Alice Ann Bailey

Alice Ann Bailey JAMES A. SANTUCCI [This entry appears in the DICTIONARY OF GNOSIS & WESTERN ESOTERICISM, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek, and Jean-Pierre Brach. Volume I. Leiden & Boston: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2005. [Pages 158–160]. Bailey, Alice Ann , * 16.6.1880 Manchester (England), † 15.12.49 New York Born to Frederic Foster La Trobe-Bateman and Alice Hollinshead, Alice Ann La Trobe-Bateman is best known by the name she assumed when she married her second husband, Foster Bailey. She is chiefly remembered for three accomplishments. First, for serving as the amanuensis for her Tibetan master Djwhal Khul (known simply as The Tibetan or D.K.), the latter’s teachings appearing in twenty-four books written from 1922 until the late 1940s, all of which reflecting a Theosophically-based interpretation of Humanity and the Cosmos. Second, for establishing an esoteric school known as the Arcane School in 1923. And third, as organizer (with her husband Foster Bailey) of two service activities known as “World Goodwill” and “Triangles”. Her religious upbringing was conservative Christian but with a “mystical” tendency. Although she came from a prominent family (the La Trobes), she led a life that was sometimes troubled in her youth (she had attempted suicide thrice by the age of 15), privileged (she claimed to have lived the life of a “society girl” up to the age of 22, living with her well-to-do grandparents and later, after their death when she was about eight years old, with her aunt), and service-oriented. Regarding the latter, having been stimulated by her upbringing to care for the poor and the sick, she attempted to put her fundamentalist Christian religious ideals into practice first by becoming a Y.M.C.A. worker and later, in her early twenties, by working as an evangelist to the British troops in the Sandes Soldiers Homes in Ireland and India. Despite this fundamentalist upbringing, Alice exhibited esoteric inclinations as well. According to her autobiography, this latter tendency first came to the fore in 1895, when at the age of fifteen, while with her aunt at Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, she experienced her initial contact with what she later came to see as a “Master of Wisdom”: a member of that spiritually advanced hierarchy believed by Theosophists to 1 disclose elements of the ancient wisdom to humans. The message of the Master – whose name she later discovered was Koot Hoomi or K.H. – was that she should work in the world on his behalf. A second event that she claimed to have occurred around the same time, and which she came to regard as significant, was her participation in a ceremony performed during the “Full Moon of May”. The precise nature of this ceremony is unclear, but Alice claimed that it was held every year in a valley in the Himalayas, obviously implying an esoteric ceremony of some sort. Participation in this ceremony helped her to realize her spiritual status, and perceive the unity of all existence as a ‘divine and living whole’ demonstrating ‘the glory of the Lord’. For the next fifteen years or so, she led a tripartite life: first, that of evangelist and social worker following fundamentalist dogma; second, that of a budding mystic who retained a sense of the Hierarchy of Masters connected to inner spiritual planes; and third, from her late twenties to her mid-thirties, that of a woman involved in the world as the wife of a clergyman (Walter Evans) and mother of three daughters. The marriage, in 1907 or 1908, resulted in the couple [159] traveling to the United States of America for reasons of her husband’s seminary training. But the marriage soon disintegrated due to her husband’s mental problems: his increasing violence, including occasional physical abuse of his wife, led to their divorce in 1915. Bailey found herself without money, and was forced to make ends meet by working in a sardine cannery in Pacific Grove, California. At this same time (1915), she first came into contact with the Theosophical Society and its teachings. Having been exposed to the writings of Helena P. Blavatsky, especially The Secret Doctrine, and those of Annie Besant, she gradually mastered the Theosophical worldview that was to become basic to her understanding of the ancient wisdom as taught through her other Master, The Tibetan (Djwhal Khul), who appeared to her for the first time in 1919. These teachings included the following main points: (a) that there is a divine Plan in the universe; (b) that those who execute the Plan and who guide Humanity make up a Hierarchy of spiritual leaders led by the Christ; and (c) the Law of Cause and Effect and the law of rebirth (karma and reincarnation). The “collaboration” with The Tibetan resulted in a vast corpus of teachings, beginning in 1922 with a volume called Initiation, Human and Solar. 2 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire (first published in 1925) provides a detailed description of how the macro- and microcosm have emanated from the “Boundless Immutable Principle”, interpreted by the author as identical with the Parabrahm of H.P. Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine. On the macrocosmic level arise the three Logoi, described as the “Undifferentiated and Unmanifested”, the aspect of “Duality of Spirit-Matter”, and “Cosmic Ideation” (or the Universal World-Soul, the Creator). From the Logoi are manifested the universes, which in turn comprise “Manifesting Stars and Solar Systems”. Three micro- and macrocosmic laws are associated with the three Logoi as cosmic functions: Synthesis (expressed as Will), Attraction (expressed as Love), and Economy (expressed as Intelligence). Seven centers of “logoic Force”, also known as the seven planetary Logoi and the seven Rays, emanate from these Laws: Ray I (the Ray of Will or Power), II (Love-Wisdom), III (Active Intelligence), IV (Harmony, Beauty and Art), V (Concrete Knowledge or Science), VI (Devotion or Abstract Idealism), and VII (Ceremonial Magic or Order). These Rays, therefore, are manifestations of emanations of both the micro- and macrocosm. By definition, a ray is ‘a name for a particular force or type of energy, with the emphasis upon the quality which that force exhibits and not upon the form aspect which it creates’ (Esoteric Psychology I, 316). Applied to humanity and humans, the doctrine of rays is supposed to explain qualities of all of humanity, of the races, of cycles, of nations, of the soul, of the personality, and of the elements of the human mental, astral, and physical bodies. Apart from the teachings of the Tibetan, which are published through the Lucis Trust – an entity created by Alice and Foster Bailey (who were married in 1919) in 1922 – the other main source through which Bailey’s theosophy has been spread is the Arcane School, established by Bailey in April 1923 as a correspondence school designed to answer the questions raised by readers of her publications. As the name indicates, it is an esoteric school modeled after the original Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society founded by Blavatsky. The seven principles or propositions of the Arcane School (described at the end of her Unfinished Autobiography) are: (1) it is a training school for disciples; (2) it is devoted to training adult men and women so that they may take their next step upon the path of evolution; (3) the School recognizes the Spiritual Hierarchy of the planet, and its instructions about the mode whereby that Hierarchy may be approached and entered; (4) it 3 teaches that the ‘souls of men are one’; (5) it teaches the necessity of living the spiritual life and rejects all claims to spiritual status; (6) it is non-sectarian, non-political, and international in its scope; (7) it claims to emphasize no theological dogmas, but teach only the Ageless Wisdom as recognized in all countries down through the ages. In addition to these principles, the essential teachings of the Arcane School are described as follows: (1) that the Kingdom of God, the Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, is already invisibly present and will be materialized on earth; (2) that there has been a continuity of revelation down the ages and that from cycle to cycle God has revealed Himself to humanity; (3) that God Transcendent is equally God Immanent, and that through human beings, who are in truth the sons of God, the three divine aspects – knowledge, love and will – can be expressed; (4) that there is only one divine Life, expressing itself through the multiplicity of forms in all the kingdoms of nature, and that the sons of men are, therefore, ONE; (5) that within each human being there is a point of light, a spark of the one Flame – this is believed to be the soul, the second aspect of divinity, ‘the demonstration of the divine livingness in each person which is our goal, and discipleship is a step upon the way to that attainment’; (6) that an [160] is possible for the individual aspirant and for humanity as a whole through the action of the evolutionary process (involving a ‘myriad of developing lives, each with its place within the scheme … [leading] to those exalted spheres where the Lord of the World works out the divine Plan’); (7) that there are certain immutable laws governing the universe, and man becomes progressively aware of these as he evolves, these laws being expressions of the will of God; (8) that the basic law of our universe is to be seen in the manifestation of God as Love. The ideas developed within the Arcane School led to the formation of two organizations that were founded to ‘channel activity’ in light of the teachings. The first, “Men of Goodwill” (later renamed “World Goodwill”) was founded in 1932 in order to establish human relations based on the principle of “brotherhood” and non-discrimination with respect to race, religion, ideology, politics, and economic convictions. The second organization, “Triangles”, was established in 1937, and operates according to a principle of networking that allows three individuals to ‘link each day in thought for a few minutes of creative meditation’. “Triangles” is linked with “World Goodwill” as a microcosm of relationships established on a personal level, embodying a “spirituality” that purportedly 4 bears no relation to any one religion. World Goodwill emphasizes an ethic based upon the ‘Will to Good’. This Will is expressed in the esoteric philosophy of the Arcane School and the publications of the Tibetan through Bailey. Finally, all the teachings and service activities are encapsulated in the ‘Great Invocation’: ‘From the point of Light within the Mind of God / Let light stream forth into the minds of men. / Let Light descend on Earth. // From the point of Love within the Heart of God / Let love stream forth into the hearts of men. / May Christ return to Earth. // From the centre where the Will of God is known / Let purpose guide the little wills of men – / The purpose which the Masters know and serve. // From the centre 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. // Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth’. Bailey’s work has had a great influence on the development of contemporary esotericism. Although it is difficult to ascertain the number of individuals who have been exposed and influenced by her teachings, it may well be in the hundreds of thousands, if one judges from the publication records of Lucis Publishing Companies. Many of the teachings – such as those on spiritual evolution, the perfectibility of humanity, the unity of life, and emphasis on “Love” – are closely related. These teachings, and the promise of a “New Age” – prominent not only in Bailey’s publications but also reflective of the Zeitgeist of the 1920s and 1930s, and adopted and further popularized from the 1960s on – also contribute to her popularity: the earlier, England-based, utopian/millenarian phase of the New Age movement was heavily influenced by Bailey’s theosophy. In addition, Bailey’s grand esoteric cosmology, rivaling those of Blavatsky, Steiner, Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, helps to add to her reputation as a significant thinker. As a result of the interest in this cosmology, a number of groups have developed in addition to the Arcane School and its sister organizations, including the Aquarian Educational Group, Arcana Workshops, the School for Esoteric Studies, the Tara Center, and Meditation Groups, Inc. The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice A. Bailey, New York: Lucis Press Company, 1951 (1973). Initiation, Human and Solar, New York: Lucis Press Company, 1922 (1972). Esoteric Psychology. Two volumes, New York: Lucis Press Company, 1936 (1991) for volume I and 5 1942 (1970) for volume II. The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, New York: Lucis Press Company, 1957 (1989). A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, New York: Lucis Press Company: New York, 1925 (1979). The Rays and The Initiations. Lucis Press Company: New York, 1960 (1993). A Treatise on White Magic, New York: Lucis Press Company, 1934 (1979). Lit.: Philip Jenkins, Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. J. Miller, “In Defense of Alice A. Bailey”, Theosophical History 2 (1888): 190–206. Sir John R. Sinclair, The Alice Bailey Inheritance, Wellingborough Northamptonshire: Turnstone Press Limited, 1984. Steven J. Sutcliffe, Children of the New Age: A History of Spiritual Practices, London and New York: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, 2003. 6