The Head of the Hierarchy

The final words of the Christ to His apostles were:

“Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the age” or cycle. (Matthew; 28,20)

[…] Here He was speaking as the Head of the spiritual Hierarchy and expressing His divine will (at-one now with the will of God) to inform and pervade continuously the world of men with His overshadowing consciousness. It was a tremendous affirmation, sent forth upon the energy of His developed will, His all-inclusive love and His intelligent mind. This affirmation has made all things possible.

(Alice A. Bailey – The Reappearance of the Christ /29)

The symbol of the Great White Lodge: the Hierarchy.

The symbol of the square with the dot in the centre, known in the Masonic tradition, represents “the Lodge”. In this case the dot is qualified by the Sanskrit words for Maitreya Sangha – Communion of Maitreya (known to Christian disciples as the Christ, the Avatar the world awaits).

The Church of Christ and His future activity

What is this church of Christ? It is constituted of the sumtotal of all those in whom the life of Christ or the Christ-consciousness is to be found or is in process of finding expression; it is the aggregation of all who love their fellowmen, because to love one’s fellowmen is the divine faculty which makes us full members of Christ’s community. It is not the accepting of any historical fact or theological creed which places us en rapport with Christ. The citizens of the Kingdom of God are all those who are deliberately seeking the light and attempting (through self-imposed discipline) to stand before the One Initiator; this worldwide group (whether in the body or out of it) accepts the teaching that “the sons of men are one”; they know that divine revelation is continuous and ever new, and that the divine Plan is working itself out on Earth.

There are those today on Earth who know that through the instrumentality, the inspiration and the instruction of those sons of men who have wrought out their divinity in the crucible of daily human living the Kingdom of God will come into being; these Knowers now work actively, under the direct impression of the Christ, in leading humanity from darkness to light and from death to immortality.

These are the great underlying truths which are distinctive of the Christ, of the Buddha, and of the Church of God, as it expresses itself in the East and in the West; these are the only truths which matter. In the future, the eyes of humanity will be fixed upon Christ and not upon any such manmade institutions as the Church and its dignitaries; Christ will be seen as He is in reality, working through His disciples, through the Masters of the Wisdom and through His followers who toil unseen (and usually unrecognised) behind world affairs. The sphere of His activity will be known to be the human heart and also the crowded market places of the world, but not some stone edifice and not the pomp and ceremony of any ecclesiastical headquarters.

Our study of the future work of the Christ is necessarily based upon three assumptions:

1. That the reappearance of the Christ is inevitable and assured.
2. That He is today and has been actively working—through the medium of the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, of which He is the Head—for the welfare of humanity.
3. That certain teachings will be given and certain energies will be released by Him in the routine of His work and coming. People are apt to forget that the coming of the Christ necessitates a period of intensive preparation by Him; He, too, works under law and is subject to control from various sources—just as are all human beings, but in a much lesser degree.

His reappearance is conditioned and determined by the reaction of humanity itself; by that reaction He must abide.

His work is subject also to certain phases of spiritual and cyclic timing and to impressions from sources to be found on higher levels than those upon which He normally works. Just as human affairs have effects upon His action, so great “determinations” and “profound settlements within the will of God” also have their effects.

(Alice A. Bailey – The Reappearance of the Christ /65-7)

Christ as Head of the Hierarchy recognised in the future

Much has already been done in familiarising the general public with the concept of the Hierarchy.

[…] Information anent the Hierarchy should take the following lines:

1. Emphasis should be laid on the evolution of humanity with peculiar attention to its goal, perfection. This is not the idealistic perfection of the visionary mystic, but the control of the instrument, man in incarnation, by the indwelling and overshadowing soul. The constitution of man should be increasingly taught.
2. The relation of the individual soul to all souls should be taught, and with it the recognition that the long-awaited kingdom of God is simply the appearance of soul-controlled men on earth in everyday life and at all stages of that control.
3. From a recognition of this relationship, the fact of the spiritual Hierarchy can then be deduced and the normality of its existence emphasised. The fact will appear that the Kingdom has always been present but has remained unrecognised, owing to the relatively few people who express, as yet, its quality.
4. When this recognition has become general, the idea (by this time permanently present in the human consciousness everywhere) and good sense also will testify to the fact of the presence of Those Who have achieved the goal; Their demonstration of divinity will be regarded as normal, as constituting a universal objective, and as the guarantee of humanity’s future achievement; degrees of this divine expression can then be pointed out, ranging from that of the probationary disciple, through disciples, to Those Who have achieved mastery, and up to and inclusive of the Christ.
5. Thus gradually the idea or concept of the existence, in bodily presence, of the Masters will be inculcated and steadily accepted; a new attitude to the Christ will be developed which will be inclusive of all the best that the past has given to us but which will integrate men into a more sane and acceptable approach to the entire problem.
6. The time will come when the fact of the presence on earth of the Christ as Head of the Hierarchy and the Director of the Kingdom of God will be accepted; men will also realise the truth of the present revolutionary statement that at no time has He ever left the earth.
7. Emphasis will also increasingly be laid upon the unfolding Plan, and men will be brought to its recognition through a study of the evolution of the human family, through a close consideration of historical processes, and through a comparative analysis of ancient and modern civilisations and cultures. The thread of purpose will be noted and followed through, century after century, integrating not only history into one complete story of the revelation of divine qualities through the medium of humanity, but integrating with it and into it all world philosophies, the central theme of all creative art, the symbolism of architecture and the conclusions of science.

[…] A Christ Who is present and living, Who is known to those who follow Him, Who is a strong and able executive and not a sweet and sentimental sufferer, Who has never left us but Who has worked for two thousand years through the medium of His disciples, the inspired men and women of all faiths, all religions and all religious persuasions; Who has no use for fanaticism or hysterical devotion but Who loves all men persistently, intelligently and optimistically, Who sees divinity in them all and Who comprehends the techniques of the evolutionary development of the human consciousness (mental, emotional and physical, producing civilisations and cultures appropriate to a particular point in evolution)—these ideas the intelligent public can and will accept.

They will prepare and work for conditions in the world in which Christ can move freely among men, in bodily Presence; He need not then remain in His present retreat in Central Asia. They can and will accept with ease the unity of all faiths when the relationship of the Buddha and the Christ is correctly presented; then the picture of a Christ demanding a unique position, to the exclusion of all other sons of God, will fade out in the wonder of the true apostolic succession, in which many sons of God, on different rays, of differing nationalities and with varying missions, are to be seen historically leading humanity along the path of divine unfoldment and nearer to God, the Source.

Temporarily, the fact of God Immanent will engross the attention of all true spiritual teachers, and the fact of that divine immanence making itself felt in perfection through the Christ and other divine Representatives will for a time relegate the teaching on God Transcendent into the background. Undue emphasis has been placed on this major truth, to the exclusion of the nearer and more practical truth of God in every man and in every form in every kingdom in nature; much evil has eventuated by the failure to lay the emphasis upon God Immanent. Later on, when the truth of the Christ indwelling every man and revealed in perfection through the historical Christ and His great Brothers down the ages has been accepted, the teaching of God Transcendent, which is the secret mystery in the custody of Shamballa, will be revealed and emphasised. The two halves of a perfect Whole will then be recognised by humanity.

The key to the Hierarchy and Its reappearance on earth in physical form, and the consequent materialisation of the kingdom of God among men, is the simple truth of God Immanent. It is the clue to the evolutionary process, and the eternal hope of all forms in all kingdoms in nature. This is the central truth, the convincing truth, and the revealing truth which will underlie all information anent the Hierarchy, and this the coming generation of disciples will distribute. If this truth is factual and possible of demonstration, then the fact of the Hierarchy is proved and the authenticity of the eternal existence of the kingdom of God on earth is established.

(Alice A. Bailey – The Externalisation of the Hierarchy /588-91)

The Christ’s decision to return

It must be remembered that the point of crisis, producing the point of tension to which the Christ may be regarded as voluntarily subjecting Himself is a hierarchical matter or event, because the entire Hierarchy is involved in the crisis. The reason for this is simple: the Christ and His workers know only the experience of group consciousness. A separative participation and attitude is unknown to Them, for Their state of awareness is inclusive and in no way exclusive.

Using, therefore, human terminology in order to interpret the divine reactions of the Christ and His disciples, it must be realised that the point of crisis which is responsible for hierarchical tension and for the eventual appearance or the emergence of the Christ, lies behind the Christ; it is in the field of long past experience. The consequent point of tension is now controlling the affairs of the spiritual Hierarchy and its many groups of workers. The “point of decision”, as it is called in all hierarchical circles, was reached during the period between the Full Moon of June, 1936, and the Full Moon of June, 1945.* The point of decision covered, therefore, nine years (a relatively brief time); it resulted in the decision arrived at by the Christ to re-appear or return to visible Presence on Earth as soon as possible, and considerably earlier than had been planned.

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* In June, 1945, at the time of the full moon (so significant a day in the spiritual experience of the Christ), He definitely and consciously took over His duties and responsibilities as the Teacher and Leader during the Aquarian solar cycle. He is the first of the great world Teachers to cover two zodiacal cycles—the Piscean and the Aquarian.

(Alice A. Bailey – The Reappearance of the Christ /69-82)

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This decision was necessarily made in consultation with the Lord of the World… the Custodian of the Will of God. It was also made with the full understanding and cooperation of the Masters and the senior initiates. This was inevitably so, because Their participation and help were imperative. They also necessarily had to be with Him in thought, and cooperating mentally, because His reappearance connotes a great hierarchical approach to humanity and a great spiritual event. The decision was, nevertheless, the decision of the Christ and marked not only a point of crisis in His experience but a point of climax in His expression of divinity.

(Alice A. Bailey – The Reappearance of the Christ /68-9)

What we know about the next coming of Christ

All we know at this time is that the Christ will fuse and blend within Himself three principles of divinity; when He appears “the light that always has been will be seen; the love that never ceases will be realised, and the radiance, deep concealed, will break forth into Being”. We shall then have a new world—one which will express the light, the love and the knowledge of God in a crescendo of revelation.

(Alice A. Bailey – The Reappearance of the Christ /94)

Education and government, two fields of Christ’s work

It is a fallacy to believe, as some do, that the main trend of Christ’s work will be through the medium of the churches or the world religions. He necessarily will work through them when conditions permit and there is a living nucleus of true spirituality within them, or when their invocative appeal is potent enough to reach Him. He will use all possible channels whereby the consciousness of man may be enlarged and right orientation be brought about. It is, however, truer to say that it is as World Teacher that He will consistently work, and that the churches are but one of the teaching avenues He will employ.

All that enlightens the minds of men, all propaganda that tends to bring about right human relations, all modes of acquiring real knowledge, all methods of transmuting knowledge into wisdom and understanding, all that expands the consciousness of humanity and of all subhuman states of awareness and sensitivity, all that dispels glamour and illusion and that disrupts crystallisation and disturbs static conditions will come under the realistic activities of the Hierarchy which He supervises.

He will be limited by the quality and the calibre of the invocative appeal of humanity and that, in its turn, is conditioned by the attained point in evolution.

In the Middle Ages of history and earlier, it was the churches and the schools of philosophy which provided the major avenues for His subjective activity, but it will not be so when He is objectively and actually here. This is a point which the churches and organised religions would do well to remember. There is now a shift of His emphasis and attention into two new fields of endeavour: first, into the field of world-wide education, and secondly, into the sphere of implementing intelligently those activities which come under the department of government in its three aspects of statesmanship, of politics and of legislation. 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 [in its anagogical sense, ed.] 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.

The development of spiritual recognition is the great need today in preparation for His reappearance; no one knows in what nation He will come; He may appear as an Englishman, a Russian, a Negro, a Latin, a Turk, a Hindu, or any other nationality. Who can say which? He may be a Christian or a Hindu by faith, a Buddhist or of no particular faith at all; He will not come as the restorer of any of the ancient religions, including Christianity, but He will come to restore man’s faith in the Father’s love, in the fact of the livingness of the Christ and in the close, subjective and unbreakable relationship of all men everywhere. The facilities of the entire world of contact and relation will be at His disposal; that will be part of the uniqueness of His opportunity and—for this He too must prepare.

Another unique factor which will distinguish His coming will be not only the general expectancy but also the fact that much is today known and taught about the Kingdom of God, or the Spiritual Hierarchy of the planet. Everywhere, in all countries, there are thousands who are interested in the fact of that Hierarchy, who believe in the Masters of the Wisdom, the disciples of the Christ, and who will not be surprised when this group of Sons of God, surrounding their great Leader, the Christ, makes its appearance on Earth.

(Alice A. Bailey – The Reappearance of the Christ /17-9)

The Christ and the future Head of the Hierarchy 

The generally accepted idea that He will return as a triumphant warrior, omnipotent and irresistible, has surely no basis in fact. That He will ultimately lead His people, humanity, into Jerusalem is a fact, founded on a secure foundation, but it will not be into a Jewish city called Jerusalem but into “the place of peace” (as the word “Jerusalem” means). A careful consideration of the world situation today and a dedicated use of the imagination will reveal to the sincere thinker how appalling is the task which He has undertaken. But He has again “set His face to go to Jerusalem”. (Luke IX.51.) He will re-appear and guide mankind into a civilisation and a state of consciousness in which right human relations and worldwide cooperation for the good of all will be the universal keynote. He will—through the New Group of World Servers and the men of goodwill—complete His association with the Will of God (His Father’s business) in such a manner that the eternal will-to-good will be translated by humanity into goodwill and right relations. Then His task will be done; He will be free again to leave us, but this time not to return but to leave the world of men in the hands of that great spiritual Server Who will be the new Head of the Hierarchy, the Church Invisible.

(Alice A. Bailey – The Reappearance of the Christ /57)