The Great White Brotherhood, in some Theosophical and New Age belief systems, is a group of supernatural beings of great power who spread the true religious teachings through selected humans.[1] The members of the Brotherhood are sometimes called the Ascended Masters.[1] Various religious leaders have said they have received messages from these beings, including Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Theosophy), Guy Ballard ("I AM" Activity), and Benjamin Creme (Share International).[1]

History
The idea of a secret organization of enlightened mystics, guiding the spiritual development of the human race, was pioneered in the late eighteenth century by Karl von Eckartshausen in his book The Cloud upon the Sanctuary; Eckartshausen called this body of mystics, who remained active after their physical deaths on earth, the "council of light".[2][3] Eckartshausen's proposed communion of living and dead mystics, in turn, drew partially on Christian ideas such as the Communion of the Saints, and partially on previously circulating European ideas about secret societies of enlightened, mystical, or magic adepts typified by the Rosicrucians and the Illuminati.[4]

The Mahatma Letters began publication in 1881 with information purportedly revealed by "Koot Hoomi" to Alfred Percy Sinnett, and were also influential on the early development of the tradition. Koot Hoomi, through Sinnett, revealed that high ranking members of mystic organizations in India and Tibet were able to maintain regular telepathic contact with one another, and thus were able to communicate to each other, and also to Sinnett, without the need for either written or oral communications, and in a manner similar to the way that spirit mediums claimed to communicate with the dead. The letters published by Sinnett, which proposed the controversial doctrine of reincarnation, were said to have been revealed through this means.[5]

Eckartshausen's idea was expanded in the teachings of H. P. Blavatsky as developed by C. W. Leadbeater, Alice Bailey and Helena Roerich. Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, attributed her teachings to just such a body of adepts; in Isis Unveiled, she called the revealers of her teachings the "Masters of the Hidden Brotherhood" or the "Mahatmas". Blavatsky claimed that she had made physical contact with these adepts' earthly representatives in Tibet; but also, that she continued to receive teachings from them through psychic channels, through her abilities of spirit mediumship.[6]

Ideas about this secret council of sages, under several names, were a widely shared feature of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century esotericism. Arthur Edward Waite, in his Book of Black Magic and of Pacts, hinted at the existence of a secret group of initiates who dispense truth and wisdom to the worthy.[7] A young Aleister Crowley, reading this, wrote Waite and was directed to read von Eckartshausen's book. Crowley's search for this secret wisdom eventually led him to become a neophyte in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which represented itself to be the visible and earthly outer order of the Great White Brotherhood.[8] Within the Golden Dawn itself, its teachings claimed to be derived from a similar body of initiates which in that tradition were called the Secret Chiefs.[9]

The actual phrase "Great White Brotherhood" was used extensively in Leadbeater's 1925 book The Masters and the Path.[10] Since the introduction of the phrase, the term "Great White Brotherhood" is in some circles used generically to refer to any concept of an enlightened community of adepts, on earth or in the hereafter, with benevolent aims toward the spiritual development of the human race, and without strict regard to the names used within the tradition.[11] Dion Fortune adopts the name to refer to the community of living and dead adepts.[12]

The ritual magicians of the Western mystery tradition sometimes refer to the Great White Brotherhood as the "Great White Lodge", a name that appears to indicate that they imagine it constitutes an initiatory hierarchy similar to Freemasonry. Gareth Knight describes its members as the "Masters" or "Inner Plane Adepti", who have "gained all the experience, and all the wisdom resulting from experience, necessary for their spiritual evolution in the worlds of form." While some go on to "higher evolution in other spheres", others become teaching Masters who stay behind to help younger initiates in their "cyclic evolution on this planet". Only a few of this community are known to the human race; these initiates are the "teaching Masters."[13] The AMORC Rosicrucian order maintains a difference between the "Great White Brotherhood" and the "Great White Lodge", saying that the Great White Brotherhood is the "school or fraternity" of the Great White Lodge, and that "every true student on the Path" aspires to membership in this Brotherhood.[14] Some of Aleister Crowley's remarks appear to indicate that Crowley identified the Great White Brotherhood with the A∴A∴, his magical secret society.[15]

Bulgarian Gnostic master Peter Deunov referred to his organization of followers as the "Universal White Brotherhood," and it is clear that he too was referring to the Western esoteric community-at-large. When ex-communicated as a heretic on 7 July 1922, he defended the Brotherhood as follows:

‘Let the Orthodox Church resolve this issue, whether Christ has risen, whether Love is accepted in the Orthodox Church. There is one church in the world. But the Universal White Brotherhood is outside the church - it is higher than the church. But even higher than the Universal White Brotherhood is the Kingdom of Heaven. Hence the Church is the first step, the Universal White Brotherhood is the second step, and the Kingdom of Heaven is the third step - the greatest one that is to be manifested.’ (24 June 1923).

Similarly, Macedonian teacher Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (Deunov's principal disciple) formally established Fraternité Blanche Universelle as an "exoteric" esoteric organization still operating today in Switzerland, Canada, the USA, the UK and parts of Scandinavia.[1]

The term Great White Brotherhood was further developed and popularized in 1934 with the publication of "Unveiled Mysteries" [16] by Guy Ballard's "I AM" Activity.[17] This Brotherhood of "Immortal Saints and Sages" [18] who have gone through the Initiations of the Transfiguration, Resurrection, and the Ascension[19] was further popularized by Ascended Master Teachings developed byThe Bridge to Freedom, The Summit Lighthouse, and The Temple of The Presence. [20]

Other esoteric traditions, however, dismiss or deny the existence of a Great White Brotherhood. Neo-Pagan author Isaac Bonewits has been sharply critical of the concept; in his 1971 book Real Magic, Bonewits dismisses the "Great White Brotherhood" as part of his rejection of what he sees as the Manichean dualism of the implied opposition of whiteness and darkness, white magic versus black magic. Bonewits mentions the Brotherhood as an example of his larger thesis, that "(t)he whole idea of White as Good and Black as Evil is purely the result of cultural bigotries."[21] Please also refer to the book Cosmic Consciousness By M. Bucke.

Great Brotherhood of Light
The Great White Brotherhood, also know as Great Brotherhood of Light, is perceived as a spiritual organization composed of those Ascended Masters who have risen from the Earth into immortality, but still maintain an active watch over the world. [22] [23] The Great White Brotherhood also includes members of the Heavenly Host (the Spiritual Hierarchy directly concerned with the evolution of our world), Beneficent Members from other planets that are interested in our welfare, as well as certain unascended chelas. [24]

The Ascended Masters are believed to be joined together in service to the Earth under the name of the Great White Brotherhood. The use of the term "white" is supposed to refer to their advanced spirituality (i.e., that they have a white colored aura) and has nothing to do with race. The later versions of Blavatsky described the masters as [25] ethnically Tibetan or Indian (Hindu), not European. Recent research indicates, however, that this description was used by Blavatsky to hide the real identity of her teachers, some of whom were well known Indian rulers of her time. [26]

Belief in the Brotherhood and the Masters is an essential part of the syncretistic teachings of various organizations that have continued and expanded the Theosophical philosophical concepts. [27] [28] [29] [30] [31]Information given by the Summit Lighthouse and the I AM movement is suspect, since none of the writers of these groups are Masters of any Brotherhood. Examples of those believed to be Ascended Masters would be, according to different unconfirmed sources Jesus, Confucius, Gautama Buddha, Mary the Mother of Jesus, Hilarion, Archangel Michael, Enoch, Paul the Venetian, Pope John Paul II[32], Kwan Yin, Saint Germain, and Kuthumi. These sources say that all these peoples put aside any differences they might have had in their Earthly careers, and unite instead to advance the spiritual well-being of humanity. [33]

Founding of the Great White Brotherhood
In 1952, Geraldine Innocente, Messenger for The Bridge to Freedom, delivered this Address purported to be from Sanat Kumara describing the founding of the "Great White Brotherhood":

" . . . I had nothing to work with but Light and Love, and many centuries passed before even two lifestreams applied for membership - One, later became Buddha (now, Lord of the World, the Planetary Logos Gautama Buddha) and the Other, became the Cosmic Christ (Lord Maitreya, now the Planetary Buddha). The Brotherhood has grown through these ages and centuries until almost all the offices are held now by those belonging to the evolution of Earth and those who have volunteered to remain among her evolution. . .. " [34]
On July 4, 1954 it is believed that Sanat Kumara stated through Geraldine Innocente:

" . . . Thus We took Our abode upon the sweet Earth. Through the same power of centripetal and centrifugal force of which I spoke (cohesion and expansion of the magnetic power of Divine Love), We then began to magnetize the Flame in the hearts of some of the Guardian Spirits who were not sleeping so soundly and who were not too enthusiastically engaged in using primal life for the satisfaction of the personal self.
"In this way, the Great White Brotherhood began. The Three-fold Flame within the heart of Shamballa, within the Hearts of the Kumaras and Myself, formed the magnetic Heart of the Great White Brotherhood by Whom you have all been blessed and of which Brotherhood you all aspire to become conscious members. . . . " [35]

Esotericism and Theosophy
The Great White Brotherhood is the name given in some metaphysical/occult circles to adepts of wisdom in or out of earthly incarnation who have assumed responsibility for the cosmic destiny of the human race, both individually and collectively. Nicholas Roerich and his wife, Helena Roerich, inspired by the Theosophical writings of H.P. Blavatsky, published the "Agni Yoga" series of books. Their contents, claimed to be inspired by the Master Morya, described the work of the Brotherhood and the Spiritual Hierarchy. Most occult groups assign a high level of importance to the Brotherhood, but some make interaction with the Ascended Masters of the Brotherhood a major focus of their existence. Of these several, the most prominent are the "I Am" Activity - the original Ascended Master organization founded in the 1930s, The Bridge to Freedom, the Church Universal and Triumphant, and The Temple of The Presence. [36]

Ascended masterFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ascended Masters or Masters of Wisdom, in the Ascended Master Teachings derived from Theosophy, are believed to be spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans, but who have undergone a process of spiritual transformation.[1] The term "Ascended Master" was first introduced by theosophists in 1934 with the publication of Unveiled Mysteries [2] by Guy Ballard in The "I AM" Activity.[3] This term was further popularized by other theosophists in books like The Bridge to Freedom (1951), [4] The Summit Lighthouse (1958), [5] The Temple of The Presence (1995), [6] and various other organizations.[7]

Beliefs about Ascended Masters
Originally presented by H. P. Blavatsky in the 1870s, the "Masters of Wisdom", [8] "Mahatmas" or "Elder Brothers" [9] were further developed by C. W. Leadbeater, Alice Bailey, Helena Roerich, Manly P. Hall, and many others in theosophy-based organizations, especially in the United States. They believe that Ascended Masters are individuals who were formerly embodied on the Earth and learned the lessons of life during their incarnations. They gained mastery over the limitations of the matter planes, balanced at least 51% of negative karma, and fulfilled their Dharma (Divine Plan). An Ascended Master, in such an understanding, has become God-like and a source of unconditional "Divine Love" to all life, and through the Ascension has united with his or her own "God Self," the "I AM Presence."

It is further claimed by various groups and teachers that the Ascended Masters serve as the teachers of mankind from the realms of Spirit, and that all people will eventually attain their Ascension and move forward in spiritual evolution beyond this planet. [10] According to these teachings, they remain attentive to the spiritual needs of humanity, and act to inspire and motivate its spiritual growth. In many traditions and organizations, they are considered part of the Spiritual Hierarchy for Earth, and members of the Great Brotherhood of Light, also known as the Great White Lodge, Great White Brotherhood, or Universal White Brotherhood (per Peter Deunov). [11]

According to Alice Bailey and Benjamin Creme there are sixty Masters of the Ancient Wisdom, defined as beings who are have reached the Fifth Level of Initiation or above, with Djwhal Khul in a pivotal role as the master who telepathically dictated the many esoteric teachings in Baileys' books. Elizabeth Clare Prophet revealed the names of a number of these Ascended Masters that were previously unknown.

The concept of recognizing the spiritual self, one's own psychological and karma battles and how to overcome them, and eventual Ascension of all humanity is covered in James Redfield's Celestine Prophecy and its sequels, The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision and The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight. These books, while controversial, are recent popularizations of the concept of Ascension.

Origins
Esotericism is defined as the belief that secret societies and mystery schools [12] possess advanced spiritual knowledge. Such beliefs are extremely ancient.[13] This idea was re-introduced in the West by the Rosicrucians in the 17th century.

The founder of the Theosophical Society, H. P. Blavatsky, in the late 19th century brought attention to the idea of secret initiatory knowledge, by claiming her ideas were based on traditions transmitted to her by occult means from a group of highly evolved humans which she called the Mahatmas or Masters. These Mahatmas, she claimed, were physical beings living in the Himalayas, usually understood as Tibet.

".. they are living men, born as we are born, and doomed to die like every mortal. We call them “masters” because they are our teachers; and because from them we have derived all the Theosophical truths... They are men of great learning, whom we call Initiates, and still greater holiness of life." [14]
While some of her critics believe the Masters are pure fantasy, other writers suggest that her changing stories were meant to hide the identities of real human teachers guiding her work. [15] In assessing the veracity of Blavatsky's claim regarding the existence of these Masters, it is worth noting that at least 25 other people left a written account of having met the Mahatmas themselves during Blavatsky's lifetime. [16] Blavatsky claimed that she personally met numerous Masters on countless occasions, and was also the guest of the Master Koot Hoomi while visiting the "Little Tibet" region of Kashmir. [17]

After Madame Blavatsky's death in 1891, the Mahatma concept was developed by her successors in the Theosophical Society leadership, Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater, who described the Masters in great detail and added Jesus to their number. In Leadbeater's book, The Masters and the Path (1925), the Masters are presented as ageless and superphysical, albeit still limited by human bodies. Other branches of theosophy developed the theory slightly differently, notably Alice Bailey from whose book Initiation, Human and Solar (1922), Leadbeater may have borrowed some of his details

Comparison of unascended and Ascended Masters
There is considerable difference between the concept of Masters in 19th century theosophy (as described by Blavatsky, Olcott, Sinnett, and others) and the current concept of Ascended Masters. [18] The believers in "Immortal Saints and Sages" [19] claim that these individuals have gone through the Initiations of the Transfiguration, Resurrection, and the Ascension [20] to become "Ascended Masters". The twentieth century teachings of the Ballards, Prophets, and others claim that although Morya and Koot Hoomi (Kuthumi) were Adepts and Masters of the lower matter planes and the elemental forces of nature, they had not become Ascended Masters until 1898, while Serapis and the Maha Chohan, who were interacting with Theosophists during Blavatsky's time, already were Ascended Masters. [21]

An unascended Master has, according to these later teachings, overcome the limitations of the lower matter octaves (physical, emotional, mental), yet has chosen to postpone the final Initiation of the Ascension to remain in time and space to externalize and focus the Consciousness of God for the evolutions of the Earth. [22] If a person takes a Bodhisattva vow, they may choose to remain with the humanity of this Earth as an unascended Master in one of the lower Spirit/Matter Octaves, as was the case with Babaji. [23] It is believed by proponents of these beliefs that if enough mastery and externalization of the Divine Nature has been developed, such an Adept becomes an Initiate of one of the Brotherhoods or Sisterhoods of Light under the auspices of the Great White Brotherhood. [24] It is claimed that there can be a high degree of attainment within the lower body vehicles of expression (physical, emotional, mental, memory), yet that Adept may still not be Ascended (not primarily expressing through the Higher Bodies).[25]

One such teaching claims that examples of unascended Masters are: Yogananda, Mataji, [26] and Lao-tzu. [27] The belief is that they have un-Ascended bodies that are not flesh and blood of the lowest of the sub-plane substance of the physical octave, but of the "finer matter" that composes the upper etheric sub-planes of the physical octave, as well as the emotional (astral) octave, and the mental octave. [28]

The Great White Brotherhood
Main article: Great White Brotherhood
The Masters are collectively called the "Great White Brotherhood" in Theosophical belief systems. The use of the term "white" refers to their advanced spirituality (i.e., that they have a white colored aura) and has nothing to do with race. Blavatsky described many of the Masters as ethnically Tibetan or Indian (Hindu), not European.[29] She did, however, describe them as being from all cultures and races, such as the "Greek gentleman" known as Hilarion.[30]

Belief in the Brotherhood and the Masters is an essential part of the syncretistic teachings of various organizations that have continued and expanded the Theosophical philosophical concepts.[31] Examples of those believed to be Ascended Masters are Jesus, Confucius, Gautama Buddha, Mary the Mother of Jesus, Lady Master Nada, Enoch, Pope John Paul II, [32] Kwan Yin, Saint Germain, Sanat Kumara, Kuthumi.[33] [34] [35] [36] [37] It is believed that all of these put aside any differences they might have had in their Earthly careers, and unite instead to advance the spiritual well-being of humanity. [38]