Discipleship in the New Age, I
commentary by Michael D. Robbins

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

There is a lot of material to study in this commentary. The Tibetan is presenting the foundational structure of the Seed Groups. Given this fact, the commentary is brief and inadequate, but does give us a start on a deeper approach to this great subject.

All of us will find ourselves working, whether consciously or unconsciously, in relation to one or other of the Seed Groups. As we find ourselves, our best focus of service will also clarify and our cooperation with the Divine Plan will become more useful to humanity and Hierarchy.

Love and Many Blessings,
Michael

PART IV

As these groups of disciples become active in the world and their inner integration and group relationship become securely established, we shall have the germ of those characteristics which will dignify the New Age groups. I would ask you all never to forget that this group work you are attempting to do is in reality pioneer work and hence has all the difficulties which pioneer work inevitably and necessarily has. Thereby strength to grow is gained. As the number of these groups increases and the personnel is gradually supplied, the skeleton framework of a future structure will slowly emerge. How that structure [Page 31] will appear when completed is known only to the inspired vision of the architects. But the foundations must be set sure and deep; the framework must be true and rightly adjusted. These two requirements are all that any of you will see materialise in this present lifetime.

1.                  The Tibetan is speaking of the seminal value of the groups He is seeking to establish. They are to be “the germ” or the seed from which the best characteristics of true New Age groups will grow. If all went well, then those following the progress of the various Seed Groups and their effects would see demonstrated exemplary group relationships and values.

2.                  The new groups were pioneering groups and, therefore, subject to certain difficulties. Among such difficulties we might number:

a.       Incomplete understanding amongst the membership.

b.      Resistance from within the habit nature of the members.

c.       Resistance from the environment.

d.      Uncertainty based upon lack of precedent.

e.       Uncertainty in modes of procedure due to lack of established vision.

3.                  Pioneering work is related to the astrological sign Aries, which strengthens the will in those it conditions. The Tibetan expects that the pioneering conditions to which the membership is subjected will strengthen them.

4.                  DK is asking his disciples to proceed without knowing the final structural outlines of the process in which they are engaged. The “architects” (of which DK is one) know the outlines with accuracy; such knowledge is not yet possible to the participants. This is true of many methods which the Master suggests. He asks us to faithfully follow the instructions; if we do so, progress is certain, because the instructions are based upon occult law.

5.                  DK is putting the whole Seed Group Project in proportion. Participants cannot expect a finished product. Their task is to participate in the laying of a firm and deep foundation and the building of a true and rightly adjusted framework.

6.                  The membership is subject to the age-old requirement: to work without attachment to results. Progress along the Path of Discipleship is slow and sure. The personality, eager for results, considers it slow. The soul (consciousness (illumined by the Solar Angel) sees that the progress is of adequate speed.

Have you realised, however, my brothers, what occult progress in the world you have been permitted to see during this present lifetime? Have you glimpsed the magnitude of the present push that is being made by the Masters and have you recognised Their plans taking shape before your eyes? Have you grasped the essentials of what the Great White Lodge has done during the past twenty-five years and the extent of the work in which disciples and aspirants everywhere have been permitted to share? I would like briefly to enlarge somewhat upon this so as to make the picture clearer to your eyes in order that you may cooperate with greater intelligence, for this is above everything else group work.

1.                  DK is indicating that occult progress in the early part of the twentieth century has been rapid. He is suggesting that great (though, perhaps, unrecognized) strides have been taken.

2.                  We note the word, “push”, as applied to the Masters’ efforts. A “push” is a concerted and focussed drive forward, counteracting the inertia of circumstance.

3.                  According to DK’s suggestions, those with eyes to see might recognize the Masters’ plans taking shape within the three worlds. Thus, He is challenging the membership of His groups to greater recognition.

4.                  The Master is asking for deeper understanding of the Masters’ efforts on the part of Their disciples. He is also suggesting that disciples have been permitted to share in those efforts to an unprecedented degree. Sometimes momentous things are happening all around us and, still, we fail to notice — so obtuse is the customary human consciousness.

5.                  DK is calling this progress to the attention of His chelas so that they may be alert to what is really happening and, therefore, may cooperate with greater understanding — together.

Slowly and gradually, as far as you are all concerned, I have gathered together a band of disciples upon the outer plane. As the group thoughtform integrated and disciples responded to my call, found each other and began to work together, it became possible for me to go forward with my chosen work and carry forward the plans which I set myself when I took a certain initiation.

1.                  The Master’s work in gathering together a band of disciples may have appeared a slow and gradual process. This gathering, however, may have been long planned, and from the Masters’ perspective, may have occurred with relative rapidity once the process was set in motion upon the physical plane.

2.                  We note the importance of the “group thoughtform”. Unless disciples share a resonance and allegiance to the coordinating group thoughtform, they have no occult basis for their affiliation. Groups such as those the Tibetan was gathering at that time are held together by an “inner structure of thought” (cf. TEV 32 and EP II 183). This applies also to contemporary spiritual/esoteric groups in which we may be participating.

3.                  How do disciples find each other? They respond to a note, to the Master’s “call”, subtle though it be and, perhaps, unrecognized as a “note” by the human units responding to it.

4.                  At this point in the process, Master DK had not revealed that He was a Master of the Wisdom. He had simply stated that He was an “initiate into the mysteries of being” (DINA I 7), which, to those who understand this phrase, is revealing enough.

5.                  It seems likely that the plans laid by the Master were initiated after 1875, when, according to His own words, He took the fifth initiation (cf. IHS 57).

First of all, the books were published and they came out in ordered sequence and provide a body of teaching and of truth which will serve the needs of the coming generation. It is for my disciples to safeguard this presentation of truth during this century and to see to it that the books are sent forth steadily upon their mission, until they are finally superseded next century by a newer and more adequate teaching.

1.                  DK discusses the inception of His work for the public. The dissemination of the Teaching for which He made Himself responsible occurred through an ordered sequence of books.

2.                  He speaks of the books fulfilling the needs of the “coming generation”. It is difficult to know exactly what He means by this — presumably not a period of a mere twenty-five or so years. I tend to think of that “generation” as a group of students of esotericism working during the last half of the twentieth century. Students of spirituality also have many current needs which these books are more than adequate to fulfill — far more adequate than then present spate of mediocre channeled transmissions which claim to originate from the Tibetan.

3.                  Note that the Master presents His disciples with a duty: they are to “safeguard this presentation of truth during this century” (the twentieth century). How does a disciple contribute to this safeguarding?

a.       By knowing and understanding the teaching with as much depth and accuracy as possible.

b.      By recognizing the Master’s note and where is it not found. Thus a wholesome discrimination is fostered and the disciple is saved from confusion and delusion.

c.       By applying the Teaching as thoroughly as possible and thus verifying its usefulness.

d.      By setting a fitting example before the world. Thus, the value of the teaching is impressed upon human consciousness through the medium of those who exemplify it.

4.                  At the time these instructions were written, there was no certainty that the Second World War (with all its terror, its liberations and delays) would occur. Given the value of the great Teaching presented through Master DK, there is no reason why disciples of this Teaching should not continue to safeguard it during the twenty-first century, even after the new dispensation appears, presumably after the year 2025.

5.                  Through the steadfast work of the Lucis Trust, the books have indeed been “sent forth steadily upon their mission”. Now they are distributed throughout the world. Appearing in an electronic edition (the AAB CDRom) they have achieved a necessary ubiquity and are thus safeguarded from any possibility of obscuration.

6.                  We are told that a “new and more adequate teaching” is on its way, to appear in the twenty-first century. That century is now with us, and predictably, the so-called ‘new teaching’ of the Tibetan is everywhere to be found, coursing through the inauthentic transmissions of many tens of mediums who profess to bring to us the new thoughts of the Master.

7.                  That there is nothing of real value in the vast majority of these channelings and transmissions is a certainty to anyone who recognizes Master DK’s note and who has cultivated a modicum of the necessary discrimination to separate the real from the unreal. This mostly pitiable demonstration of subconscious fluidity serves nothing but the ego of the enthusiastic but occultly naïve channels, and leads thousands of gullible seekers astray. Therein lies its real potential damage to the authentic and most necessary disciplic work inspired by Master DK.

8.                  The authentic third installment of the Teaching is due most probably following the year 2025.

“I can, however, attempt to give you certain concepts, relationships and parallels which may serve to close this section on astrology and lay a foundation for future teaching around the year 2025.” (EA 589)

9.                  The word, “around” gives us some latitude, but the year 2025 is given as a signpost.

10.              Before that time, that which the Master has already given should be carefully assimilated. If the assimilation had been deeper and more thorough, there would not be such a tendency to race towards the acceptance of patently counterfeit transmissions which are mediocre at best and usually sad (and even laughable) misrepresentations of the very Master whose words they purport to offer. For the most part these transmissions are nothing but the welling up of the channel’s subconscious mind (schooled to some small degree in various spiritual teachings) — hence the ‘ring of authenticity’ noticed by the gullible and the deluded.

11.              If the future Teaching is to be “more adequate” (as DK states above) one can only imagine the exceedingly high vibration of the note it must sound. No transmissions to date have come even close to that which is so brilliantly offered by the Tibetan’s present texts.

12.              The rash of channelings purportedly of the Tibetan (and many other Masters), is based upon ego, ignorance, occult naïveté, and sheer laziness — a refusal to think through and adequately assimilate the genuine Teaching which has already been so abundantly offered. Such material is thoroughly pervaded by glamor and illusion.

Next came a happening of vital moment — of more moment than you can perhaps appreciate. An instruction upon the New Group of World Servers was sent out and given wide distribution by means of the pamphlet entitled The Next Three Years. This signalised the anchoring — if so I might call it — of the New Group of World Servers upon the physical plane. They are now in active existence. The group is slowly integrating and slowly making its influence felt in the primary [Page 32] work of educating public opinion — the only potent means of work and of far more potency and ultimate value than any legislation or emphasis upon authority.

1.                  In a letter dated October 10, 1934, the Tibetan states that the pamphlet, “The Next Three Years” “is going forth today upon its mission” (EXH 22). This suggests that the pamphlet was distributed during that year, or, at earliest, immediately before.

2.                  In DINA I, p. 165, it is suggested that one three year cycle of the New Group of World Servers came to an end in May, 1936, implying that it had begun during 1933, probably at the time of Wesak, since the NGWS is ruled by the sign Taurus which is so prominent at Wesak.

3.                  This group may be been in existence even earlier, probably taking its original impulse from the Centennial Conclave of Shamballa and the Hierarchy in 1925. The years 1924, 1927, 1930 or 1933 are possible for its inception, but the years following 1925 are more probable. The year 1924, however, did provide a significant fourth ray impulse and the NGWS is ruled by the fourth ray.

4.                  There is a possibility that the NGWS was anchored in 1933, a year which numerically sums to “7”. In that case, the pamphlet “The Next Three Years” had followed its anchoring.

5.                  The work of the NGWS is involved with “educating public opinion”. This group, therefore, is aligned with the “Forces of Enlightenment” which are in prominent expression at the time of the Taurus Full Moon.  As the group is ruled by Taurus, this naturally makes sense.

6.                  DK says something quite amazing. He calls the educating of public opinion “the only potent means of work” — far more potent and valuable than legislation or emphasis upon authority. This should give us pause when we try to think of methods of service which will be truly effective.

Growing out of the integration of this new group, there is being formed in the world that "bridge of souls and servers" which will make possible the merging of the inner subjective Hierarchy of souls and the outer world of humanity. This will constitute an actual fusion or blending and will mark the initiation of the human family through the achievement of its foremost pioneering members. This is the true "marriage in the Heavens " of which mystical Christianity speaks and the result of this fusion will be the manifestation of the fifth kingdom in nature, the kingdom of God. In the past history of the race, a great event occurred which brought into manifestation the fourth kingdom in nature, the human kingdom. We stand now on the verge of a similar but still more momentous event — the appearance of the fifth kingdom, as a result of the planned activity of the New Group of World Servers, working in collaboration with the Hierarchy of perfected souls, and under the guidance of the Christ Himself. This will usher in the New Age wherein five kingdoms in nature will be recognised as existing side by side upon earth.

1.                  The NGWS is associated with the fourth ray — a bridging ray. Taurus (during this world cycle) is largely ruled by the fourth ray, hence the appropriateness of calling the NGWS that a “bridge of souls and servers”.

2.                  Right now, Hierarchy and humanity are not merged. The majority of humanity is barely conscious of the Spiritual Hierarchy. There are certain moments of the year (Christmas, Easter and Wesak to name three) when, in the East or West, the sense of this merging may be more palpable.

3.                  We are reminded that Hierarchy is truly a “subjective” body of servers. In this day when Hierarchy is moving towards greater objectivity, its essentially subjective nature must be remembered, lest the concept of Hierarchy become unduly materialized.

4.                  The merging and blending here discussed is no small matter, for it represents the “initiation of the human family” — not the initiation of all members of that family, but of the foremost members of humanity, thus elevating the whole. Though not all members of the human family can possibly be initiated in the immediate future, a new note and tone can be set which will represent considerable progress for the whole.

5.                  DK speaks of the “marriage in the Heavens” — a term derived from Mystical Christianity. Usually this concept is associated with the potency of the sign Libra (the sign of marriage and soul-personality union). We note that the NGWS, being ruled by Taurus, is influenced by the planet Venus (the foremost planet of the soul). Venus orthodoxly rules both Taurus and Libra. It is also considered one of the major planets of marriage.

6.                  The “marriage in the Heavens” will bring into manifestation the fifth kingdom of nature — a very great planetary event, of even greater importance than the appearance of humanity (the fourth kingdom) some 21 million years ago.

7.                  We are given an amazing vision of the importance of the New Group of World Severs, as it cooperates with the Spiritual Hierarchy, all under the guidance of the Christ. The NGWS is, thus, to be instrumental (literally) in the birthing of the fifth kingdom.

8.                  The Age of Aquarius is ruled in large part by the fifth Ray of Science. Its number five correlates with the establishment of the fifth kingdom, and with the simultaneous recognition of five kingdoms of nature. A little thought will reveal that today humanity recognizes only four kingdoms with itself as the head and crown. An adjustment towards humility is required of humanity if its foremost members are to enter the fifth kingdom.

You have, therefore, been permitted to share in and watch the work of the Hierarchy to the extent of your individual spiritual contact and have seen the following spiritual events taking place:

1.                  The Tibetan is calling to the attention of his chelas their factual participation in the real work of the Hierarchy.

2.                  Their registration of the momentous events occurring all around them is, of course, dependent on the extent of their real spiritual contact. Amazing happenings may be transpiring before our very eyes, but if our spiritual contact is insufficient, we will blind to them. Increasing sensitization is required.

1. The sending forth of the teaching for the New Age. This deals with the new psychology and with the control of the personality and with the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God.

1.                  There are many teachings. Some are of considerable value and others practically worthless or worse.

2.                  DK is making a bold statement here, because He says that His disciples have witnessed the sending forth of the teaching for the New Age. There is nothing personal in this statement. He is one of the foremost “Messengers” of the Hierarchy, and His Teaching is not strictly His own, but presents information emanating from a number of the Ashrams in Hierarchy.

3.                  It is interesting to see the focal importance of “esoteric psychology”, leading as it does to the understanding and control of the personality. Psychology will be a science of increasing importance during the New Age, and the nature and value of occultism may be appreciated through psychology.

4.                  Another aspect of the “teaching for the New Age” deals with the “Mysteries of the Kingdom of God”. Presumably, this deals with the nature of the higher mental plane and the planes of the Spiritual Triad. Such understanding can be approached through a study of the Science of Initiation.

5.                  It can be realized that there will be no real approach to the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God unless a control of the personality is developed, because the personality cannot enter that “Kingdom” (though, of course, it can and must be influenced by that Kingdom).

2. The founding in embryo of those schools of esotericism which will embody the teaching for the new discipleship and make it practical in application. There are several of these schools and the Arcane School is one of the first. They prepare the way for the greater foundations, outlined in my book, Letters on Occult Meditation.

1.                  Schools of esotericism have been founded during the twentieth century, and that founding is an important part of the Hierarchy’s Plan.

2.                  Note, however, that the schools founded are founded “in embryo”. They have not been full-blown schools of esotericism but only the promise of that which is to come.

3.                  Note that these schools offer “teaching for the new discipleship”. They do not profess to offer training for initiation, though such training may grow subtly as the school become established and reach a sufficient quality of functioning.

4.                  The important thing is that the disciplines of discipleship are applied in a practical manner. The goal is humble enough, though difficult.

5.                  The value and status of the Arcane School is affirmed. It is one of several such esoteric schools “in embryo”.

6.                  DK looks ahead to the kinds of schools discussed in Letters on Occult Meditation. Such schools will be what He calls, “greater foundations”. Much depends upon how successfully the schools-in-embryo do their work. The founding of the newer esoteric schools (the “greater foundations”) can now begin (modestly and earnestly) by those who are willing to slowly work at fulfilling the requirements which the Master has detailed in LOM.

7.                  Does any true esoteric school of the newer sort yet exist? Almost certainly not. The requirements are too steep and the tenacity of the would-be founders largely untested. But a beginning can been made, and, in some cases, is being made.

3. The recognition on a fairly large scale of the New Group of World Servers and their work.

1.                  The Tibetan has brought the NGWS to the attention of humanity, or at least to the attention of those men and women of goodwill who can be influenced by His writings.

2.                  What does He mean by “on a fairly large scale”? Perhaps the NGWS is recognized by a significant number of humanity under other names and categories — such as “Cultural Creatives”, and “People of Goodwill”.

3.                  It would seem that the existence of this serving body, at least, for the moment, is not very broadly recognized, but we have no way of knowing the “scale” of which the Tibetan is speaking. The formation of new political parties which are not divided by polarizing attitudes is an imminent and desirable possibility, and may well occur when the men and women of goodwill scattered throughout the world (but concentrated in the Western-style democracies) have finally had enough of the divisiveness brought to them by the habitual animosity and competition which characterize present political groups so locked in their polarized battles.

4.                  In various countries those voters known as “independents” may also become a group which can be influenced by the NGWS and from whose ranks new members of the NGWS may be drawn.

4. The emergence — as yet only in symbolic indication — of the fifth or spiritual kingdom.

1.                  The full emergence of the fifth kingdom of nature will be a climactic event not yet to be expected. It would seem that the Christ’s work during the Aquarian Age will be a precursor of a fuller establishment of this kingdom.

2.                  Right now, the disciples and initiates of the world (relatively small in number) are the nucleus of this emerging kingdom. They stand as the symbol of that which is certainly on its way, and by a study of their lives and their modes of service, the characteristics of the new kingdom can be somewhat understood.

3.                  It is the duty of disciples and initiates to create in miniature a structure which one day will be characteristic of far larger numbers of human beings. Much, however, remains to be done even among the ranks of those who purport to understand the nature of the fifth kingdom and the requirements for membership.

5. The forming of the skeleton structure of the new groups of disciples, the externalisation in embryo of the inner Ashrams. These in the New Age will multiply and so carry forward the work of integrating the inner and the outer groups and fostering the growth of the Kingdom of God on earth. This will bring to public attention the fact of the restoration of the Mysteries of Initiation.

1.                  Much of spiritual value being done today occurs “in embryo” or appears in the form of a “skeleton structure”. True indications are possible; completeness is not.

2.                  An important phrase is offered: “the externalisation in embryo of the inner Ashrams”. This is what the new groups of disciples (“Seed Groups”) are to become.

3.                  We may wonder how the Externalization of the Hierarchy is to proceed. One of the methods of externalization is here offered. It is a very natural process; there is nothing spectacular or grandiose about it.

4.                  Such new groups will multiply during the New Age, but their structure has to be clear and effective, otherwise such multiplication would be more a detriment to the Plan than assistance.

5.                  Rightly formulated groups are connected to their “inner groups”. The proliferation of such inwardly-linked groups will precipitate the growth of the fifth kingdom on Earth.

6.                  This short paragraph is prophetic. The mode is given whereby the general public will become aware of the “fact of the restoration of the Mysteries of Initiation”.

7.                  The first step in this awareness of restoration will not involve the ceremonies we have become used to considering as characteristic of the process of initiation. The members of such groups (and the groups themselves) will be known for the high quality/vibration of their lives, and will signal the appearance of a new type of human being. The qualities characteristic of those who are members of the fifth kingdom will radiate from them; they will be noticed for the quality of their life.

8.                  Initially, the Mysteries will be restored through the life-demonstration of those who are somewhat privy to those Mysteries — i.e., through those who have already passed through one or other of the various initiations. Such initiates will not proclaim themselves. Their point of attainment will not allow them to do so. The quality of their lives will proclaim who they are. Any attempt to claim initiate status would negate the validity of the claim. Let modern claimants remember this.

The production of the outer form on earth, through the medium of books, of esoteric schools and the educating of public opinion has been committed to a group of us who form a part of the inner world government — disciples and initiates — and to this group, I play the part of secretary and of organising contact man — if I may use words which will mean something to your ears, versed as you are in physical plane organisation work; they mean little or nothing to us, versed as we are in the work of producing living organisms. This group to which I refer is composed of two oriental initiates (of whom I am one) and of five occidental initiates.

1.                  Three modes of outer esoteric work are here mentioned — the production of books, esoteric schools and the educating of public opinion.

2.                  The Tibetan describes His role in relation to the “inner world government” — “secretary” and “organising contact man”. He is thus responsible for organizing and implementing the intentions of Masters Who are senior to Him, and of contacting humanity on Their behalf and His.

3.                  When He describes His work in this way it is impossible not to think of the qualities of the sign Gemini and the planet Mercury.

4.                  DK uses this paragraph to call our attention to the difference between an organization and an organism.

5.                  One can imagine that the concept of “role” is quite different in relation to an organism than it is in relation to an organization. For one thing, the factor of what might be called ‘intuitive fluidity’ would be greatly increased for those adept at producing “living organisms”. Organisms live from within and do not constantly have to be stimulated from without. Permeability is characteristic of an organism; encapsulation of an organization.

6.                  DK writes of the work of advancing the work of externalization of the Ashrams, largely through educational work. He states that seven initiates are involved — two from the East and five from the West. This is a different kind of enumeration than is given elsewhere — the proportion of Western initiates is greater. We note however, that He includes not only initiates but disciples, and so it is possible that some who are not yet Masters are involved in the effort — perhaps disciple-initiates such as Alice Bailey.

7.                  It would seem that Master KH and Master M cannot both be members of this group (if either of Them is, at all) since both are oriental initiates. Yet both of Them have demonstrated that They are, in significant ways, involved in such work.

8.                  We are probably dealing here with an enumeration that is different from the usual list of Masters interested in the Hierarchy’s educational work. The usual enumeration includes Master H, Master R and an English Master, as well as the Master M, KH and DK.

We will leave now the consideration of this general picture and return to the subject of the specific work that this particular group of my disciples can do. You must avoid the idea that you are working in a unique way and alone. This is not so. There are many today working intelligently with our plans, often isolated and alone.

The main requirement in the group work which I seek at this time to emphasise is the most difficult one of a true impersonality. On two points, disciples in the past have ever been emphatic. They have seen and felt the need for reticence, where there is any inner spiritual experience, and have felt that the relating or the discussion of the spiritual and the higher psychic events in their lives produced a sense of loss and was against the occult law. They have equally demanded reticence about their personality lives, about their mistakes and failings, and have demanded it more loudly than the permission to be silent about their soul life. Their demand has been based on a true recognition that the discussion of a spiritual happening with those who do not understand [Page 34] has in it a great deal of danger — the danger of misinterpretation, of glamour and of illusion. The desire for reticence in the personality life is based usually on pride, on a fear of criticism, on terror of being derided, misunderstood and judged; these are all unworthy motives.

1.                  The Tibetan is now returning to specificities. He reemphasizes a more important caution: His disciples must not think they are working “in a unique way and alone”. The “glamor of special selection” would then enter and the value of their work would be negated by pride and separation.

2.                  Many are working with the plans of the Hierarchy, often isolated and alone. The sense of “group work” is most necessary even if the vast majority of those affiliated are personally unknown to each other. Having the many in mind is one of the methods of ensuring impersonality in the work.

3.                  DK lists “impersonality” as the main requirement for the group work which He seeks to emphasize. It is so difficult because the personality is ever craving the feeding energy of attention in one way or another. Impersonality is so necessary because a personal attitude short-circuits true group work by emphasizing the part over the whole.

4.                  DK discusses a true and false “reticence”. He seems to sanction the idea that the unwise discussion of higher spiritual or psychic events produces a sense of loss and is against occult law. Elsewhere, He definitely states that the claiming of initiate status is against occult law.

5.                  Why this mysterious “sense of loss”? Perhaps these inner spiritual and psychic events serve as a source of inspiration which, revealed, lose their power to inspire. It is as if a concentration of force is weakened and dissipated. As if a contact given for impulsion is vitiated by being made common property. Perhaps the thoughtforms generated by the unready (when they hear of these things) in some way attack the revealing disciple’s thoughtforms surrounding the event and weaken those thoughtforms.

6.                   Probably the prohibition against unwisely speaking about ‘sacred things’ can only be directly experienced. Unless the prohibition is upon one, one will not know the reason for its existence.

7.                  A less desirable form of reticence is also cited — the demand for reticence about one’s personality mistakes and foibles — the embarrassments of the Spiritual Path. This second kind of reticence is unworthy and is based upon fear and pride. Yet, “each sees and knows the villainy of each”, and no disciple is allow to wear “a hood, a veil which hides his face from others” (Rules of the Road).

8.                  DK discusses the very real danger of discussing deeply personal spiritual happenings with those who do not and (as yet) cannot understand. The dangers of misinterpretation, of glamor and illusion are cited. Such discussion (even if well-intended) will lead to a decrease in the light of understanding rather than an increase. Distortion will be the result. Refraction (glamor) and fragmentation (illusion) will be the consequences. The first kind of reticence, therefore, is not only justifiable but necessary. Those who discuss these matters with those who are unready (and who are not brothers of like degree) reveal, through their lack of restraint and discrimination, the fact that they are not that which they claim to be. If claims are not involved, they still lose through such revelation, for they reduce the inner power of their experiences and contribute to misunderstanding.

9.                  The second type of reticence, the desire for reticence about the personality life is entirely another matter. People do not want to be revealed for what they truly are; they would rather hide their weaknesses than expose them to the “Light of Day” (Scorpio’s light). In such reticence we find a fundamental lack of courage — a weakness which will prevent progress on the Path of Initiation.

Among the disciples of the New Age groups and ever in a Master's inner Ashram, there is no need for this theory of reticence. You are co-disciples and co-workers. If any of you have in the past or may in the future become initiates, it will not affect your relation to your fellow-disciples in these groups. The knowledges of initiation cannot be passed on by word of mouth within the initiate ranks, for they are not communicated in speech or by letters. Only those who possess certain transcendental senses can take initiation and should they try to communicate the secrets and mysteries of initiation in symbol or form, you would fail to react to or to understand their meaning.

1.                  DK does away with the need for reticence among established co-workers — especially, I would say, the need for reticence about personality shortcomings.

2.                  We note that He calls it a “theory” of reticence, perhaps suggesting that the disciples who practice it are not solidly established in a good reason for doing so.

3.                  Master DK, however (in His personal instructions to His chelas) is often reticent in discussing the particular initiation for which a disciple is being prepared. In one or two cases He does mention it, as in the case of ISG-L (the second) or DHB (the third). Usually, however, He leaves it unspecified, as He seeks, I would think, to prevent an unwholesome curiosity about the spiritual status of fellow disciples. It is probably when there is a very strong teaching point involved that He discusses the particular trials, challenges (or opportunities) surrounding a particular initiation.

4.                  DK states that the fact of having become or of becoming an initiate will not affect the relation to one’s fellow disciples. The whole matter is to be approached with impersonality.

5.                  Then, come some very important statements, which should give pause to those who state that they are training disciples for initiation. Alice Bailey never said more than that she (and the Arcane School in general) was offering training for discipleship.

6.                  Knowledge of initiation cannot be passed on by conventional means — i.e., by word, speech or letters. Transcendental senses (which ones, could be discussed with profit — for they are not the usual psychic senses) are required. Should initiates possessed of such senses attempt to convey the secrets and mysteries of initiation, they would fail because of the inadequate response of the unprepared.

7.                  In statements of this kind, the Master is protecting the entire process from the claims of charlatans who purport to offer initiation to others — through word, symbol, gesture, sound, etc. Only the Initiator (the Christ or the Lord of the World) can truly initiate, and They initiate only those who are already initiate!

8.                  The secrets of initiation are safely sealed away from the meddling of the profane. The process is thereby safeguarded and pretense exposed for what it is.

9.                  Those who have eyes to see will see. Those who have ears to hear will hear. Others, though eager for sight and sound, will neither see nor hear.

So, in this group of my disciples, let there be the recognition of unity of thought. Experience, thought, difficulties and problems can be shared, and the cultivation of a sympathetic understanding and of mutual aid in the spiritual life can be developed. Disciples are people of mature years from the standpoint of the soul, and, therefore, the pettinesses of life and small frictional difficulties will not be shared by you with each other. There should be no temptation to waste each other's time in idle talk. It is the broad and general outline of the plan for the outer work of these groups of disciples which should engage your thoughts and communications with each other.

1.                  The disciples in groups like the ones being formed by the Master are united by “unity of thought”. On this basis they can take their stand, no matter what may be their ray and astrological differences and their differences in spiritual status.

2.                  Legitimate areas of sharing are here given. All such sharings are for the purpose sympathetic understanding and mutual assistance. There is never an attempt to put someone in his/her place, nor to proudly assert one’s imagined spiritual status. All sharing is done in a spirit of helpfulness and in a brotherly manner — not casually, but purposefully.

3.                  Disciples are spiritually mature men and women; therefore the sharing of petty details and frictions is not suitable. DK is offering clear guidelines concerning disciplic behavior within His groups. Personality happenings are not shared for their own sake. Only if such details have utility to advance the process of discipleship and group well-being are they offered. To the disciple, time is utterly precious and must not be wasted. Most discussion of personality affairs is simply a waste of time.

4.                  The Divine Plan is the most legitimate topic of discussion. The disciple is especially concerned with the understanding and application of that Plan. The methods, opportunities and difficulties involved in this application offer more than enough to engage disciples when they converse.

“Speak not of self.  Pity not thy fate.  The thoughts of self and of thy lower destiny prevent the inner voice of thine own soul from striking upon thine ear.  Speak of the soul; enlarge upon the plan; forget thyself in building for the world.  Thus is the law of form offset.  Thus can the rule of love enter upon that world.” (TWM 474-475)

The groups planned will be of many different kinds and their work will be diversified and varied. I have for some time desired to write a little more fully about the groups which are forming in the world today, under direction of the Masters. They will gradually make their appearance in the world and fulfil their destined mission. Four of these groups are already formed or in process of forming and the others will gradually be created to meet advancing need.

1.                  The Tibetan begins to enter into the diversity of the Seed Groups.

2.                  We note, incidentally, that He has “desired” to write more fully about such groups. Perhaps the term “desire” means something different to a Master than it does to us, yet, after all, Masters are still human beings, and the Principle of Desire is ubiquitous in cosmos.

3.                  We note that these groups are impulsed and directed by the Masters. They are not the result of some bright idea seized upon by a well-meaning disciple, though disciples can respond to direction coming from the Masters.

4.                  DK speaks of the gradual appearance of these groups. Perhaps that appearance was scheduled over a period of one or two decades. At present it is impossible to tell, as during 1939, the first phase of the experiment was discontinued.

5.                  At the time DK’s writing of this group instruction, the first four groups were either formed or in process of formation. This included the group of Telepathic Workers, the Trained Observers, the group of Magnetic Healers and the group of Educators.

6.                  We judge that the groups were precipitated in the order of their importance and priority. Need ever grows, and the later groups would meet this growing (“advancing”) need. The earliest groups, however, were apparently the most essential.

It is essential that members of these groups have a wider vision than they now have; their membership in any of the [Page 35] groups constitutes an act of service which they are rendering to the work which I and other members of the Hierarchy are carrying forward under the Plan. The individual disciple must not look upon his work as a marvellous opportunity for his own spiritual advancement. All true disciples are equally distinguished by a determination to make the groups successful and all are longing to get as much out of the group work as possible. All are genuinely animated by a desire to serve but also by a general satisfaction over the interest and opportunity offered by the group work. Along with these most normal and right reactions are to be found much ignorance as to the true significance of the work, a good deal of selfish pleasure and some ambition. This is natural, for no perfection is yet to be expected among disciples. If perfection existed, you would all be found working in a different relation to the Great White Lodge.

1.                  The true motive for membership in such groups is set forward. Membership is an act of service, whether to Master DK or to other Masters.

2.                  A dominating desire for spiritual advancement must not enter in; it cannot be the principle motive, for, if so, it would only prove the unfitness of the disciple for inclusion.

3.                  It is desirable for members to seek to make the groups successful, but it is also realistically expected that they will wish to “get as much out of the group work as possible”. This latter motive is very human, but reasonable and acceptable. The desire to serve, however, must be stronger than the desire for personal spiritual satisfaction.

4.                  DK carefully assesses the psychological condition of His groups. He sees the ignorance, the selfish pleasure and ambition which characterize some of the members. He is, however, a realist. He does not expect perfection, for, among disciples, it does not exist.

5.                  DK hints that if perfection existed, one would be a true member of the Hierarchy — a relation to Hierarchy quite different to the one which presently characterizes those He has chosen for inclusion within these groups.

In order to clarify this group work which the Hierarchy plans and enable you to grasp the intent clearly, I will tell you something of the purpose which lies behind the groups and of the general plan into which it is desired that they fit. In the early stages of any hierarchical experiment, much difficulty is encountered, owing to the material with which the initiating agents (such as myself) have to work. Any new idea, especially if it embodies a purpose which can only materialise later when the Plan is further perfected, fails naturally to meet with full comprehension in the early stages.

1.                  Note that Master DK calls Himself an “initiating agent”. This is an interesting slant on His initiatory status. It suggests that Masters (relatively high initiates that They are), must undertake initiatives on behalf of Hierarchy and humanity.

2.                  The reason for the Master’s difficulty vis-à-vis the projects He would initiate is the inadequacy of the “material” with which He has to work. We are that inadequate material! Perhaps, this should give us pause. Yet, withal, we must respond to such an idea impersonally. The Master is speaking factually and we have simply to recognize the fact and continue our attempt to measure up.

3.                  DK recognizes the lack of comprehension which will greet His plans, even from the disciples He includes within the groups. The groups will play an important part in the precipitation of the Divine Plan, but not yet. Hence, the full meaning of the groups cannot yet appear. Comprehension will be but partial. This is inevitable.

4.                  The whole endeavor is an “experiment” undertaken under difficult conditions. Yet, there is no other way.

5.                  On our own and smaller level, we should realize that our undertakings under the impression of Hierarchy and for the sake of humanity will also meet with unavoidable difficulties. How we respond to these difficulties will be the measure of our merit as disciples.

I have said that these groups constitute an experiment. This experiment is fourfold in nature and a concise statement about it may prove helpful.

1.                  An experiment has an uncertain conclusion.

2.                  This uncertainty exists because, although a desirable outcome is understood and foreseen, the experimenter does not know how the material will react. We are reminded that even the Christ does not know exactly how humanity will react to presented opportunity.

3.                  Master DK discusses the fourfold nature of the experiment in concise terms which we should register. In many ways, we are still associated with this experiment. We may not be under His direct supervision, but we are training ourselves according to the instruction which He has offered, and much of what He said to His groups still applies directly to us.

I. They are an experiment in founding or starting focal points of energy in the human family through which certain energies can flow into the entire race of men.

1.                  Occultism is the Science of Subtle Energy. During the Aquarian Age, relations within the human kingdom and between that kingdom and other kingdoms will be understood in terms of energy dynamics.

2.                  New types of energies are needed by humanity and they must be assimilated.

3.                  All correct distribution begins with focalization. The groups formulated concentrate the certain qualities of energy which are cultivated for distribution.

4.                  Master DK was involving Himself with the formation of “focal points”. These focal points had to reach a certain purity, quality and intensity before they could be utilized by Hierarchy in the process of human redemption.

II. They are an experiment in inaugurating certain new techniques in work and in modes of communication. I would point out that in these last three words are summed up the whole story. These groups are intended to facilitate interrelation or communication as follows:

1.                  The New Age will have its new methods, and largely, they will be group methods.

2.                  A technique is a means of achievement. Hierarchy has many unsuspected techniques at its disposal, and is now ready to share with humanity some of the less dangerous ones.

3.                  DK focuses on the words, “modes of communication”. Hierarchy is characterized by certain modes of communication which allow its membership to achieve unanimity of vision and understanding. The Masters have Their inner ‘television’ and ‘radio’. They are possessed of modes of communication which are immediate and fully revelatory. These modes are subjective and essentially occult. Humanity is now ready to be taught ways of reaching each other that are far superior to anything heretofore possible.

4.                  The result of the correct exercise of these modes of communication will be enhanced relations, leading to Right Human Relations on Earth. Without correct communication there can be no correct relations.

5.                  When studying what is said about the Ten Seed Groups below, it must be remembered that the Tibetan has described these groups in other ways in other references, especially in The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, in an article called The Work of the Seed Groups, beginning p. 46. To gather a more complete idea of what Master DK intended in relation to these groups, this additional study must be undertaken.

1. There is a group of what we might call Telepathic Communicators. These people are receptive to impression from the Masters and from each other; they are the custodians of group purpose and, therefore, closely related to all the other types of groups. Their work is largely on the mental plane and they work in and with thought matter and with the reception and direction of thought currents. They are also working at the facilitation of communication between individuals so that the rules and methods whereby speech can be transcended may become known and the new way of intercourse be brought about.

1.                  The fundamental group is the group of Telepathic Communicators.

2.                  The source of impression they receive is primarily the Master. Impression from the Solar Angel (“the first Master”) should also be included.

3.                  Impression from the Master will always have to do with Ashramic Purpose, and will, therefore, reflect to some degree the Purpose of Hierarchy and, however faintly, of Sanat Kumara

4.                  Members of this group also receive impression from each other, as souls, focussed upon the mental plane. There are many kinds of telepathy, but solar plexus telepathy will not be the focus of the members this group. The soul is to be involved in the transmission.

5.                  The responsibility of being a custodian of group purpose is onerous. This is a directing group, having much of the first ray. Interestingly, those who formed its membership, had much of the first ray, either in their soul or as the personality ray. Three had minds upon the first ray. Three were focussed in their soul upon the first ray, and one was a first ray personality (Alice Bailey, herself).

6.                  Just as the number one is divisible into all other numbers, so this group was related to all the ten Seed Groups.

7.                  Purpose is essentially a divinely energized pattern of destined relationships. The members of this group and the group as a whole were to be sensitive to the reception and transmission of pattern.

8.                  Their work was largely upon the mental plane, and they had to learn not only to receive but to send. Reception is related to inhalation, and sending to exhalation.

9.                  The idea of “new modes of communication” applies most particularly to this first group. The transcendence of speech was the goal. One can see that the first and second rays were intended to supersede the third (so intimately connected with the throat center).

10.              The advantages of the new ways of intercourse which this group was to bring about could be listed as: immediacy, accuracy, intensified impulsion, and congruence with the intended pattern. Perhaps other advantages could be found.

Communication will eventually be:

a.       Soul to soul on the higher levels of the mental plane. This involves complete alignment, so that soul-mind-brain are completely at-one.

1.                  This is a high form of telepathy.

2.                  It could be called “spiritual telepathy” because the soul is involved.

3.                  Such telepathy will carry the conviction of unity, a soul realization.

4.                  For most disciples, soul, mind and brain are, from time to time, fleetingly at-one. A steady and reliable alignment of all three is here needed if soul to soul telepathy is to become a reality.

5.                  We can understand that the Law of Magnetic Impulse would be related to this form of telepathy. This Soul Law (the Law of Polar Union, occultly called), involved the relation between the crown and ajna centers.

6.                  Clearly, all parties concerned would possess soul-mind-brain alignment, otherwise transmission of this kind is not possible.

7.                  The attempt to think the kinds of thoughts impulsed by the Solar Angel, will promote this kind of telepathy. Thoughts about the personal self will not be useful.

b.      Mind to mind on the lower levels of the mental plane. This involves the complete integration of the personality or lower self, so that mind and brain are at-one.

1.                  This is a lower form of telepathy than the first variety.

2.                  It occurs within the strictly human realm and may be spiritual or not, depending upon the quality of the personality concerned.

3.                  A relatively high degree of advancement is required for success with this form of telepathy, for the transmitters and receivers must be integrated personalities. The antahkarana need not, however, be built. The focus is within the mental unit, and the ajna center may be quite sufficient as in instrument without the involvement of the crown.

Disciples must remember these two distinctive contacts and bear in mind also that the greater contact need not necessarily include the lesser. Telepathic communication between the different aspects of the human being is entirely possible at varying stages of unfoldment.

1.                  DK offers an interesting thought — “the greater contact need not necessarily include the lesser”, though it may. The reverse is, obviously, also true. Facility with telepathy does not necessarily indicate high soul achievement.  Solar plexus telepathy (and perhaps sacral center telepathy) may occur at an early stage of development.

2.                  Perhaps mating rituals (even in the animal kingdom) are indications of sacral-telepathy. The relation of mother and child may be considered of a solar plexus variety. Heart-to-heart telepathy must also be possible, and may indicate soul contact, for the heart is a group-conscious organ.

3.                  The whole matter needs to be studied systematically as the constitution of man (described by occultists) becomes more widely understood.

2. Another group is that of the Trained Observers. Their objective is to see clearly through all events, through space and time by means of the cultivation and use of the intuition. They work very largely on the astral plane at the dissipation of glamour, thus bringing in illumination to mankind. Thus another type of energy is brought into play, producing another type of inter-relation and communication. This communication is between the plane which is the plane of illumination and pure reason (the buddhic plane) and the plane of illusion and glamour, which is the astral plane. The Trained Observers are asked to remember that their great task is to dispel the world illusion through the pouring in of light. When there are a sufficient number of groups, working along these lines, there will be found — upon the physical plane — certain channels of communication which will act as the mediators between the world of light and the world [Page 37] of illusion. They will be transmitters of that form of energy which will break up the existing glamours and illusions, and so dissipate the ancient deceptive thoughtforms. They will release the light and peace which will illumine the astral plane and dispel the illusory nature of its life.

1.                  This Seed Group requires the cultivation of an occult sense of sight. Intuition is a high expression of this sense (though it may also be related to the sense of taste).

2.                  How does one “see through” all events and through time and space by using the intuition?  The question invites contemplation.

3.                  Events, time and space are all aspects of the Great Illusion. They are related to the Third Aspect of Divinity, rather than the second (to which sight and intuition are related).

4.                  To “see through” means to see into the world of causes lying behind apparencies. Thus to see, is to avoid being deluded or misled by the obvious. It requires a penetrating ‘vision’ and a highly cultivated “esoteric sense”.

5.                  Obviously, some type of buddhic connection is required of the Trained Observers, for buddhi is necessitated in the dispelling of illusion. Time and space are categories of illusion. Time and space present to the consciousness many forms. The Trained Observers see the quality behind and within the forms, as well as the purpose, significance and meaning of those forms. They are equipped to know whether forms faithfully reflect a higher archetype or are distortions of such archetypes, or have no relation at all to the foundational archetypes.

6.                  A deep sense of archetypal attunement (buddhically induced) is necessary for the Trained Observers, for they must have a ‘feel for distortion’. They must know the archetype to which the distortion is related, and have the ability to re-attune an aberrant form to the archetype it is meant to reflect — or, if that is impossible, to destroy the aberrant form.

7.                  When working with human beings, they must be able to see through a glamorous or illusory presentation of self, to the pattern which the self is meant to embody. Always, they see beyond and through the obvious.

8.                  We can understand how Neptune and Pluto would both be useful to such group members, and Venus, with its luminous clarity, as well.

9.                  Members of this group know how to wield the light, and they can easily detect the glamorous and illusory forms in relation to which the light has to be wielded. They have a strong sense of the ‘beauty within’ and learn the techniques of restoring beauty — reintroducing that beauty into all false presentations of itself.

10.              The buddhic plane is the plane of pure reason, and it has a special relation to the astral plane. Neptune, interestingly, is involved in relation to both planes, promoting illusion on the astral plane and identificatory, intuitive clarification on the buddhic.

11.              The buddhic plane is considered the “world of light” and the astral plane, in general, the “world of illusion”. The task of the mediators between these two planes is to ‘reconfigure’ the astral plane so that it reflects, without distortion or excessive refraction, the ideational nature of the buddhic plane.

12.              The astral plane is the plane of what we might call ‘false magnetisms’. Due to the energies and forces of that plane, the valueless is valued and the valuable is not sought. On the buddhic plane (of harmony), all values are rightly and beautifully adjusted and magnetism is devoid “wrong allure” — so common a condition on the astral plane. Therefore, relations are as God intended them to be.

13.              Members of this group are sensitive to the aesthetics of the Divine Pattern, and are ‘at peace with the buddhically reflected Pattern of the Plan’. They are sensitive to all magnetic distortions of this Pattern and understand the method of bringing right magnetism (the magnetism of love or pure reason) to the astral plane, which plane, in effect disappears, becoming the reflection of the buddhic level.

14.              Theirs is a tremendous task and may not be fully undertaken before several centuries have elapsed. They will be engaged in one aspect of the cleansing of the Augean Stables — the psychological aspect of this cleansing.

15.              Today, those who are cultivating a discerning sensitivity to glamor and illusion are qualifying themselves to be members of this kind of group. We note that quite a number of groups of this kind must at length appear.

16.              They will, to a degree, wield a particular energy of destruction, contributing to the breaking up of existing glamors and illusions and the dissipation of “ancient deceptive thoughtforms”. Their ability to ‘see the true’ will contribute to their power to destroy. They will be possessed of the power to disorganize distorted forms through the application of light. They will also vitiate such forms by asserting the presence of better and more wholesome forms into which the energy trapped in the false forms which will directed (once released and purified).

17.              It is clear that workers in this field must be free from glamor and illusion themselves if they are to avoid the pitfalls of strengthening their own glamors and illusions. One must resonate to the true before one can be effective in disorganizing, destroying and replacing that which misrepresents the true.

18.              The methods used will be most occult and some of them are offered in the book, Glamor: A World Problem

19.              These workers will release “light and peace”, illuminating the astral plane and dissipating the illusory nature of its life. It is clear that such workers should have achieved at least the second initiation, at which time the attainment of an illumined mind and spiritual intelligence are confirmed, otherwise they could not access the necessary light.

20.              Peace is related to harmony and to the buddhic plane. Ultimately it is related to Shamballa and the monad. The turmoil of desire which, under Mars, usually characterizes the astral plane is subdued and the energy of harmonizing, illuminating, placating Venus is applied. Divisiveness based on wrong perception is reduced. Peace is based upon the right and proportionate expression of True Patterns (found within the monad). Access to the buddhic plane of pure reason is a form of initial alignment with the monadic plane whereon the ‘Original Patterns of Peace’ can be found.

21.              Every sort of astrological energy may have its application in this process, but one thinks of Libra, as agent of peace and of ‘proportional vision’, ideal for the overcoming of glamor. The illumination of Taurus (“Mother of Illumination” and second sign associated with the second initiation) is also exceedingly useful. Vulcan smashes wrongly conceived and sustained astral and mental forms, and forges new ones illustrative of truer patterns. Mercury senses discrepancies and unravels the skeins of glamor and illusion. Venus shines its potent light into the dense fog, and Neptune dissolves the cables of wrong magnetism. Pluto steals the wrongly bound energy. Uranus reveals the archetype behind the illusion. Saturn binds anew according to law.

3. The third group is that of the Magnetic Healers. These healers have no relation to the work of the so-called magnetic healers of today. They work intelligently with the vital forces of the etheric body. Much of their work is dealt with in the fourth volume of A Treatise on the Seven Rays. This group of healers must bring about the right healing of the personalities of individuals in all aspects of their nature. The work to be done is that of the intelligent transmission of energy to various parts of the nature — mental, emotional and physical — through the right organisation and circulation of force. Present day healers should endeavour to break loose from the modern and traditional ideas as to healing; they should recognise the stupendous fact that healing must eventually be carried forward by groups which will act as the intermediaries between the plane of spiritual energy (either soul energy, intuitional energy or will energy) and the patient or group of patients. Note this last point. The group idea must always be remembered by the students as they work; they must not work as individuals but as units in a coherent whole. This will distinguish the New Age methods from the past, for the work will be group work and, usually, for a group. Magnetic healers must learn to work as souls and not as individuals. They must learn to communicate healing energy from the reservoir of living force to the patient or patients.

1.                  The Tibetan draws a sharp distinction between the true Magnetic Healers and those known as magnetic healers today. The implication is that modern, so-called magnetic healers do not work intelligently and are ignorant of the forces of the etheric body.

2.                  In the book Esoteric Healing, the Tibetan indicates that there are Radiatory Healers as well as Magnetic Healers. Both techniques — magnetic and radiatory — are needed by the true esoteric healer. Perhaps for the sake of brevity, both types of healers are listed under the name of “Magnetic Healers”.

3.                  We note that Magnetic Healers deal with all aspects of the personality, and not just the physical body and vital body.

4.                  Again, the term “intelligent” is used, when describing the type of transmission of energies for which such healers are responsible. Their task is rightly to transmit, organize and circulate the various healing forces. The forces are directed to the mental, emotional and physical natures depending upon the need of the patient or group of patients. These considerations immediately expand the concept of the scope of esoteric healing.

5.                  The contemporary healer is encouraged to break loose from both modern and traditional ideas concerning the nature of healing.

6.                  The group idea is emphasized. Not only will individual healers heal individuals and perhaps groups of individuals, but groups of individuals will heal other groups, as well as individuals. There are four such modes by which relations between healers and patients may be organized.

7.                  We note that the healer will have access to what DK calls the plane of spiritual energy, and will be an intermediary between the energy there found and those who may be in need of that energy.

8.                  It becomes clear that when the Master speaks of the “plane” of spiritual energy, He is referring to more than one such plane, for soul energy, intuitional energy and will energy may all be accessed.

9.                  These three kinds of energy may technically be found within the Egoic Lotus on the higher mental plane, but their true sources are three planes of the Spiritual Triad — the manasic (especially the highest subplane), the buddhic and the atmic.

10.              Hence, we understand that the true esoteric healer will have built the antahkarana and will be accessing the energies of the Spiritual Triad in the healing process. These are the energies which are modified and transmitted through the Egoic Lotus, or which can be directly accessed via the antahkarana.

11.              We might ask ourselves how such high spiritual energies can heal problems within the personality, but we must remember that there are psychological deficiencies which only the energies of the higher mind, the intuition and the will can rehabilitate. Fallibilities exist in each of these three areas, and for the higher types of patients or groups of patients, perhaps access to such higher energies is necessary for a higher type of healing. The energies of the Spiritual Triad will not be necessary for all kinds of healing.

12.              The Spiritual Triad, however, is focussed within what can be understood as the “higher ethers” of the human energy system; these are cosmic etheric ethers, having a direct connection with the ethers of the etheric-physical plane. When the lower ethers are rightly directed and manipulated, they carry with them a resonance to their higher etheric sources and a resonant interplay between the two levels becomes possible.

13.              When we consider the group work to be done by esoteric healers, we come to understand that unless they can learn to identify as a group, rather than as separate individuals (even if in group formation), they cannot achieve the kind of healing capacity desired. It is obvious, then, that a considerable degree of soul-infusion is required of the true esoteric healer, otherwise group-identification will not be possible.

14.              The true Magnetic Healer will work as a soul. What does this mean? That the identification with soul and as soul will be appreciable. Such healers will work suffused by a sense of harmonious unity, and they will be instruments are harmonization. Their task is to reduce dissonance within the individual or group system they attempt to heal, thus they, themselves, must be reasonably harmonized (individually and as a group).

15.              We can understand that the true esoteric healer must be purged of egoism, otherwise he/she could only work as an individual and not identified as soul and group. The selflessness of the true Radiatory Healer must be considerable.

16.              There is, the Tibetan informs us, “a reservoir of living force”. This may be etheric in nature, or it may be etheric in a higher sense. The true Radiatory Healer has eliminated all blockages within himself/herself to the inflow of such vital and vitalizing force. Within the individual or group system of the individual or group adept at Radiatory Healing, the Divine Circulatory Flow is unimpeded, and, thus, no blockage within the individual or group system will prevent access to the reservoir.

17.              A very great cleansing is thus required of such individuals and groups.

18.              Pluto must surely do its cleansing work. Vulcan must empower. Jupiter must relate to the source of abundant vitality and Venus must contribute to the harmonization of internal energies. Uranus, the planet of electrification and vitalization, also plays it transformational role. The Earth and the Sun as pranic sources cannot be ignored.

19.              Just as all rays can be involved in the healing process, so the same is true of all planes and zodiacal signs. While emphasis may be put upon a few of them, all can and must contribute to the healing process.

20.              Aquarius, of course, is the sign of service and of all the newer modes of healing. Virgo and Pisces are, traditionally, the healer’s signs, whereas Taurus gives great access to the necessary prana, and Libra to the necessary easy and balance contributing to harmonization. As stated, however, all signs may be constructively involved and their benefits justified.

21.              It is interesting to note the Tibetan’s use of the word, “communicate”. The Magnetic Healers are not to transfer energies from the reservoir of living force but to “communicate healing energy” from that reservoir. Some subtlety is suggested, and a means of transmission which may involve various of the chakras. The word “communicate” suggests the importance of the communicating and transmitting planet, Mercury.

22.              There are many kinds of healing energy and many portals of transmission. Hence the necessity for that Mercurian intelligence which selects and directs the right energy/force to the right part of the patient’s energy system (or to the collective energy system of the group).

23.              Love there must be if such healing is to be successful, but without intelligence the process will fail. Interestingly, however, the will is to be held in leash. This does not mean, however, that will energy may not be communicated to those who are to be healed. It is the forcing, insistent, personal will of the healer which has no place in the process.

24.              The whole subject is as vast as it is profound. It is the intention of the Master DK (as one of the externalizing Masters) to instruct humanity in some of the ancient techniques of occult healing. As the healer is himself/herself the instrument of healing, it is clear that much work needs to be done upon the instrument if the whole process is to be successful.

4. The Educators of the New Age will come next. Their service is along the line of culture and they will work to bring in the new type of education. Their emphasis will be upon the building of the antahkarana and upon the use of the mind in meditation. Again — much of this new educational science will be given in the fifth volume of the series. They will act as communicators and [Page 38] transmitters of two aspects of divine energy — knowledge and wisdom. These must be thought of in terms of energy. This fourth group (whose work is concerned with the education of the masses) is a direct intermediary between the higher mind and the lower mind. They are concerned with the building of the antahkarana and their task is that of linking the three points of mental focus — the higher mind, the soul and the lower mind — so that there may be established a group antahkarana between the kingdom of souls and the world of men.

1.                  We note that in Master DK’s writings, the term “New Age” is used in a uniformly positive sense. Recently, because of exploitation and a general leveling effect, the term has become partially identified with a relatively superficial approach to spirituality.

2.                  We are told that these servers work “along the line of culture”. Culture represents the essential and most cherished values of any civilization. In the Agni Yoga Teaching, culture is equated with the cult of light (“Ur”). The culture of any human being is, in a way, the totality of the content of his/her causal body. Culture is the harvested treasury of incarnational experience. For a national society, it is the best that has been extracted from the nation’s collective life. We are on our way, perhaps, to generating a world culture.

3.                  Culture is associated with the planet of Venus, which represents the ‘causal harvest’ (the ‘harvest’ of the causal body). Venus is a planet of refinement and of the refining process. Only that is stored in the causal body which has been distilled down to its ‘fifth essence’ (quintessence).

4.                  The Educators of the New Age must thus inculcate an ever-finer sense of values.

5.                  Education is a process of “drawing out” or “drawing forth” (‘e-ducare’). Clearly, it is the soul which must be drawn forth in the education process. The causal body is built and the accumulated causal treasury is drawn forth into expression (all this under the inspiration of the Solar Angel, which whom alignment has been achieved according to sanctioned occult methods).

6.                  We can understand that each one of these Seed Groups is the seed of an extensive rehabilitative pattern or progressive movement within human civilization. Such patterns have always existed and have served their functions, but their form has not usually been in alignment with hierarchical intention, and, thus, true periods of general usefulness have been intermittent at best, the usual condition being one of distortion.

7.                  The emphasis of the Educators will be upon the building of the antahkarana and the use of the mind in meditation. That which is to be drawn forth already exists. Correct meditation and the use of the antahkarana (in later stages of meditation) are the means of accessing that which waits to precipitate — either the stored content of many lives, or the ideas and patterns in the psyche of God-the-Planetary-Logos.

8.                  Each student must learn that he/she is, actually, the bridge to the needed light. Teachers are necessary, but mostly to teach students how to become their own teacher. Masters supervise the making of Masters.

9.                  It is the higher reaches of thought which are to be accessed in the new educational process. The normal methods of memory training and the cultivation of the concrete mind may still be useful, but will slip more and more into the background, as the higher human faculties receive the majority of attention.

10.              It is interesting to see that the fifth volume of a Treatise on the Seven Rays (namely, The Rays and the Initiations), is essentially a treatise on education. The number five, related as it is to light and to the mind, is significant in this respect. The new education will be training for entry into the fifth kingdom in nature. The fifth ray will be very important in this work, but not alone in its lower expression, but more in the expression related to higher mind and the planet Venus.

11.              The new educators will act as transmitters of knowledge and wisdom — these two being considered aspects of energy.

12.              Knowledge, as we usually understand it, is related specifically to the concrete mind, but there are knowledges to be gathered from much higher dimensions. Knowledge relates to the accurate registration of that which exists on any level of potential perception. It is the registration or perception of ‘things as they are’.

13.              Wisdom requires entry into the world of meaning and, even more, into the world of significance. Really, four ‘worlds’, relate to wisdom; the worlds of meaning, causes, significance and of being. There is a kind of wisdom which the human being accumulates through many lives of incarnational experience. This can be called ‘personal wisdom’, or more accurately, ‘trans-personal wisdom’. It is augmented by the innate wisdom of the Solar Angel.

14.              There is also a higher type of wisdom which resides in the Spiritual Triad and is not derived from human experience, though it may be derived from the ‘experience’ of the Planetary Logos in Whom we live and move and have our being.

15.              Knowledge can be transmitted through speech, word, sound, letter and symbol (to name several media of transmission). Wisdom cannot be directly transmitted, but grows through soul contact (of teacher with student), a kind of “darshan”. It also grows within the student when knowledge is continually presented within a broad context and from a sufficiently great perspective. Wisdom will grow as the antahkarana becomes more reliable, for the wisdom of the Spiritual Triad is accessed by the personality consciousness.

16.              The education here discussed is not simply occult education, though, increasingly, it will contain elements which heretofore have been the objective of those participating in occult training.

17.              True occult training in the present necessitates the assimilation of much knowledge, but its real objective is the growth of wisdom. The term “growth” is appropriate, because whereas certain types of knowledge can be acquired immediately, wisdom never can. It is the product of many incarnations and increases through the right application of knowledge.

18.              We note that the Educators of the New Age are the fourth group and, hence, their task is related to the number four as well as to the number five. The two planets most closely associated with the mind and its cultivation are Mercury and Venus, and the rays they emit are the fourth and the fifth.

19.              Mercury has traditionally been associated with all matters pertaining to education. Its soul ray is most probably the fourth. Certainly the fourth ray is the ray which the Tibetan emphasizes in relation to Mercury. The fourth ray is a bridging, linking ray. The antahkarana is a bridge and the fourth ray and Mercury are intimately involved in its construction and utilization.

20.              As well, Mercury is associated with both knowledge and wisdom. In its relation to the concrete mind and even to the abstract mind, it is the purveyor of knowledge. In its relation to the buddhic plane, the plane of intuition, it is the purveyor of wisdom.

21.              There are three levels of mind which will engage the attention of the Educators of the New Age. A link between them must be established. Thus will “Three Minds Unite”. The third, fourth and fifth rays are all involved, and these three rays can reasonably be considered the rays of Mercury, beginning with the personality ray and working up to the ray of the monad. This Word of Power is for those focused upon the fifth ray. That there are three minds suggests the presence of the number three. The linking process necessitates the fourth ray.

22.              Establishing links between the higher mind, soul and lower mind creates a triangle and three distinct links. Firstly, there is a link between the lower mind (mental unit) and the center of the Egoic Lotus. Then, there is a link between the center of the Egoic Lotus and the manasic permanent atom on the first subplane of the higher mental plane. Finally there is built a direct link between the mental unit on the fourth subplane of the mental plane and the manasic permanent atom. This latter link, it will be recognized, is what we usually call the antahkarana.

23.              We thus find that the Educators of the New Age are far more a bridging group than may have been expected, and the province of their focus is much wider and higher than has been the case for those who have called themselves educators.

5. The fifth group will be that of the Political Organisers and will concern itself with political factors in every nation. They will work in the world of human government, dealing with the problems of civilisation and with the relationships existing between nations. The bringing about of international understanding will be their major objective. This group communicates the "quality of imposition," and an authority that is lacking in the other branches of this divine group activity. This work is largely first ray work. It will embody the method whereby the divine Will works out in the consciousness of races and nations. Members of this group will have much first ray energy in their equipment. Their work is to act as channels of communication between the department of the Manu and the race of men. It is a noble task, my brothers, to be channels for the will of God.

1.                  We note that the Tibetan discusses this fifth group not as “Politicians” but as “Political Organisers”, suggesting the importance of the factor of organization — one of the three qualities which typifies the Energy of Shamballa.

2.                  It is interesting that it is the fifth group, suggesting that those who work in this area are to be inspired by the Fifth Creative Hierarchy and are to work under soul impression emanating from this Fifth Creative Hierarchy of Solar Angels.

3.                  There are three great Departments of Hierarchy, led by the Manu, the Bodhisattva and the Mahachohan respectively. The Department of Government is led by the Manu.

4.                  Interestingly this Department is closely related to the Department of Civilization, led by the Mahachohan, just as the first and third rays are easily related.

5.                  Solutions to the “problems of civilization” (some of which have been discussed by the Tibetan in His Problems of Humanity), are, therefore, under the supervision of both the Manu and the Mahachohan, though many of their other functions differ.

6.                  Today there is a strong focus on right international relations, and this can only increase under the universalism of the sign Aquarius. Nationalism is egoism on a national level. Just as the ego has to be trained and refined in the case of the individual aspirant and disciple to fit them for group consciousness, so the ‘national-ego’ must be similarly trained and refined to fit a nation for correct participation in that group called the “international community”. There are many statesmen working in relation to the Department of Government to whom the gradual improvement of international relations is entrusted.

7.                  We note that the bringing about of “international understanding” is the major objective of this fifth group. It is clear that the qualities of the second ray of “loving understanding” must be combined with those of the first ray of will and power.

8.                  Those who work in this fifth group work with the first aspect of divinity, the will. They must never forget, however, that the first ray is, in this solar system and on this planet, the servant of the second ray of love-wisdom. If this fact is remembered, their work will proceed along right lines. It is fortunate that a significant number of first ray workers are on the first subray of the primary second ray.

9.                  We note that the group works with the “quality of imposition”. A higher, soul-inspired pattern is to be imposed upon a lower pattern. In this imposition lies much occasion for friction and, even, destruction, for the old personality-conditioned ways will resist the imposition.

10.              It is in the mode of imposition that much wisdom is required and, especially, an acute sense of timing. There may be ideas whose time has come, and the first ray workers in this fifth group may be telepathically attuned to those ideas and function as agents for their precipitation, but the form also has its requirements and these must be honored to some degree if excessive and unnecessary destruction is to be avoided.

11.              The fifth group carries a certain “authority” missing from the other groups. It is important that such authority be impersonal. There is no personal authority suggested, and any attempt to impose personal authority (rather than ‘authority based on spiritual principle’) will be out of keeping with the dharma of this group.

12.              We can see that the fifth group is aligned with the first group, for the Telepathic Communicators receive the impression of that which must be imposed by the fifth group.

13.              Again, we note that these workers do not work with the form alone. They are to work with the consciousness of races and nations, for if the Divine Will does not work itself into that consciousness, any strictly outward imposition will be superficial and will fail. Once more, then, we see how these workers must unite the heart to the head, and the second ray to the first. This must not be forgotten. Consciousness, after all, is most closely related to the second aspect of divinity.

14.              The Tibetan had only begun to organize the fifth group-of-nine. Only three workers had been chosen, and all of them had first ray souls. It would have been interesting to see the ray equipment of the remaining personnel, had the process moved to completion. But, unfortunately, the Groups-of-Nine experiment had to be discontinued for internal and external reasons. The fifth group was left incomplete and none of the remaining groups (of the intended ten groups) were formed.

15.              We are reminded that all the Seed Groups were experiments in “modes of communication”. The specialized type of communication to be practiced by the fifth group was to have been communication between the Department of the Manu and the race of men. The Manu’s Department has its plans just as all other Departments and Ashrams. The formation of the United States was all part of the Manu’s Plan and within this formation the Master R. cooperated. Many nations, so it seems, are ruled by power-hungry personalities who have no respect either for their people or the international community. This aberration, however, will at length be overcome as the strength of the souls of nations begins to emerge. Then the dim outlines of the Manu’s very real plans will begin to emerge with greater clarity. Certain great statesmen are already attuned (either unconsciously or consciously) with such plans, and can expedite the process of emergence in what is usually a very troubled field.

16.              The Tibetan closes this paragraph with an inspiring statement: “It is a noble task, my brothers, to be channels for the will of God.”  He is certainly calling for nobility among the Political Organisers. In this virtue, both courage and selflessness are combined. There is suggested an ability to live according to the higher aspects of one’s nature and to avoid all temptation towards baseness (which has so characterized many cruel leaders of the past). A loving impersonality is one of the main requirements.

17.              It must be remembered that these Seed Groups (no matter what may be their predominating ray) are soul groups, and, thus, have a direct connection with the second aspect of divinity. No Seed Group can be successfully grown and proliferated unless the Love-Wisdom ray is shining through.

6. The workers in the Field of Religion form this group. Their work is to formulate the universal platform of the new world religion. It is a work of loving synthesis and it will emphasize the unity and the fellowship of the spirit. This group is, in a pronounced sense, a channel for the activity of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom, that of the World Teacher — an office held at present by the Christ. The platform of the new world religion will be built by the many groups, working under the inspiration of the Christ and the influence of the second ray and these — in their totality — will constitute this sixth group.

1.                  The sixth group is related to the formation of the New World Religion. The workers in the Field of Religion work not only with the sixth ray (which qualifies so many of the present religions in the world) but, especially, with the second Ray of Love-Wisdom. It is this latter ray which will guarantee the success of the enterprise. Otherwise, divisiveness and separativeness would thwart the intended unity.

2.                  Their work is to formulate the “universal platform of the new world religion”. We see that the members of the sixth group are to deal with broad spiritual principles, especially at first.

3.                  In a field riven by discord and acrimony, principles must be found which can hold some reasonable appeal to all parties.

4.                  In His book, The Reappearance of the Christ, the Tibetan details the foundational principles for a New World Religion. They are all based upon tolerance and a realization of a continuity of revelation. It is the presumption on the part of the fearful, that the revelation to which they ascribe is the final revelation (and, usually, the only true revelation) which has caused so much of the trouble ever found in this fractious field.

5.                  The quality of “loving synthesis” must pervade the work of this sixth group. When we consider this quality, we note that it is a combination of the second and first rays. Synthesis can be considered the second aspect of the Divine Will.

6.                  We note, also, that DK speaks of the “unity and fellowship of the spirit”. When He speaks of spirit, he is speaking of the first aspect of divinity — not the second (the soul aspect). Perhaps (given immediately possible objectives) it would have been more accurate to say (as He discusses elsewhere) the ‘unity of the soul’ and the “fellowship of the spirit”.

7.                  Irrespective of the distinction, both soul and spirit stand far above the divisions engendered by the functioning of the analytical lower mind and strengthened by a fearful and intense emotional nature. When religion truly functions from a soul perspective, it functions within a field of soul-love, and the commonalties of the religious experience are sought. Separative religious dogmatisms fade into the background.

8.                  Brotherhood and fellowship are two very similar terms, and, interestingly, both are based upon the spirit. As monads (spirits) we are all “brothers” and have among ourselves an unbreakable “fellowship of the spirit”. On that level we are all equals and all very much identical. The spirit is the source of the realization of synthesis. Perhaps we are being told that the New World Religion must eventually address the reality of the spirit, and reveal a commonalty — even a homogeneity — which cannot be broken by any assertion of difference. In a way, if the universal platform of a New World Religion is based upon spirit, it will unite all human beings beyond any possibility of separation due to even to quality (a second ray factor). The separations due to form (the third ray factor) are, of course, more obvious.

9.                  We can see how much of the second ray must be infused into the Field of Religion. We can also see how, in our present civilization, this Ray of Love-Wisdom is dominated by the sixth Ray of Devotion and Idealism.

10.              The World Teacher, the Christ, is behind all efforts to create a universal spirituality. This fact might become a source of satisfaction to Christians and a point of repudiation for those of other faiths, but a deeper understanding of the Hierarchy, the Christ and our Planetary Government will make the acceptance of the Christ and His Spirit a natural and inevitable development. The Christ, after all, is not a Christian. No form of religion is sufficient to contain Him, though all forms can learn to reflect Him.

11.              We can see that the New World Religion will not be imposed on humanity, but that it will be “built by many groups” — probably groups of many different initial religious persuasions. Together they will find the principles and experiences which unite them, and these commonalties will become so strong in their consciousness, that their fusion will become inevitable, though enriching cultural differences may be preserved. We can see that much interpretive and correlational work will have to be undertaken in order to demonstrate the similarities between the various religions of the world. In Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, H.P.B. has made an impressive beginning.

12.              The Christ, however, will be the inspiration behind the growing amalgamation of the world religions. The work will probably be slow and unforced. Realization will come, and love will promote a growing field of unity.

13.              In this line of work, the contribution of the Master Jesus will be significant, especially with respect to the three major religions of the West — Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

14.              This sixth group will, at length, be very large. The “grass-roots participation” of the many religious groups and sects will be necessary. Many little groups may not want to participate in the growing tide of amalgamation, but there will be a sufficient number of groups to make the tide irresistible.

15.              The discoveries of science (as it is influenced by occult science) will contribute to the reasonableness of the coming amalgamation. Science is on the way to proving the unity of what may loosely be called ‘the religious experience’. It is hard to argue with that which is scientifically proven.

16.              The word “platform” is used twice, indicating the initially foundational nature of this sixth group.  A “common ground” or an ability to stand together must be found, and this will be the initial work of the members of the sixth group. If the uniting principles can be found and affirmed, the necessary platform can be built.

7. The seventh group is that of the Scientific Servers. They will reveal the essential spirituality of all scientific work which is motivated by love of humanity and its welfare, which relates science and religion and brings to light the glory of God through the medium of His tangible world and His works. They have a most interesting function but one which will not become evident for a long time — not until the building forces of the universe are better understood. This will be co-incident with the development of etheric vision. This group will act as a channel of communication or intermediary between the energies which constitute the forces which construct the forms and fabricate the outer garment of Deity and the human spirits. You will note here, consequently, the possibility that this group's main initial work will be concerned with the problem of reincarnation. That problem deals with the taking of an outer garment or form under the Law of Rebirth.

1.                  The seventh group is called by the name “Scientific Servers”, emphasizing the soul quality of service. They might have been called the ‘Scientific Researchers’, emphasizing only the quality of mind rather than the combined qualities of mind and heart.

2.                  It is significant that the seventh group follows the sixth, for the Tibetan states that science and religion will be cooperative ventures (just as they have been bitter antagonists in the past).

3.                  The motive for scientific work is strongly emphasized; it is to be the “love of humanity and its welfare”. Clearly the enquiring mind will be infused by the illuminating soul.

4.                  The scientists will reveal the strong link between God and nature (“His [God’s] tangible world and His works”. The “Glory of God” revealed though His “Garment” will bring religion and science into cooperative enterprise.

5.                  DK only hints at one of the interesting functions of this seventh group. That function will depend upon the revelation of the deva kingdom and its modes of building. The seventh group works with the seventh ray as well as the fifth. Of some of the work undertaken by this group, the Tibetan says the following:

“It will be carried forward by first ray workers, assisted by seventh ray aspirants, but using fifth ray methods.” (EXH 56)

To understand and work with the deva kingdom much seventh ray will be required.

6.                  The development of etheric vision is required for a more complete understanding of the potentials of this seventh group. Interestingly, vision, as a whole, is related to the fifth ray. Aquarius is a sign much related to the etheric body and it transmits the fifth ray powerfully. The Aquarian Age will be qualified principally by the seventh ray, the ray correlated to the etheric vehicle. We can see, therefore, how the coming Age is most suitable for the development of etheric vision, and for the scientific advancements which depend upon the presence of this type of vision.

7.                  The seventh group also has its peculiar mode of communication, uniting the “human spirits” to the forces which construct and fabricate the outer forms within the “Garment of God”. The Fifth Ray Lord has, interestingly, been called the “Divine Intermediary” (EP I 77), but so has the Fourth Ray Lord (EP I 71).  The ‘distance’ between the fabricating forces and the soul on its own plane is considerable, but that ‘distance’ is even greater between the fabricating forces and the human monad.

8.                  The task of these workers will be to ensure that the construction of the outer form conforms to the soul-intended pattern (which determines the nature of any given incarnation) and eventually to the spirit-intended pattern. Knowledge of the methods of many building forces on various planes (and of the words of power which control these forces) will eventually be necessary. One can understand that the full capacities of such groups will only slowly develop as the powers involved are dangerous in the hands of all except those who are tested servants of the Divine Plan.

9.                  The rapidly developing field of genetic engineering is related to the future work of the seventh group. Genetic engineering, at present, takes only the physical mechanism into consideration. It is ignorant of the quality of psyche which underlies the form and of the presence of soul/spirit which underlies the human psyche. We can see that much psychological sophistication will be required of those Scientific Servers who seek to serve in a divinely intended manner. The outer forms cannot be constructed according to strictly human ideas and preferences. Desire is no reliable guide in this matter. It is the will of the soul and spirit which determines the pattern according to which the deva forces must build. It will be no easy matter to determine the nature of this occultly recessed will.

10.              Today, as a race, we run the risk of interfering with divinely-intended processes and of meddling with forces which were better let alone. As our mentality grows, out potential for meddlesome damage will increase dramatically. Thus, a genuine and accurate soul-contact will be required of such Scientific Servers if they are not to do more damage than good.

8. The Psychologists will form this next group and they will be concerned with the revelation of the fact of the soul and with the new psychology which will be based upon the seven ray types and the new esoteric astrology. Their major task will be to relate, through approved techniques, the soul and the personality, leading to the revelation of divinity through the medium of humanity. They will act also as transmitters of illumination between groups of thinkers and as illuminators of group thought. They transmit energy from one thought centre to another and, above everything else, they transmit the energy of ideas. The world of ideas is a world of dynamic force centres. Let this not be forgotten. These ideas have to be contacted and noted and their energy has to be assimilated and transmitted.

1.                  With the field of esoteric psychology there is much presumed familiarity. Everywhere there are students of the seven rays, esoteric astrology, and the chakric system.

2.                  It is interesting that the Psychologists constitute the eighth group, relating them to the Christ-Principle (the number of which is eight). The soul principle is also the Christ-Principle, and thus, the number eight is completely suitable. In the design of the figure-eight we see the flowing, serpentine union of a higher sphere and a lower. Thus is the Great Work accomplished.

3.                  The new psychology is equipped to explain the differences between the many types of human beings, as well as the modes of achieving right relations through the emphasis of points in common.

4.                  It is no easy matter for the Solar Angel/soul to express through the personality mechanism. Fundamentally, soul and personality are two very different orders of life, functioning according to their own natures. Esoteric psychology (with its accurate knowledge of the energies and forces involved in both spheres) holds the secrets of right relations between these two periodic vehicles, and, eventually, engineers pervasion of the lower by the higher.

5.                  If the “fact of the soul” could be easily revealed, it would already be revealed, because for ages man has known of the higher aspects of his nature. There are, however, so many blockages to soul expression in the lower nature, that only an intimate understanding of both soul and personality and their interplay can clear the way for the true revelation of the fact of the soul. Right now, the soul, though suspected by many and contacted by some, is not an established fact in the consciousness of humanity. This establishment will probably fall to workers in France (with its fifth ray, spiritually-sensitive Piscean soul). A new form of scientific, esoteric psychology can be expected to emerge from that nation — eventually.

6.                  We see that the functions of this eighth group are several and diverse. “They will act also as transmitters of illumination between groups of thinkers and as illuminators of group thought”. Their Mercurial function (also correlated with the number eight) is quite clear, for it is Mercury that transmits illumination. When similarities between two previously unrelated factors are noticed, then light breaks forth. One can see that the fourth ray will also be involved in the functioning of the Psychologists, for it is the fourth ray (emitted by Mercury) which reveals unsuspected similarities between different things.

7.                  Groups of thinkers are characterized by different qualities of energy and force. When light comes to a group from another group, it not only enhances the relations between the two groups, but illumines the understanding of the group receiving the light. Their understanding of the greater pattern enlarges, and their place within that pattern is more fully understood. Their own qualities of energy and force are seen in relation to the qualities of energies and forces which characterize different groups. Thus intelligent and loving relations between groups are facilitated through an increasing understanding of how to interact skillfully — based upon an exact knowledge of energy and force.

8.                  How is group thought to be illumined? In every group thought exists, but unless such thought is seen within a broader context, its ‘light value’ remains at a relatively low level. It is by understanding the relations between the thought of one group and the thought of other groups within the larger whole, that light flashes forth. The Psychologists understand the energy and force qualities of the various groups and of the parts of the whole in general. Thus the Psychologists can connect one group with another, promoting the flow of light through this connection. We are dealing with “Mercury who, as the Messenger of the Gods or the ‘divine Intermediary, carries messages between the poles with speed and light’.”

9.                  In general when thought of a certain quality is analyzed for its energy and force content (by utilizing the sciences of the seven rays and esoteric astrology) the light content of that thought is significantly enhanced. The principle involved here is that ‘right relationship produces light’.

10.              The Psychologists, we come to understand, transmit energy from one thought center to another. In this way their work is related to the work of the Telepathic Communicators. They can accomplish this transmission because they understand the energy patterns which characterize the various thought centers. They can ‘speak the language’ (the ‘energy language’) of various thoughts centers. They are, in fact, ‘energy translators’, adapting and qualifying the energies and forces of thought patterns so they can be received by thought centers organized along their own unique lines.

11.              Christ and the Buddha (both supremely gifted as esoteric psychologists) could speak to anyone. This gift is characteristic of many members of Hierarchy who understand the nature of energy and what people of various kinds are equipped to ‘hear’ and understand.

12.              The Psychologists also transmit the “energy of ideas”. Ideas are incorporeal, but they give form and figure to shapeless substance. In Glamor: A World Problem, p. 14, Plutarch is quoted for a definition of the term, “Idea”:

“An idea is a Being incorporeal, which has no subsistence of itself, but gives figure and form unto shapeless matter and becomes the cause of the manifestation.”

Every idea has its own inherent ‘pattern of energy’, though such patterns are not spatial and temporal (as we commonly understand those terms).

13.              Ideas reside upon the buddhic plane (though they are derived from the highest subplanes of the cosmic physical plane — namely, the monadic and logoic). Their origin, in fact, is even higher.

14.              A true Esoteric Psychologist has access to the buddhic plane via the antahkarana, and is not limited to the world of thought — strictly speaking, the mental plane.. Rather, he/she penetrates the world of intuition and both knows and ‘feels’ the ‘energy value’ of the ideas contacted. Again, the planet Mercury is involved in the process.

15.              Thus, the Psychologists are “sensitives” and truly psychic in the higher sense, but they also possess an acute mentality which can understand and describe the quality of that which they intuitively contact. They blend the second, fourth and fifth rays in their work. It is interesting to understand that the hierarchical Department of Psychology is much under the supervision of an unnamed fourth ray Master, the Master “P.”. These facts further emphasize the importance of the planet Mercury and of buddhic contact.

16.              We might say that the Psychologists can understand and contact ‘qualified points of ideation’ as they exist on the buddhic plane. They understand these points or “force centers” both in themselves and in relation to other points or force centers. It is said of the Master DK that “He is profoundly learned, and knows more about the rays and planetary Hierarchies of the solar system than anyone else in the ranks of the Masters”.  This type of knowledge qualifies Him as an esoteric psychologist and is, perhaps, the major reason why He was responsible for introducing this esoteric science to the modern world.

17.              We note also that the Psychologists not only contact these force centers (‘ideational points’) but assimilate them as well as transmit the energy emanating from such centers. A true Esoteric Psychologist is an energy recipient, transformer and transmitter — all of these actions proceeding in a conscious manner.

9. This ninth group will be composed of Financiers and Economists. They will work with the energies and forces which express themselves through the interchange and the values of commerce; they will deal with the Law of Supply and Demand and with the great principle of Sharing which ever governs divine purpose. They will [Page 40] be the great psychometrical workers, for a psychometrist is one whose soul is sensitive to the soul in others and in all forms of life. The principle of Sharing which must govern economic relations in the future is a soul quality or energy and hence their work of relating soul with soul. They also evoke the soul of the past, linking it with the present and finding it likewise indicative of the future.

1.                  The number nine is associated with the third ray of Active Intelligence — a ray that has much to do with the handling of that which is called “money”.

2.                  Financiers supply money for the purposes of manifestation. Economists are those who understand the patterns involved in the flow of money.

3.                  Mercury again is involved, for He is the “God of Commerce”.

4.                  The members of this group are involved in supervising an exchange of goods and services. This exchange is based upon a knowledge of relative values.

5.                  The more they know about the Divine Plan, the more accurately they will be able to determine the value of that which is exchanged. It is clear that the principle of intelligence must be highly developed in them, as one would expect, because of the importance of the third ray within this group.

6.                  The purpose of commerce is to ensure that that which is needed reaches those in whom the need exists. Goods and services are distributed (hopefully in accordance with the Divine Plan) so that the various needs of various units of life may be fulfilled. The archetypal pattern behind all this distribution is the “Divine Circulatory Flow”. Aquarius is the sponsor of this flow and the Aquarian ideal of right sharing will make much progress as the work of this group advances and as the Aquarian energy strengthens.

7.                  The Principle of Sharing governs the work of this group. Of course, it must be a sharing based upon correct knowledge of the Plan and of those among whom the sharing occurs. Sharing must be characterized by a wise appropriateness. All goods and services are not to be distributed with exact equality, as the needs of the units within any system are various and are to be intelligently met. A strictly equal distribution will not meet those needs. Some organs of the body, for instance, need more blood than others. A strictly equal distribution of blood to all organs irrespective of their capacity and needs would not serve the welfare of the body.

8.                  The “relations between the part and the whole” is a philosophical subject which may engage the thought of the members of this group. In a way, they are systems analysts, who must have an overview of the entire system if they are to understand how the Principle of Sharing may best be applied. Probably, no economist today (other than a hierarchical economist) has such a vision.

9.                  It is interesting to consider that the worker in group nine will be “psychometrical workers” sensitive to the soul in all forms. Why may this be? Perhaps in order to determine the true needs of all units of life — the physical and spiritual needs. DK tells us that the Principle of Sharing is a “soul quality” and, thus, the need of understanding the soul dimension in those among whom sharing is to occur. Only an understanding of real soul values will illuminate the best way to share.

10.              We can see that the work of this ninth group is not strictly material, though they deal with the distribution of the things by which men live. They, too, are asked to have a knowledge of esoteric psychology, and their connection with their own soul is indispensable. The problem with modern economics is that it is not a ‘soul-based-economics’ and most modern economists and financiers lack sufficient soul contact to wisely oversee the responsibilities which have fallen to them.

11.              When psychometry reveals what might be called ‘soul value’, then the more material values will be properly adjusted and distribution will proceed guided by an enhanced sense of the needs of every soul.

12.              Curiously, we learn of this group that “They also evoke the soul of the past, linking it with the present and finding it likewise indicative of the future”.  Civilization is in constant flux and progression. Old values are either preserved or discarded. Present values reflect the values the have been and those which are anticipated. Future values arise both from established values and the impending values which intuition reveals. That which is valued in society depends upon a relation between the values of the past, present and future.

13.              In a very practical manner, the Financiers and Economists are involved in determining which materialized values of the past should be preserved, and which manifestations (to embody emerging values) should be precipitated. Their work in relation to values can become extremely tangible. They often determine, for instance, which buildings from the past will be preserved and which of many possible new buildings will be built. All this depends upon the prevalent balance of values in society.

14.              It is instructive to realize how much of soul culture is required if the workers in this apparently materialistic field are to perform their duties properly.

10. This is the group of Creative Workers. They are communicators between the third aspect of Divinity, the Creative Aspect — as it expresses itself through the creative work and in response to the thought world — and the first aspect, Life. They link and blend life and form creatively. They are closely related to the ninth group because today, unknowingly and without any true understanding, they are bringing about a concretisation of the energy of desire; this in its turn brings about the creation of things. Incidentally, therefore, they are concerned with the concretisation of money. Their work is also largely philosophical and concerned with the task of relating — factually and scientifically — the other nine types of groups so that they may work creatively upon the physical plane and the divine Plan may clearly appear as a result of this synthesis which they bring about.

1.                  We come at last to the tenth and most synthetic group. Whereas the other groups are to have, initially, nine members, the final group is to have twenty-seven — three from each of the former groups.

2.                  This group links the third and first aspects of divinity.

3.                  Artistic work may be included within the scope of group ten, but the creativity here discussed is much wider than artistic work, strictly speaking.

4.                  The group is concerned with the creative linking and blending of life and form. One of the planes of importance in relation to their work is the atmic plane, being a plane through which both the first and third aspects of divinity naturally express.

5.                  This group is closely linked to the ninth group, but, in a way, has a more concrete and precipatory function. This tenth group is a vehicle of expression for the seventh ray (as well as the third), and its power to precipitate depends upon this ray which links the “highest” and the “lowest”.

6.                  Members of this group bring about a “concretisation of the energy of desire” which, today, works out in the “creation of things”. Desire may remain fluid and unspecified in its aim, but under the influence of the seventh ray, its objectives become more specific and its attractive power is directed towards materialization.

7.                  Through the concretization of money, Group Ten is related to Group Nine (which, it seems, is more concerned with issues of soul values and the assessment of energy patterns which determine sharing). Group Ten, however, is involved in the magical process which actually brings things into precipitation.

8.                  The philosophical duties of Group Ten relate it to the third ray. The “Factor of Synthesis” (usually connected with the first ray) is of considerable importance in the functioning of this group. Members of the tenth group are to organize, coordinate, and synthesize the interplay of the other nine groups, bringing the fruits of this synthesized interplay into manifestation. If this can be done, a miniature replica of the Divine Plan will appear on Earth.

9.                  We can see, therefore, that the task of Group Ten is one of consummation, and, indeed, the seventh ray is the consummatory ray.

10.              We may expect that the other groups must be well into the expression of their duties and qualities before the full task of the Creative Workers can be expressed.

11.              It should be especially important for the Laws of White Magic to be in the possession of the Creative Workers, for their task is a coordinated, creative precipitation of that which all Ashrams and their representative groups intend in concert.

12.              In relation to this group, “The Highest and the Lowest Meet”. The Creative Workers must not only be cognizant of Divine Purpose (broadly considered as it manifests through all Ashrams), but sufficiently practical to bring the intended patterns into manifestation despite the resistance of the “ancient fires”. This will require considerable magical skill in action.

III. These groups are also an externalisation of an inner existing condition. They are an effect and not a cause. That they themselves may have an initiatory effect (as they work out into manifestation upon the physical plane) is no doubt true; but they are themselves the product of an inner activity and of a subjective aggregation of forces which must perforce become objective. The work of the disciples who find their place in these various groups is to keep in close rapport with ten inner groups which form, nevertheless, one large active group.

1.                  The Seed Groups are considered in relation to cause and effect.

2.                  That they are causative is doubtlessly true, for their appearance will bring about great changes in humanity’s approach to the spiritual realities of life.

3.                  However, the groups are a precipitation of ‘inner groups’ already existent. Within the various Ashrams, inner groups which are the prototypes of the outer Seed Groups are already organized and potent.

4.                  Therefore, the Seed Groups do not have to be invented or creatively designed; their prototypes exist. What is required of Seed Group members is alignment with those inner Ashramic groups, and faithful precipitation of the patterns which already inwardly exist.

5.                  The inner personnel far outnumber the disciples on the outer plane who are trying to assist in the emergence of the Seed Groups. The outer disciples’ task of precipitation requires a close meditative alignment with the inner groups so that that which is precipitated may be faithful to the inner pattern.

6.                  It is interesting to realize that, just as the first nine Seed Groups are synthesized by the tenth, so all the inner groups are really but “one large active group”, subjectively existent. This large inner group is a kind of subjective replica of the entirety of the Spiritual Hierarchy. The many lines of service emanating from Hierarchy can find rather full expression in this large inner group which expresses through ten inner groups which, in turn, express through ten outer groups — the Seed Groups upon the physical plane. (The Seed Groups, considered as complete units, are composed of both inner and outer workers.)

7.                  The important thing to realize is that the model exists and the outlines of the model are clear. The entire Seed Group Project is a hierarchical project, and the human beings involved in it are simply taking their place within a pre-conceived design which is part of the Divine Plan.

This group force will then pour through all the various groups just in so far as the disciples in the groups do the following things as a group:

1. Keep en rapport with the inner source of power.

1.                  We are here speaking of the methods of empowerment of the outer groups. Inner groups exist, but their effect upon the outer groups has certain requirements.

2.                  We must not forget from whence originates the power which animates the outer Seed Groups. No Seed Group lives unto itself, nor is any human being, per se, directing the formation and development of a Seed Group. These groups are hierarchically sponsored and the power to sustain them comes from Hierarchy.

3.                  The methods of rapport necessarily involve visualization, meditation and the use of the antahkarana. The attempt to faithfully carry out the objectives of the outer Seed Group (as conceived within the inner groups) will also strengthen the rapport.

2. Never lose sight of the group objective.

1.                  In all group work, many distractions are possible. The members must avoid all tendencies to descend into individualism.

2.                  There is a hierarchically intended purpose at the core of each of the ten Seed Groups. This purpose must become, for each group member, the overweening super-objective. When the ‘eye’ is taken off the project, the project falls apart. The integrity of the entire process requires the focussed eye — the individual eye and the ‘group eye’.

3. Cultivate the dual capacity to apply the laws of the soul to the individual life and the laws of the group to group life.

1.                  Two sets of laws guide the group member, just as there are two sets of Rules for approach to initiation.

2.                  Members of the Seed Groups are not absolved of their responsibilities as individuals simply because their understanding and application of group laws becomes increasingly important. Both are required.

3.                  In a way, the members of the Seed Groups must become proficient in the understanding and application of all 28 Rules. As well, the seven Laws of the Soul are to be mastered and applied.

4.                  There are two levels of responsibility: one pertains to the third aspect and is individual; the other pertains to the second aspect and relates to group life and group progress.

5.                  Just as on our planet the third and second aspect are slowly merging, so in the life of the disciple, the responsibility to understand the requirements of both aspects of divinity (the third and the second) continues to exist and demand attention.

4. Use all the forces which may flow into the group in service; they must learn, therefore, to register those forces and use them correctly. The hints given below as to the centres which these ten groups will use must be studied. The right use of these centres will take place only when there is a greater group unity established among the members of the individual groups and among the groups as a whole. You ask why is this so, my brothers? Because the force flowing in might prove too strong for the individual disciple to handle alone, but the force is shared by the group if there is complete group at-one-ment.

1.                  Forces will flow into the group and they must be correctly handled. The first step (after detecting the inflowing forces) is to ensure that they are used in service.

2.                  DK offers some “hints” concerning what kinds of forces flow into the various groups through the chakras of the individuals in the group. Why are DK’s statements concerning the chakras involved considered “hints”? Probably because they subtly imply so much about the functioning of each of the groups.

3.                  The right flow of energy between the indicated chakras will not simply occur as a matter of course. Group unity and harmony are prerequisites, and each group member has his/her responsibility in the production of that group unity and harmony.

4.                  Not only must the members of the various groups be unified and harmonized with each other, but the groups themselves must be unified and harmonized with the other groups among the ten. Only then will right adjustment be possible and will energy and force flow correctly and safely.

5.                  There is a factor of safety to be considered. Inflowing forces might overwhelm the individual group member if the Law of Group Sharing were not in effect. But it is not enough simply for the group members to desire to share the incoming forces. They must do the necessary work upon themselves — both microcosmically and in relation to the entire group. A condition of “complete group at-one-ment” must supervene if the resultant sharing is to be both correct and safe. This, obviously, will take time and must proceed through several stages, beginning with the microcosmic stages. The Tibetan took plenty of time with the education of the personnel He gathered into the initial groups. When the experiment was disbanded, the groups had not yet reached a point of group usefulness, although the individual members of the various groups may have made some individual progress and increased their individual usefulness.

6.                  We can see what patience and wise supervision are needed if Seed Groups, as here detailed, are to become a serviceable reality in the life of humanity.

7.                  There is little that we can do to reform the Seed Groups. In fact, the Tibetan asked that we not do so. But we can study their nature and understand their value, and learn to build thoughts in relation to their objectives. These thoughts may one day contribute to the reactivation of the Seed Groups under the correct hierarchical supervision.

In this way, each disciple can serve the group and his objective eventually becomes:

a. At-one-ment with his group brothers.

b. Alignment with his soul and with the inner group which is the subjective cause of the outer groups.

c. The expression of the particular technique which his group should eventually embody.

1.                  The requirements are simple though exacting: at-one-ment, alignment and expression.

2.                  Love and wisdom are required for at-one-ment. Alignment with one’s own soul is required before there can be right alignment with the inner groups.

3.                  As for the techniques, the Tibetan was in process of teaching some of them when He saw fit to terminate the experiment. A number of them were exceedingly occult, and we would not “happen upon them” simply by using our normal powers of thought. We can imagine what such techniques might be, but the true techniques must be hierarchically imparted, for they reflect the inner ashramically-related groups from which the outer groups derive. The creative imagination may be useful when Seed Group members try to understand what they may do, but in relation to the assimilation and utilization of occult techniques, direct hierarchical instruction is the safest and most reliable procedure.

The groups will use the following centres in their work:

1.                  It will be obvious that the individual members of each of the following groups work with all the chakras.

2.                  The chakras listed for each group, however, have a distinct connection with the most characteristic tasks of that particular group.

3.                  In some cases the choice of the chakras involved is obvious. In other cases, the choice may seem more subtle, and we may wonder why other chakras were not chosen.

Group 1. — The head, heart and throat centres.

1.                  We note that the head center is always involved, no matter what may be the group under discussion.

2.                  When the head center is indicated, it must be assumed that the twelve-petalled “heart within in the head” is also involved.

3.                  The type of meditation undertaken in the Seed Group work is always occult meditation which requires the use of the crown chakra.

4.                  The Telepathic Communicators require the use of the first three rays — willing, unifying and communicating. The centers most associated with these three rays are head, heart and throat, respectively.

5.                  The throat center will relate to mental telepathy; the heart center to soul telepathy; the head center to soul and triadal telepathy (through which the Divine Plan may be impressed). (Of what monadic telepathy might be, it would be difficult to speak. Perhaps there is no need for it as all monads are essentially one.)

6.                  Head, heart and throat are the archetypal centers and thus it is not surprising to see them represented in this first and most archetypal of the ten groups.

7.                  We may wonder why the ajna center is not involved, for clearly, it is indicated in the telepathic process — both in the reception and transmission of thought. We do know it cannot be eliminated.

8.                  A definitive answer to this question will, therefore, have to be deferred.

Group 2. — The head, heart and solar plexus centres.

1.                  The second group is that of the Trained Observers.

2.                  Their task is to overcome glamor and illusion, and to link the plane of pure reason, the buddhic plane, with the astral plane.

3.                  Apart from the obligatory head center, the heart center (and especially the heart within the head) is the chakra linked with buddhi and the plane of intuition. The solar plexus center (normally associated with the sixth ray) is, of course, related to the astral plane which is the major plane of glamor.

4.                  We can understand that the interplay between heart and solar plexus (representing the interplay between the buddhic and astral planes) is required in this group.

Group 3. — The head, heart and ajna centres.

1.                  The Magnetic Healers constitute the third group.

2.                  The heart center is necessarily involved because healing is the great second ray art, despite the fact that those upon each ray have particular healing techniques suitable for their use.

3.                  A number of healing techniques given by the Tibetan involve the ajna center, but it is listed, in general, because is that particular chakra through which energy is directed to particular areas within the energy system. The healer’s art consists of knowing which centers are to be vitalized and towards and from which centers energy is to be directed. The art of visualization related to the ajna center is obviously involved.

Group 4. — The head, ajna and throat centres.

1.                  The fourth group is composed of the Educators of the New Age.

2.                  This is one of two groups in which the ajna center is involved, and also one of two groups in which the heart center is not. (The group of Scientific Servers is the other.) It cannot be said, however, that an activated heart center is not useful to the new type of educator.

3.                  The main occult procedure for this group involves the building and utilization of the antahkarana from the fourth subplane of the lower mental plane (whereon is located the “mental unit”) to the manasic permanent atom on the first subplane of the higher mental plane.

4.                  Both Mercury and Venus are involved in this process. In various ways and at various times, both Mercury and Venus can be understood as either ruling or significantly related to the throat and ajna centers.

5.                  In this particular case the head center will represent the first ray, the ajna center the second and the throat center the third.

6.                  In the newer type of educational procedure the creative imagination has an important role to play as a linking and transmitting agent. Whereas the throat center is related definitely to the mental plane, the ajna center links to the Spiritual Triad and is important in creating the bridge from the lower mind to the Triad.

7.                  That which is accessed through the bridging process (the flow of intuitions and ideas) must be rendered into word in the processes of education. The throat center provides the form-building aspect, and is used to ‘clothe’ in thought and speech the energies of the formless worlds accessed by the antahkarana, A little thought will reveal how completely the normal processes of education rely upon the throat center.

Group 5. — The head and heart centres and the centre at the base of the spine.

1.                  The fifth group of Political Organizers must, of course, access the will as it is transmitted through the head center. For them, the head center as a center of occult power, purpose and will is very important.

2.                  The heart, however, must not be neglected, as Divine Will is to be applied in love and with full knowledge of its group implications.

3.                  The center at the base of the spine is an interesting designation and occurs in only one other group — that of the Creative Workers. Through this center flow the forces of Pluto (on the first ray). It, like the head center, is a center of will and endurance. Further it provides anchorage in form for the willed purposes of divinity.

4.                  The Manu and His Department (although working upon the abstract and abstracting first Ray of Will and Power), also work with the creation and sustainment of the racial forms to be used by incarnating human beings. There is something very concrete about their functioning, and the members of this Department also raise and lower continents — a type of act which can easily be related to the Plutonic/Uranian function of the base center.

5.                  Those in the political sphere are, above all, the survivors and they endure in their expression of the will while others of lesser intensity fade from sight.

6.                  God’s Will is Law and that Law must find full expression in material form. This expression is guaranteed by the potency of the base center in the group of Political Organisers.

7.                  The alignment of the base and crown in this group relate it more directly to Shamballa than the other groups — perhaps with the exception of the group of Creative Workers, which also has the base center (and crown) activated.

Group 6. — The head, heart and solar plexus centres. This is necessarily the same as in Group 2.

1.                  The sixth group relates to the workers in the Field of Religion. Interestingly, the Religious Workers are related to the Trained Observers. This suggests that there is much glamor in the religious field and that it must be seen and dissipated.

2.                  The key to successful work in the Field of Religion is the production of a loving synthesis and a field of unity in which all the major religions can find their rightful place.

3.                  This will require the lifting of solar plexus energies into the heart center. The solar plexus center is, we are told, dual. The lower solar plexus is the seat of divisive desires and emotions. The higher solar plexus is the focus of uplifting aspirations. All solar plexus activity is destined for resolution within the heart center. If divisive and separative religious approaches are to be transformed into a loving and unified approach to one New World Religion, solar plexus activity must give way to a heart-centered focus.

4.                  Further, the glamors of the astral plane must be dissipated by the clear perceptions impulsed from the plane of intuition (to which the heart center connects). The work of the Trained Observers would be most fruitful if applied to the Field of Religious Work, and, no doubt, one day it will be.

Group 7. — The head, throat and sacral centres.

1.                  A keen mind is need by the Scientific Servers. Their work is largely within the realm of matter and matter is the product of the third aspect of divinity and the third ray. The third ray expresses principally through the throat center, which, as well, is a chakra much associated with thought reception, transmission and thoughtform building.

2.                  The mental elemental has its seat within the sacral center.

“1. The sacral centre            the mental elemental life
Transferred later to the throat centre.” (EP II 304)

3.                  As well, the sacral center, ruled by Uranus and the seventh ray (and in some respects by Mars and also by the third ray) connects directly with the substantiality of matter. In short, the activation of this center gives a direct rapport with the material element which is the principal sphere of investigation for the Scientific Servers.

4.                  We realize that the processes of incarnation will be one of the major fields of investigation for such workers. The sacral center, of course, is directly involved in the processes of incarnation, for by its means material vehicles are provided for reincarnating human souls.

Group 8. — The head, heart, solar plexus and throat centres. This group of disciples will be the first to use four centres in their work as they are in a curious sense, the mediators of thought between the other groups. They are peculiarly a linking group.

1.                  The eighth, ninth and tenth groups each have four centers active. Numerologically, four is a number of grounding and establishment.

2.                  Interestingly, the eighth group will have its personnel selected from the other groups. The Tibetan says the following:

“Owing to the difficulty of this task, the members of this eighth group will be chosen from the personnel of the other groups, for they will have had a fair measure of training in their preliminary work. Two groups will then be interlocking groups — that which is formed of the key people in all the groups, and this one.” (EXH 59)

3.                  The other group consisting of “key people” will be that of the Creative Workers, Group Ten.

4.                  We note that the Psychologists have the same centers active as do the Telepathic Communicators, plus the addition of the solar plexus, allowing them to come en rapport with the present mass consciousness of humanity.

5.                  The Psychologists also work in the realm of ideas and with thought-centers, just as do the Telepathic Communicators. Their task, however, involves working that which is received from the buddhic plane into the substance of humanity (to which the solar plexus center gives access).

6.                  The group of Psychologists is peculiarly a “linking group” and consequently the linking, bridging fourth ray will be of importance. It is also not surprising, therefore, to find the Psychologists as the first group in which four centers are utilized.

7.                  The heart center is, of course, important to them in order to facilitate soul-rapport with many types of human beings. The solar plexus puts them in touch with the personality condition of these human beings. The throat center allows them to interpret, formulate and intelligently communicate that which they discover through heart center and solar plexus rapport.

Group 9. — The head, heart, throat and sacral centres.

1.                  The ninth group of Financiers and Economists utilizes very much the same centers as the Scientific Servers, with the addition of the heart center.

2.                  Like the Scientists, this group is also closely connected to the third aspect of divinity and to matter, hence the use of the throat and sacral centers. The throat center distributes the third ray in the triangle of chakras above the diaphragm (excluding the ajna center) and the sacral center serves as the third ray center for the triangle of centers below the diaphragm.

3.                  Whereas the Scientific Servers are deeply engrossed in understanding the ways of matter as it must serve the soul, the Financiers and Economists must be sensitive to soul in all forms, thus allowing them to arrange for right distribution according to soul need. Hence the heart center is added, placing them en rapport with the larger whole, for the heart is a “group conscious” organ.

4.                  When contrasting the centers active for the Psychologists with those active for the Financiers and Economists, we find three centers the same (head, heart and throat) and two which contrast — the solar plexus in the case of the Psychologists and the sacral center for the Economists and Financiers. The work of the Psychologists, of course, is related more to the second aspect of divinity (of which the solar plexus is a representative) and the sacral center to the third aspect (of so great importance to the Financiers and Economists).

5.                  The sacral center is not usually involved in the sharing process because of its grasping nature. Thus, in this group, it is important to involve it in relation to the heart center through which unselfish impulses usually flow.

Group 10. — The head, heart, sacral centres and the centre at the base of the spine.

1.                  The tenth group consists of the Creative Workers. We find that its centers are closely related to group five, that of the Political Organisers. The numerology is interesting, as ten is twice five.

2.                  In both of these groups, the head, heart and base of the spine are active, but the Creative Workers work with the sacral center as well.

3.                  Because of the use of the sacral center, the group of Creative Workers is related to the groups of Scientific Servers and to the Economists and Financiers. Three groups, therefore, utilize the sacral center, whereas two groups utilize the ajna center and two groups the base of the spine.

4.                  We might wonder why the Creative Workers do not utilize the throat center (of course, really, they do). The Ray of Creative Intelligence, the third ray, works principally through the throat center and only secondarily through the sacral center.

5.                  Perhaps it is because this tenth group is so much involved in the materialization and precipitation of the Divine Plan. In this group, more than any other, the “Highest and the Lowest Meet”. We have therefore the two lowest centers, sacral and base of spine brought into relations with the two highest centers (head and heart — considered from a ray perspective). The first two aspects of divinity are found active above the diaphragm, and centers which represent the third aspect (and, as well, perhaps the first aspect in the case of the base center) active below the diaphragm.

6.                  The involvement of the sacral center, ruled by Uranus, confers a definitely magical impulse to this tenth group.

7.                  In relation to the functioning of the tenth group, the Tibetan has the following interesting thoughts:

“We will not take time to consider the tenth, which will be composed of the key people in the other groups, beyond stating that when its twenty-seven members (three from each group) are chosen and put in rapport with each other, there should come to all the groups such a quickening of their life that they will become one living vibrant organism.” (EXH 47)

8.                  The functioning of the tenth group is occult in its nature and involves the synthesis and vitalization of all the other groups. The number twenty-seven is also not without significance, for it is a number of completion with respect to the third aspect. It derives from the cubing of the number three.

9.                  In the advanced esoteric schools of the future, the number of personnel will be twenty-seven — twenty-four of whom will be students with an additional three guides or instructors.

I wonder, my brothers, if the following sequence of statements will convey anything to your minds? It is a statement of fact and is not the least symbolic in its terminology — except in so far as all words are inadequate symbols of inner truths.

1.                  This is the straight summary of all that has gone before.

2.                  The Tibetan is attempting to speak in terms of facts rather than symbolically. He seeks to impress us with the essence of His thought with respect to the new Seed Groups.

1. Each group has its inner counterpart.

1.                  We must think with an “esoteric sense”.

2.                  The members of the Seed Groups are intended to be occultists, and for them the inner worlds must be appreciated as more real than the outer worlds.

2. This inner counterpart is a completed whole. The outer results are still only partial.

1.                  It is startling to realize that the inner groups are already complete.

2.                  What we can achieve on the outer plane is, as yet, but an incomplete precipitation of the prototype. This is a cause for humility and patience.

3. These ten inner groups, forming one group, are related to the Ashrams of the Masters and are each of them expressive of or governed by ten laws, embodying the controlling factors in group work. A law is an expression or manifestation of force applied, under the power of thought, by a thinker or group of thinkers.

1.                  We are not told how the ten inner groups are related to the seven Ashrams (and their various subdivisions), but with a little focussed thought we could find direct relations between at least some of the groups and some of the Ashrams. There may be others of the groups, however, which could relate to more than one Ashram, to several or even to all.

2.                  This is the first we hear that each of the ten inner groups (and, presumably their outer extensions) is related to one of ten different laws. What these laws may be is not given. There are Laws of Healing, Laws of Magic, Laws of the Soul, Laws of the Solar System and Cosmic Laws, and others as well. Probably, the Tibetan is speaking of yet another collection of laws. Only by studying the essential purpose of each group, might it be possible to intuit a law which could be related to it. A speculative formulation of such laws might be educationally instructive, though confirmation of the accuracy of the speculation would not be immediately forthcoming.

3.                  While we cannot immediately determine the ten laws, we can understand how, for instance, the Laws of Healing would relate to the Group of Magnetic Healers, or how the Laws of White Magic could relate to the Group Ten, the Group of Creative Workers. It is also obvious that the Laws of the Soul would be important for the Group of Psychologists and the Law of Economy for the Financiers, Economists and the Creative Workers as well.

4.                  The Tibetan defines a law as “an expression or manifestation of force applied, under the power of thought, by a thinker or group of thinkers”. Law, then, is willfully focussed thought. It is the sustained, intelligent will of a thinker or group of thinkers.

5.                  It is likely that at the heart of each of these inner groups a high initiate or Master is to be found. The law governing a particular inner group will very likely be the will of that initiate or Master as supported by the intelligent thought and will power of the initiates and disciples assembled within the inner group.

4. These ten inner groups, embodying ten types of force and working synthetically to express ten laws, are an effort to bring in new and different conditions, and hence produce a new and better civilisation. The Aquarian Age will see consummation.

1.                  Each group works, probably, with a number of energies and forces, but the Tibetan speaks of “ten types of force” and the expression of ten laws.

2.                  Probably as the groups develop and individuals participate in them successfully, there will be clarification regarding the nature of the ten forces and ten laws.

3.                  For the time being, it is enough to realize that the groups are intended as change agents, and are to aid in the elevation of human culture and civilization.

4.                  We might consider this tenfold effort as the structural heart and soul of the New Group of World Servers. Many members of the NGWS have no training in occultism and cannot be aware of occult structures which underlie their humanitarian efforts, but service to humanity proceeds especially along these ten lines, and the occult underpinnings of the various modes of humanitarian service will one day be revealed.

5.                  As the energy of Aquarius is relatively universal in its nature, the Aquarian Age will naturally see consummation along many lines.

5. The outer groups are a tentative and experimental effort to see how far humanity is ready for such an endeavour.

1.                  Hierarchy is at once realistic and hopeful. Even They do not know how humanity will respond to proffered opportunity.

2.                  Hierarchy’s Uranian approach will consistently offer experiments to test and try humanity as to its fitness.

3.                  While this experiment apparently failed with respect to its original intentions, it may have laid the ground-work for a new experiment after the year 2025, when, it can be reasonably presumed, the Tibetan will again be working with a reliable and adequate amanuensis.

4.                  It is our task as disciples of the Great White Lodge to contribute to humanity’s readiness and to our own.

IV. These groups are also an experiment which has for its objective the manifestation of certain types of energy which will, when effectively functioning, produce cohesion or at-one-ment upon earth. The present distraught condition in the world, the international cataclysm and apparent impasse, the religious dissatisfaction, the economic and social upheaval and the appalling effects of war are all the results of energies that are so potent — owing to their immense momentum — that they can only be brought into rhythmic activity by the imposition of stronger and more definitely directed energies.

1.                  The soul ray of Earth is the second Ray of Love-Wisdom. It is the “Ray of Attractive Coherency” (EA 411).

2.                  Cohesion and at-one-ment are very much the product of the interplay between the second and fourth rays, emitted by Jupiter and Mercury, the two rulers of the Mutable Cross in the heavens. Through the use of these two rays, humanity is being prepared for its transfer to the Fixed Cross, and the assumption of the duties of discipleship. Humanity is to become the World Disciple, and an increasing number will take the first initiation.

3.                  DK takes a look at the present distraught condition of the world. He understands the distress in terms of the maladjustment of energies and forces. It seems that only now can some rhythmic order be brought into the field by the “imposition of stronger and more definitely directed energies”. The New Seed Groups are intended to be a process which will make such ordinating energies increasingly available to a field in which chaos presently prevails.

4.                  All the Ashrams are at work attempting to bring some peace and order to the situation. The ten inner groups are directly connected to the Ashrams and the ten outer groups to the ten inner. Each of us, serving in connection with one or other of the ten outer groups, can play our part in restoring the Earth and its humanity to better conditions.

5.                  A precise knowledge of occult energies and forces (as taught in occultism, rayology and astrology) will help us be of greater use in bringing relief.

The groups are intended to work together eventually just as the various departments of a great organisation work effectively together as a unit. They must function smoothly and intelligently within themselves and also in their inter-relation with [Page 43] each other. This will become possible when the individual members in the groups and the individual groups of disciples lose sight of their own identities in an effort to make this hierarchical work possible. In this type of group work, the feelings, reactions, wishes and successes of the individual most emphatically do not count. Only that is regarded as of importance which will further group effort and enrich the group consciousness.

1.                  The Tibetan offers us a vision of the possibilities, and states the requirements.

2.                  If we want these groups to appear and fulfill their intended mission, we are to lose sight of ourselves — personally — and consider only the welfare of the groups as a whole.

3.                  To become a true hierarchical worker requires sacrifice of the personal life. There seems to be no way around this fact. A greater Will is at work in all hierarchically inspired projects, and that Will calls for the obedience and even negation of the lower personal will.

4.                  If disciples are inspired by a vision of what their group or groups may become, they will have a sufficiently elevated level of identification to negate the normal, obstructive personality reactions. The first step is to acquire a broad and deep understanding of what Hierarchy intends to accomplish through the formation of such Seed Groups. This will require study, meditation and much reflection.

5.                  We cannot, at this time, reformulate the Ten Seed Groups according to the Tibetan’s original intended, nor should be try. If, as one of the externalizing Masters, He chooses to do so, He will have the expertise to reanimate and reorganize the effort. We are not equipped for the task.

6.                  We can, however, deeper our understanding of His original intentions, remembering that the prototypes of the Seed Groups already exist as inner groups on the inner planes. The ten inner groups exist now, and, inevitably, their purpose and quality must be expressed in service on the more tangible planes. It is only a matter of time. When that time comes, perhaps we will have made ourselves ready to cooperate intelligently, lovingly and with power.