Alice Bailey

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Alice Bailey

Alice Bailey (born Alice Ann Trobe Bateman abbreviated, often AAB or AAB called * 16th June 1880 in Manchester ; † 15. December 1949 in New York ) was an English - American Theosophist , Esoterikerin and author . She was the founder of the Arcane School as well as a number of other related organizations.

Life

Childhood, professions, marriage and children

Bailey was born on June 16, 1880 in Manchester, the elder of two daughters of Frederic Foster LaTrobe Bateman and Alice Hollinshead (1857-1886). The father was a civil engineer, the family rich. The mother died in 1886 and the father in 1889, both of tuberculosis , and Bailey was taken into the care of her grandfather, John Frederic LaTrobe Bateman, and his wife. After her death around 1893, her aunt Dora LaTrobe Bateman and her husband Brian Barttelot took over the guardianship. In childhood Bailey made numerous trips to Canada , Switzerland and France with his parents and lived on various country estates in Scotland and England.

She lived through a strict but sheltered childhood; from 1892 to 1898 she received a classic education from specially employed educators and private tutors and was then until 1900 in a girls boarding school in London. She then worked for about a year as a teacher and missionary in the British Army . She held Bible lectures and devotions to soldiers in Ireland and India , worked as a comforter and companion for the dying, and organized soldiers' homes. From 1906 she suffered a series of weaknesses, had to return to Great Britain several times to recover and therefore gave up this activity in 1907.

During her work in India around 1905/6 she met Walter Evans , who was serving as a soldier in the cavalry . When his military service ended shortly afterwards, Evans went to the United States and joined the Episcopal Church to become a priest. In 1908 Bailey and Evans married in Castramont (in Dumfries and Galloway ). They then moved to Cincinnati , USA , where Evans continued his theology studies at Lane Theological Seminary and worked in San Joaquin , California after his ordination around 1910 . This was followed by several moves in increasingly difficult financial circumstances and the birth of three daughters. The marriage was increasingly marked by alienation, from 1915 they lived separately and in 1919 the marriage was divorced. In order to survive, Bailey worked in a canning factory during this time.

In 1919 she met Foster Bailey (1888–1977) in the Theosophical Society and married him in New York City in late 1920 . Foster was originally a lawyer, after his service in the USArmy during the First World War he did not return to his profession, but devoted himself entirely to theosophy and freemasonry . This marriage remained childless.

Theosophy

After separating from her first husband, she came into contact with theosophy in 1915 and in the same year joined a lodge of the Theosophical Society Adyar (Adyar-TG) in Pacific Grove . Here she began to occupy herself with the teachings of theosophy, studied Helena Blavatsky's work The Secret Doctrine and Annie Besant's Study of Consciousness . After a short time she gave theosophical lectures herself and moved to Hollywood at the end of 1917 , as the headquarters of the American section of the Adyar-TG was located in nearby Krotona (near Ojai ) in order to be able to maintain closer contact with the headquarters. There she took over the management of the casino, worked as a cook and in guest relations. In 1918 she was accepted into the esoteric section of the Adyar-TG and at the end of 1919 editor-in-chief of the theosophical magazine The Messenger (Der Bote). At the same time (late 1919) Foster Bailey became President of the Adyar-TG for California.

In the esoteric section, she got to know the dogmas , power and competition struggles and disputes that prevailed there at the time . Anyone who was not a member of the esoteric section at that time could not hold a leading position in a theosophical lodge. As a result, the Esoteric Section, with Annie Besant at its head, dominated the events in the lodges, which were largely autonomous only on paper , in an almost autocratic manner. In 1920 there was an uproar between the moderate forces, who advocated more autonomy, and the members of the esoteric section. The latter decided this power struggle for themselves, whereupon a number of members left the TG. As a result, in 1920 Bailey and her husband, who had been on the side of the moderate, were relieved of their managerial posts, and she also lost their jobs in the theosophical casino. However, both remained members of the Adyar-TG.

Arcane School and Lucis Trust

Without any influence in the Adyar TG, without work and thus without income, the Bailey family accepted an offer from Ernest S. Suffern (1880-1975), who offered them a house in Ridgefield Park on the east coast and Foster a secretary position the Theosophical Association of New York . In nearby New York in 1921, Bailey set up a study group to study The Secret Doctrine , sometimes referred to as the Theosophical Association . It got off to a good start and quickly found a large number of listeners.

In 1922 she founded together with her husband Lucifer publishing company ( Lucifer Publishing Company), in this she published her books (see below). After problems and misunderstandings arose because of the name Lucifer , which is equated with Satan in the Christian tradition , it changed the name to Lucis publishing company (or Lucis Trust publishing company ) in 1924 . Later the umbrella organization Lucis Trust emerged from this for a number of companies that it had set up. Lucis is just another name for Lucifer , translated as lightbringer in the theosophical tradition , meaning positively and gave less cause for criticism.

Richard Prater , a student of Helena Blavatsky and a friend of William Quan Judge , visited Bailey's study group in 1921 and was so impressed that he introduced all of her students to a secret teaching group he led. Prater also gave Bailey the complete Esoteric Section teaching materials he had received from Judge. In these they found a note Blavatsky, the Esoteric Section in Arcane ( The Arcane School rename). Bailey then decided in April 1923 to give her study group this name. The Arcane School was later integrated into the Lucis Trust, where it still exists today.

When Bailey was absent for several months in the summer of 1922, she began to send weekly lesson letters about the secret doctrine to the members for the continued existence of the study group, in order to be able to keep the study going without her presence. These proved to be very successful, after which she also sent them to the growing circle of those people who turned to her for advice because of her books that had been published since 1922. Above all, however, she integrated the material from the Esoteric Section, which she had received from Richard Prater, into these distance learning letters and thus built up a complete distance learning initiation school - the Arcane School. The demand for the teaching letters rose by leaps and bounds, and a number of those theosophists who had left the TG in 1920 after the disputes mentioned above now became members of the Arcane School. School groups also formed in other places who studied on the basis of their lesson letters, the Arcane School grew, and the mailing of letters was organized professionally after initial difficulties. She later disbanded the student groups and the lesson letters were only sent to individuals who were no longer in contact with one another. In April 1922, Bailey and her husband started The Beacon magazine , which is still published today.

In the 1920s, people in Europe had also joined their arcane school and received their teaching letters. At the suggestion of Olga Fröbe , she then founded the first branch of the Arkanschule in Ascona in the spring of 1931 . Bailey and her husband stayed in Switzerland until 1933, holding a series of lectures and promotional events for the Arcane School, and organizing the mailing of lesson letters. This branch was later moved to Geneva , followed by arcane schools in London and Buenos Aires .

1932 called Bailey, allegedly on the orders of Djwal Khul a Master of Wisdom , the organization World Goodwill ( Good-Will-movement or Group of World Servers ) to life. In 1937 the Triangles followed , with all organizations working under the umbrella of the Lucis Trust.

Literary work

According to Bailey's own account, she appeared to her on June 30, 1895, when she was 15 years old, for the first time a master of wisdom by the name of Kuthumi . He is said to have “conveyed” them to another “master” by the name of Djwal Khul , also known as The Tibetan . Bailey claimed to hear the voice of this "Tibetan" for the first time in November 1919. After an initial refusal, she then allegedly fulfilled his wish to write and publish some books, whereby the words of the “master”, as Bailey emphasized, had nothing to do with automatic writing or medial messages. Rather, she meant to hear the "Master" and to write down the thoughts that were sunk into her brain . In any case, at the end of 1919 she began to write a number of books, some of them very extensive. Bailey claimed that of her total of 25 works, 18 were by Djwal Khul , two were written down with his help and five are said to have been written by herself.

When Bahman Pestonji Wadia , who was visiting Krotona at the time, read the manuscript of the first chapter of the resulting first work, Initiation, Human and Solar Initiation, in 1920 , he said that this should be published immediately. From February to November 1921 a total of five articles appeared in the magazine The Theosophist on the one passed on by the "Master", then further publication was discontinued, since Bailey was seen as a competitor to the Adyar-TG from 1922 onwards. As already mentioned, all of her works were published in her own Lucifer Publishing Company from 1922 and Lucis Publishing Company from 1924 .

The tenor of their writings is the existence of a group of higher beings on this earth, the masters of wisdom mentioned . At the head of this group, which Bailey calls the spiritual hierarchy of our planet, is supposedly Christ , who is understood as a non-denominational world teacher and embodies the love-wisdom principle in harmony with Buddha . Her work is strongly influenced by the writings of Helena Blavatsky and other theosophists, for example in her belief in reincarnation and spiritual evolution, but it also shows some differences. Bailey's works are about esoteric philosophy and psychology, occult teachings, astrology , white magic , consciousness expansion and meditation . The mantra of the "great invocation", which is used by many esotericists around the world, also comes from Bailey . She is considered to be the forerunner of the New Age movement. Among the earthly representatives of the sublime cosmic “white brotherhood” who, in their theosophical worldview, guide the fate of the world, Bailey also counts politically powerful people such as Mussolini , Franco , Stalin and Hitler , “who took responsibility for an unhappy people.” A Belief in leadership that is not shared in this form by esotericists from other directions.

anti-Semitism

Controversies have sparked anti-Semitic theses in her work. In Esoteric Healing about the history of the Jews, as told in the Old Testament , she states that this lies on "the same level as the behavior of Germans in the present" (p. 289). Since this text was written during the Second World War , an equation between Old Testament Jewish history , which is filled with aggressive acts, and the Holocaust is undertaken here. The persecution of the Jews was said to be the result of a negative karma that they had accumulated through the “iniquity of their actions” (ibid., P. 290), so that everything that happened to them during the Nazi persecution was “symbolic and actually the price for everything they have done in the past ”(ibid.). An example of this iniquity is u. a. the “clear basic tendency of the Hebrew people to deceive and to take advantage of” (ibid., p. 293). Only complete assimilation can solve the Jewish problem: “The problem will be solved when the Jew is ready to adapt to civilization, cultural tradition and the standard of living of the very nation into which birth and upbringing put him” (ibid., P . 293). According to Bailey, the Jewish problem can only be solved by the Jews ceasing to be Jews. But Bailey also condemns the atrocities of the persecutors: "What I have said in no way mitigates the guilt of those who so badly mistreated the Jews" (ibid., P. 292).

Works

From Alice Bailey:

From Alice Bailey and Djwhal Khul:

literature

  • Foster Bailey: On the change in esoteric values . Lucis Trust, Geneva 1990, ISBN 2-88289-071-0 .
  • Harold Balyoz: Three remarkable women . Altai, Flagstaff 1986, ISBN 0-9609710-1-7 .
  • Otto-Albrecht Isbert: Yoga and the way of the West, the spiritual path of modern man . Günther, Stuttgart 1955
  • Annrose Künzi (Ed.): Meditation is life, God meditates, and as long as God meditates, the universe remains in manifestation, contributions on the topic from the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba and Alice A. Bailey . Rosenkreis, Oberdorf 2001, ISBN 3-9522528-0-8 .
  • Annrose Künzi (ed.): Shamballa - Hierarchy - Humanity, The Great Triangle, From the books by Alice A. Bailey and Djwhal Khul . Rosenkreis, Oberdorf 2001, ISBN 3-9521968-7-8 .
  • Annrose Künzi (Ed.): Sathia Say Baba and Jesus, A comparative comparison of statements by the Avatar Sathya Say Baba and the Tibetan master Djwhal Kul . Rosenkreis, Oberdorf 2004, ISBN 3-9522528-2-4 .
  • Sergej O. Prokofieff: The East in the Light of the West, Part 2, The Doctrine of Alice Bailey from the perspective of Christian esotericism . Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 1997, ISBN 3-7235-0992-4 .
  • A comparison between HPBlavatsky & Alice Baily. The Pseudo-Occultism of Alice Baily by Alice Leighton Cleather and Basil Crump. 1929

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the literature and on the web there is talk of Foster Bailey becoming Secretary General of the TG in the USA. Alice Bailey herself writes that he became a national secretary . As a general secretary, Bailey named one Mr. AP Warrington.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Watchman Fellowship Profile - Alice Bailey: http://www.watchman.org/profile/bailypro.htm
  3. ↑ What kind of society this Theosophical Association of New York is about is unclear. In her autobiography, Bailey speaks of an "unofficial" and "independent" organization, which would mean that it was not a lodge of the Adyar TG or any other TG. In this respect it could have been a smaller theosophical study group in which theosophical literature was read, discussed and sometimes also published together. Such had emerged in large numbers since around 1877 ( unveiled when Blavatsky's work Isis was published ), and mostly worked in small, autonomous groups with little public reference, but often with only a short lifespan.
  4. ↑ This study group is often referred to in the literature and on the web as the Theosophical Association . Bailey himself does not use this name, however, she speaks of a "Secret Doctrine class" ("teaching class on the secret doctrine") and the "group" ("study group").
  5. ↑ The British Racists Behind America's School: http://www.hackcanada.com/blackcrawl/patriot/outcome_based_education.txt
  6. ^ A b Lucis (Lucifer) Trust, Alice Bailey, World Goodwill and the False Light of the World: http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NewAge/Lucis_Trust.htm
  7. ↑ Alice Bailey / Lucis Trust , Relinfo.ch - German text of the Great Invocation in the penultimate section
  8. ↑ The Great Invocation , English text on lucistrust.org
  9. ↑ Helmut Reinalter : Conspiracy Theories: Theory, History, Effect. Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2002, ISBN 978-3-7065-5781-8 , p. 114
  10. ↑ Isbert was actually an international lawyer, a folk propagandist from the environment of Max Hildebert Boehm , who had set himself the task of registering "Germans" in Hungary, in order to distinguish between Hungarians and Jews. After the war he lost, he successfully switched to eso-yoga
personal data
SURNAME Bailey, Alice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bailey, Alice Ann; LaTrobe Bateman, Alice Ann; AAB
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English-American esotericist, theosophist and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Manchester
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 1949
Place of death new York