From the annotation to the 3D model of the “Temple of Mystery”, created with the participation of scientific consultant A.I. Bandura for the exhibition “From Music to Light. Dedication to Scriabin” (ROSIZO Gallery, Moscow, December 24, 2022 – March 19, 2023): “According to Scriabin, humanity is at the fatal point of self-destruction. The awakening of divine energies can lead to salvation, for which, according to the composer’s plan, “in distant India, on the shore of an enchanted lake, a temple should be built from precious stones, incense and sunset colours to perform the Mystery.” Its performance would give the first impetus to the inclusion of fantastic cause-and-effect chains: “Mystical bells will ring in the sky over the Himalayas, and in response to their call, all the peoples inhabiting the Earth will go to India to take part in the performance of the majestic symphony of the Transfiguration. Sound and light, caresses and aromas, dances and processions, mental images and “imaginary sounds” will merge in a grandiose synthesis.” On the seventh day of the Mystery, the combined power of the mental field of thinking beings was supposed to break through the screen of Illusion. In the rays of universal artistic ecstasy, humanity would escape from the snares of matter and “wake up into the sky” with a shining whirlwind of indestructible and immortal thinking energy… This fantastic idea illuminated the last – most fruitful – decade of the great composer’s life. Scriabin’s description of his temple is multivariate, but the drawing he made gives a general idea. The composer placed the hemisphere of the temple in the centre of the lake, so that together with its reflection in the water, a complete ideal sphere is obtained – the prototype of the “new Universe”. The temple itself was thought of as a kind of space-time portal for the transition to other dimensions of existence and consciousness, and as an alternative reality, completely replacing the physical world remaining behind its shell. In one of his statements, Scriabin allows for an increase in this sphere at the moment of ecstasy to the size of the Universe.”
Links to Third-Party Publications:
Russian Propylaea: Materials on the history of Russian. thoughts and lit. / Collection and prepared for publication by M. Gershenzon. T. 1-6. Moscow: M. and S. Sabashnikov, 1919. T. 6. A. S. Pushkin. Alexander Scriabin.
