ASCENDED MASTER
Ascended masters in the Ascended Master Teachings of a number of movements in the theosophical tradition[1] are held to be spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans, but who have undergone a series of spiritual transformations originally called initiations.
Both "mahatma" and "ascended master" are terms used in the Ascended Master Teachings. Ascended Master is based on the theosophical concept of the Mahatma or Masters of the Ancient Wisdom. However, Mahatmas and Ascended Masters are believed by some to differ in certain respects.
According to the Ascended Master Teachings a "Master of Light", "Healer" or "Spiritual Master" is a Divine Human Being who has taken the Fifth Initiation and is thereby capable of dwelling in a 5th dimension. The teachings hold that an "ascended master" is a human being who has taken the Sixth Initiation, also referred to as Ascension,[2] and is thereby believed to be capable of dwelling in a 6th dimension.
The term "ascended master" was first used by Baird T. Spalding in 1924 in his series of books, Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East (DeVorss and Co.). Godfre Ray King (Guy Ballard) further popularized this concept of spiritual masters who had once lived on the earth in his book Unveiled Mysteries.[3]
(3 FOOTNOTE): “King, Godfre Ray. Unveiled Mysteries. Chicago, Illinois: Saint Germain Press, 1934, p. vii: "The time has arrived, when the Great Wisdom, held and guarded for many centuries in the Far East, is now to come forth in America, at the command of those Great Ascended Masters who direct and protect the evolution of mankind upon this Earth."