I. My Work

By The Tibetan

In 1919, during the month of November, I made a contact with A.A.B. (Alice A. Bailey) and asked her to do some writing for me and also to undertake the publishing of certain books which - under the sequential giving out of truth - were due to appear. She refused immediately, having no sympathy with the flood of so-called occult literature being passed out to the public by the various occult groups, having no experience in writing for the public, and having also a profound dislike of every form of psychic writing and of psychic work. Later she changed her mind when I explained to her that telepathic rapport was a proven thing and a matter of scientific interest, that she was not either clairaudient or clairvoyant and never would be and that (above all) the test of truth was the truth itself. I told her that if she would write for a period of a month, the material transcribed would prove to her whether it contained truth, whether it evoked intuitive understanding and recognition and whether it had in it that which might be of value in the new spiritual era which was impending. She, therefore, overcame her disgust of this type of work and of the many occult presentations of truth which were prevalent. She only stipulated that the writing should go out with no claims whatsoever and that the teachings should stand or fall on their own merits.

II. The Books

The first book published was Initiation, Human and Solar. This was the result of her first effort to do this kind of work. It laid the foundation of all the succeeding books. Since then A.A.B. has written for me for nearly twenty-five years. The books have gone out in line with a deep underlying purpose which it may interest you to know about and they have received a worldwide recognition.

Initiation, Human and Solar was intended to bring the fact of the Hierarchy to public attention. This had been done by H.P.B. by inference and statement but not in any sequential form. The [246] Theosophical Society had taught the fact of the Masters, though H.P.B. (in her communications to the Esoteric Section) stated that she bitterly regretted so doing. This teaching was misinterpreted by the later theosophical leaders and they made certain basic mistakes. The Masters Whom they portrayed were characterized by an impossible infallibility because the Masters are Themselves evolving. The teaching given endorsed an engrossing interest in self-development and an intense focusing on personal unfoldment and liberation. The people who were indicated as initiates and senior disciples were entirely mediocre people with no influence outside the Theosophical Society itself. Complete devotion to the Masters was also emphasized - devotion to Their personalities, and these Masters were also shown as interfering with the organization life of the various occult groups which claimed to be working under Their direction. They were made responsible for the mistakes of the leaders of the groups who took refuge under such statements as: The Master has instructed me to say, etc., the Master wants the following work to be done, or the Master wants the membership to do thus and so. Those who obeyed were regarded as good members; those who refused to be interested and obedient were looked upon as renegades. The freedom of the individual was constantly infringed and the weaknesses and ambitions of the leaders were alibied. Knowing all this well, A.A.B. refused to be a party to any such constantly recurring activity, for such is the history of practically all the known occult groups which attract the attention of the public. Even had I wanted to work in such a way (which no one affiliated with the Hierarchy ever does), I would have found no collaboration from her.

Letters on Occult Meditation followed next. These indicated a somewhat new approach to meditation, based not on devotion to the Masters but on a recognition of the soul in each person. This was succeeded by A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. This book was an expansion of the teaching given in The Secret Doctrine on the three fires - electric fire, solar fire and Are by friction - and it was an awaited sequence. It also presented the psychological key to The Secret Doctrine and is intended to offer study to disciples and initiates at the close of this century and the beginning of the next century, up until 2025 A.D.

A.A.B. later felt that it would be of value to me and to the work if she wrote certain books, useful to students, apart from transcribing [247] my writings and taking down my notes, rendering them into the thought-provoking English which together we have developed as a medium for transmission of the ideas which it is my Dharma to make public. The average psychic and medium is not usually of a high grade intelligence, and A.A.B. desired to prove (for the aiding of the work of the future) that one could do definitely psychic work and be of a real intelligence. She has, therefore, written four books which are entirely her own production:

• The Consciousness of the Atom.
• The Soul and Its Mechanism.
• From Intellect to Intuition.
• From Bethlehem to Calvary.

She has also written one book in collaboration with me, entitled Light of the Soul, in it I give the English paraphrase of the Sanskrit Sutras of Patanjali and she contributes the commentary, referring to me occasionally for reassurance as to meaning.

Then followed A Treatise on White Magic. This was written years ago and as it was written it went out, chapter by chapter, to the senior students of the Arcane School as reading matter only. It is the first book ever given out upon the training and control of the astral or emotional body. Many occult books have been written on the subject of the physical body and its purification and upon the etheric or vital body. Most of them have been compilations of other books, both ancient or modern. This book of mine, however, is intended to train the modern aspirant in the control of his astral body, by the aid of the mind as that mind is, in its turn, illumined by the soul.

The next book undertaken was A Treatise on the Seven Rays. It is a long book, not yet completed. It is taking shape in four volumes, two of which are already published, one is ready for publication and the final volume is in process of writing. Volumes one and two deal with the seven rays and their seven psychological types and thus lay the foundation for the new psychology for which modern psychology, materialistic as it may be, has laid a sound basis. Volume three is entirely given over to the subject of esoteric astrology and forms a unit in itself. It is intended to launch the new astrology which is founded on the soul and not on the personality. Orthodox astrology sets up a chart which gives the fate and destiny of the personality [248] and when that personality is little evolved or is only of an average development, it can be and often is amazingly correct. It is not so correct, however, in the case of highly developed people, aspirants, disciples and initiates who are beginning to control their stars and consequently their actions; the events and the happenings in their lives then become unpredictable. The new and future astrology endeavors to give the key to the horoscope of the soul, as it is conditioned by the soul ray and not by the personality ray. Enough has been given by me to enable astrologers, who are interested and of the new inclination, to work out the future from the angle of this new approach. Astrology is a fundamental and most necessary science. A.A.B. knows nothing about astrology; she cannot even set up a chart nor could she tell you the names of the planets and the houses which they rule. I am, therefore, entirely responsible for all that appears in this and all my books, except, as before explained, the one book, The Light of the Soul.

The fourth volume deals with the subject of healing, and with the bridging by the antahkarana of the gap which exists between the Monad and the personality. It also gives the Fourteen Rules which those in training for initiation have to master. (NOTE: It was later decided by the Tibetan and A.A.B. to publish these Rules as a separate volume. They will therefore shortly appear as Volume V of the Treatise on the Seven Rays. - Foster Bailey.) Again, I would call your attention to this last theme, reminding you that A.A.B. has never made the slightest claim, either privately or publicly, to be an initiate, nor will she. She knows it is against the occult law and has seen too many people of no particular spiritual focus or intellectual capacity make these claims and the consequent harm which has ensued, lowering the idea of the Hierarchy and the nature of adeptship in the eyes of the watching public. I am, therefore, entirely responsible for the Fourteen Rules and their elucidation and application. A.A.B. has never claimed to be more than a working disciple, occupied with world work (which no one can deny) and has reiterated again and again that the word "disciple" is the legitimate and non-controversial word (as well as the truthful word) to be used for all grades of workers in the Hierarchy from the probationary disciple, loosely affiliated with certain disciples in that Hierarchy, up to and including the Christ Himself, the Master of all the Masters and the Teacher alike of Angels and of men. She has steadily set herself, with my full [249] approval, against the unwholesome curiosity as to status and title which is a blight on so many occult groups, leading to the full tide of competition, jealousy, criticism and claim-making which distinguishes the majority of the occult groups, which renders futile so many of the publications and which hinders the general public from receiving the teaching in its purity and simplicity. Status and title, place and position count for nothing. It is the teaching that counts - its truth and its intuitive appeal. This should be constantly borne in mind.

The accepted disciples of a Master who arrive at recognition of Him from within themselves - a recognition which can then be corroborated by their fellow disciples and used by the Master Himself as a factual condition - know their Master, accept teaching from Him and among themselves speak of Him as He is to them but not to the outside world.

The books have, therefore, been going out steadily for years and when A Treatise on the Seven Rays is completed, a short book on glamor is ready for the press and a book on the discipleship in the new age is in the hands of the public, the work of A.A.B. for me will be over. She can then resume her work in the Ashram of her own Master - the work of a disciple.

III. The School

The next phase of the work which I sought to see accomplished is now in working order. It was my wish (as it is the wish of many associated with the Hierarchy) to see an esoteric school started which would leave the membership free, which would bind them by no pledges or oaths and which would - whilst assigning meditation and study and giving esoteric teaching - leave people to make their own adjustments, to interpret the truth as best they could, to present to them the many points of view and at the same time communicate to them the deepest esoteric truths which they could recognize if there was that in them which was awakened to the mysteries and which, even when read or heard, could do them no harm if they lacked the perception to recognize the truth for what it was. A.A.B. started such a school in 1923 with the aid of F.B. and certain students of vision and spiritual understanding. She made it a condition that I should have nothing to do with the Arcane School and that I should have no control over its policies and curriculum. In this she was wise [250] and right and I fully endorse her position. Even my books were not used as textbooks and only during the past three years has one of them, A Treatise on White Magic, been adapted as a course of study and that at the very earnest request of many students. Also, some of the teaching upon the antahkarana (which will appear in a later volume of the Treatise on the Seven Rays) has been used for two years in one section of the fourth degree. The teaching on glamor has been given as some of the reading matter for another section.

In the Arcane School, no obedience is exacted, no emphasis is laid on "obeying the Master" for no Master is running the school. Emphasis is laid upon the one Master in the heart, the soul, the true spiritual man within each human being. No theology is taught and the student is under no compulsion to accept any interpretation or presentation of truth. A member of the school can accept or reject the fact of the Masters, of the Hierarchy, of reincarnation, or of the soul and still remain a member of the school in good standing. No loyalty is expected or asked, either to the school or to A.A.B. Students can work in any of the occult, esoteric, metaphysical or orthodox groups and churches and still be members of the Arcane School. They are asked to look upon such activities as fields of service wherein they can express any spiritual help they may have gained through their work in the school. Leaders and senior workers in many occult groups are also working in the Arcane School, but feel perfectly free to give their time, loyalty and service to their own groups.

The Arcane School has been in existence for twenty years and is now entering into a new cycle of growth and usefulness - along with the whole of humanity - and for this due preparation is being made. The keynote of the school is service, based on love of humanity. The meditation work is balanced and paralleled by study and by the effort to teach the students to serve.

IV. The New Group of World Servers

Another phase of my work came into existence about ten years ago when I started to write certain pamphlets for the general public, calling attention to the world situation and to the New Group of World Servers. I thus endeavored to anchor on earth (if I may use such a phrase) an externalization or a symbol of the work of the Hierarchy. It was an effort to band together subjectively and - where [251] possible - objectively all those people of spiritual purpose and a deep love of humanity who were actively working in many countries, either in organizations or alone. Their name is legion. Some few are known to the workers in the Arcane School and to F.B. and A.A.B. Thousands are known to me but not to them. All are working under the inspiration of the Hierarchy and are, either consciously or unconsciously, fulfiling the duties of agents of the Masters. Together they form a band, closely knit on the inner side by spiritual intention and love. Some are occultists, working in the various occult groups; some are mystics, working with vision and love; others belong to the orthodox religions and some recognize no spiritual affiliations, so-called, at all. All are, however, animated by a sense of responsibility for human welfare and have interiorly pledged themselves to help their fellowmen. This great group constitutes the world Savior at this time and will salvage the world and inaugurate the new era after the war. The pamphlets which I wrote (the first of which is now called The Next Three Years, issued in 1932 under the title, The New Group of World Servers,) indicated their plans and purposes, and made suggestions as to modes and methods of cooperation with this group of World Servers, already in existence and active in many fields.

Those whom the New Group of World Servers influence and with whom they seek to work and who can act as their agents, we call the men and women of goodwill. I made an effort to reach these people in 1936 when there was a faint possibility that the war might even at that late hour be averted. Many will remember that campaign and its relative success. Millions were reached by means of the spoken and written word and by the radio but there were not enough people spiritually interested to take the needed steps to stem the tide of hate, evil and aggression which threatened to engulf the world. The war broke out in 1939 in spite of all the efforts of the Hierarchy and Their workers, and the goodwill work fell naturally into abeyance. That part of the work in which members of the Arcane School had sought to serve and which had resulted in the forming of nineteen centers for service in as many countries had temporarily to be dropped - but only temporarily, my brothers, for goodwill is the "saving force" and an expression of the will-to-good which animates the New Group of World Servers.

I would emphasize that this work of anchoring the New Group of World Servers and organizing the goodwill work has nothing [252] whatsoever to do with the Arcane School except in so far that members in the school were given the opportunity to help in the movement. They were left entirely free to do so or not as they chose and a very large percentage ignored the effort altogether, thus demonstrating the freedom which they felt and had been taught.

When the war broke and the entire world was hurled into, the consequent chaos, horror, disaster, death and agony, many spiritually minded people were anxious to stay aloof from the struggle. They were not the majority but a powerful and noisy minority. They regarded any attitude of partisanship as an infringement of the law of brotherhood and were willing to sacrifice the good of the whole of humanity to a sentimental urge to love all men in a manner which necessitated their taking no action or decision of any kind. Instead of "my country, right or wrong," it was "humanity, right or wrong." When I wrote the pamphlet called The Present World Crisis and the succeeding papers on the world situation, I stated that the Hierarchy endorsed the attitude and aims of the United Nations, fighting for the freedom of the whole of humanity and for the release of the suffering people. This necessarily placed the Hierarchy in the position of not endorsing the Axis position in any way. Many in the goodwill work and some few in the school interpreted this as political in import, presumably believing that a position of complete neutrality, where both good and evil are concerned, was demanded of spiritually inclined people. Such people fail to think clearly and confuse an unwillingness to take sides with brotherly love, forgetting the words of the Christ that "he who is not with me is against me." Let me repeat what I have oft said before. The Hierarchy and all its members, including myself, love humanity but they will not endorse evil, aggression, cruelty and the imprisoning of the human soul. They stand for liberty, for opportunity for all to move forward along the way of light, for human welfare without discrimination, for kindness and the right of every man to think for himself, to speak and to work. Necessarily they cannot, therefore, endorse the nations or the people in any nation who are against human freedom and happiness. In their love and their grasp of circumstance, they know that in a later life or lives the majority of those who are now the enemies of human freedom will themselves be free and tread the lighted Way. In the meantime, the entire force of the Hierarchy is thrown on the side of the nations struggling to free humanity, and on the side of those in any nation who thus work. If being on the side of [253] goodness and freedom is deemed detrimental to the spiritual issues, then the Hierarchy will work to change the attitude of people as to what is spiritual.

Being responsible for the transcribing of the pamphlets and, with F.B. for their publishing and distribution, A.A.B. has been placed in a difficult position and has been the target for criticism and attack. She knows however that time adjusts all things and that work done, if rightly motivated, proves itself eventually.

I have, therefore, been interested in three phases of the work: the Books, the Arcane School and the New Group of World Servers. The impact made upon the world by these three aspects of the work has been definitely effective and useful. The sum total of the useful work accomplished is what counts and not the criticisms and the misunderstanding of those who basically belong to the old order, to the Piscean age and who are therefore unable to see the emergence of the new ways of life and the new approaches to truth.

All this time I have stood behind the scenes. The books and pamphlets have been my responsibility and carry the authority of truth - if truth is there - and not the authority of my name or of any status which I might claim or which might be claimed for me by the curious, the inquisitive and the devotee. A.A.B. is responsible for the Arcane School and I have dictated none of its policies or interfered in its curriculum. My books and pamphlets have been made available to school students along with the rest of the general public.

I have sought to aid the goodwill work, for which F.B. is responsible, by suggestion and by indicating what is the work that the New Group of World Servers are seeking to do but no authoritative requests have been made in my name nor will they ever be made. The sumtotal of all these activities has been good; the misunderstandings have been few and have been inherent in the personal equipment and attitude of the critical. Criticism is wholesome as long as it is not permitted to become destructive.

V. Personal Training

Paralleling these major activities, I have since the year 1931 been training a group of men and women, scattered all over the world, in the techniques of accepted discipleship, academically understood. Out of the many possible neophytes, I indicated to A.A.B. (in 1931 and later) a group of approximately 45 people - some known to her personally [254] and some quite unknown - who had demonstrated a willingness to be trained and who could be tried out for fitness for the group work of the new discipleship. These people received direct personal instructions from me and certain general instructions which embodied the newer approach to the Hierarchy and to the spiritual life, though based, of course, on the ancient rules. Those instructions will be made available to the general public very shortly, but no indication will be given of the persons thus trained and no information will be available; names, dates and locations will all be changed, though the instructions will remain as given. (These instructions are now available in a book entitled "Discipleship in the New Age." Volume II of this book will be published shortly. - Foster Bailey.)

Necessarily these people have, from their contact with me, ascertained my identity. They have known for years who I am. But they and A.A.B. have preserved my anonymity with great care and under real difficulty, owing to the fact that hundreds of people in nearly every country in the world have speculated upon my identity and many of them have guessed it accurately. Therefore, today, in spite of all that A.A.B. and my disciples have been able to do, it is generally conceded that I am a Master and a name is given to me. To my own group of specially picked aspirants I have acknowledged my name when they themselves had interiorly arrived at it. It was both foolish and false to do otherwise and in communicating with them or in writing instructions on the new discipleship, I necessarily took my rightful position. Some of these instructions were deemed by me and A.A.B. as useful and appropriate for more general use and were embodied in the series of papers, issued under my name in the Beacon upon the Stages of Discipleship. They were carefully edited by A.A.B., prior to publication, except in one paper when some months ago under the pressure of very heavy work A.A.B. omitted to delete one paragraph in which I speak as a Master. This paragraph appeared in the July 1943 Beacon, much to her acute distress. After many years of protecting my identity, she made this slip and it has, therefore, been publicly stated that I am a Master.

In this connection, there are three points to which I would like to call your attention.

Earlier - many years earlier - I stated in A Treatise on White Magic that I was an initiate of a certain standing but that my anonymity would be preserved. Years later, owing to this mistake of [255] A.A.B., I am apparently in the position of contradicting or reversing myself and so changing my policy. Actually I am not doing so. The spread of the teaching alters circumstances and the need of humanity demands at times a changed approach. There is nothing static in the evolution of truth. It has long been my intention to do all that was necessary to bring the fact of the Hierarchy and its membership more definitely before the public and in a more arresting way.

Years ago, I definitely told A.A.B. (as did her own Master) that her major duty as a disciple was to familiarize the public with the true nature of the Masters of the Wisdom and offset the erroneous impression which the public had received. This she has done to a certain degree but not to the full extent that was intended. She has shrunk from the task, owing to the disrepute into which the whole subject had fallen because of the false presentations given out by the various teachers and occult groups, plus the ridiculous claims put out by the ignorant about us. H.P.B., her predecessor, stated in certain instructions sent out to the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society that she bitterly regretted ever mentioning the Masters, Their names and functions. A.A.B. has been of the same opinion. The Masters, as portrayed in the Theosophical Society faintly resemble the reality and much good has been done by this testimony to Their existence, and much harm by the foolish detail at times imparted. But They are not as pictured; They do not issue orders to Their followers (or rather devotees) to do thus and so, to form this or that organization nor do They indicate some persons as of supreme importance as being in incarnation, knowing full well that disciples and initiates and Masters are known by their works and deeds and not by their words and have to prove their status by the work accomplished.

The Masters work through Their disciples in many organizations but They do not exact, through these disciples, the implicit obedience of organization members, nor do They exclude from the teaching those who disagree with the organizational policies or the interpretations of the leaders. They are not separate and antagonistic to the groups working under various disciples or other Masters, and any organization in which the Masters are interested would be inclusive and not exclusive. They do not fight over personalities, endorsing this one or rejecting that one simply because the policies of an organizational leader are, or are not, upheld. They are not the spectacular and illbred people portrayed by the mediocre leaders of many groups, nor do They choose, for Their pledged disciples and prominent workers, men and [256] women who even from a worldly point of view are of a pronounced inferiority or who deal in claim-making and in the art of attracting attention to themselves. To be a probationary disciple, one can be a devotee and then the emphasis can be laid on purification and the acquiring of an intelligent understanding of brotherhood and human need. To be an accepted disciple, working directly under the Masters and active in world work with a growing influence, requires a mental polarization, a heart development and a sense of real values.

The Masters brought before the general public by such movements as the I AM movement are a travesty of the reality. The Masters portrayed in the many theosophical movements (since the time of H.P.B.) are not distinguished by intelligence and show little judgment in the choice of those whom the organizations claim are initiates or important members of the Hierarchy.

Knowing all this and having watched the ill effects of the usual teaching given anent the Masters, A.A.B. has gone to extremes in order to present the true nature of the Hierarchy, its goals and personnel and has sought to lay the emphasis - as does the Hierarchy itself - on humanity and on world service, and not on a group of teachers who, even if they have transcended the usual personality problems and experience in the three worlds, are still in process of training and are preparing themselves (under the tuition of the Christ) to tread the way of the higher evolution, as it is called. The name given to us by some disciples in Tibet gives the due to our point of attainment. They call the Hierarchy the "society of organized and illumined minds" - illumined by love and understanding, by deep compassion and inclusiveness, illumined by a knowledge of the plan and aiming to comprehend the purpose, sacrificing their own immediate progress in order to help humanity. This is a Master.

The second point I would make is in the form of a question. What harm does it do if some one points the finger towards a Master and recognizes him as such, provided his record substantiates the statement and his influence is worldwide? If by this inadvertent slip, A.A.B. has thus indicated me as a Master, has any harm been done? My books, the carriers of my influence, have gone to the far corners of the earth and convey aid and help; the service work which I suggested, and which F.B. carried out voluntarily, has reached literally millions by pamphlet and radio, by the use of the Invocation and by the work of the Triangles and the words and example of the men and women of goodwill. [257]

A.A.B. in her 25 years work for me in the occult field has taken no advantage of the fact that I am one of the many Masters, recognized today by thousands of people. She has not sheltered herself behind me or her own Master and made us responsible for what she has done nor has her work been started or carried forward on the basis of "The Master ordered this." She knows that the work of the Master is to put a disciple in touch with the plan and that the disciple then goes out and, on his own initiative and with the measure of wisdom and love which is his, endeavors intelligently to shoulder his share in materializing the Plan. He makes mistakes but he does not go to the Master about them but pays the price and learns his lesson. He achieves success but he does not go to the Master for praise, knowing he will not get it. He struggles with ill health, with the jealousies and antagonisms of those who are working less successfully or who fear competition, but he does not go to the Master for strength to stand steady. He tries to walk in the light of his own soul and to stand in the strength of his own spiritual Being and thus himself learns to be a Master by mastering.

The third point I would bring to your attention is that in the new cycle which will come at the close of the war, the fact of the Hierarchy and the work of the Masters - through Their disciples - must and will be brought increasingly to public attention. Disciples everywhere will present increasingly the hierarchical plan of brotherhood, spiritual living and inclusiveness to the world. This will be done not in terms (so prevalent among the foolish) of "The Master has chosen me," or "the Master stands behind my effort" or "I am the representative of the Hierarchy" but by a life of service, by indicating that the Masters exist and are known to many men everywhere, that the Plan is one of evolutionary development and educational progress towards an intelligent spiritual goal; that humanity is not alone but that the Hierarchy stands, that Christ is with His people, that the world is full of disciples unrecognized because silently working; that the New Group of World Servers exists and that the men and women of goodwill are everywhere; that the Masters are not interested in the least in personalities but will use men and women of all attitudes, faiths, and nationalities, provided that love motivates them, that they are intelligent and have trained minds and that they have also magnetic and radiant influence which will attract people to truth and goodness but not to the individual - be he a Master or a disciple. They care nothing for personal loyalties but are dedicated solely to [258] the relief of distress and the promotion of the evolution of humanity and the indication of spiritual goals. They look not for recognition of Their work or the praise of Their contemporaries but only for the growth of the light within the world and the unfoldment of the human consciousness.

August, 1943. [259]

VI. The Methods in Producing "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire"

There have been four methods employed in transmitting this teaching from the Tibetan to the general public.

1. Clairaudience

In the early stages (for the first two years), the Tibetan dictated the material incorporated in the first two books clairaudiently to Mrs. Bailey. He would, at stated and appointed times, make a contact with her through the setting up of a vibration which she learnt to recognize, and then clearly and distinctly his voice could be heard dictating point by point.

2. Telepathy

When Mrs. Bailey became more accustomed to this work, and when the discipline and diet necessarily began to take effect, the work was gradually changed and now in the writing of A Treatise on Cosmic Fire it has been entirely telepathic. Mrs. Bailey gets in touch with the Tibetan when time is available and, should he be free and able to give the time, he communicates with her telepathically. The information is given with very great rapidity and the detail teaching is impressed upon her consciousness with such clarity that she is enabled to write it down, so that no word is changed. The book is printed as received, except for a very slight change of tense at times, as the English of the Tibetan, when he chooses to use his own, and not allow Mrs. Bailey to express his thoughts (which is his general rule), is slightly archaic and stilted. Before the information can be received and adequately transcribed, a certain meditative process has to have taken place, wherein the particular subjects to be dealt with are the seed thoughts of the meditative effort. This must have been preceded by the acquiring of a synthetic grasp of all that could be found which has previously been written on the subject. The mental faculty or body must therefore be large and highly organized, fully equipped with material, and under adequate control. With this foundation, knowledge may be safely imparted which far transcends the personal experience or previous knowledge of the recipient. If [260] this be true as between the Tibetan and Mrs. Bailey, it will also be apparent that the full value of the Treatise will only appear after due study and meditation and much collateral reading. The language employed, however, is so dear and lucid, the arrangement of the material so sequential, and the reason is led forward with such logical precision, that any intelligent person will find even a first reading an inspiring experience, illuminating unknown reaches of consciousness and impelling the later more particular study, which is so much to be desired.

The Treatise is a very fine instance of the real telepathy. It will be apparent from a perusal of the data in the Treatise that Mrs. Bailey could not herself have formulated this teaching, for it deals with cosmic processes of which she is necessarily ignorant. Her contribution to the work has been a strong initial interest in these subjects, over twenty years of meditation work, many years of study and thought, and a command of clear, forceful English.

3. Clairvoyant vision

The various symbols in the books (and there are many) have been shown to Mrs. Bailey and then described by her. This process is possible only with the aid of a powerful collaborator. The Tibetan would impress the desired symbol or glyph upon one of the subtler differentiations of the ether, and the vibration of the vehicles of the pupil being maintained at the required height, the pictures remain as clear and as perfect for study, as would some exquisite masterpiece in oils hung upon the wall of a private art gallery. The picture cannot be taken away, but the viewer may study and describe, and the artist might copy, although the color effects are utterly beyond any possibility of complete reproduction in dense physical matter.

Mrs. Bailey has also been shown seven great figures of the angels or Devas of the seven globes of the Earth chain, which later may be incorporated in the second edition.

Extracts from the ancient manuscripts, and the reading of certain stanzas and data in the hierarchical archives have been also shown to Mrs. Bailey and roughly translated by her and corrected by the Tibetan. A knowledge of the ancient language is not necessary in this work, as the most ancient manuscripts are ideographic and symbolic, and - when sufficient stimulation is present - the viewer becomes aware of the meaning and can transcribe it. [261]

4. Bringing through after sleep that which has been seen or heard while out of the physical body at night.

This method was employed in connection with the Stanzas at the close of the book, and also with the charts. Certain of the definitions found in the book were procured in this way.

Reprinted from The Beacon Magazine of June 1925. [262]

VII. What is an Esoteric School

By Alice A. Bailey

There are many so-called esoteric schools today. All of them are relatively modern and have come into existence during the past sixty years. I am not here referring to the ever-existing Esoteric School, which is present in every part of the world, having no name, represented by no exoteric organization and having no recognized leaders. This one true School has eternally met the need of seekers who - down the ages - have demanded entrance to the Mysteries and have found admittance, after fulfiling the requirements. I refer to the numbers of mystical, metaphysical, Theosophical, Rosicrucian and occult orders which are everywhere to be found. These organizations are composed of groups of people with devoted spiritual intention, animated by great aspiration and gathered around some teacher and some body of teaching. The teacher supplies them with his personal interpretation of standard, occult information, emphasizes the need for character-building and purity, indicates to them the necessity to tread the Path and (usually) takes the place of the ultimate and final authority.

This phase in the history of esotericism has been good, preparatory work. It has brought to the attention of the general public the nature of the secret doctrine, of the esoteric teaching and of the inner government of the world. The fact of the existence of the Masters of the Wisdom - as They work in the planetary Hierarchy under the direction of the Christ - has been widely presented, either in terms of orthodox Theosophy, of Hindu metaphysical speculation or under Christian terminology. Much knowledge has been imparted. The intricate process of divine creation, and the consequent manifestation of God, bring much mental stimulation and mental unfoldment but frequently little real understanding. Esoteric schools are occupied with promoting the growth of understanding. Certain elementary rules, intended primarily for the purification of the emotional-desire nature have been usefully disseminated; the many planes, the creative fires and the differentiation of substance have been exhaustively discussed, as have been the various septenates which condition life, consciousness and form. None of this is esoteric teaching. Devotion to the Masters has been taught, but They have been inadequately presented. Those Masters are portrayed as peculiarly interested [263] in the teacher of the group, and the personal friends of the teacher are frequently informed that the Master has accepted them into the inner ranks of His disciples. There is thus built up within these groups, practically without exception, a close corporation of devoted adherents to the teacher; these devotees can be depended upon to give unquestioning obedience to the teacher and to the commands of the Master, supposedly transmitted by the teacher, in violation of the occult law that no Master ever gives a command or expects obedience. The average esoteric group is today a closed organization, exclusive in its membership, fostering an unwholesome sense of mystery and presenting only those half truths which serve one purpose - to testify to the existence of the real.

It will be apparent, therefore, that no true esoteric school has yet come into existence. The emergence of these schools remains as yet a hope, but one which has reached the point where due preparation can be made for their appearance.

The above is not an indictment of much faithful though uninspired service. Students must recognize that the schools with which they are familiar are only preparatory in nature, full of faults, based on the weaknesses and the strength of the teacher who founded them; they are, therefore, tainted by personality emphasis, demanded loyalties and misapplied and misinterpreted teaching. They have, however, been useful as signposts to the future.

The time has not been ripe for the manifestation of the true esoteric schools. Humanity has not been ready. Today, however, there are enough intelligent men and women to warrant the forming of the more advanced schools of training. These will lay the foundation of those future schools which will - under the Law of Evolution - make their appearance. Esoteric schools are no exception to the evolutionary process and ever appear in response to man's demand and when his mental development requires them. The next seventy years will see the founding of the new schools. Those now functioning can begin to clean house, relinquish non-essentials and isolate the truths which are really occult and thus vision clearly the goal of esoteric training. This they have not yet done. The discipline to which the neophyte in the future should subject himself must be understood and the right techniques imparted; all this will have to be shifted to a higher level than at present. The teaching must be divorced from its present theological trend and autocratic pronouncements. Of these dogmatic utterances, the many occult schools, the [264] inner schools and the various esoteric sections have been disastrously guilty.

Teachers will later appear who, will have a true understanding of the spiritual nature of authority. This will not be based upon claim-making and mystery but upon a life lived in accordance with the highest ideals, and upon the presentation of a teaching which will evoke both the respect and the intuitive response of the disciple. The teacher of the future will simply point the Way, tread the Way with the disciple, and emphasize the ancient rules but with their new interpretations. He will no longer stand (as he frequently does today) between the group and the light or between the aspirant and the Master.

These preparatory schools are already in process of forming and the starting of the Arcane School in 1923 was a part of this spiritual effort. From these proposed schools will emerge, early in the next century, the first of the true Schools of Initiation.

Up to date, the so-called esoteric schools have dealt with aspirants upon the Path of Probation or of Purification. The schools now forming, such as the Arcane School, are concerned with training disciples and preparing them to tread the Path of Discipleship and to come - at some later date - into direct contact with the Masters. The new schools which will appear in the next century will take disciples and prepare them to tread the Path of Initiation.

We have thus one graded, unified effort for which the Masters are responsible. The schools now forming to train disciples are intermediate in nature and are intended to bridge the gap between the esoteric schools of the past and the true schools which will later appear. These facts might be summarized as follows:

1. Esoteric Schools in the Past

These are the schools with which we are most familiar, such as the inner schools of the many Theosophical groups, the Rosicrucian orders and the countless mystical and metaphysical organizations. They are definitely exoteric in nature but are useful in challenging public interest. They convey much useful information about the three worlds of human evolution - the physical world, the world of the emotions and the mental world. They are definitely for neophytes upon the Path of Probation. They are concerned with the heart approach to God and with the deep human instinct, if haply man may find Him. [265]

2. Esoteric Schools of the Present

These schools, now forming, have more esoteric knowledge; this is being correlated and applied. Much remains theoretical, but theory must ever precede practice. These schools will advance the teaching beyond the point reached in the earlier schools, carrying it out of the three worlds into the realm of the soul. They will deal with the world of occult values and will be mental in nature, laying the emphasis upon knowing God, and not just upon feeling after a sensed divinity. At their best, the old schools brought about the integration of the personality and made the essential dualism of the mystic factual. The new schools aim at a higher fusion - that between the integrated personality and the soul. They reveal that behind the dualism of the mystic (a necessary stage) there is the occult fact of identity with the divine.

3. Esoteric Schools in the Future

These schools will be truly esoteric for humanity will then be ready. The higher consciousness of the disciple will be evoked and trained. He will be taught to work consciously on spiritual levels and to act as a soul in the three worlds of human evolution, through the medium of a highly intelligent personality. Disciples will be prepared for initiation, and initiates will be trained to take the higher major initiations. Emphasis will be laid upon the right handling of energies and forces, upon wisdom as the result of applied knowledge and upon the work and plans of the Hierarchy. The intuition will be developed and a still higher fusion brought about - between the spiritual man and the universal One.

I would like to divide what I have to say about the schools into the following divisions:

1. Some definitions of esotericism.
2. How an esoteric school is formed.
3. The fundamental truths taught in the new schools.

A study of these themes will help us to know what esoteric teaching is and aid us to work as esotericists, taking the needed training and learning to tread the Way correctly. Leaders and teachers in the present so-called esoteric schools must face the facts - hard as they [266] may be. If they are true and sincere, they will do so gladly and will adapt themselves to the need of the times; they will evaluate correctly their place upon the ladder of evolution and thus decide where their effort should be placed. Nothing can arrest the hierarchical plans as outlined above. Those who cannot face themselves and rate their work at its true value, will find their schools in the discard - and this can be seen happening everywhere today. Those who can realize the situation and can register the vision of the future will move forward to increased usefulness, to vital reconstruction and to greater service.

B.VII.1. Some Definitions of Esotericism

The words "esoteric" and "occult" signify "that which is hidden"; they indicate that which lies behind the outer seeming and point to the causes which produce appearance and effects; they are concerned with the subtler world of energies and forces which all outer forms veil and hide. They deal with that which must be known before the initiate-consciousness can be developed.

Emphasis in the past has been upon subjective but nevertheless material forces (hidden within the human being), and frequently upon the psychic powers, such as clairvoyance and clairaudience which man shares in common with the animals. Physical purity has been enormously emphasized in the old schools and concerns the cleansing of the forms through which the soul must manifest. This cleansing is not esoteric in nature and is no sign of esoteric or of spiritual unfoldment. It is only a most necessary preliminary stage; until this purification has been undertaken, more advanced work is not possible. The physical disciplines are needed and useful, and must find their place in all schools for beginners; by their means the neophyte establishes habits of purity and builds the type of body, required by the disciple when he starts true esoteric work.

This elementary training enables the neophyte to shift his consciousness out of the tangible world of daily living into the subtler worlds of his personality forces. He becomes aware of the energies with which he must deal and dimly to sense that which lies behind them - the soul in its own world, the Kingdom of God.

The new schools are occupied with more esoteric values. They train the disciple to work as a soul in the three worlds and prepare him to work in a Master's group as a pledged disciple. Most of the schools, which belong to the old order, have ignored the stage of [267] personality integration and of trained knowledge of life in the three worlds in which the beginner should be instructed. Instead, they have held out to the beginner the tempting prospect of contact with a Master and a Master's group, and this before he was even a coordinated person, when he hardly merited the word "intelligent" and before he had any soul contact. Emphasis was, and is, laid upon devotion - devotion to the teacher at the center of the group, devotion to the truths enunciated by the teacher, devotion to the Master, plus a fixed determination to merit the title of "disciple" and so be able, some day, to say, "I know this Master or that." At the same time, the beginner is given no true idea of discipleship or its responsibilities. The new schools, now forming, convey very different ideas to their students and very different techniques of training.

1. An esoteric school is one in which the relation of the soul, the spiritual man, to the personality is taught. It is the major line of approach to the student, and soul contact becomes his first great endeavor. He comes to know himself and struggles to work as a conscious soul and not just as an active personality. He learns to control and direct his lower nature through a technical understanding of its constitution and to pour through it the light, love and power of the soul. Through alignment, concentration and meditation, he establishes a permanent contact with his inner spiritual being and is then well on the way to become a useful server of humanity.

2. An esoteric school is an extension into the physical outer world of the inner group or Ashram of a Master. Just as the individual disciple is taught to regard himself as a channel for the soul, and as an outpost of the consciousness of the Master, so the true esoteric school is the outpost of some subjective spiritual group or Ashram, conditioned and impressed by the Master, as the disciple is by his soul. Such a group is, therefore, in direct relationship to the Hierarchy.

3. A true esoteric school works on four levels of service and of experience. This enables the disciple to make a complete approach to humanity and to use all of his equipment. In the true spiritual schools, as approved and endorsed by the Masters, service to humanity is taught and not the need for the disciple to be in touch with a Master, as is the case in the majority of esoteric schools of the old order. Contact with the Master is contingent upon the measure and [268] the quality of the service rendered by the disciple to his fellowmen. This is a point oft overlooked by teachers, who lay the emphasis upon the personal attainment of the individual and upon individual perfection. The new schools, now forming, are preoccupied with training men to meet world need and to serve spiritually, upon the following four levels of conscious activity.

1. That of the outer world. The disciple is taught to live normally, practically, effectively and spiritually in the everyday world. He is never a freak or a crank.
2. That of the world of meaning. The disciple is taught the why and the wherefore of circumstances and happenings - both individual and universal. He is thus trained to act as an interpreter of events and to function as a light bearer.
3. That of the soul in its own world. This makes the disciple a channel for divine love, for the nature of the soul is love. He heals and carries inspiration into the world.
4. That of his Master's Ashram or group. He is taught to cooperate with the Hierarchical plan as it is gradually revealed to him and to arrive at the knowledge which will permit him to direct some of the energies producing world happenings. He thus carries out the purposes of the inner group with which he is affiliated. Under the inspiration of the Master and His band of working disciples and initiates, he brings to humanity definite knowledge about the Hierarchy.

4. An esoteric school trains the disciple in group work. He learns to relinquish personality plans in the interest of group purpose - ever directed to the service of humanity and the Hierarchy. He becomes merged in group activities and - losing none of his individualized and particularized identity - he is a dedicated contributor to the Plan, with no thought of the separated self conditioning his thinking.

5. An esoteric school is not founded upon authority or on the demand of some teacher for recognition and obedience. It is not based on the claims of some usually mediocre person to be an initiate and, because of his status, authorized to speak with dogmatic emphasis. The only authority recognized is that of truth itself, intuitively perceived and then subjected to the mental analysis and interpretation of the disciple. The disciple who (working under some one of, the [269] Masters) starts an esoteric school has absolutely no authority, except that of a life lived as dose to the truth as possible, plus the measure of truth which he can present to his group. The obedience developed in his group of students is that of recognizing joint responsibility, united loyalty to group intention and purpose, as indicated by the group leader (suggested by him and not presented as a command). The presence of authoritative statements, emanating from the teacher of the group, or any demand upon his part for recognition, or for the unquestioning obedience and loyalty of his followers marks him out as a beginner and as simply an aspirant - well-meaning and with good intention. It indicates that he is not a disciple, charged with the work of the Hierarchy.

6. An esoteric group is one in which the rounded-out development of the disciple receives attention. Character-building and unselfish aspiration are regarded as necessarily present, but no great emphasis is laid upon the ordinary virtues, or upon the purity in the outer life, or on kindness, good temper and freedom from self-assertion. These qualities are regarded as basic essentials and as present in some measure, but their further development is regarded as the personal problem of the disciple and not that of the teacher and the group. Mental development is emphasized in order that the disciple may be intelligent, analytical (but not critical) and in possession of a rich, well-organized mental equipment. The head and the heart are regarded as of equal importance and as equally divine. It is with the states of consciousness of men everywhere, of all ranks, races and nations that the Hierarchy works and disciples are trained to work the same way, eventually themselves becoming Masters of the Wisdom. This they achieve by mastering all difficulties and obstacles by the power of their own souls. They thus release some Master, now active in the world, for higher and different work.

7. An esoteric school is, therefore, a medium through which the disciple's life-focus becomes that of the soul; neither the physical world, nor the emotional and mental worlds are to him the major sphere of his activities. They are simply his field of service, and his personality becomes that through which his soul serves. He learns to work entirely from spiritual levels, and his consciousness is stably centered in the soul and in his Master's Ashram. The esoteric school teaches him how to achieve this, how to make contact with his soul, how to live as a soul, how to recognize a Master and how to work in [270] a Master's group. He learns the techniques whereby he can register impressions from the Master and be responsive to group intent and thus increasingly sensitive to the Plan with which his Master and the Ashram is pledged to cooperate. He is taught how to play his part in raising the consciousness of the race; this he does through a conscious, directed use of the trained mind, of his controlled emotional nature and his responsive brain. He becomes proficient in playing the difficult, dual role of the disciple. This is to live as a soul in the life of every day and to work consciously in relation to the Hierarchy. There are many other definitions of an esoteric school but I have chosen the simpler of them, and the ones which must be first grasped if right progress is to be made. Step by step the disciple is led forward along the Path until the time comes when he is ready for those great unfoldments of consciousness which we call "Initiations." He then begins consciously to tread the Path of Initiation with which the esoteric schools of the future will familiarize the general public.

It is with the effort to meet these seven requirements of all esoteric schools, that the Arcane School is occupied. It is not occupied with preparing disciples for initiations and never has been. It is attempting to train its students to make the preliminary contacts and to work as true servers in the world. There is no true esoteric school today which is giving training for initiation. Those who claim to do so are deceiving the public. Training in the life of discipleship, academically understood, can be given. Training in the life of the initiate has still to be ascertained individually, and through contacts in the world of spiritual being.

B.VII.2. How an Esoteric School is Formed

An esoteric school is not formed because some Master orders a disciple to form one. The disciple who starts such a school of preparatory occultism does so entirely of his own volition. It is his definite, self-chosen task. He has been serving to the best of his ability in a Master's Ashram; he is acquainted with world need; he is keenly anxious to be of service and is conscious of learning all the time, and of the methods whereby he has been taught and led forward along the Path. He is, therefore, a conscious worker, well aware of his duty as a disciple, in touch with his soul and increasingly sensitive to the Master's impression. He does not usually plan to start an esoteric school; no definite and planned organization takes shape in [271] his mind. He is simply anxious to meet the surrounding need. Owing to the fact that he is in touch with his soul and - in the case of more advanced disciples - in touch with the Master and the Ashram, his daily life becomes magnetic, radiatory and dynamic and, therefore, he attracts to him those whom he can help, gathering them around him. He becomes the central point of life in a living organism and not the head of an organization. Herein lies the difference between the work of a well-intentioned aspirant and the trained disciple. The world is full of organizations with some person at the head whose motives are usually sound but whose methods and approach to those he seeks to serve are those of the business world; he may build a helpful organization but he does not found an esoteric school. A disciple becomes the center of a vital, radiating group which grows and achieves its end because of the life at the center, developing from within outward; it is the force of his life which makes it successful and not any system of advertising, or claim-making and seldom, if ever, is it a commercial success.

People respond to the note sounded and to the truths taught, and the influence of the group steadily increases until the disciple finds himself responsible for a group of aspirants. According to the measure of his soul contact, his sensitive response to the Master's suggestions and the impression of the Ashram with which he is affiliated will be the strength and usefulness of the group with which he works. Little by little he will gather around him those who can help in the teaching, and upon the wisdom and the discrimination which he shows in his choice of helpers will largely depend the success of his service. He assumes no authority over the group or over his helpers, except the authority of greater knowledge, wisdom and light; this makes him an immovable point of power against which the lesser interpretations and methods break and drop away. He teaches certain unalterable occult principles to which the entire group is trained to adhere, but they will do so easily and without controversy. It is those very principles which have brought them into the work. He watches his helpers for signs of spiritual unfoldment and advances them to positions of responsibility as the evidences become apparent. All the time he lives among them as a learner and fellow student, treading the Way with those who must be taught. Humility is the keynote of the true esoteric leader, because humility indicates vision and a sense of proportion. These teach him that each step forward in the spiritual life reveals still more stages to be mastered. The [272] difference between the trained disciple and the beginner is that the latter has a little vision and is apt to think that the way is easier than it is. He then over-estimates himself. The disciple, however, sees a vast vision and knows how much has to be done before the vision becomes a reality.

Esoteric schools can be divided into different categories, dependent upon the point of development of the teacher. It is the subconscious realization of this that has led the mediocre leader to attempt to push his work and attract attention to his effort by loud and noisy claim-making, by pretending familiarity with the Master and sometimes with the entire Hierarchy, and thus demanding recognition of himself. All this indicates the beginner who needs to learn that the true esoteric school is ever started by a disciple and that it is his attempt at service and not the field of expression of a Master. The disciple - and not the Master - is solely responsible for the success or failure of the school. The Masters are not responsible for the schools now in existence or in process of forming. They do not establish policies or determine issues. Just in so far as the disciple-leader is consciously and humbly in touch with the Master and His Ashram will the power of the inner group pour through the school; it will show itself as spiritual light and wisdom and will not take the form of concrete direction, commands and orders or the shifting of responsibility from the leader to the Master. The disciple makes his own decisions, trains his own helpers, enunciates his own policies, interprets the Ageless Wisdom according to the light which is in him and supervises the training given to the students. The more advanced the disciple, the less will he speak of his Master and the more he will point the way to the Hierarchy; his emphasis will be upon individual responsibility and the basic occult principles.

We could divide the schools in the world today into three groups:

1. There are a large number of so-called esoteric schools which are started by aspirants. They want to help their fellowmen and are impelled thereto by a love of teaching, a measure of love for humanity and some personal ambition. Their methods are, in the last analysis, exoteric; they give training, based upon what is already known and given out for they teach little that is new, no matter how they dress it up in grades and mystery. They use the standard books on occultism or compile their own textbooks from those already written, frequently choosing the spectacular and the unimportant details and [273] omitting that which is spiritual and essential. They advertise their schools in some way or another, and frequently emphasize the commercial angle. They demand obedience and look with disfavor and criticism on other schools, teaching exclusive adherence to the leader and loyalty to that leader's interpretation of truth. They do useful work among the masses, familiarizing them with the fact of the Masters and with the existence of the secret doctrine and present opportunity for spiritual development. They have a definite place in the plan of the Hierarchy but they are not esoteric schools and their leaders are not disciples; they are aspirants upon the Probationary Path and of no great advancement.

2. There are also a certain number of esoteric schools, started by disciples, who are learning, through their attempt to aid their group, how to teach and serve. These schools are few in number, compared to those in the first group, and are much smaller numerically, because the leader adheres more closely to the occult rules and endeavors to conform to the spiritual requirements. He tries to teach humbly and with no claim-making; he is aware that he is only himself slowly arriving at soul knowledge, and that his contact with the Master is still very infrequent. He is usually academic and theological in his presentation of truth but not often personally authoritative. His influence and radiation is not yet very powerful but he is carefully watched by the Master because potentially he is an asset and can be trusted to learn - usually by his mistakes. He reaches a much smaller public than the first, noisy group but he gives a sounder training and grounds beginners in the fundamentals of the Ageless Wisdom. His work comes midway between the groups now forming and the old groups.

3. Then we now have appearing the newer esoteric schools. These are being started by more advanced disciples. This is necessarily so as the task is much harder, involving the striking of such a clear note that the distinction between the new and the old will emerge clearly, and certain new truths and interpretations will be given. This new and more advanced presentation will be founded on the old truths, but these will be differently interpreted and will evoke antagonism from the old schools. These more advanced disciples have a more potent radiation and a much wider influence and their work becomes worldwide in scope. It evokes not only antagonism and rejection from the older groups but it will also evoke response [274] from many in those groups who have outgrown the old ways and who have been waiting for the new approach to God and are ready for a more spiritual appeal. These then become focal points of spiritual activity within the old groups and in their environment. This leads to three happenings:

1. The old groups reject those who respond to the newer esoteric teaching and force them out of their groups.
2. The new schools begin to take shape by means of this rejection and in response to the teaching, proclaimed by the more powerful and more disinterested disciple.
3. The general public becomes aware of the new movement and thus a widespread interest in those things which are esoteric and related to the Hierarchy emerges.

These disciples, entrusted with the difficult work of launching the new schools, are technically known as world disciples. Their influence penetrates in every direction, disrupting and disturbing the old schools and so releasing those who are ready for the newer teachings; creating new schools which are intermediate between the old and the future Schools of Initiation; making an impression upon the consciousness of men everywhere, widening the outlook of the general public and presenting humanity with new concepts and fresh opportunities. This is happening today. Enquirers have, therefore, to learn to distinguish between the work of a well-intentioned aspirant who founds a school of esotericism for beginners, the work of a disciple who is learning to be a teacher, and the work of world disciples who are breaking up the old ways and instituting new and more suitable methods of teaching occult truth. The Arcane School is a part of this latter worldwide effort.

There are also certain spurious schools, well-known and spectacular, which attract the unintelligent and the curious; they have, fortunately, a very short cycle of influence. They do much temporary harm as they distort the teaching and give false ideas about the Masters and the Path, but their lasting power is practically nil. The other three types of schools are doing good work and meeting the need of those who respond to their note. The old schools are, however, dying out; those in the second group will be active for a long time, giving elementary instruction and training disciples in methods of work and how to serve. The last and newer type of school will go [275] on increasing in power and will prepare the disciples of the New Age for the future Schools of Initiation.

B.VII.3. The Truths Taught in the True Esoteric Schools

It should be noted that many of the truths, hitherto imparted under the term "esoteric," have either not been so, or are now entirely exoteric. The esoteric truths of the past are the exoteric fundamental truths of the present. During the past one hundred years, the esoteric doctrines and the secret teaching of the Ageless Wisdom - given to the public often under the pledge of secrecy - have become public property. The nature of man as taught in the mystery schools of the past has - under other names - become recognizable as modern psychology. The mystery of the astral body, of the etheric body and the mental body are now dealt with in our universities, in our psychological courses, dealing with the vitality of the human being, his emotional nature and the mind. The belief in the Masters was a closely guarded secret; now They are discussed from public platforms in all our great cities. The way of meditation and its techniques were closely guarded subjects and the public was taught that such teachings were dangerous; today, this idea is exploded and scores of people throughout the world meditate, make alignment and arrive at soul contact and knowledge. The truth has also been veiled and hidden by a vast body of secondary teaching which has sidetracked the interest of the enquirer, and engrossed his attention through the importance attached to phenomena. Posture, the use of ancient formulas, words and mantrams, breathing exercises, mysterious hints as to the raising of the kundalini fires, the awakening of the centers and other enticing aspects of secondary occultism have caused people to lose sight of the fact that much of the above, being in the realm of phenomena, is concerned with the physical body, its correct adjustment, its vitalization and energizing and that it deals with effects and not with the essential causes of the effects. All these phenomenal results will be demonstrated normally, safely and sanely as well as automatically when the inner man - emotional and mental - is en rapport with the spiritual world and is beginning to function as a spiritual being. This secondary approach to truth has done much harm to the cause of real occultism, and has properly disturbed the best minds in the spiritual field.

In the schools now forming, the emphasis is upon soul awareness, [276] spiritual knowledge, and understanding of the higher forces, direct and first-hand knowledge of the spiritual Hierarchy which governs the life of our planet, a comprehension (progressively developed) of the divine nature and of the Plan which, in obedience to the will of God, is increasingly conditioning world affairs. The laws governing the individual, humanity and the kingdoms in nature are studied and the whole Science of Relations (as it is unfolded in our evolving world) becomes the practical interest of the disciple. As he establishes right relations with himself, with the world of spiritual being, in the world of human living and with all forms of divine life, the awakening of his own nature will automatically take place, his centers will become vital sources of spiritual power, and his entire constitution will swing into rhythmic activity and consequent usefulness. All this will, however, happen because of his correct adjustment to God and man, to his unfolding understanding of divine purpose and to his knowledge of the various scientific techniques and laws which condition all phenomena, man included.

I am anxious to make this clear. The Arcane School being one of the newer intermediate schools deals with the ordinary fundamentals of the secret doctrine but only as a foundation for the new unfolding teaching. Breathing exercises are only given after several years' work, and no emphasis is laid upon their importance because right breathing (esoterically understood) is not dependent upon control of the lungs and the breathing apparatus but upon correct orientation and the rhythmic adjustment of the life to the spiritual order and to circumstance.

The psychology of the inner man, as it conditions the centers in the vital body, is also studied; the emphasis, however, is upon the psychological aspect and not upon the centers; these will function correctly when the thinking is sound and the man is living successfully the dual life of the disciple: right relation to the world of souls and to the Hierarchy, and right relations to his fellowmen in the life of every day.

After a preliminary grounding in the ordinary fundamentals, and a period of ascertaining the measure of understanding possessed by the student, plus some basic instruction in the nature of meditation, the new schools will teach the following subjects.

1. The Science of Impression. The disciple is taught to be sensitive to "impressions" coming from his own soul and, later, from the [277] Master and the Ashram. He is taught to interpret these impressions correctly by means of his trained and illumined mind; he learns to distinguish between that which comes from his own subconscious nature, that which is telepathically recorded as coming from the world of thought and from the minds of other men, and that which comes from the world of spiritual being.

2. The Science of At-one-ment. By means of this, the disciple is taught integration and coordination, contact and fusion between soul and personality and, later, direct relation between the highest spiritual aspect and his personal self. This leads in sequential process to the steady unfoldment of consciousness and prepares the student to profit from the teaching to be given in the Schools for Initiation. The nature of initiation, as an expression of great expansions of consciousness and as the result of self-directed integrations, is also studied.

3. The Nature of the Hierarchy. He learns that the Hierarchy can be directly contacted and known by those who undertake the necessary training and submit to discipline. This must be self-imposed and adapted to the nature and point of development of the individual disciple. The various grades in the Hierarchy are discussed, the nature of the initiations to be taken is taught, and the work of the Christ, as Head of the Hierarchy, is studied. Thus the disciple has a clear picture of the inner group which is his goal.

4. The Science of Meditation. This with its techniques, and its various stages (alignment, concentration, meditation, contemplation, illumination and inspiration) are gradually mastered and by its means the disciple is taught the right use of the mind, right control of thought and right interpretation of all spiritual phenomena. He learns the meaning of illumination with its seven stages, and begins (with increasing effectiveness) to live the inspired life of a Son of God.

5. The Laws of the Spiritual World are studied and the disciple learns to apply the laws to himself, to events, to the world and to humanity.

These Laws include, among many others:

1. The Law of Cause and Effect
2. The Law of Rebirth
3. The Law of Evolution
4. The Law of Health [278]

These laws concern the manifestation of the world of spiritual values and impulses through the medium of the world of material phenomena.

6. The Plan, of which the Hierarchy is the custodian and which underlies all planetary happenings, furthering the divine purpose, is brought to the attention of the students; its working in the past, bringing humanity to its present point of development, is studied; the happenings of the present are interpreted in terms of God's plan and are investigated as a prelude to the future; the immediate step ahead is also deeply considered and the active participation of the student invoked. Later, when the disciple becomes an active conscious part of the Hierarchy, he is familiar with the broad outlines of the divine purpose and can cooperate intelligently with the immediate task.

7. The Energies and Forces, which are the very substance of creation, have to be understood and eventually controlled. The disciple learns that all that is manifesting in and on our planet is nothing but an aggregation of forces, producing forms, and that all is movement and livingness. He begins by learning the nature of the forces which make him what he is, as a man; he then learns to bring in a higher energy, that of the soul, to control these forces. He studies the nature of the spirit, soul and matter, usually calling them life, consciousness and form, or life, quality and appearance, and thus gains some insight into the nature of the divine Trinity and the electrical nature of all phenomena, including the human being.

8. Esoteric Psychology is also regarded as of major importance. This marks a shift of attention away from the more material presentation of the old schools of esotericism, with their emphasis upon planes, the material building processes and the constitution of the forms. In the new schools, the emphasis will be upon the nature of the soul within the forms and upon that creating agent who works with and in the material world. The seven major types of people are studied; their characteristics are investigated, plus their relation to the seven groups into which the Hierarchy is divided and the seven great Rays or Energies (the emanations that the Bible calls "the seven spirits before the throne of God"). Thus the synthesis of all manifestation becomes apparent and the place of the part within the whole can be clearly seen. [279]

There are many subsidiary studies about which the disciple must know something prior to entering the future Schools of Initiation but the above will indicate the general curriculum which will be undertaken in the newer schools. The Arcane School is attempting to give a general grounding in these basic fundamentals, so that the student can profit by the wealth of literature and teaching which the remainder of this century will produce.

The student has, first of all, to gain a general idea of the esoteric teaching; he will then know along which of the many lines he, as an individual, must go; he has to learn to apply the teaching in a practical way, transmuting theory into practice and demonstrating to himself the necessity and the possibility of his dwelling in the world of meaning. He will then recognize the relation of all events, individual, human and planetary, and the why and the wherefore of all happenings. As he gains a knowledge of esoteric psychology and masters some of the techniques of the meditation process, he is enabled to place himself upon the correct rung of the ladder of evolution; he knows then what is, for him, the next immediate step and his next goal for unfoldment; he knows also what he has to give in the service of humanity and whom he is able to help.

He begins to participate consciously in the great school of spiritual experience; in that school he eventually finds all his questions answered and his problems solved. He discovers that the major prerequisites for successful esoteric work are patience, persistent effort, vision and sound discriminative judgment. Given these, plus a sense of humor, an open mind and no fanaticism, the disciple will have rapid progress upon the "Lighted Way," as the Path is often called. He will find himself finally standing before the Door of Initiation upon which the words of Christ are inscribed, "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you."

January 1944 [280]

B.VIII. The Principles of the Arcane School

By Alice A. Bailey

As you enter the Arcane School and become an active part of this group, there are certain fundamental ideas or governing principles which we would like to put before you. Upon these, the success of the work depends, both yours and ours. You are undertaking a task for which your life and all previous lives (if you accept the Law of Rebirth and of fresh opportunity) have prepared you. The enterprise upon which you are entering is a tremendous one; it involves a reorientation of your life and life methods, in all probability; it means the learning of the rules which govern the transfer of your life effort out of the fourth or human kingdom into the fifth kingdom. This kingdom is as much one of the kingdoms of nature as are the human or animal kingdoms; it is sometimes called the Kingdom of God and sometimes the Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet. It leads also to a preparation for those great expansions of consciousness which will transform your consciousness and make you constantly aware of the universal Whole, instead of identifying yourself with a tiny fraction of that Whole; it will enable you to substitute synthesis for that isolated separateness which is distinctive of the average human being.

As you face this new life of training and of growth into a new and spiritual livingness, there are certain essential propositions and esoteric conditions which when once grasped will simplify your approach to that kingdom and to the truth, and which will help you to recognize the sure foundation upon which you stand. We feel it right that you should ask and we should answer certain important questions, such as:

• What is the purpose of the Arcane School?
• What is the nature of its teaching?
• What are the principles governing the training and the help given?
• To what am I committed when I join the Arcane School?
• What are the hall marks of the true esoteric school, and does the Arcane School conform to them?
• By what basic concepts and ideas is the Arcane School governed? [281]

There are seven principles or governing objectives to which all the Arcane School workers and students are asked to conform. A study of these will greatly facilitate all future work, disposing of questions and clearing the way for an understanding progress. These principles are unchanging and will never be altered; if they are altered, then the Arcane School will no longer serve its originating purpose.

Methods and techniques may change; dogmas and doctrines appear and disappear as the Ageless Wisdom presents itself, generation after generation, and the continuity of revelation unfolds as the need of humanity demands it; but the underlying objective of all esoteric schools (including, therefore, the Arcane School) remains ever the same. That objective is the revelation of divinity in man and in the universe, and this leads inevitably to the acknowledgement of God Transcendent, and of God Immanent. It is right that the terminologies and the presentations of the One Truth should change with the changing times, thus meeting the need of the varied peoples of the world, but that which they seek to express remains forever unalterable. It is to be hoped that - decade by decade - the techniques and the methods of training offered by the Arcane School will change in response to the demanding needs of aspirants, to the unfoldment of the human mind, and the development, consequently, of human culture and civilization. These changes, however, must never be at the expense of truth or lead to a distortion of the esoteric teaching; neither must they assume undue importance or too great a proportion, thus obliterating Reality or veiling the Vision.

The seven principles or essential propositions are as follows:

1. The Arcane School is a training school for disciples. It is not a school for probationary disciples or for devotional aspirants.
2. The Arcane School trains adult men and women so that they may take their next step upon the path of evolution.
3. The Arcane School recognizes the fact of the Spiritual Hierarchy of the planet and gives instruction in the mode whereby that Hierarchy may be approached and entered.
4. The Arcane School teaches the practical belief that the "souls of men are one."
5. The Arcane School emphasizes the necessity to live the spiritual life and rejects all claims to spiritual status.
6. The Arcane School is non-sectarian, non-political, and international in its scope. [282]
7. The Arcane School emphasizes no theological dogmas, but simply teaches the Ageless Wisdom, as recognized in all lands down through the ages.

Let us take each one of these foundational principles and see what they mean and how they are expressed through the Arcane School methods and mode of working.

B.VIII.1. The Arcane School is a Training School for Disciples

At the close of the world war (1914-1945) the Arcane School had been in existence for nearly 25 years and had, in that time, serviced over 20,000 people. Its curriculum is progressive; step by step the studies deepen and the meditation work becomes more intensive as the student passes from one degree to another.

No teaching is given at any time in the development of the psychic powers; people are not taught to be clairvoyant or clairaudient; no training is given in magic or in the use of magical rituals, and nothing is taught at any stage on sex magic. Our whole emphasis is laid upon spiritual living, upon the mental grasp of the occult teaching and upon those rules and processes which will bring about right relations to one's fellowmen, right relation to one's own soul, right relation to the Spiritual Hierarchy (of which the Christ is the Supreme Head), and right relation to a Master and His ashram, or group.

Because the Arcane School is designed solely to train people to be conscious, working disciples, its curriculum is definitely eliminative. The work you are asked to do is not easy, nor is it intended to be easy. The standard maintained and desired is high and the work is planned in such a way that those whose mental equipment and spiritual aspiration are inadequate to the requirements automatically drop out; they find, for themselves, that they cannot cope with the work. We never encourage people to stay in the work unless they show fitness, for they only get discouraged and labor under a sense of failure and this is bad for all concerned.

Discipleship entails a loving heart and a keen, alert mind. The loving heart has always been emphasized, plus devotion, by the churches and the esoteric groups. This is a basic truth and necessity, but a keen, alert and trained mind is of equal importance. The Masters reach the world of men through their disciples; that is the way They choose to work. They are seeking, therefore, intelligent, [283] self-controlled men and women - with vision and with a self-imposed, spiritual discipline - through whom that work can be carried forward. Intentionally, therefore, we make the work difficult and keep the standard of requirements high because we, too, are looking for people who can use their minds or who show at least a willingness to develop and use their mental processes. The need of the more emotional and aspirational types and of the devotees can well be met in other groups and esoteric schools, and is thus being met.

Running through all the work of the Arcane School is the theme of service. Service to one's fellowmen is the hallmark of a disciple and the key also which opens for him the door of initiation. Therefore, all who enter the School and face the new cycle of training find us saying to them: Study, think and prove to yourself and to us that you have grasped the teaching by writing your study papers; learn to meditate and so make a contact with your true spiritual Self, the soul, and make service the expression of what you know. These three things should be your main spiritual preoccupation during the time spent in the earlier degrees. You will find that, as each year slips away, your grasp of the way into the Hierarchy grows steadily and your entire life will be taking on fuller and richer meaning. It is the world of meaning that we are trying to penetrate. You will then find that the succeeding degrees will open their doors to you, for you will be found to have covered the necessary preliminary work, to have assimilated a certain measure of technical and academic knowledge, to have certain spiritual contacts and arrived at certain great recognitions.

B.VIII.2. The Arcane School Trains Adult Men and Women for their Next Step
on the Path of Evolution

When you enter the Arcane School you are taking part in a new experiment in adult education. This experiment is based on three major expectations:

These are as follows:

1. Each student is pledged to occult obedience.
2. Each student is entirely free to profit or not by the school curriculum.
3. Each student can, if he chooses, become a worker in the Arcane School. [284]

What actually is an adult person? He is - from our point of view - a man or woman who has achieved a certain basic integration or integrations, or is consciously attempting to attain them. To be an adult has, in fact, nothing to do with the age of the person. We hold (as does modern psychology) that a human being is a synthesis of the physical nature, vital activity, the sumtotal of emotional states and feeling, and the mind. These various aspects are often unrelated to each other and in the majority of cases the emotional nature dominates all the others, the mind having little opportunity to make its presence felt. When, however, a measure of balance or equilibrium is attained, when the mind, the emotional nature and the vital, physical person constitute one functioning unity, then the man is an adult being. He warrants the name of "personality" and has brought about within himself (as a result of the evolutionary process) a series of integrations.

Many of the students in the Arcane School are working at the problem of personality integration or at the task of developing the mind so that it may effectively control the emotional nature and direct the activities of the man upon the physical plane. Others have attained a fair measure of this personality integration and are now working at a still higher synthesis, i.e., that of the soul with the personality or of the higher Self with the lower self. When this latter integration has been achieved, then the man can be regarded as a "soul-infused personality." At this point, or when it is in process of accomplishment, he can become an accepted disciple - technically understood.

The occult obedience referred to is the obedience rendered by man, the personality, to his own soul. It does not refer to obedience to any teacher or body of doctrines. In the Arcane School, no pledges or vows to obey are exacted from any student, at any stage. As the students have voluntarily entered the school, we assume that they will (still voluntarily) attempt to carry out the requirements. This expectation has, however, nothing to do with occult obedience, but is simply common sense. Occult obedience is a spontaneous reaction of the mind to the imposition of the desires or will of the soul. It means that the aspirant to discipleship is training himself to become sensitive to impressions coming from his soul and then hastens to obey. The goal of meditation is, first of all, to bring about this sensitivity and enable the student, therefore, to work in the light of soul guidance. [285] The personality becomes increasingly sensitive to soul impression by this means and by following the path of true occult obedience.

The school workers and secretaries - both at Headquarters and in the field - never seek to interfere in the spiritual life and efforts of the student. The help given in the meditation work and the suggestions made concerning the spiritual life are freely offered. The requirements cannot be imposed. If the student profits by the work and by the help given, we are glad but (in the last analysis) it is his business what he does with them; if he does not avail himself of the opportunities presented, that again is his business.

To leave the student completely free is a fundamental aim of the Arcane School. This is necessary if he is ever to learn to handle himself intelligently and to grow spiritually. The student can work or not, as he chooses; he is free to leave, when he so desires. Necessarily, if the student never works, never studies, and never sends in his meditation reports, we are forced eventually to conclude that he is not interested and then we drop his name from our active list. We naturally reserve to ourselves the right to drop a student from our list if we feel he is not profiting from what we are seeking to give him.

It is also our policy to leave the student entirely free as regards his private life. The Arcane School imposes no physical disciplines upon the students; we do not require that a man should be a vegetarian, that he should not smoke or touch alcohol, as is frequently the case in occult schools. We regard these matters as entirely his own affair and concern, and we feel that, given the right teaching, he will make his own adjustments in these matters. We know that the soul imposes its own disciplines upon its agent, the personality. It is our task to train him to know his own soul and to be obedient to the requirements of that soul. We therefore set no standard of living for the students, nor do we interfere in their private affairs; the soul will set its own standard as time goes on, if the student is sincere and earnest. We ask no questions and listen to no gossip. We realize that all of us have to learn to be Masters by achieving mastery, so that the One Master in the heart can assume control. It is our aim to help the student to bring in that control by teaching him the ancient rules governing the Path of Discipleship, adapting them to modern conditions and to the more advanced mental comprehension of the modern aspirant. [286]

We also leave our students free to serve as they like and where they like. We do not demand that they join this, that or the other activity, as do some of the esoteric groups. We - as an organization - exact no service from them; we have no lodges, centers or meetings which we expect them to attend; we leave them free to work in any group, church, organization or social and welfare activity which may appeal to them. Our belief is that if we have given them anything of spiritual value, then they should take it and use it in the environment (no matter what it is) which evokes their interest or which demands their loyalty. This complete freedom to work and serve outside the Arcane School is the reason why we have students with so many loyalties actively associated with us as students, but at the same time as actively working in other groups. You will find several kinds of Theosophists and Rosicrucians working in the Arcane School as well as Christian Scientists, churchmen of every denomination - Protestant and Catholic - and men and women of every type of religious and political persuasion. They feel free and they are free.

Again, Arcane School students can form their own groups and give expression to their own ideas and modes of service without interference from us. This they frequently do. However, we take absolutely no responsibility for such groups and they are not regarded as part of the Arcane School or as in any way affiliated with us; they are never sponsored by us. We take no responsibility for them or for what they teach; we do however welcome the effort as providing a field of service for the student and we approve of the attempt to spread the teaching of the Ancient Wisdom. We regard it as a healthy sign when a student tries to work this way, for the need of the world for this teaching is very great and many hundreds can be reached in this manner.

Finally, this experiment in adult education is unique in that the senior students can become school workers, teachers, and as secretaries supervise the work of the younger students. This they can do if they show a grasp of the teaching, are intelligent and love their fellowmen. In 1947 we had about 140 school secretaries but their numbers increase naturally as the school grows, and it is growing very fast. These secretaries are of every nationality. The work of the students in the most advanced degrees is handled by two groups at the Headquarters in New York. [287]

B.VIII.3. The Arcane School Recognizes the Fact of the Spiritual Hierarchy

The school is kept rigidly free from dogmas and doctrines. No one is expected to accept this, that or the other truth; and if they reject what some of us believe and accept, we feel that that is their own business and none of ours. It makes no difference whatsoever in the attitude of the workers at Headquarters if a student rejects the doctrine of reincarnation and refuses to believe in the Hierarchy and the Masters of the Wisdom. All we ask is that he investigate the reasons for and against such beliefs and then abide by what he feels to be right. Certain beliefs are, however, of such ancient origin that they are generally accepted, either as recognized truths, as basic premises or as interesting hypotheses. This attitude or approach to truth we ask the student to hold because we feel that he should regard these presented truths as providing a fair field for honest investigation. This holds true as regards the belief in the factual nature of the Spiritual Hierarchy; this truth is approached in our presentation from the angle of evolutionary development; the graded order of Beings Who constitute the Hierarchy are regarded by us as constituting the fifth kingdom in nature, a necessary product of the experience of life in the fourth kingdom, the human. It is the Spiritual Hierarchy to which the Christian teaching of the Kingdom of God surely refers. If this premise is true, then the existence of this kingdom can be scientifically considered as an integral part of the great evolutionary process with its order of living beings, moving onward in ordered progression from the tiniest atom up to God Himself.

Little of this is taught in the earlier work of the Arcane School, except in so far that the existence of the divine Plan and the fact of the unfolding consciousness in man and in all forms is considered and interrelated. Later the attention of the student is directed towards Those Who bring inspiration and truth to humanity, and this is referred to in the meditation work; if, however, this has no appeal to him, he is provided with an alternative meditation which omits all reference to the Spiritual Hierarchy. In the higher degrees (which are entered by direct invitation) belief in the Masters of the Wisdom is assumed to exist and the elementary training for discipleship is begun. By that time, necessarily, the sifting work of the previous degrees has been carried forward and those who remain fall into two categories: [288]

1. Those who do not question the existence of the Spiritual Hierarchy (of which Christ is the Head).
2. Those who still question, but who accept the teaching as a working hypothesis.

Both groups are then instructed in the rules governing the Path of Discipleship; these, when consistently accepted and followed, have led countless thousands from "darkness to light" and out of the fourth kingdom of nature into the fifth. The laws and rules of a Master's Ashram are taught. An Ashram is that center of spiritual light and power into which a Master gathers His disciples for instruction in the Plan, of which they then become the agents.

Discipleship is a technical phrase indicating aptitude for teaching, a willingness to implement the Plan for humanity and a deep love for one's fellowmen. The student who learns to apply these ancient rules to his daily life will eventually arrive at a personal knowledge of the Hierarchy and the Plan of which It is Custodian. This Plan, God Transcendent, is working out through the processes of evolution; these processes eventually reveal the fact of God Immanent.

Students are under no compulsion to apply these rules or to tread the Path of Discipleship; our experience, however, has been that when confronted with the opportunity offered, they either accept the training or drop out of the life of the Arcane School, at least temporarily.

In the higher degrees, the Arcane School emphasizes the nature of the Plan, the new evolutionary cycle into which humanity is at this time entering and the immediacy of the return of the Christ - as taught in all the world religions. The Christian looks forward to the advent of Christ, the Jew is still expectant of the coming of the Messiah, the Buddhist is waiting for the coming of the Boddhisattva, the Hindu for the coming Avatar and the Mohammedan for the appearance of the Imam Mahdi. The universality of this teaching, plus the general expectancy is a major argument for the factual nature of the truth involved. The widespread acceptance of any truth down the ages and in every civilization and culture is indicative of a divinely presented spiritual fact. Today, the appeal of these truths must be mental and scientifically based and not simply emotional and mystical as has hitherto been generally the case. [289]

B.VIII.4. The Arcane School Teaches that the "Souls of Men are One"

This truth grows normally out of any consideration of the Plan of Evolution and proves to be a developing realization of all who attempt to practice the rules of the spiritual life and so bring themselves under the laws which govern the Kingdom of God. Much teaching has gone out during the past three hundred years about brotherhood and fraternal relationship between men. In the Arcane School, we study the basis of this belief and the inclusiveness of the divine Life, informing as it does all the subhuman kingdoms, the human family and the superhuman lives which stretch beyond the strictly human into the very light of eternity itself.

The practical acceptance of this is being developed through the international aspect of the Arcane School. Students belong to every nation and every religion. The school lessons and papers are available in English, French, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish and are now being translated into Polish, Greek, Roumanian and Armenian. Much progress has been made along these lines. The school secretaries belong to every nationality and the students are assigned frequently to the supervision of a secretary of a different nationality to their own; this is part of the effort to fuse and blend men into a great spiritual brotherhood which knows no distinction of race, nation or religion. The new Invocation which is used by all the students daily has been translated into sixteen different languages. (By 1951 this number had increased to forty-two known languages plus a great number of little known dialects.)

In the Arcane School, we make a definite effort to counter the "great heresy of separateness" which is so distinctive of modern thinking and thus lay the foundation for that new world in which there will emerge a civilization based upon the belief that the "souls of men are One." Isolationism, insularity and individualism are all expressions of the deep seated separateness which has been so unhappily distinctive of humanity; it is this which lies at the bottom of all our religious, political and ideological differences and which is the fruitful source of all wars. The solution of this world problem lies in the emergence of a spiritual group (gathered out of all races and nations) which is banded together to tread the Path of Discipleship, to bring into manifestation the Kingdom of God and to demonstrate right human relations. Such a group will recognize similarity [290] of idealism, origin and goal in all other groups and will express a fundamental spiritual unity. They will lay the emphasis upon the points of contact and not upon the points of difference; they will endeavor to cooperate with all groups which have a sane spiritual vision and objective without losing, at the same time, their individuality and integrity.

It is for this reason that the Arcane School does not start groups, lodges or organized meetings in the many cities in the world where students are to be found. It has no desire to be a competitive organization with related loyalties to local lodges, local meetings and local leaders. As we said above, our students are free to work in other organizations and are not expected to owe allegiance to anyone in the Arcane School. Its students are taught to realize that the souls of men are one and to try and live in the power and application of this fundamental truth. The attitude which the Arcane School student is encouraged to develop is best summed up in the following lines which constitute the blueprint upon which he is asked to pattern his life:

"The souls of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the soul control the outer form
And life and all events,
And bring to light the Love
That underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail. Let all men love."

B.VIII.5. In the Arcane School, no Claims are made of Place, Power or Spiritual Status

The world today is full of self-proclaimed disciples, initiates and Masters; loud voices are everywhere to be heard demanding attention to themselves; personal claims delude many people. False Masters are to be found in many countries, deceiving the people and prostituting [291] the divine science of the initiates before the eyes of the public; spurious initiates and imposters are lecturing up and down the earth and false Christs are arising in both hemispheres, thereby proving the accuracy of the prophecies of Christ to be found in St. Matthew XXIV. People are very easily deceived - largely through their longing to be helped and through an instinctive recognition of the factual existence of many grades in the spiritual development of mankind. The masses of men everywhere have an inherent belief in the Spiritual Hierarchy; it is this belief that these false prophets are deliberately exploiting.

Our students are taught the truth (as given by Christ) that "by their fruits ye shall know them"; the fact is emphasized that the existence of claim-making is a guarantee of imposture. No true initiate or Master ever proclaims himself or calls attention to himself. He is, instead, intensely preoccupied with the "things of the Kingdom of God" and has no time to spare for the imposition of himself upon the consciousness of men.

The Masters are men who have achieved liberation from the control of the personality or lower self; they are, therefore, free from all desire to make personal claims or to demand personal recognition. They prefer to work quietly, silently and behind the scenes, dealing with truths and with human need and galvanizing men to seek the one Master in their own hearts.

The workers in the Arcane School are there because of spiritual inclination and not because they are seeking recognition as initiates. Their only claim is that they are seeking to tread the Path of Discipleship. This is the only legitimate claim that anyone can safely make; and the claiming that one is an initiate or a Master immediately indicates deception or gross ignorance. No one in the Arcane School (and this includes Mr. and Mrs. Bailey and the Headquarters Staff) makes any claim to high spiritual status; any worker making such a claim would cease automatically to be a worker in the Arcane School. He may claim to be a disciple; he may not claim to be a high initiate or a Master.

B.VIII.6. The Arcane School is Non-Sectarian, Non-Political and International

The Arcane School stands ready to help any man or woman, no matter what their religious views, their political party, ideology or [292] their national allegiances. If it is true (and we undeviatingly believe it to be so) that the "souls of men are One," then we hold that the concepts and acceptances of the conscious mind of the student do not, in reality, interfere with his ability to grasp this spiritual fact, nor can they prevent his contacting his soul. We only ask that he keep an open mind and cultivate a willingness to see life and world events as a whole; we ask him to regard world affairs - whether political, religious, sociological or economic - as a vast method or field of experience whereby and wherein divine purpose is slowly being worked out; we ask him to investigate how his particular belief fits into that world program, and also whether he is exclusive or inclusive in his approach.

Because of this attitude in the Arcane School, our students today express every kind of political belief and are of every kind of religious persuasion. They should have no barriers or separating wall between themselves and others. How could there be in reality? A man's religious background and his political ideology are usually determined by his place of birth and his national background and tradition. Churchmen of all denominations and spiritual people who own no ecclesiastical allegiances are working with us; members of all political parties and ideologies are also represented. We work together without interfering with each other's views or entering into controversial discussions. Our secretaries are not permitted to enter into political or religious arguments with the students they supervise. We seek only to indicate the common goal, the universal field of service and the ancient methods whereby human beings can pass from the unreal to the Real.

It is true that during the war (1914-1945) the Arcane School officially aligned itself with the purpose of the Allied Nations and took a firm stand against the nations who were fighting the Forces of Light; that was in no way a political move but was based upon the spiritual conviction that the purpose of the Axis powers was contrary to the Plan of God, that it was in opposition to the Spiritual Hierarchy of the planet and the general good and welfare of humanity. The Axis policy was based on the wickedness of separation and hate. This decision on our part not to hold a neutral position was according to the will of the majority of the students. There are esotericists, however, who hold that to be an esotericist means that one holds oneself aloof from mundane affairs and that esoteric students should [293] take no part in the affairs of humanity as a whole; they should be active in spiritual and mental realms. If the physical plane and its affairs lie outside the sphere of influence of spiritual livingness, then there is something basically wrong with our interpretation of truth; if the goal of the spiritual effort is to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, then all physical plane events become the concern of all spiritual people everywhere. May it not be true that, because of this ancient cleavage between spiritual life and material action, politics, the Church in all countries, and the economic life of the world have degenerated into the terrible condition which twentieth century humanity has had to face.

The students of the Arcane School are encouraged to carry their spiritual knowledge, energy and understanding into the affairs of humanity and to do this upon the physical level of existence. We ask our students in every nation to study the effective implementation of the spiritual plan and purpose in every phase of human activity, thus relating the word "spiritual" to all our daily activities and not only (as is too often the case) to existing religious groups, to aspiration, to the processes of meditation and of occult study.

The man whose fixed mental belief is that "the souls of men are One" will find himself forced to carry that concept into practice in his everyday life; if he does not do so, be is nothing but a theorist, an idealist and an impractical mystic. It is this daily application of spiritual and esoteric truth which makes the work of the School practical, useful and interesting.

It is this belief which makes the factor of money of so much importance. Money dominates every phase of our physical plane life; it is the outstanding, controlling factor in our present civilization. So little has hitherto been done in the world to apply money to truly spiritual uses. Much has been done to apply money to philanthropic and humanitarian purposes; much of it lies in the hands of the theologians of the various churches, but the contributing of the funds deliberately and with intention to the work of the Masters and to the helping of the plans of the Spiritual Hierarchy is practically unknown. The inclusive concepts of the Ageless Wisdom and the knowledge of the divine Plan require money in order to reach the masses and it is for this that today humanity waits. This is largely the fault of the mystics, the esotericists and the professional "spiritual people" of the world who regard money as something evil [294] and as something with which they must have no alliance. Much harm has been done by those schools of thought who regard the desire for money (even if it is for the implementing of the Masters' work) as harmful, evil and wrong; they state, therefore, that the true spiritual man must not ask or pray for money.

One of the major needs today is the building up of large funds for the work of the Christ and His disciples and for the task of preparing the minds of men for His coming. It is essential that the material trend of money be redirected and money be made available for the Masters' work. This is one of the new and immediate tasks of the world disciples and spiritual workers, and one which students in the Arcane School are asked to consider; they are urged to think this matter through. The Arcane School, for instance, makes no charge for its services; the work is carried forward on a voluntary basis. A yearly statement is sent out and the students know exactly what it costs to finance the School. When need arises, the students are informed and asked to meet the need if possible, and over the years much generosity has been shown. The Arcane School has no endowment, and no kind "angel" makes heavy contributions regularly and steadily. The workers at Headquarters and in Europe work without pay or for the minimum of salary. This is part of their voluntary contribution to the work.

B.VIII.7. The Arcane School presents the Fundamental Doctrines of the Ageless Wisdom

It simply presents them for consideration and for acceptance or rejection, according to the thinking and wish of the student. There is, as you well know, no official, theological, dogmatic imposition of truth.

• What are the essential doctrines from the angle of the Arcane School?
• What are the teachings which they feel it necessary to present?

1. That the Kingdom of God, the Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, can and will be materialized on earth. We believe that it is already present and will later be recognized as the culminating kingdom in nature.
2. That there has been a continuity of revelation down the ages and that from cycle to cycle God has revealed Himself to humanity. [295]
3. That God Transcendent is equally God Immanent, and that through human beings, who are in truth the sons of God (if the words of Christ and all the world Teachers mean anything) the three divine aspects - knowledge, love and will - can be expressed.
4. That there is only one divine Life, expressing itself through the multiplicity of forms in all the kingdoms of nature, and that the sons of men are, therefore, One.
5. That within each human being is a point of light, a spark of the one Flame. This, we believe, is the soul, the second aspect of divinity and that of which Paul spoke when he referred to "Christ in you, the hope of glory." It is the demonstration of the divine livingness in each person which is our goal, and discipleship is a step upon the way to that attainment.
6. That an ultimate perfection (though relative in nature) is possible for the individual aspirant and for humanity as a whole through the action of the evolutionary process. This process we seek to study and to recognize the myriad of developing lives, each with its place within the scheme, from the humblest atom up through the four recognized kingdoms of nature, and on through the fifth kingdom (of which the Christ is the supreme Head) to those exalted spheres where the Lord of the World works out the divine Plan.
7. That there are certain immutable laws governing the universe; man becomes progressively aware of these as he evolves. These laws are expressions of the will of God.
8. That the basic law of our universe is to be seen in the manifestation of God as Love.

Upon these eight fundamentals all the esoteric teaching rests. There are necessarily subsidiary factors and other presented teachings which the student is asked to study but which he again accepts or not as he likes. Such are the teaching on Reincarnation, governed by the Law of Rebirth, the cyclic nature of all manifestation, the nature and aim of the evolutionary process, the existence of the Spiritual Hierarchy, the existence of the Masters and Their work, and the nature of consciousness with its various stages of individualized consciousness, [296] self consciousness and spiritual consciousness, demonstrating upon the Path of Evolution and culminating in the Path of Initiation.

The great primary truths are presented for acceptance because they exist as the foundational truths of all the world religions and have evoked universal recognition; man instinctively knows them, either as working hypotheses which he feels have no sane opposition or as facts which he accepts owing to his point in evolution. The second category of truths are offered simply for consideration and as aspects or details, implementing or growing out of the more fundamental body of truth. They are more frankly controversial but are held as beliefs by millions of people.

These, therefore, are the seven governing factors in the work of the Arcane School. Students are asked to study them and accept them as long as they work with us. They come to us voluntarily and can leave us at any time. It is not an easy Way. We shall all have moments of discouragement and we shall none of us see the world as perfect as we hope it some day will be, nor will we see ourselves as perfect as we would like to be. But we can work for (and see) many great improvements, both in ourselves and in the world. The vision ever lies on ahead; if it did not there would be nothing to incite us to effort. It is helpful however to realize that some part at least of our vision can become an attained fact. It is for this that we work. [297]

1947

B.IX. The Arcane School - Its Esoteric Origins and Purposes

By Foster Bailey

This is an appropriate time for us to consider the relationship of the Arcane School to some of the immediate aspects of the plans of the Hierarchy. We realize that we have a very limited knowledge of these plans but we also realize that as a result of the 30 years' work of the Tibetan, in collaboration with Alice A. Bailey (increasingly coming to be referred to as A.A.B.) we have had available, particularly during the last eighteen years, information which has never yet reached the majority of the sincere and earnest aspirants and disciples in the world. Our knowledge carries responsibility. Our favored position brings us extraordinary opportunity. At present, the condition of the human family confronts us with a worldwide need more critical than most of us have been quite able to comprehend.

The Arcane School was started by Mrs. Bailey in 1923. Twenty-eight years have come and gone and we are today a well-organized group of servers carrying forward certain spiritual projects for which we have accepted responsibility. Our position therefore is ascertainable with some degree of accuracy and the recognition by us all, that we are facing a new cycle in the life of the group, justifies our attempting an appraisal of our esoteric origins and purposes.

We are an Aquarian esoteric group, which is to say that we are a group of disciples and aspirants to discipleship, who are attempting to aid humanity in conscious relationship to the highest that we know about Hierarchical work. We therefore seek to deal with causes rather than to occupy ourselves with attempting to neutralize unfortunate effects. We seek to understand the deeper spiritual meanings which lie behind world events and strive to so live as to increasingly exemplify essential spiritual qualities.

The circumstance of our factual relation to the Hierarchy, not only accounts for our very existence as a spiritual group in the world, but is the essential factor in all our future undertakings. Without this Hierarchical relationship consciously recognized and constantly maintained we will be in the coming days less worthy than the host of world welfare movements and activities that are arising spontaneously [298] on all sides of us, which do not have this spiritual link consciously achieved.

All through her life A.A.B. shunned any statement or action which might be interpreted as claim making, as to her own personal spiritual status. This we well know. The powerful and amazingly effective and fruitful work that she did, brought, however, an inevitable recognition that she was in fact a hard-working disciple of the Great Ones with achieved status sufficient to her task and that through her the direct impact of spiritual force as wielded by the Hierarchy became available to us.

Let us go back to a time prior to the existence of our group in outward manifestation on the physical plane, to the early days of Mrs. Bailey's childhood. As a young girl in her teens, then functioning in a setting of aristocratic culture and very considerable wealth, fulfiling the round of social activities and obligations, as was the lot of such young ladies, her Master came to her. Her setting was of the most extreme conservative pattern, her understanding of religion and her allegiance to the Church of England was set, rigid and dogmatic. Her knowledge of the world outside her small circle of experience was startlingly negligible.

This visit of the Master was for the purpose of implanting in her physical brain consciousness the essentials of the pattern of her life as it was to unfold. She was strong enough to have knowledge of the program of service to which on the inner plane she was already pledged and consecrated and the essentials of which were the chosen program of her own soul.

She was at this time a senior disciple in the ashram of the Master K.H. (An ashram may be thought of as a center of living spiritual energy in the group life of the Hierarchy.) As the years have slipped by and I have learned to profit by the teaching I have personally received from her, I have come to understand better what a senior position in an ashram necessarily involves. This position is the key to all the work that she did. There are many factors involved, some of which we can speak of now. Through the teachings of the Tibetan many have learned much about these things and others share with me the knowledge of certain essentials that constitute our esoteric background as a group.

We know that He whom we are accustomed to refer to as the Tibetan is in fact one of the Masters of the Wisdom known by certain [299] of his associates as the Master Djwhal Khul. It was D.K., partly because he had specialized in occult philosophy and cosmic law, who was given the task of providing that bridging teaching necessary to the guidance of the hard-pressed disciples of the Great Ones in our present era; more especially also to provide the necessary expanding knowledge of spiritual realities which had to become available to humanity during that critical period of our present world history, when we are transiting out of the Piscean era into the Aquarian Age. D.K worked with the great disciple whom we know as H.P.B. Her writings, and especially The Secret Doctrine, were a courageous pioneering effort which broke through in the earlier days and made all that we now can do far more possible than it otherwise could have been. The time had come for the next expanded teaching to be given out. D.K. stood next to K.H. whose disciple he had been for a very long time. It seems natural that he should have looked for and found the necessary collaborator among that group of disciples who were in the same ashram with him.

Not only had D.K. to find some consecrated and daring disciple, available on the physical plane, to do this work but he, of course, had other activities and responsibilities that we know little about. Also the time had come when in the planned expansion and the reorganization of the Hierarchy, additional ashrams should be formed and the personnel for them found and trained. This arduous undertaking in many ways is as difficult a task as one might well imagine and for this the Arcane School has helped to provide usable material. The Tibetan, therefore, has been occupied, in part, by the founding of his own ashram which is now rapidly consolidating and expanding, in the giving out of the teachings which are now contained in some eighteen volumes, and in inaugurating certain spiritual activities in the world which conform to the plan of operations of the Hierarchy, as worked out by them in their effort to hasten the reappearance of the Christ. It is only in these later years that we have come to understand how this return of the Christ has, in fact, been the keynote and climaxing objective of all that has been done.

It is characteristic of truly spiritual and constructive forces that their active expression always results in several definite benefits. Such is the potency of spiritual force. The work which the Tibetan has done in the last thirty years already shows this tremendously [300] significant and encouraging quality. The same thing holds true in the life of every disciple in proportion to the importance of his status and the amount of spiritual force therefore carried.

It is the privilege, and the inevitable program of every senior disciple, to initiate some activity in each incarnation which serves the Hierarchical Plan and which more especially aids in that part of the Plan for which his own ashram has accepted responsibility. It was for this reason that at the appropriate time, before her last physical incarnation, A.A.B. proposed the project of establishing an esoteric school. When a disciple presents a proposed line of action it is approved if it actually does aid in the ashramic work and if the circumstances make it seem possible of reasonable fulfilment. But in any event the disciple is free to try and so long as it is constructive and useful and truly aids the Plan it has available for its purpose all of the ashramic energy that the individual disciple is able to carry. Should it fall away from its spiritual destiny these forces become unavailable. The attempt in this event withers away and dies in most cases before the disciple departs but inevitably not very long thereafter. Those movements in the world of spiritual nature that survive the rigours and confusions of the second generation are rare and that survival is a true hallmark of their genuine spiritual origin.

We today are confronted with the opportunity of so utilizing the spiritual forces available in the Arcane School, as a result of the past thirty years' work, that the fruitage already achieved, which is greater than we know, will be only the smaller part of the ultimate beneficial results. This rich prize has been given to us by A.A.B. and has been carried forward by those of us who have been so fortunate as to be able to join with her through the years in bringing it into living usefulness and keeping it true to the vision. Indeed her success in creating group consciousness and group action produced in the end a sense of joint responsibility and an established and recognized interdependence which has made the group achievement ours as well as hers. This achieved group consciousness is our greatest guarantee of successful operation in the days to come.

The Arcane School was projected by A.A.B. as an effort to help fulfil certain definite needs in the esoteric field. First, there was a real need for an increased number of working disciples in the world who would be available to carry forward the Hierarchical Plans. An esoteric school could find the people and give the preliminary training which would help in this problem of ashramic personnel. Secondly, [301] there was a need for an esoteric experiment along second ray teaching lines, which could attempt to carry a little of the increasing Aquarian quality. This required a new emphasis on group responsibility and world service as the essential of all true discipleship in the days to come. A.A.B. has succeeded to a marked degree in impregnating her School with the needed qualities and, therefore, in meeting this requirement. It is this factor that has given to our organized work in the world its pioneering aspect and has made us ever conscious that to a considerable degree the whole thing was in the nature of an experiment.

Another real need in the esoteric field was a type of discipleship teaching and action which would help to offset the crystallizations of the esoteric schools that had been produced in the Piscean era, which is now closing. These errors and unfortunate aspects were in a certain sense inevitable and do not justify criticism of any other esoteric group or work. They nevertheless existed and were proving a stumbling block and were shutting off the reception of the newer forms of spiritual expression. A.A.B. saw this dearly and has always persistently worked with this in mind. Among other things this effort is exemplified by her insistence on the achieving of a relationship of cooperation with the work of the Hierarchy as compared to the position of the devotee who operates on the principle of obedience, in a more childlike way. She insisted that a life of selfless service was the most important factor and that physical plane disciplines particularly as to diet and the often fanatical allegiance given to the tidbits of Hatha and Laya Yoga that had found their way into the Western world, and are so prevalent among esotericists, were largely outmoded and were, therefore, generally limiting sidetracks.

She insisted on mental freedom, mental polarization and the acquiring of a trained mind well equipped to deal intelligently and in a common sense manner with world conditions. This she knew must succeed the mystical, and all too often impractical idealism of the earlier stages of spiritual training which was basically more emotional and often leads to separateness and spiritual selfishness. This position is well known to us all and in the case of our own group life, originated in the wisdom of A.A.B. in her efforts to meet this third need.

The above suggests only some of the useful factors in the project as she originally conceived it. One other consideration, which has affected the whole operation, has been the rule that the life work [302] of every senior disciple must not only be useful objectively to the Hierarchy and to the ashram, and be practical in its effect in the world, but must also have in it adequate opportunity for the gaining of that experience, which the individual disciple must have if he is to play his proper part in the planned teamwork of the incarnation next succeeding the present one. The founding and perfecting and carrying forward of the Arcane School was in fact a part of the training of A.A.B. for the job for which she has just now been liberated. This fact carries no implication of any lessening interest in, or support of, the work which she inaugurated in this life and which she is as deeply concerned with now as she ever has been.

There is no doubt that Mrs. Bailey is subjectively and telepathically in rapport, at the present time, with a great many of her friends and students. Those who are sensitive sometimes register impressions. She is not, however, occupying herself with running around to individuals, telling them what they ought to do or what she wants them to do about anything. Both A.A.B. and the Tibetan have definitely stated that after she died He would not continue to function through any other channel as he did with her, and she is not attempting to control the Arcane School or direct its affairs, nor any of the service activities by means of any messages of any sort or kind.

Humanity is passing through the greatest spiritual crisis of its long history on this planet. The implications are too deep for our understanding. The choices that humanity has been making in recent years and still has to make in the short years just ahead, are of more profound significance than our imagination can picture. We have been taught and indeed of necessity it must be true that the Hierarchy of Masters is not all powerful, else there would be little left of human freedom, and we would all be destined to become spiritual robots. What they can do depends on how we respond to spiritual stimuli in the hour of crisis. It is abundantly clear that God's Plan for man is for humanity to achieve its own destiny in the light of its own soul, by the power of its own developing intellectual capacity, and by its deepening awareness and consecration to the fulfiling of its divine destiny.

It is in this light that we can understand how it is that from the position of greater knowledge and wisdom of the Hierarchy certain things are known to be inevitable for the human family and certain other things are subject to our responses to developing events. What we call the second world war was not in fact karmically necessary [303] and military warfare on the physical plane might have been avoided had certain achievements been attained. The working out of the Plan by the Hierarchy during the past twelve years had to include action which became impossible when humanity chose to precipitate the second phase of the great world conflict on to the physical plane in actual military warfare.

This explains many things. It meant that the effective work of many members of the New Group of World Servers was greatly delayed. The possibility of effective work in the field of Goodwill was for a cycle almost completely destroyed. At least until the outer physical plane fighting was stopped, the reaching of the disciples, who were in contact with the Arcane School and of the students scattered throughout the world who might otherwise have joined our ranks, was stopped. The pushing forward of the program of solving the problem of the right relation of money to Hierarchical work ceased altogether. The building of the Network of Light and Goodwill by establishing the Triangle movement was almost completely frustrated. The possibility of carrying the Great Invocation to the entire world, as we are now doing, could not take place.

In the dark days of 1939, when it seemed that so much was crumbling and that the heroic efforts of many disciples to do everything that they could do, that might help to avert war, were useless, it was hard to see how the work could be picked up again and reorganized and refinanced and again be effectively set into motion. At that time out of the kindness of his heart and for my encouragement the Tibetan gave me the assurance that when the holocaust was over I would discover that the foundations, which had been so well and truly laid for all our work, would be not only intact but entirely adequate for the building of the structure thereon which is necessary for the future work. This, at the time, I found hard to believe, for I was too deeply aware of the appalling consequences of the second war, but the statement then made has been proved abundantly true and we today are in a stronger position and are actually more efficiently working and serving than the ordinary finite mind could at that time have possibly reasonably expected.

Today our group is filled with light and love and power. Today this group, the Arcane School, of which we are a part, is functioning as a great station of light in the body of the New Group of World Servers. We are a magnetic focal point in that body bringing potency to it and aiding in making its work successful. This is our achieved [304] position and for us the most significant fact of the present hour. We do not stand alone. Our efforts are justified by our relationship to all working disciples everywhere who, consciously and unconsciously, are a part of that worldwide group of servers brought into existence by the Hierarchy itself as a part of the great adventure of the new Aquarian techniques. The New Group of World Servers is in fact a synthesizing project of combined field operations in the plans of the Hierarchy, involving a new type of world discipleship in group action. Our true place in the scheme of things can only be understood in terms of our participating in this larger group life.

(Talk to the Students at the Annual Conference Banquet of the Arcane School, New York, May 1950.)