Vladimir
Anatolyevich Shibayev was born on November 27, 1898 in Riga (which is
the capital of Latvia), received a good education, and later became one
of the most ardent supporters and collaborators of the Roerichs.
His first encounter with the Roerichs
Vladimir Shibayev met the Roerichs in 1920 in London and he recounted this event in the following text:
« I was invited to the artist, academic N. K. Roerich on the
evening of the 2nd of June 1920, and as usual I was sitting with his son in the
latter's room, and we conversed on various scientific subjects.
I did not know that Nikolai Konstantinovich and his wife
together with their younger son were occupied with spiritist experiments in the
adjacent room. Nor did I know that they asked their guides for permission to
have me join the circle. But having secured a positive answer, they asked me to
enter and to sit down at a little table.
The room was fully lit and I saw clearly that any
possibility of fraud was out of the question. The little table was trembling
and shaking nervously, and when they asked who it was (it was agreed upon that
one rap meant yes, two raps no, three raps a strong yes), is it not the
Teacher, the table shook and rapped once.
Then the letters followed in due order. Because one of
those present said the letters in endless succession, and when the right letter
was uttered, a rap followed. In this manner a few sentences were collected that
did not concern me, until Mme Roerich asked if they could be told the name of
my Teacher.
-
“Yes!”
The letters were collected:
-
“Sarti! Italian. Lived in Pesaro in the year
1350 after Christ.”
And then came the sentence:
-
“We sent him as the seventh one!”
Who did? The Teachers?
-
“Yes!”
Then we can invite him tomorrow night to a physical séance?
-
“Yes!”
Is he a medium?
-
“Yes!” (It was a strong rap)
May we show him the things?
-
“Yes!”
May we ask for a piece of advice in life for Vladimir
Anatolyevich?
-
“Yes!”
Then according to the alphabet was collected:
-
“May he engross himself in thought in
building the world!”
. . .
Then we entered another room where they showed me coins
and talismans that had been sent during the last physical seance… After that Konstantin
Nikolayevich showed me mediumistic portraits of the Teachers drawn by him.
Subsequently he sat down in the lit room, turned his head away, covered his
face with his left hand as if he dozed off, and held in his right hand a pencil
over a piece of paper. Then he started to draw … We again went to consult the
little table … Because the great Teachers had advised that the Roerich family,
no matter what happened, had to go away from this country. Where? – To Ceylon. »
Observations: this séance is not found in Helena Roerich's personal notebooks, but in a five-page
manuscript entitled "Reminiscences of my visit to N. K. Roerich on June 2,
1920", which is kept in the archive of I. R. Rudzite, and was later
published by Vladimir Rosov in his book Nicholas Roerich , page 45.
After this meeting the Roerichs went to the United States and Vladimir Shibayev went to Riga.
An intense collaboration with the Roerichs
In
Latvia, Shibayev founded and was the director of the World Service Agency, which was built on the same system as the other Roerich
organizations.
Those
who were interested in Eastern philosophy and admired the ideas and art
of Nicholas Roerich gathered around Vladimir Shibayev, and thus the
Roerich Society was born in Riga.
In 1924, Vladimir Shibayev, together with the Roerichs, traveled to India. “The days in India were marked by hard work together,” he wrote. He then left India because the Roerichs were beginning to prepare for their expedition to Central Asia. “I took a bunch of manuscripts with me to send along with other assignments from the Roerichs,” he added.
He returned to India on October 1, 1928, and worked with the Roerichs as their secretary for ten years. His
duty was primarily to send correspondence, type Nicholas Roerich's
articles, write replies to letters, and translate manuscripts into
English. "Living with the Roerichs in India was the most significant period of my life," he said.
In
the 1960s and 1970s, while living in England, Vladimir Shibayev was
actively involved in the work of the Agni Yoga Society New York
through correspondence, having no opportunity to be present in person.
His passing
Vladimir Shibayev died on March 6, 1975 in Cardiff (which is the capital of Wales) and remained a fervent follower of the Roerichs until the end of his life.
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