The Labours Of Hercules

Biographies & Memoirs

Bailey, Alice A.

Memoirs

Lucis Pub

Consciousness of the Atom

INDEX EDITION: This 13th printing is published only by Lucis Publishing Co. It includes all seven lectures given by Mrs. Bailey as well as an index of key topics covered in the book. Seven lectures given by Alice Bailey are brought together in this book of seven chapters under the headings: 1. The Field of Evolution. 2. The Evolution of Substance. 3. The Evolution of Form, or Group Evolution. 4. The Evolution of Man, the Thinker. 5. The Evolution of Consciousness. 6. The Goal of Evolution. 7. Cosmic Evolution. In these chapters the scientific relation of matter and consciousness is discussed as evolution progressively affects the atomic substance of all forms, subjective and objective. The purpose of the lectures was to present "the testimony of science" to this relationship and "to enable the hearers to observe the identical manifestation of these relations and of certain basic laws in successively higher states of being, thus to bring a realisation of the universality of the evolutionary process and its actuality." They serve as an introduction to the more detailed study and application of the laws of life and human unfoldment generally included in the term "occultism". Much progress has been made during this century in atomic science and in man's knowledge of the structure of the universe, the constitution of man, and the relation between the two. This book provides an intelligible basis to the occultist for a study of consciousness in depth and in right relation to the life pattern of the universe. The "atom" emerges as a minute but complete replica of the energy structure common to all forms of life--cosmic, planetary, human and subhuman. Groupings and relationships are shown as they exist on a small and on a vast scale within the evolutionary process, and the effects of energy interplay on the whole structure of consciousness.  The teachings and sayings of the Christ are quoted to cement the inescapable link between the scientific and the philosophical, or religious aspects of divinity. Each divine principle can be expressed in terms which relate to any human attribute or activity. Here is the synthesis of life in form.

Religion & Spirituality

New Age & Spirituality

The Destiny of the Nations

World problems are increasing in complexity as the population of the world increases, and as nations become inter-related and interdependent. It is important for the future of mankind that we understand and cooperate with the spiritual laws and forces at work within the interwoven structure of civilisation, so that the individual part - human and national - can be rightly related to the evolving whole. A nation is subject, as a man is, to the impact of energies emanating from solar and cosmic sources. These energies influence the nation as a whole through the "mechanism of response" equivalent to the Monad-soul-personality constitution of a man. Different nations are more receptive to some energies that to others; and all nations, subject to the evolution of national consciousness, have a destiny before them which is literally based on the qualities and the principles of the particular ray energy seeking expression through the national soul. In this book the ray energies affecting certain nations, world groupings and major cities are analysed in relation to meaning and purpose, and to the emergence of ideas appropriate to energy influences dominant at the end and at the beginning of an age. The world of humanity is shown as a state of becoming, guided and given opportunity by the spiritual Hierarchy - the inner government of the planet - from a stable state fo Being. The understanding, acceptance and fulfillment of spiritual possibilities weaves the destinies of all peoples together into a synthesis, in which each contributes to the whole the unfoldment of individual potential. A recognition of the soul destiny of nations in the light of the teaching in this book, has a practicality today in our search for international adjustments. The ray qualities affecting the peoples of the world can be used intelligently to promote understanding and unity. We are given a glimpse in this book of the beauty of energy synthesis when all component parts work together according to their own ray combination and the "the glory of the One". "The future will see right relationships, true communion, a sharing of all things ...and goodwill; we have also a picture of the future of humanity when all nations are united in complete understanding and the diversity of languages - symbolic of differing traditions, cultures, civilisations and points of view - will provide no barrier to right human relations. At the centre of each of these two pictures is to be found the Christ."

Discipleship in the New Age Vol. II is a continuation of a series of personal and group instructions given to a small group of aspirants over a period of fifteen years by a Master of the Wisdom. They contain detailed teachings on Meditiation, Initiation and the Six Stages of Discipleship. They emphasise the new age, pioneering necessity for group work, the development of group consciousness, and the change in training for initiation from individuals to discipleship groups. While the original intention behind the group working instructions contained in Volume I, was to externalise eventually through groups of nine integrated disciples, the work of nine subjectively organised groups (hence the name "Groups of Nine" given to this work), this second volume contains the teaching given between the years 1940 and 1949 after the group had been reduced and reorganised into one group, "the new seed group". One of the main objectives of the new seed group was to "anchor" some of the principles and seed ideas for the new civilisation of the Aquarian era; and also to create an integrated group of trained Hierarchical workers capable of providing needed cooperation with activities initiated by Hierarchy to fertalise and prepare human consciousness for the tremendous stimulation of the immediate future. In this book, therefore, the personal instructions cover a shorter period of time and only 22 individuals. Two vitally important aspects of the life of discipleship are emphasised from the standpoint of practical training techniques--meditation and initiation. Meditation is shown not only as a way of approach by the individual to the soul, and by the group to the Master, but as the creative technique of the Lord of the World by which all is brought into being. All centres of consciousness in the planet, large and small, can employ the same meditative techniques to create the new and needed forms consistent with the changing emphasis of energy flow and divine purpose. Meditation thus becomes an act of conscious cooperation with "the strictly redemptive purposes" of our planetary life. The teachings on initiation are also given an essentially practical presentation as "facts of life", to be understood and applied. The glamourous idea of initiation as a reward for a good, self-disciplined way of life, dissipates in the light of the reality. Neither has initiation for the disciple anything to do with the internal, organisational "initiations" peculiar to many occult orders and groups, which are meaningless except in the context of the organisation itself. Initiation for the disciple is the result of a conscious expansion into "larger and larger wholes"--a progressive expansion into the actual stream of consciousness of our planetary Life. These expansions in consciousness are accompanied by a succession of revelations; and in this volume of "Discipleship in the New Age", five points of revelation are discussed, with hints and symbolic formulas leading to a correct interpretation of them. A disciple is "one who knows"; he has learned through personal experience that spiritual law and principle applied in service, create a condition of balance in which relationship is restored between the Way of God and the ways of men. Through that point of fusion light can radiate for the benefit of those who stumble in the dark. True revelation is a shared experience.

Discipleship in the New Age, Vol 2

History

The subject of human free will has always contrived to set men's mental teeth on edge. The fatalist automatically resigns himself to whatever befalls him, seeing in effects no cause attributable to his own action--or inaction; but resigned always to the working of an inexorable fate.The Christian counterpart tends to accept his lot as the working of God's Will in which he has no say or part.At the other extreme stands the rebellious independent, determined to exercise his right to free, self-willed action.This book, as one of its many values, shows the extent to which Hierarchy and other centres of life on the planet are dependent upon the unpredictable and often irresponsible factor of human free will. During the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II, every opportunity and every possible spiritual stimulation was offered to humanity in an effort to avoid precipitation of conflict on to the physical plane. Disciples and aspirants to discipleship were asked to give special cooperation to the Hierarchy, and to make an all-out effort to provide adequate leadership to human thought and decision. All were left free, however, to determine their own limits, if any, and to decide their own actions. According to law, the Hierarchy--even at danger point--could not infringe human free will and dictate or impose a course of action based on their own deeper knowledge and more profound insight.Many of the spiritual factors surrounding the period of human history from 1919 to 1949 are presented in this book. The energies at work behind the world scene are shown; and the identity revealed of certain great Beings magnetically attracted in service towards this planet at a climaxing moment in the evolution of our planetary life.These factors are an aid to our understanding of the interrelated energy patterns within the universe which operate according to law. But essentially they provide the esotericist with knowledge of available energy flow responding to planetary purpose and plan which can be contacted and given conscious and intelligent cooperation, particularly by those in whom the selfish, self-centred will has been transcended so that the spiritual will can be given more adequate expression. Some of these energy factors are particularly clear in the special "Messages" given over a period of many years at the time of the Festivals of Easter, Wesak and the Christ.Many aspects of Hierarchical work, thought and planning are discussed in these Messages, with the Hierarchical effect shown of planetary evolution and initiation and its reflection into humanity. This achieved a climax at the time of the three Festivals in 1945, when a momentous decision was taken involving, among other results, the eventual externalisation of the Hierarchy arid the reappearance of the Christ.The final section of the book discusses the "Stages in the Externalisation of the Hierarchy". It is often difficult for the human mind to imagine the problems facing those liberated from the restrictions of form. It is even more difficult to contemplate the effects in those so liberated of a free choice to reassume such a limitation.So we are helped to understand what the interdependence of life on this planet really signifies in terms of love, sacrifice and service by the part to the needs of the whole.

The Externalisation of the Hierarchy

In this era of a rapid increase in human intelligence and capacity to use the mind we run the risk of over-emphasis on intellectualism. The mind is the slayer of the real" is a well-known reflection of an inherent danger.
In this book From Intellect to Intuition development of the intellect, while necessary, is shown as a means to an end and one step on the way to a fully awakened and active mental body.
The intellect is the rationalising, analytical aspect of the mind, concerned with knowledge. It can be used as a stepping-stone to penetrate into new realms and dimensions of thought, and to touch and awaken the intuitive faculty of pure reason. Between the intellect and the intuition, however, a gap exists until it has been consciously bridged through meditation. Meditation is sometimes defined as thinking in the heart; correct meditation proceeds only when the heart and mind function together in unison. To touch the intuition, therefore, this blending of heart and mind is a necessity, since the intuitive sense is a faculty of the heart aroused by the activity of the integrated, three-fold mind.
Meditation is also the deliberate application of discipline to the mind to render it controlled, concentrated and one-pointed at will. Right use of the mind in meditation opens the consciousness to the beauty, truth and goodness of the soul, through the five stages of concentration-meditation-contemplation-illumination-inspiration. These five stages lead to union with the soul - the son of mind - and direct knowledge of divinity, creating an instrument of intelligence for the soul to use in daily life.
 The experienced voice of the eastern wisdom comes to us with one word: Meditation. The question naturally arises: 'Is that all?' and the answer is: Yes. If meditation is rightly followed, and if perseverance is the keynote of the life, then increasingly soul contact is established. The results of that contact work out in self-discipline, in purification, and in the life of aspiration and of service. Meditation in the eastern sense is ...a strictly mental process, leading to soul knowledge and illumination. It is a fact in nature that ,as a man thinketh (in his heart) so is he.

From Intellect to Intuition

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Letters on Occult Meditation

We have a recognised cleavage to be bridged in the world today, usually known as the cleavage between "East and West", but termed more accurately between "Orient and Occident". Behind the differences in culture, tradition, religion, ideology and social customs, however, there is a growing interchange of thought and mental understanding. One powerful stimulation to this mental rapport may be in an increasing tendency for the westerner to cultivate the science of meditation long practiced in the East as an essential part of religious and spiritual experience. In this day and age, and as we move on into the mentally oriented age of Aquarius, with increasing numbers of men and women transferring from an emotional to a mental focus, the science of meditation as a mind training technique in concentration and invocation will become increasingly practiced in the West.However, there are deeper and more profound areas of life and consciousness to be penetrated and revealed in meditation. Meditation, in the occult sense, is not only a training technique for the mind, but a means of achieving alignment, union and identification with the soul, with the Christ, and ultimately with "the Father". As distinct from the experience of mystical union, occult meditation establishes a scientific process by which causes set in motion will produce identifiable effects, which can be repeated at will. This is a technique to be mastered by the mind; it involves intense mental activity followed by an absolute stillness, with the ability so to control and order the mind that it engages in action or becomes stilled to "reflection" at will. The first purpose of this form of meditation is the conscious integration of soul and personality, so that the livingness of the soul may impress and influence the quality of the personality life. This draws a man steadily into that centre of consciousness within the planet we call the spiritual Hierarchy, the Kingdom of God; the spiritual Man then assumes control, and the divine potential is unfolded.Since we are dealing in meditation with energy flow which is literally fiery and impersonal, there are pitfalls and dangers to be understood and avoided; these, too, are discussed. And also the colours and sounds corresponding to the various ray energies which, occultly speaking, are vibrations of different frequencies. In looking towards the future, the author predicts the growing influence of the science of meditation, leading eventually to the establishing of schools of meditation under the guidance and instruction of initiated disciples. These schools will be of two kinds: one, preparatory; and the other actually training the student for initiation. The ultimate objective of these comprehensive training schools will be to provide qualified disciples for planetary service. In all training work inspired by Hierarchy the motif is service--the spontaneous effect of soul contact in the selflessly motivated disciple. "The motive may be epitomised in these few words: The sacrifice of the personal self for the good of the One Self. The method may also be shortly put: Wise control of the personality, and discrimination in work and time. The resultant attitude will be: Complete dispassion, and a growing love of the unseen and the real. All this will be consummated through steady application to occult Meditation."

"In every age I come back to deliver the holy, to destroy the sin of the sinner, to establish righteousness." So runs the well-known passage in the Bhagavad Gita (translation by Prabhavananda and Isherwood), giving words to an eternal hope in the human heart. In this book the reappearance of the Christ is recognised as inevitable within the continuity of divine revelation. Not only has God never left Himself without witness, but at definite periods in the history of human evolution, the "word of God", the projected potency of His vital life, has manifested in form in order to establish the principles to be demonstrated during the coming cycle.  There have been many such messengers over the ages, manifesting through one or another of the great world religions or followed by a new form of religion based on the new revelation. Divine revelation and the periodic appearance of messengers, or Avatars, occur, however, according to cosmic law, when certain conditions exist within the whole scheme affected by, and affecting, every part, large and small. Then a chain of events is set in motion which under law must eventually work out.  The part that our little planet Earth plays in this intricate and smoothly functioning system of inter-relationships seems to be of vital importance at this time. The esoteric and planetary significances of the reappearance of the Christ are suggested in this book as underlying causes for His Aquarian service to humanity.  This is the beginning and end of an age--the beginning of Aquarius and the end of Pisces--marking also a major turning point in the evolution of human consciousness from individual need to the needs of humanity as a whole, from personal salvation to world service, and from materiality to spirituality. It seems that this climaxing transition must be "marked" in both its stages, beginning and end, by the Christ Himself, and a principle anchored in human consciousness, which embodies not only the love or God established for the age of Pisces, but also the new potency for the future, the "Will" of God, into which only the Christ is as vet fully and perfectly absorbed.  The imminence of the reappearance of the Christ is sensed and expected by many, belonging as He does to all humanity irrespective of differing religious dogma and doctrine. "He for whom all men wait" will Himself determine the manner and the timing of His appearance and the area of his work in a way which creates no divisions or separations between men, either religious, social or ideological. Not only does He come as the first Son of God, but as Head of the spiritual Hierarchy, the inner government of the planet. He is, therefore, a great world executive, representing the Kingdom of God, and fulfilling a definite function in the world of men. He is coming to establish through precept and example in world service the principles on which a united, interdependent and interactive world may create its new material systems and spiritual institutions for the new civilisation.  Preparation for the second coming is the responsibility of humanity; it is for those who know and accept the imminent return of the Christ to prepare men's minds and hearts to recognise and receive Him, and to create those conditions of balance and spiritual alignment which will ultimately draw Him forth into our midst. For no matter what message or revelation the Christ may embody when He comes, no matter what principle or energy He may anchor on Earth for human use, He is not coming to save humanity from the results of its own sins, but once more to show humanity how to save itself in the new conditions and new opportunities with which the world is faced.

Reappearance of the Christ

Occultism is concerned with the scientific facts behind the spiritual idealisms many accept because of a natural human tendency to idealise. One of the most highly idealised concepts is that of the brotherhood of man. Occultism shows that the scientific basis for that ideal rests on the fact of the one etheric structure underlying all forms within the solar system, energised and held in being by one life force. Mankind is, therefore, one in life and in form; he is merely unaware of unity in his own consciousness. And evolution is essentially the means by which he becomes progressively conscious of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. In this whole process the faculties of man play an important part--the five objective senses with their five higher spiritual counterparts. The mental principle or faculty is of tremendous importance to humanity at this stage in his evolutionary unfoldment. The three-fold mind unifies as one faculty the higher or abstract mind, the soul--the son of mind, and the lower concrete mind. As this condition of mental fusion and control develops, the disciple is learning to use the mind in new ways, particularly in wielding energy which, as it vitalises and animates his etheric body, influences through radiation his effect on others. It is through this conscious, controlled use of mental energy that telepathic communication can be scientificallv established with other minds by means of the etheric structure common to all. And by the same means the mind of the disciple, or of a group of disciples developing group consciousness, can be impressed by the clarity of thought and purpose of those members of the spiritual Hierarchy concerned with the working out of the Plan for humanity. The spiritual Hierarchy, we are toId, works only through the minds of disciples, using the science of impression, and only for the purposes of the Plan. The impression is conveyed as a stream of ideas--those ideas inherent in the Plan for man--which the disciple or the group can then interpret and translate into self-chosen action. The form of telepathy now developing within the spiritually awakened aspirants of the world is not, therefore, that of the solar plexus centre which is of the animal nature, but the result of a mental polarisation and penetration in consciousness towards the soul and the Triad. This produces an open channel of communication in two directions--vertically towards the spiritual Hierarchy of the planet, seeking to impress the Plan on all receptive minds, and horizontally towards the minds of men united within the mental substance of human consciousness as one. The second part of this book discusses the etheric structure of the planet and the solar system of which each man and each form is an integral part; the pattern of the triangle in controlling energy flow and establishing a continuity of circulation through the whole system is of immediate importance to humanity. We are involved in the life of the Planetary Logos--"in Him we live and move and have our being"--and we are a contributing part of the present effort to bring the etheric body under the influence of the soul, symbolised by the triangle. To the extent, and at the rate, that we succeed, so is the planetary etheric structure changing in form to become more consciously integrated into the energy system of which our planet is one small unit. So the living process of unity is exemplified--the part contributing to the whole, and the whole effecting the part through every cell and atom of every grade of substance which it contains.

Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

Although this book was one of the first to be written by Alice Bailey in collaboration with the Tibetan, it is probably the most timeless, profound and least understood. "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" deals with the underlying structure of occult teaching for the present era, with vast cosmic processes reproduced through all areas of life from universe to atom. It is, therefore, no book for the proof-demanding concrete mind, or for those who dabble in the spectacular and the phenomenal. The true student, however, the seriously applied aspirant, will find his mind stimulated and his consciousness expanded. 
 The book is dedicated to Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, and is said to be "the psychological key to the Cosmic Creation". Certainly in its revelation of relationship and correspondences throughout the Cosmos, all aspects of life unfolding through consciousness are included, based on the aphorism--"Having pervaded the entire universe with one fragment of Myself, I remain." 
 The One Life manifests through all form within the universe as fiery energy; and the three main streams of cosmic energy, differentiated into seven systemic rays, are shown in relation to the three aspects of fire controlling all manifested life: Electric Fire, the Fire of Spirit; Solar Fire, the Fire of Mind; Fire by Friction, the Internal Fires. 
 A large section of the book is directed to a detailed exposition of Solar Fire, the Fire of Mind, since this is the dominant energy to be understood and controlled during this second solar system. The cosmic Laws operating through the system are shown in relation to the lesser laws of planetary origin and the laws of nature, operating through substance, as distinct from the life and the consciousness of the planet. 
 In her foreword to the book, the author mentions a five-fold purpose within its teaching; briefly: (a) To provide a compact and skeleton outline of a scheme of cosmology, philosophy and psychology which may serve as a reference and textbook; (b) As an elucidation of the relation between Spirit and Matter, demonstrating as consciousness; (c) To show the coherent development of all that is found within a solar system and to demonstrate that everything evolves; (d) To give practical information about focal points of energy found in the etheric bodies of the Solar Logos, the macrocosm, and of man, the microcosm; (e) To give some information of the place and work of those sentient lives who form the essence of objectivity, and to indicate the nature of the Hierarchies of Existences who form out of their own substance all that is seen and known. 
 These five objectives, and more, the book encompasses; for the effect in the individual consciousness is such that theories become transcended and the mind begins to experience through contemplative thought what the words on paper reveal to the intelligence. The finite human mind can touch its cosmic origins and its fiery essence when it opens to the three cosmic Laws of Synthesis, of Attraction and of Economy. 
 The fire of love, the flame of life within the heart, is the touchstone for all intuitive thought, and the alchemist to the dense materiality of gross substance.

Treatise on Cosmic Fire

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