The Society

Alas and after - Alice A. Bailey on why spiritual groups in their second generation face disaster

 

[The Society Alas and after AB 2

Alice Bailey 

Note from the editor: This specific quote is to be found in Spiritual Leadership, an unknown and almost forgotten work by Bailey. Although your editor is not well-versed on the topic of her work and realizing that she had her own fargoing issues with the Theosophical Society,  Alice Bailey, June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949, right or wrong, is to be distinguished as another driven seeker. She refers clearly in this quote to the known concerns in relation to so-called leadership  Her commentary is appropriate in the series Alas and after.]

            Why spiritual groups in their second generation face disaster

“…The life of the majority of the adherents is largely emotional; their attention is centered upon the defense or the attack of some personality; they are swept off their feet by partisanship and personality antagonisms and preferences. The true issues are lost sight of in a panorama of clashing personalities, and the voices which are sounding forth the cry of ‘Back to Principles and to Fundamentals’ are drowned in the din of battle, and only the cry of leaders rallying their forces to themselves can be heard. This is a fact which deserves our serious consideration.”

—Excerpted from Spiritual Leadership, comprising two booklets Bailey* wrote in 1921 and 1922, aged 41.

Alice Ann Latrobe Batemen Bailey (June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949) was a teacher and writer and the founder, together with husband Foster Bailey, of a spiritual movement growing out of the theosophical tradition. She was one of the first writers to use the term New Age.