The ageless wisdom

A new impulse

We are right now living in one of the great transitional periods of humanity, and at such time there will always be conflicts and an atmosphere of crisis, as the prevailing order of the world collides with new, emerging growth, which will cause significant problems. In many ways we live in quite a unique time, because never before have we – according to the knowledge that we possess – been in a situation where the local processes become global processes at the same time. The earth is, as regards humanity, no longer a number of separated nations living relatively untroubled next to each other. As a consequence of the numerous explorations of science within communication and transport, the earth is today a coherent, fine-meshed network of connecting lines, which little by little are learning to function as an integrated whole. This changes all spiritual processes in a dramatic way. Today the esoteric teaching must be made accessible to the public in quite a new way and in quite a new form, being characterised as a total synthesis. We live in the transition between two great eras, which in astrological terms are called ages. An age is a period of about 2160 years, where the earth will be under a special influence of one of the 12 zodiacal signs. From the beginning of our age we have collectively been living in the sign of Pisces and thus been characterized by the general qualities of this sign. This is also a hint for a deeper understanding of why Christ asked his disciples to become “fisher of men” and why the secret symbol of Christ was the fish at the start. We are now standing on the threshold of the Age of Aquarius and the general characteristics that this sign implies. This also means that a spiritual renewal must take place. In several successive phases a release of new spiritual impulses will therefore take place, which at a certain time will reach its zenith as the decisive, spiritual impulse for the entire Age of Aquarius.

H. P. Blavatsky

We are right now living in this increasing wave of spiritual renaissance, which began at the end of the nineteenth century. It was the Russian woman, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who was charged with the task of performing an introductory work, which could be a sign of the coming, new impulse. Blavatsky was given the task to present the ageless wisdom in an intellectual coherent whole, which was able to reach the public in a new way, including all the elements of danger that this experiment might imply. The foundation of the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875 became the activating impulse for the esoteric schools of our age and for the accessibility of the theosophy. The intention was not that this society, like the religions, should claim to be inspired by divinity and hold all the truths. On the contrary it was to present the theosophy as a universal philosophy, free to anyone being seriously interested. Neither Blavatsky nor the Theosophical Society thus intended to act as a modern oracle, who was able to show us the way to the unvarnished truth. In the preface to her great work, The Secret Doctrine, she writes about this:

"These truths are in no sense put forward as a revelation; nor does the author claim the position of a revealer of mystic lore, now made public for the first time in the world's history. For what is contained in this work is to be found scattered throughout thousands of volumes embodying the scriptures of the great Asiatic and early European religions, hidden under glyph and symbol, and hitherto left unnoticed because of this veil. What is now attempted is to gather the oldest tenets together and to make of them one harmonious and unbroken whole.”

After Blavatsky followed a flow of esoterics from Annie Besant, Max Heindel and Rudolf Steiner to Beinsa Douno, Helena Roerich and Alice Ann Bailey. The latter became of quite significant importance through her 30 years of writing. We will return with biographies on Blavatsky and Bailey at the end of this article. The increasing flow of esoteric impulse initiators started in the 20th century an alternative snowball effect, which it has not been possible to stop since then. In the late decades all these spiritual, holistic or esoteric currents have been given the term “New Age”. This is in some way a loaded word, as many New-Christians consider it a strongly negative word, and because many traditional scientists have dissociated themselves from many of the undocumented assertions of “energies”, which is a frequent subject in the alternative movements. Nevertheless, we will briefly try to explain what the New Age movements cover.