Great Brotherhood of Light

I am not an expert on this subject, so I went looking to see what I could find, and came up with two explanations. The first is from Wikipedia:

The Great Brotherhood of Light, also known as the Great White Brotherhood , is perceived as a spiritual organization composed of those Ascended Masters who have risen from the Earth into immortality, but still maintain an active watch over the world.

The Great White Brotherhood also includes members of the Heavenly Host (the Spiritual Hierarchy directly concerned with the evolution of our world), Beneficent Members from other planets that are interested in our welfare, as well as certain unascended chelas.

The Ascended Masters are believed to be joined together in service to the Earth under the name of the Great White Brotherhood. The use of the term "white" is supposed to refer to their advanced spirituality (i.e., that they have a white colored aura) and has nothing to do with race.

And from Energetic Synthesis comes this other explanation:

The Great White Brotherhood is a very large group of Ascended Beings and Spiritual Masters and is composed of highly evolved men, woman and beings beyond gender from multiple universes. They exist on various inner dimensional planes and work as a collective consciousness in a singular yet varied purpose.

Their purpose historically has been to assist us and the planet through forwarding the evolutionary processes. They have been the group instilling universal principals and law throughout creation. They have also assisted humanity in developing social, moral, and societal frameworks that are in accordance with the current age as well as assisting us in moving from one Age to another. They assist, support and influence Planetary Leadership during evolutionary cycles such as we are transiting now.

The White Brotherhood’s current project is to help insure a smooth transition from the Piscean Age to the Aquarian Age, navigating us towards our destiny of Ascension. The White Brotherhood insure that our evolution and healing is in line with universal law and is appropriate and in agreement with the New Era energetic dynamics.