Ascended master

What it is

Ascended masters are a class of enlightened beings found in Theosophy and in the movements that grew out of it. Adherents hold that each one began as an ordinary person, then went through a sequence of spiritual changes called initiations and reached a higher condition of existence. The same figures are often called Mahatmas. Some groups use the two words interchangeably, while the Ascended Master Teachings rank an ascended master above a Mahatma, placing the first at a sixth initiation and the second lower down. Devotees say these beings watch over humanity and help it advance.

Where it comes from

The phrase is credited to Baird T. Spalding, who used it in a series of books beginning in 1924. Guy Ballard, who also wrote as Godfre Ray King, carried the idea to a larger public in Unveiled Mysteries (1934), a work he said Saint Germain dictated to him. Behind both lies the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, and writers such as C. W. Leadbeater and Alice A. Theosophists themselves regard the later, more elaborate ascended master as an inflated version of that earlier and plainer figure. From the 1930s the teachings spread through the I AM Activity and, later, through a number of separate churches.

How it is done

Progress is described as a ladder of initiations. C. W. Leadbeater presented initiation as a way of gaining the power and knowledge needed to work for humanity rather than personal greatness, and Alice A. Bailey called it an expansion of consciousness. The sixth step, ascension, is what makes someone an ascended master. Teaching is said to arrive in another form: a master speaks through a chosen person, a messenger, and the resulting address, a Dictation, is read to a gathering and then printed. Guy and Edna Ballard were held to have relayed 3,834 such messages.

Tools and materials

The colour white in the name Great White Brotherhood carries its own meaning: it points to a white aura, read as a sign of advanced spiritual attainment, and has nothing to do with race. Rank is counted and named. Masters are placed on rays, as when Jesus is called Master of the Sixth Ray and its Chohan, a title for the head of a ray. Initiations are numbered as steps.

What it is for

The aim set out in these teachings is the spiritual progress of humanity rather than the private advancement of the individual. Masters are said to guide selected people and to work with anyone who has an open heart and wants to benefit others, a point stressed in the simpler version of the teachings released by Peter Mt. Shasta. Students look for a coming age, a permanent heaven on earth. Earlier golden ages are said to have existed millions of years ago and to have passed. The Dictations are presented as instruction for that work.

Who does it

Contact is claimed by messengers, people who say a master used them to dictate or to speak. Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey, Guy and Edna Ballard, Geraldine Innocente, Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, and Benjamin Creme all figure in the record as recipients of such messages, each within a different organization. Guy Ballard's I AM Activity made regular exchange with the masters a central part of ordinary membership. Messengers include men and women, and the role is generally held inside a movement's own leadership rather than granted by any outside body.

Peoples and places

Most of the organizations holding these beliefs are based in the United States. They include the I AM Activity, The Bridge to Freedom, The Summit Lighthouse, later the Church Universal and Triumphant, the Aetherius Society, The Temple of The Presence, The Hearts Center, I AM University, the White Eagle Lodge and the Aquarian Christine Church Universal. Blavatsky wrote that many of the masters were Tibetan or Indian rather than European, and that they came from every culture and race; she gave one of them, Hilarion, as a Greek gentleman.

What people believe

Behind the figure of the master stands a ranked cosmos. Sanat Kumara is placed at the ninth initiation, the highest said to be possible on earth, and is called Regent of the planet and head of its spiritual hierarchy, dwelling in Shamballah. Blavatsky linked Sanat Kumara with a group she called the Lords of the Flame, whom, she said, Christian tradition mistook for Lucifer and the fallen angels.

Compare and confuse

Names close to this one are easy to mix. Mahatmas is the older word, and the Ascended Master Teachings separate the two ranks. Masters of Light, Healers and Spiritual Masters are placed lower, at the fifth initiation, and said to live in a fifth dimension.

Today

Organizations founded in the twentieth century still carry the teachings, and new ones keep appearing: The Temple of The Presence in 1995, I AM University in 2004, The Hearts Center in 2005, the Aquarian Christine Church Universal in 2006. Peter Mt. Shasta, who said he met Saint Germain, Kuthumi and El Morya, recast it in plainer form and stressed that the masters answer anyone who wishes humanity well. The older channelled addresses remain in print in the Saint Germain Series and in the movement's periodicals.

Questions people ask about Ascended master

Good reading and sources

• Ascended master on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data