And just to show you how symbol-soaked the early 70s pop-culture was, the Buddhist/Tantric concept of Shambala/Shamballa/Shambhalla had been popularized in the West via Theosophy, specifically in Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's bestseller/doorstop, The Secret Doctrine:
- While traditionally located in the Gobi Desert, Blavatsky described it as a place that was once a physical island but now exists in a higher state of matter, making it inaccessible to the uninitiated (of course).
- Theosophists called it the home of the "Masters of Wisdom" or "Great White Brotherhood," who guide human evolution.
- The "Shambhalla Force" is considered a powerful, transformative energy that can destroy old, obstructive societal forms to make way for new, advanced spiritual eras.
And wherever Blavatsky went, Alice Bailey was soon to follow. And so it was through Bailey that the song's writer Daniel Moore came upon the concept. Which reminds me that Todd Rundgren and Lou Reed were into Bailey back then as well, on account of this being the early Seventies and people getting into pseudomystical mumbo jumbo and all.
Bailey also expanded on what was her role model's more casual interest in the fabled city:
- Bailey later described Shamballa as an extra-dimensional, high-vibrational center.
- She characterized it as the focal point of the "Will of God" on Earth, inhabited by Sanat Kumara, the "highest Avatar of the Planetary Logos".
Then of course there is the Sirius connection to all of this, seeing that Alice Bailey associated Shambhala (or Shamballa, as she calls it) with Sirius:
"Shamballa receives energy from various solar and extra-solar Entities or centres of emphatic and energetic life; i.e., from Venus, from the Central Spiritual Sun, from the current conditioning constellation through which our sun may be passing, from the Great Bear and other cosmic centres.
"Sirius, so important a factor in the spiritual life of the planet, brings its energies to bear direct upon the Hierarchy, and energy from Sirius does not normally enter our planetary life via Shamballa.
"Shamballa is the head centre, speaking symbolically, of our planetary Life, focussing will, love and intelligence in one great and fundamental Intention and holding that focussed point throughout the entire life cycle of a planet.
"This great Intention embodies current purpose and expresses itself through the medium of the Plan."If you say so, Alice.
For my money, anything that comes out of the Bailey corpus is by definition apocryphal, but others may not agree with me (not very many, mnd you). So make of it what you will. But still, it's worth noting in the context of how esoteric ideas were mainstreamed via three-minute pop songs.
Hearing the original version by BW ("Buckwheat") Stevenson, it's kind of funny that Three Dog Night added the dog howls to the arrangement.
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