Introduction

THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW AGE

The spiritual work of the Teacher Peter Deunov (1864-1944), which already began in his early years, intensified after his return to Bulgaria in 1895 from the United States. He had studied in Boston at the Methodist School of Theology. Back in Bulgaria he had meetings and conversations with spiritual beings, in which he received a deeper insight into the spiritual task of Bulgaria and into his own mission. It was revealed to him that Bulgaria has a very important task in the preparation of a new culture of love and brotherhood. Peter Deunov dedicated himself to this task and at the age of 33 he founded in 1897 the Society for the Uplifting of the Religious Spirit of the Bulgarian People. This society developed in 1906 into the Chain and in 1920 into the School of the White Brotherhood.

In 1898 the angel Elohil gave a prophetic message to Peter Deunov that was addressed to the Bulgarian people. This message known as A Call to My People, provides the spiritual background for an understanding of the work of Peter Deunov. It announces the Second Coming of Christ in a New Age, in which the Slavic nations will step forward as the carriers of a new culture of love and brotherhood. This New Age is the Age of the return of Christ. In his public reading of the Call to My People in Varna, Peter Deunov adopted the role of a prophet, both of the return of Christ and of the new Slavic culture, which is developing in Eastern Europe under the guidance of the angel Elohil. 

On Sunday March 22, 1914, at the beginning of spring, Peter Deunov invited the spiritual circle that had gathered for his lectures during a number of years, for a festive dinner. After reading from the last chapter of each of the four gospels, he spoke the following words: “Most of you are not aware of importance of this day, but for some it will be memorable, because today one epoch finishes and a new one begins.”

In the course of his speech he said: “This day is a great spiritual day. In heavens there is an official attendance of the feast and all friends congratulate you from there.” (...) “Today a new epoch begins in the Spiritual World and how will your names be written in the new Book of Life?” The closing words of his speech were: “Let us raise ourselves and let us represent today’s Divine image of the festivity in heavens. From above spirits are coming down to make us satisfied with what we have, and with them Christ is coming. This will happen either with a blessing, when they will only repair the present situation, or if this turns out to be irreparable, He will come with a catastrophe, He will demolish everything thoroughly (like buildings with rotten foundations), and He will begin His Work again. Let us not be afraid of that!

Christ is always above us and between us. Let us go with Christ in the soul, let us open our souls and hearts, and He will come to bless us. Amen.”1

On March 22, 1914 a new chapter in the history of mankind began. It is the realization of the prophetic message of 1898 – the beginning of the Second Coming. Since 1914, this day of March 22 is celebrated in The beginning of the New Age the School of the White Brotherhood as the first day 67 of the spiritual New Year. One week after this Sunday meeting, on March 29, 1914 the public Sunday Lectures of Peter Deunov, collected in the volumes of Power and Life, officially began. Informally these lectures had already begun in 1911. They present the new teaching about the development of consciousness in the Age of the returning Christ.

In the year 2014 the White Brotherhood commemorates the 150th birthday of the Teacher Peter Deunov. It also celebrates the official beginning of the Sunday Lectures a century ago, in 1914. In 2014 humanity as a whole can celebrate the first 100 years of the New Age of Christ.

This book presents the text of the Call to My People, in Bulgarian and English. It is followed by a reflection on its content and on the preparation of the new Slavic culture, also in both languages.

Harrie Salman, Holland

A call to my people
Bulgarian sons of the slavic family2
Listen to the words of Heaven:

Brothers and sisters from the Slavic house, family
of suffering, tribe of discord, soul and heart of
the time to come, Life and Salvation of the present,
bearers and defenders of peace, Sons of the Kingdom of
God, listen to the Word:
Heaven has assigned you a sacred office in the coming
Kingdom of Peace, which is coming and approaching
in its power, to mark a great event in the life of this
world, and if you prove to be faithful from now on to
this noble and sacred calling awaiting you, then believe
that the God of Hosts Himself will enwreathe you in
the glory and the greatness of His life and will inscribe
your names in the Supreme Books of the higher worlds
that minister to the Supreme Holy Work of the great
redemption. A glorious future is awaiting you, coming
not to wipe out or destroy life but to resurrect it in its
perfect fullness. All chosen people and nations, constituting
the flower of the new generations of humanity are
called to partake in this life. Your time is approaching,
your trial is coming to an end, the hour of your calling
has come and the moment of your life has arrived
to wake up and to enter into this gentle life which is
coming to this long-suffering land.
I come from above at the supreme command of
God, your Heavenly Father, Who has entrusted me with

the great mission of warning you against the bad ways
and to announce you the Truth of Life which descends
from the heavenly dwellings of the eternal Light, in order
to enlighten each mind, revive each heart, to uplift
and renew all spirits – the chosen children of Truth
preordained to form the seed of the New Humanity of
which the Slavic family, the stock of Judah,3 will become
the hearth.
The leader of this salvation, the anointed of Zion,
the Lord’s King, the brother of those who suffer, will arrive
in all His power and spiritual fullness and will change
the appearance of this world. You will soon be elevated
in the order of the redeemed higher worlds, which
gradually yet steadily rise one after the other into a new
region of the upper supreme worlds, into the Heaven of
the Divine Instructions, into which also your world will
step forward to take its place among the others as assigned
to it by the Supreme Father. Your stepping into
these new infinite boundaries of the New Kingdom of
the everlasting worlds will be marked by being given the
sign from the Supreme Lord, Ruler and King over everything.
He with all the angelic hierarchies will meet you,
will receive you with joy and cheer as fellow citizens
of the Everlasting Kingdom of endless power and glory.
Do not grieve God by your conduct; do not doubt
His Truth, which He brings to you from the Heavenly
Dwellings as a sign of His faithfulness and His love
for you. Become enlightened, pull yourselves together,
become conscious of the truth of life. He Who has
given birth to you keeps watch over you. You know His
Name. Doubt not or hesitate, but put aside your faintheartedness;
come to the eternal light of life to know the

eternal ways of God, Who has raised you from the ashes
of nothingness to the glory and greatness of immortality.
Do not err, but make a place for Him Who gives you
life. In Him the families, generations and nations do not
disappear, but they are restored and regenerated through
this same Eternal Spirit, Who puts everything in this
great Divine World in order. Renewal is a great blessing
for you, which contributes to your becoming worthy of
entering the path of light, which is endowed with peace
and love at every step. This blessing is the powerful
and eternal generator of life, which uplifts all the fallen
in spirit. It is the path to salvation which unfortunate
mankind takes, summoned from Heaven to perform one
more heroic deed, with which everything that is destined
will be completed.
The path on which I come to lead you, so that
you enter the Kingdom of God, serve Him, is eternal. It
is a path filled with all the sweetness of life. All the
heavenly hierarchies and dwellers, before the origin of
that very eternity without beginning or end, have passed
along this path. Between you and this path of the Heavenly
Dwellers exists a great distance which no mighty
power can fathom, yet there is an invisible bond connecting
everything in one indivisible brotherhood. This
bond is the love of the Eternal and Invisible God, the
Source of Life.
It is this infinite love of Him Who loves you and
cares for you that called upon me from on high in order
to come and help you in these hard times that lie ahead
for the last time in this world.
Before you lies a great danger which is getting
ready to destroy all holy things which have been planted

by the hand of your Heavenly Father. This is why I
came to this world to guide you in person through this
most dangerous moment of your lives. Be brave, strong
and steadfast, faithful to your calling, and braced for
battle. Each of you, make the necessary self-sacrifices
for the truth to triumph. Now is the right time to show
that you are the chosen kindred, a Royal Seed, a nation
whose ruler is the God of Hosts.
I come to support the Slavic family to whom is
given to prevail over all its enemies and foes standing
on its way to the noble knowledge for which it is striving
and in its way to its destiny as ordained by Supreme
Providence. The time is drawing near and is by the
gates of this world. Truth will triumph and will reign
in all its beauty, which will illumine the face of this
world with heavenly radiance. This is the day of Truth
that has given birth to you for His glory. Listen to His
voice. He is coming from above, raise your eyes to see
that which is awaiting you, open your ears to hear the
sweet songs, the pleasant hymns, the great anthems, the
songs of praise sung by the angels who are preparing
themselves for this glorious day.
Listen: faithfulness is the first step for entering the new
life, the first condition of passage through the narrow gates of
admission; it is the first fruit of Love which you shall
place before the Hearth of the Father’s altar. There is no
time left to involve yourselves with irrelevant discussions
of the past which are of no use to you, unless
past errors teach you a lesson to correct the present
ones. Your rebirth requires pure virtues which are lacking.
It is now superficial and not fundamental; it is
of a transient and inessential nature, not able to bring

the expected good fruits. This nation is yearning to be
led and ruled by holy and godly principles, which are
necessary to succeed. These principles were established
long ago by God, Who takes care for the improvement
of all His nations, and these principles are implanted in
your souls. In the revival of the nations, the mind and
the heart must be in harmony, love and virtue must be
together, power and reason must jointly lead and steer
the way of their good endeavours. Without these conditions
everything is irretrievably lost for the nations. This
is why you need to stop and consider the situation in
which you find yourselves, in order to avoid the total
destruction which is hanging already over all your heads.
I arrive in this depraved world at this important moment
to exert the necessary influence, to lead you away
from this pernicious path into which the nations on earth
rushed to pursue recklessly. Remember, if you repudiate
my good advice and oppose my Divine Directions which
I gave you because you are dear to My heart, then I will
employ also other measures which are much worse and
I am bound to apply in response to your disobedience
to the holy Divine Commandments. You are under my
protection and it is my duty to guide and educate you in
the Word of Truth. I am your protector and a supreme
leader among the Heavenly Dwellers. When I took upon
myself to take you under my guardianship, I could foresee
all the difficulties which time would present to me
until I lead you to safety. I knew how many obstacles
and how many failures in this great battle you and I
would have to face, yet my spirit will not depart from
my intention. My love for you dictates this sacred duty
to me, so I stepped forward to take you under my su-

preme protection. In this distant past your spirit did not
possess any beauty to attract me and make me love
you. You looked disgusting and those who looked at
you were repulsed by the rudeness of your heart. I did
not reject you because of your flaws, nor did I disdain
you because of the crudeness of the external garments
in which your soul was wrapped, but I came to love
you completely with all my kind spirit, which undertook
to probe you and to find any Divine virtue, any kind
feature of your soul, which my spirit could cultivate and
make fertile, so that it might bring plenty of good fruits
and that a pure, holy and sublime behaviour might be
formed in you, so that you could deserve the honour to
join the family of the first nations which the God of
Hosts has chosen to fulfill His everlasting holy will. The
day has already come to determine the main destiny of
this corrupt world, in which Heaven is going to make
a radical and great change, and that very soon in the
approaching New Age, to mark new pages on the face
of the earth. It is my desire to prepare you for this,
because you are far behind due to your present crimes
as well as past national sins; for them you were required
to go through countless sufferings and sacrifices, until
you wash away and clean the disgusting vileness with
which you annoyed God. This made Him turn His face
away from you and leave you in the ordeal which took
centuries,4 so that you might recognize and repent for
your sins, that tear the sacred bonds of His Love. Yet,
God is not angry forever. His mercy is from generation
to generation and His kindness is always with those
who love Him and His blessing does not withdraw. He
guides you with a strong hand through all the dark ages

and His eye watches you, especially when you were
passing through the dangerous paths of this world. As
your Supreme Protector, I had to exert great efforts and
make sacrifices in order to correct your past behaviour,
to educate you and adorn you with the beauty of the
eternal assigned to you. For this purpose I deigned to
call forth from afar, from the farthest realms of Heaven,
the two brothers,5 luminaries of the Slavic family, and
to hand to them the Word of Truth and the Word of Life,
so that they could bring them to you and teach you the
path, so you could climb along it towards the Eternal
Light in which I dwell, i.e. the Light of Life which I
sent you to live in forever.
“The world did not accept this Light but refused it
and exposed Jesus, My Anointed of the Covenant, to violation
and death because the deeds of these people were
evil. But the transgressors of My Testament have paid
for their lawlessness, and now all has come to an end.
Righteousness is everlasting, My Father is unchangeable
and His deeds can not be changed; you are My nation.”6
The Lord searched for a dwelling for Himself and His
choice fell upon the Slavic family which Heaven has come
to love because of its Divine virtue. For this reason I sent
My two servants to bring you good tidings, to abandon
the darkness of gloomy pagan gods. And there was great
joy in the worlds of the Light when God placed the seal
of His great name upon you and put His Spirit into your
hearts as an eternal covenant. And I appeared to your
royal Ruler at that time,7 and let him know the Will of
Heaven to receive My Messengers of the New Testament;
and he listened to my voice and was honoured in my
presence to become the founder of your spiritual renewal.

I can assure you that since him there has not been a
more modest and pure-hearted ruler born to the family
of Slavs. He fulfilled the given promise with unshakable
faith, like Abraham who did not spare his son, but presented
him as a living sacrifice to God; in this way acted
your pious ruler and father of the Slavic family, who gave
the eyes of his firstborn son as an auspicious sacrifice, a
chosen gift to God, as a sign of his unshakable faithfulness
to Him;8 this very day your calling was initiated by
the God of Hosts, Who ordained in His immeasurable
wisdom to glorify, together with you, the whole Slavic
family in which God Almighty abides and which He has
destined to take the first place in His Kingdom which is
now coming into power in this long-suffering world. Understand
the unchangeable truth that the elevation of the
Slavic family is an elevation necessary for all, which God
Himself is performing for His chosen one, the Leader of
Salvation, Who will appear soon among you in his full
Glory and Power to restore the eternal Kingdom of Peace,
God’s Kingdom on earth.
“And he who challenges your pre-eminence from
now on, says the Lord Himself, challenges Mine, for I
have the power to give Mine to whomever I wish, and
if I give out of My good will, who would oppose Me
and ask Me what I am doing? He who has the courage
to do so, let him come and try his strength and he will
see. I am one, My Word never changes, I am faithful
and true in all My ways. My Word is irrefutable.”9
The Lord is to you a Leader, He is to you a Bridegroom
Who sends forth His gifts, Who is delighted as
a newly-married man with the love which you have accepted
faithfully from Him, Who is the King of Kings

and the Lord of Lords. This is why I come from the
eternal dwellings to awaken you to a good and holy life
and to protect you not to trespass anew against the supreme
will of Heaven, so that it may reject you as it did
in the past, when you annoyed God with your unlawful
acts and He let you fall into the hands of your enemies,
who came from far away to punish you for your crimes
and to fulfill the Supreme Judge’s will against you. Yet,
at that time during your fall I supported you with My
Love, because you had not been completely rejected
from the sight of Him who had chosen you. And thus
during this longlasting bondage I steadily guided you
along the path of patience and humility and taught you
to correct your life, to become conscious of your sins,
to repent and turn to God the Lord with your whole
hearts, with Whom you are united in the marital ties of
pure and immaculate life. In all your sufferings and trials
I supported you with My hand and gave you spiritual
power and strength, so that you would not completely
decline spiritually and become lost in the mire of life
and in despair. And with all the power which I possess
I began to create in you a pure and immaculate soul
with Divine conduct. And at the end of your trial of
many centuries, when Heaven under a Supreme judgment
of Divine Providence decided to deliver you from the
heavy slavery,10 I was the first to appear, to intercede for
your liberation, supposing that you would take advantage
of this given blessing and correct your past behaviour;
yet, you misused the gifts of your freedom. Anyway, I
began the process of your liberation by putting into action
all my mighty powers to work everywhere for the
accomplishment and realisation of the great idea which

I shall bring about in the shortest time. This is waiting
for My supreme order, but your discord, your new sinful
life are interfering with the sacred idea which I keep in
my heart for your good and for the good of the whole
mankind. There is a limit to everything and you must
know that. During these last years of your newly begun
life I have guided you safely until the present moment
and have made greatest efforts to protect you from many
dangerous evils. Give praise to God that I am not one
of those who can be defeated.
“The time has come when you will feel My Power
and you will know that I am God, Who cannot be deceived,
but you are a self-willed nation who does not
see where its own good is hiding.”11
The weak side of your soul is the general lack of
unity and discord which hinders the sacred cause of the
Slavic family, yet I am faithful to the work of Him, Who
has sent Me. For Him there are no obstacles, no difficulties,
His will is eternal and unbending and all He
has said shall come to pass, but not in your days, if
you turn back as did the Israelite nation in the desert,
and like them you shall leave your bones because of
your faintheartedness and general disbelief. Yet, the new
generation which the God of Hosts Himself shall raise,
shall bring to completion His intentions as ordained to be
carried out. You may speed up or hinder the development
of your cause, if you become involved in the licentious
life of the corrupt nations, and this makes Me be more
watchful over you, so that you may not turn back again
and fall into the trap of evil, which fall shall cost you
your lives. This has forced Me to come among you from
above and to intercede for you again and to wipe out

and remove the infernal hatred towards your brotherly
nation which has sacrificed innumerable human lives for
you. This is holy Russia for which God has ordained a
great future, to fulfill His will for your glory and for
the glory of His Kingdom. You will receive a gift from
Russia as Melchizedek received from Abraham whom he
blessed.12 She owes her present power and glory to you;
such are the Divine orders: one sows and another reaps,
but in the end all will partake in the blessings of God.
The infernal venom is being put aside today, the events
are taking another course, the powers of hell are yielding
the leading role on the battlefield; those who disturb the
Peace of God will be punished everywhere and His justice
shall be re-established on earth. The kingdom which I
will restore is not a kingdom of hatred, but of love; raise
your eyes to see that the world is ripe for harvest. Soon
I shall prove the truth of my Divine words. One more
great deed and all hearts shall tremble and the speculations
of the world shall cease once and forever. As a sign
of its benevolence, Heaven has given you a sacred pledge
of great mercy and love which is kept between you, and
from the day when the answer is given, your redemption
shall begin; and I am warning you to protect what I am
building, not to destroy it, because it is sacred and if you
try to commit a sacrilege, I shall send three evils upon
you: hunger, plague and devastation, and I shall have no
mercy on you and I shall judge you so that you shall
forever remember that God has spoken to you. Mind My
words. In the Pledge, which I have entrusted to you, your
future rests; it is the legacy of your house, it is the hope
and life of your family. Listen to me, Slavic house, be
witness that I have spoken to you.

Now I am addressing you, my servants, leaders and
teachers and to you scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites,
and I command you to not corrupt My people which I
have entrusted to you. Turn away from your evil paths,
it is time for you to consider, guide my people on the
path of the truth and do not mislead them, help the
defenseless in their sorrows and do not injure the poor.
Put away lawlessness, renounce injustice, leave depravity
behind, for God can no longer look upon these evil
deeds which are being committed everywhere before His
eyes. He is out of patience, I have been called to bring
an end to the mass of evil. Heed this while there is still
time left, for the moment is coming when it shall be too
late to seek me; think about this, the lack of faith which
has taken over you wilfully, won’t bring you any good.
This is my second coming since you have become my
people, in order to see with my own eyes how you are
and how you live and My spirit is moved when I see
the dismal picture. You are to be pitied, you for whom I
have sacrificed all that I acquired: life, glory, and honour;
you have misused My goodness and love. In front of
My eyes a great number of your unhappy brothers and
sisters are standing whom you yourselves have violated
and plundered. Go to them and confess your trespasses
and make peace with your neighbours. On the day when
I am coming to reveal myself to you in My full glory,
I wish it to be a day of joy and not of sorrow, a day
dedicated to My Lord.
I am Elohil, The Angel of the Lord’s Covenant.

Communicated on 8 October 1898, Varna, Bulgaria

THE PROPHETIC MESSAGE
OF THE ANGEL ELOHIL

On 8 October 1898 the angel Elohil communicated
an important message to Peter Deunov. The angel
made himself known as the protector and guardian of
the Bulgarian nation, and as the angel of God’s Covenant.
In the same month Peter Deunov delivered this
message as A call to my people – Bulgarian sons of
the Slavic family to the Spiritistic Society Miloserdie
in Varna. According to Peter Deunov, God had given
to his angel Elohil the task to lead the Bulgarian nation
and the Slavic nations in general. The name of
the angel probably means: ‘Eloah is God’ (an Eloah
is an angel from the rank of the Elohim or Powers,
to which also Jahweh belongs).
Peter Deunov had the intention of sending the
message of the angel to the National Assemblee of
Bulgaria to be read to its members, but he changed
his mind. His friends asked him to publish the text,
but when the proof-sheets were ready for correction
he decided to withdraw it from printing in December
1898. He asked his pupils Penyu Kirov and Todor
Stoimenov to keep the proofs and to be silent about
them. In 1915 Mincho Sotirov received the text from
Kirov to copy it. Also Stoimenov gave his text to
someone to be copied. This last copy was found accidentally
by Ivan Andonov, who made his own copy
and gave it to other pupils. Andonov confessed to this
to Peter Deunov, who then allowed the message to be
read by others as well.13

The angel Elohil revealed through Peter Deunov
that he had come for the first time to the Bulgarian
nation when czar Boris I adopted Christianity as the
new state religion in 865. At that moment the mission
of the Bulgarians, as well as the mission of Elohil,
began. Elohil guided them through their sufferings,
caused by their sins as a nation, to purify their souls
along a path of patience and humility, towards a ‘good
and holy life’. In the second half of the 19th century
he initiated the process of liberation from Ottoman
domination. Now he came to his nation for the second
time, to confront it with the misuse of the gifts
of the new freedom and to remind it of its mission.
According to the angel, the Bulgarians shared their
mission with other members of the Slavic family. We
may suppose that Elohil led all the Slavic nations
that received Christianity through the Old Bulgarian
language, which was used in Eastern Europe from
the time of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius.
His inspiration may have continued when these nations
received their own folk spirits. A number of
Slavic nations (the Poles, the Czechs, the Slovaks, the
Slovenes and the Croatians) came under the influence
of Rome and may not have been inspired directly by
Elohil anymore.
Elohil revealed that God had chosen the Slavic
house as a dwelling for Himself. Similar to the way
the prophets of the Old Testament called the Israelite
people the ‘bride’ of Jahweh, he calls the Lord
(Christ) the ‘bridegroom’ of the Bulgarian people, and
in a wider sense also of the other Slavic nations.
They are the ‘chosen children of truth’ and the ‘seed

of the new humanity’ of which the Slavic family, as
a new Israel, will be the hearth. This is a very significant
image.
The opening words of the Call are: “Heaven has
assigned you a sacred office in the coming Kingdom
of Peace, which is coming and approaching in its
power.” Elohil will lead his nation to the Kingdom
of God. Christ will return, the New Age is coming.
Heaven has given ‘a sacred pledge of great mercy and
love’ to the Bulgarians, but they must act in accordance
with their calling. The angel described them as a
‘tribe of discord’ and as a ‘self-willed nation’, sharing
in the ‘general lack of unity and discordance’ of the
Slavic family.
The angel had come to warn them. The Bulgarian
people should awake and turn away from the evil
path, repent and develop pure virtues. They needed
spiritual guidance and education by their angel. When
they would respond to his call, their redemption and
spiritual renewal would begin. By responding to the
call they would avoid the ‘total destruction’ which was
already hanging over their heads, as the angel Elohil
said. Such words of warning and threats of punishment
are reminiscent of the words of the prophets of
the Old Testament. A nation that does not heed the
Divine instructions, as expressed by the prophets, must
face the consequences.
Peter Deunov followed the call of the angel. A
year earlier, on 19 March 1897, he had been inspired
by the spiritual world. As he told later: “Then I received
a mission from Heaven, then it was told to me
that I am a teacher for the whole humanity. The mis-

sion assigned to me is connected with the new path
of the Slavs and with the coming of the sixth race
(a concept from Theosophy, indicating a new cycle of
cultures – remark by the author).”14 In the same year
he founded the Society for the Uplifting of the Religious
Spirit of the Bulgarian People, which developed
in 1906 into the Chain and in 1920 into the School
of the White Brotherhood.
Already in his youth, during a long illness in
early 1884 which brought him to the brink of death,
Peter Deunov had devoted his life to Christ and decided
to become a preacher. Later he said that when
he was 19 years old, Peter Deunov died and that the
Spirit of Truth began to live in him.15 This was during
his illness. ‘Spirit of Truth’ is one of the titles
of the Holy Spirit.
After returning from Boston in 1895, Peter Deunov
declined positions as a Methodist pastor. He
turned away from the Protestant mission in Bulgaria
that had been motivated by the idea of reforming
the Orthodox Church. Devoting also time and energy
to social and educational activity, most of his time
however he dedicated to spiritual work – prayer and
meditation. The preparation of his own mission began.
His spiritual diaries, letters and a few published
texts show that God and different angels spoke to
him.16 These spiritual conversations, of which the
meeting with the angel Elohil is one, were extraordinary
spiritual events that are only known from the
lives of prophets and saints.
The content of the mission of the Bulgarians becomes
clear in the teaching that Peter Deunov spread

in his lectures and sermons. They do not contain his
own teaching, but the teaching of Christ, ‘the Great
Teaching of Life’, as he said.17 Humanity is on a path
of involution – separation from God, from other human
beings and from nature. Man develops his ego
and loses the connection with his higher Self. Christ
re-established this connection and through His sacrifice
human evolution could begin. Man can now become
a conscious part of humanity and nature, and develop
his own divine essence. In accordance with the spiritual
traditions of (Eastern) Christianity, Peter Deunov
spoke of the pride of man, of the suffering caused
by man’s mistakes and of the path of meekness and
humility that leads to Christ.
A renewed humanity no longer needs a Church.
It will practice love and brotherhood and through
them, society will transform itself into a spiritual
community. Peter Deunov saw the School of the
White Brotherhood as a school in which this new
humanity can develop itself. It will prepare a new
culture (the sixth culture in the present fifth cycle
of cultures, a cycle which began after the destruction
of Atlantis) which will be centred in the Slavic
countries. Out of this Slavic culture a new, sixth
cycle of cultures will be born that will embrace
awakened people from all nations. Theosophy speaks
of the ‘sixth race’, Peter Deunov called it the ‘Race
of Love’. In anthroposophical terminology the five
cycles are called the Polarian epoch, the epoch of
Hyperborea, the epoch of Lemuria, the epoch of Atlantis
and the present Post-Atlantic epoch. Two more
cycles of cultures will follow.

THE AWAKENING
OF THE SLAVIC NATIONS

The first ideas about the future of the Slavic nations
can be found in the work of the German philosopher
Herder (1744-1803). He considered the Slavs
as the youthful carriers of a global culture of the
future, in which they would realise the ideal of the
highest humanity. His thoughts strongly contributed to
the awakening of the national consciousness of the
different Slavic nations in the 19th century. This was
focused on their language and culture, not on political
notions of national independence.
In Russia this awakening give rise to the movement
of the Slavophils. In Poland Slavophil ideas led
to a Messianic ideology (the suffering country Poland
as the Messiah among the nations). It was ardently
Polish, catholic and anti-Russian, and aimed at the
creation of a Christian civilization. Also among the
Czech, Slovaks, Croatians, Serbs and Bulgarians, who
were living in the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman
empires, a new interest in the preservation of their
national culture and language emerged. Polish writers
(Józef Maria Hoene-Wronski, Zygmunt Krasiński and
Adam Mickiewicz), Czech writers (Josef Dobrovský)
and Slovak writers (Ján Kollár and Ľudevít Štúr) repeated
Herder’s claims that the Slavs, because of their
national qualities, are called upon to create a better
world of freedom and peace. A similar Messianism
was expressed by the Russian writer Feodor Dostoevsky.
His views on the role of Russia as the saviour

of European culture (Russia would reconcile the nations
of Europe) were rooted in the belief held within
the Orthodox Church that only Eastern Christianity
had remained pure.
A shift to Slavic political nationalism took place
in the second half of the 19th century, first of all
in Russia. The ideology of panslavism (a movement
based on the idea of Slavic unity) was used to justify
the imperialist policies of the Russian government to
bring all Slavic nations under its control. In the other
countries this shift led in the second half of the 19th
century to movements of national liberation and in the
early 20th century to the formation of national states.
A return to the spiritual dimensions of the Slavic
movement can be found in the work of the Russian
spiritual philosopher Vladimir Soloviev. In his essay
on the Russian Idea (1888) he spoke of the mission
of Russia to create a universal Church, not in the
sense of an institution but as a community living out
of Christian ideals. The Russian nation carries within
its soul an image of Christ, he said, but before it can
fulfil its mission it has to experience a moral rebirth.
Without having read the work of Soloviev and
being directly inspired by the spiritual world, Peter
Deunov set himself to the task to work for the spiritual
regeneration of the Bulgarian people and for
the preparation of the coming Slavic culture. To his
pupils he offered the vision of a Slavic Messianism.
He had to work with them for the transformation of
a nation of disharmonious souls into the vanguard of
a new culture, in which the Kingdom of God will be
established.

THE NEW AGE OF CHRIST

At the heart of the work of Peter Deunov stands
the prophetic message that in the new Slavic culture
of love and brotherhood Christ will return, and that He
will establish his Kingdom in a more distant future, in
the sixth cycle of cultures. The return of Christ (the
Second Coming) initiates the New Age, proclaimed by
the angel Elohil. It is in fact the New Age of Christ,
who is returning, according to Peter Deunov, not in a
physical body, but in the hearts of people, where he can
be found.
Throughout his life Peter Deunov was consistent in
his prophetic message. In the book The Teacher, a group
of pupils collected the following words: “This Christ is
coming now to visit human minds and hearts. (...) Remember
that Christ is a manifestation of the Love of
God. And He will come as an inner Light in the minds
and hearts of the people. This Light will attract everybody
around Christ as a great Centre. The opening of
the human minds and hearts and the reception of Christ
from within – this will be ‘the Second Coming of Christ’
on earth. He will preach above all the great science of
Love and the methods how to apply it. (...) Prepare to
meet Christ! Prepare, so that everybody in one’s time
can meet Christ. Put on your new clothes. For some
Christ will come even today, for others – tomorrow, still
for others – in years. You will see Him when you are
prepared. Receive Christ in your hearts as a friend, and
in your mind – as Teacher. Christ is now working. (...)
If you are in harmony with Christ, your consciousness

will wake up, you will see Him. Christ is coming to the
world with His Intelligence and Love. Christ is already
coming to the Earth to bring Divine Love for all the
people. He will teach people self-sacrifice and Love. He
brings Love, Wisdom, Knowledge, Freedom! The Light
of Christ penetrates everywhere!”18
In 1940 Peter Deunov commented during an excursion
in the mountains: “We are at the beginning of the
Second Coming.”19 In The Wellspring of Good, a compilation
of his words from 1944, we find him saying:
“Humankind is presently passing through a new phase
of its development. A new form of Love is coming.
We ask, ‘When will God come and reveal His Love to
us?’ This Day is coming. For some this Day has come
already.” “The End of Times began in 1914.” “The solar
system departs from the heavier matter and enters into
a lighter medium. Because of this, there will exist the
conditions for the manifestation of a higher consciousness
for humankind. The solar system departs from the
so-called ‘thirteenth sphere’. At the same time, the sun
will enter the age of Aquarius. Now is the end of the
dark epoch, Kali Yuga (a time of spiritual darkness,
known in Hindu cultured – remark by the author).”20
Peter Deunov said that this epoch would end in 1999.
According to Peter Deunov the influence of the constellation
of Aquarius began in 1914. About this influence
he said: “The most typical of this sign is that it
will raise and develop in man and in human society a
striving for justice, for the spiritual and the mystic in
man as well as in humanity as a whole.”
“The main characteristic of Aquarius is purity. It is
related with water which brings new life. We are al-

ready in the sign of Aquarius. This is the most mystical
century, the end of a cycle. The sign of Aquarius determines
supreme mysticism in man. The conditions now
are the most favourable for work. Never before in the
age of Christianity there have been better conditions.”21
The early decades of the 20th century show the first
inspirations of Aquarius in the public appearance of a
new wave of esoteric Christianity, as manifested in the
School of the White Brotherhood in Bulgaria and in Anthroposophy
in Central Europe. For these movements, the
age of Aquarius is the age of the returning Christ. In
the 1960’s another annunciation of the age of Aquarius
came from the Western world, from California, where
the so-called New Age movement started. This movement
is not part of esoteric Christianity.
According to the old star wisdom each of the
twelve constellations of the zodiac influences human
life in a different way. The sequence of these influences
is determined by the constellation from which the
sun rises at the beginning of spring. Due to the movement
of the axis of the earth, this vernal point shifts
by one degree every 72 years. The whole journey of
the vernal point through the zodiac takes about 25920
years – 12 periods of approximately 2160 years, if the
length of the constellations would be equal, which is
not the case. In 1928 the International Astronomical
Union established the boundaries of all the 88 constellations
in the sky. On the basis of this division the
vernal point will be in the constellation of Aquarius
between 2597 and 4312. In astrology, however, the
boundaries between the constellations of the zodiac are
defined by giving them an equal space of 300. Accord-

ing to this division of the zodiac, the vernal point in
2014 is in 50 Pisces and will enter the constellation
of Aquarius around the year 2374.
From the perspective of the spiritual world, the new
age of Aquarius began on March 22, 1914, as Peter
Deunov said on that day.22 This date for the beginning
of the new age is not connected with the visible constellation
of Aquarius, but with the beginning of the Second
Coming of Christ and of the End of Times.

THE SLAVIC CULTURE
OF THE FUTURE

During his stay in America (1888-1895) Peter Deunov
had become familiar with the Theosophical movement.
He may have known that for H.P. Blavatzky and her followers,
the new culture would be an American culture.
In Theosophy the present culture is called the Teutonic
(or Anglo-Saxon) sub-race. The Slavs are regarded as
an offshoot of this sub-race. According to Blavatzky the
new culture, called the ‘Australo-American sub-race’, will
begin to evolve in the United States and Australia in
the early 21st century. The sixth cycle of cultures, in
this view, will also have its origin in America and not
in the Slavic world.23
This theosophical view about the domination of the
world by the Anglo-Saxons, given through mediums like
Blavatzky by invisible masters, has been incorporated
into the American ideology of living in ‘God’s own
country’ and of being blessed by God. This ideology is

used to justify the global activities of the Anglo-Saxon
spiritual, political and economic elites.
In the 19th century Western spiritual circles recognized
the youthful character of the Slavic peoples and
believed that the Slavic nations should be educated by
the West. The education the Western world has given
to the Slavic world so far, however, is highly problematic.
Western interest groups have been instrumental in
spreading materialistic ideas to Russia and in creating the
socialist experiment of bolshevism that seemed to spread
the ideals of brotherhood, but in fact perverted them.
The rise and fall of bolshevism is an important episode
in the spiritual conflict about the Christian or anti-
Christian character of human culture in the future. The
message of Elohil from 1898 clarifies what is at stake
– the future of Slavic culture as the dwelling of Christ
among humanity. His message is also the refutation of
the Theosophical views about the new culture. Being
instructed by the angel Elohil, Peter Deunov was the first
spiritual teacher to announce that after the present (fifth)
culture of ego-development the coming (sixth) culture
of community-development will be a Slavic culture (and
not an American culture). He did not indicate when
this culture would begin, but obviously it is intimately
connected with the return of Christ. “Until the end of
the 20th century, many Evolved Beings will incarnate
into the Slavic nations. They will bring a great spiritual
upliftment. But they are not only the vanguard: they are
the main forces”, Peter Deunov said in 1944.24
Independently from Peter Deunov and a few years
later, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the Austrian founder
of Anthroposophy, brought the same message about the

coming of the Slavic culture. His views support the
prophesy of the New Age of Christ and of the new
Slavic culture given to Peter Deunov. Both spoke out of
an experience of the same spiritual reality and for this
reason the views of Rudolf Steiner can complement the
prophetic message given to the Teacher Peter Deunov.
It is true that they assign different years to the end of
the Kali Yuga (according to Steiner this was in 1899,
hundred years earlier than the year given by Peter Deunov)
and to the beginning of the Second Coming, but
this is not essential – between ages there is a transition
period and the return of Christ is a long process with
different stages.
Rudolf Steiner created a time schedule of the seven
post-Atlantic cultures, each with a duration of 2160
years. The present Anglo-Saxon-Germanic culture began
in 1413 and will end in 3573, while the Slavic culture
will begin in the year 3573 and last until 5733. In Anthroposophy
a distinction is made between the age of
Aquarius (which will begin in 2374) and the culture of
Aquarius (which will begin 1199 years later). It takes
time before the new inspirations will work with full
force and will be absorbed by humanity. Their seed will
be the new Slavic culture, which in this view will only
begin when the age of Aquarius is already more than
halfway. In Anthroposophy the centre of the Slavic culture
is thought to be in the northern part of European
Russia, the Baltic countries and Finland. It will be a
global culture.
From the year 1910 onwards, also Steiner publicly
spoke of the return of Christ in the 20th century, beginning
around 1933. He described the Second Coming

as a process that would last 2500 years, during which
more and more people would experience Christ as a
comforter, helper and advisor. They will develop new
senses to see Him in the ‘etheric sphere’. This period
of 2500 years almost coincides with the Age of Light
(Satya Yuga) which began according to Steiner after
the end of the dark age Kali Yuga in 1899 and will
last for 2500 years.
Steiner also spoke about the successor of Gautama
Buddha, called the Maitreya Bodhisattva, who will become
the Maitreya Buddha after about 2500 years. The
title Maitreya means ‘bearer of the Good’. He is incarnated
now and will be the ‘actual herald of Christ in
his etheric form’, Steiner said in 1911.25 This Bodhisattva
incarnates almost every century. He will make people
conscious of the new presence of Christ and he will
through his words strengthen the moral forces of humanity.
In 2007 the thesis has been brought forward that this
being incorporated in Peter Deunov around 1897, who
then became the Master Beinsa Duno, the spiritual name
by which he was known among his disciples.26
Inspired by the same spiritual sources, Peter Deunov
and Rudolf Steiner worked in different cultures
(Central European and Slavic), from different perspectives,
with different missions and with people of different
soul qualities. Peter Deunov focussed on the
development of Christian virtues and of a new social
life. Rudolf Steiner stressed the development of consciousness
and of new spiritual faculties, necessary for
a new spiritual science.
These two teachers of esoteric Christianity described
the coming Slavic culture in similar terms. This

culture will be dedicated on the one hand to the evolution
of man into a harmonious and pure being and on
the other hand to the creation of communities founded
upon love, in which Christ can live among humanity.
In Anthroposophy the first aspect is related to the being
of Sophia (Divine Wisdom). Through the purification
of the astral body the human soul will transform
into a vessel that can receive the higher Self of man.
Symbolically this vessel has been described in medieval
traditions as the Cup of the Holy Grail. Human beings
will share a common cosmic wisdom, which will form
the basis of peace and brotherhood among them. In
esoteric Christianity the purified astral body is symbolically
called Holy Sophia.27
In his lectures Peter Deunov also spoke about Divine
Wisdom. “God is Love, Wisdom and Truth”,28 he often
said. Rudolf Steiner saw the second aspect of the new
culture (the creation of communities in the spirit of love)
in relation to the work of the Manicheans, of which the
Bulgarian Bogomils had been representatives. In these
two aspects, wisdom and love are the two fundamental
qualities of the new culture.
For Peter Deunov and Rudolf Steiner love is the
cornerstone for the foundation of the new culture.
Both of them described the illusions people usually
have about love. Very often love is in fact self-love,
because sympathy and self-interest mask themselves as
love. Only when we are able to surrender ourselves
to another person, there is true love.29 Steiner called
the Christ-impulse the impulse of love. When we love
unselfishly and when we create space for others in our
consciousness, Christ can live in us. According to St

Paul, then instead of “I” we can speak of “Christ in
me”. This is the turning point from involution, which
strengthens the ego, to evolution, which connects us
with the higher self. It is the personal entry into the
New Age of Christ.
The Slavic people are predestined to prepare the
ground for the New Age of Christ. In 1944 Peter
Deunov said: “The Slavic people will bring something
new. They come now to create the new culture. In a
sense, they are now the spiritual Israel. (...) In general,
Western people have a developed intellect. In the Latin
people, the feelings and heart are developed. The Slavic
people now carry the power of the soul – Love. They
are the people of Love for humankind. They carry the
culture of Brotherhood. (...) One of the great characteristics
of the Slavic nations is self-sacrifice. (...) A
beautiful quality of the Slavic nation is altruism. (...)
All Slavic people need to unite into one. After the
unification of the Slavs, the whole world will unite.
The future race will unite all. The Slavs will introduce
a spiritual element into the world – that we may become
as brothers. Their mission is the unification of
all nations.”30
In 1918 Rudolf Steiner described how in the 9th
century AD a historical process began that prepared in
Eastern Europe the formation of the ‘proper nation of
Christ’, which is the Russian nation. In this process
a territory was created where people kept their souls
open for the continuous influx of the impulse of Christ,
for the ongoing presence of the ‘breath of Christ’. He
remains present in their souls as ‘an inner aura that
permeates the thoughts and feelings of this nation’.31

THE PREPARATION
OF THE NEW CULTURE

The new culture has her teachers, both in an exoteric
and an esoteric way. According to Peter Deunov, “the
Slavic nations are a living tree onto which England,
Germany, America and France will be grafted. They are
the four teachers of the Slavic nations.”32 In a spiritual
sense, the inspirations for the new culture have other
sources. They come from Bulgaria, Central Europe and
Northern Europe, and from the Slavic spiritual tradition
itself.
The church as an institution came to Old Russia in
988 from Constantinople. Spiritually, Christianity came
from Bulgaria to Kiev already before 988 in the form
of the Old-Bulgarian liturgy, but also in the form of
the Bogomil teaching that had begun to flourish in the
Bulgarian lands in the 10th century. A new wave of
spirituality from Bulgaria came with the teaching of the
School of the White Brotherhood. From Central Europe
a second source had already begun to flow. In the 17th
century inspirations from the movement founded by the
initiate Christian Rosenkreuz came to Russia and in the
early 20th century new impulses for the development
of a spiritual consciousness entered Russia through Anthroposophy.
Steiner even spoke of the necessity of a
‘spiritual marriage’ between Central Europe and Russia,
in order to awaken the self-consciousness of the Russians
and to develop the potential of Russian culture.33
The inspirations from the third source, the North,
are less perceptible. The areas bordering on the Arctic

Ocean are considered by spiritual science as the centre
of the epoch of Hyperborea. The climate was tropical
at that time and mankind was not yet incarnated in a
physical body. Human beings had an etheric body as
their lowest body. In more recent times northern Europe
was, according to Steiner, the centre of a solar cult that
spread to the Celts, the Germanic tribes and the Greeks.
The musical culture of Old Europe was also influenced
from there. Greek historians mention the relations between
Greek sanctuaries and these northern lands, which
they called Hyperborea (= the land beyond Boreas, the
northern winds). The Solovki Islands in the north of
Russia with their ancient labyrinths might have been the
centre of this solar cult. In historical times the whole
area between the Scandinavia and the Ural Mountains
was inhabited by tribes speaking Finnish languages.
In Finland and the Russian North, the forces of nature
have a special quality. The beings of nature can be perceived
easily and the people living in these areas have a
deep connection with them. The great Finnish epic poem
Kalevala, created in the 19th century by Elias Lönnrot on
the basis of fragments of the ancient songs which he collected,
presents a powerful vision of the forces of creation
that are still perceptible there. At the same time it gives
vivid imaginations of the three personified parts of the
soul that are working in separation and need to be united
by ego-consciousness. From the Middle Ages, Russian
hermits and spiritual seekers have felt a powerful attraction
by the purity of nature in these ‘Hyperborean’ lands.
Like other Slavic nations, Russia has a rich spiritual
tradition in which important steps have been made towards
the new culture. A wonderful image of the future

culture has been created in the Legend of the Invisible
City of Kitezh. This city became invisible, it disappeared
under water, by the intercession of the Virgin Mary,
when the Mongolians wanted to destroy it in the 13th
century. Pilgrims who used to come to Lake Svetloyar
into which the city has sunk, could hear the bells of
its churches when they went around the lake on their
knees – provided they were pure in heart.34
In the late 19th century a religious philosophy developed
in Russia that was founded by Dostoevsky and
Soloviev. This philosophy created a Russian Sophiology,
a teaching on Holy Sophia (known from the Wisdom
Books of the Old Testament), in which human thinking
strives to connect with divine wisdom again. A profound
expression of this new teaching can be found in the
work of the Russian poet and visionary Daniil Andreev
(1906–1959), who wrote his Roza Mira in a Soviet
prison. It offers a vision of the coming Slavic culture,
here called the ‘Rose of the World’, that is inspired by
Zventa Sventana, a being that fulfils the role Sophia will
play in the new culture.
Andreev was very much aware of the evil inspirations
behind the Soviet regime. The Second Coming of
Christ that has begun in the 20th century is part of the
Apocalypse or Revelation, described at the end of the
New Testament, in which good and evil forces which
mankind has attracted reveal themselves. The new presence
of Christ confronts us with the dark aspects of our
life and in the situation of the world.
Peter Deunov said about this in 1944: “The wave of
Love which is coming is also called the wave of Divine
Fire. Everything old and impure will burn in it. After

man passes through this Divine Fire, the Kingdom of
God will come to Earth. (...) The great destruction
which occurs today is due to this great Life which
comes now. If people do not accept Christ voluntarily,
the whole culture will pass through Fire seven times,
but in the end, it will be purified and renewed. (...)
All this is linked to the eradication of the karma of
humankind which has been accumulated for thousands
of years. (...) Because for thousands of years man was
under the influence of negative forces, these forces
now turn against him. (...) The karma of the European
nations is already ripe and creates tribulations
for the whole of humankind. The tribulations indicate
that man must change his way of life and apply the
Divine Teaching. (...) The turbulent flow which represents
the tribulations and conflicts of humankind will
abate by the end of the century.”35
Through the suffering of individuals and nations in
these tribulations (above all the wars), according to Peter
Deunov, their old karma will be liquidated and this
will prepare them for a new life in accordance with
the will of God. Seen from another point of view, the
ideologies of bolshevism, fascism, national-socialism,
nationalism, neo-liberalism and the crimes against humanity
committed in their name since the beginning
of the 20th century reveal the dark side of the human
soul. Through this dark side, the Beasts from the
Abyss, about which the Book of Revelation speaks, also
have begun to work in the 20th century, at the background
of the beginning of the Second Coming.
In contrast to Rudolf Steiner, Peter Deunov does
not give much attention to the forces of Evil. For him

it makes more sense to concentrate on the good. “If
you talk about evil, evil will befall you; if you talk
about the good, good will befall you,” he said.36

THE PRESENT SITUATION
OF THE SLAVIC COUNTRIES

According to Peter Deunov the present Bulgarians
have three good characteristics which they inherited
from the basic constituents of the population. From
the Thracians (who inhabited the country in Antiquity)
comes the inclination for the mystical, the spiritual.
From the Slavs they received the spirit of sacrifice:
selflessness. And from the Old Bulgarians they received
courage.37 Peter Deunov distinguished between
those who are Bulgarians in a physical sense and the
Bulgarians of the spirit. The latter are people who
search for their teacher, find him and learn from him.
“The real Bulgarian is one who has goodness, righteousness,
beauty and sentience: goodness of the heart,
righteousness of the mind, beauty of the soul, and
sentience as well. The Bulgarians must learn to rely
on God alone.”38
On several occasions Peter Deunov said that Bulgaria
was in its ‘golden century’. For this he had created
favourable conditions. “Until now the Bulgarians
have served the powers of darkness, but now they will
serve the powers of Light. Bulgaria today is like a holy
land.” But: “If the Bulgarian nation does not accept the
new teaching, something terrible is in store for her.”39

With the arrival of communism in 1944 the golden
age of Bulgaria came to an end. Peter Deunov did
not speak about the period of repression that lasted
until 1990. The School of the White Brotherhood was
forbidden, books of the Teacher were confiscated and
to a great extent destroyed. The School had to go underground,
but it survived the 45 years of atheism and
materialism.
After the collapse of communism Eastern Europe
was invaded by the free-market economy in which people
were encouraged to seek their private interest. State
property was privatized, often in criminal ways, and the
life conditions for the poor, the ill, the aged and the
unemployed deteriorated. Because their country could
not offer them normal life conditions about a million
people left Bulgaria after 1990 to look for a job and a
better life.
When we look at the situation of the Slavic countries
that are part of the Orthodox Christian world,
countries that belong to the sphere of inspiration of
the angel Elohil, the general image is not very hopeful
at the moment. In various degrees these countries have
states with a high level of corruption, the state of law
is not well developed and they are ruled by a political
elite (usually from the old communist structures, the secret
police and the new mafia) that is seeking its own
benefit and has little interest in improving the general
conditions of the people.
A profound moral and spiritual regeneration is necessary
to create the proper conditions for the development
of the new Slavic culture. The School of the White
Brotherhood can offer regenerating impulses.

THE SCHOOL
OF THE WHITE BROTHERHOOD

When Peter Deunov started to work for the uplifting
of the religious spirit of the Bulgarian people, later
continued in the Chain and in the School of the White
Brotherhood, he put himself into the service of the angel
Elohil. He created a spiritual path to the future Slavic
culture, not only for the Bulgarians, but also for the
Russians. The teaching will be carried to Russia and be
applied there, he said.40 In a wider sense it is given to
people from all cultures of the world.
The School of the White Brotherhood was founded
in Bulgaria, as Peter Deunov said, because the mountains
of Bulgaria were ancient centres of initiation: “The oldest
occult School (of the world) is situated within the
Rila Mountains.” “From the Rila Massif comes down a
mighty Divine Stream. Those who are close to the massif
will naturally have good conditions for upliftment,
because they are under a beneficial influence.”41
The (Great or Universal) White Brotherhood is not
a human organisation. It is a Divine community of
spiritual beings, led by Christ, serving humanity in its
evolution. Among them are also human beings who
have completed their evolution. This Heavenly Brotherhood
(which Rudolf Steiner called the White Lodge) has
branches on Earth, among them the School founded by
Peter Deunov. Here people can study on different levels.
Comparable to the Schools of the Bogomils and
French Cathars in the Middle Ages, which consisted of
three groups (a circle of interested people, a circle of

believers, and a circle of initiates), Peter Deunov brought
together in the School of the White Brotherhood three
groups of people: people with an interest in the teaching,
people who studied it and tried to apply it in their
lives, and a selected group of young people. For each
of these groups he gave separate lectures.
The White Brotherhood has three great laws: Love
God, love thy neighbour and seek perfection.42 The main
principles of the teaching are Love, Wisdom, Truth, Justice
and Virtue. They are the five qualities man needs
to develop in order to perfect himself. In observing
them, according to Peter Deunov, he does the will of
God. In the School, he developed a variety of methods
of spiritual work. They can be summarized as: lectures,
practise of the tasks and exercises given in the lectures,
discussions with his disciples, songs, music, the circle
dance of paneurhythmy, physical exercises, excursions
into the mountains, summer camps in the mountains,
communal life, prayer and meditation. After his death
other methods appeared as well, such as reading circles
and study groups.
A new form of communal life was created in the
community of Izgrev (Sunrise), at that time outside Sofia.
In 1924 pupils of the School began to build small
wooden houses and in the course of a few years Izgrev
became the centre of the School. The communist regime
confiscated the area, but a good destiny preserved a part
of it – here is the garden where Peter Deunov has been
buried.
The School of the White Brotherhood offers a path
to Christ. Christ did not leave the Earth after His Ascension
into Heaven, said Peter Deunov. He lives in the

soul of every human being, but they are not aware of
this. What is called His Second Coming has begun in
the 20th century and will be completed when all people
will open their heart to Him and will receive Him from
inside, not from outside.43 Christ “is continuously visiting
people, but they do not recognize Him.” “Usually he
visits people who are in trouble, those who suffer, the
poor, the ill and those who are abandoned.”44
Christ is knocking on everybody’s door and one
day all people will see Him. They can find Him when
they purify their hearts. They will see Him, when they
enter into harmony with Christ. They can not only find
Him within themselves, but also in nature.45 Often Peter
Deunov stressed the necessity of meekness and humility.
They give man the possibility to develop himself correctly,
without them the healing of man is impossible.46
“Humility is the first condition for connecting with God.
This is the Law of the Universal White Brotherhood.
Humility is the primary quality required of the disciple.
It is not the righteous or the wise who will see God,
but the one with humility.”47
Pride is the quality of people who are on the descending
path, away from God, the path of involution.
Humility is the quality of the person ascending along
the path of evolution, back to God, Peter Deunov said.48
With this view, he is in complete harmony with the
spiritual traditions of Christianity. Humility is the way to
metanoia, the inner transformation, which turns the path
of involution into the path of evolution.
In the School of the White Brotherhood Peter Deunov
gathered many people who developed the qualities
of meekness and humility. They were inspired by him

and their development accelerated. They can indeed be
seen as belonging to the vanguard of the new culture.
After his death in 1944 they carried within them a living
memory of the harmony he was able to create around
him.
A limited number of the around 4000 lectures of
Peter Deunov has been translated into other languages,
mainly English and Russian. Books with the lectures are
available in every bookshop in Bulgaria and continue to
inspire new readers. Paneurhythmy is danced in many
countries in the world as a form of active meditation,
introducing people to a new experience of nature and to
the teaching of which it is an expression.
We may expect that in the future new impulses for
the further development of the Slavic culture will be
given from the spiritual world. At the same time, people
from other parts of the world will incarnate in the Slavic
nations, bringing with them other experiences, skills
and mentalities than those that can be found among
the Slavic nations presently. And everywhere people are
working within their own culture for the realisation of
the impulse of Love in the New Age of Christ. A new
spiritual consciousness is developing all over the world
and everybody is invited to participate in the creation of
a global spiritual culture.