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[[Image:Alice Bailey.jpg|thumb|200px|right|'''Alice A. Bailey''' <br> <small> Shown here on the cover of a Danish translation of her autobiography, her work has been translated into over 50 languages</small>.]] |
[[Image:Alice Bailey.jpg|thumb|200px|right|'''Alice A. Bailey''' <br> <small> Shown here on the cover of a Danish translation of her autobiography, her work has been translated into over 50 languages</small>.]] |
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'''Alice A. Bailey''', often known as '''AAB''' ([[16 June]] [[1880]] ‑ [[15 December]] [[1949]]), [[writer]] and [[lecturer]] on [[Neo-Theosophy]], was born in [[England]] in [[1880]] as '''Alice LaTrobe Bateman'''. She moved to America in [[1907]] where she spent the rest of her life. She was a prolific author on [[occultism]] and founded an international [[esotericism|esoteric]] movement. Her writings gave rise to many aspects of contemporary [[New Age]] belief. |
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She was, without doubt, one of the most important, and influential, esoteric thinkers and writers of the 20th century. She published twenty four books, most channeled from a Tibetan Master of the Ancient Wisdom, and all of which are still in print *[http://www.lucistrust.org/en/publications_store]. Adding greatly to the importance and influence of the books, she established a school, The Arcane School, which taught her complex esoteric ideas world wide by a series of of carefully designed correspondence course lessons. These lessons also explained her innovative ideas on meditation as a service to humanity, and gave much practical advice on living a spiritual life in the midst of the world's challenges. The original school, and several other schools based on her teaching, still exist and are still very active. |
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==Life== |
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Alice Ann Bailey, founder of the Lucifer Trust, now the Lucis Trust, was born in [[Manchester]], [[England]] in 1880. She had a strong Christian education, and went on to do [[Evangelism|evangelical]] work in the British Army, which took her to [[India]] where in 1907, she met her future husband, Walter Evans. Together they moved to America, where W. Evans became an [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopalian]] priest: but their life became harder and harder, and their marriage, after the birth of three daughters, ended in divorce. |
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Eventually, she rejected orthodox Christianity and wrote, "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." |
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{{cite book |
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| last = Bailey |
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| first = Alice |
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| title = The Unfinished Autobiography |
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| publisher = Lucis Publishing |
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| date = 1973 |
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| pages = 5 }} |
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In America, Alice Bailey made contact with the [[Theosophical Society]], in which she encountered the work of [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky]]. This led her eventually to become a member of the Esoteric section of the Theosophical Society. Some years later, she left the Society, but continued to recognise the importance of Madame Blavatsky's works throughout her later life. |
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Through her studies of Blavatsky's descriptions of esoteric Masters in Theosophy, Alice Bailey recognized the spiritual guide she believed had helped her from the age of fifteen as the Theosophical Master "Koot Humi" (also spelled [[Kuthumi]]). Later in [[1919]] she claimed to be in touch with another Master, [[Djwhal Khul]], also known as The Tibetan. |
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This began Alice Bailey's writings consisting of 24 books that she claimed were from her Tibetan Master and which expounded a large body of esoteric teachings relating to ancient wisdom, theosophical studies, religion, philosophy, cosmology, esoteric psychology, and contemporary events. She wrote the books between 1919 and 1949 and stated that she received most of her books from the Tibetan Master by psychic or telepathic means.[http://www.ascensiongateway.com/quotes/alice-bailey/index.htm] She also founded, with the assistance of her husband, the Arcane School and gave public talks of which about 100 are available online. [http://www.esotericstudies.net/talks/index.htm] |
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In [[1920]] Alice Bailey married another theosophist, Foster Bailey, and in [[1923]] they founded the [[Arcane School]] to continue her teachings and form a school for the disciples of what they saw as the coming new [[Aquarius (astrology)|Aquarian]] [[New Age]]. The school's mission was to teach students on how to further the ''Great Universal Plan'', guided by the inner hierarchy of spiritual masters under [[Christ]].<ref name="Arcane">This school's organisation is directed by the [http://www.lucistrust.org Lucis Trust]</ref>. |
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At the end of her life, she began to write her autobiography. Although reluctant to celebrate herself, she agreed to write the book only to give others inspiration to follow their own spiritual paths. |
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She died in 1949. |
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==Criticism== |
==Criticism== |
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{{Template:Inappropriate tone}} |
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Much that Alice Bailey said about the Jews is found in traditional European [[antisemitic]] stereotypes [[http://www.zionism-israel.com/his/judeophobia.htm]], stereotypes that she has presented in esoteric terminology [[http://searchlight.iwarp.com/articles/na_jews.html#na%20views,]]. For instance, There is this stereotype of Jews and money [[http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/story15.htm]], as Bailey presents it: |
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It is an interesting fact that the Jews are found in every land without exception, that their influence is potent and widespread (far more so than they themselves are willing to recognize), and that they wield most potently that peculiar concretization of energy that we call money. |
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''Externalisation of the Hierarchy'', p.76 (1939) |
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</blockquote> |
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To give an idea how this stereotype of a Jewish special relationship with money was playing out at the very time Alice Bailey wrote her words, and how ingrained it was (and remains) in the very worst manifestations of European hate of its Jewish minority, compare with this: |
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Yes, my child, that's the Jew! The God of the Jews is gold. There is no crime he would not commit to get it. He has no rest till he can sit on the top of a gold-sack. He has no rest till he has become King Money. And with this money he would make us all into slaves and destroy us. With this money he seeks to dominate the whole world. |
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</blockquote> |
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This second quote, is from ''Der Giftpilz'', an anti-Semitic children's book published by [[Julius Streicher]], the publisher of [[Der Stürmer]] (a weekly Nazi newspaper) in 1938. |
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Alice Bailey's equating of Jews and money, and their use of money to secretly control the world, is a belief that has long been a part European antisemitism. This indicates that her anti-Jewish bias is based on traditional European antisemitism, and that these views, expressed in her books, probably originated from Bailey herself rather from a Tibetan Master. |
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Another view held by Alice Bailey, and common in traditional European antisemitism, is the belief that Jews are now condemned as a group because of their refusal to convert to Christianity [[http://www.beliefnet.com/story/124/story_12479_1.html]][[http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/faq/faq009.html]]: |
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<blockquote> |
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The decision anent the Jews is one of hierarchical importance, owing to the karmic relation of the Christ to the Jewish race, to the fact that they repudiated Him as the Messiah and are still doing so, and of the interpretive nature of the Jewish problem as far as the whole of humanity is concerned. |
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</blockquote> |
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''The Rays and the Initiations'', p.636-7 |
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And: |
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Let me point out also that just as the Kabbalah and the Talmud are secondary lines of esoteric approach to truth, and materialistic in their technique (embodying much of the magical work of relating one grade of matter to the substance of another grade), so the Old Testament is emphatically a secondary Scripture, and spiritually does not rank with the Bhagavad-Gita, the ancient Scriptures of the East and the New Testament……The general theme of the Old Testament is the recovery of the highest expression of the divine wisdom in the first solar system; ……..The evil karma of the Jew today is intended to end his isolation, to bring him to the point of relinquishing material goals, of renouncing a nationality that has a tendency to be somewhat parasitic within the boundaries of other nations, and to express inclusive love, instead of separative unhappiness. |
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</blockquote> |
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''Esoteric Healing'', p267-8 |
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</blockquote> |
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What this seems to say is that the [[genocide]] was to help Jews overcome their isolation, and to help them express inclusive love. |
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Despite the claims by Alice Bailey that the source of her books was a Tibetan Master of the Ancient Wisdom, it seems that what she wrote about the Jews was based on stereotypes common in Europe during her youth, and which she absorbed into her thinking. [[http://www.pinenet.com/rooster/bailey.html]] [[http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eejh/message/8025]]. Those thoughts could not have come from the Tibetan Teacher. |
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==Bibliography== |
==Bibliography== |
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All of Alice Bailey's books are available online in their entirety. |
All of Alice Bailey's books are available online in their entirety. |
Revision as of 12:18, 27 May 2007
Criticism
Some statements in Bailey's writings have been criticized for perceived racism and anti-semitism.
Bibliography
All of Alice Bailey's books are available online in their entirety. Lucis Trust is the official publisher.
In collaboration with Djwhal Khul:
- 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:
By Alice A. Bailey:
- 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
External links
Positive Links
- Lucis Trust
- Arcana Workshops, training based on the teaching of Alice Bailey
- Group founded by Roberto Assagioli, based on Alice Bailey's teaching that meditation is a service to humanity
- The School for Esoteric Studies, New Age training based on the teaching of Alice Bailey
- BiographyA biography and summary of the writings.
- A compilation and representative sample of her writings from “Ponder on This”
- The Jewish People in AAB's Writings--explanation on official Lucis Trust website
- Positive assessment of Alice A. Bailey & relations to H.P. Blavatsky and Helena Roerich
- Alice Bailey: Portrait of Leo Rising
- Roberto Assagioli, Psychosynthesis and Alice Bailey
- A school promulgating the teachings of Alice Bailey thorough publications and yearly conferences
- Profile of Alice Baily
Critical Links
- The Rainbow Swastica and Alice Bailey
- Alice Bailey's influence on New Age Antisemitism
- Anti-Semitism in the Writings of Alice Bailey Critique from a Jewish Perspective by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom
- A Comparison between HPB and Alice Bailey A critical site from Theosophical Perspective
- Theosophy's Shadow Another critical site from Theosophical Perspective