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Esoteric Psychology I - Section One - I. Introductory Remarks
3. The Seven Rays Enumerated As part of the initial Plan, the one Life sought expansion, and the seven aeons or emanations came forth from the central vortex and actively repeated the earlier process in all its details. They too came into manifestation and in the work of expressing active life, qualified by love and limited by an outward phenomenal appearance, they swept into a secondary activity and became the seven Builders, the seven Sources of [23] life and the seven Rishis of all the ancient scriptures. They are the original psychic Entities, imbued with the capacity to express love (which involves the concept of duality, for the loving and the loved, the desiring and the desired, must here be posited) and to emerge from subjective being into objective becoming. We call these seven by various names, as follows: 1. The Lord of Power or Will. This Life wills to love, and uses power as an expression of divine beneficence. For His body of manifestation He uses that planet for which the sun is regarded as the esoteric substitute. 2. The Lord of Love-Wisdom, Who is the embodiment of pure love, is regarded by esotericists as being as close to the heart of the Solar Logos as was the beloved disciple close to the heart of the Christ of Galilee. This Life instills into all forms the quality of love, with its more material manifestation of desire, and is the attractive principle in nature and the custodian of the Law of Attraction, which is the life-demonstration of pure Being. This Lord of Love is the most potent of the seven rays, because He is on the same cosmic ray as the solar Deity. He expresses Himself primarily through the planet Jupiter, which is His body of manifestation. 3. The Lord of Active Intelligence. His work is more closely linked to matter and He works in cooperation with the Lord of the second ray. He is the motivating impulse in the initial work of creation. The planet Saturn is His body of expression within the solar system, and through the medium of matter (which beneficently obstructs and hinders) He provides humanity with a vast field of experiment and experience. I should like to point out here that when I speak in terms of [24] personality and perforce employ the personal pronoun, I must not be accused of personalizing these great forces. I speak in terms of entity, of pure Being, and not in terms of human personality. But the handicap of language persists; and in teaching those who think in terms of the lower concrete mind, and whose intuition is dormant or only manifesting in flashes, I am compelled to speak in parables and use the language of word symbols. Let me point out also that all statements which I may make are in relation to our particular planet and couched in terms that can be understood by the humanity which our planet has produced. The work, as I outline it, constitutes only a fraction of the work undertaken by these Beings; They each have Their own purpose and radius of influence, and as our Earth is not one of the seven sacred planets (nor the body of manifestation of one of the basic seven rays), They have purposes and activities in which our Earth plays only a minor part. 4. The Lord of Harmony, Beauty and Art. The main function of this Being is the creation of Beauty (as an expression of truth) through the free interplay of life and form, basing the design of beauty upon the initial plan as it exists in the mind of the solar Logos. The body of manifestation of this life is not revealed, but the activity emanating from it produces that combination of sounds, colors and word music that expresses - through the form of the ideal - that which is the originating idea. This fourth Lord of creative expression will resume activity upon the Earth about six hundred years hence, though already the first faint impress of His influence is being felt and the next century will see a reawakening of creative art in all its branches. 5. The Lord of Concrete Knowledge and Science. This is a Great Life in close touch with the mind of the creative [25] Deity, just as the Lord of the second ray is in close touch with the heart of that same Deity. His influence is great at this time, though not as potent as it will be later. Science is a psychological unfoldment in man due to this ray influence, and is only entering into its real work. His influence is waxing in power, just as the influence of the sixth Lord is waning. 6. The Lord of Devotion and Idealism. This solar Deity is a peculiar and characteristic expression of the quality of the solar Logos. Forget not that in the great scheme of the universal universe (not just our universe) our solar Logos is as differentiated and distinctive in quality as are any of the sons of men. This ray force, with the second ray, is a true and vital expression of the divine nature. A militant focusing upon the ideal, a one-pointed devotion to the intent of the life urge, and a divine sincerity are the qualities of this Lord, and set their impress upon all that is found within His body of manifestation. Advanced esotericists debate as to whether Mars is, or is not, the planet through which He manifests. You must remember that only a few of the planets are the bodies of expression of the Lords of the rays. There are ten "planets of expression" (to use the term employed by the ancient Rishis), and only seven ray Lives are regarded as the Builders of the system. The great mystery, which is finally revealed in the higher initiations, is the relation of a ray to a planet. Therefore seek not full information at this time. The influence of this sixth Lord is now passing out. 7. The Lord of Ceremonial Order or Magic is now coming into power and is slowly but surely making His pressure felt. His influence is most potent upon the physical plane, for there is a close numerical interrelation between (for [26] instance) the Lord of the seventh ray and the seventh plane, the physical, just as the seventh root race will see complete conformity to and a perfect expression of law and order. This ray of order and its incoming is partially responsible for the present tendency in world affairs toward governmental dictatorship and the imposed control of a central governing body. It may be of value here if I give you the following statement as to the activity, or non-activity, of the rays, begging you to bear in mind that this statement refers only to our Earth and its evolutions: Ray One - Not in manifestation. *Ray Two - In manifestation since 1575 A.D. *Ray Three - In manifestation since 1425 A.D. Ray Four - To come slowly into manifestation after 2025 A.D. *Ray Five - In manifestation since 1775 A.D. Ray Six - Passing rapidly out of manifestation. It began to pass out in 1625 A.D. *Ray Seven - In manifestation since 1675 A.D. These are of course all lesser cycles within the influence of the sign Pisces. You will see that four rays are in manifestation at this time, - the second, third, fifth, and seventh. The question arises here: How does it happen that we find people in incarnation on all the rays at practically the same time? The reason is that, as you can easily see, the fourth is beginning to approach and the sixth is passing out, which puts six of the rays in the position of having their egos in manifestation. There are however very few of the fourth ray egos on the Earth at this time, and a very large number of sixth ray egos, for it will be about two hundred years before all the sixth ray egos pass out of incarnation. As to the first ray egos, there are no pure first ray types on the planet. All so-called [27] first ray egos are on the first subray of the second ray, which is in incarnation. A pure first ray ego in incarnation at this time would be a disaster. There is not sufficient intelligence and love in the world to balance the dynamic will of an ego on the ray of the destroyer. Just as the human family has a relation to the planetary Logos of our Earth which is best expressed by stating that it constitutes His heart and brain, so does the sum total of analogous evolutions within the entire solar system constitute the heart and brain of the solar Logos. Intelligent activity and love are the outstanding characteristics of a developed son of God, whilst their lower reflections - sex and desire - are the characteristics of the average man and the undeveloped sons of God. These seven living qualified emanations from the central vortex of force are composed of untold myriads of energy units which are inherently and innately aspects of life, endowed with quality and capable of appearance. Below the human, the combination of these three produces conscious response to the environment, regarding the environment as composed of the sum total of all lives, qualities and appearances, - the synthesis of the seven rays or emanations of the Deity. They produce in the human kingdom a self-conscious awareness, and in the superhuman world a synthetic inclusiveness. All human monads, carried into manifestation by the will and desire of some ray Lord, are part of His body of manifestation. Potentially they express His quality and appear phenomenally according to the point in evolutionary expression which has been reached. "As He is, so are we in this world," but only as yet potentially, - the goal of evolution being to make the potential into the real, and the latent into the expressed. The work of the esotericist is just this very thing: to bring, out of latency, the hidden quality. [28]
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