The Way We Were—A Love Story of Student and Spiritual Teacher

by Reverend Carol E. Parrish-Harra, Ph. D.

This is truly a love story - a story of the special love
one feels for a mentor. I take this opportunity to acknowledge treasures passed from one soul to another.

Vera Stanley Alder

Born October 29, 1898, in the late 1970s Vera Stanley Alder is ageless. Young beyond her years, lovely beyond physical attributes, proud to be a Scorpio (Leo rising, moon in Taurus), her visionary ability charms her friends. I feel, I know I am privileged to be her student. Vera’s home is mysteriously charged with the atmosphere of a world server. The corner serving as her office holds an imposing world map of her contacts; every correspondent has a pin, and she knows who is in most every country.

On my first visit, she takes me to the map and tells me stories about this one or that and how she longs to help pick up a part of the Plan to weave humanity into the future of great possibilities she would later disclose. As her part of the work, Vera attempts to put into words a picture of the evolved humanity she envisions through the mists of time. The burden of seeing that it happens lands directly on her students. She is an agent and angel of transformation. Whether writing you a directive or looking into your face with full earnestness, she charges you to go forward in service—lovingly.

In 1972, when I discover The Finding of the Third Eye, I fall under the influence of Vera. I tell a close friend, “I have found the book I thought I should have a clear, concise introduction to wisdom teachings” available. This book fills me with such joy, I immediately write the author in London.

After a year, I still have no reply. Then David Spangler of Findhorn fame comes to St. Petersburg, Florida, to speak at the church where I am an associate minister. When I ask him if he knows Vera, he replies affirmatively—and do I know she has left London and moved to Bournemouth? Just learning she is still living propels me to renewed action. As soon as I get home, I write to Rider and Company, her publishers, enclosing a letter for Vera and asking them to forward it to her. In a short time, her first letter arrives, and so begins a relationship of a decade, 1974-1984.

Vera easily picks up the threads of spiritual development initiated by my first teacher, Ann Manser of Oldsmar, Florida. Ann had provided concepts, words, and direction to establish a baby student. Now Vera builds upon what Ann set into motion and brings more sophistication—with her English charm and directness.

She sees herself as moving me from a national worker to an international worker for the Hierarchy. She wants to toughen me up for the challenges she “knows” I will meet. She is looking for the next generation of those touched by the Hierarchy.

We spend many hours probing our relationships with Masters and teachers who have aroused our exploration. Both of us have experienced intervention from the Unseen, so we have a bond only that can bring. Raphael has given Vera a mission and continues to guide her, and Master Morya has left an indelible mark upon me. Our passion is dedicated to laying the foundation of a world yet to be, our hearts bonded in the immediate task. Vera seeks those she feels are dedicated to the Great Work and so she blesses me with her fervent awareness and her wealth of knowledge.

A modern empowered woman

Long before it becomes fashionable, Vera is self-assured and by her own account, Bohemian, and a bit proud of it. On one occasion, when Charles and I are staying around the corner in a charming bed-and-breakfast, we are invited to dinner with Vera and her husband, Aage Larsen. When we arrive at Vera’s flat, she is in the drawing room, looking lovely. She asks us to be seated, saying Aage will be along shortly. Indeed, here he comes down the sidewalk, pushing a dinner cart whereupon rests our dinner under a white tablecloth. Aage advances, pushing as fast as he can so the meal will stay warm. The table is set at Vera’s but Aage has prepared the food at his flat several houses away because Vera does not like cooking smells in the air at her place.

At the time of her marriage, Vera had been living with her dear friend and long-time secretary, Norah. The two had worked together for many years, and she would not allow their world service to be disrupted; yet Vera fully accepted that Aage was her soul companion. She had seen his face in meditation years before he appeared at her flat in London to ask questions about the world situation. She knew he was to be the helper she needed for the rest of her life. She loved his Danish blue eyes and recognized them immediately; yet her sense of loyalty to Norah was immense. How to resolve? Indeed, Vera and Aage marry on February 16, 1963, in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Aage stays for a few years to complete his employment. Now he can come to England to be with Vera and earn a retirement income. He moves Vera and Bournemouth where it is warmer, fulfilling Vera’s desire to have sunshine every day and a garden of her own.

I know Norah only slightly—a bulwark of strength to Vera. The two have the dedication required to carry out the worldwide letter-writing campaign called “The Order of World Guardians.” They answer letters daily or work on a manuscript. Aage is the spark of laughter, fun, and charm the women need to lure them from work, to eat, take a walk, or enjoy a big of time in the garden.

Vera’s writing about her garden conjures in my mind a garden as we know it in the United States. So the first time I visit her and she invites me to sit in the garden, I am eager to do so. I then discover the small yard and little rows of flowers under the windows and down the dividing line are called “the garden.” Later, she and I add scraps from the table to the compost; another time, we spread the compost about the plants. Vegetables and flowers live in friendly fashion in Vera’s garden—just as it should be, she says, for right-relationship within and between kingdoms.

Vera has little time for eating; her flat has about 4 x4 room added to the exit area to the backyard to serve as kitchen. It is plenty for Vera who is in to health food before it is fashionable. On one of my earliest visits, she explains why we should eat for health and beauty. Later, she writes me,” Aage and I have already become Vegans, but we are more interested in what I call VITALISM which means eating everything possible in its most natural and unprocessed state, with as few as possible mixtures.” Indeed when we visit, Vera knows just where we should eat in London, and she hands us a list of health-oriented restaurants; in Bournemouth we make the rounds with her. She wants us to try this treat here and that special meal there.

These are the only outings Vera and I take, other than walking or sitting in the sunshine. Vera does not tolerate crowds very well; even in warm weather, she wears a full-length coat, saying the harsh vibrations throw her off. Many times, Charles and I invite Vera and Aage to spend the winter in Florida at Villa Serena, our spiritual community apartment house. The idea excites her, she talks about it and thanks us for the invitation, but ends by telling us how ill she becomes when she travels. From the time of her return from Paris as a young woman, Vera traveled little, more to Denmark after meeting Aage than anywhere else. Vera’s energy drains rapidly when she goes out; as she aged, her love of solitude increased.

After moving to Bournemouth, Vera makes only limited trips to London, though she often expresses her love of the city and numerous friends still there. She asks me to call for her, to “ring them up and give them a warm message.” I return to the States saying “ring up” and love the bit of English influence that lingers.

Examining my notes from one of our visits, I see Vera’s words, “The old lust for battle is going and already gone in many people of France, England, and America. If many minds hold the idea of peace, brotherhood, and love, it will become a model. The idea of one world has been around for a long time, slowly growing. The United Nations and Common Market are these ideas in their infancy. The World Court is an effort to set the future on a secure foundation. These ideas must be guided by politically respectable and practical idealists leading in daily matters.”

A proper nonconformist

A bold thinker, her words resound in such a commanding manner. Vera looks like a fragile, proper English lady and sounds like a revolutionary. She is a channel for a message demanding courageous individuals to accomplish. She provides great inspiration to others who disperse the message around the world. The Order of World Servers is certainly ahead of its time. I believe: The expressions of the higher world are dispersed through this structure because, unless these words are stepped down from the “Cloud of Knowable Things” to the minds of humanity, there can be no wonderful future. Whoever is ready to heed has only to connect with Vera to be fed.

In her book, The Fifth Dimension, Vera tries to show humanity the task that lies ahead, appealing to thinkers who can take the group mind forward. She perceives the message of cosmic visionaries as the way humanity will develop minds attuned to achieving divine potential. Thus, she sees this message of promise and possibilities as her assignment and intention for the rest of this incarnation. She tells me so, and I watch her live it.

At home Vera charms her visitors with futuristic ideas and topics that engage imagination—then demands to cross examine as to how and why such things might occur. This exercise transpires when I take a group of students from the United States to meet Vera in 1980. Ten are with me for a trip to England’s sacred sites and a brief visit to Bournemouth. Vera and I have savored our private time and study, when she agrees to serve tea in the finest English style for my companions. Everything has been arranged by Vera and me before our guests arrive. Aage comes to fix the tea.

With every propriety and social grace, everyone receives tea poured by Vera, in her lovely velour dressing robe—her favorite attire for home events—and we chat comfortably for a brief time. Eager to challenge our thoughts, as teatime ends, Vera immediately suggests we attune to what we are going to be in out next life and leads us into silence. A bit of time passes, and she says, “Now we are going about the circle, and each one will tell the others what they will reincarnate as and why.” Of course, a fun time ensues, and her friendly cross examination is truly enjoyed.

On this same trip, one day in town I find a fluffy pink hat just like one Vera has admired in a book she showed me. When the ladies and I buy it and present it to her, she promptly dons it, wearing it as a crown, which indeed brings out all her royal lineage. In fact, pleased with her proper background in the way that English people are, Vera is proud she has the daring to challenge that propriety and break through to new ways of thinking.

All artists dream of Paris

I love the story of how she challenged her father when her parents forbade her pursuits in art. Later she realized how much she and her younger sister did indeed press them into the new era, whether they felt ready or not. Her sister became an actress and Vera an artist; neither fit the models their parents considered proper for English ladies of the first quarter of the twentieth century. When she said she wanted to be an artist, Vera was told that was fine for a hobby, but she had to be educated for a purpose, to consider teaching school, and she rebelled. The account she tells me reveals her spirit.

Vera told her parents she was an artist—it was in her soul, and she had to be an artist. When they refused, she kissed them each and told them goodbye, she was going upstairs to die. Up she went and they thought, “This will pass.” It did not. She refused food, stayed in bed; her parents began dropping by and tried to talk to her, but to no avail. After several days her father became truly frantic and implored Vera to get up, eat, do something—anything! Again she refused, saying that all her soul wanted was to paint, and if that was forbidden, she might as well be dead.

At last her tearful father consented to a small allowance that would permit Vera to live in Paris and see if she could make it on her own. She promptly recovered, gathered her belongings, and left. Indeed, she said, when she stepped off the train in Paris, her spirit came alive. She felt she had come home, that she was exactly where she was meant to be. One event after another led her to a comfortable studio, though she had almost no money to be able to enjoy daily life. Once she found her way, she broke rapidly onto the scene of Parisian artists.

She shares with me how she drew attention to herself in Paris. She had arrived at the city of artists—most all of them reasonably good. Vera needed a way to make an impression. She did not feel she was particularly pretty; she always believed her sister was the beauty of the family. She full confidence her portrait painting was good, she was right where she ought to be, but she had to find a gimmick so she would be noticed. We are now approaching World War II, and even in the artistic community, certain etiquette was expected. Vera loved to wear black—to complement her very light coloring, a fine, clear English complexion, and a slender bone structure. Acquiring black stockings, full black Spanish dresses, skirts, and blouses, Vera wore large black Spanish hat and one large black earring. This striking personage would not pass unnoticed. Thus, she joined the artists community of Paris and had a growing number of pieces commissioned. her work proved itself.

Indeed Vera became known for her portraits and was soon painting the famous. she showed me photos of her portraits of distinguished men and women, many military officers and some of the European royalty who were savoring the abundance of artists gathered in Paris. Stories of this era delight Vera and, looking at albums of snapshots she had taken of most of her paintings, she recalls many names and stories of happy years.

Vera’s multi-faceted entourage

World War II brings a reluctant Vera home, as she tells in her book, From the Mundane to the Magnificent. But now her life is transformed and she soars in consciousness—for Master Raphael appears. Vera shares her personal awakening in her autobiography, but she writes little of participating in Alice Bailey’s Discipleship in the New Age group. She knows her task is to step down these great teachings for the average person who might otherwise never hear the words “ancient wisdom.”

Back in England, Vera begins to write and soon discovers an ability to explain complex concepts in succinct, comprehensible terms. In fact, Vera realizes that she paints word pictures as well as she paints oil portraits, and she gives herself unreservedly to both kinds of work, each demanding much of her. She is captured by the vision given her by Master Djwhal Khul while in the Discipleship group lead by Alice Bailey and knows herself to be a world server with a task to accomplish. In time, this knowledge leads her to a worldwide correspondence with people of all races, religions, and countries.

Perhaps as much as anyone in the world, Vera is equally at home with royalty, hippies of her era, and visitors from diverse cultures. I have a photo of Vera painting the portrait of a member of a royal black family who was in England for a year. Vera enjoyed telling friends how shocked people were when they were going about the city together or having dinner, and in all his propriety the young man referred to her as his “mistress, Vera.” Her lively spirit loves to shock others, and I revel in seeing this side of her.

To study with Vera is to learn through age-old means of feminine sharing. She tells stories, mingling her timeless wisdom with walking and talking. She writes articles and asks me to critique them, then sharply defends everything she has written. She loves to be challenged. The student who does not think quickly does not hold her interest.

Vera is eccentric in other ways as well. I am told that not much is known about her at the houses in which she has previously lived. When I studied with her at first flat in Bournemouth where she shared quarters with Norah, they were considered “maiden ladies.” Aage was seen as a protector, with Vera and Aage’s relationship questionable. Norah had some additional income which allowed the two of them to live in comfortable but simple style, and while she served as Vera’s secretary, they were bound by love of their world service more than by any employer-employee relationship. I know them as peers, each doing her part of the one Great Work, which commands total allegiance. By 1980, Vera and Norah take tea only at home and dedicate all their strength to the hundreds of letters filled with questions concerning Vera’s books.

When Norah dies, Vera is deeply grieved. Her letters to me are replete with references to “dear Norah” and her concern for the Order of World Guardians. Vera knows her own strength is waning and one day, in great solemnity, she looks at me and says, “Carol, you know you are my spiritual daughter. You must carry on the Work.” I know this is her greatest concern—the beloved Work of the Hierarchy, so little understood even today. I assure her I will and that I, too, feel the dedication and courage the women and men before me have known. She speaks of Raphael and the wonder of his touch in her life, and how I have been called into service by those Wise Ones—a bond that draws us together. I understand her fear of not knowing who will be there when her life is completed. Dedication and service own Vera’s life, as they do the lives of all those who the Masters call.

Often Vera sends me a paragraph such as the following to let me know what she wants me to prepare to discuss with her. This excerpt is from a letter written in August, 1980.

"We will have much to discuss. I am going to concentrate on the theme of “A World Mind,” centered in U.N., under whose influence all our problems—governmental, educational, industrial, moral, everything, in fact—could be addressed and coherently integrated."

I read her materials and related items, do meditation work, and prepare thoughts to share with her. Vera debates concepts and forces me to articulate my ideas more and more clearly by asking, “What if…and why not…?” Vera believes that indeed responding to these exercises will strengthen my confidence and force my thinking processes. Knowing how important it is to be able to do this with the public, she feels it is not her job but mine. So she “drills” me.

When Vera writes the preface to my first book, A New Age Handbook on Death and Dying, I rejoice in her support. It means so much. She and I discuss Alice Bailey’s having written the foreword to Vera’s The Finding of the Third Eye and that by Vera’s writing the foreword to my first book, I will be of the lineage of these royal women. My spirit celebrates every time I think of how the grace of my early work flows to and through me to the spiritual workers of tomorrow.

A different trip than intended

After years of loving friendship, discipline, sharing, training—having sifted through concepts, books, and manuscripts half completed, ideas scribbled on pieces of paper—I am taking ten students to meet with Vera. Upon arriving at the hotel in Bournemouth, the clerk says, “There is a message for you,” and I know, Vera is gone. the note is from Aage, who is awaiting my arrival. It is Sunday afternoon, and Vera had not awakened Saturday morning. He is stunned, and grateful I am on the way.

I am stunned as well; Vera has not been ill, just fragile, simply disappearing before our eyes. Each visit she is thinner, more easily fatigued, and more passionate about the Work. Now no longer with us, we are all sad. I go immediately by cab to Aage. Our tears mingle as he tells me how much she looked forward to my visit and meeting my friends. He has not begun to arrange anything but has waited, having only tea and toast, until I arrived. I know that indeed I am the daughter of my beloved teacher, and now I will be able to do for her some of the tasks that await. Cecily Barnes, her secretary and assistant now, is seriously ill and away. Lovingly, I will hear from her later by mail.

(At Sparrow Hawk Village a special Sunday for Vera, planned to take place the day we are with her and entitled, “Celebrating the Life of a Living Legend,” becomes a loving memorial to her. Planned without our realizing its ultimate function, we thought we were just saluting her, not writing the last chapter of a book of experiences.)

My American friends busy themselves while services are arranged, visiting the surrounding countryside which has so much to offer. I set about to clear up office details, post letters, assisted by my dear friend, Barbara Everett, and see to the care of Aage. We will prepare for the service on Wednesday, June 6th. I compose and have printed a letter to send to the large number of Vera’s correspondents so they will know of her transition. Barbara and I set to work addressing envelopes to World Guardians around the globe who will learn their volunteer head has left the Work in their hands. We cry, we laugh, we work, and I fulfill the duties of a daughter to a woman who has handed me a torch to carry into the future.

The funeral service for Vera is attended only six or eight English people, with her beloved Aage, myself, and ten American friends who came to say hello, not goodbye. We feel blessed to be representing all world servers who love and appreciate the service by many who love her and the inspired work to which she dedicated her life. Since its inception in 1978, Sancta Sophia Seminary has used Vera’s seven books as curriculum for spiritual science. The powerful overview continues to speak to those who vibrate to her unique combination of strong conviction and gentle heart. On occasion, I am aware of her presence, especially during certain programs; it seems the higher world looks in on today’s workers to see if we truly comprehend the wonder of our times.

Vera and communities

Vera affirmed my conviction regarding communities as the way of the future. At the time of our first contact, I lived in a community arrangement of four houses where we experimented with lives of sharing, mutual respect, and spiritual guidelines. Later, Charles and I established a spiritual community in an apartment house in Sarasota, Florida, and for six years people came and went through its doors—affirming community and studying Vera’s concepts. When the geographical move was inspired by Spirit, a number of us gathered ourselves, our school, and our guidelines and established Sparrow Hawk Village, a 432-acre community atop Sparrow Hawk Mountain near Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Here Alder Way commemorates Vera’s extraordinary contribution to this vision anchored in Midamerica.

Vera was distressed when I first told her the name of the community. Sparrow hawks are naughty birds, she told me. They nip the heads right off other birds, and do not live peacefully. But when I told her the Native American people had chosen the name of Sparrow Hawk Mountain long ago, she softened. She acknowledged her respect for the North American Indian tradition and conceded to the name. And when I pointed out her that the sparrow hawk, the kestrel or small falcon, is the symbolic bird of Egypt representing Horus, she was truly persuaded.

Vera frequently acknowledged the difficulties of transiting from one age to another and felt we would face hard challenges of adjustment. In fact, once she said she had come in early because she would be able to be of more assistance from spirit than from matter by the time of these things were happening. It seems to be so.

A beacon to universality

As I watch my own life unfold, I know Vera’s influence has certainly caused me to hold in my heart a relationship to the entire world, not to believe any one part to be more important than another. When I received my first passport, I rejoiced in having broken through a ring-pass-not; from then on, I knew I would wend my way to many places. In each, sincere seekers of high consciousness appear. We spoke in those days of how others were holding the light behind the Iron Curtain; now as I travel to and from Russia, Siberia, even Mongolia, I know it is so.

Vera’s service to world guardianship and her determination to impress those with whom she had contact have radiated through hundreds of spiritual thinkers in day-to-day service; their meditations and prayers, too numerous to ever be known, prompt the change of hard hearts and narrow minds into receptive vessels. As I see travelers scout sacred sites, respecting ancient concepts and unknown people, I thank God for those who have preceded us, leaving an ever-expanding heritage of immortal wisdom.

Vera helped me define my life’s work and inspired me to believe humanity is ready for people to be bold, to speak out, and to write. Today the seminary is a monument to her and others who sowed and sow seeds of high consciousness into the human group mind to bear fruit in its own good time.

The formation of the human group mind and the building of layers of mind that assist humanity to become all that it may be are subjects Vera and I discussed repeatedly. As I have recounted, she was an artist, as was my first teacher, Ann Manser. In time, while still studying with Vera, these associations lead me to the work of Helena and Nicholas Roerich and Agni Yoga teachings, to which the Bailey material is considered to be related.

Again, Nicholas was an artist and, while I did little with art, I was inclined that way. Here exists the temperament needed to receive the impress or to recognize the sensitive touch of spirit. Nicholas Roerich said that in the new era art, religion, and science will unite humanity in culture and point the way of the future. Vera, as a grand lady of art, restored to religion its gift of spirituality and in a most detailed way presented the ancient spiritual sciences once again to a world that was needy.

Awakening for a new era

Vera explained, “Many believe we are emerging from a long dark age into perhaps the most glorious event in world history. But the transitional stage is terrible, and only those who awaken spiritually are able to truly decipher the signs of the times. Awakened ones are imbued with a new spirit, a decentralization or selflessness which inspires them to study and to work for the good of the whole and produce a coherent and sane world. We have named this new spirit world guardianship, because it is an expression of world goodwill based on intelligent, informed planning and cooperation. We are dedicated to amassing literature for self training in personal and world regeneration, and in the comprehension of the necessity for establishing an entire new way of living—the way of reality based on the realization of simple irrefutable facts.

These are:

• That man is biologically a fruitarian species, and that his full health and longevity can still be obtained and retained by living on uncooked, unprocessed natural foods—mostly tree foods, fruit, nuts, green leaves, and grains.
• That such a life obeys the Commandment, Thou shalt not kill, and that it brings the solution to the problems of disease, malnutrition, soil erosion, over breeding, exploitation, conflict, and war, and would successfully adjust world economy, for it is the practice of love-wisdom, and has already many successful adherents.
• That, once [the] body is thus cleansed, [humanity] can demonstrate that [we are] indeed [children] God, and guardian[s] of all the kingdoms of nature on this planet; and that [we] can learn to do so by developing [our] spiritual channel to Universal Mind through the practice of meditation.
• That through meditation and study [we] can gain the vision which will enable [us] to work for purification and, on this beautiful planet, the cleansing of air, soil, water, and the human mind of all the pollution with which [we] have been impregnated for so long that true living and right action are now almost impossible of realization.
• That when enough awakened people are living the “good life,” it will become infectious and transmute the mental “envelope” of this planet. People will demand a more ethical and constructive way of life, be prepared to study and take action in this cause, and elect right-minded people to represent them.
• That when enough people everywhere have reached this stage, their influence will create conditions which will enable the “Second Coming” of Christ to take place; and a New World Order to be established. That all the above should be embodied in a fundamental education to serve the coming new age.
• This is serious work, and we are therefore appealing only to those who are transiting from self-centeredness to world-centeredness at this time.

This vision and much more have been worked out in Vera’s series of seven books. Now they are all in paperback and available through Rider and Company, London and some are in print in the US. Vera would challenge each aware human being to think on these things, and if there is resistance, demand we examine what in our nature causes us to believe otherwise. Needless to say, Vera was an iron fist in a velvet glove. Her vision and her spiritual wisdom dominated her life and ignited others to action.

Article originally appeared in: Journal of World Guardians, No. 107, 1978-79.

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