New Fire on Lemnos

Abstract

The essay is dedicated to the memory of the writer and researcher of esoteric traditions Arkady Rovner (1940–2019). The author’s memoirs about working with Rovner are complimented with an overview of the ideas and values important to Rovner and his interlocutors in the 1970s‑2000s. Explanations of the crisis of this culture in the post-­Soviet period are proposed. Special attention is payed to the original idea of Rovner’s bilingual almanac «Gnosis» (New York, 1978–2006).