Lecture by Elena Sikirich for members of the Living Forces on the esoteric origins and tasks of the New Acropolis

Summer experience of "Living Forces" (outdoor classes), 1999
Fragments of an audio recording transcription

[...] Where did the apprenticeship school come from? What is our task at all? What is the purpose of the LF in the school, inside the LF, in the outer world? What is this great dream that we must realize or begin to realize before the year 2000? What are our responsibilities?

[...] HAL clearly says that the task of the Acropolis is, in fact, a renewed attempt to give an impulse to the sixth sub-race of the fifth root-race. Our task, through everything we do, is to give an impulse to the sixth sub-race of the fifth race. This impulse has already been given many times with varying success, beginning with Egypt, Greece, a little through the Middle Ages, then again through the Renaissance, and the last to have such a task was the Theosophical Society.

[...] The first thing we need to understand is that the Acropolis is not simply a school. The Acropolis was founded as another impulse. Another of the millions, hundreds of thousands of impulses that have continued since the Great White Lodge was founded and the high entities, the Lords and the Prometheans, descended into the world of men. [...] The Acropolis is another impulse in the 20th century of the great pact, which was made twice, in fact: once 18 million years ago, and the second time confirmed a million years ago, when the fifth race was being established. And every acropolitan, in fact, every student [...] carries within him the memory of this great pact that the Teachers made on our behalf. And therefore the Acropolis is another attempt by the hierarchy, the Great White Lodge, to give an impulse: in very difficult times to revive the mysteries on earth and to prevent (I am just quoting HAL) the brothers of darkness from prevailing again.

[...] And the fact that we, small as we are, now have the right to speak about these great things is not to talk, but in order to some extent to understand that the task is heavy and even practically impossible. But we are not alone; behind us stands a real hierarchy of great Lords who have attempted the same things ten thousand times, perhaps and surely at some moments together with us. And in that sense you can say that if today we bear such a name, that does not mean we are working on this task for the first time. [...] One can say that the Acropolis, over many millennia, in fact reincarnated with the same high souls, great Lords, the same HAL, who was called differently, Delia, and that this is one of our reincarnations.

[...] The brightest, most luminous moments when our family left its traces [...] were in Egypt. These were different epochs. But the epoch that is actually closest in terms of memory is the age of Thebes. You and I are Thebans [...] All our teachings, all our knowledge, all our memories, all our protection and patronage of the great entities — HAL and through HAL — we brought into this world, into this epoch from Thebes, from Egypt. Especially from that transitional, rather gloomy period when, for the last time, the Theban school overcame the state of decline and fall in the New Kingdom, overcame that state of darkness in the New Kingdom which attacked it during Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. When it was possible once more to save the great mysteries and the secret wisdom from total destruction by the materialists.

In fact, it was possible to postpone this moment until the 19th and 20th centuries, when, unfortunately, our family was no longer able to resist it. One of the results of this, among other things, was the revolution in Russia. What manifested its fruits in the 19th and 20th centuries as a sharp onslaught of materialism, positivism, etc., could have happened much earlier if not for our family, the Fourth Ray, if not for Thebes. And if not for the great efforts made when things began to slide downward.

And it is said that at that time the Teachers and the hierarchy devised a plan to attempt to give an impulse to the sixth sub-race of the fifth race. And in different epochs and in different generations, through different spiritual families or flocks, but with a basis in the so-called Fourth Ray family, the Theban family, to which we belong.

[...] Part of that plan, in which our family directly participated (and the memories of which are preserved in the heart of every true acropolitan), was to transfer the mysteries from Egypt to Europe, from Africa to Europe, because Europe was to become the cradle of the next sub-sub-race of the fifth race. Thus was born the famous Anax, to whom we belong. Those who wear a shirt with our NA logo know well that these letters contain the word Anax. The same ones. History repeats itself back to Atlantis. Our family is chosen as the bearer of the mission. Great Lords are chosen to patronize these impulses; great initiates are chosen alongside the great Lords; accepted disciples are chosen; and small ants, to which we belong as well, are chosen so that in Greece the ancient mysteries could be revived. And so the famous kings, priests, initiates [...] were born, and their symbol was a chariot drawn by tigers.

[...] On the one hand, our family moved through the Pre-Socratics; all the philosophers whose name has the root "Anax"; Pythagoras, Plato; the Stoics (I go further into Rome) — these were all ours, ours went. Does it not surprise you why their teachings seem close to us? Why, when we read the Stoics, is it as if we listen to HAL? When we read Marcus Aurelius, is it as if we listen to HAL? Or when we read Socrates, Plato, ancient Egyptian writings? It all lives in us; we do not read it, we remember it.

The center of civilization, the center of the so-called small ideal state, which, unfortunately, did not endure, was Athens, the Golden Age of Pericles. From there we have our name in that epoch; from there we were given the New Acropolis. Where it was possible to combine nobility, justice of form of pure civilizations for people with the formation of apprentice cores. Because the task was to create, through the ages, a chain to pass the torch. And all the moments of knightly orders, I remind you once again, all the sagas about King Arthur, about the Knights of the Round Table — these are only echoes, memories in the Middle Ages of Anax. The concept of the island, that is, places pure on earth, chakras of the earth, where at that time the Great White Lodge or its branches dwelt, originate from there. The first person in Europe who was given the task of making a copy of the teacher’s island in various corners of the planet, from which concepts such as the esoteric school are born, was Anax.

[...] One of Anax’s strongholds, the last stronghold, was Alexandria, the Neoplatonic school. And as HAL said, when we met him long ago, I do not boast, but in our family there were and are kings and priests and philosophers and teachers and disciples and ladies and knights and martyrs. And, unfortunately, the history of the Serapeum is our history. This is not our defeat, but the moment when one of our houses of life, our innermost centers, was destroyed to the ground. There are still underground temples of the Serapeum in Alexandria that remain, only their entrances no one knows, and no one knows that they remain. Our temples are still there. [...] The story of Hypatia in Alexandria. She is our martyr, our person. Times remembered with sorrow. We had victories and defeats, and martyrdom, which is not defeat but martyrdom on the altar, a sacrifice. Much, much has been in the history of our family.

Marcus Aurelius is our man. The last Roman emperor — Julian — who dreamt that the eagle flies to the East, returns back, leaves Europe and takes with it its sacred signs. The golden eagle, i.e., the man in sacred robes, i.e., the priest, the king on our symbol, is the symbol of the kings of Anax, or the king of kings of Anax. There is a great teacher, likewise called, who has been from then until now the principal and main patron of the Acropolis. And thanks to the inspiration and impulse of whom HAL received all our symbols. His mysteries are laid in our flag. It is Anax. His mysteries are embedded in the eagle. We have many secret mysteries that we ourselves do not know and about which, naturally, nothing is said except at very subtle and important moments, in order to remember, draw lessons from previous experience, and find strength. Because more battles await us, no less severe than those already passed.

[...] Anax almost ceased to make himself known in the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages we rested. But there was a moment when our flock emerged a little. You have no idea? The Renaissance, Giordano Bruno — that was us. Giordano Bruno, beyond what is known in his history, created cores, apprentice cores, in his travels through Europe, very similar to us. It was an attempt not only to put an end to the Middle Ages, but to give an impulse whose fruits should have manifested only in the 19th and 20th centuries. To turn consciousness. Another attempt to prepare the ground for the birth of the sixth sub-race of the fifth race. We do not merely rehabilitate Giordano Bruno. He is another of our martyrs. But he is a man who, at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries (imagine, living in a century period similar to ours), literally created an Acropolis without calling it an Acropolis. And hiding from the Inquisition. The secret name of that school is unknown. But HAL writes about it in his book The Alchemist. About the nuclei that hid from the Inquisition so much that few knew of them, but which did great work so that even historians today could speak of the Renaissance. [...] There are rumors in the Acropolis; there is a suggestion that Giordano Bruno was one of the incarnations of the teacher Sri Rama, HAL’s teacher.

[...] Leaf through books, look at photographs, read philosophers’ memoirs. And if you recognize familiar phrases, then it is us.

[...] We come to the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Freemasonry in its various groupings (that is not us), as well as the traditional teaching of the Rosicrucians (but not the AMORC order founded in the early 20th century), were an attempt by the hierarchy to reclaim some initiatory elements existing in the courts of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Masons are not us, and the Rosicrucians are not us, but that too was an impulse of the hierarchy.

[...] HAL further writes about the Masons and the Rosicrucians (but, cautiously, not the AMORC order: there is the Rosicrucian AMORC, which gives initiations by mail in the 20th century and now via the Internet as well — these are not the Rosicrucians who were an attempt of the hierarchy):

“But these attempts were immediately distorted and degenerated into highly politicized forms, operating under the strong influence of Enlightenment positivism and Marxism. (It was positivism and Marxism they later gave. — E.S.) These latter movements themselves were born of an overly intellectual and overly theoretical view of the world, and in their essence they were completely opposite to the true traditional esoteric teaching. Both West and East were overflowing with currents of this kind, studying more superficial phenomena in all things than their authentic inner essence and structures. And at that moment (19th century, our [lineage] already moved. This is a sub-family, not us, but ours, our people moved. Listen to what HAL writes. — E.S.) HPB appears, surrounded by a host of ancient old souls who responded to the new call of the hierarchy. And so the Theosophical Society was founded.

Despite its initial success, this movement later also became dangerously mixed with elements of chaotic anarchy coming from the dark land of the restoration process. Tired of constantly fighting slanderers and gossipers and constantly suffering harsh blows from its own surroundings, HPB in her books, especially in her outstanding work, the synthesis of all teachings, The Secret Doctrine, decides to appeal not only to her era and peers, but especially to minds living in the 20th century, which she would physically never see. (HPB and the Theosophists, our brothers, our family, were actually preparing the work for us. — E.S.)

After her long and mysterious journeys, about which we know very little, she found refuge in London, to finish her great work surrounded by some ladies of aristocratic origin, her disciples, in which, with the help of the Teachers of wisdom, she synthesized all knowledge and life experiences, all that she managed to rescue from oblivion, all that she taught at Adyar and in other places on the planet.

The Secret Doctrine was prepared for a spiritually prepared public, but the most intimate elements were left for the esoteric school, which at one time kept contact with the Theosophical Society. After the death of the teacher HPB, maintaining that connection proved very difficult due to the emergence within the Theosophical Society of the so-called Free Catholic Church, a left-leaning current with a tendency to modernize traditional teachings, and also because of the emergence within the Theosophical Society of the so-called Golden Branch — a politically right-leaning current — within which the idea of conquering the world by storm and force and rapidly implementing certain initiatory principles was born.

From the Free Catholic Church emerged various movements: anthroposophy, the School of Arcanum, and the Star of the East, headed by the then prodigy Krishna, now known as Krishnamurti, the fiercest enemy of all societies of any type except, of course, his own, which survives to this day in the form of a large international publishing house.

Within the Golden Branch there arose and passed into Europe a current called the Thule Lodge, about which there is already quite a lot of information, at least exoteric, and which gave impetus and doctrine to the political movement now commonly called “Nazism,” with all its grim prologues and epilogues resulting from its actions.”

[...] The task of the Theosophical Society was, besides changing entirely the criteria of life so that people would turn to eternal and higher criteria, to create and resurrect the great mysteries. That is also our task. And thanks to HPB’s insistence, an esoteric school was created with chosen students, specially prepared, etc., who were taught directly by the great Teachers Morya and Koot Hoomi and who were given the teaching so that they could pass it to the next link, that is, to us. The problem is that the people who entered the esoteric school were not fully tested for unselfishness, ambition, cupidity. And not fully tested for the capacity for sacrifice and offering. And it so happened that some members of the esoteric lodge began to abuse the knowledge they received. And, having left or been expelled from the esoteric school, they began to found their own currents, which continued to operate within the Theosophical Society.

And sadly, the undesirable result of the work of the esoteric school, the actions of those members who were expelled, is, on the one hand, the Free Catholic Church, Leadbeater, which continued to operate as a state within a state and led the Theosophists into such a wilderness of pseudo-Christianity, esoteric Christianity, which no Teacher later wanted to support. Although initially Leadbeater was an accepted student and was taught directly by both Blavatsky and the great Teachers.

And as strange as it may seem, from the pseudo-esoteric Christian current of the Free Catholic Church there arose leftist currents that later led to communism, among others. Among them is Steiner’s pseudo-esoteric anthroposophy, the completely stolen teaching of the esoteric school and HPB and completely distorted by Steiner’s personal theories. I vouch for this fact: anthroposophy was never an impulse of the hierarchy, never. Most likely it was an abuse after Steiner left the esoteric school of the Theosophical Society and betrayed Blavatsky.

And the famous Star of the East, the unsuccessful attempt of the avatar Krishnamurti, who separated from the esoteric school, unwilling to accept as its basis service to the common good. And from the esoteric school one part of the teaching was taken and taught as the so-called doctrine of individual evolution: one must not join any organization, each must preserve freedom and evolve individually, that is, reach certain occult degrees. This is Krishnamurti, who speaks on all matters — morals, etc. — only on the individual plane. And the problem is that this denial of collective impulses, of collective work, occurred after he failed the test for the same thing. When he was to have an almost avatar role, but failed and then began to categorically deny everything that is collective work in service of humanity.

And the saddest consequence of the esoteric school of the Theosophical Society: the distorted teachings of those expelled from it created the famous Golden Branch, within which the Thule Lodge was born. Nazism, with all the dark, destructive, terrible consequences that Nazism brought. Where the main idea of the Golden Branch and the Thule Lodge was: initiatory mysteries are good, for the benefit of civilization, but people do not know what is good for them, so it must be imposed by force. And the distortion began, from Plato to all moments of anthropogenesis, cosmogenesis. And the tragic Second World War, which in reality was a war between brothers of light and brothers of darkness, a hierarchy of light and a hierarchy of darkness. Better not to dwell on that. But one of the sad consequences we still feel is that some of the innermost symbols, colors, forms, etc., were distorted by destructive magnetisms to such an extent that we, who came after them (this is Theosophy, in fact), have to suffer because we are accused of Nazism. Yet these forms are initiatory; they cannot be changed — they must now be cleansed, purified of all the charge that was awakened during the Second World War and before it.

And after these sad consequences that the esoteric school actually left behind, HAL concludes:

“The iron jaws of the 20th century, which many so longed for and which brought so many disappointments, in one way or another crushed to dust and brought to complete failure the various forms of esotericism. Not only those accessible to people; they trampled the very secret esotericism in the true sense of the word. The esoteric school that had survived and endured despite everything was no longer growing or developing, suppressed by the inertia of the Theosophical Society, which for half a century had been the only path leading to its doors. Since the Theosophical Society had long been in a state of decline and decomposition, the Esoteric School officially closed its doors in mid-1950. I was 19 at the time. And despite the fact that I had already trained and been formed within the canons and laws of the esoteric school, I myself did not know about this for a long time. It happened that when the school closed, I, then in the ranks of the Theosophical Society and already head of its Argentine section, inwardly celebrated that fact of closure. Because at the time it seemed to me that the school itself was only a mysterious refuge for old vegetarians. To tell the truth, the very fact of the school’s closing never became publicly known. And one can even say that the school died in silence much more quietly than when it was born.”

[...] I hope you understand: there is one general rule of the hierarchy in all epochs and in all times, especially in turning points, in troubled times, when an impulse for a new era is given and, correspondingly, with that impulse comes an attempt to revive the mysteries, whether small or great or in one form or another. There always needs to be an intermediary through whom these mysteries can not only be revived, but transmitted. There cannot be many intermediaries. There can only be one intermediary within one century. Only one. That is the law of the hierarchy. The intermediary can be only one family, one group considered worthy to deserve this impulse and to create forms and models. For this they create a so-called apprenticeship school, in quotes, which in the future would lead to the esoteric school. In that sense the law is strict and has never had exceptions. And just as the intermediary can be only one group, one flock, one impulse, the intermediary itself between the Teachers and men, between the mysteries and the disciples, can also be only one single person.

In the 19th century the task was this. There is a channel to reach people to the mysteries. This channel is the Theosophical Society. If this channel merits, an esoteric school is opened. And if any person on this planet wishes to enter the Mysteries, he must enter the Theosophical Society. Only through this channel, only through admission to the Theosophical Society, were the doors to the Mysteries opened to him in the 19th century. And there was also one single intermediary between the Teachers and the students in the 19th century: that was HPB. For later the Teachers to recognize accepted disciples in the same Olcott, Besant, Leadbeater and many unknown Theosophists (but more worthy than Leadbeater and the Besant circle), it was necessary that HPB be alive — through her so-called fluids, her so-called aura. And if HPB died, it was necessary that a person emerge who could fulfill the same mission. The failure of the Theosophical Society, esoterically speaking, was that such a person did not exist, first. That no one could replace HPB in that sense, not even Olcott. Because this is a terrible thing that involves much suffering. And that the Theosophical Society was not created as a conduit channel. And so, as HAL writes, the esoteric school opened and then died. Because the Theosophical Society, which was its bearer, failed to create a channel between people and prepare people for it — prepared in terms of service, sacrifice, etc. And it is a known fact, which HAL writes in his biography, that HAL was the last student of the esoteric school. It closed in 1950, and HAL was its last student, although for a long time he did not know this.

A new century has come, even a new millennium. Every century the hierarchy, during the last 25 years, gives an impulse so that a similar attempt be made again. And now, although we do not tell the members this so it does not seem like vanity, etc., in the 20th century the only channel to the Teachers is the Acropolis. Just as in the 19th century it was the Theosophical Society. This is our family. The only channel, and the only ones at all who were given the right to undergo the trials to deserve the esoteric school, are the Acropolis. And if any of the 4–5 billion people living on Earth want to get into the mysteries, they must get into the Acropolis. And go through all the steps, starting with the white program, the first cycle, and enter the Living Forces. Because in order that someone in the next life could even dream of the Mysteries, the first step he must earn is the Living Forces. And the Living Forces is that link in the chain that the Theosophical Society lacked. The long process of testing love, unselfishness, disinterestedness, sacrifice and service was missing. The Living Forces is that chain of verification.

[...] We, unfortunately, also did not deserve the esoteric school — that is clear, although the deadline has approached. Because to open an esoteric school, ready students are needed. Except for HAL and Delia, there are none — that is the failure. And so now there is a great dream. Failure is not final. Not for us, but so that the mission can be fulfilled (and about this mission I will now read a little from the Teachers’ letters), we must now create a school of disciples. We must become disciples, in the deepest and broadest sense of the word.

[...] The Acropolis is for what the Theosophical Society was for. Bear in mind that any family, any school of this kind sent into the world as an impulse of the Teachers is, naturally, put to the test. To see whether it is worthy to continue. And how long, do you think, does the school’s cycle of trials last? Seven years — one cycle of trials, then results are summed up. Then the next seven years another cycle of trials, then results are summed up. And I would like to begin with a letter written by the Teachers Koot Hoomi and Morya at the moment when the Theosophical Society’s first seven-year trial period ended. [...]

“On November 17 of this year the seven-year period of trial given to the Society (about the Theosophical Society. What they said applies to us in one way or another. Either we have it, or we do not. — E.S.) at its foundation, for cautiously preaching to us, expires. One or two of us hoped that the world had advanced so intellectually, if not intuitively, that occult doctrine might gain intellectual recognition and an impulse for a new cycle of occult research. Others, wiser, as it now seems (meaning other Teachers — the wisest among the Great White Lodge. — E.S.), held a different opinion. But consent to the trial was given. However, it was conditioned that the attempt should be carried out independently of our personal management (this is written by the Teachers. — E.S.), that there should be no supernormal intervention on our part. (Teachers do not intervene in our work directly. — E.S.)

In our search we found in America a man fit to become a leader. A man of great moral courage, selfless and possessing other good qualities. He was by no means the best. He was the best one that could be obtained. (They speak of Olcott. — E.S.) With him we united a woman of the most exceptional and wonderful gifts. At the same time she had great personal flaws. But even as she was, she remained unsurpassed, since there was no more suitable person in the world for this work. We sent her to America (imagine how they operate! — E.S.), brought them together, and the trial began. (Maybe they brought us together too? How else? Read between the lines. — E.S.) From the very beginning both she and he were made to understand that the outcome depended entirely on themselves. And both offered themselves for this trial for some reward in the distant future. As K.H. used to say, as soldiers volunteering for a hopeless cause. (HAL also offered himself, and with him we offered ourselves as soldiers volunteering for a hopeless cause. Listen carefully. — E.S.)

For six and a half years they fought against such unequal forces that would have discouraged anyone who had not worked with the desperation of a man who had invested his life and everything dear to him into the utmost, desperate effort. Their success did not live up to the hopes of their initial inspirers, though it was phenomenal in some directions. A few more months and the test period will end. (Listen, this concerns us as well. — E.S.) If by that time the state of affairs in the Society with respect to them (the question about the brothers — E.S.) is not finally settled or they are not excluded from the program of the Society or accepted on our terms, then that will be the end regarding the brothers of all forms, colors, sizes and degrees. [...]”

And they did not succeed. And since the Teachers promised, that was the last about brothers of all forms, colors and levels. The effort was suspended until the Acropolis, literally. And in the Acropolis it is still suspended. That is what they say until the next septenary cycle, when, if circumstances are more favorable, then we will again speak about whether something can be done. Up to now, however many efforts have been made, it has still not been possible to shake things enough, to show such force of purity and sacrifice that this prohibition would be lifted. And why is the year 2000 important? Because that is the next end of the seven-year cycle that was conditioned with HAL from the very beginning. Maybe, if we deserve it, there will be talk of the Teachers again taking direct part in the life of the world and man, in some, albeit small, form as they did in the 19th century. But that still must be earned.

[...] In fact, if we want to enter a new era and give an impulse to the sixth sub-race of the fifth race, there is one main idea: the brotherhood of souls will save the world. The brotherhood of souls, which must be awakened and worked upon as we know and can, is the task regarding our duty in the outer world. And the brotherhood of souls within that core which must become the bearer of the mysteries and the bearer of truth. Strange as it may sound, the main criterion to become the bearer of the Mysteries and the future esoteric school is the brotherhood among those who now form the core of the school.

[...] We are not as old, ancient, prepared souls as those who surrounded HPB. This is obvious. A clear example — starting with me. Apart from HAL and Delia, we all stew in the same porridge. [...] Yes, we are little as souls. Yes, we are weak. We have no initiates, no accepted disciples. But there is one great thing called communicating vessels. That is, great entities stand behind us. Not only HAL and Delia, but great Teachers. And if the matter requires, and it will require, this for sure, then every small disciple, even not being an accepted disciple, can become a conduit of the power of a great old and ancient soul. Even not being one himself. And if we are small and not ancient, we can channel a power we do not possess. And that is the essence of our secret mysteries, the essence of our task. By our own strength we will, of course, do nothing. But to become a disciple, that is, to become a vessel, a conductor of the soul and force of someone higher and truer — therein lies our salvation and the salvation of the people for whom we work. Therefore not only is hope not lost, but on the contrary, this is the hope; otherwise one might have hanged oneself on the first tree.

[...] The apprenticeship school is a great force. This light, of which we must become the conductors, that is what it is. [...] This gives the strength for the whole mission to endure and not to be called yet another failed attempt, as happened with the Theosophical Society immediately after HPB’s death. HAL has already gone, we are still holding on. Excuse me, but this is great progress; such a thing had not occurred in history. Thanks to the fact that Delia exists. And then what? One must continue to create the chain, otherwise cuckoo — the mission. The impulse for the sixth race will again wait who knows how long. People will again fritter in their chaos, bewilderment, without criteria, without many things…

[...] The Theosophical mission, as well as ours, HAL repeatedly told us, the Teachers called it a desperate enterprise. And HAL’s mission was called the same — a desperate enterprise. So you should realize that anything we do now is a desperate enterprise. It is a cry of one crying out in the desert. I read, says Teacher K.H.:

“What did I mean by a desperate enterprise? It means the following. If we consider the great tasks facing our Theosophical volunteers, especially if we look at the many active forces already arrayed or about to be arrayed to oppose them (we have not yet come to that, but it awaits us, keep in mind. — E.S.), then we may well equate the stand of the Theosophists with those desperate efforts directed against the overwhelming superiority of the enemy to which true soldiers go in the name of glory. You have done well to perceive a great purpose in the small undertaking of the Theosophical Society. (I can tell you the same, as if the Teachers told us: guys, you did well to understand that behind small undertakings of the Acropolis, any small undertaking, direction, leaflet, there lies a big purpose, a desperate enterprise. — E.S.) Of course, if we ourselves had personally taken on its foundation and management, it is quite possible that it would have been more perfect and made fewer mistakes. But we could not do that. Nor was it in our plans. The task was given to two of our agents (the same — HAL and Delia — to us. There is Olcott, Blavatsky there; here — HAL and Delia. — E.S.). And they were allowed to do all they could under the given circumstances, whatever happens in the outside world, whatever opposition from the outside there might be. And much has been done (the same can be said about the Acropolis. — E.S.) Under the surface of Spiritualism an expanding current is making its way. When it appears on the surface, its effect will be obvious. Already many minds, like yours, are reflecting on the question of occult laws, forced to do so by your work, your agitation. Like you, they are not satisfied with what has been achievable to date and demand something better, higher. Let this encourage you. (As if they tell us, isn’t that so? — E.S.) Unity always gives strength. And since occultism in our days resembles a desperate enterprise, unity and cooperation are necessary. Unity indeed implies the concentration of vital and magnetic energies against the hostile currents of prejudice and fanaticism.”

[...] “If for generations we have kept the world from knowledge, from our knowledge, it has been only because it was totally unprepared. And if despite the evidence the world still refuses to yield to the obvious, then at the end of this cycle (meaning the year 2000. — E.S.) we shall again retire into seclusion and into our realm of silence. [...] Countless generations have built great temples of immutable rock, a gigantic tower of boundless thought, where the titan dwelt and will dwell. If needed, he will dwell, emerging from it only at the end of each cycle to invite the elect of mankind to cooperate with him and help him enlighten the superstitious man. (That is the end of each cycle, when the ‘titan’ in quotes should come out, if the ground is prepared for him. — E.S.) And we will continue this periodic work. We will not allow ourselves to be dismayed in our philanthropic attempts until the foundation of the new world of thought is so firmly built that no amount of opposition and ignorant guile, guided by the brothers of darkness, can overcome it. But before that day of final triumph — and it will surely come if we strive together — someone must be sacrificed. Although we accept only voluntary ones. (Now it speaks further about HPB. — E.S.) The ungrateful task humiliated her, led her to destruction and suffering and isolation. But she will receive her reward in the next life, for we are never ungrateful.”

That is the problem. The question does not depend on us, it depends on them. They fight; they will not cease to fight. But until that day (they themselves know when that day will come and they fight for it) people who will be sacrificed, who will fight with them, are needed. And that is the task of the Acropolis in the 20th century. And look at the context — this is my comment. The year 2000 is the year when that famous titan in the great temple (this is symbolism; do not ask me to explain what it is, I do not know, it is a great mystery) may be ready to come out, to give some things that have never been given to humanity. But he will hardly come out, because the ground is not prepared.

And imagine, in relation to this great task, how silly our doubts and weaknesses are! Today I can, tomorrow I cannot, I will work on this or that, I will or will not, I will sleep or will not, I will eat or will not, I know how to work with people or I do not, I am in my direction or not — such idiocies! Such idiocies! If people need any noble overcoming of themselves in the name of the common cause, the common good of humanity, and yet we will whine and ask: will we or will we not, do we have or do we not have, do they have the right to treat us this way or not, etc. See how all this is idiocy and foolishness! I hope I have expressed myself clearly.

I quote further. They speak about HPB, and I tell you: what they say about her is the same we could say about HAL and Delia, to somewhat understand their great sacrifice. Where these people went and how they offered themselves as a sacrifice. Writes Teacher K.H. It is about HPB.

“I am painfully aware that the usual inconsistency of her statements, especially when she is excited, and the strange behavior, in your opinion, make her a very undesirable transmitter of our messages. (When everyone turned against HPB and said that she had many faults and how could she lead the Theosophical Society. Keep listening. — E.S.) Nevertheless, dear brothers, you may look at her with very different eyes (and now look at HAL and Delia with very different eyes. — E.S.), if you know the truth. If you are told that this unbalanced mind, the seeming absurdity of her speeches and ideas, her nervous excitement, in short everything that is considered to disturb the calm of sober-minded people whose notions of restraint and manners are shocked by strange outbursts of her temperament, and what is so repugnant to you — if you are told that she is not to blame for any of this. Although it is not yet time to dedicate you entirely to this mystery, that you are not yet prepared to understand this great mystery, even if it were told to you, due to the great injustice and injury done to her I am authorized to allow you to look beyond the curtain. This condition of hers is closely connected with her occult training in the crypts of Tibet and is caused by the fact that she was sent alone into the world to gradually prepare the way for others. (Listen carefully. — E.S.) After almost a century of fruitless searches our chiefs were forced to use the only possibility of sending a European woman to European soil to create the link between their country and ours.

(Several centuries they searched for a person and found HPB in the 19th century and HAL in the 20th. Centuries they searched so that, thanks to centuries of searching, HPB would come in the 19th, HAL in the 20th, and thus the Theosophical Society and the Acropolis would be founded. Isn’t that a reason for us to do less stupid things?! Centuries of searching! — E.S.)

Do you understand? Of course not. Then please remember what she tried to explain and what you quite adequately learned from her. Namely, the fact of the seven principles of the perfect human being. No man or woman, unless they are initiates of the fifth circle, can leave the region of Bod-Lhas (meaning the region of the Island where the Teachers dwell — E.S.) and return back into the world whole. At the very least, one of their satellites must remain, for two reasons: the first — to form the necessary link, the transmission conduit, the second — as the best guarantee that some things will never be divulged. HPB is not an exception to the rule.”

Neither you nor I will ever understand these mysteries that are now being revealed a little. A messenger of the type of HPB and of the type of HAL, who is prepared by the Teachers (recall HAL’s biography, recall again what a person must undergo), cannot return wholly to the world. One part of his personality and persona, one part of him always remains where the Teachers are, and he is like the crucified Christ. He cannot relax. Part of him remains among them because it is necessary to create the link between the island and the world of men. And he is the guarantor. If some of the secrets given to him are divulged, then the messenger perishes. And so he remains, on the one hand as a hostage: if the mission fails then the karma is upon me and my shoulders. And on the other hand as the only possible conduit.

So that explains what I told you earlier: there are not many conduits. Two people were sought for centuries — HPB and HAL. It is such a burden, such a cross that not everyone can bear it. And imagine what Delia experiences now, who inherited this without being trained in the crypts! And I think this is at least a reason for us to do fewer stupid things and to think less about ourselves.

[...] That applies to us too. The Theosophical Society failed; another attempt follows. They told it to the Theosophists, they tell us. Teacher Koot Hoomi, letters of the Teachers.

“Phenomenal elements, which were not even conceived or dreamed of before (I say again, the year 2000 is related to this. — E.S.), will soon begin to manifest day by day with ever-increasing force and will finally reveal the secrets of their most intimate actions. Plato was right: ideas govern the world. And when the human mind receives new ideas (God grant, it depends on us whether the human mind receives new ideas in the year 2000. It depended on the Theosophists, but it did not happen. — E.S.), then, discarding the old barren ones, the world will begin to accelerate its development. Powerful revolutions will erupt from them. Beliefs and even states will disintegrate before their driven movement, crushed by that irresistible force. When the time comes, it will be as impossible to resist their flood as to stop the rush of a current. But all this will be gradual. And before this happens, we must fulfill the duty placed upon us. (Listen carefully, they speak about us. We must fulfill the duty placed upon us. — E.S.) Sweep away, as much as possible, the rubbish left to us by our pious forefathers. New ideas must be planted in clean places. (Doesn’t that reveal to you the reason for the house of life? The more clean places, the more likely something will succeed. And our task is to create clean places, houses of life, in which all that is pure in human nature, in terms of moral states, virtues, etc., will be preserved, and all that is pure in universal wisdom, all that is pure in the code of honor. — E.S.) [...] The elder Mahatmas desire that the beginning be made of the brotherhood of humanity, the true world brotherhood, which must be manifested throughout the world and must attract the attention of the highest minds.”

There is the task, there is the desperate enterprise. A world brotherhood that must be manifested throughout the world, therefore the Acropolis throughout the world, and clean places, and attracting the attention of the highest minds from outside. Not by occultism, not by parapsychological phenomena, but by brotherhood, purity, a new view of the world, a new way of life. If we do not attract the attention of the highest minds and remain spinning within our four walls, we can consider our task unfulfilled. It is very important that we remember this. [...]