A Compilation from the Writings of Alice A. Bailey
(Keywords: money, finance, commerce, business, economy,
materialism, resources, barter & exchange, sharing, capital & labour.)
The life of the man who takes the fourth initiation, or the Crucifixion, is usually one of great sacrifice and suffering. It is the life of the man who makes the Great Renunciation, and even exoterically it is seen to be strenuous, hard, and painful. He has laid all, even his perfected personality, upon the altar of sacrifice, and stands bereft of all. All is renounced, friends, money, reputation, character, standing in the world, family, and even life itself. (IHS 89)
Its application is far wider than this, and includes the methods of organisation which are demonstrated in all civilised communities, such as in the world of commerce and of finance, and the great business organisations everywhere to be seen. Above all, its interest lies for us in the fact that it is the ray which brings opportunity to the occidental races, and through the medium of this life force of executive organisation, of government by rule and order, by rhythm and by ritual, will come the time wherein the occidental races (with their active, concrete mind, and their vast business capacity) can take initiation, – an initiation, we must remember, upon a ray which is temporarily recognised as a major ray. (IHS 182)
Even the ones – so apt to be despised – who are the active workers of the world may, in their place and through their devotion to the ideals of work or science or even of business organisation, be just as far advanced as the more highly considered ones who demonstrate more patently the love aspect of the Divine Self. (LOOM 173)
2. There will be no fees or money charged, and no money transaction. The pupil must be somewhat self-supporting and able to earn the means of livelihood whilst in the school. The schools in both their divisions will be supported through the voluntary contributions of people, and through a knowledge of the laws of supply and demand occultly interpreted. (LOOM 320)
In reference to what has been said anent the second characteristic of manas, a very interesting development may be looked for during the coming century. This is the intensification of business organisation, and the bringing (under law and order), of the entire life of families and groups of families cities and groups of cities nations and groups of nations.
until the human race in every department of its exoteric life will conform to rule, – this voluntarily, and with manasic realisation of group need. The whole trend of mental effort during the next subraces will be towards the synthesis of endeavour, thus ensuring the good of the corporate body involved. (TCF 423)
Increased mental activity and the spread of education (of the concrete mental kind) everywhere. This will result in:
Increased competition between units and between groups The organization of business on lines hitherto undreamt of the foundation of groups and aggregations of groups whose sole purpose will be to synthesise all the lines of human endeavour, and thus bring about unification of effort, and economy of force in the scientific, business, philosophic, educational, and religious worlds. (TCF 453)
And only then will electricity be harnessed and utilised by man as a unity, and not just in one of its aspects as at present; the negative electricity of the planet is all that is as yet contacted for commercial purposes. (TCF 524)
The aspirant has an appreciation of the occult value of money in service. He seeks nothing for himself, save 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 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. (TCF 866)
The first set of principles is learnt by the man through grasping, and the subsequent disaster that results from that seizure. He stole, he suffered the penalty and he stole no more. The principle was wrought into him by pain and he learnt that only that which was his by right and not by seizure could be enjoyed. The world is learning this lesson in groups now, for, as its revolutionaries seize and unlawfully hold, they find the stolen property suffices not but brings sorrow. Thus in time they learn the principles. (TWM 117)
Light and darkness interact, as do pleasure and pain; good and evil meet and form the playground of the Gods, and poverty and riches are offset one against the other. The entire modern economic situation is of an astral nature; it is the outcome of desire and the result of a certain selfish use of the forces of matter. Heat and cold, as we understand the term, in a most peculiar manner are the result of the interplay of the pairs of opposites, and an interesting line of occult study concerns itself with the effects of racial emotions on climatic conditions. We most truly make our climate in one significant sense. When desire has burnt itself out, planetary life comes to an end, as climatic conditions will negate form-life as we understand it. (TWM 225)
The first ray aspirant who fails to overcome his Dweller may become a “destroyer of souls”, as it is called, and be condemned (until he learns his lesson) to work in the forces of matter, and with the forms which hold all souls in prison. This is the occult significance of the misunderstood words, death and destruction. Of this type, the Devil is the great prototype.
The second ray aspirant who builds his Dweller and permits its steady and increasing control becomes a “deluder of souls”. He is the true Anti-Christ, and through false teaching and the working of so-called miracles, through hypnotism and mass suggestion he draws a veil over the world and forces men to walk in the great illusion. It is interesting to note that the work of the Devil, the imprisoner of souls, is beginning to lose its power, for the race is on the verge of understanding that true death is immersion in form, and that matter is but a part of the divine whole. The thought form of this “Dweller on the Threshold” which humanity has built for millions of years is on the verge of destruction. But the work of Anti-Christ is only rising now to its height, and the delusion of riches, of possession, of false teaching will increasingly hold sway but the term of the delusion will be shorter than the term of destruction, for all these factors function under their own cycles and have their own ebb and flow.
The third ray person who also fails to shatter his [Page 241] “Dweller” becomes what is called a “manipulator of souls” and uses the mind to destroy the real and to put a veil between the man and reality. It must be remembered that none of these names and these activities refer to the soul on its own plane but only to human souls in incarnation on the physical plane. This must be stressed, for on its own plane the souls of all men stand free from illusion, and neither can be destroyed, deluded nor manipulated. It is only “the souls in prison” who are subject to the activities of the forces of evil and only for a term. The first group works through governments, through politics, and the interplay between nations and is relatively small in number. The second ray group who delude and deceive, work through religious agencies, through mass psychology, and the misuse and misapplication of devotion and of the arts. They are largest in number. The third group work primarily through commercial relations in the business world, and through the use of money, the concretisation of prana or universal energy (TWM 240-1)
Humanity is now at the midway point as this rule shows. Man is swept by selfish desire and by ambition, for all of us have first ray qualities. He is racked by fear – his own, family fears, national fears and racial, for all of us swing to the rhythm of the second ray. He is dominated by sex and by money which is another manifestation of the energy of matter and hence has a triple problem with which he is well equipped to deal through the medium of his triple vehicle and the triple potencies of his divine soul. (TWM 242)
The fact that the working out may be military, economic, social or political, that it may take the form of a war, of a religious inquisition, of financial stringency or international distrust is incidental. The causes lie back in the blue prints of the evolutionary process and are governed – even if unrealised – by the good Law. (TWM 307)
It is his astral polarisation which lays a man open to his many emotional reactions and to waves of mass feeling of any kind. This is the cause of his being swept into that vortex of uncontrolled energy and misdirected emotional force which eventuates in a world war, a financial panic, a religious revival, or a lynching. (TWM 308)
Our mechanical civilization will be simplified, and an era ushered in which will be [Page 334] free from the incubus of money (its possession and its non-possession), and the human family will recognize universally its status as a bridging kingdom between the three lower kingdoms of nature and the fifth or spiritual kingdom. There will be time and freedom for a soul culture which will supersede our modern methods of education, and the significance of soul powers and the development of the superhuman consciousness will engross the attention of educators and students everywhere. (TWM 333-4)
The three groups to which I earlier referred require a word of comment. Their work is curiously different to that of the other groups and their ranks are recruited from all the ray groups, though the members of the third group (that of the financiers) are found primarily upon the seventh ray, that of ceremonial organisation. In the order of their emergence, they are the groups of philosophers, psychologists and business men. …
All these three are the subject matter of philosophical investigation, for the theme of the philosophers is the nature of reality and the means of knowledge.
The two most modern groups are the psychologists who work under the Delphic injunction “Man, know thyself”, and the financiers who are the custodians of the means whereby man can live upon the physical plane. These two groups necessarily, and in spite of apparent divergences and differences are more synthetic in their foundational aspects, than any of the others. One group concerns itself with mankind, with the varying types of humanity the mechanism employed, and man’s urges, characteristics, and with the purpose – apparent or hidden – of his being. The other group controls and orders the means whereby he exists, controlling all that can be converted into energy and constituting a dictatorship over all modes of intercourse, commerce and exchange. They control the multiplicity of form – objects which modern man regards as essential to his mode of life. Money, as I have before said, is only crystallised energy or vitality, – what the oriental student calls pranic energy. It is a concretisation of etheric force. It is therefore vital energy externalised, and this form of energy is under the direction of the financial group. They are the latest group in point of date, and their work (it should be borne in mind) is most definitely planned by the Hierarchy. They are bringing about effects upon the earth which are most far reaching. (TWM 411)
If the attempt is to succeed it is basically necessary that all of you who have sensed the vision or seen a part of the intended plan should re-dedicate yourselves to the service of humanity, should pledge yourselves to the work of aiding to the utmost of your ability (ponder those words and search out their significance) all world servers, and should sacrifice your time and give of your money to further the endeavor of the Great Ones. (TWM 521)
7. The seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order or Magic. Masons. Financiers. Great businessmen and organisers of all kinds. Executives are found with these energies in their equipment. (DINA 1-xiv)
9. This ninth group will be composed of Financiers and Economists. Thy will work with the energies and forces which express themselves through the interchange and the values of commerce; they will deal with the Law of Supply and Demand and with the great principle of Sharing which ever governs divine purpose. They will [Page 40] be the great psychometrical workers, for a psychometrist is one whose soul is sensitive to the soul in others and in all forms of life. The principle of Sharing which must govern economic relations in the future is a soul quality or energy and hence their work of relating soul with soul. They also evoke the soul of the past, linking it with the present and finding it likewise indicative of the future. (DINA 1-39-40)
You (JWK-P) face the three most strenuous years of your life and by the time you are forty-nine years old, your work will have fallen into such definite lines that you will see the Plan for future service with much greater clarity and will have acquired the desired momentum. Your work ahead lies now in cooperating with those who are the New Group of World Servers and in organising the financing through which much of their work may become possible. The work as it takes shape on the physical plane must be directed towards the spiritual uplift of the thinking people of the world in the first case and in the second place through them will come the uplift of the masses. (DINA 1-161)
2. (JWK-P) To find and organise the needed funds for this task. The last is in many ways the outer expression of the first, for just as money has been in the past the instrument of men’s selfishness, now it must be the instrument of their goodwill. I commend this to you as a real thought and so to continue to use it (employing an American phrase) as a talking point. (DINA 1-166)
I refer to the financing of the work which I have planned. Cooperating with those who are endeavouring to procure the needed funds for the work to be done during the next few years will strengthen you inwardly and eliminate that fear which still tinctures much that you do. (DINA 1-271)
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 coloured 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 re-generation 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 labour, 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 utilised 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 organisation 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 centre. 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. (DINA 1-272-3)
The glamour of caste still holds many nations and their peoples, and this the present war will bring to an end and from it will emerge humanity – whole, and able to function in human ways, free from the major trends and tyrannies of the past caste system, churchianity and financial grading. (DINA 1-341)
Your (WDS) physical body is on the third Ray of Active Intelligence. This was the factor which brought you originally into the business field and has, therefore, inclined you to field work, and organisation work. (DINA 1-379)
3. Your (LTSK) “service,” so called, has hitherto been the making of plans after your initial service of financing the earlier stage. But, my brother, the giving of money is the least important thing you have to offer. (DINA 1-614)
Under the influence of disciples on the seventh Ray of Organisation or of Ceremonial Order, that powerful physical concretisation 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 externalisation. (DINA 2-221)
It must be realised 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 colour, 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, jewellery 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 civilisation. 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 these two meditations 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. (DINA 2-225-6)
REFLECTIVE MEDITATION ON ATTRACTING MONEY FOR HIERARCHICAL PURPOSE
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:
1. If money is one of the most important things needed today for spiritual work, what is the factor which is 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. Visualise the money in the world today.
a. Concretised energy, at present largely used for purely material purposes and for the satisfaction (where the individual is concerned) of purely personal desires.
b. Visualise money 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.”
3. Then visualise the work to be done by those groups which claim your present allegiance (i.e., 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 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.’
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 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. Realise 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. (DINA 2-228-31)
The Catholic Church is governed by the first ray as its soul ray, and by the third ray as its personality ray. Hence its love of politics and of temporal power; hence also its intensely commercial and financial preoccupations. (DINA 2-506)
The world of competitive business and the struggle with the financial situation calls for all the resources of your (SCP) lower mind and this strengthens and brings your mind into practical effectiveness. (DINA 2-572)
Let your fellow workers catch from you (JWKP) the radiance of Love. That, my brother, will release the financial supply so sorely needed; it will be the harmlessness which you and your fellow servers can demonstrate which will prove the needed agent. Proceed as usual, my tried and trusted brother. (DINA 2-598-9)
Can you (LTSK) do this, my brother? Can you bring spirituality into business and live in the business world as a disciple? If you cannot do this, you will have to learn to do it, because discipleship leaves no aspect of life unlived, and business is an aspect of human living. (DINA 2-729)
The key to humanity’s trouble (focussing as it has in the economic difficulties of the past two hundred years and in the theological impasse of the orthodox churches) has been to take and not give, to accept and not share, to grasp and not to distribute. This has involved the breaking of a law which has placed humanity in a position of positive guilt. War is the dire penalty which mankind has had to pay for this great sin of separateness. Impressions from the Hierarchy have been received, distorted, misapplied and misinterpreted and the task of the New Group of World Servers is to offset this evil.
Humanity has never really lived up to the teaching given it. Spiritual impression, whether conveyed by the Christ, by Krishna or by Buddha (and passed on to the masses by Their disciples) has not yet been expressed as it was hoped. Men do not live up to what they already know; they fail to make practical their information; they short circuit the light; they do not discipline themselves; greedy desire and unlawful ambition control and not the inner knowledge. To put it scientifically and from the esoteric angle: Spiritual impression has been interrupted and there has been interference with the divine circulatory flow. It is the task of the disciples of the world to restore this flow and to stop this interference. This is the major problem facing spiritual people at this time. (PH 7)
History portrays the fierce determination of every nation to preserve its boundaries at any cost, to keep its culture and civilization intact, to add to them when possible and to share nothing with any other nation except for commercial profit, for which international legislation is provided. (PH 15)
The accusation of youth (if it is an accusation) is also true of the United States. A great future lies ahead of that nation but not because of material power or commercial efficiency, as many materially-minded people think. (PH 25)
Every country also has much to contribute but as long as that contribution is considered, as it now is, in terms of its commercial value or its political usefulness, that contribution will not be given in aid of right human relations. (PH 28)
Yet, facing the worldwide reconstruction demanded and the well-nigh impossible task of salvaging the children and youth of the world, there are those today who are engaged in raising funds to rebuild stone churches and restore ancient buildings, thus demanding money which is sorely needed to restore broken bodies, to heal psychological wounds and to produce the warmth of love and understanding among those who believe that such qualities do not exist! (PH 40)
THE PROBLEM OF CAPITAL, LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT
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. Secondly, 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. (PH 66-7)
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 labour 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, power, light and transportation; they control publicly or sub rosa the world’s banking accounts. (PH 70-1)
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. (PH 73)
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. (PH 74-5)
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 practised 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, labour 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 labour be ended and a new world be thereby reborn? Can living conditions be so potently changed that right human relations can be permanently established? (PH 80)
On account of this energy discovery (atomic power) capital and labour 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 labour 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….
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…. 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 labour 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 labour; 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. (PH 81-4)
the rich are organizing so as to control the finances of the world; the poor are fighting for their rights and better living conditions; the tyranny of selfish politics permeates both capital and labour. (PH 94)
In every country and down the ages, the Jew has turned to commerce and has worked with money; they are a strictly commercial and urban people and have shown little interest in agriculture, except lately under the Zionist Movement in Palestine. (PH 96)
This same sorry story of Gentile cruelty includes also the growing anti-Semitism which can be seen even in countries which have been relatively free from it; there is a constant discrimination against the Jew in business circles. (PH 104)
Africa is potential and the destiny of its countless millions of inhabitants is still in the embryonic stage; the relationship of its true inhabitants to the alien races who seek to dominate them remains still in the realm of political manoeuvring and commercial greed. (PH 106)
THE PROBLEM OF INTERNATIONAL UNITY
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 to 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.
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 victimised by their rulers, by established old conditions, and kept in the dark as to the truth of the world situation….
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 – 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….
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. (PH 167-9)
Unity, peace and security will come through the recognition – intelligently assessed – of the evils which have led to the present world situation, and then through the taking of those wise, compassionate and understanding steps which will lead to the establishing of right human relations, to the substitution of cooperation for the present competitive system, and by the education of the masses in every land as to the nature of true goodwill and its hitherto unused potency. This will mean the deflecting of untold millions of money into right educational systems, instead of their use by the forces of war and their conversion into armies, navies and armaments. (PH 171)
What at this moment appears to prevent world unity and keeps the United Nations from arriving at those necessary settlements which the man in the street is so eagerly awaiting? The answer is not hard to find and involves all nations: nationalism, capitalism, competition, blind stupid greed. ….
it is a rampant capitalism which makes the United States one of the most feared of the nations, plus her gestures of armed power; …
It is the smug greed of the nations which escaped the war which is hindering progress; it is the devious actions of the Jews and the hatred which they cultivate which tend also to undermine the hope of peace; (PH 172)
it is the wrong use of money which colours the press and the radio in Great Britain and still more in the United States, thus keeping much of the truth from the people; it is the upheaval of labour everywhere which feeds the turmoil and forces unnecessary suffering upon the public; (PH 173)
Security, happiness and peaceful relations are desired by all. Until, however, the Great Powers, in collaboration with the little nations, have solved the economic problem and have realized that the resources of the earth belong to no one nation but to humanity as a whole, there will be no peace. The oil of the world, the mineral wealth, the wheat, the sugar and the grains belong to all men everywhere. They are essential to the daily living of the everyday man.
The true problem of the United Nations is a twofold one: it involves the right distribution of the world’s resources so that there may be freedom from want, and it involves also the bringing about of a true equality of opportunity and of education for all men everywhere. The nations which have a wealth of resources are not owners; they are custodians of the world’s riches and hold them in trust for their fellowmen. The time will [Page 175] inevitably come when – in the interest of peace and security – the capitalists in the various nations will be forced to realize this and will also be forced to substitute the principle of sharing for the ancient principle (which has hitherto governed them) of greedy grabbing.
There was a time – a hundred years or more ago – when a just distribution of the world’s wealth would have been impossible. That is not true today. Statistics exist; computations have been made; investigation has penetrated into every field of the earth’s resources and these investigations, computations and statistics have been published and are available to the public. The men in power in every nation know well exactly what food, minerals, oil and other necessities are available for worldwide use upon just and equitable lines. But these commodities are reserved by the nations involved as “talking and bargaining points”. The problem of distribution is no longer difficult once the food of the world is freed from politics and from capitalism; it must also be remembered that the means of distribution by sea, rail and air are adequate.
None of this will, however, take place until the United Nations begin to talk in terms of humanity as a whole and not in terms of boundaries, of technical objectives and fears, in terms of the bargaining value of oil, as in the Near East, or in the language of mistrust and suspicion. Russia distrusts the capitalism of the United States and – to a lesser degree – that of Great Britain; (PH 174-5)
Yet it must be remembered that there are statesmen in Great Britain, the United States and Russia who are endeavouring to work for the common man and to speak on his behalf in the conclaves of the nations. As yet selfish opposition has rendered their work futile and the monied interests in many countries have negated their efforts. Russia has no monied interests, but she has vast resources in men and arms and these she plays off against the capitalistic interests. Thus the war goes on, and the man in the street waits hopelessly for a decision which will lead to peace – a peace based on security and right human relations. (PH 175-6)
Church and State are not in sympathy; capital and labour carry on a constant war; the man in the street pays the price and waits for justice and freedom. (PH 176)
5. The world economic council (or whatever body represents the resources of the world) must free itself from fraudulent politics, capitalistic influence and its devious scheming; it must set the resources of the earth free for the use of humanity. This will be a lengthy task but it will be possible when world need is better appreciated. An enlightened public opinion will make the decisions of the economic council practical and possible. Sharing and cooperation must be taught instead of greed and competition. (PH 177)
How can there be fair distribution of the world’s resources? How can the Four Freedoms become factual and not just beautiful dreams? How can true religion be resurrected and the ways of true spiritual living govern the hearts of men? How can a true prosperity be established which will be the result of unity, peace and plenty? (PH 178)
The common people are today awakening to the importance and responsibility of government; it is, therefore, realised by the Hierarchy that before the cycle of true democracy (as it essentially exists and will eventually demonstrate) can come into being, the education of the masses in cooperative statesmanship, in economic stabilisation through right sharing, and in clean, political interplay is imperatively necessary. The long divorce between religion and politics must be ended and this can now come about because of the high level of the human mass intelligence and the fact that science has made all men so close that what happens in some remote area of the earth’s surface is a matter of general interest within a few minutes. This makes it uniquely possible for Him to work in the future. (ROC 18-19)
Today, in the midst of this devastated, chaotic and unhappy world, mankind has a fresh opportunity to reject selfish materialistic living and to begin to tread the Lighted Way. The moment that humanity shows its willingness to do this, then the Christ will come, and there is every evidence at this time that men are learning this lesson and making their first faltering steps along that Lighted Way of right relationships. (ROC 21)
Later she (HPB) deeply regretted doing this, as some of her papers, issued to her Esoteric Section, proclaimed. Yet what she did was all a part of the great plan and was no mistake. The interpretations and the excited reactions of the theosophists of her time were the mistake – a mistake which they have not yet acknowledged. This stupid reaction was aided and helped by the inquisitive nature of humanity itself, as well as by its aspiration which was undoubtedly aroused thereby. Men also, full of cupidity and commercial greed, exploited the theme and are still doing so. (ROC 125)
It is not the evil rampant in the world today which is hindering the revelation and hindering the unfoldment of the spiritual life. That evil is the result of the misapprehension and the wrong orientation of the human mind, of the emphasis upon material things which ages of competitive activity have brought about; it rests upon the failure of the religious organizations throughout the world to preserve the truth in its purity and to avoid the fanatical idea that anyone’s individual interpretation of truth must necessarily be the only and correct one. Theologians have fought (and with sincerity of intention) for forms of words which they believed were the only true and correct formulation of the divine idea, but Christ was forgotten behind the words; churchmen have expended effort and executive ability in raising funds for the building of stone edifices whilst God’s children everywhere went hungry and unclothed and so lost their belief in divine love.
How can the need of humanity for spiritual guidance be met when the leaders of the churches are occupied with temporal concerns, when the emphasis is laid in the Roman Catholic, the Greek Orthodox and the Protestant Churches upon pomp and ceremonies, on great churches and stone cathedrals, upon gold and silver communion sets, on scarlet birettas, on jewelled vestments, and upon all the paraphernalia so cherished by the ecclesiastically minded? How [Page 142] can the starving children of the world – and of Europe in particular – be salvaged when pleas go out from Popes and Bishops for money to build cathedrals and erect more churches when the existent churches now stand empty? ….
humanity has advanced so far on the way of evolution that these demands and expectations are not couched in terms of material betterment only, but in terms of a spiritual vision … (ROC 141-3)
He will come unfailingly when a measure of peace has been restored, when the principle of sharing is at least in process of controlling economic affairs, and when churches and political groups have begun to clean house. Then He can and will come; then the Kingdom of God will be publicly recognised and will no longer be a thing of dreams and of wishful thinking and orthodox hope. (ROC 163)
the New Group of World Servers must, today, take their stand. They must recognise the obstructing factors, but must also refuse to be frustrated by them; they must be aware of the hindrances (many of them financial and based on material greed, on ancient tradition and national prejudices). They must then employ such skill in action and such business acumen that these hindrances will be overcome; they must walk clear-eyed through world difficulties and pass unscathed and successful through the midst of all frustrating factors. (ROC 166)
At this time there are a vast number of souls in incarnation whose personality rays are either the sixth or the third. They condition the coming civilisation outstandingly including all educational and financial enterprises (DON 31)
a national and racial consciousness which humanity is today demonstrating – a consciousness which shows as a spiritual inclusiveness or as an abnormal and wicked attempt (from the standpoint of the soul) to fuse and blend all nations into a world order, based on material issues and dominated by a material vision. (DON 95)
Shamballa force is to stimulate the will-to-power of all dictators, whether they are the would-be world dictators such as Hitler and his group of evil men, ecclesiastical dictators in any religion, business dictators in any business group in any part of the world, or those minor dictators, the tyrants in the home. (DON 98)
The history of Christianity (which is the history of Europe) will stand illumined if the Law of Attraction and Repulsion is studied in connection with its eventful past. The use and misuse of this law and its constant interpretations in terms of material desire, personal ambitions, and territorial control produced the many schisms and cleavages and will account for much that happened. Under the seventh ray influence, these cleavages will end and synthesis will eventually take place. (DON 133-4)
For some people, for instance, the possession of that which is material may be as great a spiritual experience and as potent a teacher in life expression as the more elevated and less material requirements of the mystic or hermit. …
The spiritually minded man and the man who has set his feet upon the Path of Probation and who fails to attempt the expression of that which he believes, will be judged as caustically and pay as high a price as does the pure materialist – the man whose desires centre around substantial effects. Bear this in mind and sit not in the seat of the judge or the scornful.
Today the glamour of materiality is lessening perceptibly. The peoples of the world are entering the wilderness experience, and will find in the wilderness how little is required for full living, true experience and real happiness. The gluttonous desire for possessions is not regarded as so reputable a desire as formerly, and a desire for riches is not producing the clutching hands as earlier in racial history. Things and possessions are slipping out of the hands which have hitherto tightly held them, and only when men stand with empty hands and a realised new standard of values do they again acquire the right to own and to possess. When desire is absent and the man seeks nothing for the separated self, the responsibility of material wealth can again be handed back to man, but his point of view will then be free from that particular glamour, and the fogs of astral desire will be lessened. Illusion in many forms may still hold sway but the glamour of materiality will be gone. It is the first destined to disappear. Students would do well to remember that all forms of possessions and all material objects, whether it is money, or a house, a picture or an automobile, [Page 76] have an intrinsic life of their own, an emanation of their own, and an activity which is essentially that of their own inherent atomic structures (for an atom is a unit of active energy). …
There, in what is called straightened circumstances, he can readjust his life and change his way of living, thus discovering that freedom from material things carries with it its own beauty and reward, its own joy and glory. Thus he is liberated to live the life of the mind. (GLAM 75-6)
Physical ray 7th organisation. Business. (GLAM 156)
Many groups give a great deal of dangerous instruction anent breathing – dangerous because it is based on book knowledge and its exponents have never practised it extensively themselves, and dangerous because many groups simply exploit the unready, [Page 254] usually for commercial gain. (GLAM 254)
One point of this future triangle will emerge out of the field of world governments, of politics and of statesmanship; another will appear out of the world religions, and a third out of the general field of world economics and finance. (TEV 185)
In other countries, some people and some groups – through hereditary position or financial assets – are regarded as of importance and the rest of the nation as of little importance. (ENU 47)
The intelligentsia and the professional classes have investigated and studied the public welfare from the angle of mental and scientific interest, based upon a general material basis, and the lower middle class has naturally been involved in the same interest, from the point of view of financial and trade returns. Today this interest has reached down to the depths of the social order and all classes are keenly alive and alert to the general, national, racial or international good. (ENU 106)
Financial control, as in the United States.
Government control, as in Europe and Great Britain.
The people are told just what is good for them; reservations and secret diplomacy colour the relation of the government to the masses, and the helplessness of the man in the street (in the face of authorities in the realm of politics, conditioning decisions such as war or peace, and theological impositions, as well as economic attitudes) is still pitiful, though not so great and so drastic as it was. The soul of humanity is awakening and the present situations may be regarded as temporary. (ENU 107)
The goal for the low-grade negative psychic should be the training of the mind and the closing of the solar plexus until such time as he can function as a true mediator; if this involves the temporary cessation of his mediumistic powers (and consequently of his commercial exploitation), then so much the better for him, viewing him as an immortal soul, with a spiritual destiny and usefulness. (EOH 14)
If you will remember that the third ray governed that system and also governs the Jewish race, if you bear in mind that that system was occupied with the divine aspects of matter only and with external conditions, and that the Jews were the highest product of that system you can come to an understanding of the Jew, his separateness, his desire for racial purity and his interest in that which is commercial and tangible. (EOH 76-7)
The ninth group, whose project is financial service, will be one of the most practical and interesting from the standpoint of the present world situation and modern conditions. I may begin to organise this group before long, provided some of my disciples show me the subjective signs for which I look, which involves a right understanding and spiritual appreciation of money. By this I do not mean that any of you who do show such signs will be in this group, but you will provide the right conditions which will make its inception possible; one or two of the key people, however, may form part of the financial service group if the plan works out as hoped and intended.
The task to be undertaken by this group is to study the significance of money as directed and appropriated energy. This direction of force produces concretisation, and the work is then in the field of magical endeavour. As with the work of the other groups, the task to be carried out falls into three categories of endeavour:
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 concretised divine energy into constructive channels and “ways of light.”
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 spiritualising of money and its massing in quantities for the work of the Great Ones, the Disciples of the Christ, 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. (EOH 59-61)
The Jewish force Planetary solar plexus Seventh Ray aspect of Third Ray. Magic Temporary Conditioning world emotion Money Producing separation. Sensitivity. (EOH 89)
The new world order will recognise that the produce of the world, the natural resources of the planet and its riches, belong to no one nation but should be shared by all. There will be no nations under the category “haves” and others under the opposite category. A fair and properly organised distribution of the wheat, the oil and the mineral wealth of the world will be developed, based upon the needs of each nation, upon its own internal resources and the requirements of its people. All this will be worked out in relation to the whole. (EOH 191)
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, upon things and upon 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; (EOH 193)
The Economic Problem
This problem is basically far less difficult of solution. Sound commonsense 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. 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 centralisation of the world’s produce under the control of a handful of people in each country. These are: first, 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. Secondly, 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. Third, 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. (EOH 196-8)
The message to be taught prior to any future peace consists of the following three clear and practical truths:
1. That the errors and mistakes of past centuries, culminating in the present world war, are the joint errors and mistakes of humanity as a whole. This recognition will lead to the establishing of the principle of sharing, so needed in the world today.
2. That there are no problems and conditions which cannot be solved by the will-to-good. Goodwill nourishes the spirit of understanding and fosters the manifestation of the principle of cooperation. This cooperative spirit is the secret of all right human relations and the enemy of competition.
3. That there is a blood relationship between men which, when recognised, dissolves all barriers and ends the spirit of separativeness and hate. The peace and happiness of each is the concern, therefore, of all.
This develops the principle of responsibility and lays the foundation of right corporate action. (EOH 206-7)
Your task is to aid the work which the Hierarchy plans to do, to find the ways and means whereby that service can be wisely rendered, to discover the manner in which world need (not your group need) can be met, to finance that share in the work of the Brotherhood to which you have been assigned by your soul, and to do your part in developing those human attitudes which are needed if true peace is to be found in the world by 1975. If this work is soundly done, then a world unity can be established which will produce right human relations, a sound world politic, a united spiritual effort and an economic “sharing” which will bring to an end all competition and the present uneven distribution of the necessities of life. (EOH 325)
It will not be the institutionalised activities and the financial enterprise of economic and social workers and government agents which will alone be needed, but above all else, the solution must be found in the uprising of goodwill in the hearts of men. This will provide the right compassionate incentive. Most certainly the world could be rehabilitated for purely commercial and selfish reasons, and because trade interchange, buying and selling capacity and the restoration of financial stability are important factors in world restoration. But these are not the basic motives which would restore humanity to self-respecting and secure living. They will provide the motive power for many men and groups, but not the motive which can produce true constructive rebuilding of the fabric of human life. (EOH 366)
How can we simply and clearly express the goal of this hoped-for new world order and word briefly the objective which each person and nation should hold before itself when the war ends and opportunity faces each and all? It is surely that every nation, great and small (with the minorities given equal and proportionate rights) should pursue its own individual culture and work out its own salvation as seems best to it, but that each and all should develop the realisation that they are organic parts of one corporate whole and that they must contribute to that whole all they have and are. This concept is already present in the hearts of countless thousands and carries with it great responsibility. These realisations, when intelligently developed and wisely handled, will lead to right human relations, economic stability (based on the spirit of sharing) and to a fresh orientation of man to man, of nation to nation, and of all to that supreme power to which we give the name “God.” (EOH 377)
Today, these are lost in the emphasis laid upon material possession, upon things and upon 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; (EOH 504)
those who have for years read my teachings on goodwill with real belief in what I say but who evidence no willingness to sacrifice time or money, block the growth of the movement. (EOH 549)
For instance, there are adepts who are authorities upon modern financial matters, and these initiates of the fourth degree are competently preparing to institute later those newer techniques and modes of financial interplay which will supersede the present disastrous methods; they will inaugurate a system of barter and exchange, of which modern money is the travestied symbol. This newer method of financial relationships will be comprehensively human and it will supersede big business and private enterprise. (EOH 569)
Groups of spiritually-minded financiers who are conscious members of an Ashram will take hold of the world economic situation and bring about great and needed changes. (EOH 573)
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 recognised motivating concept of the new civilisation. 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 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. (EOH 580-1)
Thirdly, there is humanity itself, “the centre which we call the race of men” – a centre at present full of chaos, turmoil and confusion, a humanity full of pain, bewilderment, disturbance, yet mentally aware of infinite possibilities, emotionally fighting for that plan which seems to them to be the best, but with no sense of coherency or any realisation that it must be the one world for the one humanity. They desire simply emotional peace, security in which to live and work, and a vision of a future which will satisfy some inchoate sense of divine persistence. They are physically ill, deprived for the most part of the essentials of normal wholesome living, wracked with the sense of financial insecurity and – consciously or unconsciously – invoking the Father of all on behalf of themselves and of the rest of the world.
The solution is the return of the Christ. This is the ascertained will of God; it is the desire of Christ Himself and of His disciples, the Masters of the Wisdom; it is the unrealised demand of men in all lands. Where there is unification of purpose, of spiritual intention and of realised need, then there is only one thing which can arrest that return, and that is the failure of mankind to prepare the stage for that stupendous event, to clear the highways, familiarise the people with the idea, and bring about the required measure of peace on Earth – a peace based upon right human relations.
2. The Lack of Money for the Work of Preparation
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 endeavour 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 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 organisation 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 generalisation presupposes exceptions.
Generalising, 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 by a municipality, or by a handful of wealthy men or by the great labour 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 recognising the existence of a small spiritually-minded minority) the money is deflected into the material aspects of the work, into 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 organisations 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 quarrelling 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 channelled 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 centres responsible for the reorganisation of human living.
Equally, it can be said that if the spiritual values and the spiritual responsibilities attached to money (in large 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 colour of the skin, or what the religious beliefs – is clamouring for peace, justice and a sense of security. All this, the right use of money and a realisation 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 channelled into new directions. The voice 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.
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 realise 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 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 practise 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 organising 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 realise 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.
Thirdly, 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 materialise 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 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 organisation 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 organisation. The organisations so demanding must work with the minimum of overhead and central plant, and the workers for the minimum yet reasonable salary. Not many such organisations 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 emphasised 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 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 energise you and those whom you can reach, there is nothing that I can say which will be of any use. (EOH 623-31)
The Energy of Active Intelligence. This third type of energy is the easiest one for modern humanity to receive – which is perhaps a sad commentary upon man’s aspirations. 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 crystallised into money. Human intelligence has served on the side of materialism and not on the side of the spiritual values. Money is the concretised 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 civilisations (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 crystallised 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. (EOH 646)
This is no mystical or visionary dream with which I am presenting you. It involves hard business sense on the physical plane, a practical commonsense, a cessation of the constant presentation of a beautiful future in a mythical heaven of idleness and uselessness. The bringing in of the Kingdom of God, the preparation for the coming of the Christ and the salvaging of mankind demand courage, organisation, business acumen, psychology and persistence; it needs trained workers and much money; it calls for carefully considered programmes, possessing long range vision, plus sensible modern procedures. (EOH 650)
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 of industry, and the goal of all the thinking, all the planning and all the work of impressing receptive minds is directed towards spiritualising the concepts of the labour 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 therefore cooperates with the Master R. – Who is the Head of the third ray Ashram, and Who is also one of the Triangle of Forces which controls the greater Ashram of the Hierarchy Itself. The Ashram of this Master (Who has always withheld His name from public knowledge) is a lesser Ashram within the major third ray Ashram, just as my Ashram lies within the ring-pass-not of the Ashram of the Master K.H. 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 labour and its methods.
All the great labour organisations, 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 labour group in every land lies the foundation of the new civilisation.
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 labour 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. (EOH 666)
We Westerners went into the East in search of markets – outlets for the products of our mechanical power – and we must return to our own world, magnetized by the subjective energies of the East and conscious of it. Our aggressive commercial penetration of Oriental lands and peoples has had the end result of bringing the literature, the philosophy and the arts of the East into the [Page viii] West as uncalculated dividends. (ENU vii)
Education is more than a sincere effort to fit a child or adult to be a good citizen, an intelligent parent and no charge upon the state. It has a far wider application than producing a human being who will be a commercial asset and not a commercial liability. (ENU 4)
4. The idea of the satisfaction of desire. Above everything else, the Piscean Age has been the age of material production and of commercial expansion, of the salesmanship of the products of human skill which the general public is educated to believe are essential to happiness. The old simplicity and the true values have been temporarily relegated to the background. This was permitted to continue without arrest for a long period of time because the Hierarchy of Wisdom sought to bring the people to the point of satiety. The world situation is eloquent today of the fact that possession and the multiplication of material goods constitute a handicap and are no indications that humanity has found the true road to happiness. The lesson is being learnt very rapidly and the revolt in the direction of simplicity is also rapidly gaining ground. The spirit of which commercialism is the indication is doomed, though not yet ended. This spirit of possession and the aggressive taking of that which is desired has proven widely inclusive and distinguishes the attitude of nations and of races as well as individuals. Aggression in order to possess has been the keynote of our civilisation during the past fifteen hundred years. (ENU 121)
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 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. Be not taken in by the specious argument that destruction is needed. It has been needed, no doubt; but the cycle of destruction is practically over, could you but realise it, and the builders must now get busy. (EP 1-188)
If energy is prostituted to material ends, such as the expression of physical plane sexual relations for purely commercial objectives, then evil is the result. (EP 1-279)
The business type full of organising power. given to ritualistic ceremony. (EP 1-329)
10. Members of other groups will be communicators between the third aspect of Deity as it expresses itself through the creative process and the world of human thought. They will link or blend life and form creatively. Today, unknowingly and without any true understanding, they bring about a concretisation of the energy of desire, which, in its turn, brings about the concretisation of money. This, consequently, necessitates the materialisation of things. They have a most difficult task and that is why it is only during the past one hundred and fifty years that the science of world finance has made its appearance. They will deal with the divine aspect of money. They will regard money as the means whereby divine purpose can be carried forward. They will handle money as the agency through which the building forces of the universe can carry forward the work needed; and (herein lies the clue) those building forces will be increasingly occupied with the building of the subjective Temple of the Lord rather than with the materialising of that which meets mans desire. This distinction merits consideration. (EP 2-192)
Any group which is engineered and controlled by one man or by a group of men, whether it is a nation, or a big business institution or an organisation of some kind or another (such as a great hospital) is connected with the life which is found in the heart. This remains true even when the motive or motives are mixed and undesirable, or purely selfish. A business magnate controlling vast interests who has the lives of many people dependent upon the contingencies of a business which he may have founded and over which he presides, is beginning to work through the heart centre. Hence the prevalence of certain forms of heart trouble to which so many people of influence and power so frequently succumb. (EP 2-541)
Every day sees money spent like water in order to offset the propaganda of some leader, or to support the ideas of another. Campaigns are held all over the world to raise the needed funds to overthrow some ancient entrenched ideal, or for the substitution of some new idea. Men and women in both hemispheres are swept today by the desire to change the old order and bring in the new era of economic comfort and peaceful living, and are dedicating their lives to the defence of some principle which seems to them of paramount importance, or to the overthrow of another principle of importance to their brothers. Attack of personalities, defamation of character, the imputing of motives, and the stirring up of hatred are a recognised part of the technique of those who – with good intention – are attempting to salvage the world, to bring order out of chaos, and to defend the right as they see it. Love of humanity and desire to aid is unquestionably present. Yet the chaos grows; the hatreds increase; the warfare spreads; past efforts seem futile to stem the tide which seems about to sweep humanity over the brink of disaster.
This factor of futility, and the fatigue incident to the long struggle, are today recognised by the leaders everywhere. There is a demand for a new way, a desire to know what is basically at fault, and to discover why the strenuous self sacrificing and divinely motivated efforts of many hundreds of men and women have failed to stop war, solve the economic problem and release humanity.
It might be stated that the failure is due primarily to two things:
1. The effort has been expended in dealing with effects, and the underlying causes have not been touched, even when realised by a few. The attempt has been made to right wrongs, to expose evils and evil personalities, and to attack organisations, groups, parties, religions and national experiments. This has led to what appears to be a futile expenditure of time, strength, energy and money. (EP 2-641-2)
Out of this condition, how shall order be restored? How can the economic situation be stabilised, and the world be brought to a condition where there is a just and right sufficiency for all? (EP 2-672)
The third ray Masters are working strenuously in the world of business and of finance through the agency of those who are animated by a spirit of selfless service – and there are many such. It is a new field for spiritual endeavour. It is not possible to enlarge within a brief space upon the methods and the plans of the Hierarchy at this time of crisis and emergency in connection with the field of money and its significance and right use. The general method employed is one of inspiration and of the presentation of moments of crisis. These moments offer opportunity for the activity of some disciple, and thus the learning of a needed lesson by the groups or nations implicated becomes possible. The technique employed by these third ray Masters is to develop the minds of aspirants and thinkers in the specific field of business so that they can think in larger terms than those of their own selfish business interests. Moments of contact are also arranged between members of the New Group of World Servers and these prominent people, working in the field of economic enterprise, and thus opportunities are provided for certain recognitions and certain definite cooperation. These are the methods which concern us. There are other subjective and spiritual methods employed which concern us not. If they were outlined in detail to us, they would only serve to bewilder. (EP 2-731-2)
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. In a world where all men desire peace and the opportunity to live in happiness at home or abroad, the nations everywhere are arming or are fortifying their frontiers in an effort to achieve that security which will enable them to live safely within their borders, free from attack, or to impose their ideas upon their fellowmen or nations. In a world of organised religions, the same condition of chaos is to be seen. The Churches in all lands are endeavouring frantically to keep their hold – spiritual, mental or financial – over the people and are playing a losing game, because the days of control by the priestly caste is in reality over, just as is the control of an autocratic dynasty. (EP 2-738)
The three tests in Scorpio also concern the three aspects of the human being as they fuse and blend upon the physical plane. They are, first of all, the test of appetite. This appetite is the natural predilections and tendencies which are inherent in the animal nature and these are mainly three: Sex, physical comfort, and money, as concretised energy.
1. Sex – the relation of the pairs of opposites. These can be selfishly utilised or divinely blended.
2. Physical comfort – life conditions, selfishly appropriated.
3. Money – selfishly cornered (if I may use such a phrase). (EA 205-6)
This sign (Libra) is consequently closely connected with the third aspect of the Godhead and hence it is a governing sign and a major conditioning factor where Law, Sex and Money are concerned. Ponder on this. All the three divine aspects in themselves are triune and manifest in three manners or through three lesser aspects and this third aspect is no exception to this rule underlying all the triplicities which condition the processes of evolution and manifestation. It is through a study of Libra that light upon the third aspect will come. The first aspect of will or power expresses itself in this sign as Law, as legislation, legality, justice; the second aspect manifests as the relation between the pairs of opposites (of which the scales are the symbol) and upon the physical plane shows itself as Sex; the third aspect demonstrates as concretised energy and this we call Money. It is literally gold and this is the externalised symbol of that which is created by the bringing together of spirit and matter upon the physical plane. The third aspect is, as you know, the creator aspect and the energy which produces the outer tangible plane of manifestation – the form side of life.
If students will, therefore, make a careful study of these three – law, sex and money – as they express themselves today and as they can express themselves in the future, they will have a picture of physical human achievement and of future spiritual expression which will be instructive and most worthwhile. The whole process is accounted for by the activity of the three rulers of Libra: Venus, Uranus and Saturn. (EA 243-5)
This will take place in a period of human history when Libra is dominant and the three divine aspects of the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the Creator – law, sex and money – will give the clue to the three lower kingdoms. Law, natural law (the externalisation of the subjective spiritual law) will give the clue to the animal kingdom; sex or the consciousness of affinity will reveal the mystery of the vegetable kingdom; money will unveil the secret of the mineral kingdom and all this will come about through the activity of Venus and when this activity in the three signs of Taurus, Libra and Capricorn is better understood. This I shall further elucidate when we come to study the Science of Triangles at a later date. Suffice it to say here that each of these three signs is related to one of these three aspects of divine life:
1. Taurus – animal kingdom – law – natural law.
2. Libra – vegetable kingdom – sex – natural affinity.
3. Capricorn – mineral kingdom – money – concrete expression of the Law of Supply,
and all these form a triangle with Libra at the apex and dominating. (EA 245-6)
Again, gold is the symbol which today governs man’s desires whether national, economic or religious; it is connected with this sign and this is one of the indications that today the conflict in the world economic situation is based upon the upwelling of desire. In an esoteric way, therefore – quoting from a very ancient book of prophecy:
“The golden eye of Taurus points the way to those who likewise see. That which is gold will some day, too, respond, passing from East to West in that dire time when the urge to gather gold shall rule the lower half (i.e., the personality aspect of men and of nations – A.A.B.). The search for gold, the search for golden light divine, directs the Bull of Life, the Bull of Form. These two must meet; and meeting, clash. Thus vanishes the gold….” (EA 378-9)
Second House:
Finances. Monetary interchange. – Prana. Expenditures. – Use of energy.
Possessions. – Control of the form.
Losses. – Withdrawal from matter.
Gains. – Acquisition of spiritual powers. (EA 511)
It might, therefore, be said that what is truly taking place in the world today is the transference of the energy of the planetary solar plexus to the planetary heart centre. The forces of cupidity, aggression, glamour and greed will be transmuted in the present furnace of pain and fiery agony and will be raised into the heart centre. There they will be changed into the power of sacrifice, of inclusive surrender, of clear vision of the whole, and into cooperation; this is an aspect of the principle of sharing. (EA 520)
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, and 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 man also be cured. This is a fundamental (I would say the fundamental principle) of all spiritual healing. In the last analysis also this presupposes an eventual and scientific recognition of the etheric body of the planet, and consequently of man. (EH 549-50)
The metaphysical healer who works solely on the subtler levels is like the spiritual worker who fails so constantly to precipitate the needed financial assets on the physical plane. This is caused frequently by a subtle – though usually unrecognised – sense of superiority with which the average healer and the esotericist views his problem of materialisation of either physical health or money. Ponder on this and realise that fifth ray methods carry through to the physical plane; there they engender conflict and eventually produce a physical precipitation of the desired nature. In what I have said anent the fifth ray techniques, I have given more hints and information than in any of the others. (EH 711)
A path lies through the veils, giving access to the several courts. Walk on that path, wielding destruction and clearing out the refuse in the court. The court of the money changers is the last. (RI 190)
Miss Sandes with her usual directness said that she would send me, if she had the money because “even if you aren’t much good, you would probably be better than no one at all.” Travel to India was expensive in those days and Miss Sandes had to pay for Theo’s return. With my usual smug, religious reaction, I said, “If God means me to go He will send the money.” She looked at me but made no comment. Two or three days later when we were having breakfast I heard her exclaim, on opening a letter. Then she handed the envelope to me. There was no letter in it and no indication of the sender. Inside, however, was a bank draft for five hundred pounds, with the words, “For the work in India” written across it. We neither of us knew where the money had come from but accepted it as direct from God Himself. The problem of transportation was therefore solved and again she asked me if I would go to India for her at once, emphasising that I was not, of course, much good but that she had no one else at that moment to send. I wonder sometimes whether my Master sent the money. It was essential that I go to India to learn certain lessons and to set the stage for the work which He had told me years before that I could do for Him. I do not know and I have never even asked Him, because it is not one of the things which matter. (UA 63)
