Alice Bailey
Encyclopedia
Alice Ann Bailey known as Alice A. Bailey or AAB to her followers, was an influential writer and theosophist
in what she termed "Ageless Wisdom". This included occult
teachings, "esoteric" psychology and healing, astrological
and other philosophic and religious themes. Alice Bailey was born as Alice LaTrobe Bateman, in Manchester
, England at 7:32 am GMT. She moved to the United States in 1907, where she spent most of her life as a writer and teacher.
Her works, written between 1919 and 1949, describe a wide-ranging system of esoteric
thought covering such topics as how spirituality relates to the solar system, meditation, healing, spiritual psychology, the destiny of nations, and prescriptions for society in general. She described the majority of her work as having been telepathically
dictated to her by a "Master of the Wisdom
", initially referred to only as "the Tibetan", or by the initials "D.K.", later identified as Djwal Khul
. Her followers refer to her writings as The Alice A. Bailey material, or sometimes, as the AAB material.
Her writings were influenced by the works of Madame Blavatsky
. Though Bailey's writings differ from the orthodox Theosophy of Madame Blavatsky, they also have much in common with it. She wrote about religious themes, including Christianity
, though her writings are fundamentally different from many aspects of Christianity and of other orthodox religions. Her vision of a unified society includes a global "spirit of religion" different from traditional religious forms and including the concept of the Age of Aquarius
.
Controversy has arisen around some of Bailey's statements on nationalism
, American isolationism, Soviet totalitarianism
, Fascism
, Zionism
, Nazism
, race relations, Africans, Jews, and the religions of Judaism
and Christianity. Yonassan Gershom and others have claimed that her writings contain "racist" material.
According to Robert S. Ellwood, her philosophy and publications are still applied by the groups and organizations she founded, such as the Arcane School,and the Full Moon Meditation Groups that follow her teachings.
, received a thorough Christian education. She described a lonely and "over-sheltered" childhood and was unhappy despite the luxury of her physical circumstances. Of her early life she wrote that she was appalled at the influences of the Victorian era, especially the wide gulf between the comforts of the upper classes and the struggles of the laboring classes, that those problems were caused at least in part by the unfairness of the "theology of the past", and that in turn those issues led to what she called the "present world war", referring to the years between 1914–1945.
In her autobiography she related that as a child she was unhappy and did not find life worth living, and because of this attempted suicide three times: the first at the age of five, the second at age 11, and the third at an unspecified time prior to age 15. She wrote that after her third attempt, she lost interest in the idea, but that she "always understood the impulse."
At age 15, on June 30, 1895, Bailey was visited by a stranger, "...a tall man, dressed in European clothes and wearing a turban" who told her she needed to develop self-control to prepare for certain work planned for her to do. She supposed this individual was Jesus, but later she identified him as Master Koot Hoomi.
work in connection with the YMCA
and the British Army. This took her to India where, in 1907, she met her future husband, Walter Evans. Together they moved to America where Evans became an Episcopalian priest. However, this marriage did not last. She stated that her husband mistreated her and in one of his fits of temper, threw her down the stairs. Bailey pushed for and received a divorce. She left with their three children; after formal separation in 1915. Then followed a difficult period in which she worked as a factory hand to support herself and the children.
Bailey's break was not only with her Christian husband, but with Christianity in general. In her autobiography she wrote that "a rabid, orthodox Christian worker [had] become a well-known occult teacher."
and the work of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Bailey, pp 134–136). Theosophical Society states that Bailey became involved in 1917. Theosophist Joy Mills states that in 1918 she became a member of the Esoteric Section of the society. Theosophist Bruce F. Campbell notes, "She quickly rose to a position of influence in the American Section of the Adyar
society, moving to its headquarters at Krotona in Hollywood. She became editor of its magazine, The Messenger, and member of the committee responsible for Krotona."
Bailey claimed to recognize Koot Hoomi, the master who had visited her in her childhood, from a portrait she saw in the Shrine Room of the Theosophical Society. (Bailey, pp 156). Bailey wrote much about those she called the "Masters of the Wisdom
", which she believed to be a brotherhood of enlightened sages working under the guidance of "the Christ
." In part, she stated her writings were an effort to clarify the nature of these Masters, and their work.
The Theosophist published the first few chapters of her first work, Initiation, Human and Solar, but then stopped for reasons Bailey called "theosophical jealousy and reactionary attitude." Bailey "objected to the 'neo-Theosophy' of Annie Besant" and worked with Foster Bailey to gain more power in the American Section. According to Theosophist Josephine Maria Davies Ransom, she became part of a progressive "Back to Blavatsky movement, led mainly by Mr. and Mrs. Foster Bailey". She outlined her vision for the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society and announced ideals of tolerance and brotherhood. However, her efforts to influence the society failed, and she and her husband were dismissed from their positions.
According to author Olav Hammer, Bailey's early writings of communications with the Tibetan were well received within the society, but society president Annie Besant
questioned Bailey's claims of communications with "the Tibetan" and allowed the Baileys to be expelled from the organization. According to Bailey, she had come to see the society as authoritarian and involved with "lower psychic phenomena.". In her writings, however, she continued to acknowledge the importance of Madame Blavatsky's works, and saw her own task as the continuation and further development of Blavatsky's teachings. (Bailey, pp. 168–177)
In 1923, with the help of Foster Bailey, Alice Bailey also founded the Arcane School (also part of Lucis Trust), which gave (and still gives) a series of correspondence courses based on her heterodox version of Theosophy, which accepted the basic Theosophical views on karma, reincarnation, masters, a divine plan, and humanity's achievement of their original divine status (Bailey, pp. 192–193).
The Lucis Trust website and Alice Bailey's autobiography also state that, together with Foster Bailey, she created the "World Goodwill" organization to promote what she called "Love in Action". The stated purposes of World Goodwill, according to its sponsoring organization, the Lucis Trust, are: "To help mobilise the energy of goodwill; To cooperate in the work of preparation for the reappearance of the Christ; To educate public opinion on the causes of the major world problems and to help create the thoughtform of solution."
About 100 of Alice Bailey's public talks and private talks to her more advanced Arcane School students are available online. Bailey continued to work up to the time of her death in 1949. Foster Bailey took over as head of Lucis Trust until his death in 1977, while his second wife Mary Bailey ran the Arcane School and after his death became president of the Lucis Trust. Mary Bailey authored a book titled A Learning Experience describing her 33 years of work with the Arcane School and accounts of the early years of Alice Bailey's work with "the Tibetan."
Formerly the school was structured in a series of degrees similar to Freemasonry
and its early structure can be compared with the ceremonials of the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship
.
wrote a highly favorable review of one her books, saying, "Once more Alice Bailey has placed occult students in her debt." Olav Hammer writes, "Her first book, Initiation Human and Solar, was at first favorably received by her fellow theosophists. Soon, however, her claims to be recipient of ageless wisdom from the Masters met with opposition." The conflict is understandable since her works contain some criticisms of Theosophy, and at the time of the break she voiced her criticism of what she saw as dogmatic structures within the society, while questioning the pledges of loyalty to Theosophical leaders that were required. "During the annual convention of 1920 in Chicago, there was a power struggle between forces loyal to Besant and the Esoteric Section and others who believed that the ES had become too powerful. Below the surface was a hidden controversy regarding Alice's work with the Tibetan." For a more recent example of Bailey/Theosophy division, see Theosophy in Scandinavia
.
Campbell writes that Bailey's books are a reworking of major Theosophical themes, with some distinctive emphases, and that they present a comprehensive system of esoteric science and occult philosophy, cognizant of contemporary social and political developments. Steven J. Sutcliffe points out that both Bailey and Blavatsky's work evoke a picture of Tibet as the spiritual home of the Masters and that Bailey claimed a more-or-less direct lineage to Blavatsky. He describes Bailey as a 'post-Theosophical' theorist, reporting that Bailey received instruction from "former personal pupils of Blavatsky", and notes that her third book (A Treatise on Cosmic Fire) not only reproduces Blavatsky's apocryphal Stanzas of Dzyan, but is dedicated to Blavatsky, as well.
Jon Klimo, in Investigations on Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources, writes, "As with Blavatsky/Theosophical material, and more recent contemporary channeled material from other sources, we find in the Bailey work the same occult cosmological hierarchy: physical, etheric, astral, mental, causal, and higher inhabited levels of existence." Olav Hammer
, in the book Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age, highlights Bailey's Theosophical similarities as well as noting what he thinks are some differences between them: "To a large extent, Bailey's teachings are a restatement and amplification of theosophy of the Secret Doctrine. Bailey inherited from Blavatsky and Leadbeater a predilection for profuse details and complex classificatory schemes. ... Her books have also introduced shifts in emphasis as well as new doctrinal elements."
In contrast to the above, some Theosophical critics have contended that there are major differences between Bailey's ideas and the Theosophy of Blavatsky, such as Bailey's embrace of some mystical Christian terms and concepts and her acceptance of C.W. Leadbeater.
Nicholas Weeks, writing for the Theosophical magazine Fohat in 1997, felt Bailey's assertion that "... her teachings are grounded in and do not oppose in any fundamental way Theosophy as lived and taught by HPB and her Gurus" was false, claiming her books are in fact "rooted in the pseudo-theosophy
pioneered by C. W. Leadbeater." He claimed Bailey accepted Leadbeater's "fantasy" of the return of Maitreya
, and disparaged Bailey's Great Invocation, a prayer supposed to "induce Christ and his Masters to leave their hidden ashrams [and] enter into major cities" to lead the Aquarian Age
. This contrasts with the Theosophy of Blavatsky, he says, which emphasizes reliance on "the Christos
principle within each person".
The Blavatskian theosophists.
Some critics and often followers of the so-called Blavatskian theosophy on Atma-Vidya refer to the following quotes. The theosophical Master K.H. was given by H. P. Blavatsky to say: "the Salvation Army by hypnotizing people and making them psychically drunk with excitement, is Black Magic". And H. P. Blavatsky stated in contrast with Alice A. Bailey's promotion of a Great Invocation arrival of a Maitreya Saviour in the flesh that: "(a) "the coming of Christ," means the presence of CHRISTOS in a regenerated world, and not at all the actual coming in body of "Christ" Jesus; (b) this Christ is to be sought neither in the wilderness nor "in the inner chambers," nor in the sanctuary of any temple or church built by man; for Christ—the true esoteric SAVIOUR—is no man, but the DIVINE PRINCIPLE in every human being. " This can be compared with Alice A. Bailey.s "The Externalization of the Hierarchy", p. 590.
H. P. Blavatsky also said in a letter to the honourable Abbé Roca: "In carnalizing the central figure of the New Testament, in imposing the dogma of the Word made flesh, the Latin Church sets up a doctrine diametrically opposed to the tenets of Buddhist and Hindu Esotericism and the Greek Gnosis. Therefore, there will always be an abyss between the East and the West, as long as neither of these dogmas yields." And further on she said, that a "true Theosophists will never accept either a Christ made Flesh, according to the Roman dogma, or an anthropomorphic God, still less a “Shepherd” in the person of a Pope". Alice A. Bailey wrote: "We have fought over the historical Christ, and thus fighting, have lost sight of His message of love to all beings. Fanatics quarrel over His words, and fail to remember that He was 'the Word made flesh.'" Alice A. Bailey wrote: "They will prepare and work for conditions in the world in which Christ can move freely among men, in bodily Presence; He need not then remain in His present retreat in Central Asia. "
Another principle of Theosophy, the Law of Attraction was discussed in esoteric writings by Blavatsky, Annie Besant
, William Quan Judge
, and others; and was also discussed in the writings of Alice Bailey, including a whole chapter in one of her books. The term has been embraced, in a simplified form, by the contemporary New Age
movement and was recently popularized in the film The Secret
.
level these seven rays of energy are the creative forces of planet
s and star
s. On a microcosmic level they are the creative forces conditioning the physical, psychic, and spiritual constitution of man. (Jurriaance, p. 73–152)
In Esoteric Psychology I, the first book of A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Bailey writes that the "one Life sought expansion" resulting in seven aeons, or emanations, manifesting in the expression of life, becoming the "seven Rishis of all the ancient scriptures."
She enumerates these seven as:
Although described as "Lords" and "persons", Bailey states that these "great forces" are not to be understood in terms of human personality. She also cautions that any description of such things must be couched in terms of our particular planet, such that humanity can understand it, but that these "pure Being[s] ... have purposes and activities in which our Earth plays only a minor part."
In Bailey's concept the rays and all things manifest in centers of energy and their relationships. All rays and centers are focuses of some type of evolving life or consciousness. (Jurriaance, p. 35–52) This includes everything from atoms to centers or chakras in the human constitution, and upwards through the human aura to groups of humans as centers, and cities and nations as centers. (Jurriaance, p. 79- 90 ) Humanity as a whole is conceived as a center of energy as are the masters of wisdom of which she writes. Likewise, planet Earth as a whole, with all its subsidiary centers of life, is viewed as a center of life within the large life or divinity of our solar system
.
The concept of the seven rays can also be found in Theosophical works. Campbell writes that Bailey, "...was the first to develop the idea of the seven rays, although it can be found in germ in earlier Theosophical writings." The seven rays also appear in Hindu religious philosophy.
.
In Bailey's writings, evolution is defined as the process of bringing the "lower nature" his physical, emotional, and mental selves into integration and alignment with the will of the soul—the "at-one-ment" of the personality. It is this transformation that leads to "right human relations" and spiritual revelation or awakening. Discrete steps on the spiritual path are called initiations, which is to say that the evolving consciousness is entering into new and wider fields of awareness, relationships, responsibilities, and power. In terms of her ray concept, the note of the soul is imposed (or superimposed) on the note of the personality.
. She believed that the stimulating and uplifting influences of religions, philosophies, sciences, educational movements, and human culture in general are the result of this relationship, and though in time humanity debases all these developments, they are all in their original impetus conceived as the result of the Spiritual Hierarchy working in concert with evolving human potentials.
Bailey associated the spiritual hierarchy and its branches with the system of Sirius
, the planet Venus
, and the mythical land of Shambhala
(which she spelled "Shamballa"), the residence of Sanat Kumara
, "Lord of the World". Bailey wrote, "The energy of Sirius by-passes (to use a modern word) Shamballa and is focused in the Hierarchy. [...] The entire work of the Great White Lodge is controlled from Sirius...." Monica Sjoo
, in an essay about the New Age
movement, explained her interpretation that "Bailey taught that the Hierarchy of Masters exists in Shambhala and that Venusians
founded this fabled city some 18 million years ago on the sacred Gobi island, which is now in the Mongolian desert." It may be noted here that, in Bailey's concept, "city" is figurative since she states that Shamballa is not physical in the common usage of that word but is rather located in "higher ethers."
was a cosmic conflict between good
and evil
. The Masters of the Ancient Wisdom
, representing the Forces of Light
, were on the side of the Allies
; the Dark Forces
were on the side of the Axis
. According to Bailey, Adolf Hitler
was possessed
by the Dark Forces. With the defeat of the axis by the allies in 1945, the stage was set for the appearance of the being traditional Theosophists call Maitreya
, but whom Alice A. Bailey refers to simply as Christ
, to inaugurate the New Age
.
In January 1946, Bailey prophesied that since, according to her view, "Jiddu Krishnamurti
had rejected being overshadowed", Christ (the name she used in her writings to refer to Maitreya
) would return himself by manifesting a physical body of his own on the physical plane
"sometime after AD 2025", and that this would be the New Age
equivalent of the Christian concept of the Second Coming of Christ.
She further stated that St. Germain
(referred to as the Master Rakoczi or the Master R. in her books) is the manager of the executive council of Christ. This executive council is a specific group of Masters of the Ancient Wisdom
charged with preparing the way for the Second Coming of Christ and the consequent inauguration of the Age of Aquarius
. According to Bailey, when Christ returns, he will stay the entire approximately 2,158 year period of the Age of Aquarius, and thus the New Age equivalent of the Millennial Age will not be just a single millennium
but will be the Aquarian bimillennium. During this era, said Bailey, Christ (Maitreya) will reign as the spiritual leader of Earth, the Messiah
who will bring World Peace
.
In August 1946, Bailey prophesied that Christ would return in an airplane from "the place on Earth where He has been for many generations" and that after doing so, he would appear on worldwide television
.
The invocation has been used in the Findhorn Foundation
community since the 1970s. In response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Great Invocation was used as a central element of a new daily program at Findhorn known as the "Network of Light meditations for peace". Findhorn's use of the Great Invocation later spun off to various other groups they had influenced, including groups interested in new age UFO philosophies
.
Rosemary Keller described the Great Invocation as a call for "the Christ
to return to Earth" and wrote that Bailey-related groups purchased radio and television time to broadcast the invocation as part of their mission, and that often the invocation was recited in what Keller called "light groups", to accomplish what Bailey's disciples considered to be attracting and focusing "spiritual energies to benefit the planet". Researcher Hannah Newman described what she found to be an antisemitic element in the Great Invocation. According to Newman, "the Plan" named in the invocation refers to the plan authored by "the Hierarchy", that Newman states places "high priority on removing all Jewish presence and influence from human consciousness, a goal to be achieved by eliminating Judaism."
, in the spiritual ashram
of a Master. In this scheme, all awakening souls stand in some relationship—for a long time unconsciously, but eventually in full conscious awareness—to some particular Master. The integrated personality, coming under the influence of the soul, is simultaneously coming under the influence of this Master. This relationship is determined by karma
, by evolutionary status, and (most importantly) by the aspirant's capacity for work to be done on behalf of humanity. This service aspect is strongly emphasized throughout Bailey's writings. In her concept, the greatly increased ("stepped-up") evolution of consciousness that results from this Master–pupil relationship is made possible only in and through service to humanity.
Bailey's writing downplayed the traditional devotional and aspirational aspects of the spiritual life, in favor of serving "the Plan of the Hierarchy" by serving humanity. According to her, this is primary, and everything hinges upon it. For Bailey, discipleship means work—service—and the evolution of those sensitivities and powers that enhance that labor. Disciples will never gain such powers or awareness unless and until they will be used solely for unselfish service. (Bailey, p. 38)
Although she often identified groups of people by their race, nationality, or religion, she said the key matter was not race or religion per se, but the evolution of consciousness that transcends these labels. In her writings about the races, she focused on the humanitarian concept of unity and stated that the source of human problems is the spirit of separation that causes individuals and groups to set themselves apart from the rest of humanity. (Bailey, p. 375)
Ross describes Bailey's teachings as emphasizing the "underlying unity of all forms of life", and the "essential oneness of all religions, of all departments of science, and of all the philosophies." Campbell notes that the New Group of World Servers was established for "... promotion of international understanding, economic sharing, and religious unity."
' as used by her has a quite distinct meaning from the separative and racist use of the word. It refers not only to Caucasian peoples, but to origins in Indo-Persia, and indicates a culture where thought and intellect is dominant. In her book Education in the New Age, Bailey made predictions about the use of occult racial theories in the schools of the future, which she said would be based on the idea of 'root race
s' (originally vast prehistoric spans of time covering thousands of years when a particular human facet was being developed) such as Lemurians (physically adept), Atlanteans (emotionally adept), Aryans (mentally adept), and the New Race with "group qualities and consciousness and idealistic vision.". However, she holds that the forthcoming 'sixth sub-race' (evolving from various facets of current 'fifth race' intellectual culture) cannot reach its peak until the 'sixth race' proper (due many thousands of years hence), and may therefore not be the advance some of her New Age
followers wish for. In her The Destiny of the Nations, Bailey described a process by which this "new race" will evolve, after which "low grade human bodies will disappear, causing a general shift in the racial types toward a higher standard."
Her writings were criticized by Victor Shnirelman, a cultural anthropologist and ethnographer, who in a survey of modern Neopaganism
in Russia, drew particular attention to "… groups [that] take an extremely negative view of multi-culturalism, object to the 'mixture' of kinds, [and] support isolationism and the prohibition of immigration." He noted that a number of Bailey's books, as well as those of her contemporary Julius Evola
, had been recently translated into Russian, and said that "… racist and antisemitic trends are explicit, for example, in the occult teachings of Alice Bailey and her followers, who wish to cleanse Christianity of its 'Jewish inheritance' and reject the 'Jewish Bible' as a prerequisite for entering the Age of Aquarius.".
Monica Sjöö
, a Swedish-born British artist, writer, and supporter of the Goddess movement
, wrote that Bailey, through her published teachings, had a "reactionary and racist influence on the whole New Age
movement." She also noted what she called Bailey's (and Theosophy's) "pro-fascist religious views", such as the belief in a secret elite of "Masters" who control world events and human minds through occult means and attempt to bring about the evolution of an Aryan super race
(although this is an understandably modern misunderstanding of her teaching – 'Aryan' as used by Bailey is easily confused with the modern terminology, and the "Masters" are not an elite, but instead are 'enlightened' individuals originally introduced in Theosophy as having evolved beyond the human or "4th kingdom" into the 5th or "Kingdom of souls", and who – in her view – guide the human race as a whole).
race contains a large number of "child souls", leading lives of "physical activity motivated by the desire for satisfaction of some kind, and by a shallow "wish-life" or desire nature, and almost entirely oriented towards the physical life." She also wrote of the need for the white races to train the Negroes of Africa so that they will be fitted for true self-government.
She described Negro people as "creative, artistic and capable of the highest mental development when taught and trained – as capable as is the white man;" and she emphasized the need for the white races to accord the Negro "the respect and the opportunity which is due him", stating that "The future peace of the world depends today upon enlightened, farseeing statesmanship and an appreciation of the fact that God has made all men free."
She wrote that what she described as "the Negro Problem" is divided into two areas: "the problem of the future of the African Negro and the problem of the future of the Negro in the western hemisphere."
Bailey considered the indigenous people of Africa to be in the "embryonic stage" of evolutionary development, and wrote that, "Behind the many separative religious cults of that dark land, there emerges a fundamental and pure mysticism, ranging all the way from nature worship and a primitive animism to a deep occult knowledge and an esoteric understanding which may some day make Africa the seat of the purest form of occult teaching and living." She said that "Right human relations must be firmly established between the emerging Negro empire and the rest of the world; the new ideals and the new world trends must be fostered in the receptive Negro consciousness and in this way darkest Africa will become a radiant center of light, ready for self-government and expressing true freedom."
Regarding the relations between the Negro race and other races in the Western Hemisphere, Bailey wrote that it "constitutes a very ugly story, seriously implicates the white man and provides an outstanding disgrace", and that "The white people face a grave responsibility and it lies in their hands to change conditions." She was a vocal advocate of humane treatment and equal rights for the Negro
race, acknowledged that they had been subject to much cruelty and exploitation by the white race, but also said that good had come of this for Negroes, and described reason for optimism regarding their future prospects. She advocated improvement in the situation of the Negro in the United States, calling for the people of America to end discrimination, to accept the Negro population as brothers and friends and thereby bring about positive change. She also wrote that in the black peoples attempt to resolve their problem of separation in society, "the spiritual forces of the world are on the side of the Negro."
, characteristics, and behaviors. Specifically, she was of the opinion that Jews embody the characteristics of "materialism, cruelty and a spiritual conservatism" and the "separative, selfish, lower concrete mind."
Bailey described Jews as "the most reactionary and conservative race in the world", explaining this as a result of their need to preserve their cultural identity as a wandering people under persecution. She wrote that, "People complain (and it is frequently true) the Jews lower the atmosphere of any district in which they reside. They hang their bedding and their clothing out of the windows. They live on the streets, sitting in groups on the sidewalks."
She wrote that Jews "take what they want, to see to it that their children get the best of everything available, no matter what the cost to others"; they "blame the non-Jewish nations for their miseries"; and, "The Jew needs to recognize his share in bringing about the dislike which hounds him everywhere."
She stated that even though the Jews are "possessed of great wealth and influence", they create "dissension among the nations" and "almost abusive, demands for the Gentile
to shoulder the entire blame and end the difficulty."
Bailey said that what she called the "Jewish problem" was the result of negative karma
accumulated by the Jews due to "acts and deeds there claimed by him as his racial acts and deeds (conquest, terrorism and cruelty)..." and wrote that the solution to this "problem" will come "...when the races regard the Jewish problem as a humanitarian problem but also when the Jew does his share of understanding, love and right action. This he [the Jew] does not yet do, speaking racially."
Before World War II, she wrote: "The major racial problem has, for many centuries, been the Jewish, which has been brought to a critical point by Germany..."; that the Jews "constitute an international minority of great aggressiveness, exceedingly vocal"; and that while they are an ancient, civilized and cultured people, their problems as a "struggling minority" are the result of "certain inherent characteristics", and the "untidy effect they have on any community".
In 1939, as World War II began, Bailey wrote that "the Jewish problem, is definitely producing cleavage as a part of the divine plan... to bring humanity to certain realizations and decisions."
In 1948, after the war and the Holocaust, she wrote that "there are eighty percent of other people in the concentration camps, only twenty percent Jews", and that Jews have not only repudiated the Messiah
, but they have forgotten their unique relation to humanity.
Bailey also wrote critically about hatred of the Jews and predicted a future in which Jews would "fuse and blend with the rest of mankind." In her autobiography, she stated that she had been on Hitler's "blacklist", and she believed this had been because of her defense of the Jews during her lectures throughout Europe. She criticized the cruelty of "the Gentile" (non-Jewish people) for their treatment of the Jews, stating "great is his responsibility for wrong doing and cruel action."
Bailey further stated that the Jews were themselves responsible for the bad treatment they received, "Changed inner attitudes are needed on both sides, but very largely on the side of the Jews." She was aware of and accepted the controversial nature of her comments in this regard.
that "the best and soundest thinkers in both the white and black races at this time deplore mixed marriages. They mean no happiness for either party." She also advised against intermarriage between Caucasians
and Asians
but said that children of interracial unions would be unavoidable following World War II due to the actions of what she called the "inevitable promiscuity" of the armies during that period. She wrote that "children of mixed race, as well as the half-castes and the Eurasians
may be the answer to a large part of the problem. There will be hundreds of thousands of these children of mixed parentage, forming part of the world population in the next generation and immediate cycle and they are a group with which we will have to reckon."
While she believed that intermarriage would not solve what she called "the Negro problem," she implied this might change and on this issue, "I make no prophecy about the future."
Her comments on the topic of interracial marriage are conflicting: On the one hand she suggested that mixed marriages have unhappy effects, on the other hand she seemed to view them as positive and contributing to the solution of racial tensions. Elsewhere she wrote that marriages are rooted in soul relationships, and that intermarriage in general is not a solution to racial problems, but that the solution lies in appreciation of the good qualites found groups other than one's own. Her contrary statements thus reflect the mixed and emerging views of the time in which she was writing.
after World War II, Bailey said that "The Jews, by their illegal and terrorist activities, have laid a foundation of great difficulty for those who are seeking to promote world peace."
Bailey criticized Zionism
, comparing it with the then-current Stalinist regime in the Russian-dominated Soviet Union, writing, "Zionism today stands for aggression and for the use of force, and the keynote is permission to take what you want irrespective of other people or of their inalienable rights. These points of view are against the position of the spiritual leaders of humanity, and therefore the leaders of the Zionist movement, and the group of men who direct and control the policies of Russia, are against the policies of the spiritual Hierarchy and are contrary to the lasting good of mankind. ... The menace to world freedom today lies in the known policies of the rulers of the U.S.S.R. and in the devious and lying machinations of the Zionists."
Despite her focus on unity of religion, Bromley and Hammond point out that Bailey and other "occultists" "...hammered home the central idea, 'The East is the true home of spiritual knowledge and occult wisdom.'"
Author Steven Sutcliffe wrote that Bailey's "World Goodwill" organization was promoting groups of "world servers" to, as he quotes Bailey, "serve the Plan, Humanity, the Hierarchy and the Christ."
is taught with due threats; the concept of a future life, dependent upon conduct and behavior to others and on right action in the world of men, is almost entirely lacking in The Old Testament and teaching on immortality is nowhere emphasized; salvation is apparently dependent upon the keeping of numerous physical laws and rules related to physical cleanliness; they go so far as to establish retail shops where these rules are kept – in a modern world where scientific methods are applied to purity in food. All these and other factors of less importance set the Jew apart, and these he enforces no matter how obsolete they are or inconvenient to others."
Because of writings like these, the American Chassidic author Rabbi Yonassan Gershom wrote that Bailey's plan for a New World Order
and her call for "the gradual dissolution—again if in any way possible—of the Orthodox Jewish faith" revealed that "her goal is nothing less than the destruction of Judaism
itself." Gershom also wrote that "This stereotyped portrayal of Jews is followed by a hackneyed diatribe against the Biblical Hebrews, based upon the "angry Jehovah" theology of nineteenth-century Protestantism. Jews do not, and never have, worshipped an angry vengeful god, and we Jews never, ever call God "Jehovah."
She stated that no one particular group can claim Him—that the New Age Christ belongs to whole world, and not to Christians alone, or to any nation or group. (Bailey, p 109) Bailey was highly critical of mainstream Christianity; she wrote that much of the Church's teaching about Christ's return is directly opposed to His own intentions and that "The history of the Christian nations and of the Christian church has been one of an aggressive militancy" (Bailey, p 110)
" in her books and some writers have described her as the founder of the New Age movement. However The New Age
was used as the title of a Journal of Christian liberalism and Socialism, published as early as 1894, predating Bailey's use of the term.
James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton, in Perspectives on the New Age wrote, "The most important—though certainly not the only—source of this transformative metaphor, as well as the term "New Age", was Theosophy, particularly as the Theosophical perspective was mediated to the movement by the works of Alice Bailey."
Sir John Sinclair, in his book The Alice Bailey Inheritance, commented on the seminal influence of Alice Bailey, which, he said, underlies the consciousness growth movement in the 20th century.
.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the neopagan author and ceremonial magic
ritualist Caroll Poke Runyon published a magazine called The Seventh Ray, its name taken from the writings of Alice Bailey. In the 1990s, two volumes of collected articles from the magazine were published as The Seventh Ray Book I, The Blue Ray and The Seventh Ray Book II, the Red Ray.
wrote that Bailey was a liberated woman "… sixty years before it became popular"; that Bailey's books expressed a similar "millennial view" to the works of Annie Besant; and that they were "an important source of the contemporary New Age movement."
According to the Encyclopedia of Women And Religion in North America, several leaders of New Age philosophy have further developed Bailey's teachings, including the well-known personalities JZ Knight
(who channels the entity known by the name Ramtha), Helen Schucman
(author of A Course in Miracles
through the process of telepathic dictation she called "scribing"),and Elizabeth Clare Prophet
(who published what she referred to as "dictations from Ascended Masters").
The "Tibetan" teacher, Djwal Khul, whom Bailey claimed was the co-author of many of her books, has also been claimed as co-author by two new female channelers, Violet Starre and Moriah Marston. Starre claims to have channeled Bailey's old teacher twice: the title of her first book, Diamond Light, Cosmic Psychology of Being, 4th Dimension, 7 Rays & More, owes an obvious debt to Bailey's writings, and is sometimes listed in book catalogues under the full title "Diamond Light, Cosmic Psychology of Being, 4th Dimension, 7 Rays & More (Teachings Similar to Those Given to Alice A. Bailey) by Djwhal (channeled Through Violet Starre) Khul.". The same influence can also be seen in Starre's The Amethyst Light: Djwhal Khul Through Violet Starre, published in 2004. Marston's Soul Searching with Djwahl Khul, the Tibetan, was published in 2006, and according to her publisher, Airleaf Books, "She has been a conscious channel for Ascended Master Djwhal Khul since 1986."
group.) Roberto Assagioli
, founder of Psychosynthesis
, was a lecturer at School of Spiritual Research. He continued a close association with Bailey during the 1930s; some of his writings were published in Bailey's magazine The Beacon; and he was a trustee of Bailey's organization, the Lucis Trust. He had developed his approach to psychology, called Psychosynthesis, beginning in 1910; his methods were later influenced by some elements of Bailey's work. However, authors John Firman and Ann Gila write that Assagioli kept what he referred to as a "wall of silence" between the areas of psychosynthesis and religion or metaphysics, insisting that they not be confused with each other.
Roger J. Woolger said, in a paper presented to the "Beyond the Brain" Conference held at Cambridge University in 1999, "In Tansley as in Brennan
you will find descriptions of a hierarchy of subtle bodies called the etheric, emotional, mental and spiritual that surround the physical body. (Interestingly Tansley attributed the source of his model to Alice Bailey's theosophical commentary on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
, the locus classicus of Hindu teaching.)"
Bailey's influence can be found in therapeutic communities with which she was never directly involved, such as the Human Potential Movement
.
s". He explained that "...Theosophy has several prominent branches, and, strictly speaking, the branch which has had the most important influence on the UFO religion is that developed by Alice Bailey.". Partridge also quoted Gordon Melton, who suggested that the first UFO religion was Guy Ballard
's "I Am" Activity, which Bailey described as a "cheap comedy."
Professor Robert S. Ellwood of the University of Southern California investigated a wide range of religious and spiritual groups in the United States during the 1970s, including a nationwide group of UFO believers called Understanding, Inc., which had been founded by a contactee named Daniel Fry
. He reported that, "There is no particular religious practice connected with the meeting, although interestingly the New Age Prayer derived from the Alice Bailey writings is used as an invocation."
George D. Chryssides
of the University of Wolverhampton
, cited Bailey's influence on the ideas of the Order of the Solar Temple
and related UFO organisations.
Benjamin Creme
, formerly a member of the UFO religion the Aetherius Society
, became a follower of Alice A. Bailey and then proclaimed in 1975 that he had been contacted by Maitreya
to prepare for the return of Maitreya to Earth that had been prophesied by Alice A. Bailey in 1946. Alice A. Bailey prophesied in January 1946 that (since Jiddu Krishnamurti
had repudiated the "World Teacher Project") Christ
(in her books she refers to Maitreya as The Christ or The World Teacher, not as Maitreya) would return himself by manifesting a physical body of his own on the physical plane
"sometime after AD 2025" and that this would be the New Age equivalent of the Christian concept of the Second Coming of Christ (See Maitreya (Benjamin Creme)
).
of Alice Bailey seeks to explain the soul and its desire for spiritual evolution
. Esoteric astrology is grounded in Bailey's (Djwhal's) Ageless Wisdom teachings. According to one writer, "The Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, has provided a significant foundation for a more Soul-oriented approach to astrology and to the Life it seeks to symbolize and interpret."
The esoteric astrologers who follow the teachings of Bailey typically base their work on her five-volume Treatise on the Seven Rays, particularly volume three which focuses on astrology.
In esoteric astrology the seven rays
are applied to the astrological signs and planets, with a corresponding "soul urge", in the following manner (taken from Oken).
The planetary and house rulers differ in esoteric astrology as compared to exoteric astrology. The esoteric planetary and house rulers are to be used when a person is analyzing the soul's purpose or journey through life. According to Djwhal Khul (Alice Bailey), here are the rulers.
Alice Bailey wrote in Esoteric Astrology, "The human being in his eventual recognized group relationships is of more importance than appears in his individual life, which the orthodox horoscope seeks to elucidate. It only determines his little destiny and unimportant fate. Esoteric astrology indicates his group usefulness and the scope of his potential consciousness."
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
in what she termed "Ageless Wisdom". This included occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
teachings, "esoteric" psychology and healing, astrological
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
and other philosophic and religious themes. Alice Bailey was born as Alice LaTrobe Bateman, in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England at 7:32 am GMT. She moved to the United States in 1907, where she spent most of her life as a writer and teacher.
Her works, written between 1919 and 1949, describe a wide-ranging system of esoteric
Esotericism
Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...
thought covering such topics as how spirituality relates to the solar system, meditation, healing, spiritual psychology, the destiny of nations, and prescriptions for society in general. She described the majority of her work as having been telepathically
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
dictated to her by a "Master of the Wisdom
Masters of the Ancient Wisdom
The Masters of the Ancient Wisdom are reputed to be enlightened beings originally identified by the Theosophists Helena Blavatsky, Henry S. Olcott, Alfred P. Sinnett, and others. These Theosophists claimed to have met some of the so-called Masters during their lifetimes in different parts of the...
", initially referred to only as "the Tibetan", or by the initials "D.K.", later identified as Djwal Khul
Djwal Khul
Djwal Khul , is believed by some Theosophists and others to be a Tibetan disciple in the tradition of ancient esoteric spirituality known as The Ageless Wisdom tradition...
. Her followers refer to her writings as The Alice A. Bailey material, or sometimes, as the AAB material.
Her writings were influenced by the works of Madame Blavatsky
Madame Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky , was a theosophist, writer and traveler. Between 1848 and 1875 Blavatsky had gone around the world three times. In 1875, Blavatsky together with Colonel H. S. Olcott established the Theosophical Society...
. Though Bailey's writings differ from the orthodox Theosophy of Madame Blavatsky, they also have much in common with it. She wrote about religious themes, including Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, though her writings are fundamentally different from many aspects of Christianity and of other orthodox religions. Her vision of a unified society includes a global "spirit of religion" different from traditional religious forms and including the concept of the Age of Aquarius
Astrological age
An astrological age is a time period which astrology postulates parallels major changes in the development of Earth's inhabitants, particularly relating to culture, society and politics. There are twelve astrological ages corresponding to the twelve zodiacal signs in western astrology. At the...
.
Controversy has arisen around some of Bailey's statements on nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, American isolationism, Soviet totalitarianism
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, race relations, Africans, Jews, and the religions of Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and Christianity. Yonassan Gershom and others have claimed that her writings contain "racist" material.
According to Robert S. Ellwood, her philosophy and publications are still applied by the groups and organizations she founded, such as the Arcane School,and the Full Moon Meditation Groups that follow her teachings.
Childhood
Alice Bailey was born to a wealthy aristocratic British family, and as a member of the Anglican ChurchChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, received a thorough Christian education. She described a lonely and "over-sheltered" childhood and was unhappy despite the luxury of her physical circumstances. Of her early life she wrote that she was appalled at the influences of the Victorian era, especially the wide gulf between the comforts of the upper classes and the struggles of the laboring classes, that those problems were caused at least in part by the unfairness of the "theology of the past", and that in turn those issues led to what she called the "present world war", referring to the years between 1914–1945.
In her autobiography she related that as a child she was unhappy and did not find life worth living, and because of this attempted suicide three times: the first at the age of five, the second at age 11, and the third at an unspecified time prior to age 15. She wrote that after her third attempt, she lost interest in the idea, but that she "always understood the impulse."
At age 15, on June 30, 1895, Bailey was visited by a stranger, "...a tall man, dressed in European clothes and wearing a turban" who told her she needed to develop self-control to prepare for certain work planned for her to do. She supposed this individual was Jesus, but later she identified him as Master Koot Hoomi.
India, evangelical work, and first marriage
At age 22 Bailey did evangelicalEvangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
work in connection with the YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
and the British Army. This took her to India where, in 1907, she met her future husband, Walter Evans. Together they moved to America where Evans became an Episcopalian priest. However, this marriage did not last. She stated that her husband mistreated her and in one of his fits of temper, threw her down the stairs. Bailey pushed for and received a divorce. She left with their three children; after formal separation in 1915. Then followed a difficult period in which she worked as a factory hand to support herself and the children.
Bailey's break was not only with her Christian husband, but with Christianity in general. In her autobiography she wrote that "a rabid, orthodox Christian worker [had] become a well-known occult teacher."
With the Theosophical Society
In 1915 Bailey discovered the Theosophical SocietyTheosophical Society
The Theosophical Society is an organization formed in 1875 to advance the spiritual principles and search for Truth known as Theosophy. The original organization, after splits and realignments has several successors...
and the work of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Bailey, pp 134–136). Theosophical Society states that Bailey became involved in 1917. Theosophist Joy Mills states that in 1918 she became a member of the Esoteric Section of the society. Theosophist Bruce F. Campbell notes, "She quickly rose to a position of influence in the American Section of the Adyar
Theosophical Society Adyar
The Theosophy Society - Adyar is the name of a section of the Theosophical Society founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and others in 1875. Its headquarters moved with Blavatsky and president Henry Steel Olcott to Adyar, an area of Chennai in 1883...
society, moving to its headquarters at Krotona in Hollywood. She became editor of its magazine, The Messenger, and member of the committee responsible for Krotona."
Bailey claimed to recognize Koot Hoomi, the master who had visited her in her childhood, from a portrait she saw in the Shrine Room of the Theosophical Society. (Bailey, pp 156). Bailey wrote much about those she called the "Masters of the Wisdom
Masters of the Ancient Wisdom
The Masters of the Ancient Wisdom are reputed to be enlightened beings originally identified by the Theosophists Helena Blavatsky, Henry S. Olcott, Alfred P. Sinnett, and others. These Theosophists claimed to have met some of the so-called Masters during their lifetimes in different parts of the...
", which she believed to be a brotherhood of enlightened sages working under the guidance of "the Christ
Maitreya (Theosophy)
Maitreya or Lord Maitreya is described in Theosophical literature of the late 19th-century and subsequent periods as an advanced spiritual entity and high-ranking member of a hidden Spiritual Hierarchy, the so-called Masters of the Ancient Wisdom...
." In part, she stated her writings were an effort to clarify the nature of these Masters, and their work.
"The Tibetan", split from Theosophy, and second marriage
Bailey wrote that, in 1919, she was contacted by a Master known as The Tibetan (later associated with the initials D.K., and eventually the name Djwhal Khul). Bailey stated that after initial resistance, she was eventually persuaded to write down the communications from this source. She wrote for 30 years, from 1919 to 1949. The result was 24 published books on ancient wisdom, philosophy, religion, contemporary events, science, psychology, nations, astrology, and healing. Also in 1919, 32nd degree Freemason Foster Bailey (1888–1977), who was to be her second husband, became National Secretary of the Theosophical Society. (Bailey, p. 157) They married in 1921.The Theosophist published the first few chapters of her first work, Initiation, Human and Solar, but then stopped for reasons Bailey called "theosophical jealousy and reactionary attitude." Bailey "objected to the 'neo-Theosophy' of Annie Besant" and worked with Foster Bailey to gain more power in the American Section. According to Theosophist Josephine Maria Davies Ransom, she became part of a progressive "Back to Blavatsky movement, led mainly by Mr. and Mrs. Foster Bailey". She outlined her vision for the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society and announced ideals of tolerance and brotherhood. However, her efforts to influence the society failed, and she and her husband were dismissed from their positions.
According to author Olav Hammer, Bailey's early writings of communications with the Tibetan were well received within the society, but society president Annie Besant
Annie Besant
Annie Besant was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society ...
questioned Bailey's claims of communications with "the Tibetan" and allowed the Baileys to be expelled from the organization. According to Bailey, she had come to see the society as authoritarian and involved with "lower psychic phenomena.". In her writings, however, she continued to acknowledge the importance of Madame Blavatsky's works, and saw her own task as the continuation and further development of Blavatsky's teachings. (Bailey, pp. 168–177)
The Arcane School and the Lucis Trust
According to the Lucis Trust website, the Baileys founded a quarterly magazine of esoteric philosophy entitled The Beacon in 1922.In 1923, with the help of Foster Bailey, Alice Bailey also founded the Arcane School (also part of Lucis Trust), which gave (and still gives) a series of correspondence courses based on her heterodox version of Theosophy, which accepted the basic Theosophical views on karma, reincarnation, masters, a divine plan, and humanity's achievement of their original divine status (Bailey, pp. 192–193).
The Lucis Trust website and Alice Bailey's autobiography also state that, together with Foster Bailey, she created the "World Goodwill" organization to promote what she called "Love in Action". The stated purposes of World Goodwill, according to its sponsoring organization, the Lucis Trust, are: "To help mobilise the energy of goodwill; To cooperate in the work of preparation for the reappearance of the Christ; To educate public opinion on the causes of the major world problems and to help create the thoughtform of solution."
About 100 of Alice Bailey's public talks and private talks to her more advanced Arcane School students are available online. Bailey continued to work up to the time of her death in 1949. Foster Bailey took over as head of Lucis Trust until his death in 1977, while his second wife Mary Bailey ran the Arcane School and after his death became president of the Lucis Trust. Mary Bailey authored a book titled A Learning Experience describing her 33 years of work with the Arcane School and accounts of the early years of Alice Bailey's work with "the Tibetan."
Formerly the school was structured in a series of degrees similar to Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
and its early structure can be compared with the ceremonials of the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship
Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship
The Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship was a Rosicrucian group founded by George Alexander Sullivan in about 1924. It may have existed under the name Order of Twelve from 1911–1914 and again from 1920. The ROCF operated first from the Liverpool area of England and then after the mid-1930s from...
.
Comparison with Theosophy
Theosophists are divided on their assessment of Alice Bailey's writings. For instance, the noted contemporary Theosophical writer Geoffrey HodsonGeoffrey Hodson
Geoffrey Hodson was an occultist, Theosophist, mystic, Liberal Catholic priest, philosopher and esotericist, and a leading light for over 70 years in the Theosophical Society...
wrote a highly favorable review of one her books, saying, "Once more Alice Bailey has placed occult students in her debt." Olav Hammer writes, "Her first book, Initiation Human and Solar, was at first favorably received by her fellow theosophists. Soon, however, her claims to be recipient of ageless wisdom from the Masters met with opposition." The conflict is understandable since her works contain some criticisms of Theosophy, and at the time of the break she voiced her criticism of what she saw as dogmatic structures within the society, while questioning the pledges of loyalty to Theosophical leaders that were required. "During the annual convention of 1920 in Chicago, there was a power struggle between forces loyal to Besant and the Esoteric Section and others who believed that the ES had become too powerful. Below the surface was a hidden controversy regarding Alice's work with the Tibetan." For a more recent example of Bailey/Theosophy division, see Theosophy in Scandinavia
Theosophy in Scandinavia
Theosophy in Scandinavia is represented by many independent lodges.The independent Theosophy in Scandinavia began in 1989 when the Danish section of the TS Adyar became independent from the TS Adyar. The members then founded an independent Theosophical Union...
.
Campbell writes that Bailey's books are a reworking of major Theosophical themes, with some distinctive emphases, and that they present a comprehensive system of esoteric science and occult philosophy, cognizant of contemporary social and political developments. Steven J. Sutcliffe points out that both Bailey and Blavatsky's work evoke a picture of Tibet as the spiritual home of the Masters and that Bailey claimed a more-or-less direct lineage to Blavatsky. He describes Bailey as a 'post-Theosophical' theorist, reporting that Bailey received instruction from "former personal pupils of Blavatsky", and notes that her third book (A Treatise on Cosmic Fire) not only reproduces Blavatsky's apocryphal Stanzas of Dzyan, but is dedicated to Blavatsky, as well.
Jon Klimo, in Investigations on Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources, writes, "As with Blavatsky/Theosophical material, and more recent contemporary channeled material from other sources, we find in the Bailey work the same occult cosmological hierarchy: physical, etheric, astral, mental, causal, and higher inhabited levels of existence." Olav Hammer
Olav Hammer
Olav Hammer, , is a Swedish professor at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense working in the field of history of religion. He has written four books in Swedish and one monograph Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age in English...
, in the book Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age, highlights Bailey's Theosophical similarities as well as noting what he thinks are some differences between them: "To a large extent, Bailey's teachings are a restatement and amplification of theosophy of the Secret Doctrine. Bailey inherited from Blavatsky and Leadbeater a predilection for profuse details and complex classificatory schemes. ... Her books have also introduced shifts in emphasis as well as new doctrinal elements."
In contrast to the above, some Theosophical critics have contended that there are major differences between Bailey's ideas and the Theosophy of Blavatsky, such as Bailey's embrace of some mystical Christian terms and concepts and her acceptance of C.W. Leadbeater.
Nicholas Weeks, writing for the Theosophical magazine Fohat in 1997, felt Bailey's assertion that "... her teachings are grounded in and do not oppose in any fundamental way Theosophy as lived and taught by HPB and her Gurus" was false, claiming her books are in fact "rooted in the pseudo-theosophy
Neo-Theosophy
The term Neo-Theosophy is a term, originally derogatory, used by the followers of Blavatsky to denominate the system of Theosophical ideas expounded by Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater following the death of Madame Blavatsky in 1891...
pioneered by C. W. Leadbeater." He claimed Bailey accepted Leadbeater's "fantasy" of the return of Maitreya
Maitreya (Theosophy)
Maitreya or Lord Maitreya is described in Theosophical literature of the late 19th-century and subsequent periods as an advanced spiritual entity and high-ranking member of a hidden Spiritual Hierarchy, the so-called Masters of the Ancient Wisdom...
, and disparaged Bailey's Great Invocation, a prayer supposed to "induce Christ and his Masters to leave their hidden ashrams [and] enter into major cities" to lead the Aquarian Age
Aquarian Age
Aquarian Age may refer to:* Age of Aquarius - astrological belief that the sign Aquarius has sovereignty over civilization during its part of the Great Year* Aquarian Age TCG collectible card game...
. This contrasts with the Theosophy of Blavatsky, he says, which emphasizes reliance on "the Christos
Christos
Christos may refer to:* Christ, theological role* Christos * Christos , a Greek owned, Liberian flagged cargo ship in service 1962-71- See also :* Christ * Christo * Christus...
principle within each person".
The Blavatskian theosophists.
Some critics and often followers of the so-called Blavatskian theosophy on Atma-Vidya refer to the following quotes. The theosophical Master K.H. was given by H. P. Blavatsky to say: "the Salvation Army by hypnotizing people and making them psychically drunk with excitement, is Black Magic". And H. P. Blavatsky stated in contrast with Alice A. Bailey's promotion of a Great Invocation arrival of a Maitreya Saviour in the flesh that: "(a) "the coming of Christ," means the presence of CHRISTOS in a regenerated world, and not at all the actual coming in body of "Christ" Jesus; (b) this Christ is to be sought neither in the wilderness nor "in the inner chambers," nor in the sanctuary of any temple or church built by man; for Christ—the true esoteric SAVIOUR—is no man, but the DIVINE PRINCIPLE in every human being. " This can be compared with Alice A. Bailey.s "The Externalization of the Hierarchy", p. 590.
H. P. Blavatsky also said in a letter to the honourable Abbé Roca: "In carnalizing the central figure of the New Testament, in imposing the dogma of the Word made flesh, the Latin Church sets up a doctrine diametrically opposed to the tenets of Buddhist and Hindu Esotericism and the Greek Gnosis. Therefore, there will always be an abyss between the East and the West, as long as neither of these dogmas yields." And further on she said, that a "true Theosophists will never accept either a Christ made Flesh, according to the Roman dogma, or an anthropomorphic God, still less a “Shepherd” in the person of a Pope". Alice A. Bailey wrote: "We have fought over the historical Christ, and thus fighting, have lost sight of His message of love to all beings. Fanatics quarrel over His words, and fail to remember that He was 'the Word made flesh.'" Alice A. Bailey wrote: "They will prepare and work for conditions in the world in which Christ can move freely among men, in bodily Presence; He need not then remain in His present retreat in Central Asia. "
Another principle of Theosophy, the Law of Attraction was discussed in esoteric writings by Blavatsky, Annie Besant
Annie Besant
Annie Besant was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society ...
, William Quan Judge
William Quan Judge
William Quan Judge was a mystic, esotericist, and occultist, and one of the founders of the original Theosophical Society. He was born in Dublin, Ireland. When he was 13 years old, his family emigrated to the United States...
, and others; and was also discussed in the writings of Alice Bailey, including a whole chapter in one of her books. The term has been embraced, in a simplified form, by the contemporary New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
movement and was recently popularized in the film The Secret
The Secret
A secret is information kept hidden. Secret or The Secret may also refer to:-Music:* Secret , a South Korean girl group* Il segreto di Susanna; or Suzanna's Secret, one-act opera by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari...
.
The Seven Rays of energy
Underlying her writings is the idea that all is energy and that spirit, matter, and the psychic forces intermediate between them are forms of energy. This energy is life itself. From one essential energy, divinity, proceed seven rays that underlie and shape the evolution of human life and the entire phenomenal world. On a cosmicCosmos
In the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...
level these seven rays of energy are the creative forces of planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
s and star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
s. On a microcosmic level they are the creative forces conditioning the physical, psychic, and spiritual constitution of man. (Jurriaance, p. 73–152)
In Esoteric Psychology I, the first book of A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Bailey writes that the "one Life sought expansion" resulting in seven aeons, or emanations, manifesting in the expression of life, becoming the "seven Rishis of all the ancient scriptures."
She enumerates these seven as:
- The Lord of Power or WillMoryaMorya, one of the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom" spoken of in modern Theosophy and in the Ascended Master Teachings is considered one of the "Ascended Masters." He is also known as the "Chohan of the First Ray" . Morya first became known to the modern world when H. P...
- The Lord of Love-WisdomKuthumiThe Master Kuthumi, sometimes spelled Koot Hoomi, Kut Humi, rarely Kut-Hu-Mi, Master K.H., or simply K.H. in Theosophy, is regarded as one of the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom." According to Theosophy, Kuthumi is considered to be one of the members of the Spiritual Hierarchy called the Masters of...
- The Lord of Active IntelligencePaul the VenetianPaul the Venetian is one of the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom" in the teachings of Theosophy and is regarded as one of the ascended masters in the Ascended Master Teachings . He is regarded as the Master of the Third Ray...
- The Lord of Harmony, Beauty and ArtSerapis BeySerapis Bey , sometimes written as Serapis, is regarded in Theosophy as being one of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom; and in the Ascended Master Teachings is considered to be an Ascended Master and member of the Great White Brotherhood. He is regarded as the Chohan of the Fourth Ray . C.W...
- The Lord of Concrete Knowledge and ScienceMaster HilarionThe Master Hilarion, in the teachings of Theosophy is one of the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom" and in the Ascended Master Teachings is one of the Ascended Masters . He is considered to be the Chohan of the Fifth Ray...
- The Lord of Devotion and IdealismMaster JesusThe Master Jesus in Theosophy and the Ascended Master Teachings, refers to the theosophical concept of Jesus as opposed to the Jesus Christ of the Christian religion.-Position in the Hierarchy of Masters of the Ancient Wisdom:...
- The Lord of Ceremonial Order or MagicSt. Germain (Theosophy)Also see Count of St. Germain for more information.The Count of St. Germain has been variously described in secular histories as a courtier, adventurer, charlatan, inventor, alchemist, pianist, violinist and amateur composer. Under the name "St...
Although described as "Lords" and "persons", Bailey states that these "great forces" are not to be understood in terms of human personality. She also cautions that any description of such things must be couched in terms of our particular planet, such that humanity can understand it, but that these "pure Being[s] ... have purposes and activities in which our Earth plays only a minor part."
In Bailey's concept the rays and all things manifest in centers of energy and their relationships. All rays and centers are focuses of some type of evolving life or consciousness. (Jurriaance, p. 35–52) This includes everything from atoms to centers or chakras in the human constitution, and upwards through the human aura to groups of humans as centers, and cities and nations as centers. (Jurriaance, p. 79- 90 ) Humanity as a whole is conceived as a center of energy as are the masters of wisdom of which she writes. Likewise, planet Earth as a whole, with all its subsidiary centers of life, is viewed as a center of life within the large life or divinity of our solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
.
The concept of the seven rays can also be found in Theosophical works. Campbell writes that Bailey, "...was the first to develop the idea of the seven rays, although it can be found in germ in earlier Theosophical writings." The seven rays also appear in Hindu religious philosophy.
The constitution of man
In line with previous Theosophical teachings, Bailey taught that man consists of a soul of abstract mental material, working through a personality—a technical term used to describe the physical, emotional, and less-abstract mental bodies considered holistically. She uses traditional terms for these lower three "vehicles" or "sheaths": physical body, astral body and mental body. There is also the etheric body which directly corresponds to the physical but is the vital energizing agent for the whole of a man in all his forms of expression. These auric aspects of the human being are defined as partial emanations or expressions of the soul, which is itself synonymous with the evolving human consciousness. The mind is not conceived to be simply an ephemeral brain effect, but as the motivating energy responsible for the inner constitution of individuals, and which also manifest as the auraAura (paranormal)
In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object . The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes, however, it is said that all living things and all objects...
.
In Bailey's writings, evolution is defined as the process of bringing the "lower nature" his physical, emotional, and mental selves into integration and alignment with the will of the soul—the "at-one-ment" of the personality. It is this transformation that leads to "right human relations" and spiritual revelation or awakening. Discrete steps on the spiritual path are called initiations, which is to say that the evolving consciousness is entering into new and wider fields of awareness, relationships, responsibilities, and power. In terms of her ray concept, the note of the soul is imposed (or superimposed) on the note of the personality.
The Spiritual Hierarchy, Shamballa, Venus, and Sirius
Bailey wrote that behind all human evolution stands a brotherhood of enlightened souls who have guided and aided humanity throughout history. For Bailey, the evolution of humanity was intimately bound up with its relationship to this Spiritual HierarchySpiritual Hierarchy
Spiritual Hierarchy is a term often used in Neo-Theosophy, and the Ascended Master Teachings, a group of religions based on Theosophy. It represents the concept of a group of self-realised Masters of the Ancient Wisdom, referred to by those adherent to the Ascended Master Teachings as Ascended...
. She believed that the stimulating and uplifting influences of religions, philosophies, sciences, educational movements, and human culture in general are the result of this relationship, and though in time humanity debases all these developments, they are all in their original impetus conceived as the result of the Spiritual Hierarchy working in concert with evolving human potentials.
Bailey associated the spiritual hierarchy and its branches with the system of Sirius
Sirius
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek: Seirios . The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris...
, the planet Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
, and the mythical land of Shambhala
Shambhala
In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala or Shangri-la is a mythical kingdom hidden somewhere in Inner Asia...
(which she spelled "Shamballa"), the residence of Sanat Kumara
Sanat Kumara
According to the post-1900 publications of Theosophy, i.e. the writings of C. W. Leadbeater, Alice A. Bailey, and Benjamin Creme, as well as the Ascended Master Teachings of Guy Ballard, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Geraldine Innocente, Joshua David Stone, and other Ascended Master Teachings teachers,...
, "Lord of the World". Bailey wrote, "The energy of Sirius by-passes (to use a modern word) Shamballa and is focused in the Hierarchy. [...] The entire work of the Great White Lodge is controlled from Sirius...." Monica Sjoo
Monica Sjöö
Monica Sjöö, , was a Swedish painter, writer and a radical anarcho/eco-feminist who was influential in the Goddess movement. She first came to Britain in the late 1950th and eventually settled in Bristol where she lived for many years, before she died of cancer...
, in an essay about the New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
movement, explained her interpretation that "Bailey taught that the Hierarchy of Masters exists in Shambhala and that Venusians
Venusians
In science fiction and ufology, a Venusian is a native inhabitant of the planet Venus.-Etymology:The word "Venusian" is simply a combination of the name of the planet Venus and the suffix -ian, formed on the analogy of "Martian" . It is usually pronounced or...
founded this fabled city some 18 million years ago on the sacred Gobi island, which is now in the Mongolian desert." It may be noted here that, in Bailey's concept, "city" is figurative since she states that Shamballa is not physical in the common usage of that word but is rather located in "higher ethers."
Teachings regarding Maitreya
In the Alice A. Bailey material, she asserts that World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was a cosmic conflict between good
Good
Good may refer to:* Good and evil - The distinction between positive and negative entities* Good - Objects produced for market* Form of the Good - Plato's macrocosmic view of goodness in living* Good...
and evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
. The Masters of the Ancient Wisdom
Masters of the Ancient Wisdom
The Masters of the Ancient Wisdom are reputed to be enlightened beings originally identified by the Theosophists Helena Blavatsky, Henry S. Olcott, Alfred P. Sinnett, and others. These Theosophists claimed to have met some of the so-called Masters during their lifetimes in different parts of the...
, representing the Forces of Light
White Magic
White Magic may refer to:* White magic, healing or "good," as opposed to Black magic; see also magic * White Magic , an American rock band* White Magic , album by Swedish musician ceo...
, were on the side of the Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
; the Dark Forces
Black magic
Black magic is the type of magic that draws on assumed malevolent powers or is used with the intention to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences. As a term, "black magic" is normally used by those that do not approve of its...
were on the side of the Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
. According to Bailey, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
was possessed
Demonic possession
Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...
by the Dark Forces. With the defeat of the axis by the allies in 1945, the stage was set for the appearance of the being traditional Theosophists call Maitreya
Maitreya (Theosophy)
Maitreya or Lord Maitreya is described in Theosophical literature of the late 19th-century and subsequent periods as an advanced spiritual entity and high-ranking member of a hidden Spiritual Hierarchy, the so-called Masters of the Ancient Wisdom...
, but whom Alice A. Bailey refers to simply as Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
, to inaugurate the New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
.
In January 1946, Bailey prophesied that since, according to her view, "Jiddu Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti or , was a renowned writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society...
had rejected being overshadowed", Christ (the name she used in her writings to refer to Maitreya
Maitreya (Theosophy)
Maitreya or Lord Maitreya is described in Theosophical literature of the late 19th-century and subsequent periods as an advanced spiritual entity and high-ranking member of a hidden Spiritual Hierarchy, the so-called Masters of the Ancient Wisdom...
) would return himself by manifesting a physical body of his own on the physical plane
Physical plane
The physical plane , physical world, or physical universe, in emanationist metaphysics such as are found in Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, Hinduism and Theosophy, refers to the visible reality of space and time, energy and matter: the physical universe in Occultism and esoteric cosmology is the lowest...
"sometime after AD 2025", and that this would be the New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
equivalent of the Christian concept of the Second Coming of Christ.
She further stated that St. Germain
St. Germain (Theosophy)
Also see Count of St. Germain for more information.The Count of St. Germain has been variously described in secular histories as a courtier, adventurer, charlatan, inventor, alchemist, pianist, violinist and amateur composer. Under the name "St...
(referred to as the Master Rakoczi or the Master R. in her books) is the manager of the executive council of Christ. This executive council is a specific group of Masters of the Ancient Wisdom
Ascended master
Ascended Masters, in the Ascended Master Teachings is derived from the Theosophical concept of Masters of the Ancient Wisdom or "Mahatmas", though they differ in important aspects...
charged with preparing the way for the Second Coming of Christ and the consequent inauguration of the Age of Aquarius
Age of Aquarius
The Age of Aquarius is either the current or new age in the cycle of astrological ages. Each astrological age is approximately 2,150 years long, on average, but there are various methods of calculating this length that may yield longer or shorter time spans depending upon the technique used...
. According to Bailey, when Christ returns, he will stay the entire approximately 2,158 year period of the Age of Aquarius, and thus the New Age equivalent of the Millennial Age will not be just a single millennium
Millennium
A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
but will be the Aquarian bimillennium. During this era, said Bailey, Christ (Maitreya) will reign as the spiritual leader of Earth, the Messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
who will bring World Peace
World peace
World Peace is an ideal of freedom, peace, and happiness among and within all nations and/or people. World peace is an idea of planetary non-violence by which nations willingly cooperate, either voluntarily or by virtue of a system of governance that prevents warfare. The term is sometimes used to...
.
In August 1946, Bailey prophesied that Christ would return in an airplane from "the place on Earth where He has been for many generations" and that after doing so, he would appear on worldwide television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
.
The Great Invocation
The Great Invocation is a mantra given in 1937 to Bailey by Djwhal Khul. The mantra begins with "From the point of Light within the Mind of God, let light stream forth into the minds of men." with the rest of the passage reinforcing this idea of men acting in accordance with the plan of God. It is well known by some followers of the New Age movement, where it is used as part of meditation, particularly in groups.The invocation has been used in the Findhorn Foundation
Findhorn Foundation
The Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest intentional communities in Britain....
community since the 1970s. In response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Great Invocation was used as a central element of a new daily program at Findhorn known as the "Network of Light meditations for peace". Findhorn's use of the Great Invocation later spun off to various other groups they had influenced, including groups interested in new age UFO philosophies
Paranormal and occult hypotheses about UFOs
Paranormal and occult hypotheses about UFOs refers to the hypotheses that unidentified flying objects are related to or caused by the paranormal or occult...
.
Rosemary Keller described the Great Invocation as a call for "the Christ
Maitreya (Theosophy)
Maitreya or Lord Maitreya is described in Theosophical literature of the late 19th-century and subsequent periods as an advanced spiritual entity and high-ranking member of a hidden Spiritual Hierarchy, the so-called Masters of the Ancient Wisdom...
to return to Earth" and wrote that Bailey-related groups purchased radio and television time to broadcast the invocation as part of their mission, and that often the invocation was recited in what Keller called "light groups", to accomplish what Bailey's disciples considered to be attracting and focusing "spiritual energies to benefit the planet". Researcher Hannah Newman described what she found to be an antisemitic element in the Great Invocation. According to Newman, "the Plan" named in the invocation refers to the plan authored by "the Hierarchy", that Newman states places "high priority on removing all Jewish presence and influence from human consciousness, a goal to be achieved by eliminating Judaism."
Discipleship and service
Bailey elaborated the relation of humanity to the Hierarchy in her teaching on Discipleship in the New Age. A disciple is an accepted student, or chelaChela
Chela has two main meanings. One derivation comes from Hindi from Sanskrit , meaning "slave" or "servant". In English, the word means a religious student or disciple...
, in the spiritual ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
of a Master. In this scheme, all awakening souls stand in some relationship—for a long time unconsciously, but eventually in full conscious awareness—to some particular Master. The integrated personality, coming under the influence of the soul, is simultaneously coming under the influence of this Master. This relationship is determined by karma
Karma
Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....
, by evolutionary status, and (most importantly) by the aspirant's capacity for work to be done on behalf of humanity. This service aspect is strongly emphasized throughout Bailey's writings. In her concept, the greatly increased ("stepped-up") evolution of consciousness that results from this Master–pupil relationship is made possible only in and through service to humanity.
Bailey's writing downplayed the traditional devotional and aspirational aspects of the spiritual life, in favor of serving "the Plan of the Hierarchy" by serving humanity. According to her, this is primary, and everything hinges upon it. For Bailey, discipleship means work—service—and the evolution of those sensitivities and powers that enhance that labor. Disciples will never gain such powers or awareness unless and until they will be used solely for unselfish service. (Bailey, p. 38)
Unity and divinity of nations and groups
Underlying Alice Bailey's writing is the central concepts of unity and divinity.Although she often identified groups of people by their race, nationality, or religion, she said the key matter was not race or religion per se, but the evolution of consciousness that transcends these labels. In her writings about the races, she focused on the humanitarian concept of unity and stated that the source of human problems is the spirit of separation that causes individuals and groups to set themselves apart from the rest of humanity. (Bailey, p. 375)
Ross describes Bailey's teachings as emphasizing the "underlying unity of all forms of life", and the "essential oneness of all religions, of all departments of science, and of all the philosophies." Campbell notes that the New Group of World Servers was established for "... promotion of international understanding, economic sharing, and religious unity."
On fanaticism and intolerance
Alice Bailey wrote strongly against all forms of fanaticism and intolerance. She saw this fanaticism in churches, in nationalism, and in competing esoteric schools. (Bailey pp. 15 & 453) She associated this fanaticism with unintelligent devotion and holding on to old ways and ancient theologies. Bailey indicated that these problems were found mostly in the older generations, that their fanaticism would limit their personal growth and that they would mostly find a solution for that limitation through devotion, and the forward movement of spiritual evolution.Racial theories
Bailey upheld theories of racial differentiation that posited a division of humanity into races that are on different levels in a "ladder of evolution". These 'races' do not represent a national or physical type, but a state of evolution. For example, she states that the Aryan root race (or '5th race'), as an "emerging new race", are the most recently evolved people on Earth, although the term 'AryanAryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
' as used by her has a quite distinct meaning from the separative and racist use of the word. It refers not only to Caucasian peoples, but to origins in Indo-Persia, and indicates a culture where thought and intellect is dominant. In her book Education in the New Age, Bailey made predictions about the use of occult racial theories in the schools of the future, which she said would be based on the idea of 'root race
Root race
Root Races are stages in human evolution in the esoteric cosmology of theosophist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, as described in her book The Secret Doctrine . These races were said to have existed on now-lost continents. Blavatsky's model was developed by later theosophists, most notably William...
s' (originally vast prehistoric spans of time covering thousands of years when a particular human facet was being developed) such as Lemurians (physically adept), Atlanteans (emotionally adept), Aryans (mentally adept), and the New Race with "group qualities and consciousness and idealistic vision.". However, she holds that the forthcoming 'sixth sub-race' (evolving from various facets of current 'fifth race' intellectual culture) cannot reach its peak until the 'sixth race' proper (due many thousands of years hence), and may therefore not be the advance some of her New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
followers wish for. In her The Destiny of the Nations, Bailey described a process by which this "new race" will evolve, after which "low grade human bodies will disappear, causing a general shift in the racial types toward a higher standard."
Her writings were criticized by Victor Shnirelman, a cultural anthropologist and ethnographer, who in a survey of modern Neopaganism
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
in Russia, drew particular attention to "… groups [that] take an extremely negative view of multi-culturalism, object to the 'mixture' of kinds, [and] support isolationism and the prohibition of immigration." He noted that a number of Bailey's books, as well as those of her contemporary Julius Evola
Julius Evola
Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esotericist...
, had been recently translated into Russian, and said that "… racist and antisemitic trends are explicit, for example, in the occult teachings of Alice Bailey and her followers, who wish to cleanse Christianity of its 'Jewish inheritance' and reject the 'Jewish Bible' as a prerequisite for entering the Age of Aquarius.".
Monica Sjöö
Monica Sjöö
Monica Sjöö, , was a Swedish painter, writer and a radical anarcho/eco-feminist who was influential in the Goddess movement. She first came to Britain in the late 1950th and eventually settled in Bristol where she lived for many years, before she died of cancer...
, a Swedish-born British artist, writer, and supporter of the Goddess movement
Goddess movement
The Goddess movement is an overall trend in religious or spiritual beliefs or practices which emerged out of second-wave feminism, predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s...
, wrote that Bailey, through her published teachings, had a "reactionary and racist influence on the whole New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
movement." She also noted what she called Bailey's (and Theosophy's) "pro-fascist religious views", such as the belief in a secret elite of "Masters" who control world events and human minds through occult means and attempt to bring about the evolution of an Aryan super race
Super race
A super race is a future race of improved humans that it is proposed be created from present day human beings by deploying various means such as eugenics, genetic engineering, yoga, or nanotechnology and brain-computer interfacing to accelerate the process of human evolution.-Aryan super race:The...
(although this is an understandably modern misunderstanding of her teaching – 'Aryan' as used by Bailey is easily confused with the modern terminology, and the "Masters" are not an elite, but instead are 'enlightened' individuals originally introduced in Theosophy as having evolved beyond the human or "4th kingdom" into the 5th or "Kingdom of souls", and who – in her view – guide the human race as a whole).
On the Negro race
Bailey stated that the NegroNegro
The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...
race contains a large number of "child souls", leading lives of "physical activity motivated by the desire for satisfaction of some kind, and by a shallow "wish-life" or desire nature, and almost entirely oriented towards the physical life." She also wrote of the need for the white races to train the Negroes of Africa so that they will be fitted for true self-government.
She described Negro people as "creative, artistic and capable of the highest mental development when taught and trained – as capable as is the white man;" and she emphasized the need for the white races to accord the Negro "the respect and the opportunity which is due him", stating that "The future peace of the world depends today upon enlightened, farseeing statesmanship and an appreciation of the fact that God has made all men free."
She wrote that what she described as "the Negro Problem" is divided into two areas: "the problem of the future of the African Negro and the problem of the future of the Negro in the western hemisphere."
On "the Negro problem" in Africa
Bailey considered the indigenous people of Africa to be in the "embryonic stage" of evolutionary development, and wrote that, "Behind the many separative religious cults of that dark land, there emerges a fundamental and pure mysticism, ranging all the way from nature worship and a primitive animism to a deep occult knowledge and an esoteric understanding which may some day make Africa the seat of the purest form of occult teaching and living." She said that "Right human relations must be firmly established between the emerging Negro empire and the rest of the world; the new ideals and the new world trends must be fostered in the receptive Negro consciousness and in this way darkest Africa will become a radiant center of light, ready for self-government and expressing true freedom."
On "the Negro problem" in the Americas
Regarding the relations between the Negro race and other races in the Western Hemisphere, Bailey wrote that it "constitutes a very ugly story, seriously implicates the white man and provides an outstanding disgrace", and that "The white people face a grave responsibility and it lies in their hands to change conditions." She was a vocal advocate of humane treatment and equal rights for the Negro
Negro
The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...
race, acknowledged that they had been subject to much cruelty and exploitation by the white race, but also said that good had come of this for Negroes, and described reason for optimism regarding their future prospects. She advocated improvement in the situation of the Negro in the United States, calling for the people of America to end discrimination, to accept the Negro population as brothers and friends and thereby bring about positive change. She also wrote that in the black peoples attempt to resolve their problem of separation in society, "the spiritual forces of the world are on the side of the Negro."
On the Jewish people
Bailey wrote much about the Jewish people, referring to them collectively as a race, with group karmaKarma
Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....
, characteristics, and behaviors. Specifically, she was of the opinion that Jews embody the characteristics of "materialism, cruelty and a spiritual conservatism" and the "separative, selfish, lower concrete mind."
On the social characteristics of the Jews
Bailey described Jews as "the most reactionary and conservative race in the world", explaining this as a result of their need to preserve their cultural identity as a wandering people under persecution. She wrote that, "People complain (and it is frequently true) the Jews lower the atmosphere of any district in which they reside. They hang their bedding and their clothing out of the windows. They live on the streets, sitting in groups on the sidewalks."
She wrote that Jews "take what they want, to see to it that their children get the best of everything available, no matter what the cost to others"; they "blame the non-Jewish nations for their miseries"; and, "The Jew needs to recognize his share in bringing about the dislike which hounds him everywhere."
She stated that even though the Jews are "possessed of great wealth and influence", they create "dissension among the nations" and "almost abusive, demands for the Gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
to shoulder the entire blame and end the difficulty."
On "the Jewish Problem"
Bailey said that what she called the "Jewish problem" was the result of negative karma
Karma
Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....
accumulated by the Jews due to "acts and deeds there claimed by him as his racial acts and deeds (conquest, terrorism and cruelty)..." and wrote that the solution to this "problem" will come "...when the races regard the Jewish problem as a humanitarian problem but also when the Jew does his share of understanding, love and right action. This he [the Jew] does not yet do, speaking racially."
Before World War II, she wrote: "The major racial problem has, for many centuries, been the Jewish, which has been brought to a critical point by Germany..."; that the Jews "constitute an international minority of great aggressiveness, exceedingly vocal"; and that while they are an ancient, civilized and cultured people, their problems as a "struggling minority" are the result of "certain inherent characteristics", and the "untidy effect they have on any community".
In 1939, as World War II began, Bailey wrote that "the Jewish problem, is definitely producing cleavage as a part of the divine plan... to bring humanity to certain realizations and decisions."
In 1948, after the war and the Holocaust, she wrote that "there are eighty percent of other people in the concentration camps, only twenty percent Jews", and that Jews have not only repudiated the Messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
, but they have forgotten their unique relation to humanity.
Bailey also wrote critically about hatred of the Jews and predicted a future in which Jews would "fuse and blend with the rest of mankind." In her autobiography, she stated that she had been on Hitler's "blacklist", and she believed this had been because of her defense of the Jews during her lectures throughout Europe. She criticized the cruelty of "the Gentile" (non-Jewish people) for their treatment of the Jews, stating "great is his responsibility for wrong doing and cruel action."
Bailey further stated that the Jews were themselves responsible for the bad treatment they received, "Changed inner attitudes are needed on both sides, but very largely on the side of the Jews." She was aware of and accepted the controversial nature of her comments in this regard.
On interracial marriage
Bailey wrote regarding interracial marriageInterracial marriage
Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
that "the best and soundest thinkers in both the white and black races at this time deplore mixed marriages. They mean no happiness for either party." She also advised against intermarriage between Caucasians
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
and Asians
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
but said that children of interracial unions would be unavoidable following World War II due to the actions of what she called the "inevitable promiscuity" of the armies during that period. She wrote that "children of mixed race, as well as the half-castes and the Eurasians
Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....
may be the answer to a large part of the problem. There will be hundreds of thousands of these children of mixed parentage, forming part of the world population in the next generation and immediate cycle and they are a group with which we will have to reckon."
While she believed that intermarriage would not solve what she called "the Negro problem," she implied this might change and on this issue, "I make no prophecy about the future."
Her comments on the topic of interracial marriage are conflicting: On the one hand she suggested that mixed marriages have unhappy effects, on the other hand she seemed to view them as positive and contributing to the solution of racial tensions. Elsewhere she wrote that marriages are rooted in soul relationships, and that intermarriage in general is not a solution to racial problems, but that the solution lies in appreciation of the good qualites found groups other than one's own. Her contrary statements thus reflect the mixed and emerging views of the time in which she was writing.
On nationalism and nations
Bailey criticized national groups, based on what she believed were their violations of the spirit of unity and brotherhood. She believed that an individual's primary allegiance is to humanity and not to any subgroup within it: "I call you to no organizational loyalties, but only to love your fellowmen, be they German, American, Jewish, British, French, Negro or Asiatic."On the United States and France
While praising the United States and France in some respects, Bailey saw in them political corruption. She regarded the talk about a free press as largely an illusory ideal and stated, "… particularly is it absent in the United States, where parties and publishers dictate newspaper policies."On Israel, Zionism, and the U.S.S.R.
Regarding the foundation of the modern nation of IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
after World War II, Bailey said that "The Jews, by their illegal and terrorist activities, have laid a foundation of great difficulty for those who are seeking to promote world peace."
Bailey criticized Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, comparing it with the then-current Stalinist regime in the Russian-dominated Soviet Union, writing, "Zionism today stands for aggression and for the use of force, and the keynote is permission to take what you want irrespective of other people or of their inalienable rights. These points of view are against the position of the spiritual leaders of humanity, and therefore the leaders of the Zionist movement, and the group of men who direct and control the policies of Russia, are against the policies of the spiritual Hierarchy and are contrary to the lasting good of mankind. ... The menace to world freedom today lies in the known policies of the rulers of the U.S.S.R. and in the devious and lying machinations of the Zionists."
On the "present world crisis"
Bailey said, "We could take the nations, one by one, and observe how this nationalistic, separative or isolationist spirit, emerging out of an historical past, out of racial complexes, out of territorial position, out of revolt and out of possession of material resources, has brought about the present world crisis and cleavage and this global clash of interests and ideals." In 1947, in listing the causes of world conflict, she citied the fight for oil, and the fight over Palestine, "[...] a fight which has greed and not any love of Palestine behind it, and which is governed by financial interests and not by the humanitarian spirit which the Zionists claim [...]".On organized religions
Bailey taught a form of universal spirituality that transcended denominational identification, believing that, "Every class of human beings is a group of brothers. Catholics, Jews, Gentiles, occidentals and orientals are all the sons of God." She stated that all religions originate from the same spiritual source, and that humanity will eventually come to realize this, and as they do so, the result will be the emergence of a universal world religion and a "new world order." Bailey described a world where there would be no separate religions but rather "one great body of believers." She predicted that these believers would accept unified truths based on brotherhood and "divine sonship", and would "cooperate with the divine Plan, revealed to them by the spiritual leaders of the race." She wrote that this was not a distant dream but a change that was actually occurring during the time of her writing. (Bailey, p 140)Despite her focus on unity of religion, Bromley and Hammond point out that Bailey and other "occultists" "...hammered home the central idea, 'The East is the true home of spiritual knowledge and occult wisdom.'"
Author Steven Sutcliffe wrote that Bailey's "World Goodwill" organization was promoting groups of "world servers" to, as he quotes Bailey, "serve the Plan, Humanity, the Hierarchy and the Christ."
On Judaism
Bailey was highly critical of Judaism. She wrote: "The word 'love' as it concerns relation to other people is lacking in their religious presentation, though love of JehovahJehovah
Jehovah is an anglicized representation of Hebrew , a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton , the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible....
is taught with due threats; the concept of a future life, dependent upon conduct and behavior to others and on right action in the world of men, is almost entirely lacking in The Old Testament and teaching on immortality is nowhere emphasized; salvation is apparently dependent upon the keeping of numerous physical laws and rules related to physical cleanliness; they go so far as to establish retail shops where these rules are kept – in a modern world where scientific methods are applied to purity in food. All these and other factors of less importance set the Jew apart, and these he enforces no matter how obsolete they are or inconvenient to others."
Because of writings like these, the American Chassidic author Rabbi Yonassan Gershom wrote that Bailey's plan for a New World Order
New World Order (conspiracy)
In conspiracy theory, the term New World Order or NWO refers to the emergence of a totalitarian one-world government.The common theme in conspiracy theories about a New World Order is that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an...
and her call for "the gradual dissolution—again if in any way possible—of the Orthodox Jewish faith" revealed that "her goal is nothing less than the destruction of Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
itself." Gershom also wrote that "This stereotyped portrayal of Jews is followed by a hackneyed diatribe against the Biblical Hebrews, based upon the "angry Jehovah" theology of nineteenth-century Protestantism. Jews do not, and never have, worshipped an angry vengeful god, and we Jews never, ever call God "Jehovah."
On Christianity
Bailey wrote of "the return of the Christ", but her concept had little in common with that of mainstream Christian churches. Bailey almost always used the phrase "the Christ" when not referring specifically to the Christian idea. For her, the leadership of the Hierarchy is an "office" (so to speak), to be occupied by various Masters in the course of Their unfolding evolution. She saw the Christ as a great "Person", embodying the energy of love, and His return as the awakening of that energy in human consciousness. She also introduced the ideas that the new Christ might be "of no particular faith at all", that he may be from any nation, race, or religion, and wrote that his purpose of returning will be to "restore man's faith in the Father's love" in a close personal relationship with "all men everywhere".She stated that no one particular group can claim Him—that the New Age Christ belongs to whole world, and not to Christians alone, or to any nation or group. (Bailey, p 109) Bailey was highly critical of mainstream Christianity; she wrote that much of the Church's teaching about Christ's return is directly opposed to His own intentions and that "The history of the Christian nations and of the Christian church has been one of an aggressive militancy" (Bailey, p 110)
Influence
Alice Bailey's influence can be seen on the groups she founded, on a variety of religious and spiritual authors, and on groups that have utilized her writings in their own teachings.Groups founded by Bailey or her followers
The Arcane School, founded by Alice and Foster Bailey to disseminate spiritual teachings, organizes a worldwide "Triangles" program to bring people together in groups of three, for daily meditation and study. Their belief is that they receive divine energy through meditation; this energy is transmitted to humanity, so raising spiritual awareness. John Michael Greer's New Encyclopedia of the Occult states that the school "seeks to develop a New Group of World Servers to accomplish the work of the Hierarchy of Masters, under the guidance of its head, the Christ."Influence on the New Age Movement
Bailey made extensive use of the term "New AgeNew Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
" in her books and some writers have described her as the founder of the New Age movement. However The New Age
The New Age
The New Age was a British literary magazine, noted for its wide influence under the editorship of A. R. Orage from 1907 to 1922. It began life in 1894 as a publication of the Christian Socialist movement; but in 1907 as a radical weekly edited by Joseph Clayton, it was struggling...
was used as the title of a Journal of Christian liberalism and Socialism, published as early as 1894, predating Bailey's use of the term.
James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton, in Perspectives on the New Age wrote, "The most important—though certainly not the only—source of this transformative metaphor, as well as the term "New Age", was Theosophy, particularly as the Theosophical perspective was mediated to the movement by the works of Alice Bailey."
Sir John Sinclair, in his book The Alice Bailey Inheritance, commented on the seminal influence of Alice Bailey, which, he said, underlies the consciousness growth movement in the 20th century.
Influence on neopaganism
Several writers have mentioned the affinity of some of Bailey's concepts with modern expressions of paganismPaganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the neopagan author and ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic, also referred to as high magic and as learned magic, is a broad term used in the context of Hermeticism or Western esotericism to encompass a wide variety of long, elaborate, and complex rituals of magic. It is named as such because the works included are characterized by...
ritualist Caroll Poke Runyon published a magazine called The Seventh Ray, its name taken from the writings of Alice Bailey. In the 1990s, two volumes of collected articles from the magazine were published as The Seventh Ray Book I, The Blue Ray and The Seventh Ray Book II, the Red Ray.
Influence on women in religion
Author Catherine WessingerCatherine Wessinger
Catherine Wessinger is a professor of religious studies at Loyola University New Orleans with a main research focus on millennialism, new religions, women and religion and religions of India...
wrote that Bailey was a liberated woman "… sixty years before it became popular"; that Bailey's books expressed a similar "millennial view" to the works of Annie Besant; and that they were "an important source of the contemporary New Age movement."
According to the Encyclopedia of Women And Religion in North America, several leaders of New Age philosophy have further developed Bailey's teachings, including the well-known personalities JZ Knight
JZ Knight
Judy Zebra Knight , usually known as JZ Knight, is an American mystic teacher and author...
(who channels the entity known by the name Ramtha), Helen Schucman
Helen Schucman
Helen Schucman was an American clinical and research psychologist from New York City. She was a professor of medical psychology at Columbia University in New York from 1958 until her retirement in 1976...
(author of A Course in Miracles
A Course in Miracles
A Course in Miracles is a self-study curriculum that aims to assist its readers in achieving spiritual transformation. The book describes a non-dualistic philosophy of forgiveness and includes what are meant to be practical lessons and applications for the practice of forgiveness in one's daily life...
through the process of telepathic dictation she called "scribing"),and Elizabeth Clare Prophet
Elizabeth Clare Prophet
Elizabeth Clare Prophet was an American spiritual author and lecturer who was the leader of The Summit Lighthouse and Church Universal and Triumphant, a New Age religious movement which gained media attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s while preparing for potential nuclear disaster.During...
(who published what she referred to as "dictations from Ascended Masters").
The "Tibetan" teacher, Djwal Khul, whom Bailey claimed was the co-author of many of her books, has also been claimed as co-author by two new female channelers, Violet Starre and Moriah Marston. Starre claims to have channeled Bailey's old teacher twice: the title of her first book, Diamond Light, Cosmic Psychology of Being, 4th Dimension, 7 Rays & More, owes an obvious debt to Bailey's writings, and is sometimes listed in book catalogues under the full title "Diamond Light, Cosmic Psychology of Being, 4th Dimension, 7 Rays & More (Teachings Similar to Those Given to Alice A. Bailey) by Djwhal (channeled Through Violet Starre) Khul.". The same influence can also be seen in Starre's The Amethyst Light: Djwhal Khul Through Violet Starre, published in 2004. Marston's Soul Searching with Djwahl Khul, the Tibetan, was published in 2006, and according to her publisher, Airleaf Books, "She has been a conscious channel for Ascended Master Djwhal Khul since 1986."
Influence on psychotherapy and healing
In 1930, with the patronage of English-Dutch spiritualist, theosophist and scholar Olga Froebe-Kapteyn, Bailey established the short-lived "School of Spiritual Research" located on Froebe-Kapteyn's estate, Casa Gabriella, in Switzerland. (In 1932 the school was closed due to personal conflict between Bailey and Froebe-Kapteyn, at which time Froebe-Kapteyn replaced it with the EranosEranos
Eranos is an intellectual discussion group dedicated to the study of psychology, religion, philosophy and spirituality which has met annually in Switzerland since 1933....
group.) Roberto Assagioli
Roberto Assagioli
Roberto Assagioli was an Italian psychiatrist and pioneer in the fields of humanistic and transpersonal psychology. Assagioli founded the psychological movement known as psychosynthesis, which is still being developed today by therapists, and psychologists, who practice his technique...
, founder of Psychosynthesis
Psychosynthesis
Psychosynthesis is an approach to psychology that was developed by Roberto Assagioli, M.D. He compared psychosynthesis to the prevailing thinking of the day, contrasting psychosynthesis for example with Existential psychology, but unlike the latter considered loneliness not to be "either ultimate...
, was a lecturer at School of Spiritual Research. He continued a close association with Bailey during the 1930s; some of his writings were published in Bailey's magazine The Beacon; and he was a trustee of Bailey's organization, the Lucis Trust. He had developed his approach to psychology, called Psychosynthesis, beginning in 1910; his methods were later influenced by some elements of Bailey's work. However, authors John Firman and Ann Gila write that Assagioli kept what he referred to as a "wall of silence" between the areas of psychosynthesis and religion or metaphysics, insisting that they not be confused with each other.
Roger J. Woolger said, in a paper presented to the "Beyond the Brain" Conference held at Cambridge University in 1999, "In Tansley as in Brennan
Barbara Brennan
Barbara Ann Brennan is an American author, spiritual healer, businesswoman and teacher working in the field of energy healing...
you will find descriptions of a hierarchy of subtle bodies called the etheric, emotional, mental and spiritual that surround the physical body. (Interestingly Tansley attributed the source of his model to Alice Bailey's theosophical commentary on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali are 194 Indian sūtras that constitute the foundational text of Rāja Yoga. Yoga is one of the six orthodox āstika schools of Hindu philosophy, and Rāja Yoga is the highest practice....
, the locus classicus of Hindu teaching.)"
Bailey's influence can be found in therapeutic communities with which she was never directly involved, such as the Human Potential Movement
Human Potential Movement
The Human Potential Movement arose out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people...
.
Influence on UFO groups
Christopher Patridge wrote that the works of Bailey, Rudolf Steiner, and Theosophy in general all influenced what he called the "UFO religionUFO religion
UFO religion is an informal term used to describe a religion that equates UFO occupants with gods or other semi-divine beings. Typically, the UFO occupants are held to be extraterrestials and that humanity either currently is, or eventually will become, part of a preexisting extraterrestrial...
s". He explained that "...Theosophy has several prominent branches, and, strictly speaking, the branch which has had the most important influence on the UFO religion is that developed by Alice Bailey.". Partridge also quoted Gordon Melton, who suggested that the first UFO religion was Guy Ballard
Guy Ballard
Guy Warren Ballard was an American mining engineer who became, with his wife, Edna Anne Wheeler Ballard, the founder of the "I AM" Activity....
's "I Am" Activity, which Bailey described as a "cheap comedy."
Professor Robert S. Ellwood of the University of Southern California investigated a wide range of religious and spiritual groups in the United States during the 1970s, including a nationwide group of UFO believers called Understanding, Inc., which had been founded by a contactee named Daniel Fry
Daniel Fry
Daniel William Fry was an American contactee who claimed he had multiple contacts with an alien and took a ride in a remotely piloted alien spacecraft on July 4, 1949....
. He reported that, "There is no particular religious practice connected with the meeting, although interestingly the New Age Prayer derived from the Alice Bailey writings is used as an invocation."
George D. Chryssides
George D. Chryssides
Dr George D. Chryssides was a senior lecturer and Head of Religious Studies at the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences of the University of Wolverhampton now working for Birmingham University....
of the University of Wolverhampton
University of Wolverhampton
The University of Wolverhampton is a British university located on four campuses across the West Midlands and Shropshire. The city campus is located in Wolverhampton city centre with a second campus at Compton Park, Wolverhampton; a third in Walsall and a fourth in Telford...
, cited Bailey's influence on the ideas of the Order of the Solar Temple
Order of the Solar Temple
The Order of the Solar Temple also known as Ordre du Temple Solaire in French, and the International Chivalric Organization of the Solar Tradition or simply as The Solar Temple was a secret society based upon the modern myth of the continuing existence of the Knights Templar...
and related UFO organisations.
Benjamin Creme
Benjamin Creme
Benjamin Creme is a Scottish artist, author, esotericist, and editor of Share International magazine, a monthly non-profit magazine and website....
, formerly a member of the UFO religion the Aetherius Society
Aetherius Society
The Aetherius Society was founded by Dr George King , an English-born Master of Yoga, occultist, alleged spiritual healer and UFO Contactee. The society was first established in London in 1955, and later becoming incorporated in America as a not-for-profit organisation in 1960. Its guiding...
, became a follower of Alice A. Bailey and then proclaimed in 1975 that he had been contacted by Maitreya
Maitreya (Theosophy)
Maitreya or Lord Maitreya is described in Theosophical literature of the late 19th-century and subsequent periods as an advanced spiritual entity and high-ranking member of a hidden Spiritual Hierarchy, the so-called Masters of the Ancient Wisdom...
to prepare for the return of Maitreya to Earth that had been prophesied by Alice A. Bailey in 1946. Alice A. Bailey prophesied in January 1946 that (since Jiddu Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti or , was a renowned writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society...
had repudiated the "World Teacher Project") Christ
Maitreya (Theosophy)
Maitreya or Lord Maitreya is described in Theosophical literature of the late 19th-century and subsequent periods as an advanced spiritual entity and high-ranking member of a hidden Spiritual Hierarchy, the so-called Masters of the Ancient Wisdom...
(in her books she refers to Maitreya as The Christ or The World Teacher, not as Maitreya) would return himself by manifesting a physical body of his own on the physical plane
Physical plane
The physical plane , physical world, or physical universe, in emanationist metaphysics such as are found in Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, Hinduism and Theosophy, refers to the visible reality of space and time, energy and matter: the physical universe in Occultism and esoteric cosmology is the lowest...
"sometime after AD 2025" and that this would be the New Age equivalent of the Christian concept of the Second Coming of Christ (See Maitreya (Benjamin Creme)
Maitreya (Benjamin Creme)
In the Neo-Theosophical teachings of Benjamin Creme, founder of Share International, it is promulgated thatthe near-future coming of Maitreya sometime in the 21st century will fulfill not only Buddhist prophecies about the appearance of a future great teacher named Maitreya, but also the...
).
Esoteric astrology
Whereas most astrology focuses on the personality, the esoteric astrologyEsoteric astrology
Esoteric astrology is a branch of Astrology that focuses on the spiritual evolution of a person or groups of persons. Mundane astrology focuses on the personality, or one's individual identity...
of Alice Bailey seeks to explain the soul and its desire for spiritual evolution
Spiritual evolution
Spiritual evolution is the philosophical, theological, esoteric or spiritual idea that nature and human beings and/or human culture evolve, extending from the established cosmological pattern or ascent, or in accordance with certain pre-established potentials...
. Esoteric astrology is grounded in Bailey's (Djwhal's) Ageless Wisdom teachings. According to one writer, "The Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, has provided a significant foundation for a more Soul-oriented approach to astrology and to the Life it seeks to symbolize and interpret."
The esoteric astrologers who follow the teachings of Bailey typically base their work on her five-volume Treatise on the Seven Rays, particularly volume three which focuses on astrology.
In esoteric astrology the seven rays
Seven Rays
The seven rays is an occult concept that has appeared in several religions and esoteric philosophies, since at least the 6th century BCE, of the Aryan peoples in both Western culture and in India...
are applied to the astrological signs and planets, with a corresponding "soul urge", in the following manner (taken from Oken).
- The First Ray: Will/Power --- Signs: AriesAries (astrology)Aries is the first astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the zero degree and the 29th degree of celestial longitude. The Sun enters Aries when it reaches the northern vernal equinox, which is usually on March 21 each year, and remains in this sign until around April 20...
, LeoLeo (astrology)Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac, originating from the constellation of Leo. In astrology, Leo is considered to be a "masculine", positive sign. It is also considered a fire sign and is one of four fixed signs ruled by the Sun.Individuals born when the Sun is in this sign are...
, Capricorn --- Planets: VulcanVulcan (hypothetical planet)Vulcan was a small planet proposed to exist in an orbit between Mercury and the Sun. In an attempt to explain peculiarities of Mercury's orbit, in the 19th-century French mathematician Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier hypothesized that they were the result of another planet, which he named Vulcan...
, PlutoPlutoPluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
- Soul Urge: "The use of spiritual will for the benefit of the collective; power utilized for the purpose of enhancing unity and beauty; the expression of will for the purposes and being of the group." (p. 105)
- The Second Ray: Love/Wisdom --- Signs: GeminiGemini (astrology)Gemini is the third astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the Zodiac between the 60th and 89th degree of celestial longitude. Generally, the Sun transits this area of the zodiac between May 21 to June 20 each year...
, VirgoVirgo (astrology)Virgo is the sixth astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the 150th and 179th degree of celestial longitude. Generally, the Sun transits this area of the zodiac between August 23 to September 22 each year...
, Pisces --- Planets: JupiterJupiterJupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, SunSunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
- The Second Ray: Love/Wisdom --- Signs: Gemini
- Soul Urge: "The urge to bring about a sustaining, loving wholeness to any group or life situation; the ability, through magnetic attraction, to bring about healing; the focus for the stimulation of consciousness, and hence for greater love/wisdom; the ability to see beyond differences into unifying principles." (p. 110)
- The Third Ray: Active Intelligence --- Signs: CancerCancer (astrology)Cancer is the fourth astrological sign in the Zodiac. It is considered a water sign and one of four cardinal signs. Cancer is ruled by the Moon. Individuals born when the Sun is in this sign are considered Cancerian individuals...
, LibraLibra (astrology)Libra is the seventh astrological sign in the Zodiac, originating from the constellation of Libra. In astrology, Libra is considered a "masculine", positive sign. It is also considered an air sign and is one of four cardinal signs...
, Capricorn --- Planets: Earth, SaturnSaturnSaturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
- The Third Ray: Active Intelligence --- Signs: Cancer
- Soul Urge: "The birthing of ideas to benefit humanity; the structuring of time and activities to allow for group energies to flourish; inherent, objective intelligence ready to be used in service to humanity in all ways." (p. 114)
- The Fourth Ray: Harmony through Conflict --- Signs: TaurusTaurus (astrology)Taurus is the second astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the 30th and 59th degree of celestial longitude. Generally, the Sun transits this area of the zodiac between April 21 to May 21 each year...
, ScorpioScorpio (astrology)|Infobox align="right" style="border:3px solid white;"||style="text-align: center;"|Scorpio is the eighth astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the 210th and 239th degree of celestial longitude. Generally, the Sun transits this area of the zodiac between 24 October and...
, SagittariusSagittarius (astrology)Sagittarius is the ninth astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the 240th and 269th degree of celestial longitude...
--- Planets: MercuryMercury (planet)Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
, MoonMoonThe Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
- The Fourth Ray: Harmony through Conflict --- Signs: Taurus
- Soul Urge: "The 'Divine Artist' – one who seeks to raise humanity's consciousness through the realization of the beauty and harmony existing in nature and in the world of forms; the mediator between heaven and earth, God and man; the Priest." (p. 122)
- The Fifth Ray: Concrete Knowledge --- Signs: LeoLeo (astrology)Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac, originating from the constellation of Leo. In astrology, Leo is considered to be a "masculine", positive sign. It is also considered a fire sign and is one of four fixed signs ruled by the Sun.Individuals born when the Sun is in this sign are...
, SagittariusSagittarius (astrology)Sagittarius is the ninth astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the 240th and 269th degree of celestial longitude...
, Aquarius --- Planet: VenusVenusVenus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
- The Fifth Ray: Concrete Knowledge --- Signs: Leo
- Soul Urge: "Those who work to be connecting links of intelligence between the abstract world of pure ideation and the concrete world of practical application; precision and exactitude in creating those forms and inventions which allow for the outpouring of Higher-Mind Intelligence." (p. 127)
- The Sixth Ray: Devotion and Idealism --- Signs: VirgoVirgo (astrology)Virgo is the sixth astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the 150th and 179th degree of celestial longitude. Generally, the Sun transits this area of the zodiac between August 23 to September 22 each year...
, SagittariusSagittarius (astrology)Sagittarius is the ninth astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the 240th and 269th degree of celestial longitude...
, Pisces --- Planet: MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, NeptuneNeptuneNeptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
- The Sixth Ray: Devotion and Idealism --- Signs: Virgo
- Soul Urge: "The urge to transform selfish and personal motivation into selfless, impersonal devotion for the good of all; the bringing about of circumstances which reorient the exclusive to the inclusive for the greater expression of Love/Wisdom." (p. 133)
- The Seventh Ray: Ceremonial Order and Magic --- Signs: AriesAries (astrology)Aries is the first astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the zero degree and the 29th degree of celestial longitude. The Sun enters Aries when it reaches the northern vernal equinox, which is usually on March 21 each year, and remains in this sign until around April 20...
, CancerCancer (astrology)Cancer is the fourth astrological sign in the Zodiac. It is considered a water sign and one of four cardinal signs. Cancer is ruled by the Moon. Individuals born when the Sun is in this sign are considered Cancerian individuals...
, Capricorn --- Planet: UranusUranusUranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
- The Seventh Ray: Ceremonial Order and Magic --- Signs: Aries
- Soul Urge: "The urge to gather, formulate, and harmonize various aspects of a given set of life circumstances into an ordered expression for the Will of God; the urge to make 'heaven on earth.'" (p. 139)
The planetary and house rulers differ in esoteric astrology as compared to exoteric astrology. The esoteric planetary and house rulers are to be used when a person is analyzing the soul's purpose or journey through life. According to Djwhal Khul (Alice Bailey), here are the rulers.
| Personality (Mundane) | Soul (Esoteric) | House | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | Mars | Mercury | First |
| Taurus | Venus | Vulcan | Second |
| Gemini | Mercury | Venus | Third |
| Cancer | Moon | Neptune | Fourth |
| Leo | Sun | Sun | Fifth |
| Virgo | Mercury | Moon | Sixth |
| Libra | Venus | Uranus | Seventh |
| Scorpio | Mars | Mars | Eighth |
| Sagittarius | Jupiter | Earth | Ninth |
| Capricorn | Saturn | Saturn | Tenth |
| Aquarius | Uranus | Jupiter | Eleventh |
| Pisces | Jupiter | Pluto | Twelfth |
Alice Bailey wrote in Esoteric Astrology, "The human being in his eventual recognized group relationships is of more importance than appears in his individual life, which the orthodox horoscope seeks to elucidate. It only determines his little destiny and unimportant fate. Esoteric astrology indicates his group usefulness and the scope of his potential consciousness."
Esoteric Healing
Esoteric healing is a major subject in the philosophical writings of Alice Bailey. It is contained in the fourth volume of "The Treatise on the Seven Rays". The primary emphasis of esoteric healing is not on the physical body or any of the three personality bodies of the human being (physical, emotional, mental), but on the soul. It is the soul that heals. This is stated in the "Law One of Esoteric Healing": "All disease is the result of inhibited soul life. This is true of all forms in all kingdoms. The art of the healer consists in releasing the soul so that its life can flow through the aggregate of organisms which constitute any particular form." The primary healing ray is ray two. More advanced esoteric healing allows the practitioner to work with their own soul ray and the soul ray of the patient. Volume IV (Esoteric Healing) was first published in 1953. It took until the 1970s for a group to adequately assimilate the teachings and begin to put it into practice. Brenda Johnston founded the International Health Research Network in 1971. In 1984 the group became a registered charity in UK, with its name changed to the International Network of Esoteric Healing (INEH). The international group remains small but it has spread to about 20 countries with training of students by trained teachers of esoteric healing, esoteric healing clinics, national and international conferences annually. They also have a biannual Journal. Although INEH requires membership of its organization, esoteric healing remains open to anyone wishing to practice the art.Alice A. Bailey in popular culture
MusicMusic
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
- In 1975, Todd RundgrenTodd RundgrenTodd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
released an album titled Initiation which has a song called "Initiation" on side one. The title of the album is apparently based on the Theosophical concept of InitiationInitiation (Theosophy)Initiation is a concept in Theosophy that there are nine levels of spiritual development that beings who live on Earth can progress upward through. Within these levels, there are four basic levels of spiritual development that human beings on Earth progress through as they reincarnate, although...
, taught by Alice A. Bailey and C.W. Leadbeater. The entire second side of the album is taken up by a song called "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire"; the three parts of the song are listed as: "I. The Internal Fire, or Fire by Friction; II. The Fire of Spirit, or Electric Fire; The Fire of Mind, or Solar Fire." The second parts of these three phrases are taken directly from Alice A. Bailey's book A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. Also in 1975, Rundgren released an album by his side-project Utopia titled "Another LiveAnother Live-Side Two:-Personnel:*Mark "Moogy" Klingman - Harmonica, Glockenspiel, Keyboards, vocals, Korg Synthesizer*Roger Powell - Synthesizer, Trumpet, Keyboards, Vocals, Moog synthesizer*Todd Rundgren - Guitar, Vocals, Producer...
." This album contained a song titled "The Seven Rays" (see reference above). Finally, in 1977, Rundgren followed up with another Bailey reference with a song entitled "Love in Action" from the Utopia album Oops! Wrong PlanetOops! Wrong Planet-Side two:-Personnel:*Roger Powell: Vocals, Keyboards, Trumpet, Powell Probe*Todd Rundgren: Vocals, Guitar, Saxophone, Production and Engineering*Kasim Sulton: Vocals, Bass Guitar*John "Willie" Wilcox: Vocals, Drums-Charts:Album - Billboard...
. Love in Action was the concept promoted by Bailey's and Foster Bailey's "World Goodwill" organization. - In 1982, Bailey's influence appeared in pop culture, with the release of Van MorrisonVan MorrisonVan Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
's album Beautiful VisionBeautiful VisionBeautiful Vision is an album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released February 1982 by Warner Bros. Records in the US and Mercury Records in the UK. As with many of Morrison's recordings, spirituality is a major theme and some of the songs are based on the teachings of...
, in which he directly referred to the teachings and the Tibetan in the lyrics of the songs "Dweller on the ThresholdDweller on the Threshold (song)"Dweller on the Threshold" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and first released on his 1982 album, Beautiful Vision. It was released as a single on the B-Side in 1982 with the instrumental "Scandinavia" as the "A" tune...
" and "Aryan Mist". Morrison also used the phrase "world of glamour", reminiscent of Bailey's Glamour: A World Problem, in the songs "Ivory TowerIvory Tower (Van Morrison song)"Ivory Tower" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1986 album, No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. The song was also released as a single with the B-side "A New Kind of Man", from his previous album A Sense of Wonder...
" and "Green Mansions". The song Ancient of Days from the 1984 Sense of WonderSense of wonderA sense of wonder is an intellectual and emotional state frequently invoked in discussions of science fiction. It is an emotional reaction to the reader suddenly confronting, understanding, or seeing a concept anew in the context of new information....
album appears to be a reference to a Bailey concept found in such books as The Externalization of the Hierarchy. Alice A. Bailey and the Tibetan's Glamour: A World Problem is also directly cited in the liner notes to Morrison's album Inarticulate Speech of the HeartInarticulate Speech of the HeartInarticulate Speech of the Heart is the fourteenth album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1983 ....
.
Credited to Alice Bailey
Works containing the prefatory Extract from a Statement by the Tibetan, generally taken to indicate the book was a "received" work.- Education in the New Age—1954
- The Externalization of the Hierarchy—1957
- Ponder On This: A Compilation—2003
- A Treatise on the Seven Rays:
- Volume 1: Esoteric Psychology I—1936
- Volume 2: Esoteric Psychology II—1942
- Volume 3: Esoteric Astrology—1951
- Volume 4: Esoteric Healing—1953
- Volume 5: The Rays and the Initiations—1960
Credited to Alice A. Bailey alone
Works in which Bailey claimed sole authorship of the material.- The Consciousness of the Atom—1922
- The Soul and its Mechanism—1930
- From Intellect to Intuition—1932
- From Bethlehem to Calvary—1937
- The Unfinished Autobiography—1951
- The Labors of Hercules—1974
- The Labours of Hercules: An Astrological Interpretation—first published 1982
Сriticism
- Sjöö, Monica (1998). New Age Channelings – Who Or What Is Being Channeled? Bristol, England: Green Leaf Bookshop. Entire text online at Monica Sjoo website, page found 2010-06-28.
- Sjöö, Monica, Sinister Channelings Notes and explanations to accompany the "New Age Channelings" book. Entire text online, page found 2010-06-28.
- Sjöö, Monica (1999-09-09). Return of the Dark/Light Mother or New Age Armageddon? Towards a Feminist Vision of the Future. Texas: Plain View Press.
- A comparison between H.P.Blavatsky & Alice Baily. The Pseudo-Occultism of Alice Baily by Alice Leighton Cleather and Basil Crump. 1929
- Е.И. Рерих. Критика А. Бейли.
See also
- Esoteric cosmologyEsoteric cosmologyEsoteric cosmology is cosmology that is an intrinsic part of an esoteric or occult system of thought. It almost always deals with at least some of the following themes: emanation, involution, spiritual evolution, epigenesis, planes of existence or higher worlds , hierarchies of spiritual beings,...
- Esoteric healing
- List of spirituality-related topics
- Lucis TrustLucis TrustThe Lucis Trust is a nonprofit service organization incorporated in the United States in 1922 by Alice Bailey and her husband Foster Bailey, to act as a fiduciary trust for the publishing of Mrs. Bailey's twenty-four books of esoteric philosophy published under Alice Bailey's name, and to fund and...
- Magic and religionMagic and religionMagical thinking in various forms is a cultural universal and an important aspect of religion.In many cases it becomes difficult or impossible to draw any meaningful line between beliefs and practices that are magical versus those that are religious, but in general the term religion is reserved for...
- New World OrderNew World Order (conspiracy)In conspiracy theory, the term New World Order or NWO refers to the emergence of a totalitarian one-world government.The common theme in conspiracy theories about a New World Order is that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an...
- Planes of existence
- ReincarnationReincarnationReincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
- Western mystery traditionWestern mystery traditionWestern esotericism or Hermeticism is a broad spectrum of spiritual traditions found in Western society, or refers to the collection of the mystical, esoteric knowledge of the Western world...
External links
- Lucis Trust
- Alice Bailey lectures
- A compilation of extracts from the books of Alice A. Bailey can be read online at Lucistrust (registration required)
- Alice Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p. 25 short excerpt
- Dissertation from the U of W. Sydney, The texts of Alice A. Bailey: An inquiry into the role of esotericism in transforming consciousness.