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Letters on Occult Meditation - Letter VII - The Use of Color and Sound
September 4th, 1920 We have for discussion today, something of real spiritual application in a practical sense. Much that I have imparted to you has provided food for thought and for speculation. It tends to the development of the higher mind and by stimulation of imagination it somewhat develops the intuition. Much of it has been in the nature of prophecy, and of the holding forth of an ideal some day to be attained. Only by pointing out the goal and by emphasizing that point will man be induced to make the [232] necessary effort and thereby approximate in some measure the desired position. But today we come down to practical living and the imposing upon the personality of a certain rate of rhythm. We do this in our study of the third point upon the effect of color: On the bodies of the student. On the groups with which he is affiliated. On his environment. The point I seek specially to emphasize is the life side and not the form side of color. As I wrote earlier, color is but the form assumed by force, of some kind, when that force is moving at a certain measure, and when its action and movement is impeded or unimpeded by the material through which it plays. In this sentence lies the key to the solution of the problem as to the color differences on the higher planes and on the lower. The resistance of matter to the downflow of force or life, and its relative density or rarity accounts for much of the color distinction. One of the distinctions has, necessarily, a cosmic basis and is consequently difficult of apprehension by three-dimensional man in this, the fourth round. But the basic reason of the difference can be apprehended sufficiently to permit the pupil to realize the absolute necessity of steadily refining his vehicles so that the force may radiate through with greater facility. It is therefore on the three lower planes a question of practical living and a bringing of all the three bodies under definite rules of refinement. These forces in terms of spiritual development, and not so much in terms of form, demonstrate through the virtues, as you call them, through magnetism and through vitality and intelligence. To put it quite briefly, as the student builds a pure physical body and a refined etheric, as he develops the emotional virtues and as he coordinates [233] and enlarges his mental body, he is continuously altering its rate of vibration, and changing its rhythm, which change demonstrates to the eye of the clairvoyant as mutation in color. As you have been taught, the colors as seen in the aura of a savage and in those of the average developed man are extraordinarily dissimilar. Why? Because one is moving or vibrating at a slow rate and the other with greatly increased rapidity. One has a rhythm slow, sluggish and heavy, the other is pulsating and moving with a tremendous velocity, permitting consequently a more rapid play of the material of which those bodies are constructed. Therefore, I would like to point out that as the race progresses as a collective unit, Those Who gaze upon it from a higher plane are aware of the steady improvement in the colors seen, and of a greater purity and clarity of hue in the aura of the race, which aura is composed of the composite auras of the units of the race. For instance, the aura of the Atlantean root-race and that of the Aryan are widely diverse, and radically different. We have, therefore, demonstrated our first point that, as the units evolve, the colors change and this is brought about by the transmutation of what you term vices, into virtues. A vice is dominance of an involutionary quality of the same force which at a later period will show forth as a virtue. The second point I seek to make is that these influences (which show forth as colors when they contact matter) move in their own ordered cycles. These cycles we describe as the coming in or the going out of a ray. In this fourth round usually four rays are in flux at any one given time; by this I seek to impress upon you that though all rays manifest in the solar system, at certain stages of manifestation more or less of them will be dominating simultaneously. These rays, forces, influences, or [234] coordinations of qualities, when expressed in terms of light, color the matters they impinge upon with certain recognizable hues, and these give the tone to the life of the personality or to the Ego. They are recognized by you as the composite character and are seen by the clairvoyant as color. Groups, therefore, of units who converge through similarity of vibration will be seen as having approximately the same basic hue, though with many lesser differentiations in color and tone. As stated before, the color of large masses of people can be gauged and judged. It is in this way that the members of the Hierarchy in Whose Hands is placed evolutionary development in the three worlds, judge of the stage attained and the progress made. Different rays come in bearing units colored by that ray. Other rays pass out carrying with them units of a different basic hue. In the period of transition the blending of color is of deep complexity, but of mutual helpfulness and benefit. Each ray imparts somewhat to the other rays in incarnation at the same time, and the rate of rhythm will be slightly affected. This from the standpoint of the present and of time in the three worlds, may be almost inappreciably small, but through the frequent meeting and interplay of the forces and colors, and their constant action and interaction upon each other, will come a steady, general leveling up, and an approximation in vibration. You will see, therefore, how synthesis is achieved at the end of a greater mahamanvantara. The three rays absorb the seven and lead eventually to a merging in the synthetic ray. In the microcosm the three rays of the Monad, the Ego, and the Personality will likewise dominate and absorb the seven, and in time also lead to a merging in the [235] synthetic ray of the Monad. The correspondence will be found perfect. These forces, or virtues, or influences (I reiterate synonymous terms because of the need of clear thinking on your part) are gradually received into the bodies of the personality with ever greater facility and fuller expression. As the bodies are refined they provide better mediums for incoming forces, and the quality of any particular force, - or, to reverse it, the force of any particular quality - becomes more perfectly expressed. Here comes in the work of the student in meditation. Early in evolution these forces played through and on the bodies of a man with little understanding on his part, and small ability to profit thereby. But as time proceeds, he comprehends more and more the value of all that eventuates, and seeks to profit by the sum of the qualities of his life. Herein comes opportunity. In the intelligent apprehension of quality, in the striving after virtue, and in the building-in of Godlike attribute, comes response to those forces and a facilitating of their action. The student of meditation ponders on those forces or qualities, he seeks to extract their essence, and to comprehend their spiritual significance; he broods on his own lack of response, he realizes the deficiencies in his vehicle as a medium for those forces; he studies the rate of his rhythmic vibration, and he strenuously endeavors to bend every opportunity to meet the need. He concentrates on the virtue, and (if he is so situated that he is aware of the incoming ray or of the ray in dominance at that time), he avails himself of the hour of opportunity and cooperates with the force extant. All this he does through the ordered forms of the true and occult meditation. As time progresses - yes, again I prophesy - occult students will be given certain facts anent the dominating [236] rays which will enable them to avail themselves of the opportunity any particular ray affords.
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