Extracts on the Arcane School
Extracts on the Arcane School from the
books of Alice A. Bailey
From The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey:
Mr. Richard Prater, an old associate of
W. Q. Judge and a pupil of H. P. Blavatsky came to my class
one day and the next week turned his entire Secret Doctrine
class over to me. Among the papers which he gave me was one
in which H.P.B. expressed her wish that the esoteric section
should be called the Arcane School. It never was and I made
up my mind that the old lady should have her wish and that
was how the school came to get its name.
The basic training given in the Arcane
School is that which has been given down the ages to disciples.
The Arcane School, if it is successful, will not therefore
in this century at least have a large membership. Those ready
to be trained in the spiritual laws which govern all disciples
are rare indeed, though we can look for an increasing number.
The Arcane School is not a school for probationary disciples.
It is intended to be a school for those who can be trained
to act directly and consciously under the Masters of the Wisdom.
There are in the world today many schools for probationers
and they are doing great and noble and necessary work.
The Arcane School is non-sectarian, non-political,
but deeply international in its thinking. Service is its keynote.
Its members can work in any sect and any political party provided
that they remember that all paths lead to God and that the
welfare of the one humanity governs all their thinking. Above
everything else, this is a school in which a student is taught
that the souls of men are one.
I would like to add, also, that this is
a school wherein belief in the spiritual Hierarchy of our
planet is scientifically taught, not as a doctrine but as
an existent and demonstrable kingdom in nature. There has
been much church teaching given about the kingdom of God and
the kingdom of souls. These are but terms for the phrase used
above, the Spiritual Hierarchy of the planet.
It is a school wherein true, occult obedience
is developed. This occult obedience involves no obedience
to me or any other head of the School or to any human being.
No oaths of allegiance or personal pledges to any individual
are requested or exacted from students in the Arcane School.
They are taught, however, prompt obedience to the dictates
of their own soul. As the voice of that soul gets increasingly
familiar it will eventually make them members of the Kingdom
of God and bring them face to face with Christ.
We tell the students that if the School
succeeds in deepening their spiritual life in widening their
horizon and in increasing their mental perception it is up
to them to work it out in the church, society, organisation
or group, the home or community in which their lot is cast.
Because of this we have active students who are members of
the various theosophical organisations, each of which regards
itself as the only true one. We have students belonging to
four different groups of Rosicrucians. We have church members,
Catholic and Protestant, Christian Scientists, Unity people
and members of almost every possible organisation which has
a spiritual or religious basis. We take people who have no
beliefs at all but who are willing to accept an hypothesis
and attempt to prove its worth. The Arcane School is therefore
non-sectarian, non-political, but deeply international in
its thinking. Service is its keynote. Its members can work
in any sect and any political party provided that they remember
that all paths lead to God and that the welfare of the one
humanity governs all their thinking. Above everything else,
this is a school in which a student is taught that the souls
of men are one.
One of the interesting developments in
the school has been our steady stiffening of the requirements
of membership. Increasingly we find ourselves rejecting students
who are strictly on the emotional level and emphasising the
necessity for some mental focus and development, if the more
advanced training of our senior degrees is to be given. As
the years go by and the need of the world becomes more crucial
the paralleling need of trained disciples also becomes increasingly
apparent. The world has to be salvaged by those with both
intelligence and love; aspiration and good intention are not
enough.
From the writings of the Tibetan, Djwhal Khul:
It was my wish (as it is the wish of many
associated with the Hierarchy) to see an esoteric school started
which would leave the membership free, which would bind them
by no pledges or oaths and which would—whilst assigning
meditation, study and giving esoteric teaching—leave
people to make their own adjustments, to interpret the truth
as best they could, to present to them the many points of
view and at the same time communicate to them the deepest
esoteric truths which they could recognise if there was that
in them which was awakened to the mysteries and which, even
when read or heard, could do them no harm if they lacked the
perception to recognise the truth for what it was. Such a
school was started in 1923 by Alice A. Bailey with the aid
of Foster Bailey and certain students of vision and spiritual
understanding. She made it a condition that I should have
nothing to do with the Arcane School, and that I should have
no control over its policies and curriculum. Even my books
were not used as textbooks and only during the past three
years has one of them, A Treatise on White Magic, been adopted
as a course of study and that at the very earnest request
of many students. Also, some of the teaching upon the antahkarana
(which will appear in the fifth volume of the Treatise on
the Seven Rays) has been used for two years in one section
of the fourth degree, entitled Weavers in the Light. The teaching
on glamour has been given as some of the reading matter for
another section.
No obedience is expected in the Arcane
School, no emphasis is laid on "obeying the Master,"
for no Master is running the school. Emphasis is laid upon
the one Master in the heart, the soul, the true spiritual
man within each human being; no theology is taught; the student
is under no compulsion to accept any interpretation or presentation
of truth; he can accept or reject the fact of the Masters,
of the Hierarchy, of reincarnation, or of the soul and still
remain a member of the school in good standing. No loyalty
is expected or asked, either to the school or to A.A.B. Students
can work in any of the occult, esoteric, metaphysical or orthodox
groups and churches and still be members of the school. They
are asked to look upon such activities as fields of service
wherein they can express any spiritual help they may have
gained through their work in the school. Leaders and senior
workers in many occult groups are working in the Arcane School,
but they feel perfectly free to give their time, loyalty and
service to their own groups.
This school has been in existence
for twenty years and is now entering into a new cycle of growth
and usefulness—along with the whole of humanity—and
for this due preparation is being made. The keynote of the
school is service, based on love of humanity. The meditation
work is balanced and paralleled by study and by the effort
to teach the students to serve.
Discipleship in the New Age,
Vol. I, pp. 781-82
I have, therefore, been interested
in three phases of the work: the books, the Arcane School,
and the New Group of World Servers. The impact made upon the
world by these three aspects of the work has been definitely
effective and useful. The sum total of the useful work accomplished
is what counts and not the criticisms and the misunderstanding
of those who, basically, belong to the old order, and to the
Piscean Age. They are, therefore, unable to see the emergence
of the new ways of life and the new approaches to truth.
I have stood all this time behind the
scenes. The books and pamphlets have been my responsibility
and carry the authority of truth—if truth is there—and
not the authority of my name or of any status which I might
claim, or which might be claimed for me by the curious, the
inquisitive and the devotee. I have dictated none of the policies
of the school or interfered in its curriculum; for them A.A.B.
is responsible. My books and pamphlets have been made available
to school students along with the rest of the general public.
Ibid., p. 785
The Arcane School is not a training school for initiation
and the goal is not to help the student to get into an ashram
or to contact a Master. The purpose of the Arcane School is,
and always has been, to help the student to move forward more
quickly on the Path of Discipleship. It does not deal either
with the problems incident to the Probationary Path nor of
the Path of Initiation. The Master Djwhal Khul has stated
that in the new age the field of training for the disciple
is in the New Group of World Servers.
Discipleship in the New Age, Vol.
II, p. xii
The organising and work of the Arcane School is the spiritual
project of A.A.B. and with it I have nothing whatsoever to
do, nor shall I ever in the future guide or take any part
in the affairs of the Arcane School. That is the task of those
whom A.A.B. will choose to carry on. It is a living organism
which will grow of its own inherent potentialities and under
the spiritual inspiration of the energy coming from the Ashram
of the Master K.H. in which A.A.B. is a worker and disciple.
Ibid., pp. 82-3
The Arcane School is not one of my activities or enterprises,
and has never been. In view of the condition of esoteric schools
(so called) in the world, when A.A.B. organised the Arcane
School she deliberately refused to let me have anything to
do with it, and I fully concurred in her decision. The extent
of my connection with the School lies in the fact that I outlined
for her the degrees of the School, and once or twice—in
my instructions used in the Disciples Degree—I appealed
to the students for cooperation in some matter. Forget not
that these instructions were not School instructions, but
were the early form of my books and went out unchanged to
the general public. Also, it has only been within the last
five years that any correspondence course for the School has
been arranged around one or other of my books.
Ibid., pp. 83-4
1. The Arcane School trains disciples. Its curriculum is therefore
eliminative. Its standard cannot be lowered. It is not a school
for probationers. It will consequently always remain relatively
small.
2. It is a school for adults wherein occult
obedience is developed. This is not obedience to man-made
rules or school obediences, but involves soul obedience.
3. This is a school wherein belief in
the Hierarchy is scientifically taught, not as a doctrine
but as an existent and provable natural kingdom; the rules
of the Ashram and the dual life of the disciple are emphasised.
4. This is a school wherein the student
is taught that "the souls of men are one."
5. No claim for place or power is made,
and the claim of being an initiate is never heard. The Headquarters
Group and the workers in the School are there because of spiritual
inclination.
6. The Arcane School is non-sectarian,
non-political and international in its thinking. Service is
its keynote. Its members can work in any sect and in any political
party, provided they remember that all paths lead to God and
that "the One Humanity" governs all their thinking.
7. The fundamental doctrines of the Ageless
Wisdom, recognised all over the world and as expounded in
my books, constitute the foundational teaching of the Arcane
School. This is so, not because they are my books but because
they are part of the continuity of the Ageless Wisdom and
constitute the latest emanation of the Ageless Wisdom issued
by the Hierarchy. They must not be permitted to become a Bible
of a sect...A.A.B. must not be turned into an occult authority.
Those connected with the Great White Lodge favour no Bibles
or authorities—only the freedom of the human soul. The
teaching matters, not the source or the form.
Ibid., pp. 87-8
One thing I would however like you clearly
to grasp and that is the pattern which underlies the various
aspects of the work now in process of expansion. A brief diagram
should make the relationship clear, and these relationships
are factual today:
THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHY OF THE PLANET
working through
/
THE NEW GROUP OF WORLD SERVERS
using many agencies, among them
/
THE ARCANE SCHOOL
working through
/
THE SERVICE ACTIVITIES
the Triangles, the Goodwill work, the Invocation work
allied with
/
THE LUCIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
The energy of the New Group of World Servers
could be likened to the antahkarana which connects humanity
with the Hierarchy and provides a channel of contact with
the Ashrams of the Masters. The Arcane School can be considered
as one of the results of the activity of the New Group of
World Servers. There are many others scattered all over the
world. The same holds true of the Service Activities. No esoteric
group is soundly handled and correctly motivated unless the
spiritual energies which are available to it and the knowledge
and the wisdom unfolded find expression in definite service.
The service activities are, therefore, an expression of the
livingness of the Arcane School and that relationship must
be valued and preserved.
Ibid., pp. 88-9
It is necessary for you to remember that this group effort
which I initiated with the assistance of some of the older
and more experienced Masters, is by no means completed; it
may be (and probably is) an experiment in this particular
life for you, but next life may evoke from you a new attitude
and a deeper comprehension of what is subjectively going on.
It has been your lack of comprehension and of understood opportunity
which has distressed me and bewildered A.A.B. Like all disciples,
she had at first to work in the dark; she knew nothing in
her physical brain consciousness of the Masters or the Hierarchy
when she started to serve, but she continued to serve for
many years till discovery rewarded her or (should I perhaps
say?) recovery of ancient links and knowledge clarified her
vision and her position in regard to truth. Slowly she now
withdraws into that service which will (within the Ashram)
enable K.H. to do more deeply spiritual work in collaboration
with the Christ. It was to train her and thus enable her to
do this that she undertook, alone and without my help, to
found and organise the Arcane School; it gave her much needed
training and experience and enabled her to demonstrate the
quality of the teaching and that esoteric psychology which
is the major task in each Ashram and particularly in the second
ray Ashram.
Ibid., p. 101
A great experiment is being attempted in the Arcane School.
It is an endeavour to lift off the shoulders of the Masters
the training of aspirants for discipleship and thus to prepare
them to take their stand upon the periphery of an Ashram—in
this case mine. I am thus lifting much along this line off
the shoulders of other Masters. Masters such as K.H. and M.
deal only at this time with trained disciples—such are
the exigencies of world work. In the advanced section of the
Arcane School this experiment is going on…
Ibid., p. 746
The founding and the work of the Arcane School. This was started
by A.A.B. to train those ready for esoteric teaching and to
prepare them for the stage and work of Accepted Discipleship.
The world today is full of groups occupied with the task of
helping one or other of the groups of aspirants and seekers
to be found everywhere, or with the more general undertaking
of raising the mass consciousness. The Arcane School was therefore
formed for two purposes:
a. Primarily to aid the Hierarchy in its
work during the world crisis—a crisis for which the
Hierarchy has been long prepared. The Arcane School was not
and is not the only group with this objective, but it is definitely
among the most influential.
b. To train probationary disciples to
become accepted disciples, so that the Hierarchy could find
those who could safely carry spiritual power and be channels
of love and understanding to the world.
You can see, therefore, that the Arcane
School is not so much engaged in helping the individual as
in aiding the Hierarchy to salvage humanity. For this work,
training is required, and the Arcane School provides this.
The Externalisation of the Hierarchy,
pp. 322-23
…its aim is to train those disciples who can implement
the Plan and thus prepare for the reappearance of the Christ;
the Arcane School can therefore provide a trained body of
workers.
Ibid., p. 633
Foster Bailey on the discipleship of Alice Bailey:
A.A.B.’s last incarnation was dominated
by two objectives, one of which was specifically hers and
the other a collaboration with D.K. in his heavy task of providing
the bridging teaching needed between the old Piscean age and
the new Aquarian era.
She came into incarnation with a fixed
purpose of creating a new age esoteric school for discipleship.
There was a growing number of aspirants to discipleship with
some esoteric knowledge, and this had been greatly augmented
by the disciple, H.P. Blavatsky, but there were all too few
trained, effective, accepted disciples. If there had been
more, the crisis of the world war might have been handled
on the mental plane and not precipitated through into physical
warfare. The Arcane School was her chosen contribution to
hierarchical work and was approved by her Master. Neither
K.H. nor D.K. ever controlled her or the creation of the Arcane
School. That was her privilege, win or lose.”
A.A.B.’s last incarnation was dominated
by two objectives, one of which was specifically hers and
the other a collaboration with D.K. in his heavy task of providing
the bridging teaching needed between the old Piscean age and
the new Aquarian era.
She came into incarnation with a fixed
purpose of creating a new age esoteric school for discipleship.
There was a growing number of aspirants to discipleship with
some esoteric knowledge, and this had been greatly augmented
by the disciple, H.P. Blavatsky, but there were all too few
trained, effective, accepted disciples. If there had been
more, the crisis of the world war might have been handled
on the mental plane and not precipitated through into physical
warfare. The Arcane School was her chosen contribution to
hierarchical work and was approved by her Master. Neither
K.H. nor D.K. ever controlled her or the creation of the Arcane
School. That was her privilege, win or lose.”
She asks us to keep the Arcane School
bright and shining as it is now, to keep it filled with the
saving power of a world-wide gathering of loving hearts, which
it is, and to see to it that we truly serve. (written December
16, 1949, one day after Alice Bailey’s death)
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