388. Esoteric Psychology - Volume I - 31. Section Two - CHAPTER III - The Rays and Man 6. The Nations and the Rays - A. BAILEY

Section Two - CHAPTER III - The Rays and Man

6. The Nations and the Rays

In connection, therefore, with our discussion of the rays which govern and influence the leading nations of the world, the student should bear in mind the fact that all are today governed primarily by the Law of Cleavages, but that advanced groups in each nation are beginning to respond to the Law of Understanding,—a law which will eventually emphasize the eternal brotherhood of man and the identity of all souls with the Oversoul, in the racial consciousness, as well as the oneness of the Life which pours through, permeates, animates and integrates the entire solar system.  This Life functions therefore in and through all the planetary schemes, with their kingdoms of forms, and with all that can be included (throughout our solar universe) under the phrase "form life".  That phrase itself contains three great and basic ideas: the ideas of life, of matter and of evolution.

The functioning of the Law of Loving Understanding will be much facilitated and speeded up during the Aquarian age, and it will eventuate later in the development of the international spirit, in the recognition of one world faith in God and in humanity as the major expression of divinity in this world period, and in the transfer of the human consciousness from the world of material things to that of the more purely psychic, leading in time to the spiritual.  It should be remembered that (for advanced humanity) time sequence of the recognition of these expansions of consciousness is as follows:

1. The world of psychical living.  This requires the recognition, by the brain consciousness of the aspirant, of the need for mental and spiritual control as a first step.

2. The world of mental unfoldment and control.

3. The world of the soul or ego.

When these three recognitions are stabilised in the aspirant, then there comes the recognition by the disciple of...

4. The control of the physical plane life by the soul.

5. The interpretative faculty of the illumined mind.

6. The functioning and utilisation of the psychic powers, and their place and part in the field of intelligent service.

7. An inspired creative life on the physical plane.

But in the development of the racial consciousness, the process does not follow the above stages and sequence.  This is owing to the stimulation and consequent sensitising of the form aspect through the increased radiation and potency of the dynamic New Group of World Servers, whose ranks are filled by those who have passed, or are passing, through the stages of aspirant and disciple, thus learning to serve.  Psychic unfoldment in the masses parallels the spiritual unfoldment of advanced humanity.  This can be seen going on today on a large scale everywhere, and it accounts for the tremendous growth of the spiritualistic movement, and for the enormous increase in the lower psychic powers.  Old Atlantean magic and the lower psychism are upon us again in the great turning of the wheel of life, but this time good may eventuate, if the world disciples and spiritually focussed people measure up to their opportunity.

Today there are many hundreds (and in America, many thousands) coming under the influence of this Law of Loving Understanding.  Many in every nation are responding to the broader synthetic brotherly note, but the masses as yet understand nothing of this.  They must be led in right ways gradually, by the steady development in right understanding by their own nationals.  Bear this in mind, all of you who work for world peace and right relations, for harmony and for synthesis.

a. THE MAJOR NATIONS AND THEIR RAYS

All of the great nations are controlled by two rays, just as is the human being.  With the smaller nations we shall not concern ourselves.  All nations are controlled by a personality ray (if so we can call it), which is dominant and potent and the main controlling factor at this time, and by a soul ray which is sensed only by the disciples and aspirants of any nation.  This soul ray must be evoked into an increased functioning activity by the New Group of World Servers, for this is one of their main objectives and tasks.  This must never be lost to sight.  Much could be written about the historical influence of the rays during the past two thousand years, and of the way in which great events have been influenced or brought about by the periodic ray influence.  But for this I have neither the time nor the inclination.  Interesting as it is, and indicative of the present national trends and problems, all that I can now do is to point out the rays governing each nation, and leave you to study and note their effect at your leisure, and to comprehend their relation to the present condition of the world.  One thing I would point out, and that is that those rays which govern a particular nation, and which are at this time in incarnation, are very potent, either materially or egoically, whilst some of the problems may be due to the fact that certain rays, governing certain nations, are at this time out of incarnation.

Nation	Personality Ray	Egoic Ray	Motto
India	4th ray of art	1st ray of	"I hide the Light."
		government
China	3rd ray of intellect	1st ray of	"I indicate the Way."
		government
Germany	1st ray of power	4th ray of art	"I preserve."
France	3rd ray of intellect	5th ray of	I release the Light."
		knowledge
Great Britain	1st ray of power   or government	2nd ray of love	"I serve."
Italy	4th ray of art	6th ray of idealism	"I carve the Paths."
U.S.A	6th ray of idealism	2nd ray of love	"I light the Way."
Russia	6th ray of idealism	7th ray of	"I link two Ways."
		Magic and Order
Austria	5th ray of knowledge	4th ray of art	"I serve the Lighted Way."
Spain	7th ray of order	6th ray of  Idealism	"I disperse the Clouds."
Brazil	2nd ray of love	4th ray of art	"I hide the seed."

A close analysis of the above will indicate certain lines of racial understanding.  There is a natural rapport indicated between the modern and present personality rays of Germany and Great Britain, and yet a relationship can be seen between France and Great Britain through their esoteric national mottoes and also between the two symbols which are esoterically theirs.  The symbol for France is the fleur de lys, which she adopted centuries ago under divine guidance, which symbol stands for the three divine aspects in manifestation.  The emphasis is upon the third aspect, producing intelligent manifestation.  The symbol of Great Britain, under the same divine apportioning, is the three feathers, carried as the arms of the Prince of Wales.  The scintillating and brilliant French intellect, with its scientific bent, is accounted for by the interplay of the third Ray of Active Intelligence with the fifth Ray of Scientific Understanding.  Hence their amazing contribution to the knowledge and thought of the world, and their brilliant and colourful history.  Be it remembered also that the glory of the empire which was France is but the guarantee of a glory of divine revelation which lies ahead in the future, but which will never be theirs till they cease living in the wonder of their past and go forth into the future to demonstrate the fact of illumination, which is the goal of all mental effort.  When the intellect of the French is turned towards the discovery and the elucidation of the things of the spirit, then they will carry revelation to the world.  When their egoic ray dominates the third ray, and when the separative action of the fifth ray is transmuted into the revealing function of this ray, then France will enter into a period of new glory.  Her empire will then be of the mind, and her glory of the soul.

It is obvious that the governing faculty is strongly the outstanding characteristic of Great Britain.  England is an exponent of the art of control, and her function has been, as you may realise, to produce the first tentative grouping of federated nations, and to demonstrate the possibility of such grouping.  The United States of America are doing a somewhat similar thing, and are fusing the nationals of many nations into one federated state with many subsidiary states, instead of subsidiary nations.  These two powers function in this way and with this wide objective in order to give to the planet, eventually, a system of groupings within one national border or one empire, and yet with an international boundary which will be symbolic of the coming new age technique in government.  The second Ray of Love or Attraction governs, egoically, the British Empire, and there is a relation between this fact and the fact that the sign Gemini governs both the United States and London.  The fluid, mercurial, intuitional mind is closely allied with the divine aspect of love and understanding, producing attraction and interpretation.

It is interesting to note that the fourth Ray of Harmony or Art, which will begin before long to come into power again in its major aspect, is to be found prominent in the destinies of India, Germany, Italy, Austria and Brazil, and it is for this that there is so much preparatory turmoil in the three European countries.  The sixth ray is potent in  Russia, the United States, Italy and Spain. It is the fanatical adherence to an ideal which is responsible also for the potent changes in these four countries; in Germany and Italy, as we have seen, the harmonising power of the fourth ray is also seen.  Hence we have in all these countries a process of breaking down, and of destruction of old forms, prior to an adequate responsiveness to the influence of the incoming ray.  It should be remembered that as with individuals, so with nations,—the reaction to an increasing influence of the egoic ray is ever accompanied by a breaking down period, but this demonstration of destruction is but temporary and preparatory.

India hides the light, and that light, when released upon the world and revealed to humanity, will bring about harmony in the form aspect, for things will be clearly seen as they are and freed from glamour and illusion; this harmonising light is sorely needed in India itself, and when it has been manifested it will bring about the right functioning of the first Ray of Power or Government.  The will of the people will be seen in the light.  It is in this connection that Great Britain emerges into renewed activity, for her personality ray and India's egoic ray are the same.  Many British people are subjectively linked with India, by past incarnations and association, and the quarrel between Great Britain and India is largely a family affair in the deeper sense of the term, and hence its bitterness—the bitterness of an elder brother who sees the younger usurping his prerogatives.  Today many British administrators are finding their way back to their own home land, little as they may realise it, there to work out that which they initiated in other lives and bodies.  As you may know, there is a close link between the fourth and the second rays, and this again emerges in the relationship between England and India, and a destiny is there which must be jointly worked out.

The static stabilising tendency of Germany showing, for instance, in her futile effort to preserve a purity of race now impossible, is due to her first ray personality, whilst her fourth ray egoic force is responsible for her effort to standardise and harmonise all the elements within her borders, to the exclusion, however, of the Hebrew race.  With the problem of the Jew I will deal later.  Germany cannot help herself, for though the first ray is not in manifestation as we understand the term, yet the bulk of the egos now in power in Germany are on the first subray of the seven different rays, and hence they are from one dominant angle the transmitters of first ray force.  A hint is here given.  It is for this reason therefore that Great Britain can contact the German race and handle the German psychology more understandingly than can Russia, Italy or France.  They share similar qualities, and one of the services therefore that England can render at this time is to come to the aid of world peace, and so live up to the motto, "I serve," by acting as a mediator.

A careful analysis of the idealism of Russia and of the United States may reveal no resemblances in the goal of their idealism, for the Russian is driven by his seventh ray soul towards the imposition of an enforced ceremonial of ordered rhythms, leading to an idealised order and community of interests.  Because of this, and because of the enforced magical work, some forces are present and active in Russia which need most careful handling by the Brotherhood of Light; they are not exactly on the white side, as it is called, but are concerned with the magic of form, whereas pure white magic concerns only the soul or subjective aspect.  The black forces, so called, are nowhere rampant in Russia any more than elsewhere in the world, but the Russian reaction and attitude to enforced rule and order has in it more of the magical seventh ray influence than is the case in other countries, such as Germany, which also enforces a standardised order and rule of life.

You will note that of the major nations only Brazil, Great Britain and the United States of America are definitely under the influence of the second ray.  An interesting fact emerges as we consider this grouping.  Great Britain is the custodian of the wisdom aspect of the second ray force for the Aryan race, so called.  The United States fulfills the same office for the sixth or coming subrace, which is the germ race for the future sixth great race, whilst Brazil will function as the leading division of the great sixth race.  These three races embody the attractive cohesive aspect of the second ray, and will demonstrate it through wisdom and wise government, based on idealism and love.  The United States will therefore represent a fusion of races, with the Anglo-Saxon element dominating.  Brazil will later represent the best of that which the Latin races have eventually to give.  This presented fusion will be considered from the angle of the ray types and the basic unfolding principles, and not from the angle of culture and civilisation.

Great Britain therefore represents the aspect of mind which expresses itself in intelligent government, based eventually on just loving understanding.  This, I say, is the ideal before her, but not the fulfilled achievement.  The United States represents the intuitive faculty, expressing itself as illumination and the power to fuse and blend.  Brazil (or rather what that country will then be called, for the time of this expression lies thousands of years ahead) will represent a linking interpreting civilisation, based on the unfoldment of the abstract consciousness, which is a blend of the intellect and the intuition, and which reveals the wisdom aspect of love in its beauty.  But the period of the development of this great civilisation lies too far ahead to make speculation possible.

It is too dangerous for me, in these days of upset and of difficulty, to express myself more definitely as to the future lines of unfoldment.  The destiny and future functioning of the nations lie hid in the present activity.  The readers of this treatise are, in the majority of cases, far too nationalistic in their viewpoint, and too deeply engrossed with the prime importance of their own nation and of its supreme significance, for me to be able to do more than generalise and to indicate the major lines of progress.  The role of the prophet is too dangerous, for destiny lies in the hands of the peoples, and no one knows exactly what way they will take to reach their goal.  The inevitability of that goal is assured, as is the ultimate achieving of it, but the incidents of travel cannot be revealed, but lie hid in the racial karma.  The time has not yet come when the majority of the people of any race can see the picture as a whole and be permitted to know the part their particular nation must play in the history of nations.  Every nation, without exception (and this is a platitude which it is seldom fruitful to repeat), has its peculiar virtues and vices.  These are dependent upon:

1. The point in evolution.

2. The measure of the control of the personality ray.

3. The emerging control of the egoic ray.

4. The polarisation of the nation.

It is useful to bear in mind, when considering the nations that some are negative and feminine and some positive and masculine.  India, France, the United States of America, Russia and Brazil are all feminine, and constitute the nurturing mother aspect.  They are feminine in their psychology,—intuitve, mystical, sensitive, alluring, beautiful, fond of display and colour, and with the faults of the feminine aspect, such as the laying of too much emphasis upon the material aspect of life, upon pageantry, upon possessions, and upon money as a symbol of that which connotes the form side.  They mother and nurture civilisation and ideas.

China, Germany, Great Britain and Italy are masculine and positive; they are mental, political, governing, standardising, group-conscious, occult, aggressive, full of grandeur, interested in law and in laying the emphasis upon race and empire.  But they are more inclusive and think in wider terms than the feminine aspects of divine manifestation.  The reader would find it useful to consult an earlier tabulation which I gave (see Pages 382-383), and consider the higher and lower expressions of the rays, noting how they work out in relation to the rays personal and egoic of the different nations.  Take for instance the emergence into manifestation of the egoic ray of the German nation.  Its lower expression is that of architectural construction, and can be seen at this time making its presence felt in the new and modern style in building.  Its higher expression is not yet to be noted, but Germany some day will give out to the world a sound form of hierarchical government.  It is interesting to note that the higher expression of the egoic ray of France (the fifth) is already being evidenced.  The scientific interest shown in psychism and psychology is a reaction to that ray of influence, and though it is as yet only indicated, the guarantee of the future is contained therein.  The sixth ray influence governing the personality or form aspect of the United States of America is abundantly evidenced in its diversified religions and in the national aptitude for idealistic organisation; the second ray, the egoic ray, is also making its presence felt, and we have the consequent interest shown in the phenomena and truth of the reality of initiation.

The analysis of the ray characteristics given earlier can be applied to the nations and countries of the world also, and it will therefore be seen how the many septenates of nature, having their roots in the primary septenate of rays, can be dealt with under the Law of Correspondences with amazingly interesting results.

Intuitional relations and the major intellectual cleavages are based on the governing ray influences.  Spain, Austria and France, being governed by the seventh, fifth and third rays, have a close interrelation, and this worked out most interestingly in the Middle Ages when the destinies of these three nations seemed closely to interlink.  The newly forming country of the United States is likewise esoterically and intimately associated, in its form aspect, with Brazil, Russia and Italy, and hence the early influx of Russians and Italians into America, and hence also the pull of the South American countries upon the American consciousness and the growth of the ideal of Pan-America.

These relations are all on the form side and emerge out of the personality rays.  Many such relations will appear if the countries and their rays are subjected to a careful scrutiny.  The ray of attraction or inclusiveness (Ray II), the ray of electrical phenomena (Ray III), and the fifth ray of intellect are potentially very active at this time, as they are all in incarnation, and the incoming seventh ray is slowly and surely—in spite of appearances—imposing order and hierarchical control upon the planet.  It must be remembered that all natural processes are rightly slow in their tempo, or the effects would be too destructive.  The effect of these influences is felt in the following sequential order:

1. The sensing of an ideal.

2. The formulation of a theory.

3. The growth of public opinion.

4. The imposition of a growing "pattern" upon the evolving life.

5. The production of a form based upon that pattern.

6. The stabilised functioning of the life within the form.

It must be remembered that each ray embodies an idea which can be sensed as an ideal.  The rays in time produce the world patterns which mould the planetary forms, and thus produce the inner potency of the evolutionary processes.  This pattern-forming tendency is being recognised today by modern psychology in connection with the individual human being, and his emotional and thought patterns are being delineated and charted.  As with the microcosm, so with the macrocosm.  Every ray produces three major patterns which are imposed upon the matter aspect, whether it be that of a man, a nation or a planet.  These three patterns are:

1. The emotional pattern.  This embodies the aspiration of the man, the nation or the planetary life, and is the sum total of the desire tendency.

2. The mental pattern.  This emerges later in time and governs the thought processes of the man, the nation and the planet.  It eventually becomes the controlling factor of the personality or form life.  The emotional and mental patterns are the negative and positive aspect of the personality ray.

3. The soul pattern.  This is the predisposing goal, the ring-pass-not or destiny which the immortal principle, the solar angel, succeeds eventually and much later in time in imposing upon the form life.  This soul pattern finally supersedes and obliterates the two earlier pattern-producing processes.

I have here again indicated fruitful lines of study through which the reader may arrive at some intelligent comprehension of what is transpiring in the life of the nations in the world today.

If, for instance, the fifth ray of the solar angels, the ray of mind, which is the egoic ray of the French nation, can make its potency felt through the stress and toil of the present world condition, then to France may be given the ultimate glory of proving to the world the fact of the soul and the demonstration of the technique of egoic control.  The soul pattern may be translated by the genius of the French intellect into terms which humanity can understand and the true soul psychology may come into being.  Again, the genius of Germany has often in the past manifested along the line of its fourth ray soul, and through that soul pattern has been given to the world much of the outstanding music and philosophies.  When this is again manifested, and the soul pattern is more strongly impressed upon the German consciousness, we shall begin to comprehend the significance of the superman.  Germany has caught a vision of this ideal.  It is as yet misinterpreting it, but Germany can give us the pattern of the superman, and this is its ultimate destiny.

If England's ideal of justice (which is the pattern of its personality ray) can be transformed and transmuted by her egoic ray of love into just and intelligent world service, she may give to the world the pattern of that true government which is the genius or the latent soul quality of the British.  If the idealism of the United States of America, which is today its personality expression and evidenced by the loudly enunciated idea of the biggest and the best, can be illumined by the law of love, then the pattern which underlies the structure of the States may be seen in lines of light, and we shall have the pattern for future racial light in contradistinction to the many separative national lines.  Thus the underlying patterns for all the nations can be seen and worked out by the intelligent reader.  It could be noted also that the emotional pattern of the United States at this time is expressed in terms of sentiment and of personal desire.  It is capable of being translated in terms of true benevolence.  The mental pattern for the States is to be seen as mass information through the schools, the radio and the newspapers.  Later this can be transmuted into intuitive perception.  The soul pattern in the States today works out through the acquisitiveness of the nation and its love of possessions which it attracts to itself through the misuse of the law of love.  The eventual expression of this will be the changing of the attitude which loves the material into that which loves the real, and the acquisition of the things of the spirit instead of those of the form.

b. THE JEWISH PROBLEM

In connection with the nations and the rays I want now to indicate to you certain fundamental conditions which partially account for the (so-called) Jewish problem,—a problem which has existed for centuries, and which is, at this time, causing the deepest possible concern to many, including members of the planetary Hierarchy.  If this problem can be solved, it will be one of the potent factors in the restoration of world understanding and harmony.  It cannot be solved without the cooperation of the men of good will throughout the world.  There is little that I can say anent this matter that can be checked and proved, for the clue to the problem is to be found back in the very night of time and, literally, when the sun was in the constellation Gemini.  At that time the two pillars were set up which, as all Masons know, are two great landmarks in Masonry.  Hence the Jewish colouring of all the Masonic work, though it is not Jewish in the sense that that word conveys today.  Who, therefore, if the facts are of such ancient import, shall say that I speak with accuracy, or establish the right or wrong nature of my conclusions?  I but present the facts as I know them from my access to records more ancient than any known to man.

The personality ray, the material form ray of the Jewish people, is the third ray.  Their egoic ray is the first.  Their astrological sign is Capricorn, with Virgo rising.  Mercury and Virgo play a prominent part in their destiny.  These clues should suffice to give to the advanced student and astrologer those salient points which will give him light upon their strange history.  Because of this third ray influence, you have the tendency of the Jew to manipulate forces and energies, and to "pull strings" in order to bring about desired ends. As a race, they are natural law makers, and hence their tendency to dominate and govern, because their egoic ray is the first.  Hence also the constant appearance of the goat in their history, and their teaching about the virgin mother who should give birth to the Messiah.

In every grouping,—whether in heaven or on earth—there is always evidenced a tendency by some units in the group to revolt, to rebel and to show some form of initiative different to that of the other units in the same grouping.  When our solar universe came into being, we are told in the allegorical language of the ancient scriptures, there "was war in Heaven"; "the sun and his seven brothers" did not function with true unanimity; hence (and herein lies a hint) our Earth is not one of the seven sacred planets.  There is, as we know, the ancient legend of the lost Pleiade, and there are many such stories.  Again, in the council chamber of the Most High, there has not always been peace and understanding, but at times, war and disruption; this is made abundantly clear by several of the stories in the Old Testament.  Symbolically speaking, some of the sons of God fell from their high estate, led, at one time, by "Lucifer, Son of the Morning".  This "fall of the angels" was a tremendous event in the history of our planet, but was nevertheless only a passing and interesting phenomenon in the history of the solar system, and a trifling incident in the affairs of the seven constellations, of which our solar system is but one.  Pause and consider this statement for a moment, and so readjust your sense of values.  The standard of happenings varies in importance according to the angle of vision, and what (from the angle of our Earth's unfoldment in consciousness) may be a factor of prime importance and of determining value may (from the angle of the universe) be of trifling moment.  The affairs of an individual are, to him, of momentous import; to humanity, as a whole, they are of small concern.  It all depends upon which unit holds the centre of the stage in the drama of life, and around which central factor the happenings, trivial or important, pursue their cyclic way.

Within the radius of power and life which is the expression of the fourth kingdom in nature, the human, there was to be found a correspondence to that "assumption of independence" and to that "breaking away" which characterised the major grouping.  Back in later Lemurian times, a group of men of high development, from the point of view of that time, and numbered among the then disciples of the world, took issue with the planetary Hierarchy, and broke away from the "law of the initiates". It was a time wherein the emphasis of the teaching was upon the material side of life, and where the focus of attention was upon the physical nature and its control.  TheOld Commentary expresses what happened in the following terms, and as you read the measured cadences of that ancient script, it would be wise to try and realise that the phrases are referring to that group of disciples who were the early founders of the present Jewish race:

"The law went forth from the inner group which guided the destinies of men: Detach yourselves.  Withdraw within yourselves the power to hold and gain and get.  The sons of God, who train themselves to leave the world of men and enter into light, they ever travel free.  They hold not what they have.  Release yourselves, and enter through the gates of peace.

"Some of the sons of God, waiting outside those gates, ready to enter when the Word went forth to roll the gates aside, were laden with the treasure of the earth.  They brought their gifts as offerings to the Lord of life, who needed not their gifts.  They sought to enter through those gates, not with a selfish end in view, but to present the garnered treasures of the world, and thus shew their love.

"Again the Word went forth: Leave all behind and pass beyond the portal, laden with naught of earth.  They waited and discussed.  The rest of those who were prepared entered into light and passed between the pillars of the gate; they left behind the loads they brought and entered free, and were accepted, carrying naught.

"Because they travelled as a group, and as a group progressed and grasped, the group responded to the divine command and halted.  There they waited, standing before the portal of the Path, grasping the garnered treasures of a thousand cycles.  Naught did they wish to leave behind.  They had laboured for the riches which they held.  They loved their God, and Him they sought to dower with the fullest measure of the riches they had gained.  They loved not discipline.

"Again the Word went forth: Drop on the ground all that you hold, and enter free.

"But three revolted from that stern command.  The rest obeyed.  They passed within the gates, leaving the three outside.  Many were raised unto the heights of joy.  The three remained without the gates, holding their treasure firm."

In this ancient writing, older than any of the written scriptures of the world, is to be found the secret of the Masonic story and of the slaying of the Master by the three most closely associated with Him in His death and burial.  Masons will all recognise the three to whom I here refer.  These three were the founders of the modern Jewish race.  They were three advanced disciples who resented the command to enter, free and untrammelled, the place where light is to be found. They sought to hold that which they had gathered and to dedicate it to the service of God.  Their unrecognised motive was love of riches and a desire to hold safe their gains.  Ancient tradition, as taught by the teachers of the past, tells us that...

"They turned their faces towards the gates of earth.  Their friends went on..... They stayed behind..... The Masters met in conclave and decided what should be the fate of those who, having reached the Gates of Light, loved the possessions of the world more than they loved the service of the light.  Again the Word went forth to the revolting three, who waited still without the gates:

"`Hold what you have and gather more, but know no peace.  Garner the fruits of mind, and seek your power in wide possessions, but have no sure abiding place.

"`Within yourselves, because you are disciples of the Lord, you shall have no share in peace, no sure and certain knowledge of success, nor power to hold your gains.

"`Always shall there be the knowledge dim of Him Who watches over all.  Always the urge to gather and amass.  Never the time to hold and to enjoy.  Pass on therefore until the time shall come, and again you stand before the Gates of Light, this time with empty hands.  Then enter, free, accepted by the Servants of the Lord, and know, forever, peace.'"

The ancient legend tells us that the three went forth in sorrow and revolt, laden with their treasures, and thus the history of the wandering Jew began.  It is significant to remember that one of the greatest sons of God Who has worked on earth, and Who epitomised in Himself the way and the achievement, Jesus of Nazareth, was a Jew. He reversed all the earlier conditions.  He possessed nothing at all.  He was the first of our humanity to achieve, and was a direct descendant of the eldest of the original three disciples who revolted from the drama of detachment.  The Jew embodies in himself the world prodigal son.  He is the symbol of the disciple who has not yet learned the lesson of a just sense of values.  He has been the victim of the Law of Light and of his inability to comply with that Law.  He sinned wilfully and with his eyes wide open to results.  Hence he knows the law as no other race knows it, for he is eternally its victim.  He has enunciated the law from its negative angle; the Law of Moses today rules most of the world, and yet fails to bring into life justice and true legality.

The other group of disciples, the representatives (in their day and age) of the race, passed through the ancient portals of initiation and took the first great step.  They came back with a latent and dim recollection of the episode which separated them from three of their co-disciples.  On their return to life on earth, they spoke of this event.  This was their error; the long antagonism started, which persists until today. Those particular disciples have themselves passed through their long pilgrimage and have entered into eternal peace, but the results of their early betrayal of the hidden events of initiation still persist.

Curiously enough, this ancient race, founded by the three who loved that which they had to offer more than that which they longed to take, were the originators of the Masonic tradition.  Their history (and incidentally the history of humanity) is embodied in that dramatic ritual.  The reward for their sincerity,—for they revolted in utter sincerity, believing they knew best—was the permission to enact each year, on the return of the day when they might have entered into light, the story of the search for light.  Because they had been so nearly resurrected from the death of earth into the life of light, the great tradition of the mysteries was started by them.  They chose death and slew that which "had lived and which could have claimed reward", and which could have spoken the word of power which would have caused the gates of resurrection to open wide.

We are told that these three swore an everlasting vow to stand together and never to desert each other.  This vow down the ages they have kept; it has consequently produced that racial separativeness and community of interests which arouses the antagonism of other races.

Down the ages, the Jew has been wandering, producing much of beauty in the world, and giving to humanity many of its greatest men, but he has (at the same time) been hated and persecuted, betrayed and hounded.  He embodies, in himself, symbolically, the history of humanity.  The ancient tendency of the Jews to grasp and hold, and also to preserve their racial and national integrity, are their outstanding characteristics.  They cannot be absorbed, and yet so ancient is the race that nevertheless today no nation in the world but has its roots in that group which—in old Lemuria—had advanced so far that all its foremost people stood upon the path of discipleship.  There are no racial strains in the Western world which are not offshoots of this oldest select people, with the exception of the Finns, Lapps and those nations which show definite mongoloid strains.  But the admixture of what is now called Jewish blood is not found to the same extent, and the modern Jew is as much a by-product as is the Anglo-Saxon race, only, through an imposed selective tendency and racial segregation, he has preserved intact more of the original characteristics.

It is the realisation of this common origin which has led the British-Israelites into their travesty of the truth, and caused them to trace our modern Western history to the Jews of the Dispersion. It is a far more ancient relation than that, and dates back into a period that antedates the history of the Jews as it is related for us in the Old Testament.  The original three disciples and their family groups were the ancestors of three major racial groupings, which can be generalised as follows:

1. The Semitic race or races of Biblical and modern times; the Arabs, the Afghans, the Moors and the offshoots and affiliations of those peoples, including the modern Egyptians.  These are all descended from the eldest of the three disciples.

2. The Latin peoples and their various branches throughout the world, and also the Celtic races wherever found. These are descended from the second of the three disciples.

3. The Teutons, the Scandinavians, and the Anglo-Saxons, who are the descendants of the third of the three disciples.

The above is a broad generalisation.  The period covered is so vast, and the ramifications down the ages are so numerous, that it is not possible for me to do more than give a general idea.  Gradually the descendants of two of these three disciples have accepted the legends which were promulgated in Atlantean times, and have ranged themselves on the side of those who are antagonistic to the Jew, as he is today; they have lost all sense of their common origin.  There is no pure race in the world today, for intermarriage, illicit relations and promiscuity during the past few million years have been so numerous that there exists no pure strain.  Climate and environment are fundamentally greater determining factors than any forced segregation, except that which comes through a constant racial intermarriage.  Of this latter factor, only the Hebrew today has preserved any measure of racial integrity.

When humanity awakens to the fact of its common origin, and when the three great major strains in our modern civilisation are recognised, then we shall see the old hatred of the Jew die out, and he will fuse and blend with the rest of mankind.  Even the oriental races, who are the remnants of the great Atlantean civilisation, have in them traces of intermarriage with the ancestors of the modern Jews and other racial types, but they have not mixed well, and have therefore preserved their characteristics more successfully than have the groups of our Western men.

If you ponder upon the above, and if you study the Masonic tradition with care, much will become clarified in your mind.  Ethnologists may disagree, but they cannot disprove what I have said, for the origins of the present racial world situation lie so far back in the history of mankind that they cannot even prove their own contentions.  All they are capable of considering is the history of the past one hundred thousand years, and their work lies with effects of that past and not with originating causes.