The Secret Chiefs are said to be transcendent cosmic authorities. They are a Spiritual Hierarchy which is
responsible for the operation and moral caliber of the cosmos . They claim to oversee the operations of an
esoteric organization that manifests itself outwardly in the form of a magical order or lodge system. Their
names and descriptions have varied through time, dependent upon those who reflect their experience of
contact with them. They are variously held to exist on higher planes of being or to be incarnate . They are
described as being gathered at some special location, such as Shambhala , or scattered through the world
working anonymously. One early and influential source pertaining to the Secret Chiefs is Karl von
Eckartshausen , whose book "The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary" (1795), detailed their character and
motivations. Several occultists claim to have been in contact with Secret Chiefs, including H.P. Blavatsky
who called them the "Tibetan Masters" or Mahatmas ; C.W. Leadbeater and Alice A. Bailey who called
them Masters of the Ancient Wisdom ; Guv Ballard and Elizabeth Clare Prophet who called them
Ascended Masters ; Aleister Crowley who referred to them as A. A. ; Dion Fortune who called them the
"esoteric order"; and Max Heindel who called them the "Elder Brothers". In the Ascended Master
Teachings , Ascended Master are believed to be spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations
were ordinary humans, but who have undergone a series of spiritual transformations originally called
initiations.