Thus we find the interlude with which we have been almost distressingly familiar. You may have been led to expect some great onward sweep, some clear time of reaping, or some spectacular climax of happenings. When all that occurred was an interim of relative silence and a period wherein nothing seemed to occur, it was natural for the majority to experience a sense of disappointment, a reaction which was almost equivalent, in some cases, to loss of faith, and a feeling [704] of emotional fatigue and mental futility which tried many to the utmost. It is wise to remember that these reactions do not affect the issue and in no way retard the event, though they may make the task of the approaching helpers more difficult and draw almost unnecessarily upon their spiritual resources.

In May, 1938, at the time of the full moon, the Council of the Hierarchy to which I have several times referred in the past, convened and the plans for the immediate future were laid down. I would remind you of something we are very apt to forget. The plans for humanity are not laid down, for humanity determines its own destiny. The plans to meet the immediate human emergency and the plans to make possible a closer relationship between humanity and the Hierarchy were established. The problem before the Hierarchy of Masters (speaking in a large and general sense) is to intensify the activity and the consequent potency of that hidden power. By thus bringing it to the fore in human lives, the needed changes in our civilization can be produced. The average man works from the organization angle and having visioned some illuminating idea, he begins to build the outer physical form which will house and express it. The planetary Hierarchy, working under the inspiration of the Divine vision as it is embodied in the Plan, seeks to evoke a response to that Plan in every human heart, and by fostering and fanning that response, to evoke not only a mental understanding but also an [705] aspirational desire. These together will produce finally the emergence of the Plan upon the earth and thus express a conditioning factor in human affairs.

The questions we shall first discuss are as follows: What are the psychological advantages of somewhat understanding the nature of the egoic ray? What intelligent use can be made by psychologists of the fact, if the soul ray is determined and recognized?