Alice Bailey's Discipleship in the New Age; CCWV.LIFE

In 1944 Alice Bailey, the Theosophical writer who taught that she transcribed the Tibetan master Djwhal Khul, publishes the first volume of Discipleship in the New Age. Bailey's books, with their vision of a coming new age of group consciousness and the reappearance of the Christ, give the phrase New Age its esoteric charter decades before the movement takes the name.

Tagged: New Age

The Event

Date: 1944 (exact)
Era: The Esoteric Preparation; Standard periodization of New Age history
Location: New York; today New York, New York
Traditions: New Age Spirituality
Streams: New Age
Key figures: Alice Bailey
Key texts: Discipleship in the New Age

Connections

Illustration for Theosophical Society founded

History Event Theosophical Society founded 1875 Bailey's work grows from and breaks with the Theosophical Society (whose founding record stands in the secular timeline)

Primary Sources

Bailey, Alice A. Discipleship in the New Age, volume one. New York: Lucis, 1944.

Secondary Sources

Hanegraaff, Wouter J. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Leiden: Brill, 1996.
Heelas, Paul. The New Age Movement. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
York, Michael. The Emerging Network: A Sociology of the New Age and Neo-Pagan Movements. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 1995.

Provenance: HIST-1471; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.