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“So the Masters, as we picture them, are images in our imagination, as indeed are all inner plane entities, human, angelic or elemental. But this does not mean that they are the product of our imaginations. They are real beings on their own level. And the level of the Masters corresponds to the Sephirah Chesed, which is a sphere where forms are of the density of the processes of the abstract mind or intuition. (…)

Obviously if one is going to start holding interior conversations with projections of one’s own imagination it does not require much dissociation of consciousness to land one into the strange worlds of schizophrenia and hallucination. That is why practical occultism should be carried out under strictly controlled conditions and with a definite purpose in mind, and it is the reason for opening and sealing riuals before and after practical work.

Whilst early propagandists on behalf of the existence of the Masters may not have fallen into schizophrenia it appears that many were the victims of hallunication in that they confused their planes, mistaking astral consciousness for physical reality. Thus one reads accounts of meetings with such and such a Master in a railway train or public park, with detailed descriptions of dress, including top-hat, umbrella and all.

Anyone having any conception of what the Masters really are must realise that accounts of such alleged physical manifestations are complete balderdash. However the fact is that there is truth behind the folly and self-deception and it is an appalling tragedy that the foolish way in which the facts have been presented in the past has led many to dismiss the whole subject out of hand - and frankly one can hardly blame those who have done so.

The Masters, or Inner Plane Adepti, are human beings who have gained all the experience, and all the wisdom resulting from experience, necessary for their spiritual evolution in the worlds of form. They are thus ‘just men made perfect’. All souls, when they have become free of the necessity for birth and death, can go on to higher evolution in other spheres, but some elect to stay behind in Earth conditions in order to help on their ’younger brethen’ in their progress through cyclic evolution on this planet. These are the Masters, and there are many of them, though only a few are known to humanity by name for it is only the ’teaching Masters’ who communicate directly with us.

It is this ’College of Masters’ that forms the upper reaches of the planetary Hierarchy of human beings, just as the Archangels form the upper reaches of the Angelic and Elemental Hiearchy. The function of the Masters is to mediate divine forces, or the Will of God, to humanity and thus can they be considered to operate in the Sephirah Chesed." (Gareth Knight: A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism. vol. I On the Spheres of the Tree of Life. 1965/2001, p. 115-117)