Theos-Talk Archives (May 2009 Message tt00382)

Was Alice Bailey "the New Torch-Bearer of Truth"? 


Alice Bailey claimed that "her teachings came from the same Occult Brotherhood that taught HP Blavatsky . . . . Bailey's guide professed to be the same Djual Khool that was one of HPB's teachers. Bailey also declared that her guru was the same Master Koot Hoomi that Blavatsky knew."

Many Bailey students have quoted the following passage from H.P.B.'s pen in supporting the claim that Alice Bailey was the expected new messenger of the Masters in the 20th century:

"In Century the Twentieth some disciple more informed, and far better fitted, may be sent by the Masters of Wisdom to give final and irrefutable proofs that there exists a Science called Gupta-Vidya; and that . . . the source of all religions and philosophies . . . has been for many ages forgotten and lost to men, but is at last found." S.D., 1888, Vol I, p. xxxviii (original edition)

But Students should compare this 1888 statement with the following two passages from HPB's pen. The first extract was written in December 1888 and the second one dates from the middle of 1889.

The first passage reads:

"Let every member [of the Esoteric Section] know . . . that the time for such priceless acquisition is limited. The writer of the present is old; her life is well-nigh worn out, and she may be summoned 'home' any day and almost any hour. And if her place is even filled up, perchance by another worthier and more learned than herself, still there remain but twelve years to the last hour of
the term - namely, till December the 31st, 1899. Those who will not have profited by the opportunity (given to the world in every last quarter of a century), those who will not have reached a certain point of psychic and spiritual development, or that point from which begins the cycle of adeptship, by that day - those will advance no further than the knowledge already acquired. No Master of Wisdom from the East will appear or send any one to Europe or America after that period, and the sluggards will have to renounce every chance
of advancement in their present incarnation - until the year 1975. Such is the LAW, for we are in Kali Yuga - the Black Age - and the restrictions in this cycle, the first 5,000 years of which will expire in 1897, are great and almost insuperable." HPB's Collected Writings, Vol XII, pp. 491-492. Italics added.

The second passage is as follows:

". . .during the last quarter of every hundred years an attempt is made by those 'Masters' . . . to help on the spiritual progress of Humanity in a marked and definite way. Towards the close of each century you will invariably find that an outpouring or upheaval of spirituality - or call it mysticism if you prefer - has taken place. Some one or more persons have appeared in the world as their
agents, and a greater or less amount of occult knowledge and teaching has been given out . . . . .If the present attempt, in the form of our Society, succeeds better than its predecessors have done, then it will be in existence as an organized, living and healthy body when the time comes for the effort of the XXth century. The general condition of men's minds and hearts will have been improved and purified by the spread of its teachings . . . . but besides a large
and accessible literature ready to men's hands, the next impulse will find a numerous and united body of people ready to welcome the new torch-bearer of Truth. He will find the minds of men prepared for his message, a language ready for him in which to clothe the new truths he brings, an organization awaiting his arrival . . . ." The Key to Theosophy, pp. 306-7. Italics added.

The three passages taken together indicate that HPB was referring to an emissary of the Masters coming in 1975 or later. These statements by HPB would seem to rule out the messenger being Alice Bailey or many other claimants. For a list of such claimants, see:

http://blavatskyarchives.com/latermessengers.htm#six

Daniel
http://hpb.cc