Illusion is the power of some mental thought-form, of some ideal, and some concept - sensed, grasped and interpreted [129] in mental form - to dominate the mental processes of the individual or of the race and consequently to produce the limitation of the individual or group expression. Such ideas and concepts can be of three kinds, as I realize you should know:

1. They can be inherited ideas, as in the case of those who find it so difficult to adjust themselves to the new vision of world life and of social order, as expressed in the newer ideologies. They are powerfully conditioned by their cast, their tradition and their background.
2. They can be the more modern ideas which are, in the last analysis, the reaction of modern thought to world conditions and situations, and to these many other aspirants are very prone and most naturally so, especially if living in the vortex of force which we call modern Europe. Such modern ideas are construed today into major currents and dominating ideologies, and to these every intelligent person must inevitably react, though they forget that that reaction is based on tradition, or upon national or international predisposition.
3. They can be the newer dimly sensed ideas which have in them the power to condition the future and lead the modern generation out of darkness into light. None of you as yet really sense these new ideas, though in moments of high meditation and spiritual achievement, you may vaguely and briefly react to them. That reaction may be real just in so far that it conditions, with definiteness, your service to your fellowmen. You can react correctly and can do so increasingly if you preserve your soul's integrity and are not overcome by the battle and the fever of your surroundings within your chosen field of service. [130]

You might well ask here if the Hierarchy itself is not conditioned by an idea and, therefore, is itself a victim of general and widespread illusion. Apart from the fact that the Directors of the Hierarchy and the Custodians of the Plan are never permitted to become such until they are free from the incentive of illusion, I would remind you that all ideas stream into the planetary consciousness along the channel of the seven rays. Thus, the Hierarchy is wide open, in any case, to the seven major groups of ideas which are the IDEA of God for any specific point in time, expressed in seven major ways - all of them equally right and serving the sevenfold need of humanity. Each of these seven formulations of God's Idea has its specific contribution to make; each of them is a true idea which has its part to play in human or planetary service; and each of them is so interrelated with the other six expressions of the same divine Idea, working out as ideals upon the mental plane, that there can be no narrowing down to one idea with its ramifications as happens among men. There is, at least, sensitivity to seven groups of ideas and their resultant ideals and - if it were no more than that - the Hierarchy is so far fluid and pliable. But it is far more than just this, for, to the members of the Hierarchy, the idea and its effects are not only interpreted in terms of human thought-forms and human idealism, but they are also to be contacted and studied in their relation to the [131] Mind of God Himself and to the planetary kingdoms. These ideas come from and they emanate from the buddhic plane, which is seldom open to the consciousness of the average disciple and certainly is not open to the contact of the average idealist. I would here remind you that few idealists are personally in touch with the idea which has given birth to the idealism. They are only in touch with the human interpretation of the idea, as formulated by some disciple or intuitive - a very different thing.

An illusion can, therefore, be defined as the consequence of an idea (translated into ideal) being regarded as the entire presentation, as the complete story or solution and as being separated from and visioned independently of all other ideas - both religious in nature or apparently completely unrelated to religion. In this statement lies the story of separation and of man's inability to relate the various implications of a divine idea with each other. When visioned and grasped in a narrow and separate manner, there is necessarily a distortion of the truth, and the disciple or aspirant inevitably pledges himself to a partial aspect of reality or of the Plan and not to the truth as far as it can be revealed or to the Plan as the Members of the Hierarchy know it. This illusion evokes in the disciple or idealist an emotional reaction which immediately feeds desire and consequently shifts off the mental plane on to the astral; a desire is thus evoked for a partial and inadequate ideal and thus the idea cannot arrive at full expression, because its exponent sees only this partial ideal as the whole truth and cannot, therefore, grasp its social and planetary and its cosmic implications.