A Spiritual View of Economics & Money:

A Compilation

 

I. Introductory Ideas

A. Economics as a Spiritual Subject

            Students of [Esoteric Philosophy] are...begged to extend their concept of that hierarchy of souls so that they include all the exoteric fields of human life (political, social, economic, and religious). They are begged not to narrow down the concept as so many do, to only those who have brought their own little particular organization into being, or to those who are working purely on the subjective side of life, and along what are recognized by the con­ser­va­tive as the so-called religious or spiritual lines. All that tends to lift the status of humanity on any plane of mani­fes­tation is religious work and has a spiritual goal, for matter is but spirit on the lowest plane, and spirit, we are told, is but matter on the highest. All is spirit and these differenti­a­tions are but the products of the finite mind. Therefore, all workers and knowers of God in or out of fleshly bodies, and working in any field of divine manifestation form part of the planetary hierarchy....—A Treatise on White Magic, 56

            Men will then realize that the word “spiritual” has little reference to religion, as was hitherto its major significance, but that it connotes divine activity in every phase of human living and human thinking. They will grasp the stupendous truth that sound economics, clear humanitarianism, effec­tive education (as it fits men for world citizenship), and a sci­ence dedicated to human betterment, are all deeply spir­i­tual and in their aggregated usefulness constitute a body of relig­ious truth. They will discover that organized religion is only one phase of this worldwide experience of divin­ity.[italics added]—The Reappearance of the Christ, 146

            Members of the New Group of World Servers are gathered from all branches of human enterprise, of which organized religion is only one. There are scientists who, repudiating violently the unproven, yet are giving all they have of scientific ability and knowledge to the service of humanity—each in his chosen scientific field. There are men of financial stature who regard money as a respon­si­bil­ity to be dispensed wisely in the service of others, yet the mystical or occult terminology may mean nothing what­so­ever to them. There are educators, preoccupied with wise formulations of knowledge and with an encyclopedic under­standing of the garnered wisdom of the ages, which they seek to utilize in fitting the younger generation to live beautifully, constructively, and creatively. There are church­­men and religious leaders (in [Page 203] some one or other of the world religions) who are not tied or handi­capped by the form; the spirit of light is in them and they intelligently love their fellowmen. All of these people, if they are members of the New Group of World Servers, must inevitably be reflecting thinkers, must have creative objectives, must be truly intelligent, and must have added expanding love to their intelligence.—Discipleship in the New Age II

            Group initiation has been forced upon the Hierarchy by the rapid unfoldment of the spiritual consciousness in humanity, an unfoldment which demonstrates—no matter what the ray—as goodwill. This goodwill is not to be interpreted as the sentimental sixth or second ray untrained aspirant is prone to interpret it. It can take many forms: it can show itself as sacrifice on the part of science and a dedication of the fruits of scientific research to human wel­fare; it may take shape in the third ray aptitude to dedicate great wealth to philanthropic or educational enter­prises. In neither of these cases is the disciple apparently distin­guished by a so-called loving nature. Yet the results of their application to science or their accumu­lation of the crys­tal­lized prana of the financial world are turned to the helping of mankind. This will be a hard saying for some of you who rate an irritable remark by a co-disciple as something dis­graceful and belittle the efforts of the money-maker, and do both with a sense of self-righteous congratulation.—Dis­ciple­ship in the New Age II, 337

B. Sharing

            The entire evolutionary history of our planet is one of reception and distribution, of taking in and giving out. The key to humanity’s trouble (focusing, as it has, in the eco­nomic troubles of the past two hundred years, and in the theological impasse of the orthodox churches) has been to take and not to give, to accept and not to share, to grasp and not to distribute. This is the breaking of the Law which has placed humanity in the position of guilt. The war is the dire penalty which humanity has had to pay for this great sin of separateness.—Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle

            ...the Law of Supply and Demand and...the great principle of Sharing...ever govern divine purpose.... The principle of Sharing which must govern economic relations in the future is a soul quality or energy ....—Discipleship in the New Age I

            The keynote to good health, esoterically speaking, is sharing or distribution, just as it is the keynote to the gen­eral well-being of humanity. The economic ills of mankind closely correspond to disease in the individual. There is lack of a free flow of the necessities of life to the points of distribution; these points of distribution are idle; the direc­tion of the distribution is faulty. Only through a sane and worldwide grasp of the New Age principle of sharing will human ills be cured; only by the right distribution of energy will the ills of the physical body of individual [Page 550] man also be cured. This is a fundamental (I would say the fundamental principle) of all spiritual healing.—Esoteric Healing

            It is interesting to note that the cycle now being inau­gura­ted in the world is that of “Growth through Sharing,” and that advanced humanity can now share the work, the responsibility, and the trained reticence of the Hierarchy, whilst paralleling this and simultaneously, the mass of men are [Page 317] learning the lessons of eco­nomic sharing; and, my brothers, in this lies the sole hope of the world.—Discipleship in the New Age II

            Sharing and cooperation must be taught instead of greed and competition.—The Externalization of the Hierarchy, 177

II. The World Economic Situation

1936-1949

            There is no thinking man today [1940's] in prominent position who does not in his highest moments appreciate the necessity for world peace, international order, and religious understanding—all leading in the last analysis to economic stability. The [Page 660] right order by which men will find that stability is the ancient one that certain fraternities have ever emphasized—Unity, Peace, and Plenty. They lead sequentially and automatically from one to the other.—Esoteric Psychology II

            [Written September 28, 1938] The Hierarchy is deeply concerned over world events. I am asked to request you to continue with the goodwill work at all costs and in the face of all obstacles. The nucleus already formed must be preserved. The New Group of World Servers must preserve its integrity and work undismayed. All is not yet lost. The steadiness of those who know God’s Plan will help humanity and aid the efforts of the Elder Brothers. They are those who love and do not hate and who work for unity—both subjective and spiritual.

            This is all I can say at this time, for the Hierarchy itself knows not which forces will prevail. They know that good must ultimately triumph but They do not know what [Page 62] the immediate future holds for humanity because men determine their own courses. The Law of Cause and Effect can seldom be offset. In those cases where it has been off­set, it has required the intervention of Forces greater than those available at this time upon the planet. Those greater Forces can intervene if the world aspirants make their voices penetrate. Will this be possible? The forces of destruction, militating against the Forces of good, have (to use your American phrase) “cornered” the money assets of the world and have turned the tide of prana—which automatically crystallizes into money and in the financial wealth of the world—towards entirely material, separative, and personal ends. It is not easily available, therefore, for the spread and culture of goodwill. This applies equally to the money which is in the hands of aspirants as that in the hands of those who are purely selfishly minded. So many aspirants have not learnt to give with sacrifice. If you can reach some of the financial abundance and deflect it to­wards the ends of the Great White Lodge of which the Christ is the Master, it will be, at this time, one of the most constructive things you can do to help.—The Exter­nal­i­za­tion of the Hierarchy

            [Book published in 1942; the following passage may well have been written before 1940] It might be of value here if we endeavored ... to get the point of view of the spiritual leaders of the race, of the planetary Hierarchy....

            These Workers look out upon a world distressed and full of pain. The economic problem looms large and is a determining factor in many cases. In a world of plenty, men are starving on every hand, or subsisting on a deplor­able insufficiency whilst others of their fellowmen, in the same country, have too much and hold on to it, and frequently commit crimes to keep it. In a world full of ac­tiv­ity, men are forced into a hated inertia through unem­ploy­ment, and millions of men and women have nothing to do, but exist upon relief, through the charity of the well-intentioned, or upon crime, yet eating their hearts out (con­sciously or unconsciously) because the right of every hu­man being to live and work and be self-supporting is denied them.—Esoteric Psychology II

            [Written April, 1940] This problem is basically far less difficult of solution; sound common sense can solve it. There are adequate resources for the sustenance of human life, and these science can increase and develop. The min­eral wealth of the world, the oil, the produce of the fields, the contribution of the animal kingdom, the riches of the sea, and the fruits and the flowers are all offering them­selves to humanity. Man is the controller of it all, and they belong to everyone and are the property of no one group, nation or race. It is solely due to man’s selfishness that (in these days of rapid transportation) thousands are starving whilst food is rotting or destroyed. It is solely due to the grasping schemes and the financial injustices of man’s mak­ing that the resources of the planet are not uni­ver­sally available under some wise system of distribution. There is no justifiable excuse for the lack of the essentials of life in any part of the world. Such a state of lack argues short-sighted policy and the blocking of the free circulation of necessities for some reason or other. All these deplorable conditions are based on some national or group selfishness and on the failure to work out some wise impartial scheme for the supplying of human need throughout the world.

            What then must be done, apart from the education of the coming generations in the need for sharing, for a free circulation of all the essential commodities? The cause of this evil way of living is very simple. It is a product of past wrong educational methods, of competition and the facility with which the helpless and weak can be exploited. [Page 197] No one group is responsible as certain fanatical ideol­o­gists might lead the ignorant to suppose. Our period is sim­ply one in which human selfishness has come to its climax and must either destroy humanity or be brought intelligently to an end.

            Three things will end this condition of great luxury and extreme poverty, of gross over-feeding of the few and the star­vation of the many, plus the centralization of the world’s produce under the control of a handful of people in each country.

1.   The recognition that there is enough food, fuel, oil, and minerals in the world to meet the need of the entire population. The problem, therefore, is basically one of distribution.

2.   This premise of adequate supply handled through right distribution must be accepted, and the supplies which are essential to the health, security and happiness of mankind must be made available.

3.   [The realization that] the entire economic prob­lem and the institution of the needed rules and distributing agencies should be handled by an eco­nomic league of nations. In this league, all the nations will have their place; they will know their national requirements (based on population and internal resources, etc.) and will know also what they can contribute to the family of nations; all will be animated by the will to the general good—a will-to-good that will probably at first be based on expediency and national need but which will be constructive in its working out.

            Certain facts are obvious. The old order has failed. The resources of the world have fallen into the hands of the selfish, and there has been no just distribution. Some na­tions have had too much, and have exploited their surplus; other nations have had too little, and their national life and their financial situation have been crippled thereby. At the close of this war all the nations will be in financial dif­ficulties. All nations will require re-building; all will have to attend actively to the settlement of the future economic life of the planet and its adjustment upon sounder lines.

            This period of adjustment offers the opportunity to effect drastic and deeply needed changes and the establish­ing [Page 198] of a new economic order, based on the contribution of each nation to the whole, the sharing of the fundamental necessities of life and the wise pooling of all resources for the benefit of everybody, plus a wise system of distribution. Such a plan is feasible.

            The solution here offered is so simple that, for that very reason, it may fail to make an appeal. The quality required by those engineering this change of economic focus is so simple also—the will-to-good—that again it may be over-looked, but without simplicity and goodwill little can be effected after the world war. The great need will be for men of vision, of wide sympathy, technical knowledge and cos­mo­politan interest. They must possess also the confidence of the people. They must meet together and lay down the rules whereby the world can be adequately fed; they must determine the nature and extent of the contribution which any one nation must make; they must settle the nature and extent of the supplies which should be given to any nation, and so bring about those conditions which will keep the resources of the world circulating justly and engineer those preventive measures which will offset human selfishness and greed.

            Can such a group of men be found? I believe it can. Every­where there are deep students of human nature, scientific investigators with wide human sympathies, and conscientious men and women who have for long—under the old and cruel system—wrestled with the problem of human pain and need.

            The new era of simplicity must come in. The new world order will inaugurate this simpler life based on adequate food, right thought, creative activity and happiness. These essentials are only possible under a right economic rule. This simplification and this wise distribution of the world’s resources must embrace the high and the low, the rich and the poor, thus serving all men alike.—The Externalization of the Hierarchy

            [Book published in 1942] It is necessary that each nation should realize two things:

1    The importance of attending to its own business and its own internal problems. [Those are to beautify] the na­tional life by the production of order, stabilization, and above all, freedom. Each nation must internally adjust itself to peace. This must be done, not by the armed force of some powerful group, but by the wise con­sideration of the needs of the entire people, excepting no part of the national life.

2.   [Page 654] Its responsibility to all other nations, and the interrelation of all parts of the life of our world. This realization will bring about a reciprocal interplay in the field of economics, for this is the most important field at this time. Practically all world problems and differ­en­ces are based upon an economic situation. It is, there­fore, more important in the solution of the present world problem than are the political rivalries and the selfish, individual, national ambitions. The providing of adequate food, raiment and housing facilities to the unthinking masses everywhere will bring about a changed world psychology, which will be constructive and sound, and which will usher in the deeply desired era of peace and plenty. That the problem is unsolved is difficult no one denies, and for this, man’s selfishness and greed is responsible. It is, in reality, relatively sim­ple, if not complicated by too much statistical deduc­tion and the opposed selfishness of national and monied interests. The term “monied interests” is here used to designate no one class in particular for the tran­si­tion of money out of one set of hands into another pro­vides no real solution. Whoever possesses the money at any par­ticular time wields power, and this is true, whether it is the present capitalistic class or an enriched proletariat or a grasping government.—Esoteric Psychology II

            [Book published in 1942] The difficulties confronting the nations when the war is over may seem insuperable but—given vision, goodwill, and patience—they can be solved. Assuming that humanity will not rest until the aggressor nations are subdued, it will be necessary for the conquering democracies to be generous, merciful, under­standing, and attentive to the voice of the people as a whole. It is that voice (usually sound in its pronounce­ments) which must be evoked, recognized, and listened to, and not the voices of the separative exponents of any ideology, form of government, religion, or party. The objective of those who are entrusted with the straightening out of the world is not the imposition of democracy upon the entire world or to force Christianity upon a world of diversified religions. It is surely to foster the best elements in any national government to which the people may subscribe, or which they intelligently endorse. Each nation should recognize that its form of government may be suited [Page 193] to it and quite unsuited to another nation. It should be taught that the function of each nation is the perfecting of its national life, rhythm and machinery, so that it can be an efficient co-partner with all other nations.

            It is equally essential that the new world order should develop in humanity a sense of divinity and of relationship to God, yet with no emphasis upon racial theologies and separative creeds. The essentials of religious and political beliefs must be taught and a new simplicity of life inculcated. Today, these are lost in the emphasis laid upon material possession, things, and money. The problem of money will have to be faced; the problem of the distribu­tion of wealth—whether natural or human—will need care­ful handling and a compromise reached between those nations which possess unlimited resources and those who have few or none. The problem of the varying forms of national government must be faced with courage and insight. The restoration—psychological, spiritual and phys­i­cal—of mankind must constitute a primary responsibility. The sense of security must be put on a firm basis—the basis of right relationship, and not the basis of force. Men must feel secure because they are seeking to develop international goodwill and can trust each other, and are not therefore dependent upon the strength of their armies and fleets.—Discipleship in the New Age II

            [Written at unknown date] The war has produced much good—in spite of the destruction of forms. The causes of war are better understood; the issues involved are slowly being clarified; information about all nations—even when incorrectly presented—has awakened mankind to the fact of the One World; the community of pain, sorrow, anxiety, starvation, and despair have brought all men closer to­gether, and this relation is a far greater breeder of harmony than man realizes. The world of men today is more closely knit subjectively (in spite of all outer cleavages and conflicts) than ever before in human history. There is a firmer determination to establish right human relations and a clearer perception of the factors involved. The new Prin­ciple of Sharing, [Page 613] inherent in the second Ray of Love-Wisdom which is concerned so fundamentally with relationships, is gaining ground, and its potency is being released by the activity of the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict. This Principle of Sharing, though still divorced from any official sanctions, is under consideration and will some day be the governing factor in the economic life of the world, regulated and controlled by those men who are alert to human need upon the physical plane.—The Rays and the Initiations

            The Release of Atomic Energy

            [Written August 9, 1945] I would like at this time to touch upon the greatest spiritual event which has taken place since the fourth kingdom of nature, the human king­dom, appeared. I refer to the release of atomic energy, as related in the newspapers this week, August 6, 1945, in connection with the bombing of Japan.

            Some years ago I told you that the new era would be ushered in by the scientists of the world and that the inauguration of the kingdom of God on Earth would be heralded by means of successful scientific investigation. By this first step in the releasing of the energy of the atom this has been accomplished, and my prophecy has been justified during this momentous year of our Lord 1945. Let me make one or two statements anent this discovery, leaving you to make your own application and deductions. Little as to the true nature of this happening is as yet known, and still less is understood. Certain ideas and suggested thoughts may be of real value here and enable you to see this stupendous event in better perspective. ...

            The release of the energy of the atom is as yet in an extremely embryonic stage; humanity little knows the extent or the nature of the energies which have been tapped and released. There are many types of atoms, constituting [Page 497] the “world substance”; each can release its own type of force. This is one of the secrets which the new age will in time reveal, but a good and sound beginning has been made. I would call your attention to the words “the liberation of energy.” It is liberation which is the keynote of the new era, just as it has ever been the keynote of the spiritually-oriented aspirant. This liberation has started by the release of an aspect of matter and the freeing of some of the soul forces within the atom. This has been, for matter itself, a great and potent initiation, paralleling those initiations which liberate or release the souls of men.

            In this process of planetary initiation humanity has carried its work as the world savior down into the world of substance, and has affected those primary units of life of which all forms are made. ...

            [Page 498] As I said above, the first use of this energy has been material destruction. This was inevitable and desirable. Old forms (obstructing the good) have had to be destroyed. The wrecking and disappearance of that which is bad and undesirable must ever precede the building of the good and desirable and the longed-for emergence of that which is new and better.

            The constructive use of this energy and its harnessing for the betterment of humanity is its real purpose. This living energy of substance itself, hitherto shut up within the atom and imprisoned in these ultimate forms of life, can be turned wholly into that which is good and can bring about such a revolutionizing of the modes of human experience that (from one angle alone) it will necessitate and bring about an entirely new economic world structure.

            It lies in the hands of the United Nations to protect this released energy from misuse and to see that its power is not prostituted to selfish ends and purely material purposes. It is a “saving force” and has in it the potency of rebuilding, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. Its right use can abolish destitution and bring civilized comfort (and not useless luxury) to all upon our planet. Its expression in forms of right living, if motivated by right human relations, will pro­duce beauty, warmth, color, the abolition of the present forms of disease, the withdrawal of mankind from all ac­tivities which involve living or working underground, and will bring to an end all human slavery, all need to work or fight for possessions and things, and will render possible a state of life which will leave man free to pursue the higher aims of the Spirit. The prostituting of life to the task of providing the bare necessities or to [Page 499] making it possible for a few rich and privileged people to have too much when others have too little, will come to an end. Men everywhere can now be released into a state of life which will give them leisure and time to follow spiritual objec­tives, to realise richer cultural life, and to attain a broader mental perspective.

            But, my brothers, men will fight to prevent this. The reactionary groups in every country will neither recognise the need for, nor desire, this new world order which the liberation of cosmic energy (even on this initial tiny scale) can make possible. The vested interests, the big cartels, trusts and monopolies that controlled the past few decades preceding this world war, will mobilize their resources and fight to the death to prevent the extinction of their sources of income. They will not permit, if they can help it, the passing of the control of this illimitable power into the hands of the masses, to whom it rightly belongs. The selfish interests among the big stockholders, the banking firms, and the wealthy organised churches will oppose all change, except in so far as it will benefit them and bring more financial gain to their coffers.

            Signs of this opposition can already be seen in the utter­ances of certain powerful men who are today encouraging a gloomy outlook in London and Washington and else­where. The Vatican, that wealthy and reactionary ecclesi­as­ti­cal organization, has already expressed its disfavor, because that Church knows—as do all the vested and monied interests—that their days are numbered, provided humanity governs its decisions during the next fifty years by the idea of the greatest good to the greatest number. World decisions must therefore, in the future, be based upon a steady determination to further right human rela­tions and to prevent selfish control, financial or eccle­si­as­tical, by any group of men, anywhere, in any country. We believe the determination of Great Britain, the United States, and Canada, who are in possession of the secrets, is along these lines.

            These few suggestions will give you much food for thought and real ground for happy, confident, forward thinking. [Page 500] Organize now for the goodwill work. The future of the world lies in the hands of the men of good­will and in those who have unselfish purpose every­where. This release of energy will eventually make money, as we know it, of no moment whatsoever. Money has proved itself (owing to man’s limitations) a producer of evil and the sower of dissension and discontent in the world. This new released energy can prove itself a “saving force” for all mankind, releasing from poverty, ugliness, degra­dation, slavery, and despair. It will destroy the great mono­po­lies, take the curse out of labor, and open the door into that golden age for which all men wait. It will level all the artificial layers of modern society and liberate men from the constant anxiety and grueling toil which have been responsible for so much disease and death. When these new and better conditions are established, then men will be free to live and move in beauty and to seek the “Lighted Way.”—The Externalization of the Hierarchy

The Problem of Capital, Labor, and Employment

            [Book published in 1947] In a unique sense we stand today at the dawn of an entirely new economic age. This is increasingly obvious to all thinking people. Because of the triumph of science—the release of the energy of the atom—the future of mankind and the type of the incoming civ­ilization is unpredictable. The changes which are imminent are so far-reaching that it is apparent that the old economic values and the familiar standards of living are bound to pass away; no one knows what will take their place.

            Conditions will be basically altered; along certain lines, such as the distribution of coal and oil for lighting, heating and transportation, is it not possible that in the future neither of these planetary resources will be required? These are two instances of the fundamental changes which the use of atomic energy may make in future civilized living.

            Two major problems will grow out of this discovery—one immediate in nature and the other to be later devel­oped. The first is that those whose large financial interests are bound up in products which the new type of energy will inevitably supersede will fight to the last ditch to prevent these new sources of wealth from benefiting others. Second, there will be the steadily growing problem of the release of man power from the gruelling labour and the long hours today required in order to provide a living wage and the necessities of life. One is the problem of capital and the other is the problem of labour; one is the problem of established control [Page 67] of the purely selfish interests which have for so long controlled the life of humanity and the other is the problem of leisure and its constructive use. One problem concerns civilization and its correct func­tion­ing in the new age and the other concerns culture and the employment of time along creative lines.

            It is not useful here to prophesy the uses to which the most potent energy hitherto released for man’s helping can or will be put. Its first constructive use was to end the war. Its future constructive use lies in the hands of science and should be controlled by the men of goodwill to be found in all nations. This energy must be safeguarded from monied interests; it must be turned definitely into the usages of peace and employed to implement a new and happier world. An entirely new field of investigation opens today before science and one which they have long wished to penetrate. In the hands of science, this new potency is far safer than in the hands of capital or of those who would exploit this discovery for the increase of their dividends. In the hands of the great democracies and of the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian races, this discovery is safer than in other hands. It cannot however be kept in these hands indef­i­nitely. Other nations and races are discovering this “secret of release” and the future security of humanity is, therefore, dependent upon two things:

1.   The steady and planned education of the people of every nation in right human relations and the cultivation of the spirit of goodwill. This will lead to a complete revolution of the present political regimes, which are largely nationalistic in their planning and selfish in their purposes. True democracy, at present only a dream, will be founded on education for goodwill.

2.   The education of the children of the future in the fact of human unity and the use of the world’s resources for the good of all.

            [Page 68] Certain nations, because of their international character and the multiplicity of races which compose them, are normally more inclusive in their thinking and planning than are the others. They are more prone to think in terms of humanity as a whole than are the others. Such nations are the United States, the British Commonwealth of Nations and the united Soviet Socialist Republics. Many nations and races constitute these three Great Powers—the central triangle at the heart of the coming new world. Hence their opportunity to guide mankind at this time and their innate responsibility to act as world leaders. Other races have no such inherent capacity. They are not, for in­stance, successful colonists and are more nationalistic and exploiting in their approach to “subject races.” For the three Great Powers, the fusion of the many elements com­posing their nationals into a united whole has been a necessary conditioning impulse. The basic intention of the United States is the well-being of all within its national jurisdiction and the “pursuit of happiness” is a familiar citation of this intent; the fundamental principle governing British rule is justice for all; the underlying motive of the U.S.S.R. is right living conditions, opportunity for all and the general leveling of all separative classes into one thriving group of human beings. All these objectives are good and their application to the life of humanity will guarantee a happier and more peaceful world.

            In every country without exception there are the good and the bad elements; there are progressive and reactionary groups. There are cruel and ambitious men in Russia who would gladly exploit the world for the gain of Russia and who would seek to impose the will of the proletariat upon all classes and castes throughout the civilized world; there are thinking men in Russia and men of vision who are opposing them. There are reactionary and class-conscious people in the British [Page 69] Empire who fear the grow­ing power of the masses and who hang on desperately to their inherited prestige and standing; they would hold back the British people from progress and would like to see the restoration of the old hierarchical, paternalistic and feudal system; the mass of the people, speaking through the voice of labor, will have none of it. In the United States there is isolation, the persecution of such minorities as the Negro race and an ignorant and arrogant nationalism, voiced by some Senators and Representatives with their racial hatreds, their separative attitudes, and their unsound pol­i­ti­cal methods.

            Fundamentally, however, these three Great Powers constitute the hope of the world and form the basic spiritual triangle behind the plans and the shaping of the events which will inaugurate the new world. The other powerful nations, little as they may like to realize it, are not in so strong a position: they have not the same idealism or the same vast national resources; their national preoccupation limits their world vision; they are conditioned by narrower ideologies, by a greater struggle for national existence, by their fights for boundaries and material gains, and by a failure to offer full cooperation with humanity as a whole. The smaller nations have not quite the same attitude: they are relatively cleaner in their political regimes and con­sti­tute basically the nucleus of that federated world which is inevitably taking shape around the three Great Pow­ers. These federations will be based upon cultural ideals and will be formed to guarantee right human rela­tions; they will not eventually be founded on power politics; they will not be combinations of nations banded together versus other com­binations for selfish ends. Boun­daries and regional controls and international jealousies will not be controlling factors.

            [Page 70] To bring about these happier conditions, one major adjustment must be made and one fundamental change brought about; otherwise no hope of peace will be found on earth: The relation between capital and labor and between both of these groups and humanity as a whole must be worked out. The problem is one with which we are all familiar; it is one which evokes violent prejudices and partisanships and in the clamor of all that is being said and in the violence of the battle it might serve a useful purpose to approach the subject from a more universal angle and with an eye to the emerging spiritual values.

Capitalism

            First of all, it must be recognized that the cause of all world unrest, of the world wars which have wrecked humanity and the widespread misery upon our planet can largely be attributed to a selfish group with materialistic purposes who have for centuries exploited the masses and used the labor of mankind for their selfish ends. From the feudal barons of Europe and Great Britain in the Middle Ages through the powerful business groups of the Victorian era to the handful of capitalists—national and international—who today control the world’s resources, the capitalistic system has emerged and has wrecked the world. This group of capitalists has cornered and exploited the world’s re­sources and the staples required for civilized living. They have been able to do this because they have owned and controlled the world’s wealth through their interlocking directorates and have retained it in their own hands. They have made possible the vast differences existing between the very rich and the very poor; they love money and the power which money gives; they have stood behind govern­ments and politicians; they have controlled the electorate; they have made possible the narrow nationalistic aims of selfish politics; they have financed the world businesses and controlled oil, coal, [Page 71] power, light, and trans­portation; they control publicly or sub rosa the world’s banking accounts.

            The responsibility for the widespread misery to be found today in every country in the world lies predom­i­nant­ly at the door of certain major interrelated groups of busi­ness­men, bankers, executives of international cartels, monopolies, trusts and organizations and directors of huge corporations who work for corporate or personal gain. They are not interested in benefiting the public except in so far that the public demand for better living conditions will enable them—under the Law of Supply and Demand—to provide the goods, the transportation, light and power which will in the long run bring in heavier financial returns. Exploitation of man-power, the manipulation of the major planetary resources and the promotion of war for private or business profit are characteristic of their methods.

            In every nation, such men and organizations—respon­si­ble for the capitalistic system—are to be found. The rami­fi­cations of their businesses and their financial grasp upon humanity were, prior to the war, active in every land and though they went underground during the war, they still exist. They form an international group, closely inter­related, working in complete unity of idea and intention, and knowing and understanding each other. These men belonged to both the Allied Nations and the Axis Powers; they have worked together before and through the entire period of the war through interlocking directorates, under false names and through deceptive organizations, aided by neutrals of their own way of thinking. Today, in spite of the disaster which they have brought upon the world, they are again organized and renewing their methods. Their goals remain unchanged; their international relationships remain unbroken; they constitute the greatest menace mankind faces today. They control politics; they buy prominent [Page 72] men in every nation; they insure silence through threat, cash, and fear; they amass wealth and buy a spurious popularity through philanthropic enterprise; their families live soft, easy lives and seldom know the meaning of God-ordained work; they surround themselves with beauty, luxury, and possessions and shut their eyes to the poverty, stark unhappiness, lack of warmth and decent clothing, the starvation and the ugli­ness of the lives of the millions by whom they are sur­rounded; they contribute to charities and church agencies as a salve to their consciences or to avoid income taxes; they provide work for countless thousands but see to it that these thousands receive so small a wage that real comfort, leisure, culture, and travel are impossible.

            The above is a terrible indictment. It can, however, be substantiated a thousand times over. It is breeding revolu­tion and a growing spirit of unrest. The masses of the peo­ple in every land are aroused and awakening and a new day is dawning. A war is starting between the selfish monied interests and the mass of humanity who demand fair play and a right share of the world’s wealth.

            There are those, however, within the capitalistic system who are aware of the danger with which the monied in­ter­ests are faced and whose natural tendency is to think along broader and more humanitarian lines. These men fall into two main groups:

1.   Those who are real humanitarians, who seek the good of their fellowmen, and who have no desire to exploit the masses or to profit by the misery of others. They have risen to place and power through their sheer ability or through inherited business position, and they cannot avoid the re­spon­sibility of the disposal of the millions in their hands. They are frequently rendered help­less by their fellow executives and their hands are largely tied by the existing rules of the game, by their [Page 73] sense of responsibility to their stockholders, and by the realization that, no mat­ter what they do—fight or resign—the situation remains unchanged. It is too big for the indi­vid­u­al. They remain, therefore, relatively powerless. They are fair and just, decent and kind, simple in their way of life and with a true sense of values, but there is little of a potent nature that they can do.

2.   Those who are clever enough to read the signs of the times. They realize that the capitalistic sys­tem cannot continue indefinitely in the face of humanity’s rising demands and the steady emer­ging of the spiritual values. They are beginning therefore to change their methods and to uni­ver­sal­ize their businesses and to institute coopera­tive procedures with their employees. Their inherent selfishness prompts the change and the instinct of self-preservation determines their attitudes.

In between these two groups are those who belong to neither the one nor the other; they are a fruitful field for the propaganda of the selfish capitalist or the unselfish humanitarian.

            It might be well to add here that the selfish thinking and the separative motivation which distinguishes the capi­tal­istic system is also to be found in the small and un­im­­portant business men—in the corner grocery, the plumber, and the haberdasher who exploits his employees and deceives his customers. It is the universal spirit of self­ish­ness and the love of power with which we have to con­tend. The war has, however, acted like a purge. It has opened the eyes of men to the underlying cause of war—economic distress, based on the exploitation of the planet’s resources by an inter­na­tional group of selfish and ambitious men. The opportunity to change things is now present.

Labor

            Let us now look at the opposing group—Labor. A pow­er­ful group, representing the capitalistic system, both na­tion­al and international, and an equally [Page 74] power­ful group of labor unions and their leaders, face each other today. Both groups are national and international in scope. It remains to be seen which of the two will eventually control the planet or if a third group made up of practical idealists may not emerge and take over. The interest of the spiritual workers in the world today is not on the side of the capitalists nor even of labor, as it is now functioning; it is on the side of humanity.

            For thousands of years, if history is to be believed, the wealthy landowners, the institutional heads of tribes, the feudal lords, the slave owners, merchants or business exec­u­tives have been in power; they exploited the poor; they searched for the maximum output at the minimum cost. It is no new story. In the Middle Ages, the exploited work­men, the skilled craftsmen, and cathedral builders began to form guilds and lodges for mutual protection, for joint discussion, and frequently to promote the finest type of craftsmanship. These groups grew in power as the centuries slipped by yet the position of the employed man, woman or child remained deplorable.

            With invention of machinery and the inauguration of the machine age during the 18th and 19th centuries, the condi­tion of the laboring elements of the population became acutely bad; living conditions were abominable, unsanitary and dangerous to health, owing to the growth of urban areas around factories. They still are, as witness the hous­ing problem of munitions workers during the past several years and the situation around the coal fields both in the States and Great Britain. The exploitation of children increased. The sweat-shop flourished; modern capitalism came into its own and the sharp distinction between the very poor and the very rich became the outstanding char­acteristic of the Victorian era. From the angle of the planned evolutionary [Page 75] and spiritual development of the human family, leading to civilized and cultural living and to fair play and equal opportunity for all, the situation could not have been worse. Commercial selfishness and wild discontent flourished. The very rich flaunted their superior status in the faces of the very poor, paralleled with a patronizing paternalism. The spirit of revolution grew among the herded, overworked masses who, by their efforts, contributed to the wealth of the rich classes.

            The spiritual principle of Freedom became increasingly recognized and its expression demanded. World conditions tended in the same direction. Movements of every kind became possible, symbolizing this growth and the demand for freedom. The machine age was succeeded by the age of transportation, of electricity, of railroads, the automobile, and the airplane. The age of communications paralleled this also, giving us the telegraph, the telephone, the radio and today, television and radar. All these merged into the present age of science which has given us the liberation of atomic energy and the potentialities inherent in the dis­covery. In spite of the fact that a machine can do the work of many men, which greatly contributed to the wealth of the man with capital, fresh industries and the growth of world­wide means of distribution provided new fields of employ­ment and the demands of the most materialistic period the world has ever seen gave a great impetus to capital and provided jobs for countless millions. Edu­ca­tional facilities also grew and with this came the demand by the laboring classes for better living conditions, higher pay and more leisure. This the employers have constantly fought; they organized themselves against the demands of the awaken­ing mass of men and precipitated a condition which forced labor to take action.

            [Page 76] Groups of enlightened men in Europe, Great Britain and the United States began to agitate, to write books which were widely read, to start discussions, and to urge the monied classes to awaken to the situation and to the appalling living conditions under which the laboring class and peasantry lived. The abolitionists fought slavery—whether of Negroes or of whites, of children or of adults. A rapid developing free press began to keep the “lower classes” informed of what was going on; parties were formed to end certain glaring abuses; the French Revolu­tion, the writings of Marx and of others, and the American Civil War all played their part in forcing the issue of the common man. Men in every country determined to fight for freedom and their proper human rights.

            Gradually employees and laborers came together for mutual protection and their just rights. The Labor Union movement came into being eventually with its formidable weapons: education for freedom and the strike. Many discovered that in union there is strength and that together they could defy the employer and wrest from the monied interests decent wages, better living conditions and that greater leisure which is the right of every man. The fact of the steadily increasing power of labor and of its international strength is well known and a primary modern interest.

            Powerful individuals among the union leaders came to the surface of the movement. Some of the employers, who had the best interests of their workers at heart, stood by them and aided them. They were relatively a small minority but they served to weaken the confidence and power of the majority. The fight of the workers is still going on; gains are steadily being made; shorter hours and better pay are constantly being demanded and when refused the weapon of the strike is used. The use of the strike, so beneficent and helpful [Page 77] in the early days of the rise of labor to power, is now itself becoming a tyranny in the hands of the unscrupulous and self-seeking. Labor leaders are now so powerful that many of them have shifted into the position of dictators and are exploiting the mass of workers whom they earlier served. Labor is also becoming exceedingly rich and untold millions have been accumulated by the great national organizations everywhere. The Labor Move­ment is itself now capitalistic.

            Labor and Labor Unions have done noble work. Labor has been elevated into its rightful place in the life of the nations and the essential dignity of man has been emphasized. Humanity is being rapidly fused into one great corporate body under the influence of the Law of Supply and of Demand which is a point to be remembered. The destiny of the race and the power to make national and international decisions, affecting the whole of mankind, is passing into the hands of the masses, of the working classes and of the man in the street. The inauguration of the labor unions was, in fact, a great spiritual movement, leading to the uprising anew of the divine spirit in man and an expres­sion of the spiritual qualities inherent in the race.

            Yet all is not well with the labor movement. The question arises whether it is not sorely in need of a drastic housecleaning. With the coming in of labor governments in certain countries, the growth of democracy and the de­mand for freedom, the uprising of the rule of the proletariat in Russia, and the higher educational standard of the race, it might well appear that new, better and different methods may now be used to implement the Four Freedoms and to insure right human relations. If there is a realization that there should be right human relations among nations, it is obvious that such relations should exist also between cap­i­tal and labor (composed as both groups are of [Page 78] human beings) and between the quarreling labor organizations. Labor is today a dictatorship, using threat, fear, and force to gain its ends. Many of its leaders are powerful and ambitious men, with a deep love of money and a determination to wield power. Bad housing, poor pay, and evil conditions still exist everywhere, and it is not in every case the fault of the employer.

            Power in the future lies in the hands of the masses. These masses are moving forward and by the sheer weight of their numbers, their planned thinking, and the rapidly growing interrelation now established between labor movements all over the world, nothing today can stop their progress. The major asset which labor has over capital is that it is working for countless millions, whilst the capitalist works for the good of a few. The norm of humanity lies at the heart of the labor movement.

            We need to grasp somewhat this picture of a world-wide condition of misery, based on both the capitalistic and the labor movements, to see this entire picture realistically and fairly. In some form or another the interplay between capital and labor, between employer and employee and between the monied interests and the exploited masses has been present. With the steam age, the scientific age, the age of electricity, and the age of planetary intercommunication, this evil grew and spread. Capital became more and more potent; Labor became increasingly restless and demand­ing. The culminating struggle was presented in the world war and its aftermath, a thirty year war in which capital implemented the war and the efforts of labor won it.

The Future

            Certain questions arise. In the answering of these questions, humanity will solve its problems or, if they re­main unsolved, the human race will come to an end.

1.   Is the capitalistic system to remain in power? Is it entirely evil? Are not capitalists human be­ings? [Page 79]

2.   Will labor itself, through its unions and its grow­ing power, vested in its leaders, become a tyr­anny?

3.   Can labor and capital form a working agree­ment or amalgamation? Do we face another type of war between these two groups?

4.   In what way can the Law of Supply and Demand be implemented so that there is justice for all and plenty for all?

5.   Must some form of totalitarian control be adopted by the various world governments in order to meet the requirements of supply and demand? Must we legislate for material ends and comfort?

6.   What standard of living will—in the New Age—seem essential to man? Shall we have a purely materialistic civilization or shall we have a spiritual world trend?

7.   What must be done to prevent the monied inter­ests from again mobilizing for the exploitation of the world?

8.   What really lies at the very heart of the modern materialistic difficulty?

This last question can be answered in the well-known words: “The love of money is the root of all evil.” This throws us back on the fundamental weakness of humanity—the quality of desire. Of this, money is the result and the symbol.

            From the simple process of barter and exchange (as practiced by the primeval savage) to the intricate and formi­da­ble financial and economic structure of the modern world, desire is the underlying cause. It demands the satis­faction of sensed need, the desire for goods and posses­sions, the desire for material comfort, for the acquisition and the accumulation of things, the desire for power and the supremacy which money alone can give. This desire controls and dominates human thinking; it is the keynote of our modern civilization; it is also the octopus which is slowly strangling human [Page 80] life, enterprise, and decency; it is the millstone around the neck of mankind.

            To own, to possess, and to compete with other men for supremacy has been the keynote of the average human being—man against man, householder against householder, business against business, organization against organiza­tion, party against party, nation against nation, labor against capital—so that today it is recognized that the problem of peace and happiness is primarily related to the world’s resources and to the ownership of those resources.

            The dominating words in our newspapers, over our radios, and in all our discussions are based upon the financial structure of human economy: banking interests, salaries, national debts, reparations, cartels and trusts, finance, taxation—these are the words which control our planning, arouse our jealousies, feed our hatreds or our dislike of other nations, and set us one against the other. The love of money is the root of all evil.

            There are, however, large numbers of people whose lives are not dominated by the love of money and who can normally think in terms of the higher values. They are the hope of the future but are individually imprisoned in the system which, spiritually, must end. Though they do not love money they need it and must have it; the tentacles of the business world surround them; they too must work and earn the wherewithal to live; the work they seek to do to aid humanity cannot be done without the required funds; the churches are materialistic in their mode of work and—after caring for the organizational aspect of their work—there is little left for Christ’s work, for simple spiritual living. The task facing the men and women of goodwill in every land today seems too heavy and the problems to be solved seem well-nigh insoluble. Men and women of goodwill are now asking the question: Can the conflict [Page 81] between capital and labor be ended and a new world be thereby reborn? Can living conditions be so potently changed that right human relations can be permanently established?

            These relationships can be established, and for the following reasons:

1.   Humanity has suffered so terribly during the past two hundred years that it is possible to bring about the needed changes, provided that the correct steps are taken before the pain and agony are forgotten and their effects have passed out of man’s consciousness. These steps must be taken at once whilst patent evidences of the past are still present, and the aftermath of world war is before our eyes.

2.   The release of the energy of the atom is definitely the inauguration of the New Age; it will so completely alter our way of life that much of the planning at present being done will be found to be of an interim nature; it will simply help humanity to make a great transition out of the materialistic system now dominating into one in which right human relations will be the basic characteristic. This new and better way of life will be developed for two main reasons:

a.   The purely spiritual reasons of human broth­er­hood, of peaceful cooperative enterprise and the constantly unfolding prin­ci­ple of the Christ consciousness in the hearts of men. This may be deemed a mys­tical and visionary reason; it is already more controlling in its effects than is believed.

b.   The frankly selfish motive of self-preserva­tion. The release of atomic energy has not only put into human hands a potent force which will inevitably bring in a new and better way of life, but also a terrible weapon, capable of wiping the human family off the face of the earth. [Page 82]

3.   The steady and selfless work of the men and wo­m­en of goodwill in every land. This work is non-spectacular but surely founded on right prin­ciples. It is one of the main agencies for peace.

            On account of this energy discovery capital and labor are each faced with a problem, and both these problems will reach a point of crisis in the next few years.

            Money, the accumulation of financial assets and the cornering of the earth’s resources for organizational exploi­ta­tion will soon prove utterly useless and futile, provided that these resources of energy and the mode of their release remain in the hands of the people’s chosen representatives and are not the secret possession of certain groups of powerful men or of any one nation. Atomic energy belongs to humanity as a whole. The responsibility for its control must lie in the hands of the men of goodwill. They must control its destiny and make it available along constructive lines for the use of men everywhere. No one nation should own the formula or secret for the release of energy. Until mankind, however, has moved forward in its understanding of right human relations, an international group of men of goodwill—trusted and chosen by the people—should safeguard these potencies.

            If this energy is released into constructive channels and if it remains safely guarded by the right men, the capitalistic system is doomed. The problem of labor will then be the major problem of unemployment—a dreaded word which will be meaningless in the golden age which lies ahead. The masses will then be faced by the problem of leisure. This is a problem which when faced and solved will release the creative energy of man into channels undreamed of today.

            The release of atomic energy is the first of many great releases in all the kingdoms of nature; the great [Page 83] release still ahead of humanity will bring into expression mass creative powers, spiritual potencies, and psychic unfoldments which will prove and demonstrate the divinity and the immortality of man.

            All this will take time. The time factor must govern as never before the activities of the men of goodwill and the work of those whose task it is to educate not only the children and the youth of the world but also to train humanity in the major undertaking of right human relations and in the possibilities immediately ahead. The note to be struck and the word to be emphasized is humanity. Only one dominant concept can today save the world from a looming economic fight to the death, can prevent the uprising again of the materialistic systems of the past, can stop the re-emerging of the old ideas and concepts and can bring to an end the subtle control by the financial interests and the violent discontent of the masses. A belief in human unity must be endorsed. This unity must be grasped as something worth fighting and dying for; it must constitute the new foundation for all our political, religious and social reorganization and must provide the theme for our edu­ca­tional systems. Human unity, human understanding, human relationships, human fair play and the essential oneness of all men—these are the only concepts upon which to con­struct the new world, through which to abolish competition and to bring to an end the exploitation of one section of humanity by another and the hitherto unfair pos­ses­sion of the earth’s wealth. As long as there are extremes of riches and poverty men are falling short of their high destiny.

            The Kingdom of God can appear on earth, and this in the immediate future, but the members of this kingdom recognize neither rich nor poor, neither high nor low, neither labor nor capital but only the children of the one Father, and the fact—natural and yet spiritual—[Page 84] that all men are brothers. Here lies the solution of the prob­lem with which we are dealing. The spiritual Hierarchy of our planet recognizes neither capital nor labor; it recog­nizes only men and brothers. The solution is, therefore, education and still more education and the adaptation of the recog­nized trends of the times to the vision seen by the spir­i­tu­ally minded and by those who love their fellowmen.—The Problems of Humanity

            [Book published in 1947] At the very outset of our dis­cus­sion, it would be wise to remember that the entire prob­lem we are considering [the problem of the racial minor­ities] can be traced back to the outstanding human weak­ness, the great sin or heresy of separateness. There is surely no greater sin than this; it is responsible for the entire range of human evil. It sets an individual against his brother; it makes him consider his selfish, personal interests as of paramount importance; it leads inevitably to crime and cruelty; it constitutes the greatest hindrance to hap­pi­ness in the world, for it sets man against man, group against group, class against class and nation against nation. It engenders a destructive sense of superiority and leads to the perni­cious doctrine of superior and inferior nations and races; it produces economic selfishness and leads to the economic exploitation of human beings, to trade barriers, to the con­dition of have and have not, to territorial pos­sessiveness and to the extremes of poverty and riches; it sets an impor­tant emphasis upon material acquisitiveness, upon boun­daries, and the dangerous doctrine of national sovereignty and its various selfish implications; it breeds dis­trust be­tween peoples and hatred throughout the entire world and has led since time began to cruel and destructive wars. It has today brought the entire planetary population to its present dire and dreadful condition so that men every­where are beginning to realize that unless something is funda­men­tally changed, mankind is practically [Page 88] already destroyed. But who will engineer the needed change and where is the leadership which will bring it about? It is a state of affairs which mankind itself must face as a whole; and by meeting and facing this basic expression of uni­versal wrongdoing, humanity can bring about the needed change and is offered a new opportunity for right action, leading to right human relations.—The Problems of Humanity

            [Book published in 1947] The distribution of the world’s resources and the settled unity of the peoples of the world are in reality one and the same thing, for behind all modern wars lies a fundamental economic problem. Solve that and wars will very largely cease. In considering, there­fore, the preservation of peace, as sought for and empha­sized by the United Nations at this time, it becomes imme­di­ately apparent that peace, security, and world stability are primarily tied up with the economic problem. When there is freedom from want, one of the major causes of war will disappear. Where there is uneven distribution of the world’s riches and where there is a situation in which some na­tions have or take everything and other nations lack the necessities of life, it is obvious that there is a trouble-breeding factor there and that something must be done. Therefore we should deal with world unity and peace primarily from the angle of the economic problem.

            With the cessation of World War II came the oppor­tunity to inaugurate a new and better way of life and es­tab­lish that security and peace for which all men cease­lessly long. Three groups immediately appeared in the world:

1.   The powerful, reactionary, conservative groups desirous of retaining as much of the past as possible, having great power and no vision.

2.   The fanatical ideologists in every country—com­munistic, democratic, and fascist. [Page 168]

3.   The inert masses of the people in every land, ig­norant for the most part, desiring only peace after storm and security in the place of economic disaster; they are victimized by their rulers, by established old conditions, and kept in the dark as to the truth of the world situation.

All these factors produce the present disorders and condition the deliberations of the United Nations. Though there is no major war, there is no peace, no security, and no immediate hope of either.

            It is essential for the future happiness and progress of humanity that there should be no return to the old ways, whether political, religious, or economic. Therefore, in handling these problems we should search out the wrong conditions which have brought humanity to its present state of almost cataclysmic disaster. These conditions were the result of religious faiths which have not moved forward in their thinking for hundreds of years; of economic systems which lay the emphasis upon the accumulation of riches and material possessions and which leave all the power and the produce of the earth in the hands of a relatively few men, while the rest of humanity struggle for a bare subsis­tence; and of political regimes run by the corrupt, the totalitarian-minded, the grafters and those who love place and power more than they love their fellowmen.

            It is essential that there should be a presentation of these things in terms of the spiritual welfare of humanity and a truer interpretation of the meaning of the word “spiritual.” The time is long past when a line of demarcation can be drawn between the religious world and the political or the economic. The reason for the corrupt politics and the greedy ambitious planning of so many of the world’s lead­ing men can be found in the fact that spiritually minded men and women have not assumed—[Page 169] as their spiritual duty and responsibility—the leadership of the people. They have left the power in the wrong hands and permitted the selfish and the undesirable to lead.

            The word “spiritual” does not belong to the churches or to the world religions. “Pure religion and undefiled” is pure charity and a selfless following of the Christ. The churches are themselves great capitalistic systems, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, and show little evidence of the mind that was in Christ. The churches have had their opportunity, but have done little to change men’s hearts or to benefit the people. Now, under cyclic law, political ide­ol­ogies and national and international planning are occu­py­ing the attention of the people and everywhere efforts are being made to bring about better human relations. This, in the eyes of the spiritually minded and of the enlightened worker for humanity, is a sign of progress and an indication of the innate divinity in man. That is truly spiritual which properly relates man to man and man to God and which demonstrates in a better world and the expression of the Four Freedoms throughout the planet. For these the spiritual man must work.

            The Kingdom of God will inaugurate a world which will be one in which it will be realized that—politically speak­ing—humanity, as a whole, is of far greater impor­tance than any one nation; it will be a new world order, built upon different principles to those in the past, and one in which men will carry the spiritual vision into their national governments, into their economic planning and into all measures taken to bring about security and right human relations. Spirituality is essentially the establishing of right human relations, the promotion of goodwill and finally the establishing of a true peace on earth, as the result of these two expressions of divinity.—The Problems of Humanity

            [Written June, 1949] I have earlier told you that the five Masters concerned with the initial stages of the organiza­tion of the Hierarchy on earth are the Master K.H., the Master Morya, the Master R., the Master Who started the labor movement in the modern world, and myself, the so-called Master D.K....

            We come now to the preparatory work being done by the Master Who started what is called by you “the labor movement.” This is regarded by the Hierarchy as one of the most successful attempts in all history to awaken the masses of men (in the brackets called middle class and low­er class) to general betterment, and thus set up a momen­tum which would, occultly speaking, “swing them into light.”

            Along with the development of the labor movement, mass education came into being, with the result that—from the angle of developed intelligence—the entire level of conscious awareness was universally raised. There is still much illiteracy, but the average citizen in all the western democracies and in the Soviet Union is as well educated as the intellectual man in the Middle Ages. You have, in this activity, an outstanding instance of how the Masters work, for (to the average onlooker) the labor movement arose from within the masses and the working classes. It was a spontaneous development, based upon the thinking and the teaching of a mere handful of men who were regarded primarily as agitators and trouble makers; they were in reality a group of disciples (many of them unconscious of their esoteric status) who were cooperating with the Law of Evolution and also with the hierarchical Plan. They were not particularly advanced disciples, but they were affiliated with some Ashram (according to their ray), and were therefore subject to impression. Had they been advanced disciples or initiates, their work would have been futile, for their presentation of the Plan would not have been adapted to the level of the intelligence of the then totally uneducated masses composing labor.

            This Master works primarily with the intelligentsia, and He is therefore a third ray Master—upon the Ray of Active Intelligence. His Ashram is occupied with the problems [Page 665] of industry; and the goal of all the thinking, all the planning, and all the work of impressing receptive minds is directed towards spiritualizing the concepts of the labor party in every country, and of industrialists, thus turning them towards the goal of right sharing, as a major step towards right human relations.... This Master is necessarily an Englishman, for the industrial revolution started nearly one hundred years ago in England, and the potency of the work done is related to its mass effect and to the results achieved in every land by labor and its methods. All the great labor organizations, national and international, are loosely knit together subjectively, because in each group this Master has His disciples who are working constantly to hold the movement in line with the divine Plan. It is well to bear in mind that all great movements on earth demonstrate both good and evil; the evil has to be subdued and dissipated, or relegated to its right propor­tional place, before that which is good and in line with hierarchical planning can find true expression. What is true of the individual is true also of groups. Before the soul can express itself through the medium of the per­son­al­ity, that personality has to be subdued, controlled, purified, and dedicated to service. It is this controlling, subduing pro­cess which is going on now, and it is vociferously fought by the selfish and ambitious elements.

            Nevertheless, the work of this Master is outstandingly successful in preparing the intellectual principle of the masses for eventual right recognition of the Christ. A right sense of values is being developed, and in the right direc­tion of this potent labor group in every land lies the founda­tion of the new civilization.

            [Page 666] The Ashram of this Master is therefore occu­pied with worldwide economic problems, and also with a direct attack upon the basic materialism to be found in the modern world. The problems of barter and exchange, the significance of money, the value of gold (a basic symbol of the third Ray of Active Intelligence), the production of right attitudes towards material living, and the entire pro­cess of right distribution are among the many problems dealt with in this Ashram; the work done is enormous and of great importance in preparing men’s mind for the return of the Christ and for the New Age which He will inaugu­rate. Capitalists and labor leaders, financial experts and thinking workers, and members of all the differing ideol­o­gies which are prevalent in the world today are to be found actively working within this Ashram. Many of them are what the orthodox religious man or the hide-bound occult student would regard as non-spiritual, yet all of them are in reality deeply spiritual in the correct sense, but they care not for labels, for schools of thought nor for academic, esoteric teaching. They exemplify within themselves a livingness which is the hallmark of disciple­ship....

            It is nevertheless this third ray energy, as wielded in the Ashram of this English Master, ... which will force a right at­ti­tude toward materialism, bring about a bal­ance between the material values and the spiritual, and eventually thrust back into futility the Forces of Evil which have for so long distracted the world of men. I am choosing my words with care.—The Externalization of the Hierarchy

            [Written April 1946 (This passage is placed last because it is in the nature of a prophecy)] When the three major Ashrams have done their work, and this work—in spite of the difference of ray—is largely educational, then the other Ashrams will slowly send in their representatives to cooperate and to continue with the task. The first Ashram to do so will be that of the third ray. By the time disciples appear from that Ashram the world will be ready for an all-over financial adjustment. The “principle of sharing” will be a recognized motivating concept of the new civilization. This will not involve beautiful, sweet, and humanitarian attitudes. The world will still be full of selfish and self-seeking people, but public opinion will be such that certain fundamental ideals will motivate business, being forced upon business by public opinion. The fact that the new general ideas will in many cases be governed by the expedi­ency of interplay will not basically matter. It is the sharing that is of importance. When the “adjuster of finances” (as an advanced disciple from this Ashram is called in the Hierarchy) appears, he will find conditions greatly changed from those now prevalent, and this to the following extent:

1.   The principle of barter and of exchange (to the benefit of all concerned) will control.

2.   Owing to the development of atomic energy on behalf of human welfare, national currencies will have been largely superseded, not only by a system of barter but by a universal monetary exchange—representative of the bartered goods when they are relatively small and unimportant—and by a planned scale of related values. Na­tion­al material assets and the needed commod­i­ties will all be provided for under an entirely new system.

3.   Private enterprise will still exist, but will be regulated. The great public utilities, the major material [Page 581] resources, and the sources of planetary wealth—iron, steel, oil, and wheat, for instance—will be owned in the first place by a governing, controlling international group; they will, however, be prepared for international consumption by national groups chosen by the people and under international direction.

            Upon this subject I have no time to give, and besides this, anything I could say would be regarded as visionary and impractical in a world which has not yet been subjected to the educational processes of the disciples and initiates on the first, second, and fifth rays or to the fundamental changes which the new generation of young people (now growing up) will shortly inaugurate.—The Externalization of the Hierarchy

            III. Money

            The [true] aspirant has an appreciation of the occult value of money in service. He seeks nothing for himself, save [Page 79] that which may equip him for the work to be done, and he looks upon money and that which money can purchase as something which is to be used for others and as a means to bring about the fruition of the Master’s plans as he senses those plans. The occult significance of money is lit­tle appreciated, yet one of the greatest tests as to the posi­tion of a man upon the Probationary Path is that which con­cerns his attitude to and his handling of that which all men seek in order to gratify desire. Only he who desires naught for himself can be a recipient of financial bounty, and a dispenser of the riches of the universe. In other cases where riches increase they bring with them naught but sorrow and distress, discontent, and misuse.—Initiation Human and Solar

            This whole question of money is one of the greatest difficulty at this time and also one of the utmost simplicity. The difficulty is due to the wrong thought which, for generations, has been brought to bear upon the problem, leading to wrong attitudes, even among the most devoted disciples. The attitude of humanity to money has been colored by greed, by grasping for the lower self, by jealousy, by material desire, and by the heart-breaking need for it which—in its turn—is the result of these wrong atti­tudes. These wrong attitudes lead to [Page 272] the dis­as­trous economic conditions which we find all around us. They are effects of causes which are initiated by man him­self. In the regeneration of money and in the changing of man’s attitude to it will eventually come world release. If this cannot take place, then some dire condition will arise; money (as we know it) will vanish off the earth, and the sit­u­ation will have to be met in some other way. Let us hope that this will not be needed but that it will be possible to change the thought of humanity where money is concerned so that it will be regarded as a great spiritual asset, as a definite spiritual responsibility and as a means to real world work. The custodians of money will then shoulder their responsibility without fear and with due understanding. At present, they hold on to it through fear of the future and distrust of each other. The key to the right expenditure of money and to its correct use can be summed up in the fol­low­ing statement to which I would ask all of you to pay attention:

            As money has in the past ministered to personal and family need, so in the future it must minister to group and world need. Each unit has, in the past, attempted to act as a magnet and to attract to itself that which will meet what it regards as its need—using personal activity and labor, if of no influence or education, and financial manipulation where that was possible. Groups in the future must act as magnets; they must see to it that they are animated by a spirit of love. I give you a thought here which is capable of much expansion. Need, love, and magnetic power are the three things which—consciously or unconsciously—attract money. But they must all manifest at once. The need in the past has not always been real, though it has been felt (such is the world glamour and illusion). The love has been self­ish or unreal; the demand for things material has been for that which is not necessary to health or happiness. The magnetic force utilized has been, therefore, wrongly moti­vated and this process—carried forward over so long a time—has led to the present dire financial situation in the world.

            By the transmutation of these factors and the expression of their higher correspondences—through right love, right thought or meditation and right technique—the financial requirements [Page 273] of the new groups and of the New Group of World Servers will be found. I would suggest that an elaboration of these ideas should be disseminated among all whom you know who could help. I would ask you to ponder much on these ideas for, in the education of the intelligent world servers, this question of money and of right attitudes towards money and right meditation upon money must be boldly faced. The emphasis laid by certain large groups on meditation for the raising of funds (usually for personal use or for the selfish ends of their own par­tic­u­lar organization or group) has been based upon this emerg­ing concept of the group use of money. Being, how­ever, selfishly and personally interested, the money was thought of in relation to the individual and not in relation to the group. This attitude must and will be changed.

            One thing more I would ask of you, my brother, and of the group who read my words. Money is the manifestation of energy. All energy can be applied in differing ways, being in itself an impersonal and blind force. It can be self­ishly or unselfishly used. That, in itself, constitutes the main difference. Motive and creative thought determine the magnetic power of any individual, group or center. Deter­mine your motive; see that your group ideal and group love are dominant; use skill in action; this will involve right preliminary meditation, plus correct thinking; then you will find that that which you need will be forthcoming.—Discipleship in the New Age I

            The task to be undertaken by this [financial service] group is to study the significance of money as directed and appropriated [Page 60] energy. This direction of force produces concretization, and the work is then in the field of magical endeavor. As with the work of the other groups, the task to be carried out falls into three categories of endeavor:

1.   The effort to understand the nature of prana or of vi­tal etheric energy, and the three qualities which distinguish it; these are (as you well know) inertia, activity, and rhythm or—giving them their Hindu names—tamas, rajas, and sattva. When the mineral wealth of the world was undiscovered and unused, we had the stage of tamas at its deepest and most inert point. Much concerning money today is related to the karma and destiny of the mineral kingdom. With this, however, we need not here concern our­selves. The processes of the pranic life were or­igi­nally carried out in the realm of barter and the exchange of that which is found upon the surface of the earth, and later went down into the depths, thus bringing into fluidity the deepest and densest expression (from the human stand­point) of divinity. This is a point to be remem­bered. Today the process is being reversed and money is connected with the produce of the vegetable kingdom in the form of paper money, founded upon the mineral wealth of the world. This is an interesting subjective reality to have in mind.

2.   A study of the processes whereby money has been steadily deflected from personal uses, both in the good and in the evil sense. I do not, how­ever, intend to write a treatise upon finance. It would largely be a record of man’s dire selfish­ness, but I seek to deal with money as the Hier­archy sees the problem, and to consider it as a form of energy, prostituted at this time to mater­ial ends or to the selfish aspirations and ambi­tions of well-meaning servers. They are limited in their view and need to get a picture of the pos­si­bilities inherent in the present situation which could deflect much of this form of concretized divine energy into constructive channels and “ways of light.”[Page 61]

3.   A study of the Law of Supply and Demand, so that there can be made available for the Masters’ work through the medium of the world disciples (of pure motive and skill in action and tried responsibility) that which is needed, and, my brothers, sorely needed by Them.

            Money has been deflected into entirely material ends, even in its philanthropic objectives. The most spiritual use now to be found in the world is the application of money to the purposes of education. When it is turned away from the construction of the form side and the bringing about solely of material well-being of humanity and deflected from its present channels into truly spiritual foundations, much good will be done, the philanthropic ends and the educa­tional objectives will not suffer, and a step forward will be made. This time is not yet, but the spiritualizing of money and its massing in quantities for the work of the Great Ones ... is part of a much needed world service and can now make a satisfactory beginning; but it must be carried for­ward with spiritual insight, right tech­nique, and true under­standing. Purity of motive and self­less­ness are taken for granted.—Discipleship in the New Age II

            [Written June, 1947] I have much to say here as a sequence to my previous communication to you—and here I am speaking to all aspirants and disciples. The opportu­nity is so great at this time that I seek to face you with your choices, leaving you free to make up your own minds. What you decide will, however, affect definitely the re­main­der of your life activity. Herein lies your challenge. What I have to say is of a relatively simple nature—so simple that it may seem to you as [Page 613] in the nature of an anti-climax. Yet simple as the problem may be, it is most difficult to solve. Your reaction to what I have to say will depend upon the nature of your sense of values, and not upon any capacity for abstruse reasoning. The average human aspirant and the intelligent human being are apt to emphasize the present complexity of human affairs and events; these they believe are engulfing men in every land. They thus provide—for themselves—an answerable alibi.

            The emphasis of what I have to say is related to the message which I recently sent out regarding the Return of the Christ. That message carried its own challenge and aroused in every sincere human heart:

1.   How can I personally meet this challenge?

2.   What can I specifically do?

3.   What are the steps which I and every aspirant should take?...

            ... two factors which condition the present opportunity; these can be regarded as so completely hindering that, un­less they are removed, there will be a long delay before Christ can return:

1.   The inertia of the average aspirant or spiritually-minded man.

2.   The lack of money for the work of preparation.

Both these hindrances are fundamentally based on one and the same thing: materialism—one on the materialism of physical effort, and the other on that of a world attitude.

            Let us keep these themes simple and down on the level at which most people work and think today; let us be intensely practical and force ourselves to look at conditions as they are, thus arriving at a better knowledge of ourselves and of our motives....

            We come now to the second of the major hindrances: the lack of financial support for the Christ’s workers and disciples in all lands as they endeavor to release spiritual energy and bring a new order out of the present world chaos. This is perhaps the major difficulty, and it appears at times an insuperable one. It involves the problem of true financial trusteeship and the deflection of adequate sums of money into channels which will definitely aid in the work of preparation for the return of the Christ. It is for this reason that I closed the previous section of this article with the words “right human relations.”

            The problem is therefore a peculiarly hard one, for the [Page 624] spiritual workers of the world have not only to train people to give according to the need and their means, but in many cases they have first of all to provide them with a motive so magnetic in its appeal that they must perforce give; they have also to provide the trust, foundation and organization through which the money given may be administered. This presents them with a most impressively difficult task and one which is responsible for the present impasse. The impasse is not, however, based only on the novelty of raising funds in preparation for the return of the Christ, but it is based also on the trained selfishness of the majority of those who own the world’s wealth and who—even if they give—do so because it fosters prestige or indi­cates financial success. It must be remembered here that every generalization presupposes exceptions.

            Generalizing, and therefore over-simplifying the subject, we can assume that money finds its way into four main channels of expenditures:

1.   Into the myriad homes of the world in the form of wages, salaries or inherited wealth. All this is at present most unevenly balanced, producing extreme riches and extreme poverty.

2.   Into great capitalistic systems and monopolies to be found as towering structures in most lands. Whether this capital is owned by the govern­ment or a municipality or a handful of wealthy men or the great labor unions mat­ters not. Little of it is yet spent in reality for the bet­ter­ment of human living, or for the incul­ca­tion of the values which will lead to right hu­man rela­tions.

3.   Into the churches and religious groups through­out the world. Here (again speaking in general terms and at the same time recognizing the exist­ence of a small spiritually-minded minority) the money is deflected into the material aspects of the work, into [Page 625] the multiplying and preservation of ecclesiastical structures, into sal­aries and general overhead, and only a percen­tage of it really goes into the teaching of the people, into a living demonstration of the fact of His return—for centuries a definite doctrine of the churches. That return has been anticipated down the ages, and might have occurred ere now had the churches and religious organizations everywhere done their duty.

4.   Into philanthropic, educational and medical work. All of this has been exceedingly good and greatly needed, and the debt of the world to the public-spirited men who have made these institutions possible is great indeed. All of this has been a step in the right direction and an expression of the divine will-to-good. It is, how­ever, frequently money misused and misdirected and the values developed have been largely institutional and concrete. They have been lim­i­ted by the separative tenets of the donors or the religious prejudices of those who control the dis­bursement of the funds. In the quarreling over ideas, religious theories, and ideologies, the true assistance of the One Humanity is overlooked.

            The fact remains that had the directing agencies through whose hands the money of the world is channeled any vision of the spiritual realities, of the one humanity and the one world, and had their objective been the stimulation of right human relations, the mass of men everywhere would be responding to a vision very different from the present one; we would not be faced as we are today with the expenditures—running into countless billions—necessi­ta­ted by the need to restore physically, not only the physical bodies of countless millions of men, but entire cities, transportation systems and centers responsible for the reorganization of human living.

            Equally, it can be said that if the spiritual values and the spiritual responsibilities attached to money (in large [Page 626] quantities or in small) had been properly appreciated and taught in homes and schools, we would not have had the appalling statistics of the money spent, prior to the war in every country in the world (and spent today in the Western Hemisphere), on candy, liquor, cigarettes, recrea­tion, unnecessary clothes and luxuries. These statistics run into hundreds of millions of dollars every year. A quota of this money, necessitating the minimum of sacrifice, would enable the disciples of the Christ and the New Group of World Servers to prepare the way for His coming and to educate the minds and hearts of men in every land in right human relations.

            Money—as with all else in human living—has been tainted by selfishness and grabbed for selfish individual or national ends. Of this, the world war (1914-1945) is the proof, for although there was much talk of “saving the world for democracy” and “fighting a war to end war,” the main motive was self-protection and self-preservation, the hope of gain, the satisfaction of ancient hatreds, and the regaining of territory. The two years which have elapsed since the war have proved this to be so. The United Nations is occupied with rapacious demands from all sides, with the angling of the nations for place and power, and for the possession of the natural resources of the Earth—coal, oil, etc., and also with the underground activities of the great Powers and of the capitalists which they all create.

            Yet all the time, the one humanity—no matter what the place of residence, what the color of the skin, or what the religious beliefs—is clamoring for peace, justice and a sense of security. All this, the right use of money and a realization on the part of many of their financial respon­si­bility (a responsibility based on the spiritual values) would rapidly give them. With the exception of a few great far-sighted philanthropists, and of a mere handful of enlight­ened statesmen, churchmen and educators, this sense of fi­nan­cial responsibility is to be found nowhere.

            The time has now come when money must be re-valued and its usefulness channeled into new directions. The voice [Page 627] of the people must prevail, but it must be a people educated in the true values, in the significances of a right culture, and in the need for right human relations. It is therefore essentially a question of right education and correct training in world citizenship—a thing that has not yet been undertaken. Who can give this training? Russia would gladly train the world in the ideals of communism, and would gather all the money in the world into the coffers of the proletariat, eventually producing the greatest capitalistic system the world has ever seen. Great Britain would gladly train the world in the British concepts of justice and fair play and world trade, and would do it more cleverly than any other nation because of vast experience. The United States would also gladly undertake to force the American brand of democracy upon the world, using her vast capital and resources in so doing, and gathering into her banks the financial results of her wide-spread financial dealings, preserving them safely by the threat of the atomic bomb and the shaking of the mailed fist over the rest of the world. France will keep Europe in a state of unrest as she seeks to regain her lost prestige and garner all she can from the victory of the other allied nations. Thus, my brother, the story goes—each nation fighting for itself and rating each other in terms of resources and finance. In the meantime, humanity starves, remains uneducated, is brought up on false values and the wrong use of money; until these things are being righted, the return of the Christ is not possible.

            In the face of this disturbing financial situation, what is the answer to the problem? There are men and women to be found in every land, every government, every church and religion, and every educational foundation who have the answer. What hope is there for them and for the work with which they have been entrusted? How can the people of the world, the men of goodwill and of spiritual vision help? Is there anything they can do to change the thinking of the world in regard to money, and to deflect it into channels where it will be rightly used? The answer lies within these people themselves.

            [Page 628] There are two groups who can do much: those already using the financial resources of the world, if they will catch the new vision and also see the handwriting on the wall which is bringing the old order down in destruction; and secondly, the mass of the good, kindly people in all classes and spheres of influence.

            The power of the little man and of the unimportant citi­zen is not yet truly grasped, yet there is a vast opportunity before them if they have the courage and the patience to do the needed work.

            These men and women of goodwill and spiritual incli­na­tion must reject the thought of their relative uselessness, insignificance, and futility, and realize that now (in the critical and crucial moment that has come) they can work potently. The Forces of Evil are defeated, though not yet “sealed” behind the door where humanity can put them and which the New Testament foretold would happen. The world is in the balance again. Evil is seeking every avenue available for a new approach but—and this I say with confidence and insistence—the little people of the world, enlightened and selfless in their viewpoint, exist in suffici­ent numbers to make their power felt—if they will. There are millions of spiritually-minded men and women in every country who, when they come to the point of approaching in mass formation this question of money, can permanently rechannel it. There are writers and thinkers in all lands who can add their powerful help, and who will if correctly approached. There are esoteric students and devoted church people to whom appeal can be made for aid in preparing the way for the return of the Christ, particularly if the aid required is the expenditure of money and time for the establishing of right human relations and the growth and spread of goodwill.

            A great campaign to raise money is not demanded, but the selfless work of thousands of apparently unimportant people is required. I would say, my brothers, that the most needed quality is courage; it takes courage to put aside diffidence, shyness and the dislike of presenting a point of view, particularly a point of view connected with money. It is here [Page 629] that the majority fail. It is relatively easy today to raise money for the Red Cross, for hospitals and for educational institutions. It is exceedingly difficult to raise money for the spread of goodwill, or to secure financial sources and the right use of money for forward looking ideas, such as the return of the Christ. Therefore I say that the first prerequisite is courage.

            The second requirement for the workers of the Christ is to make those sacrifices and arrangements which will enable them to give to the limit of their capacity; there must not be simply a trained ability to present the subject, but each worker must practice what he preaches. If, for instance, the millions of people who love the Christ and seek to serve His cause gave at least a tiny sum of money each year, there would be adequate funds for His work; the needed trusts and the spiritually-minded trustees would then automatically appear. The difficulty is not with the organizing of the money and work; it lies with the seeming inability of people to give. For one reason or another, they give little or nothing, even when interested in such a cause as that of the return of the Christ; fear, or the love of purchasing, or the desire to give presents, or failure to realize that many small sums mount up into very large sums—all these things militate against financial generosity, and the reason always seems adequate. Therefore, the second prerequisite is for everyone to give as they can.

            Third, the metaphysical schools and the esoteric groups have given much thought to this business of directing money into channels which appeal to them. The question is often asked: Why do the Unity School of thought, the Chris­tian Science Church, and many New Thought move­ments always manage to accumulate the required funds, whilst other groups, and particularly the esoteric groups, do not? Why do truly spiritual workers seem unable to materialize what they need? The answer is a simple one. Those groups and workers who are the closest to the spir­itual ideal are as a house divided against itself. Their main interest is on abstract spiritual levels, and they have not apparently grasped the fact that the physical plane, when motivated from the spiritual levels, is of equal importance. The large metaphysical [Page 630] schools are focussed on making a material demonstration, and so great is their em­phasis and so one-pointed is their approach that they get what they demand. They have to learn that the demand and its answer must be the result of spiritual purpose, and that that which is demanded must not be for the use of the separated self or for a separative organization or church. In the new age which is upon us, prior to the return of the Christ, the demand for financial support must be for the bringing about of right human relations and goodwill, and not for the growth of any particular organization. The organi­zations so demanding must work with the minimum of overhead and central plant, and the workers for the minimum yet reasonable salary. Not many such organi­zations exist today, but the few now functioning can set an example which will be rapidly followed, as the desire for the return of the Christ grows. Therefore the third pre­requisite is the service of the one humanity.

            The fourth prerequisite must be the careful presentation of the cause for which the financial support is required. People may have the courage to speak, but an intelligent presentation is of equal importance. The major point to be emphasized in the preparatory work for the return of Christ is the establishing of right human relations. This has already been started by men of goodwill all over the world, under their many names, and here I have done naught but indicate another motive for presentation.

            We come now to the fifth prerequisite: a vital and sure belief in humanity as a whole. There must be no pessimism as to the future of mankind or distress over the dis­appear­ance of the old order. The good, the true and the beautiful is on its way, and for it mankind is responsible, and not some outer divine intervention. Humanity is sound and rapidly awakening. We are passing through the stage where everything is being proclaimed from the housetops—as the Christ stated would be the case—and as we listen or read of the flood of filth, crime, sensual pleasure or luxury buying, we are apt to be discouraged; it is wise to remember that it is wholesome for all this to come to the surface and for us all to know about [Page 631] it. It is like the psychological cleansing of the subconscious to which individuals submit themselves, and it presages the inauguration of a new and better day.

            There is work to do, and the men of goodwill, of spir­itual instinct, and of truly Christian training must do it. They must inaugurate the era of the use of money for the spiritual Hierarchy, and carry that need into the realms of invocation. Invocation is the highest type of prayer there is, and a new form of divine appeal which a knowledge of meditation has now made possible. To this end I will give you a short form of spiritual demand which I would ask you all to use in the place of any prayer, meditation, or invo­ca­tion for money which you may have hitherto used. It is short and powerful, but requires a unified group or a truly integrated personality to use it....

            I have naught to add in the way of an appeal for funds, courage, or understanding. If the courage of the Christ, as He faces return to this physical outer world, if the need of humanity for right human relations, and the sacrificing work of the disciples of the Christ are not enough to fire you and to energize you and those whom you can reach, there is nothing that I can say which will be of any use.—The Externalization of the Hierarchy

            Under the influence of disciples on the seventh Ray of Organization or of Ceremonial Order, that powerful phys­ical concretization of energy which we call “money” is proving a topic of the most definite concentration. It is being most carefully considered, and the minds of thinking financiers and of wealthy humanitarian persons and phil­an­thro­pists will be gradually led forward from a strictly phil­an­thropic activity to an activity which is impulsed and brought into expression by spiritual insight, and by a recog­nition of the claims of Christ (no matter by what name He may be called in the East or in the West) upon the financial reservoir of the world. This is a hard thing to bring about, for the subtle energies of the inner worlds take much time in producing their effects upon the objective, tangible plane of divine manifestation. Money is not yet used divinely, but it will be. [Page 222] Nevertheless, the task is well in hand and is engaging the attention of disciples upon all the rays, under the guidance and the impression of the powerful seventh ray Ashram—now already in process of externalization....

            Therefore I shall give—for your constructive use if you care to use them—two meditation forms or outlines for reflection. ...[The second] is a meditation of a simple nature (combining the aspects of prayer, meditation, and invo­cation) which has for its objective the deflecting of money from material ends into the work which the Hierarchy seeks to have accomplished....

            In giving you these two meditations, I would remind [you] ... that they will not prove effective and of the needed vital potency unless the one who thus meditates identifies himself with the purpose and objective of the meditation, dedicates himself to cooperation with this objective, and redeems all aspects of his own life in conformity with the focussed desire expressed in this spiritual appeal. ... It is useless for you to meditate in order to reorient money, for instance, towards spiritual work (and by “spiritual work” I do not here refer to the work of the churches and of the world religions) unless all the monies which you indi­vid­u­ally have to handle are dedicated to right usage, the ful­filment of your right obligations, and the covering of your karmic responsibilities, plus the constant recognition of the relation of all money to the spiritual future of the race and the requirements of the hierarchical Plan. There must always be, in your consciousness, a recognition of the needs of all men, and this must be true of all spiritually-minded people, of all true esotericists and of the religiously inclined man whose heart and understanding are more divinely inclusive than are the hearts of the average fol­lowers of any religious doctrine, enunciated by the theo­logians of any faith.

            It must be realized that money is the energy which can set in motion and make possible the activities of the New Group of World Servers—no matter what their color, caste, or church. Money does not yet lie in their hands. Their need for it is great. Millions are needed to spread the required knowledge of the hierarchical Plan; millions are needed to further the work of men of goodwill; millions are needed to educate the masses in the fact that He for Whom all men wait is on His way back to ordinary visibility. The billions which are spent at present on luxuries, on expensive and unnecessary objects of desire, the billions (and, my brother, it is billions, as world statistics show) which go towards the purchase of candy, liquor, tobacco, jewelry, and expensive furs, the millions which go in the violent search for excite­ment and for ceaseless nightly pleasure and, finally, the billions which go the way of armed conflict in all nations, must be deflected towards those expenditures which will make the plans of the Hierarchy possible, which will aid humanity in its search for the new, spiritual, and free way, and which will therefore bring into being the new civ­il­i­za­tion. Billions are required to overcome the materialism which has dominated [Page 226] mankind for untold aeons; billions are also needed to bring about the reconstruction of human affairs and thus purify and beau­tify our modern world to such an extent that the Christ can appear among men; through the wise expenditure of the financial re­sources of the world in the many fields of human betterment and uplift, the Christ will be enabled to “see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.”

            I ask you, therefore, to follow [this meditation] at least once a week and upon different days. These two forms of invocative appeal can be used by all who are willing to par­ti­cipate in the indicated service.

Reflective Meditation on Attracting Money

for Hierarchical Purposes

Stage I

            After achieving a positive and intended personality quiet­ness, formulate clearly to yourself and in your own words, the answers to the following questions [Page 229]:

1.   If money is one of the most important things needed today for spiritual work, what is the factor at present deflecting it away from the work of the Hierarchy?

2.   What is my personal attitude towards money? Do I regard it as a great and possible spiritual asset, or do I think of it in material terms?

3.   What is my personal responsibility in regard to money which passes through my hands? Am I handling it as a disciple of the Masters should handle it?

»Pause«

Stage II

1.   Ponder on the redemption of humanity through the right use of money. Visualize the money in the world today

a.   As concretized energy, at present largely used for purely material purposes and for the satisfaction (where the individual is concerned) of purely personal desires.

b.   As a great stream of flowing golden substance, pass­ing out of the control of the Forces of Materialism into the control of the Forces of Light.

2.   Then say the following invocative prayer, with focussed mental concentration and from a heartfelt desire to meet spiritual demands:

“O Thou in Whom we live and move and have our being, the Power that can make all things new, turn to spiritual purposes the money in the world; touch the hearts of men everywhere so that they may give to the work of the Hierarchy that which has hitherto been given to material satisfaction. The New Group of World Servers needs money in large quantities. I ask that the needed vast sums may be made available. May this potent energy of Thine be in the hands of the Forces of Light. [Page 230]

3.   Then visualize the work to be done by those groups which claim your present allegiance (e.g., the Arcane School and the Service Activities, or any other group which you know is attempting to carry out the hier­ar­chi­cal Plan). Then, through the creative imagination and by an act of the will, see untold and unlimited sums of money pouring into the hands of those who seek to do the Masters’ work.

4.   Then say aloud, with conviction and emphasis:

“He for Whom the whole world waits has said that whatsoever shall be asked in His Name and with faith in the response will see it accomplished.”

Remember at the same time that “faith is the sub­stance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” Then add:

“I ask for the needed money for ——

and can de­mand it because

‘From the Center which we call the race of men

Let the Plan of Love and Light work out.

And may it seal the door where evil dwells.’”

5.   Close with a careful consideration of your own respon­sibility to the Plan, and each week plan your financial cooperation with the Hierarchy. Be practical and real­is­tic and know that if you do not give, you may not ask, for you have no right to evoke that which you do not share.

Suggestions

1.   This meditation is so simple that many of you may regard it as innocuous and perhaps futile. Used by many simultaneously, it may shatter the impasse which [Page 231] at present prevents adequate funds pouring into the work which the Hierarchy seeks to accomplish.

2.   Do this meditation every Sunday morning. Take what you have saved during the previous week and dedicate it to the work and present it in meditation to the Christ and His Hierarchy. Whether the sum is large or small, it can become an attractive and magnetic unit in the Masters’ plans.

3.   Realize the occult Law that “to those who give shall be given” so that they can give again.

4.   Attempt to feel true love sweeping through you, and have the fixed intention to express this love to all you contact. It is the great attractive and selfless agent in world affairs.—Discipleship in the New Age II

            [Written June, 1948] The Full Moon is upon us and the thoughts of the world (to a far larger extent than you real­ize) are directed towards the Christ. It is upon His concerns that I speak to you today, inextricably bound up, as they are, with the concerns of humanity, and this by His Own choice. Many today in all lands are turning their thoughts consciously to Him; others are aware of a vague turning to­wards some divine Person or Power Who must and should help mankind in its hour of need. There is a rising, an as­cen­sion of the spirit of man everywhere which is better known to us than to you, whose values and reactions are not so spiritual. The strength, the power and the special energies which He received at that dramatic moment when He, the Buddha, and the Lord of the World created a Tri­angle of Light at the time of the Wesak Festival, will be released by Him at the hour of the Full Moon of June. This Light has been concentrated upon the “center which we call the race of men,” but it has not yet been released. At the Full Moon it will be poured out all over the Earth. During the interim between reception and distribution, [Page 643] it has been transformed into the energy of goodwill and into that light which will illumine the minds of men....

            This outpouring of spiritual energy passes through the groups or—to use a technical word which is relatively unim­portant—through the Ashrams of all the Masters of the Wis­dom, the Disciples of the Christ. It is then transformed or transmuted by them so as to meet adequately the needs of the different types of people who compose humanity and who are represented in the Ashrams by different Masters. Through all the Masters and through all disciples this ener­gy passes, so that all—at their many different stages—may receive the needed stimulation. They precipitate certain specialized aspects of this newly received energy, and they therefore will be peculiarly active in the coming period.....

            The stimulation which can be given will be released at the coming Full Moon. [Five specialized energies are avail­able. The third is] the energy of Active Intelligence [third ray energy]. This third type of energy is the easiest one for modern humanity to receive—which is perhaps a sad com­mentary upon man’s aspirations. [Page 646] The proof of this lies in the fact that much of this type of energy (through the selfish perception and desires of mankind) has been crystallized into money. Human intelligence has served on the side of materialism and not on the side of the spiritual values. Money is the concretized expression of the third type of spiritual energy. This particular expression ap­peared first in the ancient and equally materialistic system of barter and exchange; then, in later civilizations (predom­i­nantly including ours) we have the appearance of money, made first from the products of the mineral kingdom, and then later came paper money, made from the products of the vegetable kingdom. This has culminated in the modern pre­occupation with money. There is very deep occult mean­ing to be found in the statement in the New Testament that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” It is largely money and selfishness which lie behind the present dis­astrous economic situation. Great financiers are in reality those in whom the receipt of money, or of this type of energy, constitutes the line of least resistance, plus the will to make vast fortunes, which cannot be gainsaid. They will to make a fortune; they bring their intelligence to bear upon their goal, and naught can stop them. Many of them are purely selfish; some regard their money as a trust to be used for others and are amazingly generous in a philanthropic and humanitarian sense. These men are receptive to the first type of energy, and frequently all the three types find a channel through them, and the world is greatly benefited; such men are nevertheless very rare. It still remains for the crystallized aspect of this third energy—money—to be used on a large scale for the furtherance of the work of the Hierarchy. It is at this point and in connection with money that the great test of goodwill should demonstrate.—The Externalization of the Hierarchy

            If you cannot yourself teach or preach or write, give of your thought and of your money so that others can. Give of your hours and minutes of leisure so as to set others free to serve the Plan. Give of your money so that the work of those associated with the New Group of World Servers may go forward with rapidity. Much time you waste on non-essentials. Many of you give little or nothing of time. The same is the case with money. Give as never before, and so make the physical aspects of the work possible. Some give of their very need, and the power they thereby release is great. Those on the inner side are grateful for the giving by those who can give only at great personal cost. Others give of what they can spare and only when it needs no sacrifice to give. Let that [Page 189] condition also end, and give to the limit, with justice and understanding, so that the age of love and light may be more rapidly ushered in. I care not where or to whom you give, only that you give—little if you have but little of time or money, much if you have much. Work and give, love and think, and aid those groups who are building and not destroying, loving and not attacking, lifting and not tearing down.—Esoteric Psychology I

            I make no further appeal for your help. I have been endeavoring to educate you in the new ideals and in the work of the New Group of World Servers. The responsi­bil­ity for right action and for the effort to reach the public rests upon the aspirants and disciples of the world who read my words. There is nothing that I, personally can do. It is your time (and all of you, without exception, can give some) for which Christ and humanity are today calling. It is your activity and skill in reaching those you can reach for which we make [Page 751] demand. It is your money that is needed to enable us to reach the interested public. It is your meditation and intense inner cooperation which will construct that channel through which the spirit of peace can work and the forces of Light enter. The Hierarchy waits. It has done all that is possible from the angle of Its opportunity. The Christ stands in patient silence, attentive to the effort that will make His work materialize on earth and enable Him to consummate the effort He made 2000 years ago in Palestine. The Buddha hovers over the planet, ready to play His part if the opportunity is offered to Him by mankind. I beg you to note what I here have said. Everything now depends upon the right action of the men of good will.—Esoteric Psychology II