Arcane School
The Arcane School, an occult organization founded by Theosophist
Alice A. Bailey and her husband, Foster Bailey, was
designed to bring in the New Age by the Great White Brotherhood,
the spiritual hierarchy of masters who are believed to
guide human destiny. As a young woman, Bailey affiliated with
the Theosophical Society, moved into the Krotona community
in Hollywood, California, and became editor of The Messenger,
the societys journal. She also began to channel material from
Djwhal Khul, one of the masters of the theosophical spiritual
hierarchy, generally called The Tibetan. Her channeling activity
proved unacceptable to the society, and in 1920 she and
her husband departed.
They moved to New York where Alice completed the channeling
of two books and wrote one herself. They formed the
Lucis Trust as a publishing concern and began a magazine, the
Beacon. The Arcane School was founded in 1923 as an organization
for students who responded to the books. Over the next
years Bailey dictated a series of books that laid out a program
for bringing in the New Age.
Among the several programs nurtured by the school was the
New Group of World Servers, founded in 1932. The group
sought to unite people of goodwill as harbingers of a coming
civilization. Five years later the school launched the Triangles
program to bring together groups of three people to work together
in spiritual service. The primary task of a triangle is to
channel spiritual energy from the hierarchy to the world. To
assist the triangles, she released what is possibly her most famous
piece of writing, a prayer called The Great Invocation.
Bailey also began to announce the coming of the New Age
and the accompanying appearance of the Christ. This coming
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of the New Age Savior was also encouraged by the repeating of
The Great Invocation.
Bailey taught that certain moments of the year are especially
fruitful times for spiritual work because an abundance of spiritual
energy is available. Such a time is the monthly period of
the full moon, when members of the school gather on the evening
of the full moon to meditate and transmit energy. On
three full moon dates the great festivals Easter, Wesak, and
Goodwill take place. The festival of Easter does not follow either
of the Christian calendars, but is celebrated on the full
moon in April as the time of the most active forces for the restoration
of the Christ. In May, Wesak is the time when the Buddhas
forces are available. In June, at the full moon, the forces
of reconstruction are active.
Foster succeeded his wife as head of the school following her
death in 1949. Their daughter Mary Bailey succeeded to the
leadership after Fosters death in 1977. The school publishes
several periodicals, including the Beacon and the World Goodwill
Newsletter. International headquarters are located close to the
United Nations building at 113 University Pl., 11th Fl., Box
722, Cooper Sta., New York, New York 10276. There are also
European offices in London and Geneva. Several groups such
as the Arcana Workshops, Meditation Groups, Inc., and the
School for Esoteric Studies carry on programs similar to the Arcane
School, though they are organizationally separate from it.
Sources
Bailey, Alice A. The Unfinished Autobiography. New York
Lucis Publishing Co., 1951.
Sinclair, John R. The Alice Bailey Inheritance. Wellingsborough,
England Turnstone Press, 1984.
