One of the interesting developments in the school has been our steady stiffening of the requirements of membership. Increasingly we find ourselves rejecting students who are strictly on the emotional level and emphasizing the necessity for some mental focus and development, if the more advanced training of our senior degrees is to be given. As the years go by and the need of the world becomes more crucial the paralleling need of trained disciples also becomes increasingly apparent. The world has to be salvaged by those with both intelligence and love; aspiration and good intention are not enough.

During these years of travel we met many types of occultism in the different countries in Europe. Everywhere small groups could be contacted who were emphasizing some aspects of the Ageless Wisdom and some presentation of esoteric truth. The first indications of a rising spiritual tide could be seen everywhere, equally in Poland and Romania as in Great Britain and America. It was almost as if the door to a new spiritual life had been opened to humanity and that this evoked a corresponding uprising of the forces of evil which culminated in the World War; that this rising tide has been interrupted by the war I do not believe. I am confident that it will have led to an intensification of the spiritual urge and that those of us who are workers in the Masters' vineyard will have our hands full in future years in organizing, in encouraging and instructing those who are spiritually awake.

When I say this I am giving no indication of bragging or self satisfaction. We are only one of many groups through which the Masters of the Wisdom are working, and any group that forgets this is apt to become smug isolationist and, therefore, in imminent danger of collapse. We have been permitted to do certain things. Other disciples and groups have been responsible for initiating other projects under the guidance of their own Masters. All these projects if carried forward under Hierarchical inspiration and in a spirit of true humility and understanding are contributory to the factors in a great spiritual enterprise which the Hierarchy started in 1925. It is with one of these dramatic expressions of Hierarchical purpose that I want to deal at this time.

In 1932 when we were at Ascona I received a communication from the Tibetan which was published in the fall in a pamphlet entitled, The New Group of World Servers. This was epoch making in its significance though only a few people as yet realize its true meaning.

This attempt to lead humanity onward along new and more definite lines and on a much larger scale than heretofore is made possible by the coming in of the Aquarian age. This Aquarian age is both astronomical and astrological in import.