ISBN: 9781557000668
Behind the world's religions, philosophies, and sciences lies the hidden source of humanity's inner life and spiritual sustenance. Through the intellectual awakening of infant mankind millions of years ago, to the subsequent misuse of knowledge which led to the foundation of Mystery colleges by great sages and seers, The Mystery Schools traces this movement back to the earliest times. It describes the role of the brotherhood of adepts in discovering, disseminating, and preserving the truths of nature and man, and discusses the purposes and methods of the Mysteries, the pattern of esotericism, routes of initiation, and the Mystery schools today.
Grace F. Knoche was born in 1909 at the theosophical headquarters, then at Point Loma, California, and attended the Raja-Yoga School and Academy founded by Katherine Tingley. She joined the TS in 1929 shortly before Mrs. Tingley left on her last tour to Europe. Under G. de Purucker as Leader, she worked at the headquarters as a compositor in the Press, in the Secretary General's office, and on the Leader's secretarial staff. She assisted Dr. de Purucker in revising the Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary, and was on the committees responsible for reorganizing his Esoteric School materials, later published as The Dialogues of G. de Purucker (1948) and Fountain-Source of Occultism (1974). She continued her studies at Theosophical University, receiving a Ph.D. in 1944. At various times from 1933 to 1946 she taught violin, Greek, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Bible translation, and Qabbālāh at Theosophical University, and painting and sculpture at the Lomaland school.
During the Cabinet administration after Purucker's death in 1942, Grace served as private secretary to the Chairman of the Cabinet, continuing as private secretary to the next two Leaders, Colonel Arthur Conger and James A. Long. She worked closely with James A. Long on his new magazine, Sunrise, begun in 1951.
On Mr. Long's death in 1971, Grace assumed leadership of the TS and became editor of Sunrise. For almost 35 years she encouraged the membership to assume responsibility for directing the course of their lives along universal principles, stressing that the same compassionate life currents that build and shape the evolution of the cosmos also inform the patterns of everyday experience. Always a collaborator at heart, Grace worked to establish a spirit of cooperation among the various theosophical organizations. She died in Altadena, California, on February 18, 2006, at the age of 97.