(A.A. Bailey, The Unfinished Autobiography, pp. 230-235, 1951 — CHAPTER VI.)

"... In 1932 when we were at Ascona I received a communication from the Tibetan which was published in the fall in a pamphlet entitled, The New Group of World Servers. This was epoch making in its significance though only a few people as yet realise its true meaning.

The position taken by the spiritual Hierarchy on our planet was that a group was in process of formation that had in it the nucleus of the coming world civilisation and was characterised by the qualities that would distinguish that civilisation during the next 2,500 years. These qualities are primarily a spirit of inclusiveness, a potent desire selflessly to serve one's fellowmen plus a definite sense of spiritual guidance, emanating from the inner side of life. This new group of world servers includes two definite divisions. The first part of the group has a close relationship to the spiritual Hierarchy. It is composed of aspirants working towards discipleship under the guidance of certain of the Masters' disciples who, in their turn, are directed and guided by a few world disciples whose work is on such a large scale that it is definitely international in scope. This group acts as a definite intermediary between the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet and the mass of humanity. Through them the Masters of the Wisdom, under the direction of the Christ, are working out gigantic plans of world salvage.

This attempt to lead humanity onward along new and more definite lines and on a much larger scale than heretofore is made possible by the coming in of the Aquarian age. This Aquarian age is both astronomical and astrological in import.

There is a very strong prejudice in the world today against astrology and this is understandable and also constitutes a definite safeguard for the gullible and the stupid. Predictional astrology is, to my personal point of view, both a menace and a handicap. If a person is highly developed they will begin to rule their stars. They will do the unpredictable and their horoscopes will prove inaccurate and have no meaning at all. If a person is undeveloped then the probability is that their stars completely condition them and their horoscopes will therefore be entirely accurate from the predictional angle. When this is so and the person accepts the dictum of their horoscope their free will is completely stultified, they work entirely within the limits of their horoscope and the result of this is that they fail to make any personal effort to free themselves from the possible determining factors.

I often smile to myself when people boast and say that their horoscope is entirely accurate and that everything happened to them as their horoscope indicated. What they are really saying amounts to—I am an entirely mediocre person; I have no free will of my own; I am entirely conditioned by my stars and, therefore, have not the faintest intention of making any progress in this life at all. This type of horoscope is one that the best of astrologers avoid. The finest men in this field are primarily concerned with character delineation which is most helpful and with the effort to discover in what manner the horoscope of the soul can be cast so that the life purpose of the incarnating individual can be ascertained, and therefore a clear distinction can be made between the tendencies of the personality established through many incarnations and the emerging purpose and will of the soul.

When, however, one comes to a consideration of the astrological implications to astronomical happenings the story is very different. People hear the statement made that we are now transitting into the sign Aquarius which means that from the angle of the zodiac, which is the imaginary path of the sun in the heavens, the sun appears to be going through the constellation Aquarius. This is an astronomical fact at this time and has nothing to do with astrology. The influence, however, of the sign through which the sun may be passing at any particular world period is irrefutable and I can prove it to you here and now.

Prior to the Jewish dispensation when Moses was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt the sun was in the sign Taurus. It was passing through the sign of the Bull. We then had the appearance on earth of the Mithraic mysteries which centered around the sacrifice of the sacred bull. The sin of the children of Israel in the wilderness which so aroused the anger of Moses when he descended from the mount of the Lord and found them falling down before the golden calf was that they had reverted to a past and obsolete religion which they should have left behind. The Jewish dispensation itself was governed by the sign of Aries, the Ram, through which the sun was passing for the next 2,000 years. Then we have the appearance of the scapegoat in Jewish history. We have the Bible story of the ram caught in the thicket and all this was due to the influence of the passing of the sun through the sign of the bull and the sign of the ram.

Something apart from the findings of academic astrology, which even at present could only touch a very few people, produced these natural reactions. Some influence, emanating from the sign of the bull and the sign of the ram produced the symbology which conditioned the religious life of the people of that era. This becomes still more apparent when the sun transitted into the next constellation, the sign of Pisces the Fishes. Then we had the appearance of Christ and the fish symbology which ran so characteristically through the entire Gospel story. His disciples were largely fishermen. He performed the miracles with fishes and sent His apostles out after His death under the leadership of St. Peter with the injunction to be fishers of men. It is for this reason that the mitre which the Pope wears is the mouth of the fish.

Now, according to astronomy we are transitting into the sign of Aquarius, the sign of the water-carrier, the sign of universality, for water is a universal symbol. Prior to His death Christ sent His disciples out to find the water-carrier who led them to an upper room where the communion service was instituted. All this was indicative of the recognition by the Christ of the coming new era which would succeed His dispensation and into which we are at this time entering. Leonardo da Vinci's great picture of the communion in the upper room is the great symbol of the Aquarian age, for we shall sit down together under the loving direction of Christ when brotherhood will be established and men will be banded together in the bonds of divine relationship. The old barriers between man and man and nation and nation will, during the next 2,000 years slowly disappear.

It was to inaugurate and institute this work that the Hierarchy announced the emergence on earth of the New Group of World Servers, led and guided by disciples and spiritual aspirants who know no sense of separateness, who see all men alike, irrespective of colour or creed, and who are pledged to work without cessation for the promotion of international understanding, economic sharing and religious unity. The second part of the group in the organisation of the New Group of World Servers is composed of the men and women of goodwill. These are not strictly speaking spiritual aspirants. They are not particularly interested in the Plan and have little or no knowledge of the planetary Hierarchy. They do, however, want to see right relations established among men. They want to see justice and kindness prevail on earth. Under the direction of the world disciples and their helpers these people can be trained in practical and effective ways of expressing goodwill. In this way they can do basic and foundational work in preparing the world for a fuller expression of the spiritual purpose. They can familiarise mankind with the need for right human relations expressed in every community, in every nation and, eventually, on an international scale.

For this the disruption of the present world war has effectively cleared the stage. The evils of wrong human relations, the wickedness of aggression and racial discrimination are made so apparent that only the stupid and unintelligent can fail to see the necessity for active goodwill. So many people of good intentions theoretically accept the fact that God is love and blissfully hope that He will make that love apparent in humanity.

Thus the New Group of World Servers was launched into the consciousness of modern humanity. The pamphlet outlining this ideal received the widest distribution and it was followed by other pamphlets on the same subject written by the Tibetan and enlarging upon the basic theme of spiritual purpose and goodwill. The Tibetan in these pamphlets outlined a definite procedure for us to follow. He advocated the building up of mailing lists of the men and women of goodwill in the various countries in the world. He suggested our organising what He called Units of Service in as many countries in the world as possible. He outlined for us the nature of the teaching which they should receive and these suggestions and injunctions we immediately proceeded to carry out. ..." [235]

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The full text is available free of charge online reading on the Lucis Trust website: 

The booklet  The New Group of World Servers  is available on the same website: