This progressive "creative raising" necessarily produces a cycle of tremendous difficulty in the life of the aspirant to initiation, for the microcosm undergoes - in his minute living process - what the planetary Logos undergoes in a cosmic process. When - as is the case today - Humanity itself is in process of becoming creative in the higher sense, and when this synchronizes with a major creative planetary activity, then a cycle of very great disturbance eventuates which necessarily affects every individual within "the race of men." Hence the sexual disturbance to be seen everywhere, with the license present in every country and the apparent breakdown of the marriage relation. This indicates the emergence eventually of a creativity of such wondrous dimensions that the world will stand amazed; nothing like it will have been seen before. A creative planning for human well-being and a political expression, implementing this planning, will demonstrate in every country; a creative thinking will be apparent which will express itself in writing and in poetry; creative imagining will produce the new art, the new colors, the new architecture and the new culture; a creative responsiveness to the "music of the spheres" will bring forth the new music. All this will be in response to the creative reorganization and the newly directed energies which are engaging the attention of the planetary Logos at this time. [553]

1. This intense creative activity falls into two parts:
   1. A destructive cycle, wherein the old order passes away and that which has been created - human civilization with its accompanying institutions - is destroyed. With this destructive action Humanity is today occupying itself - mostly unconsciously. The major creative agents are the intelligentsia of the race.
   2. A cycle of restoration, with many accompanying difficulties in which the mass of men take part, under the influence and inspiration of a regenerated intelligentsia.
2. This process received its initial impulse as a result of a group decision within the Hierarchy itself. Certain Masters Who were facing the sixth Initiation of Decision at the time - a relatively small but powerful group - decided together to tread the Path of Earth Service (technically understood) in order to bring about the changes which They sensed as desirable and as already existing within the consciousness of the One Initiator, the planetary Logos. It was Their decision, taken early in this century, which precipitated - in the center which we call "the race of men" - those potencies and stimulating energies which produced that major destructive agency, the world war (1914-1945). As these energies occultly "fell into the center," the effect produced was both good and bad. Human unity and unanimity, human planning for group welfare, and human [554] creativity (expressed primarily at this time through science) received a tremendous stimulation. Simultaneously, the entering potencies released by this decision produced an upsurging of evil in the hearts of men so inclined, leading to an analogous or paralleling unity, unanimity and creative activity of separative and hateful evil. This, in its turn, "opened the door where evil dwelt" and let loose on earth the full fury of the Black Lodge.
   That this would be the result the Masters knew when making Their decision; They consciously struck a blow at the materialism which was binding humanity and imprisoning the human spirit. This evoked a prompt reaction from the Forces of Evil which had created and "held in being" the modern materialistic world, with its emphasis upon forms and money. The Masters had confidence that the human spirit would be able to live through the period of upheaval and emerge eventually into the new era, ready to build the new world and to reorganize all human resources - material, mental and spiritual.
3. The response of humanity, from the angle of a spiritual realization of the presented opportunity, was the emergence of the New Group of World Servers. They appeared in every country, conscious of their task of crystallizing and making effective human goodwill, though generally unconscious of their hierarchical relationship. Their appearance evoked an immediate reaction from the Spiritual Hierarchy, and experienced disciples made their appearance in the ranks of the New Group of World Servers, directing their efforts, voicing their aims and stimulating their understanding. The new group worked in and through every department of human thinking, human welfare and human planning; as a result, and almost immediately, the men of goodwill everywhere in the world took heart of grace (a most appropriate phrase) and became active.

The three points made here will demonstrate to you the factual nature of the circulation of energies. All these happenings are part of a process of planetary initiation; [555] such an initiation cannot take place without important effects, both in the Hierarchy and in the human family. In old Atlantean days, it was the Masters (facing the same sixth initiation) Who "decided" to bring that ancient civilization to an end; They therefore sacrificed the form aspect of manifestation and created a situation in which the soul of humanity was liberated from the prison in which it found itself. Today, a material catastrophe, such as the flood, has not been deemed necessary; it is believed that humanity can and will find its own way out of the world difficulties. [556]