It is difficult to write clearly about this matter of world glamor (This message appears in the book Glamor: A World Problem. It is included here to preserve the historical sequence of the teaching in relation to world events.) because we are in the midst of its most concentrated expression - the worst the world has ever seen because glamor, incident to centuries of greed and selfishness, of aggression and materialism, has been focused in a triplicity of nations. It is, therefore, easily to be seen and most effective in manifestation. Three nations express the three aspects of world glamor (illusion, glamor and maya) in an amazing manner, and their powerful assault upon the [355] consciousness of humanity is dependent not only upon the response of Germany, Japan and Italy to this ancient miasma but also upon the fact that every nation - the United Nations as well as the Totalitarian Nations - are tainted with this universal condition. The freedom of the world is consequently largely dependent upon those people in every nation who (within themselves) have moved forward out of one or other of these "glamorous illusions of mayavic impressions" of the human soul into a state of awareness wherein they can see the conflict in its wider terms, i.e., as that existing for them between the Dweller on the Threshold and the Angel of the Presence.

It is right here that religion has, as a whole, gone astray. I refer to orthodox religion. It has been preoccupied with the Dweller on the Threshold and the eyes of the theologian have been held upon the material, phenomenal aspect of life through fear and its immediacy, and the fact of the Angel has been a theory and a point of wishful thinking. The balance is being adjusted by the humanitarian attitudes which are so largely coming into control, irrespective of any theological trend. These attitudes take their stand upon belief in the innate rightness of the human spirit, in the divinity of man and upon the indestructible nature of the soul of mankind. This inevitably brings in the concept of the Presence, or of God Immanent and is the result of the needed revolt against the one-sidedness of the belief in God Transcendent. This spiritual revolution was entirely a balancing process and need cause no basic concern, for God Transcendent eternally exists, but can only be seen and known and correctly approached by God Immanent - immanent [356] in individual man, in groups and nations, in organized forms and in religion, in humanity as a whole and in the planetary Life Itself. Humanity is today (and has been for ages) battling illusion, glamor and maya. Advanced thinkers, those upon the Probationary Path, upon the Path of Discipleship, and the Path of Initiation have reached the point where materialism and spirituality, the Dweller on the Threshold and the Angel of the Presence, and the basic dualism of manifestation can be seen clearly defined. Because of this clarity of demarcation, the issues underlying present world events, the objectives of the present worldwide struggle, the modes and methods of re-establishing the spiritual contact so prevalent in Atlantean days and so long lost, and the recognition of the techniques which can bring in the new world era and its cultural order can be clearly noted and appraised.

All generalizations admit of error. It might, however, be said that Germany has focused in herself world glamor - the most potent and expressive of the three aspects of glamor. Japan is manifesting the force of maya - the crudest form of material force. Italy, individualistic and mentally polarized, is the expression of world illusion. The United Nations, with all their faults, limitations, weaknesses and nationalisms, are focusing the conflict between the Dweller and the Angel, and thus the three forms of glamor and the final form of the conflict between the spiritual ideal and its material opponent are appearing simultaneously. The United Nations are, however, gradually and most decisively throwing the weight of their effort and aspiration on to the side of the Angel, thus restoring the lost balance and slowly producing on a planetary scale those attitudes and conditions which will eventually dispel illusion, dissipate glamor and devitalize the prevalent maya. This they are doing by the increased clear thinking of the general public of all the nations, bound together to conquer the three Axis Powers, by their growing ability to conceive ideas in terms of the whole, in terms of a desirable world order or federation, [357] and their capacity to discriminate between the Forces of Light and the potency of evil or materialism.