Earlier I gave you some thoughts anent the new groups which come into functioning activity under The Law of Group Progress. This law has a peculiarly close relation to the new Aquarian Age. (A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. II (Esoteric Psychology), Pages 174-194.)

Groups have always existed in the world, as for instance the family group unit, but they have been predominantly third ray groups with, therefore, a dominant outer expression and control, and originating as the result of desire. [27] Their focus has been outstandingly material, and that has been part of the intended plan. Right objectivity and expression has been the goal, and still is, of the evolutionary process. But the groups now forming are a second ray activity and are building groups - building the forms of expression in the new age. They are not the result of desire, as the term is usually understood, for they are founded basically on a mental impulse. They are subjective in fact and not objective in nature. They are distinguished by quality more than by form. That they may eventually produce potent objective effects is to be desired and such is their intent in our minds, but - at the present stage which is that of germination - they are subjective and (occultly speaking) they are "working in the dark." At some distant date, groups will emerge which will be first ray groups, animated by the will aspect and consequently still more subjective in nature and more esoteric in origin, but with these we need not concern ourselves.

Should these groups develop as intended, should the corporate life of the members persist in right integral relation and should continuance be their keynote, then these seed groups , tiny as they may be, will come to flower, and - through an eventual "scattering of the seed," succeed finally in "covering the earth with verdure." I am speaking here in the language of symbolism which is, as you well know, the language of truth. One small plant which, in its turn, succeeds in producing a seed, through rightful fruition can thus reproduce itself in multiple order. Be not therefore [28] unduly impressed by the smallness of the effort. A tiny seed is a potent force - if duly tended, rightly nurtured and ripened by sun and water within the soil - its potencies are unpredictable.

Two ways in which these determining ideas in the past came into being and played their part in leading the race onward might be mentioned.

One was through the teaching of some teacher who founded a school of thought, thus working through the minds of a chosen few, and through them eventually colored the thoughts of the men of his time. Of such a teacher, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and many others are outstanding examples.

Another method was the evocation of the desire of the masses for that which is deemed desirable and their mass reorientation towards a fuller life expression. This life expression, founded on some voiced idea, was embodied in an ideal life. Thus the work of the Saviors of the world came into expression, and this brought about the emergence of a world religion.