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Autobiography of Alice A. Bailey - Appendix - The Principles of the Arcane School
V. In the Arcane School, no Claims are made of Place, Power or Spiritual Status The world today is full of self-proclaimed disciples, initiates and Masters; loud voices are everywhere to be heard demanding attention to themselves; personal claims delude many people. False Masters are to be found in many countries, deceiving the people and prostituting [291] the divine science of the initiates before the eyes of the public; spurious initiates and imposters are lecturing up and down the earth and false Christs are arising in both hemispheres, thereby proving the accuracy of the prophecies of Christ to be found in St. Matthew XXIV. People are very easily deceived - largely through their longing to be helped and through an instinctive recognition of the factual existence of many grades in the spiritual development of mankind. The masses of men everywhere have an inherent belief in the Spiritual Hierarchy; it is this belief that these false prophets are deliberately exploiting. Our students are taught the truth (as given by Christ) that "by their fruits ye shall know them"; the fact is emphasized that the existence of claim-making is a guarantee of imposture. No true initiate or Master ever proclaims himself or calls attention to himself. He is, instead, intensely preoccupied with the "things of the Kingdom of God" and has no time to spare for the imposition of himself upon the consciousness of men. The Masters are men who have achieved liberation from the control of the personality or lower self; they are, therefore, free from all desire to make personal claims or to demand personal recognition. They prefer to work quietly, silently and behind the scenes, dealing with truths and with human need and galvanizing men to seek the one Master in their own hearts. The workers in the Arcane School are there because of spiritual inclination and not because they are seeking recognition as initiates. Their only claim is that they are seeking to tread the Path of Discipleship. This is the only legitimate claim that anyone can safely make; and the claiming that one is an initiate or a Master immediately indicates deception or gross ignorance. No one in the Arcane School (and this includes Mr. and Mrs. Bailey and the Headquarters Staff) makes any claim to high spiritual status; any worker making such a claim would cease automatically to be a worker in the Arcane School. He may claim to be a disciple; he may not claim to be a high initiate or a Master.
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