Dear friend,

One of the greatest contributions of the books of Alice Bailey is the inspiring vision they offer of the Plan for our world, both on the universal level of the evolution of consciousness down through history, and in the part that every human being can play in the working out of the divine Plan within the individual’s sphere of responsibility. That Plan is now, as many observers of history and students of the Ageless Wisdom would agree, at a critical juncture. Recently the journalist Thomas Friedman, who attended the United Nations conference on climate change in Bali in December 2007, noted that one widely shared, if unspoken, sentiment emerged with clarity from all the discussions: "that ‘later’ is over for our generation".

Not only is the environmental crisis making the urgency of the present times undeniably clear; the dangers posed by the sense of separateness also highlight the need for humanity to mend the cleavages it has allowed to develop. The increasing economic disparity between rich and poor and the growth of religious hatreds stand as real threats to world stability. The fight for freedom of thought and belief, and the resistance to this freedom on the part of the extreme fundamentalists of all religions, together with the prevailing political, religious and social correctness of our times, are forcing all thinking people to examine their values and to clarify the governing principles of their lives.

The theme of the "New World Religion" presented in the writings of Alice Bailey offers an inspiring counterpoint to religious divisions. Sometimes it is misinterpreted to mean the abolishing of religious traditions as they are now known and often revered by their followers, but the new world religion does not foresee the ending of differences in religious customs because they are often closely linked to cultural and historical factors which meet the needs of the members of those faiths. But Alice Bailey did present a vision of a subjective unity of religious belief which can be recognised by people of goodwill and by spiritual seekers, even as some of them continue to work within their particular religious traditions.

The three spiritual Festivals of Easter, the great Western festival celebrated at the Aries full moon; Wesak, the great Eastern festival celebrated at the full moon of Taurus; and the Festival of Goodwill – the Christ’s festival – celebrated at the Gemini full moon, are a demonstration of the links that unite a number of religious traditions – Christianity, Judaism which provided the base for the Christ’s work, Islam which Alice Bailey described as being "a hybrid offshoot of Christianity", and Buddhism, with its historical link to Hinduism. The close partnership of the "two brothers", the Christ and the Buddha, which is demonstrated each year at Wesak, leading to a subsequent release of spiritual energy at the Christ’s festival, is an affirmation of the underlying unity which exists on the inner side of life. At the centre of this vortex of converging spiritual energies stands the Christ. Christ, from the Greek Cristos, means "the annointed one", the same meaning given to the Hebrew Massiach (Messiah). The Imam Mahdi, the "Guided one" awaited by Shia Moslems, the Maitreya Buddha whom Buddhists expect, and the Kalki Avatar predicted in Hindu scripture are just some of the names given by numerous religious traditions throughout the world to the widely-shared expectancy of a world Saviour.

This expectancy is espoused in the new world religion as a guarantee of man’s relationship to God, expressed by St. Paul as "Christ in you, the hope of glory". Edgar Cayce called it "the pattern for every man in the earth, whether he be Gentile or Jew, Parthenian or Greek. For all have the pattern, whether they call on that name or not…." The new world religion also views the return of the Christ as an affirmation of the continuity of revelation and the divine approaches. The recognition of the necessity for humanity to make its approach to God, to the Divine, and not simply "await rescue" is a key element of the new world religion and the basis for the profound spiritual significance of the three spiritual Festivals.

At this moment in the annual cycle, humanity has the opportunity to co-operate in a united act of invocation generated by the recognition of spiritual need. The process of invocation, the motivating power behind the new world religion, will be based on the united effort of countless human beings to visualise a world of right human relationships, in which the material realm is understood to be the medium for the manifestation of spirit, not its antithesis. This form of invocation will have its basis in the realisation of the underlying synthesis behind the wide diversity of forms and in the power of the will-to-good to reveal the means for establishing right relationship among all parts of the Whole.

The Great Invocation is the supreme tool available to humanity for contributing to the united act of invocation at the higher interlude of the three spiritual Festivals. It has been translated into many languages which are displayed on our website (http://www.lucistrust.org/invocation) and its distribution is worldwide. The sounding of the Great Invocation, particularly in group meditation, is a vitally important act of service at the higher interlude of the year, and we encourage you to participate in group meditation at each of the three festivals or, if an established group does not exist in your community, to consider organising such a group, no matter how small. As the Christ assured us, "Wherever two or three are gathered in My name, there am I." Group meditation at the time of the monthly festivals is a crucial stone in the foundation of the new world religion and we are happy to provide you with additional information if you are considering establishing such a group.

Group meditation is in line with another element of the new world religion: the realisation that energy is the basis of all life. Science, from its perspective, has contributed much to this understanding. Now the commitment of intelligent people of goodwill and spiritual orientation is needed in order to synchronise group meditation and invocation with the monthly and annual Approaches to the spiritual Hierarchy—of God to humanity and of humanity to God.

"‘Later’ is over for our generation", Thomas Friedman said. This realisation of the urgency and opportunity of the present cycle in human history was expressed in another way in A Treatise on WhiteMagic by Alice Bailey: I urge upon all workers the remembrance that the day of opportunity is with us and that it has its term. This present type of opportunity will not last forever. The pettiness of the human frictions, the failures to understand each other, the little faults which have their roots in personality and which are, after all, ephemeral, the ambitions and illusions must all go. If the workers would practise detachment, knowing that the Law works and that God's purposes must come to an ultimate conclusion and if they would learn never to criticize in thought or word, the salvaging of the world would proceed apace and the new age of love and illumination would be ushered in.

The keynote of this year’s Arcane School conference is: When a human crisis and a hierarchical crisis coincide, an hour of opportunity emerges. Let the group respond. You and your friends are warmly invited to the conference and Festivals meetings in the three headquarters centres:

Easter Festival (Aries full moon) – March 21 (March 20 in New York)

Wesak Festival (first Taurus full moon) – April 19

Conference in New York – May 17-18

Second Taurus full moon – May 19 (further information)

Conference in Geneva – June 7-8

Conference in London – June 14-15

Christ’s Festival and World Invocation Day – June 18

Your companions in service,

LUCIS TRUST