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Autobiography of Alice A. Bailey - Chapter V
One afternoon Mr. Roumanoff called my husband up, asking if my husband and I were free that evening and if so would we be responsible for taking the Grand Duke to the two places where he had to speak. We were glad to do so and took him where he had to go and at the close of his talk rescued him from the autograph hunters. On the way back to the hotel the Grand Duke suddenly turned to me and said, "Mrs. Bailey, if I were to tell you that I also know the Tibetan would it mean anything to you?" "Yes, sir," I said, "it would mean a great deal." "Well, now," replied the Grand Duke, "you understand the triangle, you, Foster and me." This was, I think, the last time I saw him. He left shortly after that for the south of France and we left for England. A couple of years later I was sitting up in bed one morning reading about 6.30, when in walked the Grand Duke, to my amazement, in the dark blue lounging pajamas which he so often wore. He looked at me, smiled, waved his hand and disappeared. I went to Foster and told him that the Grand Duke was dead. And so it was. I saw the obituary notice in next day's papers. Before he left America he had given me a photograph of himself, autographed, of course, and after a year or so this disappeared. It completely vanished and as he was no longer alive I deeply regretted it but was confident that some autograph hunter had stolen it. Several years later, walking down 43rd St., New York, I suddenly saw the Grand Duke coming towards me. He smiled and passed on and when I got up to my office I found the lost photograph lying on my desk. There was evidently quite a close link upon the spiritual level between the Grand Duke, Foster Bailey and myself. In a later life we shall know the reason for the contact this life and for the friendship and understanding that were established. [212] A life must not be seen as an isolated event but as an episode in a series of lives. What is working out today, the friends and family we are linked with and the quality, character and temperament which we show indicates simply the sum total of the past. What we are in our next life results from what we have been and done in this. These years were very busy years. The girls were growing up and the boys were coming around. The School was steadily growing and inside myself I was gaining a sense of assurance and a recognition that I had found the work about which K.H. had spoken to me in 1895. The doctrines of reincarnation and of the law of cause and effect had solved the problems of my questioning mind. The Hierarchy was known to me. I had been given the privilege of contacting K.H. when I chose, for I could now be trusted to keep my personality affairs out of His Ashram and I moved on into greater usefulness in His Ashram and, consequently, in the world. The recognition of the Tibetan's books throughout the world was steadily growing. I, myself, had written several books which met with a good reception and I wrote them to prove that one could do so-called psychic work, such as my work with the Tibetan, and still possess one's own set of brains and be an intelligent human being. Through the books and through the growing membership of the School, Foster and I were coming increasingly in contact with people all over the world. Letters came pouring in of inquiry, of requests for help, or with a demand that we start a group in some country or other. I have always held the theory that the deepest and most esoteric truths could be shouted from the housetops to the general public and unless there was an inner mechanism of spiritual recognition no harm could possibly be done. Therefore pledges to secrecy became meaningless. There are no secrets. There is only the presentation of truth and its [213] understanding. There has been a great deal of confusion in the minds of the general public between esotericism and magic. Magic is a mode of working on the physical plane relating substance and matter, energy and force in order to create forms through which life can express itself. This work as it deals with elemental forces is dangerous and even the pure in heart need protection. Esotericism is in reality the science of the soul. It concerns the living, spiritual, vital principle found in every form. It establishes a unity both in time and space. It motivates and implements the Plan from the angle of the aspirant and is the science of the Path, and it instructs man in the techniques of the coming superman and thus enables him to set his feet upon the Path of the higher evolution. The curriculum of the School was gradually unfolded. We kept the work, and still keep it, fluid in an effort to meet the changing needs and we were gradually acquiring a staff of trained men to superintend the work. Fifteen years ago (in 1928) we moved to our present headquarters and today both the 31st and the 32nd floors constitute the headquarters of the Arcane School, of the Lucis Trust, of the Goodwill Work and of the Lucis Publishing Company. Beginning with a small handful of students we now have a number of spiritual projects all occupied with the service of humanity and all of them non-profit and world wide, and all made possible by the students in the Arcane School. [214]
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