Contemporary History of the Teaching

 

1972-1994

The history of the Teaching is very long. It goes back to such a depth of antiquity that it is even hard to imagine. Its history is very rich in events and vivid personalities, which we can imagine quite vividly from the fragmentary information and episodes contained in the pandect — but it has never been written in full. And it is hardly likely ever to be written. Archaeological and other scientific sources are of little help here — again, because of the profound antiquity of the events we are interested in. Unless one day a method is developed to reliably read large volumes of information from the tablets and record it, or something similar..

Well, the future will show. For now, we can do what is in our power: to write the history of the last revelation. That is, of what is happening not only before our eyes, but directly with us. I say this both for myself and for those who will come after. For the Teaching will never again disappear — and this means that we are now at the very beginning of the final stage of its existence. A stage which also promises to be quite long — at least several thousand years, until the departure of humanity. All this time the history of the Teaching will be unfolding and being written, which will also be the history of the final — and main — stage of humanity’s existence as a rational race.

For the moment we have less than three decades behind us — even if we count not from the day the Teaching was founded, but from the beginning of the revelation. Although, if we count from my birth, as the founder, then it will already be almost fifty years. Significantly more — though still just a drop in the ocean compared with what lies ahead.

This is what may be called the modern history of the Teaching. A detailed account of it does not exist yet either, since “chronicle-keeping” has not yet been established among us. Simply, there has been no time for it. Someday this will be done. In the meantime, something can simply be told about it. For example, one can write a very brief account, literally in a few pages. It will consist of three parts. The first will follow below, right after this preamble, and will cover the period from my birth to the beginning of the revelation. Its content will be the main moments of my life in those years, as part of the history of the Teaching and as what had a huge influence on its course. The way everything is going now, it is going so because the beginning was just like that. Essentially, that period of my life itself is the prologue to the subsequent, most important events.

***

I was born in 1972, in the city of Homieĺ, then still in the Soviet Union. In the attached photo one can see the neighbourhood where our family lived at that time. My birth was preceded by a long prehistory, including a past life and the afterlife. This has already been told separately, and I shall not repeat it now. I will only say that during the afterlife I was preparing for this birth. But the preparation was meant to play the role of potential for the future — for after birth everything, naturally, was hidden in the depths of memory. This is how it is said about this in the pandect, in the words addressed to me by my Teacher, Emere: “You came where you came — for such is the course of your being. You forgot yourself and the world, as everyone forgets. You knew much; but others know only with reason — you, however, knew with reason and with feelings. Having come, you saw nothing intelligible to reason, and went from the beginning” (Eosphor II, 17–20). In other words, at first what I carried within myself did not have a noticeable effect on my life. No innate (that is, acquired in the past life and afterlife) knowledge was revealed, and I had to begin learning, in fact, from scratch.

Even in infancy something happened to me, for which no satisfactory explanation has been found to this day. In the quoted text it is said only the following: “You know what happened to you: great currents are often harsh” (Eosphor II, 21). The essence of it was that one day I was found in the morning lying motionless, completely paralysed. Despite several diagnoses made by doctors, it was never possible to understand what had happened then. The text speaks of the harshness of great currents. But the meaning of these words is still not entirely clear even to me. The Teaching and everything closely connected with it does indeed constitute a kind of current — energetic, forceful, event-related, and so on. If by another current one understands everything that opposes the Teaching in the Universe and directly in our world, then it may be supposed that I happened to be at the point of their clash and confrontation. Perhaps something tried to destroy me, and thus prevent the revelation? And the forces of the Teaching fought against this influence, but the blow was so strong that it was not possible to parry it completely? Maybe. But this is what we can suppose now — while then my family attributed what happened, and still attribute it, to the consequences of a vaccination.

Over the course of several years mobility was partially restored, but I still could not walk or fully use my hands. There were medical examinations, various treatments — but nothing helped. And afterwards my condition only worsened. Now I am again almost completely immobile. Considering my condition at that time, doctors gave me at most twelve to thirteen years of life, even with the best care. And the fact that I did not die and continue to live to this day can be explained, I believe, only by one thing: that I am sustained by the Teaching, its energy, its vital force.

Thus I gained for my work several extra decades. Although the work itself, of course, became incredibly complicated. For spreading the Teaching is a matter that requires mobility. It is organisational activity, meetings with people, journeys, and so on and so forth. And even simply some sort of work to earn a living. But here I was — with a wheelchair and an extremely limited space around me. So if some malign forces really were trying to prevent the appearance of the Teaching in our world, then they did achieve a certain success. They failed to prevent its appearance, but they did manage to slow its development very significantly. Of course, this only became relevant much later, after the beginning of the revelation.

Up to that moment my life had been in danger several more times. In the same text it is said: “Bodily you were saved three times, and you were saved by people and by those who are always with them” (Eosphor II, 24). Two cases are known to me; the third remains a mystery to this day. I do not know whether these cases were the result of some hidden negative influence, or whether they were simply coincidences. But it is interesting that, according to the quotation, in critical moments help came not only from people, but also from “those who are always with them” — that is, the guardians. This directly points to help from the Teaching. It has protected me all my life, giving me the opportunity to do what I was born for. And how many such cases there have been since the recording of the Eosphor, we simply do not know.

Apart from such moments, and generally apart from health problems, my childhood was quite peaceful. Despite everything, I finished secondary school, studying at home. And this is connected with the following interesting circumstance. One of the traits of my character has always been respect for those who taught me, and complete trust in them. I believe that this was the beginning of qualities acquired by me even before birth — that is, during that very preparation. But it was a Soviet school — though at the very end of the Soviet era, but still — which educated the young generation in the spirit of atheism and materialism. I was taught that there are no gods, no other world, no soul, and no life after death either. I did not question this and firmly absorbed it. Which created additional difficulties in the future. Considering religions and in general questions of spirituality as utter nonsense and obscurantism, and having no interest whatsoever in anything of the sort, I was unprepared to perceive that which I had to work with later. Unprepared to such a degree that when the revelation began, I did not at first even believe it; and in order to accept the information given by the Teaching, I had to radically reshape my way of thinking.

But that was later. At that time restructuring had begun in the country, whose existence was coming to an end. And at that same time the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant occurred. Homieĺ experienced the consequences of radioactive contamination. The village from which my parents came, and where we used to spend summers during my childhood, turned out to be in one of the most contaminated zones. Later it was evacuated. But that was years afterwards, when almost no one remained there anyway. In those years such things were hushed up, and we continued to go to the village in summer, receiving generous doses of radiation. I think this did not pass without consequences for me and my family.

At the same time, in the eighties, we moved into a new flat, where we live to this day. Here life brought me together with the one who later became my first disciple, and is now known in the Teaching as Hantur. Or rather, it was not so much life as the guardians who arranged it. We had been relatives in my past life, then communicated in the world of energy, and then were born in the same city, a few years apart. And afterwards the guardians — perhaps not only ours — did their best to arrange that our families should receive flats not only in the same building, but in the same stairwell. Both our births were purposeful; we were meant to engage in the Teaching together. At that time we suspected nothing of the sort. We were friends, quarrelled, broke off relations — once, and again — and then the guardians would bring us together again. Of course, we had no idea about this either. But the guardians foresaw the great and truly invaluable role Hantur was destined to play in the establishment of the Teaching.

Time passed. The USSR collapsed, and I almost simultaneously finished school. And soon it became clear that I had nowhere to apply myself. There were still a few years left before the beginning of the revelation, and I found myself in a kind of vacuum. I could not work, and I saw no sense in trying to study further. Friends, of whom there had been plenty before, went their own ways and drifted away; only Hantur remained close. I continued, as before, to read books in enormous quantities — but that was no longer enough. Then came attempts to write something myself, which I considered unsuccessful.

In the end, in my searching, I became interested in occultism and magic. This was strange for me myself — for I remembered what I had been taught at school. However, now for some reason I was certain that there was something there, beyond the material world. It was as if something had been unlocked in my consciousness, and now I knew it for sure. Although I could not explain to myself where such certainty came from. Now I understand that it was the beginning of the unfolding of the knowledge with which I had come into this birth. It simply could not have been otherwise.

Then I was twenty years old, and there was very little time left before the beginning of the revelation.

1994-2002

Let us continue our conversation about the contemporary history of the Teaching. All very briefly — for this format presupposes nothing else. I wanted to say that the years described have a special significance for the formation of the Teaching — but in truth, all the years that have passed have had a special significance. And those still ahead will have it too. So let us dispense with banalities.

At the end of 1993 I turned twenty-one, and in the spring of 1994 the revelation began. Earlier it could not have begun, for age plays a role here. But at that time I did not understand this. Nor did I immediately grasp what had happened. More than that: I did not even realise that something had happened. Simply, on one of those days, someone spoke in my head, saying that I would become the founder of the Teaching. What was that?.. What kind of teaching?.. I decided that I had imagined it. Indeed, I had never been interested in questions of spirituality, had seen the Bible only in films, did not believe in higher powers or life after death, and certainly was not planning to teach anyone how to live. Yet before I could forget about this incident, it repeated itself, and afterwards it began repeating periodically, almost every day. Bit by bit I was being explained what was what — that it was the God of Wisdom speaking to me, also known as Hermes (later I began to see him with my inner vision, but that is another subject), that he intended to convey to me various knowledge, and that I was to pass it on to people. I was astonished and bewildered, and at once began to ask — why me? Who was I, that such a matter should be entrusted to me, a matter for which I could not even imagine how to begin? Yet no answer was given. And for me that very question — why me? — became one of the chief questions for the next several years.

Meanwhile information began to be conveyed to me, out of which the Teaching was later formed — conveyed gradually, little by little, fact after fact. But what facts they were! About the Creator, Being, the Great Principles, the world of energy, the elemental gods, the purpose of man, and so on — that is, the very foundations, the framework of the worldview of the Teaching. For someone still disposed in a materialistic way (curiously enough, this new interest in no way altered that), and who still regarded everything spiritual as belonging to the sphere of religion — which is opium and so forth — this was extremely hard. Incredibly hard. My very perception of the world collapsed and was rebuilt. One might call it a severe and unbroken stress that lasted several months. Then I grew accustomed; a comprehensible, though still very general, picture of the world according to the Teaching began to take shape in my mind, and it became somewhat easier.

And immediately a new concern arose — how was I to pass all this on, and to whom? To the question “How?” I had no answer but “As best I can”. Somehow. As for the question “To whom?”, that resolved itself, since there was but one candidate: the future Hantur. I once told him something, then something more, then introduced him more fully into the matter. He received it all with keen interest and without inner rejection — although he too had not previously been concerned with such questions. Yet at that time he was only sixteen, with interests fitting for his age. But he switched — if it can be so called — to this new interest quickly enough. I think this may also be explained by his background, his connection with the Teaching in a past life and the afterlife, imprinted on the level of the subconscious.

We spoke every day, for long hours, sometimes sitting through the night until morning, about the subjects of the Teaching — and the information was growing ever greater. And soon we began together to reflect on how to convey this knowledge to others.

We had no acquaintances in circles of people interested in such matters, no suitable social circle, nor could we even dream of Internet access (mid–1990s). All we could then devise were free notices in various newspapers. There were many such newspapers, and we began to make active use of them. The texts of the notices were like: “We offer conversation on spiritual topics”, and similar. To our surprise, many responded; letters came constantly to the P.O. box given in the notices. We corresponded with people, spoke on the phone, then Hantur would meet them, or I would invite them to my home. Thus our circle of acquaintances expanded rapidly.

And the people were diverse. Some were seekers of the spirit, some were developing their own concepts, some were collecting everything indiscriminately under the principle “Every priest his own father,” some were fascinated with occultism, and some simply liked to chat. Letters even came from a monastery and from a prison.

Contacts also began with various spiritual, semi-spiritual, religious and quasi-religious communities. We became acquainted, directly or indirectly, with followers of the Roerichs, Aïvanhov, Vissarion and other figures, with reiki practitioners, Bahá’ís, Hare Krishnas and other communities, among which some could scarcely be defined in terms of what exactly they adhered to. It turned out that in our city spiritual life was literally seething, with all manner of currents represented in great variety, not even counting the Christian sects. For our purpose — the search for followers — this was not particularly useful, but it did help to create an initial outlook in this sphere, and also to gain experience in such communication. Its highest point was participation in an event whose organisers called it the spiritual council “White Rus’”. In a hired hall gathered representatives of various currents, those mentioned above and many others, who came to the stage in turn and spoke words about spirituality and the need to work together on something good. The Teaching there was represented by Hantur and another of my disciples. When it was Hantur’s turn, he delivered a short speech we had composed, whose essence was that such councils were useless, for they were merely talk, influencing nothing. The speech was met with applause, after which the talking continued.

All this correspondence and communication provided interesting experience. Some tried to learn, came, left. I myself was practising the exposition of the Teaching. Nothing like it had I ever had to do before the revelation, and I was compelled to devise a method of exposition on the go. It was not easy. Around that same time it became clear that arguments and attempts to convince anyone held little sense — save as exercises in the art of discussion. For the most part, none of those who belonged to some spiritual current were ready to consider other possibilities; they only wanted to promote their own. Which, by the way, is normal: we too were and remain the same. Conviction in the truth and rightness of one’s chosen spiritual path is an entirely natural stance. Only in such an environment followers are not easily found. Another option was present too — those mentioned above who were convinced that one could follow several spiritual paths at once, each a little. With such people, as very soon became clear, nothing could be built either.

There was all manner of experience. For example, one man recognised the truth of the Teaching, but did not join it because it does not permit lying — and without lies, in his view, one could neither live nor feed a family. There were several not entirely sane individuals. And once a man turned to us who, as it turned out, was connected with organised crime. The Teaching appealed to him — but not as a spiritual system, rather as a promising, in his eyes, source of enrichment. He offered us 150,000 dollars to promote the Teaching, at the outset, with the plan later to make it a commercial enterprise and divide the profits. We, naturally, rejected this proposal.

Just then in the country the screws began to be tightened, ever more, in all directions — not only in politics but in the spiritual sphere as well. Newspapers ceased to accept notices like ours. Various spiritual communities lost the ability to carry on their activities, some were simply dispersed. No councils or similar events were now possible. Everything became bleak and stifling. Our contacts too diminished sharply, and then ceased altogether.

Yet the inner development of the Teaching continued. On 1 March 1996, that is, a little less than two years after the beginning of the revelation, I declared the Teaching of the United Temple to be officially in existence. We mark this date as its foundation day. And in the autumn of that same year came the first dictations of our texts. It was an astonishing and joyous event. We now had our own writings, though not sacred (for we are not a religion). Then it turned out that the texts came not only from the God of Wisdom, whom we call Emere, but also from other gods (higher elementals), as well as from people who belong to the Teaching and dwell in the world of energy. Gradually the book Evor took shape, which became the beginning of the pandect. The texts from the gods formed its first part, the texts from people its second, and the texts written by me, from myself, its third. At that time I also began writing the first epistles, and also articles in which I spoke of the Teaching.

Our next step was the attempt to publish a book. Its first version included half a dozen texts, one epistle, several articles and some other materials. Later, when the Evor was finished, we turned to it. Hantur negotiated with various publishers, repeatedly travelling to the capital for this purpose. On one of these trips he brought the manuscript to the Institute of Culture, from which soon came the verdict: “A brilliant falsification”. Clearly, they could not perceive it as anything but a falsification. As for “brilliant,” well, thank you kindly for the compliment.

With publishers, everything proved difficult. By that time those very dark days had arrived, and our book did not suit the times. Publishers liked it, yet did not dare take it on. Some feared it would not pay off, since the subject was so very specialised, and the author unknown. Belarusian publishers were already then, let us say, far from wealthy, and a failed investment could sink some of them. Others feared that for publishing non-Christian scriptures the authorities would simply shut them down, strip their licence, and confiscate the print run. Some deliberated for a long time, wavered, made up their minds… In the end, only one publisher was willing to risk it — but he demanded that the book be rewritten to match his personal views. Therefore cooperation with him came to nothing.

We then began to attempt contact with Russian publishers — but without the Internet, which we did not yet have, this was exceedingly difficult.

In parallel I began to ponder writing a book about the Teaching. By then, at the turn of the millennium, it was already a broad and profound system containing a mass of information — and at the same time it lacked any systematic written exposition. A very concise outline of its foundations had gone into the Evor, — but that was insufficient. Therefore I was preparing for the attempt to write a book, realising that it would be a great labour, not easy, and likely to require more than one attempt.

And then, completely unexpectedly for me, Emere told me not to do it yet. I was surprised, but naturally I obeyed. And shortly afterwards came the dictations of the texts of a second book, which later received the title Doron. To say that we were delighted is to say nothing. The writings of the Teaching were growing, and that was wonderful! Now it became clear why Emere had stopped me. I gave myself over to work on the dictated book, which was finished in the autumn of 2002.

By that time the question had been clarified which I had been putting to Emere and to myself since the beginning: why me? I began recalling my past life and the afterlife, began to understand the background of what was happening, and more clearly realised the essence of my obligation. Again, I shall not recount this here, but refer the reader to the appropriate materials. The main point, however, is that I was no longer wandering among guesses and conjectures, but now knew very clearly what I was doing, why, and for what purpose. At last the picture was complete also in that regard. And it became evident that then, at the very beginning of the revelation, I had simply not been ready for such news about myself, and could hardly have understood or accepted it properly. First it was necessary to accustom myself to what was happening and to settle into the worldview as it appeared through the prism of the Teaching.

And besides all else, around 2002 we and Hantur acquired computers, and soon after connected to the Internet. This event, which allowed us to break out of the confines of the limited information space and the aforementioned tightened screws, marked the beginning of a new stage of our activity.

2002-2022

I shall begin from the point at which I stopped in the previous part of my account. That is, from the moment when the computer gave us new possibilities.

It was at the very beginning of the new millennium. By the time described, all our attempts at activity in Belarus had come to nothing, since practically no opportunities remained. Yet in our possession we already had two books of the pandect and a number of messages from the third one, plus quite a solid experience in communication with those interested, as well as some skill, however modest, in presenting the Teaching. True, this brought little fruit, for many were curious, but those wishing to study seriously, having chosen the Teaching as their spiritual path, were almost nowhere to be found. Some did not approach the matter seriously, some merely wanted pleasant conversation, some wished not to join us but, so to say, to join us to themselves, while others were dissatisfied with the fact that the Teaching does not allow arbitrary borrowings from other worldviews — in other words, it does not permit following several paths at once. As a result, by 2003 I had three disciples. Thus, there were now four of us in all — which at that moment, however, looked like a significant achievement, since for several years our entire commune (a term we do not much like, though sometimes we use it) consisted only of myself and Hantur.

At that time we acquired computers. One of the first undertakings connected with this was the digitisation of the pandect. The process was simple: I dictated texts from the manuscripts, and someone typed them on the computer. The work went slowly, but bit by bit was brought to completion. It was a noticeable step forward. Firstly, we could now reproduce and store our texts in digital form, whereas before we had only manuscripts and a few photocopies, with which anything might have happened. Secondly, it became much easier to present the book to publishers, simply attaching text samples to an e-mail.

Accordingly, having connected to the Internet, we began more actively collecting information about Russian publishers — which was now much easier, since we no longer had to search it out in printed books. At the same time we explored those very possibilities mentioned at the beginning. Of course, the idea at once arose to have our own website. This was accomplished by our own efforts — though only a couple of years later. The site was called The True Teaching of Hermes and was very modest. Nevertheless, visitors there could read the pandect in its entirety — which was what we so greatly desired. In addition, there were several articles, and some texts translated into English by our own means. The site lasted about three years, after which I judged it morally obsolete and closed it. During its entire existence it attracted not a single follower to the Teaching; but when it ceased to exist, it then became clear that there had been regular readers and appreciators. We encountered questions on the net such as “Why has the site with the texts of the prophet Atarkhat disappeared? Was it banned? But for what? After all, those were good texts, with the right thoughts,” and answers like “Apparently that is precisely why it was banned.” With the new site we decided not to hurry, placing the emphasis on publishing a book. All the more so because, in the case of success, we would in any event have had to withdraw the published texts from free access.

Meanwhile the other two disciples departed, and Hantur and I once again found ourselves in the previous composition. Only now we could expand the scope of our search — for example, through various forums. Yet studying the matter led to discouraging conclusions. It turned out that the atmosphere there was generally unfriendly, with much hostility and abuse, and most of all they turned against those who tried to tell about their own teaching. Therefore we observed and read, but for some time did not hasten to take any action ourselves.

Although afterwards we did nevertheless try to tell about the Teaching on a couple of forums. The reaction followed in quite a predictable manner. We were abused without anyone even attempting to understand the Teaching, but simply for the fact that we considered it true, and for the fact that in it the authority of the Teacher is great. These two points alone were already taken as constituting a crime, and no one studied further. Insults followed, even to hints of comparing me with Hitler, and accusations that we were extracting money from people and taking away their flats. Yet after we asked for the names and contacts of at least two or three such victims, such accusations ceased. The highlight of this festival of anger was something that I still cannot recall without a smile: the accusation that the activity of the Teaching was being financed by Western secret services. To hear — or rather, to read — such a thing was even, in a way, somewhat flattering: indeed, so we were already, it seems, quite significant! Yet what the mentioned activity consisted of, and who precisely was financing it, the detractors could not explain either. The only useful consequence of this venture of ours was that in a few days the number of visitors to the then still-existing site increased by several thousand. From this one may draw curious conclusions as to what attracts the public.

There was also an attempt to present the Teaching to Hermeticists. Here everything was, indeed, very interesting and ambiguous. On the one hand, we could bring them good news — for the revival of Hermes’ Teaching in its genuine, uncorrupted form ought, in theory, to have rejoiced them. On the other hand, the dark and obscure current Hermeticism allows any interpretations to be invented and new and newer varieties and currents to branch off from it. Many have made themselves resounding names upon such interpretations. And so, the restoration of the genuine Hermetic Teaching in all its clarity and unambiguity was precisely not advantageous to Hermeticists, since it would take away their bread and deprive them of the possibility of creating inflated authorities. Such a duality I had assumed from the outset. It was confirmed back in the nineties, when we managed to get in touch with a group of Hermeticists from the capital. The correspondence showed that they were not in the least eager to acquaint themselves with the Teaching, or even simply to glance at its contents in order to assess its adequacy. Very soon they broke off communication. And so we made ourselves known on one of the forums dedicated to Hermeticism. This time they did glance at the pandect, and after a tepid discussion concluded that the texts were non-canonical, and therefore bore no relation to Hermeticism. The fact that it was precisely their non-canonicity that represented the chief interest — for a new presentation of Hermes’ Teaching, distorted through millennia and in effect lost, should not correspond to what is considered canon, under which they understood the Corpus Hermeticum — was not taken into account. This once again confirmed my suspicion that it was among Hermeticists that we were least likely to find understanding, for they were, on the whole, not interested in restoring the original Teaching.

In the further course we no longer repeated serious attempts to speak about the Teaching on forums of spiritual or near-spiritual themes. Personally I took part in them only a handful of times — and even then not offering my own, but replying to other people’s posts. To my surprise, this enabled me to find two new disciples.

The first was a man who, as it turned out, in one of his past lives — falling in the time of one of the previous revelations — had already been a follower of the Teaching. Now he is known in the Teaching under the name Amsan, and in the third book of the pandect there are even epistles addressed to him. By a remarkable coincidence it turned out that he also lived in my city, which gave us the opportunity to meet in person. True, at that time our communication did not last long, and soon he disappeared from my field of vision for years. The second one was a young woman, now known among us as Amradkhari. She became the first (apart from Hantur) of those who came into the Teaching and did not leave. We have been in contact since 2008. And although she lives in Russia, and at first we corresponded by e-mail and later moved on to Skype, this did not prevent us from becoming not only Teacher and disciple, but close friends, and even meeting several times in real life.

Amradkhari turned out to be an active follower, very sociable and, unlike us at that time, able to use social networks. As a result, practically everyone who since then has approached me with a request to be accepted as a disciple has learnt of the Teaching through her. And over the years there have been many such people. However, the old story repeats itself: many enquire, only a few remain.

Meanwhile the long — said without irony, for the story is indeed very long and difficult — epic with the publication of the book continued. By now we had formed a collection that included selected texts from the three books of the pandect plus some additional materials. Dealing with publishers — now Russian ones, and now via the Internet — was, as usual, handled by Hantur. He selected them by theme, sent out the proposal we had composed, conducted negotiations. The problems were partly similar to the previous ones, partly new. The author was foreign, previously unpublished; the Teaching was new; there was no prepared audience to guarantee demand for the book, and so forth. The large publishers were not very interested in such a proposal; the smaller and poorer ones hesitated whether to risk investing in such a venture. Our proposal went out to several addresses at once: some gave no reply, some declined politely, some began negotiations and broke them off. We waited some time and then repeated the mailings, to the same addresses and to new ones. All this went on for a long time. But in the end, thanks to Hantur’s diligence and persistence, it did at last succeed. The book, under the title “The Revival of Hermes’ Teaching”, was published in 2013.

The whole history of the publication — from the late nineties to 2013, with details — is set out in a separate article, to which I refer the interested reader.

The appearance of the book became a fundamentally important milestone in our work. And it is clear that it was important not only for us, but also for those who show interest in the Teaching. It began to be perceived by them as something more solid and deserving of attention — for after all, a book had been published, and the print run had sold, and that means something. Of course, in reality publication as such says little, and often enough sheer nonsense is published. But nonetheless.

We also probed the ground regarding the possibility of publishing abroad, in English. We placed a trial proposal on one of the relevant resources, attaching several small translations as samples. A number of European publishers expressed interest — but they required an already complete full translation of the book, which we could not provide. Only one publisher agreed to have it translated at his own expense; but he set as a condition an unacceptably long term of the copyright contract, and so here it was I who had to refuse.

When the one-and-a-half-year term of the copyright contract on the book published in Russia expired, and it became possible again to make all the texts of the pandect freely available, we undertook the development of a new website — again, by our own efforts. It was called “The Blooming Amra” (a reference to one of the texts, where the Teaching is spoken of as the flower Amra), and compared with the previous site it was far richer in content. The pandect, including in PDF; articles, essays, various other materials; more translations; much creative work, mine and Amradhari’s, and even audio files — professional studio readings of a number of texts. It became the full official site of the Teaching, and functions to this day (at present we are planning to relaunch it in an updated form). I hope that the readers who once lamented the disappearance of the old site were able to find the new one and rejoice in it.

Following The Blooming Amra, shortly afterwards another project important for the Teaching was realised: the electronic journal “Our Space”, whose genre we defined as “spiritual and educational”. It publishes articles that talk about the Teaching, about its picture of the world, examines all its various aspects, sets out its view on various phenomena of social life, gives an assessment of certain events, examines moral and ethical issues, and much more. To this day the number of published materials has exceeded 600. The value of the journal lies not only in the fact that it presents the Teaching in quite a popular form, but also in the fact that its materials contain much information not to be found even in the books of the pandect now existing — and therefore not on the main site either. Thus these two resources complement each other. The journal, like the sites, was made by our own efforts. In recent years much has happened — for example, it went down because of problems on the server, or collapsed under a hacker attack, and so forth. But the problems are overcome, and the content is steadily increasing.

I did not, without reason, several times note that all our resources were created “by our own efforts.” By this I mean that we never had the money to commission websites from professionals. For the same reason we could not offer foreign publishers a full translation of the book. The Teaching does not collect contributions from its followers and does not ask for donations; I do not take payment for teaching — thus we have no finances at all. Therefore everything must be done by ourselves. In view of this, the assertion that the activity of the Teaching was being financed by the West (see above) sounded especially comical. From time to time, however, offers of contributions did come from this or that private person. In the previous part of my account I mentioned the one hundred and fifty thousand dollars which had to be declined. Since then the most generous offer was one and a half million euros, which also was declined. It always turns out that if large sums are offered, they usually come from dubious hands. We prefer not to get involved. Of course it is hard to imagine that any teaching could exist and develop in conditions of complete lack of money. Yes, it holds us back, deprives us of various opportunities, prevents us from doing much of what is very necessary. Yet we hold this view: it is a problem, but not a disaster. We look far into the future, and therefore we are in no special hurry. The Teaching has much time ahead — it is not limited to decades or even centuries — and it will gradually unfold, not entering into dubious deals. This is a matter of principle.

At the time when the journal was being created, and later as well, the Teaching gained more followers. As has been said, most who come do not stay long — but some remain, learn, and enter the Teaching. A piece of good news for us was the return of Amsan. At present there is a small community — though scattered across several countries, which complicates communication and joint work.

Despite the difficulties, we are working to give as many people as possible the opportunity to become acquainted with the Teaching. Alongside the website and the journal, we now have two YouTube channels — in Russian and in English. A small English-language website devoted to the Teaching has also been launched. It now has pages and groups in several social networks. It is easy to find through search engines — by the name (The Teaching of the One Temple), the title of the book (The Revival of the Teaching of Hermes), or by my name (Atarkhat). Despite all the difficulties, much has been accomplished. And the work continues.

The most significant event in the life of the Teaching in recent times was the appearance, in the summer of 2020, of what may be called our first programme document — The Declaration of the Teaching of the United Temple. In concise form, in 49 points, it sets out the worldview of the Teaching, its principles, social convictions, and aims. Of course, owing to the brevity, it reflects only the very foundations. Yet it is the official presentation of the Teaching to the world, making it possible to form an opinion of it in the most important aspects concerning it as a phenomenon. The significance of the Declaration for the development of the Teaching is difficult to overestimate.

As for plans for the near future, these include the relaunch of the website, work on further books of the pandect and on a popular book about the Teaching, the translation into English of the book already published and its issue abroad, and much else besides. To list everything would take too long, and is unnecessary. The results will be seen as the intended is carried out.

Although now everything has become much more difficult. Our activity has been affected by a common calamity: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war, continuing to this day. In one way or another it has touched us all, physically or psychologically. To work, even simply to write articles for the journal, in such circumstances is extraordinarily hard. Almost all our projects have been suspended or greatly slowed; the matter of a new edition of the book or of other books has hung in uncertainty. But we continue to work. To work for the sake of a future without such aggression and wars. We are confident that the Teaching will play an important role in this. It will be able to change the world for the better. From the very beginning we have striven for this — and now all the more. Every such tragedy serves us as additional motivation to do something. I think this is the case for any normal person.

***

Such, then, is the account of the contemporary history of the Teaching. It has turned out, perhaps, somewhat disjointed and uneven. Well: it is not easy to set forth the events of fifty years (in all) and almost thirty years (since the beginning of the revelation) within a few pages. One can only hope that it has been more or less successful. Of course, very much had to be left behind the scenes, limiting the account only to the most important and necessary moments.

One day a detailed history of the Teaching in the present revelation will be written. True, I do not know when and by whom, and will not even presume to guess. The future will show. For the present, there is this small sketch in three parts. Which in itself is already no small thing.

© Atarkhat 2022