Sources, many primary and secondary claiming "St." Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia dabbled in the occult.
The last Emperor of Russia was canonized along with his family and servants by the Russian Orthodox church as passion bearers, though many simply regard them proper martyrs. (Initially, even the Lutheran and Catholic servants were canonized by the ROCOR as saints until it was revealed they were not Orthodox!) The typical explanation for the canonization is that he was a pious Christian ruler and a good father. His quality of rule is very dubious, but this is not the subject of this article. The quality of his fatherhood seems an odd reason for canonization considering Christ alludes to even heathens being good parents. Rather, him and his wife's obsession with mystics and the occult suggest they were not very pious in a theological sense. A number of those close the Imperial family bemoaned the Emperor's gullibility and lack of will, especially when it came to supposed mystics that his wife fell under the spell of: Concerning the influence of the Empress Alexandra, the Count Sergei Witte wrote:
She might have been a good enough consort for a petty German prince, and she might have been harmless even as the Empress of Russia, were it not for the lamentable fact that His Majesty has no will power at all. The extent of Alexandra’s Influence upon her husband can hardly be exaggerated. In many cases she actually directs his actions as the head of the Empire. On one occasion, I recall, Nicholas referred to Her Majesty as “a person in whom I have absolute faith.” The fate of many millions of human beings is actually in the hands of that woman. Surely the poor Emperor, and ah’ of us who are his devoted servants, and, above all, Russia, would have been much happier had Princess Alix married a German Duke or Count.--Yarmolinsky, A., Witte, S. I. (2018). The Memoirs of Count Witte. p 198. United States: Creative Media Partners, LLC.
Before I continue, who is Sergei Witte that he should be believed? He was the first Prime Minister of Russia (albeit for less than a year) and was given the title count by the Emperor for his skillful negotiations with Japan to end the war. In addition, Emperor Alexander III on his deathbed advised Nicholas II to listen to Witte.
Empress Alexandra was the favorite granddaughter of Queen of England, Victoria. Queen Victoria was herself a believer in the occult, it seems fitting that Alexandra would like fall victim to occult 'masters'. The occult was widespread in Europe and other western countries among the aristocracy. Abraham Lincoln is even believed to have attended a seance, Arthur Conan Doyle was a devout Spiritualist, and many blurred the lines between medicine and magic/superstition (which exists today in some fields of psychology).
One such prominent occultist was Philippe (Philippe Nizier-Anthelme Vachod), a French medical school dropout who was fined for practicing medicine without a license until he found another to operate his quack practice under.
Another occultist master who some dealings with the Imperial court was Gérard Anaclet Vincent Encausse aka Papus.
In 1910 the head of both the Martinists and the Ordre de la Rose-Croix was Gerard Encausse (1865-1916). better known by his "occult" name, "Papus". Papus was the author of dozens of the best-known occult texts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, an expert on everything from alchemy to Kabbala to the tarot. He also held high-ranking Masonic and Rosicrucian posts....
Papus reestablished and updated the Martinist order, which soon achieved great popularity in Russia and Italy. Between 1900 and 1905, on one of several visits to Russia, Papus reputedly established a Martinist lodge at the court in St. Petersburg, together with another, Dr Philippe (Philippe Nizier-Anthelme Vachod, also Maitre Philippe de Lyon, 1849-1905), the monk Grigory Rasputin's predecessor as "friend" to the court of Nicholas II. Rumors persist that Tsar Nicholas II belonged to the Lodge of the Cross and Star; his uncles Nikolai Nikolaevich and Petr Nikolaevich, as well as the grand duke Georgy Mikhailovich, were members. It is true that Martinism had become very popular in Russia by 1905; it waned after 1916.--The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture. p 149. (1997). United Kingdom: Cornell University Press.
Emperor Nicholas spoke fondly of the occultist Philippe:
"During that time 'our friend' Philippe was sitting with Alix and talking with her. We showed him our daughters and prayed together with him in the bedroom!--Emperor Nicholas, Diary 11 July 1901 at Tsarskoe Selo. Found in A Lifelong Passion, p 206
Felix Yusupov has nothing nice to say about the Emperor's mystics, speaking of two occultist sisters in the Imperial Court from Montenegro:
"They were much interested in occultism and lived surrounded by soothsayers and questionable prophets. It was through them that a French charlatan named Philippe, and later Rasputin had access to the Imperial Court. Their palace, Znamenka, was the central point of the powers of evil.
One day as my father was walking by the seaside in the Crimea, he met the Grand Duchess Militsa driving with a stranger. My father bowed, but she did not respond. Meeting her by change a few days later, he asked her why she had cut him. 'You couldn't have seen me,' said the Grand Dutchess, 'for I was with Doctor Philippe and when he wears a hat he is invisible and so are those who are with him.'
One of the Grand Dutchess's sisters told me that as a child she had once hidden behind a curtain and seen Philippe enter the room; to her astonishment, all those present knelt and kissed his hand."--Felix Yusupov, Memoirs. Found in A Lifelong Passion, p 206-207
A member of the Court named Ania spoke of the con-man Philippe:
Before I came to Court there was a Frenchman, Dr Philippe in whim they reposed the greatest confidence, believing him to be one in whom the gift of prophecy existed. I never knew Dr Philippe hence I can speak of him only as a sort of forerunner of Rasputin, because, as the Empress told me, his coming was foretold by Dr Philippe. Very shortly before his death the French mystic told them they would have another friend authorised to speak to them from God, and when Rasputin appeared he was accepted as that friend...--Ania Vyrubova, Memoirs. From A Lifelong Passion, p 425
Lev Tikhomirov, former revolutionary that became a conservative monarchist:
"That Philippe is the most shameful occurrence for the Imperial Family. He is some sort of foreign charlatan, hypnotist, magnetizer, and magician presenting himself as the possessor of occult powers."--Lev Tikhomirov, November 1902, quoted in Smith, D. (2016). Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs. page 44. United States: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The follow is by an ex-hieromonk, Sergei Michailovich Trufanov, who left Orthodoxy for Protestantism after the Revolution and came to the USA from Russia:
Melancholy and ghost-ridden as he was, in constant fear for his life, pursued by invisible hands, it was natural for him to suppose that God spoke to him through idiots, and that in consequence these idiots should often have influenced the relations of Russia with foreign powers. Fetichism and spiritualism dominated the czar's whole existence. On his person he carried all sorts of charms and talismans, the most precious of which in later years was a lock of Rasputin's hair. He wore this in a ring, and gazed upon it fixedly before making any momentous decision.--The Mad Monk of Russia, Iliodor, page 177
Note the attendance of the Emperor to seances is mostly second (or third) hand accounts.
According to Count Sergei Witte, the Tsar and his wife attended seances conducted by Philippe:
And it was through the good offices of these Montenegrins that Philippe gained access to the Grand Dukes, and later to their Majesties. Empress Alexandra was on intimate terms with none of the female members of the Imperial family except those Montenegrin women, who were to her a cross between bosom-friends and chambermaids. For months Philippe secretly lived in St. Petersburg and in the Summer residences of his high patrons. Consultations and mystic seances were continuously going on there with the participation of their Majesties, the Grand Dukes, and their Montenegrin wives.--Yarmolinsky, A., Witte, S. I. (2018). The Memoirs of Count Witte. p 203. United States: Creative Media Partners, LLC.
James L. Houghteling Jr, a man working in the US embassy at the time, relayed similar rumors that the Emperor attended a seance to bring up the recently assassinated Rasputin:
Monday February 19 [1917]: I heard yesterday the story of the spiritualist seance engineered by Protopopoff for the Tsar. It was at Tsarskoe Selo. The Tsar, Tsarina, their two eldest daughters, the minister and his right-hand man gathered around the table. Suddenly Protopopoff grew rigid, with set eyes and tense arms outstretched; then after some minutes he pulled himself together and said, “There has just appeared to me the spirit of St. Gregory Rasputin ; and he bids us continue to strengthen the Holy Autocracy.” The Tsar sat staring and believed every word of it. I hear this story is current, with some variations, and is regarded as gospel truth, in many “well-informed circles.”--A Diary of the Russian Revolution. page 35-36. (1918). JAMES L. HOUGHTELING. JR United States: Dodd, Mead and Company.
The most detailed account of the Emperor at a seance is found in Maurice Paleologue's memoir:
In 1900 the magician Papus (his real name was Dr. Encausse) who revived alchemy in France, came to St. Petersburg and soon made an enthusiastic clientle for himself. In the years following he was seen there on several occasions during the residence of his great friend, the magician Philippe of Lyons ; ' the Emperor and Empress honoured him with their whole confidence. His last visit was in February, 1906.....
Madame R , who is both a professing spiritualist and a disciple of Rasputin, has been explaining this consternation to me by reference to a strange prophecy which is worth recording: the death of Papus presages nothing less than the downfall of tsarism in the near future. This is how it comes about:
...October, 1905, Papus was sent to St. Petersburg by some of his highly-placed followers who badly needed his guidance in the...crisis through which Russia was then passing. The disasters in Manchuria had produced revolutionary agitation in every part of the Empire, bloody strikes, outbreaks of looting, massacre and arson. The Emperor was living in a state of torturing anxiety...
The very day on which Papus arrived in St. Petersburg, a riot spread terro... The magician was immediately summoned to Tsarskoie- Selo. After a summary talk with the Emperor and Empress, a... seance was arranged... Apart from the sovereigns there was only one spectator...Captain Mandryka....By... concentration of will and a prodigious expenditure of fluid dynamism, the “Spiritual Master” succeeded in calling up the spirit of ...Alexander III.....
Nicholas II bluntly asked...whether he should...resist the current of liberalism... The spirit replied:
At any cost you must crush the revolution now beginning; but it will spring up again one day and its violence will be proportionate to the severity with which it is put down to-day. But what does it matter! Be brave, my son! Do not give up the struggle!”
While the horrified sovereigns were reflecting on this appalling prophecy, Papus told them that his magic powers enabled him to avert the threatened catastrophe, but that the efiicacy of his spells would cease the moment he himself ceased to be “on the physical plane.” Then he solemnly performed the necessary rites.--Paléologue, Maurice (1925). An Ambassador's Memoirs: Volume III. pages 97-98. United Kingdom: George Doran.
The Count Witte notes the influence Philippe exercised over the Empress Alexandra:
Empress Alexandra fell completely under the influence of the impostor. Among other things she actually believed that “Dr.” Philippe had an enchanted life and could not be harmed by physical means. Nothing will better illustrate the extent and nature of his ascendancy over the Empress than the following incredible, yet well authenticated, incident. At the time when she was under the sway of the charlatan she was very anxious to have a son, because the four children who had previously been born to their Majesties were all girls. Dr. Philippe made Her Majesty believe that she was going to give birth to a boy, and she convinced herself that she was pregnant.--Yarmolinsky, A., Witte, S. I. (2018). The Memoirs of Count Witte. p 204. United States: Creative Media Partners, LLC.
Towards the end of the Romanov, Philippe was still referenced by the Empress Alexandra:
At a time, such as we are now living through, one needs to hear your voice uplifted in protest and reprimand when they continue not obeying your orders, when they dawdle in carrying them out. They must learn to tremble before you - you remember M. Philippe and Grigory say the same thing too.--Letter from Alix to Nicky, 1 June 1916 - Tsarskoe Selo from A Lifelong Passion, p. 425-426
"Remember even M. Philippe said one dare not give constitution, as it would be your and Russia's ruin, and all true Russians say the same."--A Lifelong Passion, p 490. Diary of Alexandra Romanov 14 December 1916
"In 1903 the Orthodox church canonized Serafim Sarovsky. This was done, it was said, at the insistence of Nicholas, and on the advice of Philippe. Rumours spread that bathing at the source near the monastery, where Serafim had lived and died, cured people of ailments and brought the fulfillment of wish...."-- A Lifelong passion, Historical Afterword, p 643
Count Witte suspected there was a secret plot to get Seraphim canonized which included another Russian Orthodox saint, John Kronstadt:
At the Summer residence of Grand Duke Peter, Philippe met a number of ecclesiastics, among them the notorious Father John of Kronstadt. It was apparently there that the project was hatched of canonizing the staretz (saintly man) Seraphim of Sarov.--Yarmolinsky, A., Witte, S. I. (2018). The Memoirs of Count Witte. p 204. United States: Creative Media Partners, LLC.
The Count then states he spoke with Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev, a layman that functioned as the Emperor's supervisor over the Russian church synod (an expression of the caesaropapism inherited from the Byzantines), about the canonization of Seraphim of Sarov. He states the following:
This incident was related to me by K. P. Pobiedonostzev himself. One fine morning he was invited...to take luncheon with their Majesties. The invitation came unexpectedly, because at that time relations between their Majesties and Pobiedonostzev were rather strained, although he had been instructor both to the Emperor and his most august father. After breakfast, at which Pobiedonostzev was alone with his Imperial hosts, the Emperor, in the presence of the Empress, asked his guests to submit to him a decree canonizing Father Seraphim, on the day when the memory of that saintly man is celebrated, which was. a few weeks off. Pobiedonostzev replied... that canonization lay within the province of the Holy Synod and must be preceded by a thorough investigation of the candidate’s life and of the people’s views on the subject... To this the Empress replied by remarking that “everything is within the Emperor’s province.” This opinion I have heard from Her Majesty on various occasions. Nevertheless, the Emperor gave heed to his guest’s arguments, and Pobiedonostzev, on the evening of the same day, received from the Emperor an amiable note, expressing agreement with the opinion about the impossibility of immediately canonizing Seraphim, and ordering Pobiedonostzev to carry out the canonization the following year.
Pobiedonostzev obeyed. Their Majesties were present at the ceremony of consecrating the relics. In the course of that celebration there were several cases of miraculous recovery. At night the Empress bathed in a healing fountain. The conviction prevailed, it was said, that the Sarov saint would give Russia an Heir Apparent, after four grand duchesses...--Yarmolinsky, A., Witte, S. I. (2018). The Memoirs of Count Witte. p 204-205. United States: Creative Media Partners, LLC.
The Count also comments on the occultist sisters in the Emperor's court meddling in the affairs of the church:
During the revolutionary days which followed the act of October 17th, Prince A. D. Obolensky, then Procurator of the Holy Synod, repeatedly complained to me about the interference of the Montenegrin Princesses in the affairs of the Holy Synod.--Yarmolinsky, A., Witte, S. I. (2018). The Memoirs of Count Witte. p 205. United States: Creative Media Partners, LLC.
Yusupov mentions the sisters were also among those that introduced the Court to Rasputin:
The Siberian prophet soon gathered around him a clique of worldly idlers, given over to occultism and necromancy. The two Montenegrin Grand Duchesses were among the first and most fervent admirers of the ‘man of God’. It was they who, in 1900, had introduced the occultist Philippe to the Court of Russia; now again, it was they who presented Rasputin to the Tsar and Tsarina, backed by the Archimandrite Théophane...--Yusupov, F. F. (2016). Lost Splendor: The Amazing Memoirs of the Man who Killed Rasputin. Page 191.
Yusupov mentions Rasputin succeeding in deceiving many in the Russian church including St John Kronstadt, nuns and the Archimandrite Theophane.
The Emperor's drug dealer/Alexander II's godson:
"The Empress would not rest until he had consulted the quack Badmaiev, an ingenious disciple of the Mongol sorcerers. The charlatan soon discovered in his pharmacopoeia the remedy appropriate to the case of his august patient: it is an elixir compounded of 'Tibetan herbs' according to a magic formula and has to be prescribed very strictly...Judging by its effects, the elixir must be a mixture of henbane and hashish...--Maurice Paleologue, Memoirs, 6 November 1916. From A lifelong passion. p. 480
Paleologue claimed (somewhat comically) that Badmaiev eventually formed an alliance with Rasputin by seeing a fellow huckster in him when treating the Tsar's son who suffered from hemophilia (a disease that almost certainly stemmed from the fact the Emperor and his wife were 2nd cousins):
On several occasions the Emperor and Empress have called him in to the Tsarevitch when ordinary doctors seemed powerless to stop the child’s haemorrhage. It was thus that he met Rasputin. Their respective charlatanisms at once recognized each other and coalesced.--Paléologue, M. (1925). An Ambassador's Memoirs. p. 144. United Kingdom: George H. Doran.
Paleologue also records a story of rivalry and hatred among charlatans---Papus and Rasputin:
“ It is twelve years or so,” said Madame T——, “since Papus was in Russia; but he has kept up a correspondence with Their Majesties. Several times he tried to convince them that Rasputin’s influence on them was evil, because he got it from the Devil. The result was that Father Grigori loathed Papus and when Their Majesties mentioned his name, he would burst out : “Why do you listen to that charlatan? What’s he poking his nose into now ? If he wasn’t a low schemer, he’d have his hands full enough with all the evildoers and pharisees he has around him. There are more sins over there in the West than anywhere else in the world; nowhere else is the crucified Jesus so continuously affronted... How often have I told you that everything that comes out of the Europes is wicked and harmful! ”----Paléologue, Maurice (1925). An Ambassador's Memoirs: Volume III. page 174. United Kingdom: George Doran.
Madame T is probably Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova (née Taneyeva), a 'lady in waiting'.
Another figure of stature in Russia was Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, one of Rasputin's assassins, he was the son of a Count of the same name. Prince Felix became a prince by marrying the niece of Tsar Nicholas II. Prince Felix openly wrote of how dabbling with the supernatural and the occult:
My brother and I took a great interest in spiritualism. We witnessed some rather surprising things at the séances which we held with a few friends. But when a marble statue broke and fell off its pedestal at our feet, we resolved to give them up. I none the less continued to take a deep interest in everything connected with the mystery of life after death.
It was at this time that Nicolas and I promised each other that the first of us to die would appear to the survivor. The Almighty God, the after-life and self-perfection were constantly on my mind. A priest with whom I talked freely on these matters told me: ‘Don’t try and find an answer to all these questions. Don’t philosophize too much. Just believe in God.’ But this wise advice did not satisfy my craving for knowledge. I immersed myself in the study of occult sciences and theosophy. I had difficulty in believing that it was possible, during the course of our brief sojourn on earth, to earn the right to eternal life, as the Christian doctrine teaches us. The theory of re-incarnation seemed, to my mind, a much better solution of the problems which preoccupied me. I learned that certain exercises of bodily and spiritual discipline could little by little develop in one a superhuman power which enabled one to master one’s own weaknesses and dominate other people. With the conviction that I was inspired by a divine truth, I devoted myself to the practice of Yoga exercises. Every day I took a special course of gymnastics and did an incalculable number of breathing exercises; at the same time, I tried to concentrate and develop my will-power. I soon noticed a change in myself: my mind became clearer, my memory improved, and my strength of will increased. Several people told me that even my expression had changed. I myself noticed that some people could not look me in the eye, and I concluded that I had acquired a sort of hypnotic power. To test my capacity for bearing pain, I held my hand over a lighted candle. I suffered the most excruciating pain, but it was not till the smell of roast flesh filled the room that I withdrew my hand....--Yusupov, F. F. (2003). Lost Splendor: The Amazing Memoirs of the Man who Killed Rasputin. Page 117. United States: Helen Marx Books. Also see here.
Note the Nicolas mentioned is his brother Nicolas Yusupov.
Yusupov mentions several forms of the occult mysticism: spiritualism, theosophy, yoga, reincarnation, seances. Interesting for someone who mocked Philippe as a charlatan! Perhaps realizing his own fraud in life (including letting his parents believe he had prophetic powers) let him see it in others.
Rasputin's rise some attribute in part to the desire to have an ethnic Russian to influence the Emperor, rather than foreigners, other men were attempted to influence him.
It is noteworthy, though the occultist necromancer Philippe laid the foundation for Rasputin, Rasputin did discourage certain occultism in the Court like séances and automatic writing:
Rasputin made Munya promise to stop attending spiritualist séances and practicing automatic writing under the influence of spirits. He told her these things they called spirits were in fact demons, tricking us into thinking we were in contact with the souls of our departed loved ones. Only those rare persons with pure souls free of the sins of the world could make contact with these true spirits, Rasputin told Munya and her mother, and for others to even try was to engage in sin....From that day Munya and Lyubov remained devote to Rasputin for the rest of their lives.--Rasputin, Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs, p.349
The reasoning at the end may just be a means to eliminate any spiritual competition.
A partial list of other "mystics", "prophets", "holy fools" etc. that the Tsar entertained:
Matronushka the Barefoot
Pasha Sarovskaya
Vasily Tkachenko
Miron
Darya Ossipova
Antony
Mitya aka Mitka Kolyaba
In addition, a weatherman that Emperor seemed to misunderstand his abilities.
For more information about the Emperor and his wife's obsession with mystics and the occult, including the list above see the article on jstor by Robert D/ Warth called Before Rasputin: Piety and the Occult at the Court of Nicholas II
The obsession with the occult was nothing new to the Russian Emperors. Emperor Boris Godunov sought the help of English sorcerer John Dee. Emperor Alexander II, Emperor Nicholas's forebearer in the 1860s likewise.
In the 1860s the Romanov palaces were all in the thrall of spiritualist seances. Communing with spirits was appropriate in the palaces, where the ghosts of murdered emperors wandered...But for the new emperor, it was not merely a nod to fashion. Having decided to embark on great reforms, he thought it would not be amiss to chat with his late father. A famous "table-turner" was brough from Paris. At the very first seance, the late emperor made an appearance....Present were the emperor and empress; the dowager empress; Kostya; his wife, of course; Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna's brother...Anna Tyutcheva....Once Anna Tyutcheva returned to her room, she wrote down everything.--Radzinsky, E. (2006). Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar. p. 120. United States: Free Press.
to be continued....