Re-Reading the New Age, Part 4 – Education in the New Age (continued)

+JMJ+ Welcome to part 4 of the continuing series, Re-Reading the New Age. I’m still re-reading Alice Bailey’s Education in the New Age, which I didn’t read all the way the first time and which text has surprised me quite a bit this time around. I did read some of her other books, or tried, to, but I must’ve been blind when I was reading them back then. There are so many statements that I don’t remember seeing at all. Let’s get to it. Notes and links are at the end of the post.

Ch. 2: Civilisation and Culture (There be British spellings here.)

“Modern education has been primarily competitive, nationalistic and, therefore, separative. It has trained the child to regard the material values as of major importance, to believe that his particular nation is also of major importance and that every other nation is secondary; it has fed pride and fostered the belief that he, his group and his nation are infinitely superior to other people and peoples. He is taught consequently to be a one-sided person with his world values wrongly adjusted and his attitudes to life distinguished by bias and prejudice.”
Ibid., 38.

“The general level of world information is high but usually biassed, influenced either by national or religious prejudices, serving thus to make a man a citizen of his own country but not a human being with world relations. World citizenship is not emphasised.” [With good reason. I’m a citizen of the USA, not the world.]
“These facts could serve (if used as seed thoughts in meditation and technically employed) to re cover from that race consciousness and racial memory, not only national history but past history as well. I mention this in order to emphasise the danger of such undue emphasis upon the past, for if this were done on a large scale it would prove disastrous; it would put a premium on racial and national ideals and objectives and would lead rapidly to racial crystallisation and senility—metaphorically speaking…Fortunately, the tide of life in the youth of any nation can be trusted to swing the thought of the race into a better direction than the evocation of past glory, so-called, and the emphasising of the things which should be left behind.”
Ibid., 39.

Any of that sound familiar? I mentioned before that Robert Muller (not Mueller) based his World Core Curriculum on the teachings of Alice Bailey and her “Tibetan” and his ideas have been picked up by many in educational systems around the world. See part 28 of the weekly series on the soul, and part 1 of this series. Back to the text.

Bailey wants now to talk about the words culture and civilisation. Oh, good. I’m still pondering what she meant before by spiritual. Or what the Tibetan meant. Or whoever wrote it. See part 1, what is meant by spiritual?

“All activity which drives the human being forward towards some form of development—physical, emotional, mental, intuitional, social—if it is in advance of his present state is essentially spiritual in nature and is indicative of the livingness of the inner divine entity… “The spirit of man is undying: it forever endures, progressing from point to point and stage to stage upon the Path of Evolution, unfolding itself steadily and sequentially the divine attributes and aspects.”
Ibid., 1.

Here in chapter 2 she says that the production of culture (material or spiritual, or material and spiritual) is the objective of all education, which is the major agent in the world. (Agent for what? Ostensibly, agent for culture? Or agent for change? Oh, how sick I am of hearing those words. What kind of agent for what kind of change? Those who say such things for me rarely finish their sentences.)

“Civilisation is the reaction of humanity to the purpose of an particular world period. In each age, some idea must be expressed in the current racial idealism.”
Ibid., 39.

World period, racial idealism? I suppose we mean the Aquarian age for the world period, though she may mean something much more theosophical. She did rip off a lot of Blavatsky’s ideas and terminology, but then Blavatsky ripped off a lot of her ideas and terminology from a whole lot of other people, so it’s only fair, I guess. But, wait, there’s more. If anyone thought any of this sounded halfway rational, hold that thought. The rest of the paragraph is coming right up.

“In Atlantean times, the idea that predominated was basically sensory religious idealism or mysticism, expressing itself in terms of approach to a felt but unseen deity, an expression of the way of feeling. Yet there were highly sensitive races, composed of nations and groups who laboured over the develop ment of the feeling nature, consciously sometimes, but mostly unconsciously. Their attitude to each other, as individuals or nations, was primarily sensitive and emotional—a state of consciousness (I cannot say state of mind) most difficult for the modern Aryan race to grasp, or even intuit, for with us the mind is beginning to function. Their attitude to the deity was equally sensitive, and their religious activities were mystical and devotional, devoid of any mental understanding. They were significantly emo tional in reactions to beauty, to the terror evoked by divinity and to the emotional characteristics of God, to the sense of light and to wonder. The mysterious, the sense of awe, the following blindly of some recognised “sensitive” of a higher order than the ordinary human being, and the interpretation of God and nature in terms of feeling-perception—these laid the basis of that ancient civilisation and have largely coloured our present racial attitudes, at least up until the advent of Christ, Who wrought great changes in the human consciousness and ushered in a new civilisation.”
Ibid., 40.

Bailey did spend the early part of her life as a Christian, but she fell in with the Theosophists and her Christianity went out the window. Though there are Theosophists who loathe her and her teachings, not only for ripping off their beloved Blavatsky, but also for mixing entirely too much Christianity in with it, for their tastes, anyway. Seems to me there’s not much Christianity in any of this that I’m reading, though there are some Christian words and phrases that pop up here and there, and she did sometimes quote from the Bible. But she gives those quotes a meaning that is definitely not Christian, and she repeatedly writes of Jesus as if he were some ascended master and not the Second Person of the Trinity, the Logos, God the Son. But let me give you the rest of the paragraph and remember, this is what the World Core Curriculum is based on.

“Children are still largely Atlantean in their consciousness; it is with them a form of recapitulation, analogous to the prenatal stage; the same recapitulation goes forward upon the Path when a man develops the mystical consciousness anew, after he has evoked his mental nature and prior to unfolding true occult awareness or knowledge and the reactions of the higher mind. The problem before Education is to take the Atlantean consciousness of the child and make it Aryan or mental. The Atlanteans had no educational system as we understand the term. The kings and priests intuited; the masses obeyed.”
Ibid., 40.

“…the fact remains that the two great civilisations about which we can really know anything—the Aryan and the Atlantean—present two extreme objectives or positions towards which the humanity of the two periods directed and still direct their attention.”
Ibid., 42.

She spends the next pages on the Aryan and the Atlantean culture and civilsation and ways of educating. I cannot bring myself to quote large sections of that on my Catholic blog. But you can get the PDF using the link in the notes below, you don’t even have to spend a dime on this nonsense. Get a printed copy if ya wanna, if you want to read this for yourself and show your friends what craziness World Core is based on. I used to have some of these books in paperback, not the whole set, though. But I had a dear friend who I met at Unity School of Christianity (I told you I was a New Ager and I meant it) who donated an entire set to their library. All twenty four books. She was a sincere believer. (She’s gone now, may the Lord have mercy on her soul, she was a kind and compassionate woman and I miss her. I hope you’ll join me in praying for her.)

“This attitude of the human being and the task of bringing this condition of consciousness to fruition, have been regarded for centuries as the task of organised religion, whereas it is essentially and necessarily that of edu cation. It is true that the Church in ancient days was the educator of the time, but the emphasis was laid upon the inner and subjective life, and as a rule no attempt was made to fuse and blend the two—outer material well-being and inner spiritual existence. Education is the task of the out-standing thinkers of the race and the responsibility of all governments, one however that they seldom recognise.”
Ibid., 43-44.

I disagree. I think education is the responsibility of the parents. Also, what is this about the Church putting emphasis on the “inner and subjective life…no attempt made to blend the outer material well-being and inner spiritual existence” baloney? True, the Church does not embrace the “prosperity gospel” but she certainly hasn’t ignored the outer life, either. This is what I mean, the idea of the spiritual in Bailey’s writings, as I’ve found among so many New Age writings and adherents, is not spiritual at all. It’s bound up with material things, with the body in a decidedly un-spiritual way, not in a way that the Church would recognize as spiritual, not from what I can tell.

Back to the text once again. She notes that we, humanity, are going through a “crisis of immense proportions” and that the “slow and careful formation of the New Group of World Servers is indicative of the crisis.”

“They are over seeing or ushering in the New Age and are present at the birth pangs of the new civilisation and the coming into manifestation of a new race, a new culture and a new world outlook. The work is necessarily slow and those of you who are immersed in the problems and pains find it hard to view the future with assurance or to interpret the present with clarity.”
“In the field of education united action is essential. Surely a basic unity of objectives should govern the educational systems of the nations, even though uniformity of method and of techniques may not be possible. Differences of language, of background and of culture will and should always exist; they constitute the beautiful tapestry of human living down the ages. But much that has hitherto militated against right human relations must and should be eliminated.”
Ibid., 45.

“The educators who face the present world opportunity should see to it that a sound foundation is laid for the coming civilisation; they must undertake that it is general and universal in its scope, truthful in its presentation and con structive in its approach. What initial steps the educators of the different countries take will inevitably determine the nature of the coming civilisation. They must prepare for a renaissance of all the arts and for a new and free flow of the creative spirit in man. They must lay an emphatic importance upon those great moments in human history wherein man’s divinity flamed forth and indicated new ways of thinking, new modes of human planning and thus changed for all time the trend of human affairs.”
“Two major ideas should be taught to the children of every country. They are: the value of the individual and the fact of the one humanity…These two principles, when properly taught and understood, will lead to the intensive culture of the individual and then to his recognition of his responsibility as an integral part of the whole body of humanity.”
“In the schools of today (grammar or primary schools, high schools or secondary schools, universities or colleges, using terms in general use) there can be seen an imperfect and symbolic picture of the triple objectives of the new education: Civilisation, Culture, Unification.”
“The grammar or primary schools might be regarded as the custodians of civilisation; they must fit the child for citizenship, teach him his place as a social unit, and emphasise his group relations, thus fitting him for intelligent living and evoking the racial memory through the courses given, in order to lay the foundation for his human relations.”
“The high schools or the secondary schools should regard themselves as the custodians of culture; they should emphasise the larger values of history and literature and give some understanding of art. They should begin to train the boy or girl for that future profession or mode of life which it is obvious will condition them. Citizenship will be taught in larger terms and the world of true values be pointed out and idealism consciously and definitely cultivated. The practical application of ideals will be emphasised.”
“Our colleges and universities should be a higher extension of all that has been already done. They should beautify and complete the structure already erected and should deal more directly with the world of meaning. International problems—economic, social, political and religious—should be considered and the man or woman related still more definitely to the world as a whole.”
“The college or the university should in reality be the correspondence in the field of education to the world of the Hierarchy; it should be the custodian of those methods, techniques and systems of thought and of life which will relate a human being to the world of souls, to the Kingdom of God, and not only to other human beings upon the physical plane; not only to the world of phenomena but also to the inner world of values and quality.”
“Again I repeat, this fitting of a man for citizenship in the Kingdom of God is not essentially a religious activity, to be handled by the exponents of the great world religions. It should be the task of the higher education, giving purpose and significance to all that has been done. If this seems idealistic and impossible to you, let me assure you that by the time the Aquarian Age is in full flower, this will be the assured and recognised objective of the educators of that time.”
Ibid., 46-49. Emphasis added.

There is much more in this chapter. It goes on to page 68 and covers esotericism and the Hierarchy. (See below.)

“One of the three major centres through which Deity manifests: Shamballa. where the Will of God is known; Hierarchy, where the Love of God holds sway; Humanity, embodying the Intelligence aspect of God.”
Ibid., 44, footnote. Emphasis added.

Like I said, some “accuse” Bailey of Christianity, but it’s a New Age, false Christianity and not actual, authentic Christianity at all.

We’ll have to leave it there for now. Thanks for visiting and reading. I hope you’ll join me again. Until next time, whoever and wherever you are, please stay safe and well, virtuous and holy. May the Lord bless and keep you and yours, and may His peace be always with you. +JMJ+

Notes and Links

Education in the New Age, by Alice A. Bailey and Djwal Khul (the Tibetan), Lucis Trust, 1954 and 1982. Paperback. Kindle. (Affiliate links, see Full Disclosure below for more about that.) Free PDF.
I heard about Common Core for years before I learned that Bailey acolyte Robert Muller had anything to do with it, and read Muller himself admitting that he based it on the ideas and teachings of Alice Bailey and her Arcane School. No wonder the New Age has become so mainstream. It’s been in our schools and classrooms for years and years. Muller published his World Core Curriculum Manual in 1986 and he was influencing educators even before then.

Full disclosure: When you make any purchase through my Amazon affiliate links (or my general Amazon link) on this site, I may make a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you. And thank you for your prayers and support.

Series Navigation
Go to Re-Reading the New Age TOC
Go to All Series TOC