Category: Alice A. Bailey

Alice A. Bailey, The Mark of the Beast, And 666

Alice A. Bailey had some interesting things to say about the number 666, which most know from  the book of Revelation in the Christian New Testament.

“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”  -Revelation 13:18 (KJV).

Many mainstream Christian theologians and historians see this as a reference the Emperor Nero famous for his persecution of Christians. “Nero Caesar” through various forms of gematria can give the number 666 (Wikipedia).

Author Joseph J. Dewey in his series on The Beast has a very unique understanding which emphasizes the wrong use of authority.

Reading Alice A. Bailey, quotes below, her take is more on astrology, rays and energies. For example in  “Rays and the Initiations” she writes “… 6 being the number of the sixth ray, it is therefore the number of idealism and of that driving force which makes mankind move forward upon the path and in response to the vision and press upward towards the light.”

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The Antichrist of Alice A. Bailey

While searching through the writings of Alice A. Bailey (AAB) I came across a number of references to the Antichrist (or anti-Christ). Some critics of AAB claim that she doesn’t believe in an Antichrist as understood in the traditional Christian thinking. In that I think they are probably right – you can judge yourself from the following quotes. Nevertheless it does seem clear that she did believe in a duality of good and evil.

Below are all of the examples I found of “Antichrist” or “anti-Christ”:

The dark forces work with the form side of expression and with the founding of a centre of control which will be theirs entirely and which will subdue all the living forms in all kingdoms to their peculiar behests. It is the old story, familiar in Biblical phraseology, of the kingdoms of the world and the kingdom of the Christ, of the power of anti-Christ and the power of Christ. – Alice A. Bailey, Esoteric Psychology II – Chapter II – The Ray of Personality – Problems of Disciples and Mystics

“The work of what in the West is called “the Christ Principle” is to build the forms for the expression of quality and life. That is the characteristic work of the second aspect of divinity. The work of the Antichrist is to destroy forms, and this is essentially the work of the first expression of divinity. But the work of the destroyer is not the work of black magic, and when ignorant humanity regards Antichrist as working on the black side, their error is great. His work is as beneficent as that of the building aspect, and it is but man’s hatred of the death of forms which makes him regard the work of the destroyer as “black,” as being against the divine will, and as subversive of the divine programme. The work of the representatives of that mysterious power which we call cosmic evil, and their responding representatives, is indeed worthy of the word “black”; but it is not applicable to the work of Antichrist. It might be added that the work of the black forces wells up from below, whilst the work of the destroyers is impelled from above.” –Alice A. Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume 1 – Synopsis of a Treatise on The Seven Rays

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The Planet Vulcan In Astrology

If you are not a Theosophist or a student of the writings of Alice A. Bailey you may not have ever heard of a planet called Vulcan. In the mid 19th century the existence of a planet inside Mercury’s orbit was put forward to explain some peculiarities in the orbit of Mercury.

Starting in 1840 astronomer Francois Arago and mathematician Urbain Le Verrier were trying to come up with a model of the orbit of Mercury based on Newton’s laws of motion and gravity. As it turned out there was a slight peculiarity in the orbit, something called perihelion precession that differed from the value predicted by Newton’s laws. Le Verrier proposed this could be explained by the presence of a small planet inside the orbit of Mercury. He named this planet Vulcan in 1859.

An amateur astronomer by the name of Edmond Modeste Lescarbault claimed to have actually observed Vulcan. Convinced by this Le Verrier in 1860 announced the discovery of the planet Vulcan at the Academie des Sciences in Paris. At this point it was a respectable scientific theory.

Helena P. Blavatsky mentions the planet Vulcan in 1888 explicitly  as “intra-mercurial”:

“… our modern astrologers are ignorant of these planets. One is an intra-mercurial planet, which is supposed to have been discovered, and named by anticipation Vulcan …”

Secret Doctrine Commentary (Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge) by H. P. Blavatsky
Meeting 4 held at 17, Lansdowne Road, London, W., on January 31st, 1888; Mr. T. B. Harbottle in the chair.

Later Alice A. Bailey discovered the Theosophical Society and the work of Blavatsky somewhere around 1917 or 1918. Bailey started writing her own works in 1919 (to 1949). At my count she mentions the word “Vulcan” 133 times in her writings, most often in Esoteric Astrology (95 times by my count).  For example:

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