A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

Masters. Members of the I Am Ascended Master Religious Activity were encouraged rather to
use gold as the preferred medium for an offering. The blend of commerce and religion is at least
as old as the recorded history of either enterprise. From the expected offering to the keepers of
the mysteries, to the trade in holy relics and the sale of indulgences, spiritual and terrestrial
profits have often been combined in Western culture. Given the religious energies of American
culture, the sense that financial success and godliness are fundamentally linked and the
consistent desire for transformative experience, the combination of religion and commerce in
America is both common and varied. The Great I AM extracted wealth from its adherents in part
via the promise of riches that would follow from full harmonial alignment, thus speaking to
aspirants’ worldly desires as well as their more spiritual needs. The Great I AM fell squarely in
a long tradition of American religion for profit, a tradition that blithely combines what are often
genuine spiritual aspirations with profit motive.
As mentioned previously, the Ballards, at the behest of St. Germain, planned to usher in a
new eon in America. The Great I Am, like the Silver Shirts, consistently drew upon nativism as
a strain in its operative ideology. The Ballards’ combination of politics and religion was a bit
more in line with Theosophy than Pelley’s version. While Pelley drew consistently on images of
Christ as the tutelary figure in his political philosophy, the Ballards’ default leader was St.
Germain. Christ, of course, had been enlisted politically many times before Pelley. Pelley was
drawing on a long line of precedent. The Ballard’s use of the figure of St. Germain placed their
movement more squarely in a mystical occult lineage. The following description of an open
meeting highlights the relation between nativism and mysticism as preached by Guy and Edna.
“We must save America!” says the announcer. You learn there are “vicious forces”
within her borders and without. These are all to be destroyed! They are to be “blasted”
from the face of the earth by the “decrees” of the students. Saint Germain, the mighty
“Cosmic Master,” has commanded it!
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