The Rise of the Group Hero
2019 Festival Week of the New Group of World Servers
Dear Co-worker,
Humanity’s earliest surviving work of great literature is thought to be The Epic of Gilgamesh. Evolving from a series of Sumerian poems some four thousand years ago, it is the story of a semi-divine but ruthless king who becomes traumatised by the death of his warrior friend and sets off on a quest to discover the key to eternal life. Slaying monsters, encountering deities and consulting sages along the way – Gilgamesh finally experiences a personal redemption that sees him come to terms with his own mortality and return to his people as a wiser, more beneficent king.
Fast-forwarding to the present, the highest-grossing film of all time is The Avengers: Endgame. It is the 22nd film of a series about a group of less than perfect superheroes, each struggling with personal issues and tragedies of some kind. This film is about their quest to restore the life of half the universe that has been decimated by an evil Titan. Slaying alien monsters, encountering deities derived from mythological pantheons, and consulting sages along the way – the central character, once an unethical arms dealer, completes his redemption process in this film by accepting his own death so that everyone else may live.
Between these two epic tales, thousands of years of human evolution have elapsed and an infinite number of stories exploring every detail of the human psyche have been told; but the story of the flawed superhero, beset by tragedy and on a quest – consulting oracles, fighting evil and finding redemption, resonates in human consciousness as much today as it ever did. While The Epic of Gilgamesh might be branded the product of an era of ignorance and superstition, and The Avengers: Endgame as no more than escapism, the shared symbolism of these two stories masks some deep, unrecognised truths in the collective subconscious. Moreover, a third epic story is currently being written – one that shares the same type of symbolism – the difference being that this world story is factual.
Before considering this story, we should be mindful of the context in which it is unfolding; and according to Yuval Noah Harari, the historian and author, our current time can best be understood as the aftermath of a twentieth century battle between three ideologies: fascist, communist and liberal. He writes that, after the collapse of fascism in the 1940s and communism in the late 1980s, the liberal story remained as “the dominant guide to the human past and the indispensable manual for the future of the world – or so it seemed to the global elite…;” and according to the panacea of recent decades, continuing to liberalise and globalise political and economic systems would produce peace and prosperity for all.
Since the global financial crisis of 2008, Harari continues, people worldwide have become increasingly disillusioned with the liberal ideology: “walls and firewalls are back in vogue. Resistance to immigration and to trade agreements is mounting. Ostensibly democratic governments undermine the independence of the judicial system, restrict the freedom of the press, and portray any opposition as treason. Strongmen…experiment with new types of illiberal democracies…the liberal elites, who dominated much of the world in recent decades, have entered a state of shock and disorientation. To have one story is the most reassuring situation of all. Everything is perfectly clear. To be suddenly left without any story is terrifying.
Nothing makes any sense. The mood of disorientation and impending doom is exacerbated by the accelerating pace of technological disruption.”1
Listening to the comments of many intelligent observers of world affairs, it is understandable why many people of goodwill have become despondent and anxious about the future. The hopes that a greater, wider vision of freedom based on love and sharing would naturally evolve from the liberal political story are fading. Added to this despondency is the apparent lack of any true religious or mythological story that can adequately guide humanity through the dangers of this new world. As religious leaders struggle to tell their story convincingly midst the chaos of this fledgling new age, the power of the algorithm that drives information technology, artificial intelligence and bioengineering is on the rise. It is this scenario that has spawned the dystopian vision of a future humanity, as those, like Harari, who reject conventional religious views outright, are left pondering the possible consequences of a futuristic, biotechnological world in which human beings are surpassed by their own creations.
As all students of esoteric philosophy know however, the power of story has not been lost to humanity at all, and beneath the surface of this digital media age, the human psyche still resonates with the truths expressed in the stories of the Gods and heroes of the myths and legends of ancient literature. Though these ancient stories may be largely unknown or ignored by today’s world, the truths they embody remain as vital, influential forces, running through the collective subconscious. The higher correspondence of these forces are the great archetypal beings that operate in the collective superconscious of humanity and it is the energy of these lives that is increasingly expressing itself through a group of spiritually active people.
This is the basis of the new world story that is unfolding – the rise to the fore of a group hero, called The New Group of World Servers in Alice Bailey’s writings. This group is comprised of the growing number of people who, though not yet liberated from the conflict of the human condition, are awake to the divine side of their nature. Each seeks to serve in some problematic area of human endeavour. Energised by the One Life, their quest for world redemption is characterised by enlightened reason and by love of humanity. While few of them may be conscious of their inner affiliations, they resonate powerfully with many others. Their cause unites them and, in the midst of world despair, they are rising together, expressing the lighted ideals and principles of a more constructive and inclusive world society to come.
Like the archetypal hero, the New Group of World Servers is an intermediary between the kingdom of souls and humanity – and pitted against them stand all the unredeemed forces that make up the great struggle for existence. Faced with such mighty opposition, all heroes must rise to the occasion, overcoming their own issues by evoking the power of the divine within themselves. For this reason, the process of Invocation and Evocation lies at the heart of epic stories; good triumphs over evil through the drawing down and application of higher qualities and moral powers. This process is alive subjectively in all those who form part of the New Group of World Servers.
All of the elements of the superhero story can be found in the story of the New Group of World servers. We are currently witnessing the rise of a group hero in our midst, forging a bridge between a despairing humanity and the glorious reality of a Superhuman kingdom of Nature that is preparing to externalise itself in human affairs. Each one of us can be a part of this group and take an active role in the great, unfolding story. Participation requires the evocation of the divine Self within, allowing that power to freely circulate and activate the life expression. This energy circulation elevates the individual psychologically, to become a symbolic part of the group organism which stands atop the mountain, receiving the light of Divinity. And as an ancient aphorism expresses it, this group then revolves upon the pedestal of light and turns the other way to transmit the outward streaming light to the face of those upon the darkened way.2
These rousing words can direct us to ponder on how the New Group of World Servers expresses similar qualities and principles to certain heroes in classic mythology. One that springs to mind is Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods on Mount Olympus to impart to humanity the gift of civilisation. This symbolic act might be equated with the fusion of the higher and lower mind into a bridge of incandescent light between the human and superhuman kingdoms of nature. This is the goal for this stage of human evolution and the immediate task of the New Group of World Servers who are leading the way. It is inspiring to picture the group standing on the mountaintop in Capricorn, evoking the blazing light of Hierarchy to give to humanity as the fire of the new world civilisation.
The Alice Bailey writings state that every seven years the energies of Capricorn are augmented by the forces from a much greater constellation which is, to our zodiac, what the zodiac is to the earth. This gives tremendous impetus to the work of the New Group of World Servers. It is due to occur again this year, celebrated the week of 21st to 28th December and we invite you to join in some of the many planned activities and let us know if you have any plans of your own so that these can be shared on the website: www.festivalweek.org
In lighted group companionship,
Lucis Trust
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, pp. 12-13, (Kindle Edition) Yuval Noah Harari
- Discipleship in the New Age Vol II, p. 15. A.A. Bailey