17. CONFORMITY OF 7 RAYS TO 7 COLORS

17. CONFORMITY OF 7 RAYS TO 7 COLORS

Three main Rays - 1 (Will), 2 (Love) and 3 (Active Intelligence) correspond to the three basic colors that exist in the Universe - red, yellow and blue.

As it is known, these three colors, each of which indicates the amount of created Ether per unit of time (speed of creation) characterize all existing elementary particles (Souls).

Ray 1 corresponds to red, Ray 2 - blue, Ray 3 - yellow.

Besides three major rays, there are 4 additional. All four are synthetic. Three of them consist of two colors (Rays), and the fourth - of the six - three major and three additional ones.

5 Ray (Concrete Knowledge or Science) corresponds to the green. It consists of the second and third Rays, of yellow and blue colors.

6 Ray (Devotion or Idealism) – is orange.

It consists of yellow and red, of the second and the first Rays.

7 Ray (Order and Ceremonial Magic) – is a purple color. It consists of red and blue colors, of the first and the third Rays.

4 Ray (Harmony through conflict) – it’s a synthetic Ray, a spectrum, a synthesis of all six colors. It is composed of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple colors, which is nothing else than the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Rays.

And in this synthetic 4 Ray the forming it Rays-colors do not blend, each retains its identity.

The qquote from "Esoteric Psychology", Volume 1, Alice Bailey:

A. The Three Rays of Aspect.

We shall now express the ray purpose in the form of an ancient teaching preserved on leaves that are so old that the writing is slowly fading.  I now translate it into modern language though much is lost thereby.

THE FIRST PURPOSE OF DEITY

Ray I.  Will or Power.

Behind the central sacred sun, hidden within its rays, a form is found.  Within that form there glows a point of power which vibrates not as yet but shines as light electric.

Fierce are its rays.  It burns all forms, yet touches not the life of God incarnate.

From the One who is the seven goes forth a word.  That word reverberates along the line of fiery essence, and when it sounds within the circle of the human lives it takes the form of affirmation, an uttered fiat or word of power.  Thus there is impressed upon the living mold the thought of. ..... (the hidden, inexpressible ray name.)

Let dynamic power, electric light, reveal the past, destroy the form that is, and open up the golden door.

This door reveals the way which leads towards the centre where dwells the one whose name cannot be heard within the confines of our solar sphere.

His robe of blue veils his eternal purpose, but in the rising and the setting sun his orb of red is seen.

His word is power.  His light, electric.  The lightning is his symbol.  His will is hidden in the counsel of his thought.  Nought is revealed.

His power is felt.  The sons of men, reacting to his power, send to the utmost bounds of light a question:

Why this blind power?  Why death?  Why this decay of forms?  Why the negation of the power to hold?  Why death, Oh Mighty Son of God?

Faintly the answer comes:  I hold the keys of life and death.  I bind and loose again.  I, the Destroyer, am.

This ray Lord is not yet in full expression, except as He causes destruction and brings cycles to an end.

The Monads of power are much fewer in number than any others.  Egos upon the power ray are relatively not so few.  They are characterised by a dynamic will, and their power within the human family works out as the force of destruction, but in the last analysis it is a destruction that will produce liberation.  We shall see as we continue to study first ray egos and personalities that death and destruction are always to be found in their work, and hence the apparent cruelty and impersonality of their reactions.  Form does not count with first ray types their energy produces death to form, but ushers in great periods of cyclic pralaya; the first ray is the controller of the death drama in all kingdoms—a destruction of forms which brings about release of power and permits "entrance into Light through the gateway of Death."  The intent of the Lord of the first ray is to stand behind His six Brothers, and when They have achieved Their purpose, to shatter the forms which They have built.

This He does by passing His power through Their bodies, and Their united effort leads to abstraction and a return to the center whence the initial impulse came.  The first ray purpose therefore is to produce death, and some idea of that purpose may be gleaned if we study some of the names by which the ray Lord is called:

The Lord of Death

The Opener of the Door

The Liberator from Form

The Great Abstractor

The Fiery Element, producing shattering

The Crystallizer of the Form

The Power that touches and withdraws

The Lord of the Burning Ground

The Will that breaks into the Garden

The Ravisher of Souls

The Finger of God

The Breath that blasts

The Lightning which annihilates

The Most High

The qualities and characteristics of this Lord Who brings release may be gathered from the following six aphorisms which, an ancient legend says, His six Brothers gave to Him, as They begged Him to hold His hand till They had had time to work out Their purposes:

1. Kill out desire when desire has fulfilled its work.  Thou art the one who indicates fulfillment.

Quality......clear vision.

2. Seek out the gentle way, Oh Lord of Power.  Wait for thy brother on the path of Love.  He builds the forms that can withstand thy power.

Quality...... dynamic power.

3. Withhold the hand until the time has come.  Then give the gift of death, Oh Opener of the Door.

Quality......sense of time.

4. Stand not alone, but with the many join thyself.  Thou art the One, the Isolated.  Come forth unto thine own.

Quality...... solitariness.

5. Lead thine own forth but learn to know thine own.  Hate not attachment but see its plan and purpose.

Quality...... detachment.

6. Through thee the life pulsates, the rhythm is imposed.  The life is all.  Love life in all its forms.

Quality......singleness of purpose.

The six qualities enumerated above express the force of this ray as it makes its presence felt in the fourth kingdom in nature.  The effects in other kingdoms differ, but we shall confine our attention to the standpoint of humanity.  The purpose of the first ray, and its main work, is to produce cessation and the death of all forms in all kingdoms in nature and on all planes.  The energy of this ray Lord brings about the death of an ant or of a solar system, of an organisation, a religion, or a government, of a race type or of a planet.  His will or purpose works out through the law of periodicity.

THE SECOND PURPOSE OF DEITY

Ray II. Love-Wisdom

The Word is issuing from the heart of God, emerging from a central point of love.  That Word is love itself.  Divine desire colours all that life of love.  Within the human hierarchy, the affirmation gathers power and sound.

The Word in the beginning was.  The Word hath dwelt and dwells with God.  In Him was light.  In Him was life.  Within His light we walk.

His symbol is the thunder, the Word that cycles down the ages.

Some of the names of this ray Lord which convey his purpose are as follows:

The Displayer of Glory

The Lord of Eternal Love

The Cosmic Magnet

The Giver of Wisdom

The Radiance in the Form

The Master Builder

The Conferrer of Names

The Great Geometrician

The One Who hides the Life

The Cosmic Mystery

The Light Bringer

The Son of God Incarnate

The Cosmic Christ

The legend tells us that the six Brothers summarise His qualities in the following aphorisms:

1. Send forth the Word and speak the radiant love of God. Make all men hear.

Quality......love divine.

2. Let the glory of the Lord shine forth.  Let there be radiant light as well as radiant love.

Quality......radiance.

3. Draw to thyself the object of thy search.  Pull forth into the light of day from out the night of time the one thou lovest.

Quality......attraction.

4. When light and love are shewn forth then let the power within produce the perfect flower.  Let the word that heals the form go forth.  That secret word that then must be revealed.

Quality......the power to save.

5. Salvation, light, and love, with the magnetic power of God, produce the word of wisdom.  Send forth that word, and lead the sons of men from off the path of knowledge on to the path of understanding.

Quality......wisdom.

6. Within the radius of the love of God, within the circle of the solar system, all forms, all souls, all lives revolve.  Let each son of God enter into this wisdom.  Reveal to each the Oneness of the many lives.

Quality......expansion or inclusiveness.

The third ray, which is one that has a very long cycle, having been in manifestation since A.D. 1425, has a direct effect upon the fifth root race, the Aryan, and has connected with it a set of curious phrases which express its purpose.

THE THIRD PURPOSE OF DEITY

Ray III. Active Intelligence or Adaptability

Let the Warden of the South continue with the building.

Let him apply the force Which will produce the shining living stone that fits into the temple's plan with right exactitude.  Let him prepare the corner stone and wisely place it in the north, under the eye of God Himself, and subject to the balance of the triangle.

Let the Researcher of the past uncover the thought of God, hidden deep within the mind of the Kumaras of Love, and thus let him lead the Agnishvattvas, waiting within the place of darkness, into the place of light.

Let the Keeper of the sparks breathe with the breath divine upon the points of fire, and let him kindle to a blaze that which is hidden, that which is not seen, and so illumine all the spheres whereon God works.

I would call attention to the fact that all I can do here is to put into words certain ancient symbols, and so emphasize the process (adopted by the early initiate-teachers) of enunciating a word or sound, which produces a symbolic form, which in its turn, is capable of translation into words.  These must in their turn be comprehended intuitively and adapted to individual need, and thus be assimilated into the life practice.  Otherwise these ancient and interesting ideas, these interpretative names, and these aphorisms, conveying the "power of qualities", are worse than useless and serve but to increase responsibility.  The capacity to see objective significances and then apply them to life is an expression of the true esoteric sense.  If one studies these tabulations and phrases with care, they will be found to convey indication as to one's individual ray, life tendencies and purpose; if the appeal the various statements make anent a particular ray evoke an intuitive understanding on the part of the student, so that he recognises himself, his ray energy and aspects of his latent and deeply desired spiritual nature, then these communications I am making here as to Purpose, Name and Quality will be profitable and useful.

Some of the names of the Lord of the third ray indicate His use of force and His real nature.  They are as follows:

The Keeper of the Records.

The Lord of Memory

The Unifier of the lower Four

The Interpreter of That Which is seen

The Lord of Balance

The Divine Separator

The Discriminating Essential Life

The One Who produces Alliance

The Three-sided Triangle

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The Illuminator of the Lotus

The Builder of the Foundation

The Forerunner of the Light

The One Who veils and yet reveals

The Dispenser of Time

The Lord of Space

The Universal Mind

The Threefold Wick

The Great Architect of the Universe

and many others terms which indicate relation to light, to time, to space, to the manifested Logos, to matter and to the "power which evokes the form."

If all these names are studied in connection with modern developments or modern culture and science, it will become apparent how potent and influential in our day and time is this particular ray Life, and how His energies (having produced the tangible objective worlds) are turned to the manifestation of our modern civilisation, with its material emphasis, its search as to the nature of time and space, and that mental unfoldment which it is the glory and the destiny of our particular race to demonstrate.

The qualities which characterise this ray Lord might be enumerated in the following phrases.  We must bear in mind that the seventh or synthetic characteristic of each of the rays is denoted by the ray name and is not specifically stated in the other six qualities.  His six Brothers, Sons of the one Father, chanted these injunctions to Him on the day of His renewed activity (on what we call the day of creation):

1. Produce the dual form and veil the life.  Let form appear, and prove itself divine.  All is of God.

Quality......the power to manifest.

2. Conform the shell to that which dwells within.  Let the world egg appear.  Let ages pass, then let the soul appear.  Let life emerge within a destined time.

Quality......the power to evolve.

3. Let mind control.  Let the clear shining of the sun of life reveal the mind of God, and set the shining one upon his way.  Then lead him to the central point where all is lost within the light supernal.

Quality......mental illumination.

4. God and His form are one.  Reveal this fact, Oh sovereign Lord of form.  God and His form are one.

Negate the dual concept.  Lend colour to the form.  The life is one; the harmony complete.  Prove thus the two are one.

Quality...... the power to produce synthesis on the physical plane.

5. Produce the garment of the Lord; set forth the robe of many colours.  Then separate that robe from That Which hides behind its many folds.  Take off the veiling sheaths.  Let God be seen.  Take Christ from off the cross.

Quality......scientific investigation.

6. Let the two paths converge.  Balance the pairs of opposites and let the path appear between the two.

God and the Path and man are one.

Quality......balance.

Thus the three major rays sum up in themselves the process of creation, of energising, through the urge of the divine will; and the work of the four minor rays (as they are called, though with no idea of there being lesser or greater) is to elaborate or differentiate the qualities of the life, and so produce the infinite multiplicity of forms which will enable the life to assume its many points of focus and express—through the process of evolutionary manifestation—its diverse characteristics.

B. The Four Rays of Attribute.

THE FOURTH PURPOSE OF DEITY

Ray IV.  Harmony, Beauty, Art

Colour, and yet no colour now is seen.  Sound and the soundless One meet in an infinite point of peace.

Time and the timeless One negate the thoughts of men.  But time is not.

Form is there found, and yet the psychic sense reveals that which the form is powerless to hide,—the inner synthesis, the all-embracing prism, that point of unity which—when it is duly reached—reveals a further point where all the three are one, and not the two alone.

Form and its soul are merged.  The inner vision watches o'er the fusion, knows the divine relation and sees the two as one.  But from that point of high attainment, a higher vision blazes forth before the opened inner eye.  The three are one, and not alone the two.  Pass on, O pilgrim on the Way.

In reading these words, the student must bear in mind that the antechamber has been left behind and man stands (when he has allowed the fourth ray to do its work and can therefore function on the fourth or buddhic plane) within the temple of the Lord.  He has found a measure of light, but in that light he now sees light, and visions a greater revelation and brilliance.  This now becomes the object of his search. He has mastered the uses of duality and has learnt to at-one soul and body into one instrument for spirit.  Now he passes on his way to achieve the greater synthesis.

The Lord of the fourth ray has many names which warrant careful study and much consideration. In less than a hundred years this Lord of harmonising power will have more influence and will offset some of the Saturn disruption of the first decanate of Aquarius.  In the meantime a study of His names will produce a simplification of His efforts and build up a body of constructive thought which will facilitate His work when He is again in active manifestation.  He is always, however, more or less in power where the human family is concerned, for there is a numerical alliance between the fourth ray, the fourth Creative Hierarchy, or the human monads, and the fourth kingdom in nature.  His power is always consequently active.

The Perceiver on the Way

The Link between the Three and Three

The Divine Intermediary

The Hand of God

The Hidden One

The Seed, that is the Flower

The Mountain whereon Form dies

The Light within the Light

The Corrector of the Form

The One Who marks the parting of the Way

The Master

The Dweller in the Holy Place

The Lower than the Three, the Highest of the Four

The Trumpet of the Lord.

The aphorisms connected with this fourth ray are not easy of comprehension.  They require an exercise of the intuition and are conveyed by six short and excessively brief commands uttered, curiously enough, late in the creative period and at the time when the fourth Creative Hierarchy came into incarnation:

1. Speak low the Word. Speak low.

Quality......power to penetrate the depths of matter.

2. Champion desire.  Give what is needed to the seeker.

Quality......the dual aspects of desire.

3. Lower the thread.  Unfold the Way.  Link man with God. Arise.

Quality......power to reveal the path.

4. All flowers are thine.  Settle the roots in mud, the flowers in sun.  Prove mud and sun, and roots and flowers are one.

Quality......power to express divinity.  Growth.

5. Roll and return, and roll again.  Cycle around the circle of the Heavens.  Prove all is one.

Quality......the harmony of the spheres.

6. Colour the sound.  Sound forth the colour.  Produce the notes and see them pass into the shades, which in their turn produce the sounds.  Thus all are seen as one.

Quality......the synthesis of true beauty.

This instruction on the rays is of deeper significance than can as yet be comprehended.  Careful systematic study and a sane refraining from the forming of rapid deductions will be the wisest way in which to approach its consideration.  It is not possible for me to deal with the definite human psychological applications at this early stage.  I am occupied with starting a general outline, with the impartation of ideas, with the grounding of a few basic concepts in the consciousness of the reader, and with an attempt to clothe this most abstruse and difficult subject in such a form that some new rhythm of thought may be set in motion, and some new realisations be grasped and held.  These concern at present a prototypal cosmic process, and will lead eventually to an understanding of the part an individual may play in a stupendous cosmic whole.We begin with the universal and end with the particular, which is ever the truly occult method.

However, all that I am positing about a ray Life may be equally well posited anent a human life, but it should be borne in mind that the pure ray type does not as yet exist, for there is not to be found that perfect form, mechanism or expression of the ray quality, nor that absolutely purified appearance in the human family, except in such rare cases as the Buddha, or Christ, and (in another field of expression) an Alexander or Julius Caesar.  Leonardo da Vinci was an analogous expression.  The rays concern energy and consciousness, and determine expression, but where the matter utilised and the vehicle informed is as yet imperfectly evolved, there is then limitation and the "tuning out" automatically of much of the energy.  The effect of ray force, working through imperfect forms, must be distorted and curtailed and misapplied.  Let me illustrate.  I have said that first ray energy works out as the destruction of forms; it must be remembered that a pure destroyer is utterly unknown, and mercifully for the race this is so.  It is a beneficent condition that as yet a first ray ego is so handicapped and limited by the form nature and the quality of that form nature that it is unable to make adequate or intelligent use of its destructive force.  First ray personalities are oft destructive, as well you know, but the energy generated is insufficient to work much harm.  Again, pure love is incapable of expression today, its flow being impeded by the form nature.  A consideration of these two cases will help the reader to appreciate the situation.  But the time is near at hand wherein there will be a fuller expression of ray purpose, type or quality, and therefore a truer appearance.

This is owing to the imminent appearance, or manifestation, of certain great Lives Who will embody the energy of rays two, three, five and seven.  They will thus constitute focal points for the inflow of these four types of divine energy and, this will produce a tremendous stimulation of their corresponding and responding units of life.  These four Beings, Who will appear as human beings in the field of the modern world, may be looked for before the end of this century and Their united effort will inaugurate definitely the New Age, and usher in the period which will go down in history as the time of glory for the fifth root race.  Each of these four Masters, for that They will be, is also subjectively the focal point for a triple inflow of energy from the centre in the Body of God which is symbolically spoken of as "the heart of the Sun."  For each ray is in its turn a triple manifesting entity as is the solar Deity Himself.  Love will be Their outstanding characteristic, and through that attractive magnetic force the new forms will come into being which will permit of purer ray types, and thus of more truly expressive appearances.  A great deal of the destructive energy extant in the world today is due to the presence on the astral plane of a first ray disciple of the planetary Logos.  His work it is to clear the way for the manifestation of these other four major Disciples, Who are primarily Builders; They will enter on Their work when the task of the wreckers of form has been accomplished.

I should like here to give a suggestion, for it is necessary that some of the methods of the Hierarchy should begin to be understood.  The work of what in the West is called "the Christ Principle" is to build the forms for the expression of quality and life.  That is the characteristic work of the second aspect of divinity.  The work of the Antichrist is to destroy forms, and this is essentially the work of the first expression of divinity.  But the work of the destroyer is not the work of black magic, and when ignorant humanity regards Antichrist as working on the black side, their error is great.  His work is as beneficent as that of the building aspect, and it is but man's hatred of the death of forms which makes him regard the work of the destroyer as "black," as being against the divine will, and as subversive of the divine programme.  The work of the representatives of that mysterious power which we call cosmic evil, and their responding representatives, is indeed worthy of the word "black"; but it is not applicable to the work of Antichrist.  It might be added that the work of the black forces wells up from below, whilst the work of the destroyers is impelled from above.  The symbols of these two ways are the sword and the cross.

After these preliminary remarks, which are intended to indicate the magnitude of the subject, we shall now proceed to an analysis of the three rays which still remain to be considered.

THE FIFTH PURPOSE OF DEITY

Ray V. Concrete Knowledge or Science

The thunders crash around the mountain top; dark clouds conceal the form.  The mists, arising from the watery sphere, serve to distort the wondrous...... found within the secret place.  The form is there.  Its note is sounding forth.

A beam of light illuminates the form; the hidden now appears.  Knowledge of God and how He veils Himself finds consummation in the thoughts of man.  The energies and forces receive their secret names, reveal their inner purpose, and all is seen as rhythm, a returning on itself.  The great scroll can now be read.  God's purpose and His plans are fixed, and man can read the form.

The plan takes form.  The plan is form.  Its purpose is the revelation of the mind of God.  The past reveals the form, but the present indicates the flowing in of energy.

That which is on its way comes as a cloud which veils the sun.  But hid behind this cloud of immanence is love, and on the earth is love and in the heaven is love, and this,—the love which maketh all things new—must stand revealed.  This is the purpose back of all the acts of this great Lord of Knowledge.

Before enumerating the names of this great Life, I should like to point out that the fifth ray is one of unique and peculiar potency in relation to the human kingdom.  The reason is that the fifth plane of mind is the sphere of His major activity and it is on this plane that we find the triple aspects of mind:

1. Abstract or higher mind, the embodiment of a higher triad.

2. The concrete or lower mind, the highest aspect of the lower self.

3. The ego or solar Angel, the pure Son of Mind, Who expresses intelligence, both abstractly and concretely, and is the point of unification.

This Life has also much power today in connection with the fifth root-race and with the transference of the consciousness of humanity into the fifth or spiritual kingdom.  Students would learn much if they contrasted the building power of the higher mind with the destroying power of the lower.  Just as the personality has no other function in the divine plan than to be a channel for, and the medium of expression of, the soul, so the lower mind is intended to be the channel for the pure inflow of higher mind energy.

This fifth ray is a Being of the intensest spiritual light and in His manifestation on this fifth plane, which is peculiarly His, He symbolises the three aspects in a way achieved by no other ray.  Through His quality of higher mind, this ray is a pure channel for the divine will.  Through the septenary grouping of the solar lives on the mental levels whereon they appear, He brought into functioning activity seven corresponding reflections of the seven centres of Deity, as far as our planet is concerned, a thing which none of His six brother rays have done.  This statement means little to you, but the tremendous sacrifice and effort thus involved are paralleled only by the life of the Buddha, and this is one of the reasons why, in this fifth race, love and mind must eventually and mutually reveal each other.

Some of the names given to the Lord of this ray are as follows:

The Revealer of Truth

The great Connector

The Divine Intermediary

The Crystallizer of Forms

The Three-fold Thinker

The Cloud upon the Mountain-top

The Precipitator of the Cross

The Dividing Sword

The Winnower of the Chaff

The Fifth great Judge

The Rose of God

The Heavenly One

The Door into the Mind of God

The Initiating Energy

The Ruler of the Third Heaven

The Guardian of the Door

The Dispenser of Knowledge

The Angel with the Flaming Sword

The Keeper of the Secret

The Beloved of the Logos

The Brother from Sirius

The Master of the Hierophants

This fifth ray has so many names, owing to His close connection with man (since man was originally created), that it has not been easy to choose those which are of the most use in enabling the student to form an idea of the fifth ray characteristics and mission; but the study of the six aphorisms, and the qualities which they indicate, will show how potent and important is this ray Lord.  These six aphorisms were chanted by His six Brothers at that momentous crisis wherein the human family came into existence and the solar Angels sacrificed themselves.  Esoterically speaking, they "went down into hell, and found their place in prison." On that day souls were born.  A new kingdom of expression came into being, and the three highest planes and the three lower were brought into a scintillating interchange.

1. God and His Angels now arise and see.  Let the mountaintops emerge from out the dense wet mist.

Let the sun touch their summits and let them stand in light.  Shine forth.

Quality...... emergence into form and out of form.

2. God and His Angels now arise and hear.  Let a deep murmur rise and let the cry of seeking man enter into their ears.  Let man listen.  Let man call.  Speak loud.

Quality......power to make the Voice of the Silence heard.

3. God and His Angels now arise and touch.  Bring forth the rod of power.  Extend it outward toward the sons of men; touch them with fire, then bring them near.  Bring forth.

Quality...... initiating activity.

4. God and His Angels now arise and taste.  Let all experience come.  Let all the ways appear.  Discern and choose; dissect and analyse.  All ways are one.

Quality......revelation of the way.

5. God and His Angels now arise and sense the odor rising from the burning-ground of man.  Let the fire do its work.  Draw man within the furnace and let him drop within the rose-red centre the nature that retards.  Let the fire burn.

Quality......purification with fire.

6. God and His Angels now arise and fuse the many in the One.  Let the blending work proceed.  Let that which causes all to be produce the cause of their cessation.  Let one temple now emerge.  Produce the crowning glory.  So let it be.

Quality......the manifestation of the great white light.  (The Shekinah. A.A.B.)

There is much of practical usefulness to the reader in a study of these qualities.  When he believes himself to be upon a particular ray, they will indicate to him some of the characteristics for which he may look, and perhaps demonstrate to him what he has to do, what he has to express, and what he has to overcome.  These qualities should be studied from two angles: their divine aspect and their reverse aspect or the form side.  This ray, for instance, is shown to be the revealer of the way, and it should be remembered therefore that this fifth ray reveals the way down into death or into incarnation (which is the death-like prison of the soul), or it reveals the way up and out of darkness into the pure light of God's day.  I mention this as I am exceedingly anxious that all who read this treatise should make application of this teaching to their daily lives.  I am not interested in imparting weird or unusual items of information anent these matters for the delectation of an unhealthy mental appetite.  The stocking of the memory with occult detail which serves no useful purpose only strains the brain cells and feeds the pride.

THE SIXTH PURPOSE OF DEITY

Ray VI. Devotion or Idealism

This ray which is just going out of manifestation, is of vital interest to us, for it has set its mark upon our western civilisation in a more definite way than any of the others.  It is for us the most familiar and the best known of the rays.  The mantram which defines its purpose is unlike the others and might be expressed somewhat as follows:

The Crusade is on.  The warriors march upon their way.  They crush and kill all that impedes their way, and aught that rises on their onward path is trampled under foot.  March towards the light. The work goes forward.  The workers veil their eyes from pity as from fear.  The work is all that counts.  The form must disappear so that the loving spirit may enter into rest.  Naught must arrest the progress of the workers with the plan.  They enter upon the work assigned with paean and with song.

The cross is reared on high; the form is laid thereon, and on that cross must render up its life.  Each builds a cross which forms the cross.  They mount upon the cross.

Through war, through work, through pain and toil, the purpose is achieved.  Thus saith the symbol.

It will be noted how this purpose, when applied by man to himself, works his release.  When applied by man to man, it has produced the corrupt and awful story of man's cruelty to man.  In the above mantram you will find the clue to the sixth ray purpose as it appears in the human kingdom, and a close expansive study (note that paradoxical phrase) of the underlying ideas will reveal a little of the larger purpose.  The soul is and should be pitiless to its form and its problem.  The soul can, however, comprehend the need for pain and difficulty in the world, for he can extend a knowledge of his own technique with himself to the technique of God with His world; but he does nothing knowingly that could possibly increase the world's pain or sorrow.

Some of the names for this beneficent yet somewhat violently energised Lord of a ray are as follows:

The Negator of Desire

The One Who sees the Right

The Visioner of Reality

The Divine Robber

The Devotee of Life

The Hater of Forms

The Warrior on the March

The Sword Bearer of the Logos

The Upholder of the Truth

The Crucifier and the Crucified

The Breaker of Stones

The Imperishable Flaming One

The One Whom Naught can turn

The Implacable Ruler

The General on the Perfect Way

The One Who leads the Twelve

Curiously enough, this sixth ray Lord has always been a loved enigma to His six Brethren.  This comes out in the questions which They addressed to Him on one occasion when They met "under the eye of the Lord" to interchange Their plans for united, divine, harmonious action.  They asked these questions in a spirit of heavenly joy and love, but with the intent to throw some light upon the somewhat obscure quality of Their loved Brother.

1. Why is desire red?  Why red as blood?  Tell us, Oh Son of God, why thy way is red with blood?

Quality......power to kill out desire.

2. Why do you turn your back upon the sphere of earth?  Is it too small, too poor?  Why kick it as a ball upon a playing field?

Quality...... spurning that which is not desired.

3. Why set the cross from earth to heaven?  But earth can be a heaven.  Why mount the cross and die?

Quality......self-immolation.

4. Why battle thus with all that is around?  Seek you not peace?  Why stand between the forces of the night and day?  Why thus unmoved and calm, untired and unafraid?

Quality..... endurance and fearlessness.

5. See you not God in all, the life in all, and love in all?  Why separate yourself and leave behind the loved and the well-known?

Quality......power to detach oneself.

6. Can you arrest the waters of the sixth great sphere?  Can you stem he flood?  Can you recover both the raven and the dove?  Can you, the Fish, swim free?

Quality......overcoming the waters of the emotional nature.

This out-going ray of devotion to the ideal, and the incoming ray of magical order or organisation are largely responsible for the type of man's consciousness today.  Man is essentially devoted (to the point of fanaticism) to whatever may be the goal of his life's attention.  This goal may be to achieve discipleship, or to raise a family, or to get money, or to achieve popularity, or any other objective to which he consecrates his time and energy; but whatever it may be, to it he devotes all that he is or has.

Man also is essentially and inherently a producer of law and order, though this quality is only just beginning to make its presence felt.  This is because mankind is, at last, becoming mentally centred, and hence we have in the world at this time the many and varied attempts to straighten out affairs along business, national, economic, social and other lines, to produce some system and order, and to bring about the re-arranging of all energies with the objective (unrealised consciously as yet) of inaugurating the New Age.  Owing, however, to defective mental control and to an almost universal ignorance as to the laws of thought, and in addition, to a profound lack of knowledge as to man's own nature, man works blindly.  The ideals sensed are not correctly interpreted by the mind nor applied in such a way that they are of general and appropriate application.  Hence the confusion and the chaotic

experimentation going on, and hence also the imposition of personal authority to enforce an individual's idea of the ideal.

The need today is for sound teaching as to the laws of thought, and the rules which govern the building of those thought-forms which must embody the ideas sent forth from the universal divine Mind.  Men must begin on the subjective planes of life to work out the needed order.  When this is realised, we shall have every important group of men engaged in world affairs, or in the work of government in all its branches, aided on the mental plane by trained thinkers, so that there may be right application and correct adjustment to the Plan.  This time is as yet far away, and hence the distortions and misrepresentations on earth of the Plan as it exists in heaven, to use the Christian phraseology.

It was the realisation of the present world need for illumined thinkers and subjective workers which prompted Those Who guide so to direct the incoming spiritual energies that the formation of the esoteric groups everywhere came about; it led also to the publication of the mass of mystical and Oriental literature on meditation and allied topics which has flooded the world today.  Hence also the effort that I, a worker on the inner side of life, am making to teach the newer psychology in this treatise, and so show to man what is his equipment and how well suited he is to the work for which he has been created, and which he has as yet failed to comprehend.  The force and the effect of the seventh ray influence will, however, reveal to him the magical work, and the next twenty five hundred years will bring about so much change and make possible the working of so many so-called "miracles" that even the outer appearance of the world will be profoundly altered; the vegetation and the animal life will be modified and developed, and much that is latent in the forms of both kingdoms will be brought into expression through the freer flow and the more intelligent manipulation of the energies which create and constitute all forms.  The world has been changed beyond belief during the past five hundred years, and during the next two hundred years the changes will be still more rapid and deep-seated, for the growth of the intellectual powers of man is gathering momentum, and Man, the Creator, is coming into possession of His powers.

THE SEVENTH PURPOSE OF DEITY

Ray VII. Ceremonial Order or Magic

"Let the Temple of the Lord be built", the seventh great Angel cried.  Then to their places in the north, the south, the west and east, seven great sons of God moved with measured pace and took their seats.

The work of building thus began.

The doors were closed.  The light shone dim.  The temple walls could not be seen.  The seven were silent and their forms were veiled.  The time had not arrived for the breaking forth of light.  The Word could not be uttered.  Only between the seven Forms the work went on.  A silent call went forth from each to each.  Yet still the temple door stayed shut.

As time went on, the sounds of life were heard.  The door was opened, and the door was shut.  Each time it opened, the power within the temple grew; each time the light waxed stronger, for one by one the sons of men entered the temple, passed from north to south, from west to east and in the centre of the heart found light, found understanding and the power to work.  They entered through the door; they passed before the Seven; they raised the temple's veil and entered into life.

The temple grew in beauty.  Its lines, its walls, its decorations, and its height and depth and breadth slowly emerged and entered into light.

Out from the east, the Word went forth: Open the door to all the sons of men who come from all the darkened valleys of the land and seek the temple of the Lord.  Give them the light.  Unveil the inner shrine, and through the work of all the craftsmen of the Lord extend the temple's walls and thus irradiate the world.  Sound forth the Word creative and raise the dead to life.

Thus shall the temple of the light be carried from heaven to earth.  Thus shall its walls be reared upon the great plains of the world of men.  Thus shall the light reveal and nurture all the dreams of men.

Then shall the Master in the east awaken those who are asleep.  Then shall the warden in the west test and try all the true seekers after light.  Then shall the warden in the south instruct and aid the blind.

Then shall the gate into the north remain wide open, for there the unseen Master stands with welcoming hand and understanding heart, to lead the pilgrims to the east where the true light shines forth.

"Why this opening of the temple?" demand the greater Seven.  Because the work is ready; the craftsmen are prepared.  God has created in the light.  His sons can now create.  What can else be done?"

"Naught!" came the answer from the greater Seven.  "Let the work proceed.  Let the sons of God create."

These words will be noted by many as of deep significance and as indicating a wide intention (during the coming cycle) to open the door wide into the temple of the hidden mystery to man.  One by one we shall undergo the esoteric and spiritual counterpart of the psychological factor which is called "a mental test."  That test will demonstrate a man's usefulness in mental work and power, it will show his capacity to build thought-forms and to vitalise them.  This I dealt with in A Treatise on White Magic, and the relation of that treatise to the magical work of the seventh ray and its cycle of activity will become increasingly apparent.  A Treatise on White Magic is an attempt to lay down the rules for training and for work which will make it possible for the candidate to the mysteries to enter the temple and to take his place as a creative worker and thus aid in the magical work of the Lord of the Temple.

The names whereby this ray Lord is known are many, and their meaning is of prime significance today.

The work of the future can be seen from a study of these names.

The Unveiled Magician

The Worker in the Magical Art

The Creator of the Form

The Bestower of Light from the Second Lord

The Manipulator of the Wand

The Watcher in the East

The Custodian of the Seventh Plan

The Invoker of Wrath

The Keeper of the Magical Word

The Temple Guardian

The Representative of God

The One Who lifts to Life

The Lord of Death

The One Who feeds the Sacred Fire

The Whirling Sphere

The Sword of the Initiator

The Divine Alchemical Worker

The Builder of the Square

The Orienting Force

The Fiery Unifier

The Key to the Mystery

The Expression of the Will

The Revealer of Beauty

This ray Lord has a peculiar power on earth and on the physical plane of divine manifestation.  His usefulness to His six Brothers is therefore apparent.  He makes Their work appear.  He is the most active of all the rays in this world period, and is never out of manifestation for more than fifteen hundred years.  It is almost as if He whirled in and out of active work under a very rapid cycle, and His closest relation, symbolically, is to His Brethren of the second and fifth rays in this world period.

He builds (using second ray cooperation) through the power of thought (thus cooperating with the Lord of the fifth ray and on the physical plane, which is His own essential and peculiar sphere).  In another world period His relation with the other ray Lords may undergo change, but at this time His work will be more easily understood when He is recognised as aiding the building Lord of the second ray and utilising the energies of the Lord of concrete thought.

The aphorisms embodying His qualities run as follows, and were esoterically whispered into His ears when He "left the most high place and descended into the seventh sphere to carry out the work assigned."

1. Take thy tools with thee, brother of the building light. Carve deep.  Construct and shape the living stone.

Quality......power to create.

2. Choose well thy workers.  Love them all.  Pick six to do thy will.  Remain the seventh in the east.

Yet call the world to enter into that which thou shalt build.  Blend all together in the will of God.

Quality......power to cooperate.

3. Sit in the centre and the east as well.  Move not from there.Send out thy force to do thy will and gather back thy forces.  Use well the power of thought.  Sit still.

Quality...... power to think.

4. See all parts enter into the purpose.  Build towards beauty, brother Lord.  Make all colours bright and clear.  See to the inner glory.  Build the shrine well.  Use care.

Quality......revelation of the beauty of God.

5. Watch well thy thought.  Enter at will into the mind of God.  Pluck thence the power, the plan, the part to play. Reveal the mind of God.

Quality......mental power.

6. Stay in the east.  The five have given thee a friendly Word.  I, the sixth, tell thee to use it on the dead.  Revive the dead.  Build forms anew.  Guard well that Word. Make all men seek it for themselves.

Quality......power to vivify.

Thus we have studied a little the work of the seven rays. The teaching has had to be conveyed symbolically and its understanding necessitates an awakened esoteric sense; to comprehend it all is not as yet possible.

The Chohans of the sixth initiation have the guidance of those units of consciousness in whom their particular ray vibration and color predominate.  The vast importance of this fact is often overlooked, even when theoretically acknowledged by aspirants to initiation. Hence the importance of determining the ray of the ego and of the Monad,—something of vital moment after the third initiation.  A majority and a minority always exist in every department of life.  So it is in the work of the Logos, for at the end of the greater cycle (manvantara) the majority will find their way to the synthetic love ray; a small minority will find their way to the power ray.  This minority are destined for an important function.

They will constitute the nucleus which (in the next solar system) will constitute the majority, finding their synthesis on ray one.  This is a great mystery and not easily understood.  Some hint towards its solution will be found hidden in the real meaning of the words "exoteric" and "esoteric."

The fact should be remembered that only five rays dominate at any one time.  All manifest, but only five dominate.  A distinction should be made between the rays dominating in a solar system and those dominating in a scheme, or a chain. To this reference has been made in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire.

Three rays out of the seven synthesise.  One ray out of the three will synthesise at the culmination.  For the first solar system the third ray was the synthetic ray, but for this solar system the second ray is the synthetic ray, and for the next solar system the first ray will perform a similar function.

Two rays are largely the goal of human endeavour, the first ray and the second ray.  One ray is the goal of the deva or angel evolution, the third ray.  All these three rays contact the two poles, and the attainment of the goal at the end of the cycle marks the achievement of the solar Logos. This again is hidden in mystery.  The seventh ray and the first ray are very closely allied, with the third ray linking them, so that we have the relation expressed thus,— 1. 3. 7.  There is a close association also between rays 2. 4. 6., with the fifth ray in a peculiar position, as a central point of attainment, the home of the ego or soul, the embodied plane of mind, the point of consummation for the personality, and the reflection in the three worlds of the threefold monad.

Ray I.....Will, demonstrating as power in the unfolding of the Plan of the Logos.

Ray III...Adaptability of activity with intelligence.  This ray was the dominant one in the past solar system; it is the foundation or basis of this system, and is controlled by the Mahachohan.

Ray VII..Ceremonial ritual or organisation.  This is the reflection on the physical plane of the two above, and is likewise connected with the Mahachohan. It controls the elemental forces and the involutionary process and the form side of the three kingdoms in nature.  It holds hid the secret of

physical colour and sound.  It is the law.

These three rays together embrace and embody all.  They are Power, Activity and the Law in manifestation.

Ray II....Love and Wisdom, the synthetic ray which is the goal for this system, holding all in close harmony and relation.

Ray IV...The expression of Harmony, beauty, music and unity.

Ray VI...The ray of Devotion to the ardour of aspiration, and of the sacrifice of the personal self for the good of all, with the object in view of harmony and beauty, impelled thereto by love.

These two groups of rays might be related to each other as follows:

Rays 1. 3. 7 are the great rays connected with the form, with the evolutionary process, with the intelligent functioning of the system, and with the laws controlling the life in all forms in all the kingdoms in nature.

Rays 2. 4. 6 are the rays connected with the inner life, expanding through those forms,—the rays of motive, aspiration and sacrifice.  Rays pre-eminently of quality.

Rays 1. 3. 7 deal with things concrete and with the functioning of matter and form from the lowest plane to the highest.

Rays 2. 4. 6 deal with things abstract, with spiritual expression through the medium of form.

Ray 5 . . . .forms the connecting link of the intelligence.