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THE PLAN OF GOD
& HUMANITY

RAY-DATABASE

MYSTERY SCHOOLS

HIGHER EDUCATION
PREPARING FOR INITIATION 

"The first task of the esotericist is to comprehend the nature of the energies which are seeking to condition him and which work out into expression on the physical plane through the medium of his equipment or his vehicle of manifestation."

ALICE BAILEY
EDUCATION IN THE NEW AGE

MYSTERY SCHOOLS

The concept of “Schools of the Future” or “Esoteric Schools.” are envisioned as training grounds for the coming era of human consciousness and planetary evolution.

1. Purpose

  • The schools will serve as bridges between humanity and the Hierarchy, preparing disciples and aspirants for conscious cooperation with spiritual energies.
  • Their chief aim is the integration of soul and personality, leading to service of humanity.
  • They will cultivate world servers who can apply spiritual principles to politics, education, economics, science, and religion.



2. Two Main Types of Schools

There will be two levels of training:
  1. Preparatory Schools – For younger students, focused on character building, ethics, group consciousness, and the recognition of the soul.
  2. Advanced Schools – For mature aspirants and disciples, offering direct esoteric training, meditation, study of the Ageless Wisdom, and preparation for initiation.

3. Characteristics

  • They will emphasize esoteric psychology: understanding the seven rays, human constitution (physical, emotional, mental, soul), and the science of the antahkarana (bridge to higher mind).
  • Meditation will be central: scientific, step-by-step training to align with the soul and eventually with the Spiritual Triad.
  • Group work will replace individual competition; cooperation, harmlessness, and inclusiveness will be cultivated.
  • Integration of science and spirituality: education will include modern science but interpreted in light of the soul’s reality.
  • Service as the keynote: all knowledge must find expression in practical service to humanity.


4. Location and Development

  • Bailey suggested that the first true esoteric schools would appear towards the end of the twentieth century and beyond, as humanity entered the Aquarian Age.
  • They would arise in many countries, adjusted to local culture, but all working from the same spiritual principles.
  • They are intended as extensions of the Ashrams of the Masters, externalizing their work on earth.


5. The Long-Term Vision

  • The ultimate goal is to prepare humanity for the “Fifth Kingdom of Souls”, the Kingdom of God on earth.
  • These schools will eventually form part of a planetary educational system, linking exoteric knowledge with esoteric wisdom.
  • They are training centers for the New Group of World Servers and for those who will enter the Path of Initiation.

In short

Future Schools are envisioned as centers of training where science, psychology, meditation, and service blend into a new form of spiritual education, preparing humanity for initiation and conscious participation in the divine Plan.

MYSTERY SCHOOLS

1. Two Great Divisions of the Future Schools

Twofold syste
1.  Preparatory Schools
  • For children and young people.
  • Aim: character building, recognition of the soul, and cultivation of group awareness.
  • Training in: discipline, ethics, right living, right relationships.
  • Introduces the student to occult laws and energies in a simple way.
  • Develops intuition, imagination, and creativity in harmony with the soul.
2.  Advanced Schools of Occultism
  • For aspirants who have undergone sufficient development.
  • Closely linked with the inner Ashrams of the Masters.
  • Training in occult meditation, the science of the rays, the laws of energy, healing, initiation, and service.
  • Admission depends not on intellectual achievement but on demonstrated selflessness, harmlessness, and service.



2. Principles and Safeguards (from Letters on Occult Meditation)

Careful safeguards are important because true occult training deals with powerful energies. 
  • Gradual training – no hasty forcing of psychic centers; meditation is scientific and progressive.
  • Safety first – the physical, emotional, and mental bodies must be disciplined before higher forces are invoked.
  • Teacher’s responsibility – future teachers will be trained initiates who can guide disciples safely.
  • Group training – the individualistic, secretive occultism of the past will give way to group service and collective unfoldment.








3. The Curriculum of the Future Schools

In Letters on Occult Meditation, Bailey sketches what will be taught:
  • Meditation science – specific forms suited to the student’s ray type.
  • Study of the Seven Rays and their psychological application.
  • Occult constitution of man – physical, etheric, astral, mental, causal, and higher bodies.
  • The science of the Antahkarana – bridging the lower mind and higher mind.
  • Healing and the use of sound and color as forces of alignment and balance.
  • Healing and the use of sound and color as forces of alignment and balance.
  • World service – applying knowledge in practical, humanitarian ways.








4. Long-Term Vision

  • These schools are seen as seed groups that will prepare humanity for the Kingdom of God (the Fifth Kingdom of Nature).
  • They are extensions of the Hierarchical Ashrams on the inner planes, externalizing gradually in the Aquarian age.
  • The ultimate product is the disciple-initiate: one who lives as a soul, serves humanity, and consciously participates in the divine Plan.








5. In short

In short: Letters on Occult Meditation gives the framework — two types of schools (preparatory and advanced), careful safeguards, meditation as the central training, and a curriculum centered on the seven rays, occult psychology, and service. Later books expand this vision into a planetary educational system aligned with the New Age.







Curriculum overview for
the Future Schools

1. In the Preparatory Schools (for younger students and aspirants)

  • Ethics & Character Building – training in self-control, responsibility, group living, and harmlessness.
  • General Education – languages, history, mathematics, science, art, literature (but always taught with an emphasis on the inner meaning and the connection with universal laws).
  • Psychology (Esoteric) – study of the Seven Rays, the human constitution (physical, emotional, mental, soul).
  • Meditation (elementary) – simple practices to develop concentration, silence, and soul contact.
  • Creative Expression – art, music, drama, poetry as means to awaken intuition and inner vision.
  • Civic & World Service – students learn to translate knowledge into service for the community.



2. In the Advanced Schools (Esoteric Schools)

  • Here the curriculum becomes deeper and explicitly oriented toward occult-scientific training.
  • Occult Meditation (systematic) – adapted to the student’s ray type; goal is building the antahkarana, integrating the personality and the soul, and preparing for initiation.
  • Occult Meditation (systematic) – adapted to the student’s ray type; goal is building the antahkarana, integrating the personality and the soul, and preparing for initiation.
  • The Seven Rays – in-depth study of ray psychology in relation to healing, astrology, and world affairs.
  • Constitution of Man & Cosmos – physical, etheric, astral, mental, causal bodies; the planet as a living being; spiritual hierarchies.
  • Energy Sciences – the laws of energy, vibration, rhythm; color, sound, and number as occult forces.
  • Esoteric Healing – the relation between energy, health, and the rays; the role of the soul and the etheric body in healing.
  • Astrology (Esoteric) – the horoscope as a map of the soul, with focus on zodiacal energies in discipleship.
  • Service as a Science – applying knowledge to world problems (politics, economics, religion, science).
  • History of the Mysteries – study of the ancient mystery schools and their continuity in the new cycle.
  • Preparation for Initiation – practical training in purity, service, meditation, and group consciousness.





3. Central Features of All Subjects

  • Meditation and Practice: every theoretical subject is linked with meditation or applied exercise.
  • Group Work: students are trained to work in groups rather than as isolated individuals.
  • Application in Service: knowledge must always find expression in service to humanity.

In summary

The Preparatory Schools still resemble a broad general education but with a strong ethical and spiritual core, while the Advanced Esoteric Schools are almost entirely focused on occult science, meditation, and the training of disciples for initiation.

TYPES OF WORK

1.  The practise of Meditation

First and foremost, the practice of meditation as laid down in these letters and as may be apportioned by the Head of the school. Once or twice a year the initiate Head of the school to which the preparatory school is allied will pass the pupils in review and in conference with the Head of the school will apportion specific meditation adjusted to the pupil's need. Once a year the Master responsible for both schools will likewise pass them in review and communicate to the Head any necessary adjustments. (I would here remind you that the relationship of a Master to a disciple is a private one and though He may be in constant touch with His pupil privately, this affects not His official review of the united auras of the school group.)

Secondly, a graded scientific study of the microcosm, including the following subjects, using the microscope when needed:—

2.  A graded scientific study

The Microcosm

  1. Elementary anatomy, physiology, biology.
  2. Ethnology.
  3. Study of the etheric body and its allied subjects of vitality and magnetism.
  4. Study of geology; of the vegetable kingdom, or botany; and of the animal kingdom.
  5. Study of the history of man and the development of science.
  6. Study of the laws of the microcosmic body.




The Macrocosm

  1. Study of the laws of electricity, of fohat, of prana, and of the astral light.
  2. Study of astronomy and of astrology.
  3. Study of occult cosmogony.
  4. Study of the human hierarchy.
  5. Study of the deva evolution.
  6. Study of the laws of the solar system.
  7. Study of telepathy, mental creation, psychometry.



The Mind

  1. The study of the mental plane.
  2. The study of the laws of fire.
  3. The study of the causal body.
  4. The study of the fifth principle.
  5. The study of colour and of sound.



Synthesis

  1. The study of spirit-matter-mind.
  2. Study of numbers and of symbology.
  3. Study of higher mathematics.
  4. Study of the laws of union.
  5. Study of the laws of sex.



Psychic Development

  1. Study of practical occultism.
  2. Study of psychism.
  3. Study of the astral light and the akashic records.
  4. Study of mediumship and inspiration.
  5. Study of past lives.
  6. Study of the macrocosmic and microcosmic centres.



Practical Work

  1. Service to the race.
  2. Study of group work.
  3. Review work.
  4. Work on the subtler bodies with the view to producing continuity of consciousness.
  5. Study of magic.
  6. Study of the seventh ray.



You will see for yourself that when the pupil has completed the above curriculum he will be a potential magician, and will be a member of the Brotherhood of Light in embryo. He will be equipped and ready to pass into the advanced school, where he will be trained in using the knowledge already acquired, where his centres will be scientifically developed so that he will become a conscious psychic of the mental type, where he will be trained to contact and control the lesser evolutions and to co-operate with the other evolutions such as the deva, and where all his bodies will be so aligned and adjusted that he can at the end of a period—varying from two to three years—be ready to stand before the Initiator.


Potencies becoming powers

This third type of work is based on the preceding curriculum and deals directly with individual
development. It covers the following matters:—
  1. The aligning of the bodies with a view to egoic contact.
  2. The building of the antahkarana, and the development of the higher mind.
  3. The development of the intuition, and the definite spiritual awakening of the pupil.
  4. The study of the pupil's vibration, ray, color and tone.
  5. The conscious refining of all the bodies beginning with the physical.

When these matters are duly studied and all acquired knowledge put into practice, the inherent powers of the soul will become conscious powers. Above all, will the emphasis be laid upon the fact that the white magician is he who utilises all power and knowledge in the service of the race. His inner development must be expressed in terms of service before he is permitted to pass on into the advanced school.

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