Alice Bailey
Shown here on the cover of a Danish translation of her autobiography; her work has been translated into over 50 languages.
Alice Ann Bailey, often known as Alice A. Bailey or AAB born as Alice LaTrobe Bateman (June 16, 1880, Manchester, United Kingdom - December 15, 1949), was a writer and lecturer on Neo-Theosophy. She moved to the United States of America in 1907, where she spent the rest of her life. She was an author on occultism and founded an international esoteric movement. Sir John Sinclair, Bt., gives a commentary on the seminal influence of Alice Bailey, which he says underlies the consciousness growth movement in the 20th century.[1] Likewise, in the book Perspectives on the New Age we find "The most important--though certainly not the only--source of this transformative metaphor, as well as the term "New Age," was Theosophy, particularly as the Theosophical perspective was mediated to the movement by the works of Alice Bailey." [2]
Life
Childhood
Alice Bailey was born to a wealthy, upper class, British family, and as a member of the Anglican Church, received a thorough Christian education. Of this early life she wrote:
"Looking back, I can imagine nothing more appalling than the perpetuation of the Victorian era, for instance, with its ugliness, its smugness, and the excessive comfort of the upper classes (so-called) and the frightful condition under which the laboring classes struggled. It was in that well-padded, sleek and comfortable world I lived when a girl. I can imagine nothing more blighting to the human spirit than the theology of the past with the emphasis upon a God who saves a smug few and condemns the majority to perdition. I can imagine nothing more conducive to unrest, class war, hate and degradation than the economic situation of the world, then and for many decades - a situation largely responsible for the present world war (1914-1945)." [3]
At a very early age Bailey made three attempts to commit suicide, the first when she was five years old:
"I just did not find life worth living. The experience of my five years made me feel that things were futile so I decided that if I bumped down the stone kitchen steps from top to bottom (and they were very steep) I would probably be dead at the end. I did not succeed. Bridget, the cook, picked me up and carried me (battered and bruised) upstairs where I met much comforting - but no understanding.
As I went on in life, I made two other efforts to put an end to things, only to discover it is a very difficult thing to commit suicide. All of these attempts were made before I was fifteen. I tried to smother myself with sand when I was around eleven years old, but sand in one's mouth, nose and eyes is not comfortable and I decided to postpone the happy day. The last time, I tried to drown myself in a river in Scotland. But again the instinct to self-preservation was too strong. Since then I have not been very interested in suicide, though I have always understood the impulse." (Bailey, pp 20-21)
Later Life
Bailey went on to do evangelical work in the British Army which took her to India in 1907, where she met her future husband, Walter Evans. Together they moved to America, where W. Evans became an Episcopalian priest. However, this marriage did not last. She stated that her husband mistreated her, and she pushed for and received a divorce. (Bailey, p. 121-122)
She broke not only with her Christian husband but with orthodox Christianity itself. In her autobiography she wrote, “It might be useful to know how a rabid, orthodox Christian worker could become a well-known occult teacher.” (Bailey, p. 1 & p. 47).
In the United States, in 1915, Bailey discovered the Theosophical Society and the work of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Bailey, pp 134-136). In 1918 she became a member of the Esoteric section of the this society. She highlights what she saw as a key experience there as follows:
“The first time that I went into the Shrine Room I saw the customary pictures of the Christ and the Masters of the Wisdom, as the Theosophists call Them. To my surprise there, looking straight at me, was a picture of my visitor. There was no mistake. This was the man who had walked into my aunt's drawing room, and it was not the Master Jesus.” (Bailey, pp 156)
The above is in reference to an earlier experience on June 30th, 1895 when she claimed to have had her first visitation from one she later came to know as a "Masters of Wisdom." From her description, this visit comes across as a physical encounter and conversation. (Bailey, pp 134-137).
Bailey wrote much about those she called “Masters of the Wisdom,” which she described as a brotherhood of enlightened sages who work under the guidance of the Christ. She saw both her biography and subsequent writings as partly an effort to clarify the nature of the masters and their work.
“This I will enlarge upon later and show how I personally came to know of Their existence. In everyone's life there are certain convincing factors which make living possible. Nothing can alter one's inner conviction. To me, the Masters are such a factor and this knowledge has formed a stabilizing point in my life.” (Bailey, p. 4)
At one point Bailey was National Secretary of the Theosophical Society (Bailey, p. 157) but eventually she broke with the Society having come to see it as too authoritarian and involved in lower psychic phenomena. But she continued, throughout her life to recognize the importance of Madame Blavatsky's works and saw her own writings as a further development of Blavatsky’s teachings. (Bailey, pp. 168-177)
In 1919 Bailey claimed to be in touch with a Master, Djwhal Khul, also known as The Tibetan:
“I had sent the children off to school and thought I would snatch a few minutes to myself and went out on to the hill close to the house. I sat down and began thinking and then suddenly I sat startled and attentive. I heard what I thought was a clear note of music which sounded from the sky, through the hill and in me. Then I heard a voice which said, "There are some books which it is desired should be written for the public. You can write them. Will you do so?" Without a moment's notice I said, "Certainly not. I'm not a darned psychic and I don't want to be drawn into anything like that." I was startled to hear myself speaking out loud. The voice went on to say that wise people did not make snap judgments, that I had a peculiar gift for the higher telepathy and that what I was being asked to do embodied no aspect of the lower psychism. I replied that I didn't care, that I wasn't interested in any work of a psychic nature at all. The unseen person who was speaking so clearly and directly to me then said that he would give me time for consideration; that he would not take my answer then and that he would come back in three weeks' time exactly, to find out what I intended to do.” (Bailey, pp. 162-163)
Bailey says that she was eventually persuaded to write down the communications from this source which she regarded as a Master of Wisdom. She wrote for 30 years (1919 to 1949). The result was 24 published books (see bibliography below) which give a body of esoteric teachings relating to ancient wisdom, philosophy, religion, contemporary events, science, psychology, the nations, astrology, healing, etc.
In 1923, with the help of Foster Bailey, Alice Bailey founded the Arcane School, which gave (and still gives) a correspondence course based on the teachings in her books (Bailey, pp. 192-193). The Arcane School is part of the Lucis Trust, a not-for-profit foundation which also publishes Bailey's books, and shelters such Foster Bailey initiatives as World Goodwill and Triangles. About 100 of Alice Bailey's public talks and private talks to her more advanced Arcane School students are now available online.[4] Bailey continued to work right up to the time of her death from leukemia in 1949 [5].
Teachings
Alice Bailey’s repeatedly emphasizes unity. A representative example is:
" I will endeavor, above all else, to demonstrate to you that all-pervading unity and that underlying synthesis which is the basis of all religions and of all the many transmitted forces; I will seek to remove you, as individuals, from out of the center of your own stage and consciousness and - without depriving you of individuality and of self-identity - yet show you how you are part of a greater whole of which you can become consciously aware when you can function as souls, but of which you are today unconscious, or at least only registering and sensing the inner reality in which you live and move and have your being."[6]
She believed her works were part of an unfolding revelation of ageless wisdom to humanity, of which Theosophical teachings were the predecessor and preparation. [7] Her writings have much in common with Theosophy, and both contain these ideas. [8] [9] [10] [1] [2] [3]
- Unity is the fundamental fact of spiritual life and realization
- The entire universe is alive—all is energy and energy expresses life
- Divinity is both transcendent and immanent
- Man lives within a hierarchy of spiritual lives
- Divinity unfolds through spiritual evolution
- All life is cyclic
- Man is a soul (consciousness) and reincarnates many times to gain experience
- Life is governed by the interplay of karma and free will
- Will, love, and intelligence are the essential attributes of the evolving soul
- Seven fundamental energies underlie all things—seven centers, seven planes, etc.
There are several themes that, in some degree, distinguish her writings from Theosophy and related traditions. These include:[11][4]
- A marked emphasis on the importance of service to humanity
- Emphasis on the importance of group consciousness and group service
- A shift away from personal devotion to spiritual teachers or masters
- A lengthy treatment of the seven rays as expressions of evolving life
- An elaboration of the glamours or illusions of the spiritual path
- Teachings on the return of the Christ or Christ consciousness
- Teachings on the importance of full moon cycles in relation to meditation
Influence
In a book on history of the Bollingen Foundation and its pervasive influence on American intellectual life, William McGuire wrote:
"In 1928 Olga[5] built a lecture hall on her grounds, overlooking the lake, for a purpose not yet revealed to her, and a guest house which she named Casa Shanti in a Hindu ceremony. A year or two later, she went to the United States and sought out Alice A. Bailey, in Stamford, Connecticut, a former Theosophists who led a movement called the Arcane School. Mrs Bailey, whom Nancy Wilson Ross[[6]] has described as a woman of great dignity, kindness, and integrity, aimed like Olga Froebe at the raising of consciousness and the bridging of the East and West. She lived with a mystic presence, ‘the Tibetan,’ presumably one of the Theosophical Masters, who used her as an instrument to write a number of books devoted to Higher Truth…” [12]
Bailey's thought has had an infuence in the field of Psychotherapy and Healing. "In Tansley as in Brennan you will find descriptions of a hierarchy of subtle bodies called the etheric, emotional, mental and spiritual that surround the physical body. (Interestingly Tansley attributed the source of his model to Alice Bailey’s theosophical commentary on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the locus classicus of Hindu teaching.)"[13]Pdf
Dr G. D. Chryssides of the University of Wolverhampton, cites Bailey's importance in Templarism. [14] See (Templar)
An article in Encyclopedia Britannica says that Alice Bailey founded the Arcane School to disseminated spiritual teachings and that she organized a world-wide 'Triangles' program to bring people together in groups of three for daily meditation. Their belief was that they received divine energy through meditation and this energy is transmitted to humanity, so raising spiritual awareness.
"After Bailey's death, former members of the Arcane School created a host of new independent theosophical groups within which hopes of a New Age flourished. These groups claimed the ability to transmit spiritual energy to the world and allegedly received channeled messages from various preternatural beings..." [15]
Alice Bailey's influence is seen in the many groups currently disseminating her teachings and practicing her meditation methods. A large number of these have an active presence on the web. A few representative ones are:
- World Unity and Service
- The Seven Ray Institute
- Arcana Workshops
- Esoteric Center Copenhagen
- Centre for Esoteric Studies
Controversies
Charges of racism and antisemitism
Critics of Alice Bailey have charged her with racism and antisemitism.
In 1998, Dr. Victor Shnirelman, a cultural anthropologist and ethnographer, surveyed modern Neopaganism in Russia, drawing particular attention to "groups [that] take an extremely negative view of multi-culturalism, object to the 'mixture' of kinds, [and] support isolationism and the prohibition of immigration." He noted that a number of Bailey's books, as well as those of her contemporary Julius Evola, had been recently translated into Russian, and said that "racist and antisemitic trends are explicit [...] in the occult teachings of Alice Bailey (founder of the New Age movement) and her followers, who wish to cleanse Christianity of its 'Jewish inheritance' and reject the 'Jewish Bible'..."[16]
Monica Sjöö, an advocate of the Goddess movement, wrote in her book, New Age Channelings - Who or What is being Channeled?, of Bailey's "reactionary and racist influence on the whole New Age movement."[17]
The Chassidic author Rabbi Yonassan Gershom in his article "Antisemitic Stereotypes in Alice Bailey's Writings," replied to Bailey's plan for a New World Order by saying that her call for "the gradual dissolution - again if in any way possible - of the Orthodox Jewish faith" indicated that "her goal is nothing less than the destruction of Judaism itself."[18]
Religious criticism
Bailey has been criticized by some religious writers because she wrote of Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Theosophical beliefs with authority while expressing non-conformity to the orthodox belief systems of these varied religious traditions.[19] [20]
Bailey's books have also been criticized as a form of Neo-Theosophy by mainstream Theosophists who say that a great many of her ideas, including the concepts of "root races" and Himalayan masters, were borrowed from Theosophy while also including perspectives that were not part of the original Theosophical teachings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.[21][22]
Bibliography
The Lucis Trust is the official publisher of Alice Bailey's books. A few books of Alice Bailey that are no longer under copyright are also available online at independent web sites.
Credited to Alice Bailey (works containing the prefatory Extract from a Statement by the Tibetan, generally taken to indicate the book was a "received" work):
- Initiation, Human and Solar -- 1922
- Letters on Occult Meditation -- 1922
- A Treatise on Cosmic Fire -- 1925
- Light of the Soul: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali -- 1927 (commentary by Alice Bailey)
- A Treatise on White Magic -- 1934
- Discipleship in the New Age -- Volume I - 1944
- Discipleship in the New Age -- Volume II - 1955
- Problems of Humanity -- 1947
- The Reappearance of the Christ -- 1948
- The Destiny of the Nations -- 1949
- Glamor - A World Problem -- 1950
- Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle -- 1950
- Education in the New Age -- 1954
- The Externalization of the Hierarchy -- 1957
- A Treatise on the Seven Rays:
- Volume 1: Esoteric Psychology I -- 1936
- Volume 2: Esoteric Psychology II -- 1942
- Volume 3: Esoteric Astrology -- 1951
- Volume 4: Esoteric Healing -- 1953
- Volume 5: The Rays and the Initiations -- 1960
Credited to Alice A. Bailey alone (works in which Bailey claims sole authorship of the material):
- The Consciousness of the Atom -- 1922
- The Soul and its Mechanism -- 1930
- From Intellect to Intuition -- 1932
- From Bethlehem to Calvary -- 1937
- The Unfinished Autobiography -- 1951
- The Labors of Hercules -- 1974
- The Labours of Hercules: An Astrological Interpretation -- first published 1982
See also
References
- ^ Sinclair, Sir John R. The Alice Bailey Inheritance. Turnstone Press Limited. 1984.
- ^ Lewis, James R. and J. Gordon Melton. Perspectives on the New Age. SUNY Press. 1992. p xi
- ^ Bailey, Alice A. The Unfinished Autobiography. Lucis Trust. 1951. pp 4-5)
- ^ http://www.esotericstudies.net/talks/index.htm
- ^ Bailey, Alice A. The Unfinished Autobiography. Lucis Trust. 1951. From the Preface by Foster Bailey, p 1
- ^ Bailey, Alice A. A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol 3: Esoteric Astrology. Lucis Trust. 1951. p 7
- ^ Bailey, Alice A. Discipleship in the New Age, Volume 1. Lucis Trust. 1944. p 732
- ^ Lewis, James R., The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements. Oxford University Press. [Date?]. p 446
- ^ Frawley, David. Tantric Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses: Spiritual Secrets of Ayurveda. Passage Press. 1994. p 22
- ^ Rhodes, Ron. New Age Movements, Zondervan. 1995. p 26
- ^ Keller , Rosemary Skinner. Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America. Indiana University Press. 2006. p 763
- ^ McGuire, William. An Adventure in Collecting the Past. Princeton University Press. 1989, p 23
- ^ Woolger, Roger J. The Presence of Other Worlds In Psychotherapy and Healing from a paper delivered at the Beyond the Brain Conference held at St. John’s College, Cambridge University, England, 1999.
- ^ Chryssides, George D. An untitled paper presented at the CESNUR Conference held in Palermo, Sicily, 2005.
- ^ "New Age Movement," subsection "Origins," in Encylcopedia Britannica. 2003
- ^ Shnirelman,Victor A. Russian Neo-pagan Myths and Antisemitism in Acta no. 13, Analysis of Current Trends in Antisemitism. The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 1998. Retrieved 2007-08-22
- ^ Sjöö, Monica. The Racist Legacy of Alice Bailey in From the Flames - Radical Feminism with Spirit issue 22. Winter 1998/1999. Retrieved 2007-08-22.
- ^ Gershom. Yonasan. Antisemitic Stereotypes in Alice Bailey's Writings. 1997, revised 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-22.
- ^ Groothuis, Douglas. Unmasking the New Age. InterVarsity Press. 1986; p. 120.
- ^ Parker, Reba and Timothy Oliver. Alice Bailey Profile in The Watchman Expositor. Watchman Fellowship. 1996. Retrieved 2007-08-22.
- ^ Weeks, Nicholas. Theosophy's Shadow: A Critical Look at the Claims and Teachings of Alice A. Bailey). Revised and expanded version of article that appeared in Fohat magazine. Summer 1997. Edmonton Theosophical Society. Retrieved 2007-08-22.
- ^ Leighton, Alice. A Comparison Between H. P. Blavatsky and Alice Bailey from Protogonus magazine. Cleather and Basil Crump. Spring 1989. Retrieved 2007-08-22.