In a world increasingly marked by division, disconnection, and individualism, the need for true spiritual community has never been more urgent.
Whilst hitherto usually connected with physical co-habitation based groups, community as a mindset and set of principles, can be considered more widely to include social communities, groups and organisations.
The core purpose, strength, and sacredness of community is what is needed today. Far from being merely a social or commercial arrangement or a convenient support network, true community is a living organism of shared purpose, soul alignment, and spiritual evolution.
As the planetary vibration rises and the influence of the Seventh Ray reshapes our collective structures to higher levels of Divine Order, the esoteric function of spiritual community becomes increasingly vital. Community is not simply about proximity or shared interest—it is a field of soul resonance, a dynamic organism aligned with the Plan of the Hierarchy.
We can further consider community as a precursor to Ashramic life and the soul’s natural medium of expression as a “cosmic cell” through which higher energies can descend and be rightly distributed. We could say that the community is not just a place where we can take refuge, but a radiatory centre.
Community and groups can be a training ground for a higher level of radiatory function where collectively we amplify our ability to support the higher forces through fiery striving and harmonised purpose. As we are told in AY Community 24 “The community must be not a tower, but a bridge.” A bridge between Humanity and the Hierarchy. It must work on both vertical and horizontal planes.
The Laws and Principles of the New Age also give us clear, grounded guidance here through the Law of Group Endeavour and the Principle of Unanimity where the power of a unified soul purpose of a group is activated when members orient their lives around a shared note of service (toward the higher good), not around emotional attraction or convenience. Then a true community forms.
As we are reminded by Alice Bailey “The primary attitude of the group member must be that of impersonality and loving detachment.” Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. II, p. 32
Built on this foundation of impersonality and loving detachment, a human community can become a very powerful creative force built on the deep participation and collaboration of souls in human form. Through ‘sacrifice’ of the personality self in service of the collective goal, a community becomes an alchemist spiralling ever higher in both its consciousness and its practical contribution to building the New Era for the planet and for humanity as a whole.
As the levels of awareness spiral upwards and new layers of consciousness grow through applied group cohesion and group consciousness, communities receive new insights often only accessible in group formation. Insights that open the door to innovation and ways of being and doing that are in harmony with the essential Oneness of life. Through concrete projects, ideas, overcoming crystallised problems, creative exploration of opportunities, all whilst choosing to live in harmony with all kingdoms of nature – we can see the innovative power that can manifest in community.
“Only in striving toward general welfare lies the strength of the community.” AY Community, §59
In many ways we might say that when a group lives to serve the unfolding Plan, it becomes a station of light and here we come back to its radiatory power. To emit light regardless of whether this light is recognised by Humanity or not. A community is underpinned by faith, not in the religious sense of blind devotion, but in the spiritual sense of a profound knowing, and ‘knows’ that it is working and living in service of the unfolding Divine Plan – which is both important right now and simultaneously unfolding in its own right timing.
We might say that a community is a “laboratory of life,” as it is described in Agni Yoga.
In the book Community (§12), we read: “The community is a manifestation of cosmic order. Let it be not a heap of people, but a union of seekers.”
A union of seekers dedicated to being a force for positive change – a chalice of fire. A fundamental cornerstone of the New Era, true spiritual communities founded on love, light and spiritual power will radiate for the benefit of all life, forming the bridge between the earthly realms and the higher realms.
Lorraine Flower