated thenumerological value of his new name,and changed the spelling of his surname
from Ivanoff to Aïvanhov.1 He said that
he had been inspired by the Indian pronunciation of his name, but far more
important, as he explained later, was thefact that this brought the total numerological value of his name to 72, a numberthat is considered very important in thecabbalistic tradition, as it is the sum of
the nine choirs of angels, each of which
comprises eight hierarchies.
Little is known of the true import of his
stay in India. He himself referred to itwith great discretion, but several of hislater talks and occasional comments
about that period of his life throw an566

interesting light on both his personal
itinerary and his mission as a spiritual
guide. Although those comments, often
brief, do not constitute a chronologicalaccount of his travels, they indicate thathe spent the first few months of his stayin the mountains.
I was in the Himalayas, beyond Almora.
The air was very pure and there were
few people about. I talked very little andspent my time meditating. I spent several
months there and meditated day andnight.2
This was in Kashmir, where he spent several weeks. He loved this country sheltered by the Himalayan foothills, its magnificent valleys studded with gentians,
primroses, and edelweiss, and its torrents
pouring from the glaciers above into thelakes and rivers below. After visiting Srinagar, the ancient lakeside city known as
the ‘Venice of the East’, he went higher,
and at Gulmarg he stayed for a long timein a small cottage, in spite of the rudi-

567

mentary physical conditions. From there
he set out one day—as so often in his
youth—for a long hike into the mountains and reached a lake at an altitude of
16,000 feet. Lacking mountaineering
equipment, he could go no higher.
It was here that he had a rare experience.
He knew of the technique that enabledcertain initiates of India and Tibet totravel from one place to another in a stateof weightlessness, but he also knew thatthey achieved this only after long years ofpractice. He was astonished, therefore, tobe given the experience without having
sought it. Suddenly, while walking in themountains and contemplating the summit of Nanga Parbat, he had a sensationof weightlessness. He began to run withsuch lightness that his feet barely
touched the ground. Effortlessly he ran,
uphill and down, as though flying overthe slopes. ‘It was an unforgettable experience,’ he said later.
On the heights above Almora he met two

568

exceptional beings, Anagarika Govinda
and his wife, and they became fast
friends. At last, on June 17, he met Babaji.
Omraam Mikhaël had long wished tomeet this ‘great being’, but as he did notknow where to find him, he decided tocommunicate by telepathy.
Neemkaroli Babaji responded immediately by going to meet him in Almora.
When he arrived, he asked the disciples
who had accompanied him to leave himalone with this Master from another land.
They spent some time together and thenBabaji arranged for him to meet many
interesting people, introducing him as‘the French sadhu, a yogi and great saint’.
The people greeted Babaji’s friend withrespect, bowing low in the traditionalway.
But who was Babaji? First of all we must
remember that ‘Baba’ or ‘Babaji’ are terms
of affection meaning ‘father’ or ‘little
father’ which are given to many spiritual
guides in India. Since the publication in569

1946 of Yogananda’s Autobiography of a
Yogi, the West has known of the existenceof Mahavatar Babaji, a very mysterious
being whose role seemed to be that of aguide for prophets and spiritual Masters.
It was said of him that he always seemed
to be the same age, that he had lived in
the Himalayas for two hundred and fiftyor three hundred years, and that heappeared and disappeared at will. His disciples were highly evolved beings toward
whom he was extremely demanding. He
had been known to foretell events and it
was said that his predictions always came
true, that he could see and hear people ata distance, and that among other powers,
he had the ability to be present in several
different places at once. Countless people
told of being saved from danger or illuminated by the great Babaji, without everhaving seen him.
The same things were said of anothergreat Master known as Neemkaroli
Babaji. Some maintained that he too wasseveral hundred years old, and although570

others said they knew where and when
he had been born, he remained a mystery.
He had never been known to represent
himself as a great lord; on the contrary, he
always behaved with the utmost simplicity. After his return from India, Omraam
Mikhaël told of an incident involving
Neemkaroli Babaji which had occurred in
the small town of Nib Karauri.
One day, Babaji was traveling by train
along with a number of sadhus who had
not bought tickets. The sadhus in India
are usually poor and often use public
transport without paying. When they arefound out they are simply asked to leave.
On this particular day, the ticket inspector asked all the sadhus—including
Babaji, who was also without aticket—to leave the train. At the nextstop, after Babaji and the sadhus left thetrain with the passengers who hadreached their destination, they stayed on
the platform. The whistle blew toannounce its departure, but to the surprise of the engineer the train failed to571

move. When a detailed inspection of theengine failed to determine the reason forthis failure, the advice of the stationmaster and other employees was sought
and a general discussion followed. They
were all very puzzled and had no idea
what to do about it. Finally an old man,pointing to Babaji, told the stationmaster: ‘Go and ask him. It is he who ispreventing the train from leaving. I saw
light coming from his eyes.’ The stationMaster spoke to Babaji, and when heinvited him to get back on the train, he
did so, followed by all the sadhus, andwithout more ado the train went on its
way. 3
From then on he was known as
Neemkaroli Babaji, meaning the Babaji of
Nib Karauri.4
In July 1959, the brotherhood in France
received a letter signed Mikhaël in which
he told them of his meeting with the‘Maharajah Neemkaroli Babaji’. In a few
vibrant words he described this excep-

572

tional being and then went on to speakof the great Babaji mentioned by
Yogananada as though he were the same
person. Later, he seemed rather to maskthese events as if, after that first enthusiastic message, he wished to confuse thetrail. He continued to speak of his
encounters with ‘Babaji’ without further
indication of his identity, and to describe
his legendary powers, particularly his
ability to escape from a locked room or
to be seen in different places at the sametime. In one of his talks, Omraam
Mikhaël said that he had met Babaji only
twice, in another he spoke of numerous
meetings: ‘Several times after leaving me
he sent someone to fetch me so that we
could talk together.’ And one day, speaking of Neemkaroli Babaji, he said: ‘He has
the same powers as the other one.’
A communion existed between the two
men that needed no words. Omraam
Mikhaël recounted how, one day when
they were in a car together, he put his
hand on Babaji’s knee in a gesture of573

respect and affection, whereupon Babaji
turned to him with a smile: ‘He began tosing in a mysterious language, and we
exchanged a look such as I have neverexchanged with anyone.’
Before saying goodbye for the last time,
Babaji invited Omraam Mikhaël to stay ina temple near Nainital. He himself would
not be there; he visited Nainital only
occasionally and unexpectedly. The temple was in a magnificent site high in themountains, and Hanuman Baba, the yogi
in charge, welcoming his guest with every
sign of respect, showed him in silence to
Babaji’s room. It was in this setting, looking out on the splendid panorama of theHimalayas, that Omraam Mikhaël spent
two weeks in contemplation.
He used the evenings to learn more about
Hinduism from Hanuman Baba, who,
having taken a vow of silence, replied tohis questions by writing on a slate. Thisyogi’s only nourishment was a pint of
milk a day; at night he slept only two or

57
5744

three hours in a hole dug in the ground.
Thanks to this centuries-old technique
he deprived the five senses of their nourishment, thus achieving a certain numbness in his physical body:
Once the senses cease their activity, theyno longer absorb the psychic energy
intended for the subtle force-centers, sothese centers can be awakened and theyogi begins to see, hear, smell and touch
the fluidic elements of the higher realmsof reality.5
In spite of the constraints of communicating by writing, a warm friendshipdeveloped between the two men. Hanuman Baba explained to the foreign Master the meaning of certain exercises of
Shabda yoga prescribed by Babaji. He alsotranslated texts from the Vedas and Upanishads for him and taught him the special
properties of certain plants growing in
the garden.
***

575

The period that followed this retreat in
Babaji’s ashram was very different.
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov visited thelength and breadth of the country: thebig cities, shrines and places of pilgrimage, sacred caves, palaces and temples. He
spent long hours in some of the major
libraries and even treated himself to somelessons in Sanskrit.
Throughout his travels on the roads ofIndia he lived as an oriental, partaking of
frugal meals which he prepared for himself. In hotels, the personnel respected
his wishes and smilingly provided him
with what he needed, for they immediately recognized him as a Brahmashari,
one who is consecrated in celibacy to theservice of God.
As the days passed, he met Indians fromall walks of life: members of the different
religious castes, businessmen, membersof the judiciary, and industrialists. To allof them he showed the photograph ofPeter Deunov he always carried and was576

moved each time to see them take it withrespect and touch it to their forehead
before returning it. Usually they invited
him to a meal, told him of their problems
and asked his advice, and to thank him
for the honor of his presence, they often
took him on a tour of their town orregion.
When he was invited to speak to a groupof scientists, doctors, and physicists at
Gulmarg, he expressed himself with thefrankness which always characterized his
relations with other people, and his intervention provoked a lively discussion
about the way to improve conditions in
the country.
In the temples he visited he could not failto notice the many sculptures of popularreligious symbols, chief among them thelingam, a symbol of procreation, which
consists of a concave horizontal form surmounted by a vertical column. In the
courtyard of a temple one day, he saw agroup of women laying flowers at the foot577

of one such sculpture. Curious to learn
what they knew about the symbolism andhaving noticed that many women in thetowns knew English, he decided to talk tothem. Approaching, he asked them what
the sculpture represented. One of thewomen replied that it symbolized the two
principles, masculine and feminine.
‘Why are they shown together,’ he asked,‘rather than separately?’In the silence that followed his question,
he explained:
The Rishis have joined the two principles
in this symbol, but in human beings they
are still separate. In the temples they are
united, but not in yourselves. You areeither a woman, and in that case you continually seek the other principle, man; oryou are a man, continually in search of
the other principle, woman. The two
principles are separated. If they were not,you would not always be looking for the
one that is missing. You are not whole578

and complete in your own person, this is
why you look for a partner to make youwhole. Great sages, the Rishis and sadhus, possess the two principles withinthemselves: they are both man andwoman. This is why they do not need tomarry. They possess the qualities of bothprinciples: the love of the feminine principle, and the strength of the masculine
principle. They are the perfect lingam. 6
By this time he was surrounded by a large
group of people who had gathered to listen. In India, there is nothing unusual insuch a scene: people recognize a Master
who is dispensing knowledge and wisdom; they draw near and stay to listen.
He went on to talk about the chakras:
There is something more. You must
develop the Ajnâ chakra, which will give
you the ability to see everything, but as
you develop this feminine, horizontal
chakra, you must also awaken the masculine chakra, Sahasrara, which is vertical.
Only then will you be a living lingam.7579

Although he sometimes talked publicly
in this way, he was more often content toobserve and listen. He spent long periods
in isolated villages, observing how thepeople lived and learning about theirinterests and their problems. In spite of
the wretched conditions, he remainedwith the poorest of the poor for a longtime and adapted to their way of life.
Traveling the roads, he sometimes met
sadhus who, renouncing all glory, dressedand behaved like ignorant beggars inorder to carry on their spiritual work inpeace. His practiced eye was not deceived
by their appearance, however, and hesometimes stopped to talk to them. They
were always willing to converse with him,and some even addressed him as
Mahatma, the title reserved for spiritualleaders, ascetics and sages. He denied that
he had a right to the title, but when they
insisted, he smiled and said no more.
After the traditional gesture of farewell,he watched them fading into the distance580

on the dusty road and reflected on the
exceptional conditions in this country
for the development of the spiritual life:
it was always warm, and in many regions
the abundance of fruit in the forests
made it possible to live without money.
All this made life easier for the sadhus
and allowed them to concentrate on
developing their spiritual faculties.
From his first days in India, he had
noticed that the people still had faith in
the power of a blessing. In the streets,
buses and hotels, even in the homes of
the rich, people sometimes knelt before
him and asked him to bless them andaccept them as disciples. At first, this surprised and embarrassed him, but after atime he willingly blessed those who
asked.
***
Omraam Mikhaël visited many ashrams,
from the humblest to the most renowned,
and even attended a religious ceremony581

in an ashram for women which was run
by a young woman who was acquainted
with Neemkaroli Babaji. From the first,
he was surprised to learn that Babaji had
spread word of his presence in India. In
all the principal ashrams they knew who
he was and were expecting him. At Calcutta he met Ananda Moyi Ma, of whom
he said: ‘She is a woman who has
achieved something very great. There canbe no doubt that the Spirit is upon her.’He spent several days at the RamakrishnaCenter. He also visited Shivananda in his
immense ashram at Rishikesh, equippedwith a hospital, a pharmacy, and a printing press. As soon as Shivananda saw
him he exclaimed in delight, jumped up
and placed a welcoming garland of flowers around his neck. At the end of theday, after a long conversation, he invitedthe foreign Master to join him in a walkalong the shores of the Ganga.
At Tiruvanamalai he was able at last to
enjoy a few days of tranquility and silence582

in the ashram of Ramana Maharshi who
had died nine years earlier. The atmosphere here was particularly cordial, luminous, and peaceful. The whole ashram
was permeated by a truly spiritual ambience. Ramana Maharshi’s disciples
received him with the deference due toa great spiritual Master and showed him
every mark of confidence. He was taken
to the room that had been Ramana
Maharshi’s and invited to stay and meditate as long as he wished. Speaking laterof his experience in that room, he said
that he had been in communion in thelight with the soul of Ramana Maharshi.
He had always had a special affection forthis mystic who had refused to be considered a personage of importance, and who
had always possessed a lively humor andgreat common sense.
His visits to ashrams in the four cornersof the country taught him a great deal
about India. In a civilization in which
psychic powers have been highly developed over the course of centuries, there583

inevitably exists a wide variety of charismatic leaders, from simple fakirs to true
spiritual Masters. ‘Oh the powers, thepowers…’ exclaimed Omraam Mikhaël
one day; ‘Keep your powers, but keepthem hidden. Show only love.’
Several of the sadhus he met were wellknown and had thousands of disciples,but he also encountered many who had
assumed the role of guru, medium orclairvoyant without real knowledge, andwho exploited the credulity of their disciples. On the faces of those who lived insuch ashrams he failed to find the signsof spirituality he looked for. One day,watching a disciple who was reputed to
be often in a state of ecstasy, he realizedthat in fact he was ill.
After an ecstasy, you should be strengthened. Your health and your inner lightand intelligence should all be enhanced.
If you are depressed or exhausted, theexperience was not ecstasy but a pathological condition.8

584

One day he met a sadhu for whom hedeveloped a particular affection. He was ahundred and fifty years old and remained
almost constantly motionless in a state ofsamadhi. The disciples in his ashram considered their guru to be a transmitter, akind of icon, behind whose unresponsive
physical exterior was an entity withwhom they could communicate:
When I saw this sadhu—a hundred andfifty years old… Oh, he was adorable.
Truly, I love that man. He is alreadypure, already liberated, and he remains
on earth in order to help others. And tosee how his disciples took care of him… it
was magnificent. We just looked at eachother. No-one said anything, and then hebegan to speak. He took off his necklaceof flowers and put it round my neck. And
what he said… it was so poetic. He hadread the Bible, the Gospels. He wasinspired. He told me things, but in Hindi,
and there were interpreters as he did notknow English. What he told me wasmore marvelous, more sublime, more585

extraordinary than anything I had ever
heard. I asked his disciples: ‘Has yoursadhu ever been wrong?’ ‘Never!’ He isalready in communication with God.9
At Ganeshpuri, Omraam Mikhaël broke
his journey in order to meet Nityananda
Maharaj, reputed to be a great sage andan infallible clairvoyant. Arriving in his
ashram near Bombay, he found himself
before a simple, unassuming man,dressed in nothing but a dhoti, whogreeted him silently and invited him witha courteous gesture to sit opposite him.
Without a word, Nityananda gazed at his
visitor for a long time, then closed hiseyes. The time passed. Sitting face to face,neither of them stirred, and for the disciples present it was obvious that their spiritual guide was in a trance. When
Nityananda finally opened his eyes, heseemed to return from a great distance. In
perfect English, he said:‘His heart is pure. Peace is in his soul. All
powers have been given to him.’586

He added that his visitor had lived inIndia in the distant past, and mentioned
an important personage whose name isstill known today. Others before
him—among them Peter Deunov—hadspoken to Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov of
the role he had played in India in the past.
In fact, only a few days before, a sadhu
gifted with clairvoyance had told him:
This is not the first time you have been
here. You have already been a Hindu.
You have lived here in the past, and you
will return.
Before leaving India, Omraam Mikhaël
again visited Ananda Moyi Ma and several of the greater clairvoyants of thetime, all of whom spontaneously
repeated Nityananda’s revelation. Finally,
returning to Nainital to see HanumanBaba, he told him the name that
Nityananda had revealed. HanumanBaba, still silent, took out an ancientbook about the great spiritual Masters ofIndia and showed him a picture of one of587

them, seated in the lotus posture. Overhis head was the figure of the sevenheaded cobra, symbolizing the possessionof all spiritual and psychic powers.

Notes
1. Pythagoras taught that the universe wasbased on numbers. Numerology stems fromthe notion that each number has both asymbolic significance and a particularvibration, and that each letter of thealphabet corresponds to a number.
2.

December 30, 1975.

3.

February 12, 1960.

4.

The differences in spelling are due to thetransliteration.

5.

‘A Disciple Must Develop his Spiritual
Senses’, in Harmony.

6.

February 14, 1960.

7.

Ibid.

588

8.

‘A Disciple Must Develop his Spiritual
Senses’, in Harmony.

9.

July 29, 1960.

589

16

#

A
Spiritual
MasterOn February 9, 1960, after a year’s
absence, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov
returned to Paris. The happy crowd gathered at Orly airport were impatient to see
him again, for his dynamic presence andhis spiritual talks had been greatlymissed. But when he appeared at thegates they were taken by surprise. A new
power seemed to emanate from thiswhite-bearded patriarchal figure whomthey barely recognized. So strongly did
he resemble Peter Deunov that some ofthose who had known the Bulgarian Master wept openly.
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov was sixty
years old. In reality he had been teaching,enlightening, and guiding his disciples
with the wisdom of a true spiritual Master for many years, but that day at Orlyhe seemed both the same and yet transformed. His whole being expressed thestability that had always characterized
him, while at the same time radiating a
new aura of authority.
The next day and for the following several days, in spite of the fatigue of hislong journey, he received countless visitors at Izgrev and gave several talks in ahall filled to capacity. But he did not delay
long in Paris and soon left for the Bon-591

fin. Toward the end of his stay in India he
had heard of the disaster that had struck
Fréjus two months earlier when the rupture of the Malpasset Dam on the Reyran
had released flood waters that had devastated the town and left hundreds dead.
The Bonfin, a few kilometers away, hadbeen spared.
The spectacle of destruction that met hiseyes was overwhelming. For miles
around, everything was in ruins, and thewhole region was impregnated with theterror and suffering of the victims. Powerful, negative vibrations assailed him on
all sides, and he could sense the souls of
the dead still clinging to the ruins of theirhomes. For days, he did everything in his
power to communicate with them mentally and help them to free themselvesfrom the horror of the sudden, violent
death which kept them tied to where they
had lived. By communicating with their
spirit, he tried to help them to movetoward the light.

592

After two weeks of this intense spiritual
work, he returned to Izgrev, and then, atthe spring equinox, he spent a few days inthe mountains. After living as an oriental for months in India, he was finding it
difficult to adapt to the rhythm of life inParis and had even lost all desire to speak.
For many years, he had dreamed of communicating wordlessly with his brothers
and sisters, and throughout his life he
was to have a sense of regret that this was
not possible:
The things I say to you during these meditations cannot all be put into words.
One day you will sense and receive
within yourselves what I give you in these
moments of silence. In fact, some of you
are already capable of this. I could lead
you to extraordinary regions, but you are
not aware of this and are not synchronized with my vibrations.1
It is true that the members of the brotherhood were not yet capable of following
his lead in this, but neither was he called593

to live the life of a contemplative. It was
impossible for him to be silent. For a longtime now, his days had been dedicated toaction and a large part of his nights tocommunion with God. From on high hereceived the strength that enabled him tolive in both worlds.
No sooner had he returned from themountains than he resumed his task asteacher. The members of the brotherhood were overjoyed. At last their guide
was with them again, he who had shown
them the way to spiritual summits while
helping them to assume full responsibility for their earthly tasks. To begin withthey had been a little uneasy, afraid thatthe warm, simple relationship of the past
might have changed. They could not failto notice something new and indefinablein him that they had never sensed before.
The months he had spent with the yogis
and sadhus of India, the privileged relation he had enjoyed with the great Babaji,
and the new name that had been given594

to him in mysterious circumstances—all
this was somewhat intimidating.
It was not long, however, before they realized that his attitude had not changed. He
was as accessible, cordial and informal as
ever, and no more inclined than before
to let them put him on a pedestal. ‘Stop
singing my praises,’ he said, ‘and startworking without paying attention to me.
Try rather to understand my ideas andput them into practice.’ Over the years
he repeated that he never told them anything without having experienced andverified it beforehand, and they too, hesaid, should verify everything for themselves. His constant theme was the lightdispensed by the sun to all creatures on
earth. He urged his disciples to immersethemselves mentally in light as in an
ocean, and to radiate out to the world all
the colors it contains.
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov’s place isunquestionably at the heart of the
Mikhaëlic era foretold by Rudolf Steiner.

595

He belongs to the spiritual family of that
great luminous spirit, Mikhaël, archangelof Light, whose mission is to illuminate
and liberate human beings. Far fromusing his ascendancy to influence or
coerce the members of his brotherhood,
he always pointed out the different possibilities open to them. If he saw that somewere leaning toward another genuinely
spiritual group, he did not try to holdthem back. ‘We are all members of thesame family,’ he told them. One could follow him as one follows a mountain guide,
without renouncing a particle of one’s
freedom.
His stay in India had been a pilgrimage
to spiritual heights; an immersion in aunique civilization: the discovery of ahuman society both rich and poor, ofyogis, brahmins, government ministers,
middle class citizens and beggars. In thatcountry he had come face to face withthe most difficult conditions onearth—poverty and ignorance—but hehad also discovered the spiritual values of596

a people in search of the absolute and the
suppression of earthly appetites, a people
impregnated by the striving for detachment of hundreds of generations before
them. He had begun and ended his visit
with months spent in contemplation in
the solitude of the Himalayas. Once again
he had scaled the spiritual summits. Onceagain he had come back to his humanfamily.
Omraam Mikhaël was one of those rare
beings whose love of God is so ardentthat they are capable of concentrating all
their energies toward the attainment ofspiritual summits. He first scaled thosemysterious heights that give access to thedivine world at the age of fifteen. He
scaled them and he nearly died of joy, but
he came down into the valley again, andif he came down it was because he knew
in his heart that he had a task to perform,and even the most sublime joy could notturn him from it. That was what he had
said about his experience at the age ofseventeen when he had heard the music597

of the spheres: ‘It was fear that broughtme back. Not the fear of death but the fearof being incapable of returning to work on
earth. If you have a task to accomplish inthis world, you must work at it. I could
not give that up.’To the members of the brotherhood, he
was now ‘the Master’. Not because he hadlearned to dominate others, but on thecontrary, because they had recognizedthat he had attained that degree of selfmastery that is only possible after many
years of intensive work. He had begun
this work of self-perfection to which weare all called while still very young; hehad experienced a great many of the difficulties known to human beings, and had
used them as tools in his work of selftransformation.
After his time in India he sometimes
spoke of the great Masters who, once they
had attained self-mastery, chose to live insolitude rather than with their fellow
human beings. For his part, his fellow

598human beings were his family; his first
concern was for them. His thoughts were
all for his brothers and sisters, all thosemen, women, and children: he longed totake them by the hand as their brother,lead them to the summits of their own
being and help them to understand theirrole in the society—the family—of which
they were members. This is why he continually talked to them about true brotherhood, the only thing that could bringabout a Golden Age for humankind. For
if he wanted to help them to grow toward
perfection, to find inner peace and joy,
his ultimate goal was even more farreaching: he sought to lead them wellbeyond their individual efforts. His goal
was the creation of a fraternal civilizationof human solidarity that would be bothspiritual and material, centered on thehighest values for the greater good of all.
***In 1960, there was a large gathering ofpeople at the Bonfin for the summer con-599

vention. When the Master left his chalet
at dawn and saw the long lines of shadowy figures walking up to the Rock, he
could not help but be moved. ‘Dear Lord’,
he thought, ‘how beautiful they are, allthese brothers and sisters coming to pay
homage to your splendor!’ One morning,
after his talk on the Rock, he confessedthat he had been unable to restrain histears as they sang. Beautiful music often
brought him to a state bordering on
ecstasy, plucking at the secret chords ofhis being that linked him to the world ofperfection. And as he had said two years
earlier:
I use music in order to bring the mostbeautiful and beneficial things down
onto the physical plane for you. […] Veryfew people realize the importance ofwhat they are hearing. So, without yourknowing it, I continue my work, using themusic we are listening to. Some of you
sense this and work with me… For me thequestion is clear: my whole life has beenaccompanied by music; I owe to music600

many of the benefits I enjoy today. Yes,
thanks to music I have experienced some
unforgettable moments. It was never the
only factor, of course, but it has been an
important one.2
After his long absence, it did his heart
good to hear the songs of the fraternity
again and join his voice to those of his
disciples, to measure once again the
power of this music to stir the most sensitive fibers of the human heart by linking
it to sublime entities. In India he had
noticed that many ascetics did not singand even considered music a distraction
from things of greater importance. That
conception of the spiritual life was utterly
foreign to him: in his view, music was an
essential part of life.
If you knew the effect music can haveon your different bodies—etheric, astral,and mental—you would sing all day
long… Music is the most powerful means
we have of renewing and restoring theequilibrium of social life.3

601

He was convinced that harmonious
music would soon play a predominantrole in the life of people throughout theworld. Classical music―and above all,sacred music―was what he loved, for it
vibrates in harmony with the higher
realms and facilitates meditation. His
appreciation was not one-sided, however:when he chose music to accompany certain physical activities, it was not to theclassics that he turned, but rather tosongs full of energy and gaiety. He said
that we should always choose the kind ofmusic that had a positive effect on everyone. A pianist with whom he had spent along day in the countryside during a visit
to Greece told of his own experience:
I wasn’t feeling very well but the Master
was in very good form. All kinds of difficult things had happened during the day.
When we got home that evening, I felt
much better, the other brother was his
usual self, but the Master seemed rather
somber. When I suggested some music
he agreed and told me to choose, so, as602

I wanted to respect his mood, I thought
he would be pleased when I put on arecord of Byzantine religious music with
the Bulgarian singer Boris Christov.
After a little while the Master looked at
me and said: ‘You’re not a good psychologist. You could see that I was in a serious mood, a little sad, and yet you chosemusic that is very solemn. I’ll show you
what you should have done.’ He stood up
and went to my record library and put
on some tunes from French comic opera.
Another time it was a rainy evening during the dark of the moon, the atmosphere
was a little oppressive, we were all feelingserious and pensive, and he played someyodeling songs from the Tyrol.
Even those with little sensitivity to music
soon grew to love it in this spiritual family where it had such importance andmarked the rhythm of the day’s activities.
When Omraam Mikhaël explained thatmusic was the respiration of the soul, orthat a beautiful song had a beneficial
effect on the singer, even the indifferent603responded. The music that resounded in
the halls of Izgrev and the Bonfin was ofa truly magical beauty. Every day after
meals, they listened to the sacred works
of one of the composers he loved, thosehe called ‘the great musical giants’:
Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Handel, andBach. But he loved the works of othercomposers too: Vivaldi, Schubert,
Dvorák and Berlioz.
Hearing him speak of the deeper meaningof some of these works, one could not
help but discover their spiritual beauty.
He used to say, for instance, that
Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis could help
one to work for greater detachment; that
Haydn’s Stabat Mater was conducive toa continual and tranquil elevation of thespirit; that the Trio for flute and harp
from Berlioz’s Enfance du Christ attracted
beings from the invisible world who,
unseen and unknown, came to dance. All
this was so natural to him that one day
he asked the musicians to play the Trio
three times running, ‘so that those invisi-

604

ble entities can continue to dance for theglory of God’.
To sing with him often became a mysticalexperience for his disciples, and when
they succeeded in silencing the clamorous voice of their own preoccupations
and uniting their thoughts to his, they
freed him for the spiritual work that was
the framework of his life. Gatheredaround the fire one evening in August
1960, the campers were so stimulated by
his words that they sang one of the mostbeautiful four-part songs in their repertory with exceptional sensitivity.
Omraam Mikhaël did not sing with them.
The next day he told them that the powerof that song had affected him in an extraordinary way, that he had been close to
fainting as his soul had taken flight. Afterleaving them he had thought about thepower of their love and, gazing at thestars, had taken a few deep breaths to
help him to assimilate what had just happened. ‘I know what I do for you,’ he said,605

‘but I want to thank you for what you do
for me.’The year following his return from India
saw the beginning of a fraternity center
in Switzerland. On his first visit to thecountry, his disciples invited him to visit
a site they had found at Les Monts-deCorsier. A long walk through forests andup and down rocky slopes brought them
to a broad clearing with a magnificent
view. Below stretched the deep blues andgreens of the Lake of Geneva, andbeyond it the jagged spires of the Dents
du Midi pierced the sky. On clear days thegreat dome of Mont Blanc gleamed in the
distance.
Once the Swiss fraternity had bought theland, he returned to visit it again. It was
winter, and nature, robed all in white,
seemed to have been fashioned that very
day by the hand of the Creator. The Master walked for a long time in the snow.
Later, when the group asked him to givethe future center a name, he called it

606

Videlinata, meaning ‘divine light’ in Bulgarian. As always when he dedicated acenter for the brotherhood, he exhorted
them to use it with great respect, to be
conscious of what it represented and of
the work to be done there.
The brotherhood is an experiment, anattempt at the social actualization of a
spiritual family whose members all support and help each other in a spirit oflove. Each one contributes something
beautiful from his or her own soul. The
perfume that emanates from a brotherhood—as from a flower as it
opens—nourishes the souls and spirits of
all its members.4***
At this period, Master Omraam Mikhaël
asked those who followed his teaching toredouble their efforts, to be more attentive, to work with greater spiritual intensity. He spoke of the exigencies of certain
Hindu and Tibetan Masters of the past607

and described the initiatic ordeals towhich they subjected their disciples inorder to link them ever more closely tothe divine source. For his own disciples
he had great ambitions, and although healways showed them great love, he could
also be severe, even inflexible. The
demands he made on himself, however,were a hundred times greater. Wishing to
be capable not only of instructing thembut of giving them an entirely new visionof life, he constantly sought to perfecthimself and increase his own knowledge.
He was never satisfied that what he gavethem adequately answered their needs.
The references he made at this time tothe exigencies of oriental Masters were
important. In his view, true universal
brotherhood could only come about
through a blending of aspects developed
respectively by East and West. The spiritual philosophy, clairvoyance, knowledge
and psychic powers of the former allied tothe scientific discoveries and material and608

social progress of the latter were capableof transforming the world.
In spite of the fascination Eastern mysticism held for many Westerners, however,
he did not hesitate to insist that Easternmethods needed to be adapted, for theycorresponded to neither the mentality
nor the climate nor the way of life ofWesterners. In this he agreed with teacherssuchasRamakrishna
andVivekananda, neither of whom had
encouraged their disciples to practice rigorous physical exercises; on the contrary,
they had declared that traditional techniques whose goal was to develop great
mental concentration were no longer
appropriate. They too had emphasized
the value of spiritual work, of meditationand contemplation as the most effectivemeans of achieving liberation.
Without attaching undue importance toexternal forms, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov extracted the vital sap from ancient
texts, from the maxims of Hermes Tris-609

megistus, from the teachings of Jesus andthe Buddha, giving them their true cosmic dimension. By placing himself
beyond all religions, cults, and philosophies, he could speak of a religion centered on divine light that was capable ofpreserving the flame of life within changing forms. In his view, only principles are
eternal; it is a great mistake to try to perpetuate forms and structures.
At the same time, although he did not
approve of the excessively rigid forms
established by many religions, he readily
acknowledged that pictures or statues
could be useful, often serving as a necessary support for prayer. He himself madeuse of symbols in his spiritual work—theTree of Life of the Cabbalah, the rose,
the prism, the seven colors of the spectrum—but he always warned his disciples
that such symbols must be no more thantools to help them rise toward the divineworld. In his initiatic school at Izgrev andat the Bonfin he advocated a spiritual
work that mobilized mind, heart, and

61
6100

will. Time and again he talked about therole of these three basic components ofevery human being. They had an important place in his philosophy, but also in
his life:
I have experienced the mystical way: theheart, feelings, sensations, love. I havetasted the spiritual way: study andknowledge. I have also followed the wayof concrete realization through work andthe exercise of the will. I have tried thesethree ways one after the other, and ineach I have achieved results. And yet I
do not want to choose one or the other: I
want all three.5
If he was to continue to reveal to his followers the truths that would enable themto advance, he needed tranquility andsilence. But he saw that an understandingof true silence, the silence that is not
merely a conventional attitude but a stateof mind, was not accessible to all.
Although his brothers and sisters werealways receptive, he often felt that he was611

a voice crying in the wilderness. He told
them frankly that their lack of resolve
and perseverance saddened him. But his
regrets were for them, for those who were
not yet aware of the value of ‘a silence
penetrated by thoughts of such an
exalted nature, that it is endowed with all
the elements needed to form their subtle bodies, even the body of glory’. Six
months after coming back from India hetold them:Once you have had a taste of the gifts
this silence brings, you will understand it.
Silence is not simply a question of not fidgeting, not moving things about; it is aquestion of putting a stop to all discontent, to all the vague emotions that drift
through one. The first degree of silenceis physical. It is necessary to attain thatsilence before one can go higher andpacify one’s astral feelings. The second
degree of silence, then, is the pacificationof feelings; the third is the pacification ofthought. When this silence is achieved,
the spirit is free to move about and visit

612

regions it has never seen before. In thistotal peace the spirit can soar aloft andbring back with it joy, health, fortitude
and love. It can bring wisdom to ourminds, so that our intelligence enables us
to understand everything.6
At the Bonfin and Izgrev he continued
to insist on the need for real silence during meals, the kind of silence that makes
it possible to assimilate one’s food consciously and to practice the yoga of nutrition so as to extract its subtlest and mostpotent elements and thus improve one’s
physical and psychic health. On January 8
1962, he said:
Help to calm your solar plexus with someconsciously harmonious gestures. During
meals you often see me quietly moving
something on the table for no apparent
reason. These small gestures do me good;they harmonize my solar plexus anddraw in strength. They benefit you too.
Whenever you are in a painful state
inwardly, make some harmonious ges-613

ture. For example you can draw the formof a circle in the air at the level of yourhead and upper body.
More than once he resolved to demand
more of his brothers and sisters. At times
he expressed his displeasure in no uncertain terms when there was too muchnoise at meals. But each year at the closeof the summer convention, gathered withhis disciples round the fire in honor of
the Archangel Mikhaël, it was the magicof love that triumphed. The ambiencecreated by their spiritual aspirations anddesire for perfection was so irresistiblethat the Master was caught up in the current and all his resolutions of severity
were swept away. His love overcame all
else.
Over the years, however, he sometimes
interrupted his program of talks and left
the convention for a few days in orderto give the participants a period of personal reflection. At the same time, it wasan opportunity for him to renew his own

614

energy and inspiration. On these occasions, he usually went to the mountains.
At other times he stayed at the Bonfin
and took part in all the activities, depriving the participants only of the spoken
word, so that they might learn ‘to desire
nothing more than the presence of God.’
This presence of God was the object of
his own tireless quest. His mission wasvery concrete and he was extremely practical and competent on the physicalplane, but that did not prevent him frombeing a true mystic: he would always needto spend long hours in meditation andcontemplation. Those close to him knewthat when alone he often voluntarily left
his physical body or was caught up in
ecstasy. They also knew that he slept little
and, like all high initiates whose consciousness is always alert and vigilant,
was able to carry on his spiritual work
while his physical body was resting. He
sometimes said that what he could do in
the daytime was less than a millionth partof what he could accomplish ‘on the615other side’ at night. It was then that hecould speak to the souls of his disciples
most effectively.
***
In 1964, accompanied by two brothers, hevisited the village of his birth in Macedonia. There, he happily renewed many
sixty-year-old memories, and the family
members who still lived there gave him
a joyous welcome. One of his first visits
was to the cousin whose weaving he hadruined at the age of four. On his return toFrance, he had commented humorouslyon that visit: ‘All these people were still
alive and very old, and I gave them something to make up for the distress I had
caused them. We must never leave things
undone. Sooner or later we have to pay
our debts.’
The principal reason for this visit was tomeet his mother, and as it was impossible
for him to return to Bulgaria, it was she
who made the long journey from Varna

616

to Serbtzi with her son Alexander andone of her grandsons. She was now
eighty-eight years old and had not seen
her eldest son since 1937.
They both knew that they were seeing
each other for the last time. Back in
Varna, Dolia told one of her granddaughters: ‘I was afraid I would cry when I saw
him with his hair quite white, but I managed to hold back my tears. I was very
moved, but I wanted the ambience to be
beautiful. Above all I did not want toupset him.’
On August 5, 1973, nine years after seeing
her eldest son again, her long life drew toa peaceful close.
***
At Izgrev, Videlinata and the Bonfin, themembers of the brotherhood gathered
regularly for Easter, Christmas and Summer conventions, at which the MasterOmraam Mikhaël gave daily talks. He
received an enormous amount of mail, to617

which he always replied personally. In
addition, he gave dozens of personal
interviews and spent hours listening toand advising people. The task he had
assumed absorbed most of his time. As
one of those close to him told us: ‘Each
day he bore the burden of a spiritual Master who is both a father and a mother,ready to accept all the attendant difficulties as well as the joys, the gratitude as
well as the resentments.’
At the Bonfin his visitors were invited tojoin him under the trees of his garden or
in his sitting-room. For years he received
them in the oriental manner, sitting
cross-legged on a cushion. The sparse
furnishings in his chalet expressed theextreme simplicity of his tastes. As one
witness put it: ‘He was so alive, so radiant,and he preferred the simplest, least complicated symbols.’ The symbols of his
choice, those with which he most often
worked, seemed to be teeming with life.
He chose them knowing that they would
speak to the hearts and minds of his visi-

618

tors, and the numerous crystals and beautifully colored stones scattered about his
chalet bore witness to his special fondness for them.
Each person who came to talk to him wasreceived with great consideration.
Almost always he would start by asking:‘What can I do for you?’
And if, having explained the reason for
his visit, the person was open and receptive, Omraam Mikhaël was able to give
him whatever it was he most needed. If,
on the other hand, the person was too
emissive, he was content to listen without trying to force his confidence. With
some he was very understanding, affectionate and gentle; with others he wassometimes very severe and exacting.
Sometimes, in order to help the person in
front of him, he became a mirror in which
they could see the reflection of their own
defects. Many of his visitors understoodonly later why he had spoken to them of619

things which seemed to have no connection with the subject of the interview.
When he was asked for advice, he did notalways answer immediately. He would
often say, ‘Wait. I’ll give you my answer
tomorrow.’ And when he was consulted
about a project that had already beenlaunched he never intervened. If, forinstance, two people already had a commitment to each other, if there wasalready a bond between them, he would
say that he could not interfere in theirdecision or in a relationship which
already existed. To all, he would repeat:‘What I am asking you is the most difficult of all: to become messengers of light.’***
He was overburdened with work. In
order to renew his inspiration and consolidate his close bond with the spiritual
world, he needed to retire from time totime in solitude. In the mid-sixties, hebegan to make occasional visits to the620

Pyrenees to meditate and rest. Finding
ideal conditions for his spiritual work, heoften spent time there between thebrotherhood conventions, alone or witha few people. The place, which he called
Castelrama, was in a beautiful setting.
The view of the mountains was superb,
the air pure and invigorating, the silence
broken only by the song of birds and the
deep voice of the wind.
In his small cottage he consecrated aroom for meditation, and he encouraged
everyone to do the same at home, addingthat the smaller the room the easier it wasto concentrate. There were days when hespent many hours in this oratory; at othertimes he climbed the hill behind the cottage for long meditations, rejoicing in the
sunlight and peace of the early morning.
Nourished by the natural elements
around him, by the currents of energy
flowing from the sun, he told his companions that he felt no need to eat. Since
his youth he had been accustomed to eat

621

sparsely twice a day, but at Castelrama he
usually had only one meal a day.
At one point he felt the desire to repeat
an experience of his youth: to fast completely for ten days. During his fast heread, meditated, wrote, and joined his
brothers, working with pickax and spadeto prepare the ground for the basic installations they needed. As his fast was not atreatment for illness, he did not need torest and save his energies to heal himself.
On the contrary, he was full of vigor, living on sunshine and the pure air. He wasoften in a state of ecstasy with the beautyof the sunrise in the mountains. And as
his soul had never ceased to vibrate to thecall of the mountains, he often went off
for long, solitary hikes to the high peaksof the Pyrenees.
Although these periods of retreat were
extremely beneficial, he never wished toremain alone for very long. This paradox
was a constant in his life: his need to be inpermanent communion with the highest622

planes of being was always tempered byhis rare openness and accessibility to his
contemporaries and to the brotherhood
in particular. He was never so happy as
when surrounded by his spiritual family.
Before long, there was a continual coming and going of disciples he invited tostay—ten or more at a time—and Castelrama rapidly became a miniature brotherhood center.
Many surprises awaited his guests: in the
Master they discovered a host ofunequalled thoughtfulness who personally arranged a vase of flowers in theirrooms. He was the pater familias, relaxed
and warm-hearted, who often invitedthem to share a meal and at times evenprepared a Bulgarian dish for them. He
made sure that they all had the opportunity to express themselves, made plans
for the future with them, and won theirhearts with his informal cordiality.
Omraam Mikhaël recognized the importance of the realities of life in the world623

and always tried to remain in touch withthe circumstances of his contemporaries
in order to understand their problems. In
his constant desire to be close to others,
to understand their problems, and to see
how modern mentalities were evolving,
he often read novels and watched films
and television. In this way he observed
the behavior of his contemporaries andfound examples with which to illustrate
the major themes of his teaching. The
news programs on television were a regular feature of his day, and in the evenings
he would sometimes invite his guests towatch a film and then discuss it withthem. He particularly enjoyed films inwhich a hero showed courage and selfsacrifice in the defense of justice.
As he put it, Castelrama was like ‘a transmitting station’ from which his spiritual
work went out to the whole of humanity,
always in his heart. Every so often, local
people whose acquaintance he wanted to
make—the local gendarme or themountain-rescue teams—were invited to624

a meal, and he had the art of putting them
all at their ease. The people of the region
became truly fond of him and werealways happy to know that he was there.
***
It was six years since Omraam Mikhaël
Aïvanhov had returned from India, six
years since the members of his brotherhood first gave him the respectful title ofMaster. In spite of this, he continued torefer to himself as ‘a living book’ onwhose pages Peter Deunov had written
for twenty years before sending him toFrance. Although he loved to talk about
the great Masters, he never referred tohimself as one. He always said that Peter
Deunov had chosen him, his mostinsignificant disciple, only because hecherished a high ideal and worked insecret to perfect himself. His humility
was genuine. He knew that people
regarded him as a Master, but he did not
fear any more than before to diminish
himself in the eyes of his brotherhood or625

of visitors. Some of them went away perplexed, but he had expressed this veryclearly in 1939, soon after his arrival inFrance:Humility is like a valley lying between
two mountains. It is irrigated by thewater that flows from the heights, so thatit produces an abundance of fruit andflowers. Pride is like those peaks: isolated,
solitary, and barren.7
In spite of his unassuming attitude, he
was obliged once again to contend withdifficulties caused by calumnies, conflicts
and misunderstandings that resurfacedin his homeland. There were still somein Bulgaria who bore him a grudge, whoeven reproached him for his physicalresemblance to Peter Deunov. To be sure,there were also many Bulgarians who had
visited him at the Bonfin and who spokeof his work with enthusiasm, but they
were not taken seriously in their homecountry, any more than others had been
twenty years earlier.

626

For his part, after a year in India where
spiritual guides were accorded unconditional respect, he found himself faced
once again with western reticence, withthe ever-present tendency to analyze andcriticize. Some of the members of theFrench brotherhood who had known
Peter Deunov continually criticizedOmraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov for introducing new elements into the teaching.
On July 21, during the 1966 convention at
the Bonfin, deciding that it was time toclarify the situation, he declared:
I speak with my own voice. Peter Deunov
spoke with his. If he did not talk aboutcertain questions, it was not because he
did not know them. Perhaps the time was
not ripe to talk about them. Many things
have to be revealed before people canunderstand. There is no need to beafraid. As I have already said, a person
can sing only with his own voice. The
Master did not speak with the voice ofJesus. And my talks are not copies ofPeter Deunov’s. The teaching is some-627

thing very vast and true. I had to find myown way. 8
Two weeks later he reverted to the samequestion and begged them to pay lessattention to persons and more to the lightof the sun, to that which is stable anddivine. This time, he spoke with evengreater gravity, alluding to his illumination at the age of fifteen:
It is now fifty years since I was overwhelmed by the light. My work is justbeginning and one day it will become visible to the whole world. I have been waiting for orders from above, and it is only
this year that heaven has sent me a signof the work expected of me. For the firsttime I have been instructed to reveal
many things to you. A different era isupon us, with a different language anddifferent means. My work is different
from that of Peter Deunov. Completely
different. But there is no contradiction
between us. We are following the same628

path, advancing in the same direction,
always toward the light, toward God. 9This declaration was enough to clear the
air and put new vigor into most of his
disciples, enabling them to adhere to histeaching without reserve. As for himself,
although criticism never prevented himfrom doing what he had to do, it wasalways an occasion to purify his motivations and work to develop humility.
***
That summer he gave several talks about
purity. In fact, long before this he had frequently spoken about purity. Drawing on
examples from everyday life, he spoke
first of the necessity in every area of lifeof separating the pure from the impure to
avoid poisoning oneself. Then he insistedon the importance of choosing one’s
pleasures on every level with great care.
His explanation of what he called the
divine algebra was particularly striking:‘When the intellect is freed from all

629

impurities it attracts light and understanding; when the heart is purified it
becomes capable of happiness; when thewill is freed from apathy it becomesstronger, and when the physical body is
freed from the wastes that encumber it, it
regains health.’
It was as logical as an equation.
With the skill of a painter, he described
the beauty of the river of life, the ‘pathof wisdom’ that flows from the highest
realms of the invisible world, pregnant
with celestial energies. He explained
mental exercises that one could use toslake one’s thirst at this river and recapture the purity that dwells at the summitof all that exists. He explained to couples
how to live their love for each other without sinking to levels that sterilize the spiritual life. Of paramount importance in hisview is to recognize the potency of sexual
energy and use it for one’s spiritual development.

630

The sexual organs are a synopsis of creation as a whole. The force that lies hidden in human beings is a sacred, divine
force by means of which they can attainall their desires. Let me give you an
example: if you live on the fifth floor, thewater you need has to be pumped up toyou, and this necessitates a certain
amount of pressure. If you do away withthat pressure, the water will not reachall the floors. But men do their best tolower the pressure within themselves andreduce it to zero. They cannot endure it.
And yet, this force must be allowed torise through all the floors until it reaches
the brain. It is the pressure that causes it
to rise so that it can be used. But as mostpeople continually get rid of it, the result
is that they can never make use of it on
the higher planes.10
It was in this sense that he liked to talkabout the beauty of the work achieved by
the high initiates, who instead of squandering these energies had learned to usethem to create a dazzling light in the631

brain, a divine elevation of the soul. He
himself had chosen celibacy and continence in order to dedicate his life to helping humanity, but he had never feared
this force which, in the words of Hermes
Trismegistus, he called ‘the strength of allstrengths’. Neither his spirituality nor his
behavior was ever inspired by a repudiation of the sexual force; on the contrary,
in his view, the sexual energies withwhich cosmic intelligence has endowed
human beings contain the seeds of evolution and transcendence.
His attitude toward women was always
one of respect and spiritual love. What helooked for was beauty, the joyful triumphof nature. The sight of a woman singing
moved him deeply because it made him
think of the divine Mother, but what hesought above all in the visible countenance were the emanations of inner
beauty. When he spoke about his attitude
toward women, he did so in order to help
other men. He declared without ambiguity: ‘Nothing is more beautiful than the632sexual organs of men and women when
considered as organs destined to accomplish the designs of God.’
His teaching about love and sexuality isbalanced and vivifying, but it is a teaching for the future. He himself acknowledged that very few human beings
today—even, and perhaps especially,
within the state of marriage—are ready towork for the self-mastery which, thanks
to the potency slumbering in the ethericcenters of the chakras, could have truly
gigantic results on the spiritual plane.
There is a close affinity in his philosophy
between sanctity and sexuality: ‘Humanbeings, he said, are capable of attaining
perfection only when they achieve control of these special energies and direct
them to the higher spheres. And they can
succeed in this endeavor only by adhering to the high ideal of seeking to resemble the heavenly Father and the divine
Mother, only by opening their hearts
spiritually to all creatures on earth.’633

Love is an exchange, and there can beexchange on other planes than the physical. There can be an exchange between
two people at a distance, through a look,a thought, a word, without ever embracing or touching. […] When I speak of love
I mean love that is life, light and beauty,
an exchange with divine creatures. Thatis the love I think about night and day,and this love brings me blessings.11
For Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov, torenounce something without putting
anything in its place had no meaning. As
he often said, he himself had renounced
nothing: he had simply transposed his
choice of pleasures from the physical to
the spiritual plane, thus gaining a profound joy that was nourished by mysticalexperiences. The beauty of children, of
nature at sunrise, of the stars, the oceans,the mountains—all these things spoke tohim of the perfection of God.

634

Notes1.

September 1, 1971.

2.

August 13, 1958.

3.

April 17, 1957.

4.

November 19, 1961.

5.

November 19, 1961.

6.

August 6, 1960.

7.

March 4, 1939.

8.

July, 21, 1966.

9.

August 6, 1966.

10.

August 26, 1958.

11.

‘Love and Sex’, in The Mysteries of Yesod.

635

17

#

The PPath
ath
of Light
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov’s dominating passion was to set fire to hearts andminds. His aspiration, he sometimes said,
was to be a Prometheus: to steal fire fromheaven and give it to human beings. His
personal path was the path of light, andall his teaching was centered on this element so essential to life. Light, he said,was the most perfect image human beings
can have of God, and he explained how
to use it in order to transform oneself andbecome as radiant as the sun.
A series of talks given during the summerof 1967 constituted a synthesis of his
teaching about the sun. For many years
he had spoken of the yoga that he called‘Surya yoga’—Surya being Sanskrit forsun. This yoga of the sun, he explained,
was known to the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Aztecs, Mayas andTibetans, and it was the one he favored
above all others, for it included andsummed up all other forms of yoga. He
used to say: ‘I teach many different kindsof yoga, among them the yoga of nutrition. But I have rediscovered the richest,
most ancient and most vital of all formsof yoga: Surya yoga.
He liked to talk about the Spirit of thesun. In this respect his philosophy coincided with the age-old philosophies of
the Vedas and Puranas, which teach that637

the true sun is not the star that is visible
in the sky, but the supreme Intelligencethat reigns at the summit of the firmament, above the realms of physical creation. He revealed that behind the physical sun existed a subtler, immaterial sun,a sun that is hidden to any but the mosthighlydeveloped
consciousness.
Through love, it is possible for humansouls to communicate on the level of thesuper-conscious with all creatures in thelight of that sun. ‘In our planetary system,’ he added, ‘the sun is the representative of God, the supreme sun of the universe.’
That year, aware that his ideas were notalways easy to grasp, he spelled them out
in great detail. In one particularly longtalk he explained that by leading people
to the light, the yoga of the sun could
lead them to God, the unique source of
all light. When we contemplate the sunin the morning, at the moment when its
emanations are most beneficial, we canrise mentally to the subtlest planes and638

there obtain elements that are lacking inour organism. ‘It is really very simple,’ heused to say. It is not even necessary toknow which elements will restore yourhealth; that is not important. It is yoursoul and spirit that know how to findwhat you need.’
He realized, of course, that his words
were not always properly understood,that most people tended to devise structures and adopt set habits, but he always
refused to institute new forms which
would inevitably become inflexible. All
spiritual Masters must certainly haveexperienced similar difficulties: they
speak of eternal truths, but they see theirdisciples crystallizing these truths into
rigid forms that mask and stifle the life
within them.
In Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov’s philosophy, the sun was not set up as an idol as incertain ancient solar religions; his ‘solar
religion’ is simply a way of finding God,the true light that shines within each639

human being. The sun is no more than adoorway opening on to the deity, the best
example we have of selfless love, because
it gives without ceasing and asks fornothing in return. It is a dwelling place,
an authentic temple for the spirit of truth,
the spirit of purity and selfless altruism.
And yet, as he declared:
There is nothing wrong in having
churches and temples; on the contrary,
they are excellent and necessary. I havenever suggested that they should bedestroyed. Even a house can be a temple.
But when men are ready to grasp thetruth, they will stop going to man-madetemples. They will worship in the great
temple built by the hand of God himself,
the universe. And then they will understand that man himself is a temple ofGod, and that he must progressively
cleanse, purify and sanctify himself so as
to be a perfect sanctuary.1
From personal experience he had becomeconvinced that forms must constantly be640renewed. As a youth he had been
inclined to see them as unimportant
before coming to realize that ‘a beautiful
content should be in a beautiful form, forform is divine’. At the same time hewould never stop insisting that to attach
more importance to the form than to thespirit led inevitably to rigidity.
He had always felt the need to demolish
old forms so that life might flow and thespirit be made manifest. He would saythat he used ‘little hammers’. ‘What I am
bringing you is new… new. I am breaking
up the old forms.’ And he reminded his
listeners: ‘Peter Deunov told me that I
was the demolisher par excellence. And
what was I demolishing? Archaic ideas.
Yes, a demolisher… he did not say
destroyer but demolisher. There is a difference. Old ruins are demolished tomake room for new constructions. Everything is new in this teaching, nothing isold. The whole earth will be made new.’
And this newness of which he spoke was641

a truly fraternal spirit, the desire to help
others, to try to understand them andnever to confine the spirit in the straitjacket of tradition: ‘The new age will bebuilt on enthusiasm, simplicity and transparency. Today we are too old. The spiritof childhood has vanished.’
In the pure light of the Mediterranean
mornings he talked of the subject closest
to his heart: light. For him, light was the‘water that flows from the sun, the true
source of life in which are contained theseven colors’. Since the age of fourteen
when he had discovered the beauty andsymbolism of a prism, he had always used
one in working with the seven rays. For
him, the seven rays represented the seven
Spirits imbued with love, wisdom andunderstanding with which he seems tohave had a vital bond. He always carried astick on which was mounted a large crystal. It was not so much a walking stick
as a symbolic wand which he used as an
instrument for his work. Knowing theinfluence of the colors of the spectrum,642

he often repeated that one could achieve
great results by surrounding oneself withthem, by wearing them and working mentally to blend them into one’s aura.
***
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov had a close
relationship with one particular Being
who, he said, was a spiritual sun for ourplanet, a Being who illuminated theworld and protected life on the subtler
planes. This Being was Melchizedek, ofwhom he had already spoken in his firsttalks in 1938 and whom he called ‘the
Master of Masters’. His great love for
Melchizedek was apparent in his frequent
references to him, and the members of
his fraternity had come to realize that helived in uninterrupted communion withhim.
The existence of Melchizedek is recognized both in the Judeo-Christian tradition and in certain oriental traditions. In
Genesis he appears as the high priest of643

God who goes out to meet Abraham withbread and wine, the sacred symbols of thetwo principles. St Paul says of him that
he had ‘neither beginning of days nor endof life’. And in Revelations, St John the
Evangelist describes him as a ‘son ofman’, clothed in a long robe girded about
with a golden belt, with hair as white assnow and a face shining like the sun infull force.
As the representative of God he is thedivine flame on earth, and all initiates
turn to him to light their candles. Make
haste to unite with God, with fire, for it
will be your salvation. Melchizedek has
dominion over the angelic hierarchies;
nothing can withstand him. He manifests where and as he wishes, and all
Masters are his disciples. St John saw
him, he was with him. It was
Melchizedek who revealed the destiny of
the world to him and inspired the visionsof the Apocalypse.2
In 1969, the Master Omraam Mikhaël

644

decided to visit Patmos, the island where
St John had lived in exile. He had a special affection for this Apostle, but it was
perhaps
especially
his
love
of
Melchizedek that led him to visit thebirthplace of the Apocalypse, at the heartof which shines this great being depicted
as an old man with eyes of light.
After a few days with the members of thebrotherhood in Athens, he boarded aboat bound for Patmos, accompanied bya small group of disciples. The island of
Patmos is closer to Turkey than to
Greece, and the journey, which lasted
thirteen hours in heavy seas, was a real
hardship for the passengers. At fouro’clock in the morning, the Master,refreshed and full of energy, was knocking on their cabin doors, bringing coffee
and rolls for all. Soon they disembarked
near a village whose inhabitants were still
asleep, and a stalwart porter took chargeof their baggage. Every line of his face
expressed his admiration for the one hecalled ‘the man of God’, and although he645understood no French, he followed
closely on his heels, anxious to hear thesound of his voice. Every few minutes heasked, ‘What is the man of God saying?’
Once rested and restored, they climbed
into the hills to the monastery of Khora.
The priest who acted as guide in themuseum was at first voluble in his explanations of its sacred treasures, pointedly
ignoring the occasional comments of thewhite-haired visitor about the secretsymbolism of a cross or an icon. Gradually, however, his attitude changed, andhe became silent until Omraam Mikhaël
asked him to tell them about the life of St
John. This he did, speaking with greater
moderation, after which his face became
radiant and he exclaimed:‘I don’t know what is happening to me.
There is such an extraordinary climate ofsympathy between us. I have never felt
this with anyone before.’
And he began to weep with joy.

646

In the afternoon Omraam Mikhaël visited the grotto where St John had lived
and in which he had written the Apocalypse. Following him, his companions—who were themselves in a state ofmind rarely experienced in this life—saw
him descending the thirty steps that led
through a garden full of flowers to thegrotto: he seemed to be flying. The grotto
made a deep impression on him—with
the stone bed on which St John slept, theshelf carved out of the rock at which he
dictated his Gospel to his disciple, andfinally the rock that had been split inthree by a bolt of lightning as the Apocalypse was revealed. Toward the end of thevisit, asking his companions to leave him,
he remained alone in the grotto for a longtime.
He stayed on Patmos several days. At thetime there were few tourists on theisland, and he found the atmosphere very
pure and hallowed, still redolent of thepresence of St John. He loved being there
and was captivated by the beauty of the647

country, by the kindness of the people
and their sincere, friendly expressions
and by the solicitude of the monks whocalled on him constantly. On his returnto France, he commented that the inhabitants of Patmos had the sensitivity of
mediums and were capable of prophecy,
as though they were still permeated withthe ambience of the Apocalypse. For hispart, he made a great impression on thevillagers, who watched him wherever hewent and showed him the deepest
respect.
One day, while out for a walk in the
country with his companions, a peasant
woman approached, stopped in front of
him and asked shyly: ‘Are you a monk?’
Without waiting for an answer, she madethe sign of the cross and kissed his hand,
murmuring: ‘I wish you good health. Be
happy with your monk’s crown.’
She stood before him as though before an
icon, while he, for his part, gazed at her

648

with an expression of astonishment anddelight. When she left them, he remained
lost in thought for a moment. Then he
explained that while he meditated in his
room before setting out on this walk, he
had asked the invisible world a particularquestion. Only when he was back inFrance did he explain further: ‘When her
words were translated for me, I realizedthat they were the answer to the question
I had been asking. Heaven had spoken tome through that old woman. You cannot
imagine how happy that made me!’Leaving Patmos he returned to the Greek
mainland where he visited Mount Athos
with two of his companions. Here, thenumerous monasteries, often situated inalmost inaccessible spots, shelter some
3,000 monks and are known for theancient manuscripts in their care. Whena monastery they wanted to visit could
not be reached by land, the three visitors
were obliged to hire a small motor boat.
And to their surprise, at each monasterythe scene was the same: without knowing

649

who he was, the monks manifested theutmost respect for Master Omraam
Mikhaël and gave him the room reserved
for the Orthodox bishop. In each place heasked the same question:‘Do you know of the existence ofMelchizedek?’
Several years before, while in India, he
had asked some of the great sadhus if theyknew of a being who dwelt in the
Himalayas and who had neither beginning nor end, neither father nor mother.
There too they had known of his existence, but their name for him wasMarkande.
***
Since 1960, the universal dimension of
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov’s spiritual
work had become increasingly apparent.
His published talks were disseminated inmany countries, and in the years following his return from India he was asked
to speak in a number of European towns

650and cities. He was often invited toaddress groups of professionals, scientists
or political leaders, but in many cases,
knowing in advance that he would be
wasting his time, he refused. His ideas
about how humanity could be transformed by means of ‘spiritual galvanoplasty’, for example, were too
advanced for the world in which he wasliving. When he did address a particulargroup, however, his manner was the sameas when he spoke to the brothers and sisters of his fraternity; it was with the samefire, the same ardor, that he explained theprincipal themes of initiatic science.
On one occasion, at a meeting of scientists at the French nuclear research center
at Saclay, he listened with interest to
their scholarly dissertations and discussions, and when his turn came to speak,
he led their minds imperceptibly closer tothe spiritual dimension, intending in thisway to stimulate in them a level of reflection beyond that of pure science. His
ideas about light, for instance, were very651

different from the scientific notions of
the other speakers, but they had the meritof stimulating the participants to maketheir own discoveries on a subtler plane.
On another occasion, in a discussion
with a group of police inspectors in Paris,
he talked about light in a way that, almost
certainly, they had never heard before:
Do you think you can fight crime byincreasing the number of policemen andgendarmes or by improving your methodsof surveillance and investigation? Well,
you are mistaken. External methods are
ineffectual in this area. The only effectivemeans is light.
To the five inspectors listening to him,
this seemed a strange solution. ‘Light?’
one of them asked. ‘How?’ With his usual
colorful images, he talked about criminals and how, when they were preparing
their thefts, kidnappings or assassinations they were confident that no one
knew about their plans. Then he added:

652

But suppose people possessed an innerlamp that enabled them to see inadvance and from far away the mischiefthat threatened them: they would takeprecautions, and the evildoer’s plans
would come to nothing. So the only way
to eliminate crime is by light. This is why
human beings must be taught to cultivate their inner light: it will take a very
long time, but it is the only sure way.3
The inner light he spoke of was the lightof a genuine spirituality capable of transforming every human being. Light, ‘theliving spirit’ which bears within itself
love, wisdom and truth. Although wellaware that many people are not sufficiently developed spiritually to perceive
the subtle reality of light, he still insistedon the necessity of concentrating on it asoften as possible, of drawing it into oneself so as to refine one’s perceptions andgenerate new vibrations in the cells.
The private aspirations and inclinationsof those he met did not escape him. He

653

recognized their scale of values and often
called it into question without fear of disconcerting them. His first concern was toset people in motion, and to this end heoften deliberately shocked or disappointed them. But although he was sometimes severe, his sense of humor and his
great kindness were never absent. On
occasion, when he was the guest of people who expected to hear him talk about
sublime subjects, he limited himself to a
few apparently random remarks about
their preoccupations: about money
which was always on their minds, orabout their obsession with sex. This was
sometimes the only way to reach them.
As for his hosts, they often understoodonly later why he had talked about things
which had seemed so trivial at the time.
After their initial sense of disappointment had faded, they realized that he had
stimulated something, that he had
opened the floodgates and the ‘water of
life’ was flowing. An English brother who
accompanied him on a journey once said:654

No human being was insignificant in his
eyes; he looked for the divine spark ineveryone he met. In hotels he treated theemployees with such exquisite courtesy
that their expression became animated,their eyes lit up, and they turned to watch
him as he passed. In conversation withflight attendants, guides at an exhibition
or taxi drivers, he had the gift of creating
the ambience he wanted. If he saw thatthey were tense or shy, he would makethem laugh by telling them something
funny. He could be so comic, in fact, thateven his most serious traveling companions were sometimes shaken out of theirsolemnity. But his prime purpose wasalways to stimulate people.
On a visit to the Alhambra in Spain theguide explained that wise men had comefrom far away to build the palace.
Omraam Mikhaël listened closely, andwhen the man had finished, heapproached him and asked how many pillars there were.

655

‘Thirty-two,’ replied the guide.
‘And why are there thirty-two’?
‘I don’t know, sir’.
Taking him discretely aside, Omraam
Mikhaël explained:‘In the past, wise men placed symbols
everywhere to explain the profoundaspects of the nature that surrounds us
and of our own human nature. Fountains
are one example.’
Intrigued, the guide listened closely.
‘The palm trees, the mosaics, the pinecones you see here are all symbols. They
express the religious and mystical lore ofthese men of old. By placing them here
in a way that would be understood, they
hoped that this knowledge would be
admired in the future. These initiates
who had studied all the ways of wisdom
and knowledge found that there werethirty-two paths of wisdom’.

656

Seeing the guide’s obvious interest,
Omraam Mikhaël explained the questionof the two principles at the origin of all
creation.
‘The fountains are there so that people
can admire the potent masculine principle which is the upsurge of life—the people of old had such admiration for thisprinciple that they had large families!
And the shells remind us of the otherprinciple, the feminine principle which
creates life…’4***
His personal needs were modest. At the
Bonfin he still lived in his old cottage, andwhen traveling, the hotels he chose tostay in were always the least luxurious.
The only condition he looked for was thepossibility of seeing the sunrise from his
room. When his traveling companions
complained about the rudimentary
accommodations they had to put up with,he insisted on the importance of a simple

657

way of life. Wherever he went, his sole
purpose was to become always more useful to humanity. When traveling by car or
train, he worked to perfect his knowledgeof English, listening to recorded texts on
cassettes to improve his accent. ‘A newactivity triggers a renewal of life in thewhole organism,’ he commented.
His traveling companions would say ofhim:
He was like a father, a marvelous educator. Traveling with him was a veritableapprenticeship, for it is impossible to beclose to someone of that caliber without
constantly calling oneself into questionand striving to transform oneself. But his
spontaneous expressions of approval for
one’s efforts were very comforting.
During the last twenty years of his life,
he crisscrossed the world as one who
explores a fascinating unknown realm. A
few countries received several visits fromhim, to others he went only once. The

658

purpose of his travels was always toextend his spiritual work to every regionof the planet, but it was also to find ‘thetraces left in every region by humanity’s
greatest spirits’.
Often, while traveling, he would isolate
himself from his companions for several
days at a time. Whenever possible hemeditated in the midst of nature, the‘true temple of God’. On the other hand,
he also liked to pray in the religious sanctuaries of the world—in temples,
mosques and basilicas—for he considered that they were all sacred.
In the spring of 1970 he was in Japan andstayed for a week in a Zen temple in theheart of the mountains not far from
Tokyo. The twelve monks in residence
welcomed him as one of their own andset aside a small temple decorated withnumerous Buddhas, in which he was free
to pray, read and sleep without being disturbed by the noise of the monastery. As
soon as he arrived, they invited him to659

take part in their religious rites whichwere attended by many people from theneighboring town.
Very early in the morning, the participants gathered for a ceremony followed
by a two-hour meditation. They sat
round the four sides of a room, facing thewall, in the Zazen posture, which includes
precise rules for the position of the headand hands. A monk moved quietly about
in the center of the room, a long ‘warning
stick’ in his hand, watching the backs ofthose meditating. When he saw someone
becoming drowsy, he tapped him sharply
on the shoulder.
Master Omraam Mikhaël knew that theblow was intended to touch a particularnerve, not only to prevent somnolence
and remedy a slack posture, but also to
induce greater clarity in the brain andrally flagging energies.
Naturally, he wished to experience it forhimself. But when he asked the monk to660

give him the traditional tap during themeditation next day, the latter was very
embarrassed and refused politely,
protesting that he did not need it. In theface of the foreign Master’s insistence,
however, he finally acquiesced, and thefollowing morning, coming up behindhim during the meditation, he bowedwith great respect before tapping him on
the shoulder. In his turn, Omraam
Mikhaël bowed his head to signal his
thanks. He found the experience instructive, for the blow did indeed trigger in
him an interesting reaction of lucidity inthe mind. Wishing to continue the experience, he asked the monk to repeat thegesture every morning. The latter reluctantly did as asked.
Relating this incident after his return toFrance, he made it clear that although theaim of Zazen is to arrest thought and create an inner void, the void must never bea goal in itself. It can even be dangerous
if it does not serve to attract plenitude.
To create a void without danger one must661

have previously worked to purify one’s
inner self. Before beginning one’s meditation it is important to be in a state of calmand emotional peace:
Then, after a few moments, you mustbe active and dynamic and focus yourthoughts and feelings on the subject you
have chosen, projecting and intensifying
them until you feel yourself expanding,filled with a sense of awe and wonder.
Only then is it safe to pause and try to
empty yourself, to stop thinking andallow yourself only to feel. If you do thisyou will be in no danger.5
Each time he returned from his travels,
he was so happy to be with his spiritual
family at Izgrev or the Bonfin once againthat he spent the day giving thanks. He
often said that we should give thanks athousand times a day; that the magic ofgratitude was extraordinary, more beneficial than all the medicines in the world.
For him, the single word ‘Thanks’ was a662

potent mantra, an ‘antidote capable ofcounteracting every kind of poison’.
***For Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov, everything in nature was transparent, everything was luminous and alive. His bonds
with the powers of the invisible world
were strong, and in this sense the ‘marvelous’ that accompanies all great spiritual beings was ever present in his life.
From the beginning, he had always been
conscious of the state of mind of his
brothers and sisters. He could see thefluctuations in their inner life in theireyes, and when he saw their light growing
fainter, he assured them with great kindness: ‘If you think I have no idea of yourdifficulties, you are mistaken.’ He waswell aware of their problems, for he himself had not had a sheltered life, but healso told them: ‘It is you who have to freeyourselves, otherwise you will neverevolve.’663

Often, after listening to one of his talks,people would thank him for having spoken about their personal problems andgiven them the specific advice theyneeded. In fact, this happened so oftenthat he acquired the reputation of being
able to tune in to all the questions andproblems of a sizeable gathering. In addition, many people told him of inexplicable events such as a cure or an apparition
that had occurred when they had calledon him. Some had escaped unharmed
from an accident after saying his name,while others had seen him before them inhis physical body, although in reality hehad been elsewhere.
As in the early years in Paris, he listened
to them but steadfastly refused to be considered a miracle-worker. ‘My mission is
not to heal,’ he had said in the past, ‘but
to enlighten.’ In order to preserve theintegrity of that mission, he almost
always denied that he possessed any special powers, even those that had been natural to him since his youth. It was impor-664

tant that his relationship with the members of his brotherhood should be freeof the aura of fascination that inevitably
surrounds clairvoyance, mediumism or
the power of healing. Without fail heturned their attention to the light, to theangels, to God.
Shortly after his return from India he had
begun to talk about the ‘O.M.A. Company’. He explained that he had become acollective entity, that the credit belonged
to those who worked with him and whom
he himself did not know. Any thanks
should be addressed to this collective
being: ‘Don’t blame me,’ he used to say; ‘itwas Omraam who did it!’One could sense that he had immense
respect for all the invisible beings who
supported him and whom he sometimes
referred to as angels, at other times asdevas or simply as entities. While he wasconfident that he could always call on
their assistance, he never forgot that he
was addressing free beings who must not665be burdened with self-centered requests.
From time to time he asked the Angel of
Air to disperse the clouds so that everyone could contemplate the sun, but herecognized that the Angel had the rightto refuse. The consciousness of his
responsibility toward the invisible beings
who helped him in his work gave him asense of being no more than a single linkin the chain of beings working for thegood of humanity.
He had the same attitude of respect andhumility toward nature as a whole. He
did not attempt to go against her laws orchange the natural order of things, andthis approach had allowed him to forge amysterious bond with animals, trees andeven inanimate objects. This bond had
sometimes enabled him to talk to a carthat had broken down so that, to the surprise of all present, it inexplicably started
up again and functioned just longenough to reach his destination. ‘This
does not mean that metals are intelligent
or that plants have a soul,’ he explained,666

‘but there is a cosmic intelligence which
suffuses all created things and works
through them.’
The truth is that he attached little importance to powers of this kind and neverencouraged others to try to acquire them.
To avoid exerting undue influence onothers, he tried to limit any manifestationof his own powers, but some who realized
this saw that it was painful to him never
to be free to manifest himself naturally.
From time to time his phenomenal psychic energy erupted in a small detail ofeveryday life. One day he was sitting in
his garden with some visitors when hesuddenly stood up and asked for a toolwith which to prune the branch of a tree.
It was hanging dangerously low, and hehad decided to cut it off. Only an hour
before – although he did not know it —someone had hurt himself on it. The
pruning shears handed to him were verysmall and hopelessly inadequate, but hetook them without hesitation and with667

one stroke cut off the thick branch.
Afterwards he looked at his companions
in silence, as though he regretted having
shown his power. And those who had
witnessed this ‘impossible’, inexplicable
result were quite simply dumbfounded.
When he talked to his brothers and sisters about their desire to transform themselves, he always insisted that they must
count only on their own efforts: their personal work should always take precedence over conventional methods or theuse of psychic powers. It was in this sensethat he reacted during a pilgrimage to
Israel, where he went, in part, to meet
Cabbalists but primarily to seek traces ofthe spirit of Jesus.
On the shores of Lake Tiberius several
people told him the legend of the miraculous powers of this lake: it was enoughto bathe in it to be purified. This sort ofthing meant nothing to him. He wasindifferent to fables which many people
considered highly important and was668

always careful to restore things to theirtrue proportions. On his return toFrance, he spoke of this with a touch ofhumor, saying that it was not by immersing oneself in water that one could be
purified, but by working consciously,
inwardly as well as outwardly. The person who had accompanied him on his
visit to Israel recounted:
It was after the Six-day War, and we hadreceived permission to visit Jerusalem,
which was occupied by Israel. The Master also wanted to visit the synagogue
marking the place were Jethro lived, andhe spent a long time meditating there.
On another occasion we visited thegrotto where Shimon Ben Yohai, one of
the authors of the Sepher Ha Zohar, had
lived. It was the day after a big feastday. Thousands of people had been thereon pilgrimage to the grotto, which is on
a wooded hill, and the ground aroundthe sacred shrine was strewn with litter.
Seized with a holy fury, the Masterappealed to the Angel of Air to clear669

it all away. Immediately, torrential rain
began to fall and continued for several
hours. All the rubbish was swept away.
It was such an unusual event that all thenewspapers mentioned it the next day.
But when the Master was angry, it wasnever for long. He always regained his
serene good humor with staggering speed.
In Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov’s view,
genuine psychic powers could beobtained, sustained and enhanced only
through love. He had always rejected
powers that were used to dazzle people
in order to dominate them. Those who
lived near his cottage, however, could not
fail to notice the mastery he exerted overhimself and, consequently, over the elements. The fact is that he knew how to
influence nature by using the infinite possibilities with which cosmic intelligence
has endowed creation.
An instance of this occurred toward theend of one summer in the 1970s. Forest
fires, which are frequent in the south of670

France, were raging in the region, and the
Bonfin was in danger from the flames
being blown in that direction. Night was
falling. Master Omraam Mikhaël, accompanied by others, climbed up to the Rockof Prayer to call on the Angels of Air andWater. ‘Leave me alone to pray,’ he told
them, and ten minutes later, out of a skythat had been cloudless only a moment
earlier, rain poured down and put out thefires. More than once over the years thisphenomenon was repeated, and when hespoke of it, it was always to say that hehad asked the Angels of Air and Water
to put out the fire, adding that one had
to conquer a great many things in oneself
before obtaining power over the elements.
The meaning is clear: all that exists innature also exists within each humanbeing. Each of the four elements can be
an agent of purification, but it is possible
to control the external elements only if
one has purified and learned to control
the ‘elements in oneself’. An effect671

obtained in this way is not properly
speaking a miracle; it is rather the resultof an individual’s personal mastery, comparable to the control exercised by a lion
tamer over wild animals, or by a snakecharmer who neutralizes the venom froma snake bite by force of will.
Springs, waterfalls, rivers, lakes andoceans represented for him forces that we
can all use in our conscious work as members of the human race. Whenever he wason a ship or in a plane, he would communicate with the intelligent beings that
inhabit the elements of water or air. ‘Weshould speak to animals, flowers, andspirits, to the naiads and sylphs,’ he used
to say; ‘We should ask them to work torealize the kingdom of God on earth.’
On one of his visits to the United States,
the house he stayed in was close to theocean. Every morning he went to thebeach for the sunrise and stayed there forhours engaged in his spiritual work. He
never explained what that work was, but

672

simply said, ‘I am sowing seeds.’ Later hesaid that he had been working spirituallywith the powers of water:
Water represents the universal fluid, theblood of the earth, and it has tremendous
powers. You must learn to have the rightattitude towards it, learn how to talk toit, how to create a bond with it, because
it can change certain elements within
you by diluting and dissolving them.
Water, you see, has power over certain
substances that fire is incapable ofchanging.6
If he was able to work in this way it was
because he was familiar with the bonds
uniting the different elements of the universe, which is truly a single organism.
It was because he lived in complete harmony with that organism that the elements responded to his intervention.
One of those who visited Arizona with
him in 1979 wrote in a diary:
Birds and animals were not afraid to673

approach him. When he was in the
country deer gathered to watch him meditating; squirrels came into his room andstayed there, sitting close to him. One
morning he came to find us, saying:‘Come quickly!’ We followed him out toa small open plateau. Looking around
him in surprise, he exclaimed, ‘They’re
not here any more!’ Then he called out,
and immediately a swallow arrived outof nowhere. ‘But you’re all alone,’ hesaid; ‘Go and fetch the others!’ The
swallow flew away, and within minutes,
a multitude of swallows was flying roundus. Another day, when countless swallows were circling round him, a golden
eagle came and hovered high overhead.
It was an impressive sight, and it happened again several times. These great
birds seemed to be more and more interested in him. One day while he was talking to us, an enormous eagle alighted
very close to him. It stood there motionless by his side for a long time. We wereabsolutely astounded. But you shouldhave seen the Master’s unaffected

67
6744

delight, his ingenuous wonder whenthings like this happened. It was asthough animals instinctively sensed in
him the harmony and love that could
restore humankind to a state of grace,that could recreate an earthly paradise.

Notes
1.

‘The Sun is in the Image and Likeness ofGod’, in The Splendour of Tiphareth.

2.
3.

September 2, 1960.
See his own account: ‘Light Enables us to
See and be Seen’ in Light is a living Spirit.

4.

Dialogue from talk of July 20, 1962.

5.

‘Knowledge: Heart and Mind’, in Know
Thyself: Jnana Yoga II.

6.

‘Three Kinds of Fire’, in The Splendour of
Tiphareth.

675

18

#

A New
Springtimeof Love
At every brotherhood convention for thelast twenty-seven years, Omraam
Mikhaël Aïvanhov had been present andhad spoken daily to the hundreds of participants. With unfailing regularity hehad given thousands of unrehearsed talks

for which he sought inspiration only inthe realms of the spirit. His method faced
him with a constant challenge. At the ageof eighty he was still stimulated by theunexpected, and as he said, ‘walking thetightrope’ in this way forced him to keep
advancing:
I can speak only if the subject is presented to me suddenly, as a suggestion
from the divine world. Then, in spite of
all the defects, in spite of my mistakes
in French and all the unscholarly language, it works.1
With the passing of the years, the Bonfin
became more and more beautiful. In the
1980s the summer conventions lasted
three months and included participantsfrom the five continents. At dawn, as
usual, they gathered on the Rock of
Prayer for meditation. The sun was
already high in the sky before the Masterturned and saluted them. Then, advancing slowly between the participants
crowding both sides of the path leading677

down to the Bonfin, he showed his greatlove for each one with a glance, a word,
or a brief recommendation, with a special
solicitude for the children who accompanied their parents. Those moments withhim on this rocky hill were filled withgreat sweetness. The ambience was lighthearted and gay because he wished it so.
And there was something magical in thescene when the time came to leave theRock and go down to the Bonfin: all thosechildren clustering around and runningto keep up with him. He was like a father
with a large brood, the patriarch of myriad spiritual offspring.
As always, he would do the exercises withthe participants, and later, as he entered
the hall and stood to face his audience,
they had the same impression of calm
control together with tremendous
energy. There were days when he seemed
to be inhabited by a mysterious presence:sitting perfectly still, his eyes closed, hetalked soberly and succinctly. At othertimes he expressed himself with great

678

vigor, like a prophet who had been sent
to shake his contemporaries out of theirwell-worn rut. Usually, however, hespoke to his spiritual family with the simplicity of a father speaking to his children.
His laughter, totally spontaneous andunaffected, expressed a profound zest forlife. ‘Life is beautiful,’ he would say, ‘andwe can make it more beautiful still if we
adopt the philosophy that teaches everything that is most luminous, pure andnoble.’ Through all the difficulties andtrials he had known in life, he hadachieved true joy. Speaking of the time
he had spent in prison, he could say withall sincerity: ‘There was someone within
me who was always singing.’ Perhaps thatwas why he could laugh so heartily andinfect those who heard him with that joy.
He could say, too: ‘In spite of all the disgrace heaped on me, no man is happierthan I.’ Those who knew him knew this,and as one of those who was close to him
in those years said:

679

His was the laughter of someone who ispure, free, happy, fraternal, and hardworking. Happy. Yes; happy to be onearth… and who could laugh when theoccasion arose. A man who is solely preoccupied with his own spiritual progress,
who is always looking forward to his next
meditation, does not laugh; he is tired ofbeing on earth. But a man who laughs
on this earth, a man of the stature of the
Master… that says it all. It was extraordinary to see how someone who had
worked with such asceticism to advancespiritually and who had endured somuch could be so happy. It was because
he was interested in others; he was content to be on earth, however hard it mightbe, because he was always seeking toreveal its beauty to others.
After his talks he could sometimes beseen writing a few words on a scrap of
paper. In this he was faithful to a habit
acquired in his youth of repeatedly writing or saying, in his mother tongue:680

Da bâde blagosloveno i sveto imeto vi vavveka Gospodi.—May your name, O Lordbe blessed and glorified throughout theages.
In the last years he reviewed the different
themes of his teaching one by one. One
might think that after forty-three years of
regular talks he would have exhausted
most of his subjects, but on the contrary,with the dynamic energy and humor
characteristic of him, he cast new light onthem. Rather than attempting a meticulous academic discourse, he would gradually explore his topic, shedding light on it
from different angles. His goal was always
to inflame hearts and create links
between those listening to him and thelight of the higher worlds.
Actually, the principal themes of thisteaching have always existed, for theirsource is in the highest spheres of theinvisible worlds, and they have beentaught by all of mankind’s most enlightened spiritual guides. In our times it has

681been given to Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov to bring them before us in his own
unique way. Every element in his teaching has its practical application. In words
so clear and simple that a child could
understand, he speaks of the inborn
potential possessed by all human beings
to become ‘perfect as the heavenly Father
is perfect’ and to transform the world inwhich they live. He speaks of the quest
for sanctity and perfection as the mostenthralling work there is.
And if he constantly uses the word
‘work’, it is because in his eyes every
aspect of our existence is meant to bemade use of: spiritual work is essential,
but equally important is work on thephysical plane. He insists that it is bymeans of the events of our daily lives that
we can arrive at perfection, that initiation
no longer takes place in temples but ineveryday life, and that all our faculties—our senses, emotions and activities—can serve as springboards in thisquest for perfection.

682

The methods he taught were realistic,
practical and effective. He explained how
to purify oneself in order to receive energies from a higher plane, how to bringgood out of evil, and how to bring oneself
into harmony with the four elements andlearn to use their power creatively.
He astonishes and vivifies us with his
unique perspectives on the meaning oflove and sexuality; on the great laws of‘cosmic morality’; on true purity―whichis to have a heart as transparent as crystal;on the yoga of the sun and of nutrition;and on the way in which mothers canwork to perfect the child in their womb.
And all this with a view to preparing theadvent of a true Golden Age forhumankind.
***
One of the most important aspects of
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov’s mission onearth was to lay the foundations of a truly
universal human family. His constant683

themes were brotherly understanding,peace and sharing. He was always trying
to make people understand the essential:that peace can be achieved on earth only
when genuine brotherhood reigns among
human beings. Peace has to reign in ourhearts before it can reign in families, individual countries and in the world as awhole.
Arriving in France on the eve of WorldWar II, he had undertaken the mission
entrusted to him by Peter Deunov in the
midst of the morass created by a senselesswar. He had to begin his teaching justwhen one of the worst genocides in history was being prepared, just when millions of human beings were about to besacrificed on the field of battle or exterminated in death camps.
And in the years that followed, when hehimself had endured the purifying fire ofcalumny and injustice, when he had lost
his good name and his freedom, he neverabandoned that task. Peter Deunov had

684

predicted: ‘When you have passed
through the narrow gate, you will be socompletely transformed that you will notrecognize yourself. You will shine like thesun, and the whole world will be attracted
to you.’ And now he had become a spiritual guide who spoke not only to one raceor nation, but to men and women fromthe five continents. He was seeking toestablish a universal civilization:
My only concern is brotherhood. One
family… throughout the world. […] The
Universal White Brotherhood is preparing something very important. It hascome to work for something which has
never been in the minds of human beingsin the past. They were thinking of otherthings: of how to become clairvoyant;
how to obtain psychic powers; how tounite with God. And they forgot about
the earth; they completely abandoned
the world. So many initiates, gurus andsaints were interested in only one thing:
how to save their own souls. And theworld was left to disorder, to poverty…2685

Now, in the Age of Aquarius, the time
has come to build a world of beauty, love,and brotherhood for all God’s children.
‘We are working here for the wholeworld, so that all may understand that
only true brotherhood will bring peace.’
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov often
referred to the image of the two triangles
combined in the Seal of Solomon: he said
that the teachings of India and Tibet werebased on the triangle that points up, andthat it was now time to take inspirationfrom the one that points down, in otherwords, to bring the kingdom of God
down to earth:
Our teaching aims to prepare people whoknow how to work on earth and organize
things, while at the same time, striving for
an ideal that must become more and morea reality. In the future, human beings will
never lose sight of either aspect of theirlife. In this way they will become one
with their ideal. We must be fused into

686

one with our ideal—God—without letting go of our sense of the earth.3
His ‘sense of the earth’ was that it should
be a world of beauty, a marvelous gardenof Eden. He pictured a peaceful, tolerantsociety of reconciliation, in which all hishuman brothers and sisters throughout
the world would be spiritually nourishedand even materially prosperous; a society
which would allow everyone to live in ahappiness beyond words and to develop
all their inherent potential, from thephysical possibilities of their bodies tothe most sublime potential of their subtle
bodies. And they must work towards thisideal by striving for harmony in themselves and in their relations with others,by an attitude of friendship and fraternal
assistance. As heirs to the divine world it
is in their power to give concrete reality
to all the spiritual treasures which exist
for all, which are within reach of all of us.
In a time when so many nations were stillat war with each other, when terrorism

687

ravaged whole countries, he continued toinsist that it is by establishing peace inour own hearts, in our family and in society that we can achieve peace in theworld, because, as he said, there is peace
when the microcosm is in harmony withthe macrocosm: ‘He who is at peace withhimself is at peace with the whole universe.’
He continued to talk about the role ofwomen in the transformation of thehuman race. He had long asserted thatwomen possessed a reservoir of extraordinary substances capable of realizing
Heaven’s designs, but that for the mostpart they were unaware of it:Once they decide to dedicate themselves
to Heaven, so that all that marvelous
substance may be used for a divine purpose, we shall see pockets of light bursting out over the whole face of the earth,and everybody will speak the language ofthe new culture, the language of the new688

life, the language of divine love. What
are women waiting for?4
The example of spiritual galvanoplasty,
based on the feminine powers of formation and transformation, continued to be
one of the themes he most liked todevelop. Within the spiritual family of
the brotherhood couples tried to live inharmony and mutual respect. They did
their best to follow his recommendations
for an ideal way of life, particularly during
the period of gestation, in order to imbue
their children with beauty and peace. But
this was all done in the utmost simplicity.
His brotherhood was not the preserve ofan élite; it was a family of ordinary men
and women in which each one was free
to learn, to grow, to advance on the pathof perfection, to work for the kingdom of
God on earth. It was a seed which was
destined to grow into a great tree, an
endeavor which could become a marvelous, perfectly balanced planetary civilization, modeled on a spiritual, angelic
civilization.

689

The kingdom of God which he soardently desired to see established onearth is a veritable Golden Age which hecalled ‘the new springtime of love’. It is
not so much a physical realization as an
inner state that reflects all created beauty;
it is the reign of love, joy and peace, andit can become a concrete reality on earth
thanks to a truly fraternal spirit. His one
preoccupation was to prepare the way forthis reality, and to gain the collaborationof his disciples in his work. ‘And,’ as heexplained, ‘before the reign of wisdom,justice, and love could be established onearth, those who looked forward to it
must realize a “synarchy” within themselves, a way of life founded on the harmonious alliance of heart, mind and will.’
One morning in January 1981, at the Bonfin, he spoke at length about the meaning
and beauty of this ideal form of government of self and of the world. He asserted
that the era of synarchy had alreadybegun, and that one day the whole world
would live together in love and brother-690

hood. Immediately after this talk—which
he gave by exception at seven o’clock inthe morning—a brilliant rainbow
appeared above the Bonfin, as though theheavens were confirming his vision of anobler humanity.
Over the years, Omraam Mikhaël had
often spoken about synarchy. In his earliest talks in Paris he had referred to asecret kingdom whose existence was
known in a few countries, particularly in
India, China and Tibet. Already, in 1938,
he had begun to mention the name ofAgartha and had spoken of its great
libraries and the keys to initiation hidden
there. He described it as a world in which
the wisdom of the great initiates had been
kept alive.
In The Mission of India to the West,Saint-Yves d’Alveydre talks about
Agartha, the city of initiates which is
25,000 years old, in which all the sacredscriptures are preserved, in which the
inhabitants live a life of perfection.5691

Today, as he explained, the true powerof synarchy lies in kindness, purity, lightand love, not in the domination of others.
‘The leaders,’ he said, ‘must be models of
integrity and justice. As for you, if you
give the priority to the divine principle, if
you feel and act according to the precepts
of initiatic science, you will be living insynarchy.’
He maintained that the great Masters had
always tried to get human beings tounderstand the meaning of synarchy, andthat Jesus himself had taught its principles. For the inhabitants of Agartha, he
added, all the great spiritual teachings
come from God: Buddhists, Muslims,
and Christians are all children of thesame family. They are all destined toinherit the kingdom of God. ‘As long as
human beings oppose each other in thename of faith,’ he declared, ‘it means thatthey do not possess true faith.’
At this period of his life he was moreinterested than ever in the correspon-692

dences between objects, thoughts, feelings and actions. Modern technologicaladvances fascinated him and offered him
many new analogies with the spiritual
life. He often used these analogies togreat effect when explaining to his disciples how to exploit their innate powers
to achieve self-transformation and exert abeneficial influence on the world.
The year before, and not for the first time,
he had given a long talk on the laser, its
symbolism, and its spiritual applications.
He had explained that if a great many
people concentrated at the same time onlight, they could produce a powerful
beam of light and accomplish a work ofpeace and love. For him this was one of
the most beautiful exercises, one that heloved to do with his brotherhood andwhich was linked to the music of light,
the music of the universe.
From a study of his talks, it is clear thatthe ecstasy in which he was plunged into
the music of the spheres was at the source693

of his constant endeavor to create harmony in his own being and to radiate itout to the whole world. The revelation,
received at the age of seventeen, of thestructure of the universe led him to see
God as the great conductor of the cosmic
orchestra, as the composer who has given
a particular note, a particular voice toeach of his creatures. Ever mindful of theperfect harmony of the song of the universe, he had studied its structure on thearchetypal level, and all that he taught
was based on that prodigious organization:
Well, from now on you know that I draw
everything I tell you in my lectures fromthe region in which I heard the Heavenly
Harmony, the Music of the Spheres. In
fact it is this Music that explains everything to me, although, if the truth be told
there is not really so much that needs
to be explained. All one has to do is toachieve this harmony, and in an instanteverything becomes clear and one under-694

stands God’s wisdom, one understands
peace, one understands love.6
His conception of education had always
attributed great importance to the role ofmusic, and he often advised parents tobring up their children surrounded bymusic. At the Bonfin, he was never happier than when listening to a little open
air concert given by the younger children.
Each time, he was moved by their fresh
voices and the trust in their eyes, and by
the enthusiasm with which they played
the violin or made a triangle chime.
When they gave him their drawings, heexclaimed at the beauty of the broadly
smiling suns or the multicolored trees.
By encouraging them to do even better,
he sought to stimulate in them a taste for
perfection. Small children ran spontaneously to him, and even babies seemed
to want to talk to him.
His attitude toward children had always
been one of respect for their natural695

development. In his view, it was not therole of the brotherhood to educate them:at some point, they would have to maketheir own decisions about their orientation. At the same time, however, heinvited parents to bring their young children to the Bonfin during the holidays
so that they might benefit from the climate of beauty and brotherhood: ‘This,’he said, ‘is the true pedagogy of the
future: this attitude, this silence, and theexample of their parents.’ He himself
always encouraged children to do everything well so that their spiritual life,
firmly anchored in earthly reality, would
vivify their role in society:‘You can be better and more intelligent
than anyone. You can do good and be an
example of brotherliness for yourfriends… And you must complete yourstudies… so as to be useful one day.’
Always attentive to the events of histimes, he often talked to young people
about how to transform themselves696

before attempting to transform society.
He had not forgotten the turbulent energies and impassioned searching of his
own youth. As Peter Deunov had once
told him, he was the demolisher par excellence of stale, outworn ideas. At the sametime he knew just how important it was
to steer the energies of the young toward
life and away from violence and death.
One day, referring to the protest movements among the young—such as that of
the hippies in the United States, whose
chosen symbol expressed an ideal ofpeace and love—he said that they had
been confusedly seeking universal brotherhood and were a manifestation of theage of Aquarius.
In spite of his sympathy for the aspirations of the young, however, he did not
attempt to make things easy for them.
Rather, he taught them how to channel
their energies and aspirations and givethem concrete expression. Aware of theirprofound dissatisfaction, he urged themto recognize that they would find true697strength only in themselves, in their ability to govern themselves and behave with
nobility and magnanimity. Explaining
the immutable laws of cause and effect,
he encouraged them to adapt themselvesto the demands of society in order tobecome capable of transforming it fromwithin.
With vivid examples he would explain tothem the moral laws of the cosmos: thefirst of which is the ‘law of recordings’,
by virtue of which everything that happens in the world is recorded in nature’s
memory. Second, the ‘law of agriculture’,
which determines the results of humanendeavor, for we reap only what we havesown. Last, the ‘law of resonance’, which
sends our words back to us: ‘I love you’, or‘I hate you’. And these laws are effectiveon the higher planes as well: the negative
thoughts we allow to slip into us attract
noxious elements which end by poisoning us. Just as everything is recorded innature, our actions are imprinted in our
individual human memory and continue698

to torture us or to bring us joy. Hence theimportance for human beings to behave
in such a way as to create new recordings
within themselves, to create new, morepositive imprints.
***
In June 1981, Omraam Mikhaël saw his
homeland again. Forty-four years after
leaving Bulgaria, he was invited as aneminent man of letters to attend the festivities marking the twelfth centenary of
the foundation of the Bulgarian State. He
was received with great courtesy at Sofia
and took part in several activities.
Izgrev, the brotherhood estate in Sofia at
which he had spent so much time in his
youth, no longer existed. Only one small
plot had been preserved in the town, andit was here that Peter Deunov was buried.
His tomb was surrounded by roses andother flowers, planted each year by members of the Bulgarian brotherhood.
Omraam Mikhaël visited the tomb699

briefly, went to a few of the places he had
loved best in the region of Rila, and thenspent a week in Varna with his family.
As he said on his return, those few daysin his country were inevitably full of contradictory impressions, for although he
was glad to see his family and visit thehaunts of his youth, the atmosphere hehad known in the past could no longer befound.
The following year he returned to India.
During his previous visit a sadhu had told
him, ‘You have lived here in the past, andyou will return’, and now, twenty-two
years later, that prediction came true. In
February 1982, friends welcomed him at
New Delhi. Here he met an old guru
known as Madrasi Baba through whom
he received important revelations. Thisguru was a learned man who had studied
medicine in England and was now recognized by a large number of disciples as an
exceptionally gifted clairvoyant. On see-700

ing Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov for the
first time, he exclaimed:‘Master, you appeared to me in a visionfifteen years ago. I saw you descending
from the sun. You revealed certain truths
to me. I saw you exactly as you are now.
Five years later you spoke to me again,
and I am so astonished to see that you
are exactly the same. On your forehead I
see the symbol that designates a Brahma
Rishi, the highest of all symbols.’
After this first meeting the guru visited
him often. At one point Omraam
Mikhaël told him of the mysterious statement made by Nityananda in 1959 about
he name he had borne in a far-distant
incarnation in India. Greatly intrigued bythis, Madrasi Baba undertook his own
research in some specialized libraries andfound texts foretelling the incarnation ofa solar Rishi in the era known as ‘Kali
Yuga’—the era in which we are living
today. The prophecy foretold that hewould be born in the eighth month of701

gestation, that the initial letter of his firstname would be M, and that of his second
name A. It also said that during a stayin the ‘land of the devas’, the name
Omraam, after the sixth incarnation of
the Hindu Avatar Rama, would be given
to him unexpectedly by three sages.
These extraordinary revelations weremade in successive stages, for Madrassi
Baba, not content with his initial discoveries, extended his research to otherlibraries. In the meantime, Omraam
Mikhaël’s hosts invited him to stay inanother house they owned in the mountains.
Here, his mornings were spent in solitude. At first, when he joined them formeals, his companions hoped to hear him
talk about elevated subjects, but in fact
he said almost nothing. Taking a few
moments to touch some of the beautiful
objects on the table gently and with greatlove, he commented: ‘When the experience one is living through is very com-702

pelling, it is best to talk about little
things.’ His radiance was intense. Many
people came and knelt at his feet, asking
him to bless them and their homes.
The house in which he was staying wasin a beautiful spot in the Himalayas at analtitude of more than 8,000 feet. It was
spring, the orchards were in flower, andthe great forests of conifers and rhododendrons spoke of the power of life. Oneof his traveling companions rememberedthose days:
The Master told us every day to express
gratitude a thousand times over. He himself never ceased to thank heaven. He
told us: ‘Listen to the silence… Try to listen to the silence!’ He explained that the
coming of the kingdom of God was not aquestion of time but of space. And I mustsay that when we were watching thosemagnificent sunrises in the Himalayas,
we had the feeling that the kingdom of
God was truly close at hand.

703

Back in France the following summer, hespoke of all he had received in India, saying that if he was at last talking openly
about his mission, it was because he had
been given the right to do so. At the sametime he repeated that he had not yet
begun his real work, that all he had done
so far had been ‘no more than minor preliminaries’. Never, he insisted, had he felt
himself to be adequately prepared for his
work; he continued night and day to prepare himself. In his eyes, nothing wasmore important than to work, first andforemost, on himself: ‘I say that I have notyet begun my real work because I havefound that it helps me to advance.’ It wasalso one way of developing humility. As
he said: ‘Pride is the lichen that follows
a human being even to the top of themountain,’ and it is important continually to practice ways of defending oneself
against it.
Paradoxically, it was perhaps his constantwork to achieve humility that enabled
him to speak of his mission in terms that704

left no doubt as to its universality. It wasat this period that this characteristic of
his mission seemed to come into its own.
As he explained one day, it was the invisible world that counseled him to devote
less time to his talks so that he could befree to focus on certain specific places on
the planet, for, as he said: ‘You have toknow which button to push to open thedoor.’ It seems to have been importantfor him to be physically present in certain
places for this work.
In the countries where there were brotherhood centers, he always spent timewith his brothers and sisters. In theautumn of 1982 he was in England, where
he stayed for several months in the homeof the couple in charge of the brotherhood. After the New Year he traveled to
Egypt with them and spent time in a small
port lying between the Red Sea and thedesert. In the mornings he walked far out
into the sand dunes to contemplate therising sun, returning wrapped in a supernatural aura of silence and space that his705

disciples were careful not to disturb. He
loved the stark simplicity of the desert
where the sun was absolute monarch. In
his eyes it was a privileged region, frequented by benign spirits which madespiritual work easier. Some mornings hepreferred the sea, and as the tide drew
out, uncovering the great rocks along theshore, he waded out and settled down on
one of them to meditate, as though on an
island: ‘All around there was nothing but
water. It was truly extraordinary!’
As always, after these excursions hereturned to the Bonfin or Izgrev to join
his brothers and sisters who were waitingfor him at the different conventions, but
he was soon called away again on his pilgrimage through the world. During his
absences the brotherhood was always in
his mind. He often spoke of it as ‘my wife’and worked for it unflaggingly. During
these years, although he accepted that hemust remain with those who followed histeaching, that he must continue to talkto them and awaken them to life, he said706

more than once: ‘If the brotherhood were
not there, I would abandon everything
and settle in the Himalayas or the Andes.’In April 1984, he gave several talks in the
United States. In Los Angeles, disciples
had gathered from many directions tohear him speak, bringing their friends
with them. The Master entered the room,
greeted his guests and then sat down andclosed his eyes. The minutes passed insilence. Gradually his audience realizedthat the talk they had looked forward towas not going to materialize, that MasterOmraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov did notintend to speak, but would only meditate
with them. At last he stood up, his gaze
rested on each one in turn, and with afinal salute he left the room. Many of
those present were deeply disappointed,
but for some the experience was a veritable revelation: never had they known
moments of such intensity in the presence of a spiritual Master.
Mysteriously, he had chosen to do707

this—something he had long wished to
do—with a group that was unpreparedand distinctly heterogeneous. But perhaps he knew that among those present
were some who were well able to unite
their thoughts to his and collaborate in
his work with the light.
On another occasion, having been
invited to speak on a television programin Los Angeles, he talked about peace,describing it as neither a thing nor avirtue, but a state of consciousness:
Everyone clamors for peace, but they do
not know what it is. They are at war
within themselves: their hearts andminds pull in different directions. Aslong as people have not achieved peacein themselves, they will never achieve it
outwardly. It is not possible unless one
is capable of harnessing all one’s inner
powers in the service of an ideal.7
After his stay in the United States hewent on to visit Canada. He was eighty-

708

four, and his energy was still astonishing.
In June he talked to audiences of a thousand people; in one two-day period hegave seven talks in different places. A
French brother who had followed him in
his travels commented:
It is very striking to see how the Master’s
universal mission seemed to attain its
true dimensions during these last few
years of his life. It is as though he weredeveloping a new and different form ofenergy during his travels throughout theplanet, particularly his repeated visits toNorth America. On his return home
after several weeks or months in Canadaor the United States, he seemed in some
way renewed, filled with enthusiasm forthe new mentality he had discovered
there. It is as though he were slightly distancing himself not only from the typically Slavonic mysticism of his earlyyears and from the French intellectualism of the ‘40s and ‘50s, but also from theintensely initiatic period which began for
him in 1948 when he endured the great-709

est trial of his life and culminated in 1959
during his stay in India… Now, without
forgetting or repudiating any of that, heseemed to transmute all these different
aspects into a practical simplicity moreevident than ever… to the point that one
could glimpse it even in his photos. In histalks he laid less emphasis on the intellectual aspects of his message, concentrating more on the everyday aspects oflife and the sheer joy of living. This
aspect was not only astonishing, it was
truly captivating and stimulating when
seen in the context of universality, in thecontext of the new ‘present’ that is justover the horizon.
In May of the following year, he went one
last time to Québec, where he consecrated a rural property newly acquired by
the brotherhood. He was enchanted bythis one-time golfcourse with its grassy
slopes, its seven small lakes, and thesuperb view toward the East where thesun could be seen rising beyond the far
distant mountains of the United States.

71
7100

He named it Blagoslovénié, ‘fullness of
blessings’. Here, as always, he spent many
hours talking to those who asked for a
private interview. But he also took thetime to commune with nature, to pray forlong hours among the trees, calling down
heaven’s blessings on the center.

Notes
1.

‘Lire et écrire I’, in La Pédagogie initiatique II.
(Our translation).

2.

December 9, 1968.

3.

March 25, 1958.

4.

‘Woman’s Role in the New Culture’, inLove and Sexuality.

5.

June 7, 1942.

6.

‘Harmony II’, in Harmony.

7.

From his own account of the incident in
his talk of August 11, 1985.

711

19

#

I Am
With YYou
ou
Even
More
Than
BeforeFor some years already, Omraam Mikhaël
Aïvanhov had been preparing for his
final departure from this earth. Some ofthose who were closest to him during thisperiod confided to us that he knew, in
his soul, that his present incarnation was
drawing to a close. Indeed, it is clear fromhis messages to the brotherhood during
the last year of his life, that he neededa time of quietude in which to prepare
himself as well as possible for his passage
into the next world and to complete his
spiritual mission.
When he returned to France at the endof June 1985, after one last visit to North
America, he curtailed many of his activities, gave no more interviews andanswered no more personal correspondence. During the summer convention hegave only one weekly talk, on Sundays.
The feast of the Archangel Mikhaël on
September 29 was celebrated in an atmosphere of special intensity. As they gathered around the fire in the starlight and713

listened to the Master Omraam Mikhaël’s
talk, none of those present could have
known that there would be no more. As
always on this special day, he spoke of fireand light: ‘Fire is the greatest of all mysteries…’ In this, his last talk, as in his firstpublic lecture in 1938, he touched on theprincipal themes that had always been
central to his teaching: fire and water,
good and evil, the yoga of nutrition andthe yoga of the sun.
Of fire, he said:
Visible fire is the symbol of an invisible
reality. By our love, our soul and our consciousness, we try to unite with celestial
fire. This is why it is important to contemplate fire. We must ask Agni, theAngel of Fire, to inflame us with thecelestial fire of divine love, so that wemay burn with that love; so that wherever we go, we may create the new life byradiating and emanating that warmthand that love.

714

After a few minutes of meditation, hespoke again of the spirit of brotherhoodand unity, of the harmony that is so necessary to every organism, whether it bethat of an individual or of the universe.
His closing words were:I am always with you, even if I am notphysically present. I am with you evenmore than before.
In October he withdrew completely. Hisparticipation in that spiritual feast day
had been his last encounter with thebrotherhood on the visible plane. During
the whole of 1986, although he preparedhimself in solitude for his departure forthe worlds of light, his thoughts
remained in close contact with each of his
brothers and sisters. His spiritual presence in the brotherhood was almost tangible.
The messages of encouragement he sent
to them during this last year of his life
were intended to help them gradually715become accustomed to his physicalabsence. He asked them to channel theirlove so as to become examples for others
and to direct all their energies towards ‘agoal that would benefit the whole humanfamily’. He begged them not to be distressed by his absence but to work totransform themselves, and he made it
clear that it was necessary for him towithdraw from the sphere of earth inorder to work on other levels, that henceforth his ‘true work’ lay elsewhere. Again
and again he assured his brothers and sisters of his great love for them, asserting
forcefully:
I have told you repeatedly, and I continue to say it: if we are to achieve theGolden Age, we must stop living separately and in isolation. Alone, even themost highly evolved being can achieve
nothing. Now the time has come for thecollectivity to achieve fulfillment. […] A
new day is dawning for the world. The
Sun of Love, Wisdom, and Truth will
shine as never before.

716

At this time a member of the brotherhood who had known Omraam Mikhaël
Aïvanhov since he first arrived in France
wrote:
Gradually, as he began to travel all over
the world, he seemed to distance himself
a little from the brotherhood he hadfounded in France. During those lastyears he made it clear to us that his mission went far beyond the personal problems of a limited group of individuals;
his spiritual work was for the benefit of
all beings on this planet. And when hespoke of the extremely difficult times thatlay ahead for the world and exhorted us
to prepare ourselves for them, it was obvious that he knew that by then he would
not be with us by then.
Already, in September 1984, he had
begun to make veiled allusions to his
departure, saying occasionally: ‘I won’t
always be here…’ The following year, toa person who had been working closelywith him for a long time, he said: ‘What717

if we left at Christmas?’ When she smiled
and replied that Christmas was not a very
good moment for travelling, and that it
might not be the best time for him, he
immediately talked of something else. It
was only later that she understood what
he had said to her subconscious mind.
All those who were in contact with him
during that last year have borne witness
to his unfailing love as well as to his total
acceptance of the state of a physical vehicle which was nearing the end of its journey. As one of them said: ‘He had been
carrying an immense burden… He wasquite simply worn out.’
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov departed
this world on Christmas day, that great
cosmic celebration that brings a spiritual
renewal to humanity each year. Since theday of his illumination at the age of fifteen, he had worked with all his might torealize the kingdom of God on earth, but
he could be truly effective only by abandoning his physical body and regaining718

total freedom of action in the invisible
world.
Death, he had always said, is birth on ahigher plane:
Death is a change of place, a voyage, atransformation, one energy transformed
into another energy. Death does notexist, there is only life. 1
On December 25, 1986, after a night inwhich his body had grown gradually
weaker, but in full consciousness of his
passage into the beyond, Omraam
Mikhaël Aïvanhov left this earth. In
accordance with his express wishes, thenews was delayed for three days, for hehad let it be understood that he had
important work to do on the invisible
planes during this period, and that his
body should be left in peace.
On December 31, a number of people
gathered at the Bonfin for a last farewell.
The silence was extraordinary, a silence
in which each one tried to understand719

what his departure meant and to accept
the fact of his physical absence. The roomin which he lay was suffused with an
extraordinary sense of life. Those present
were deeply moved to see that he looked
so young; it was as though he were peacefully asleep, and a very subtle perfume
pervaded the air. They could not help but
think of his own words about the deathof great spiritual Masters: ‘When theyleave their physical body, their body ofglory continues to be present and radiant,continues to vivify all who come in contact with it.’That same day, throughout the world,
thousands of members of his brotherhood were united to his spirit in prayer
and meditation. In many of the brotherhood centers, they gathered to re-read hislast messages and to give thanks – a thousand thanks – as he had so often recommended.
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov departed forhigher realms on Christmas day, this720most significant of days on which Christ,
the cosmic Spirit, pursues his work by
giving all God’s children the Light thatcan warm them and renew and illuminate
their lives.
December 25 marks the day when naturesees the birth of the Christ-principle, thelife, light and warmth that is destinedto transform everything. Rejoicing is also
going on in heaven that day: the angels
are singing, and all the saints, the great
masters and initiates are gathered
together to pray, glorify the Almighty,
and celebrate the birthday of Christ who
is truly born today in the universe. 2

Notes
1. The Key to the problems of Existence,
Chapter 18.
2.

‘Au commencement était le Verbe… ‘,Chapter 6.

721

AW
Word
ord
from theAuthorOmraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov neverattempted to tell the story of his whole
life, but in his desire to stimulate his listeners to pursue their own spiritualresearch, he often spoke of his personal
experiences.
In the many talks he gave between 1938
and 1985 (more than 5,000) he often spokeof his youth, of the important events of
his life, of his own spiritual endeavors, aswell as of his most intimate thoughts andfeelings.

Far from setting himself up as an example, he often seemed to belittle or laughat himself, knowing that those who werecapable of doing so would grasp theessence of his message. He did not claim
to have been a model child or youth. On
the contrary, he often called attention to
his faults and errors, insisting that we canall improve and evolve, whatever ourpoint of departure. And when hespoke—as he sometimes did—of certain
exceptional mystical or psychic experiences, he would add in a tone of gravity: ‘I
am telling you the truth. I know that theinvisible world is listening to me; I cannot
lie to you.’In writing not only of the events of hislife but also of his thoughts and feelings,
I have adhered strictly to his own
accounts. Even the dialogues are in his
own words. The single exception to thisrule is his conversation with the lady he
met in a park in Pau, which was related to
us by a witness.

723

At times it was difficult to pinpoint thedate of the mystical experiences of hischildhood and adolescence. His purposein speaking of them was to instruct andenlighten; he was not unduly concerned
about incidental details, and he sometimes indicated a different age for thesame experience. Time seems to have had
little importance for him. The experiences of the soul are outside of time; they
exist in the eternal present. All that matters is the reality of the event, the repercussions it triggers in the soul and theheart, and the bonds it creates with thehigher worlds. After contrasting andcomparing many different accounts ofevents, I chose the chronological order hementioned most often and which seemed
the most logical.

Acknowledgements
I would like to express here my heartfelt
thanks to all those—too numerous to be
counted—who have contributed in theirdifferent ways to the completion of this724

book: by giving me long and repeatedinterviews; by typing, copying, searching,and correcting texts; by contributing
financially or accompanying me on myresearch in France, Switzerland, and Bulgaria. Special thanks to Violet for her
constant and invaluable support, to Vassil and Ani, to Dolia, Blagost, Maurice
and Giselle, to Cherry and Norman, to
Véronique, Chantal, Yollande, and Jocelyne.

725

Chronology

1900, January 31

Birth in Serbtzi, Macedonia.

1907, Spring

Destruction of village.
Departure for Varna.

1908, October 3

Death of Mikhaël’s father.

1909

Reads Proverbs.

1915

Illumination.

1917, WinterFirst meeting with Peter
Deunov, Varna.

1923

University studies in Sofia.

1930

Teaches in secondary school.

1934 or 1935

College Principal.

1937, July 22

Arrival in France.

727

1938, January 29

First public talk.

1944, Christmas

Publication of first collectionof talks.

1944, December 27

Death of Peter Deunov aged 80.

1948, January 21

Arrested on false charge.

1948, July 17

Sentenced to 4 years in prison.

1950, March

Released from prison.

1950, March 19

Renews contact withbrotherhood.
First summer convention

1953, July 8at the Bonfin.
1959, February 11

Departure for India.

728

1959, June 17

First meeting with Babaji.

1960, February 9

Return from India.

1960, September 28

Rehabilitation by Courtof Appeals.

1961, Spring

Visit to England.

1962, May

Visit to Spain.

1964, May

Visit to Italy, Greece, Serbtzi.
Meets his mother.
Visit to Sweden, Holland,

1965, Spring

Germany.
1965, June

Visit to Spain.

1967, May & June

Visit to United-States & Canada

729

1968, May & June

Visit to Israel.

1969, May

Visit to Greece & Turkey.

1970, April 25

Visit to Japan, Sri Lanka,
Hong Kong.
Visit to Morocco,

1971, May 6

Egypt, Ethiopia, Lebanon,
Greece, Yugoslavia.
Fourth Esoteric Convention

1971, September 18

in Berlin.
1973, August 5

Death of Dolia.

1974, April

Publication of Complete
Works Vol. 1
Complete Works sold1975

in bookstores in France.

730

First translations of1976

Complete Works.
Inter-religious convention

1977, May & Junein Paris.
1978, December 17

Visit to United-States, Antilles.

1981, Spring

Visit to Canada, United-States.

1981, June 18

Visit to Bulgaria.

1981, October 12

Visit to United-States.
Public talks.

1981, December 10

Visit to Thailand.

1982, February 5

Visit to India.

1982, November

Visit to England, Scotland.

731

1983, January

Visit to Egypt.

1983, April 28

Visit to Scandinavia.

1984, January 18

Visit to United-States.

1984, May 6

Visit to Canada. Public talks.

1985, January 25

Visit to United-States,
Mexico, Canada.
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

1986, December 25

leaves this world.

732

SourcesandBibliography
Sources
1. Talks and messages by Omraam
Mikhaël Aïvanhov.
2. Reminiscences of members of
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov’sfamily, neighbors, friends, andmembers of the brotherhood.

Bibliography
Prosveta: Complete W
Works:
orks:(Titles in italics are not yet available in
English)Vol. 1—The Second Birth: Love, Wisdom, Truth.
Vol. 2—Spiritual Alchemy.
Vol. 6—Harmony.
Vol. 7—The Mysteries of Yesod.
Vol. 9—Au commencement était leVerbe.
Vol. 10—The Splendour of Tiphareth.
Vol. 11—The Key to the Problems of Existence.
Vol. 12—Cosmic Moral Law.
Vol. 14—Love and Sexuality I.

734

Vol. 16—Hrani Yoga, le sens alchimiquede la nutrition.
Vol. 17—Know Thyself: Jnana Yoga I.
Vol. 18—Know Thyself: Jnana Yoga II.
Vol. 23—La nouvelle religion: solaire etuniverselle.
Vol. 26—A New Dawn II.
Vol. 28—La pédagogie initiatique II.
Vol. 29—On the Art of Teaching.
Vol. 32—The Fruits of the Tree of Life:
The Cabbalistic Tradition.

Prosveta: Izvor collection:
No. 201—Toward a Solar Civilization.
No. 203—Education Begins Before Birth.
No. 204—The Yoga of Nutrition.

735

No. 207—What is a Spiritual Master?
No. 212—Light is a Living Spirit.
No. 213—Man’s Two Natures, Humanand Divine.
No. 214—Hope for the World: Spiritual
Galvanoplasty.
No. 216—The Living Book of Nature.
No. 219—Man’s Subtle Bodies and Centers.
No. 220—The Zodiac, Key to Man and to
the Universe.
No. 223—Creation: Artistic and spiritual.
No. 224—The Powers of Thought.
No. 225—Harmony and Health.
No. 226—The Book of Divine Magic.
No. 228—Looking into the Invisible.

736

No. 230—The Book of Revelations—A
Commentary.
No. 232—The Mysteries of Fire andWater.
No. 233—Youth: Creators of the Future.
No. 235—In Spirit and in Truth.

Éditions Izgrev, Paris, 1946:(In the name of Michaël Ivanoff): Les septlacs de Rila, Preface by Alfred Laumonier.
Others:Corbin, Henry, ‘Le songe visionnaire en
spiritualité islamique’ in Visage de lumière,
NRF Gallimard, Paris, 1967.
Jean du Bonfin (Pen name of André
Jahan), Qui est le Maître Omraam Mikhaël
Aïvanhov ?, Éditions Prosveta, Fréjus,1995.
Svezda (Pen name of Stella Bellemin), Vie

737

et enseignement du Maître Omraam Mikhaël
Aïvanhov en France, Éditions Prosveta,
Fréjus, 1992.
Disciples of the esoteric school foundedby Peter Deunov, Paneurythmie.
Le Kybalion, Bibliothèque eudiaque, Paris,
1917.

By the same author:
The Beautiful Story of a Master (A Biography for the young), Prosveta
The Gypsy Queen (Folk tales), Prosveta
A New Consciousness, (An essay), Amazon

Original titles in French:
La vie d’un Maître en Occident: Omraam
Mikhaël Aïvanhov, AdA
La belle histoire d’un Maître, Prosveta738

La Reine Tzigane, Prosveta
Une nouvelle conscience, AdA
Le temps de la colombe, AdA
L’autre rive de la vie, AdA
La naissance de l’aube, CreateSpace,
Amazon739