Navigate the Chapters of this Book

I. The Growth of Soul Influence - Part 4

Souls on this ray are spoken of occultly as "crashing their way into incarnation".  They appropriate dynamically that which they require.  They brook no hindrance in the satisfactions of their desires.  They stand alone in a proud isolation, glorying in their strength, and their ruthlessness.  These qualities have to be transmuted into that intelligent use of power which makes them powerful factors in the Plan, and magnetic centres of force, gathering workers and forces around them.  An illustration of this can be seen in the work of the Master Morya, Who is the centre, the magnetic attractive centre of all esoteric groups, conferring on them, by His power, the capacity to destroy that which is undesirable in the life of the disciples.  Forget not that the work of stimulating that which is needed is one of the major tasks of a Master, and the power of a disciple to destroy that which limits him is greatly needed.  Souls of this ray, as they come into incarnation through desire, grasp.  This expresses the nature of the force demonstration employed.  There is a measure of violence in their technique.  They eventually "take the kingdom of heaven by force."

Ray Two.  The Energy of Love-Wisdom

Souls on this ray use the method of "gathering in", or "drawing into".  The soul sets up a vibration (little as we may yet grasp the real significance of that word) and that vibration affects its environment, and atoms of substance on all three planes are attracted to the central point of energy.  The method is relatively gentle, when compared to the method of the first ray, and the process is somewhat longer whilst the overshadowing (carried forward prior to entering into [81] the three worlds for purposes of appearance) is very much longer.  This refers to that overshadowing of the substance to be built into form, and not to the overshadowing of the completed form, i.e.  the child in the mother's womb.  In the first case, it might be said that souls on the first ray are sudden and rapid in their desire to incarnate, and in the methods employed.   Souls on the second ray are slower in coming to that "impulsive" action (in the sense of impulse to action and not impulse in time) which leads to the occult manufacture of an appearance with which to manifest.

Souls on this ray, as they come into incarnation through desire, attract.  They are magnetic more than they are dynamic; they are constructive, and they work along the line which is, for all lives and forms, the line of least resistance within our universe.

Ray Three.  The Energy of Active Intelligence

Just as the grasping and attracting are terms applicable to the methods of the two first rays, so a process of "selective manipulation" is characteristic of this third ray.  This method is totally different in its technique to that of the two mentioned above.  It might be said that the note which generates the activity set up by souls on this ray, is such that atoms of the different planes are moved as if consciously responding to a selective process.  The vibratory activity of the soul makes itself felt, and atoms collect from widely different points in response to a certain quality in the vibration.  It is far more selective than in the case of the second ray.

Just as souls in the first case seem to grasp indiscriminately what they need, and force the substance thus grasped into the form or appearance required, enduing it with the quality needed in a dynamic and forceful way, and just as souls on the second ray set up a motion which gathers material out [82] of the immediately surrounding environment, and imposes on it, through magnetic attraction, the desired quality, so in the case of souls on the third ray the required material is chosen here and there, but that chosen already has the needed quality (note this difference) and nothing whatever is imposed.  It will be apparent, therefore, that substance itself exists in three major categories, and that these three categories are the correspondences in substance to the three Persons of the Trinity or to the three bodies of incarnated man.  They are also the analogy in the third aspect of divinity (the life of the third Person of the Trinity) to the quality of the three periodical vehicles through which manifestation takes place.

One division or type of this substance is dynamically electrified and from this all first ray egos choose the material needed in the three worlds.  Another type of substance is magnetically electrified, and from it all second ray egos select what they, in time and space, require in order to manifest.  The third type of substance is diffusively electrified (I know of no better word to express the intent), and all third ray egos take from it their needed quota of substance from which to build the forms for manifestation.

As regards the methods, techniques and types of substance used by souls on the remaining four minor rays, they are necessarily qualified by the characteristics of the third major ray, which eventually synthesises them.

The following tabulation is an attempt to define that which it is almost impossible to make intelligible in words.  From the angle of the illumined occultist it is meaningless, even more than it is to the average student, because as yet the mystery of electricity and the true nature of electrical phenomena (than which there is naught else) is at this time an unrevealed secret, even to the most advanced of the modern scientists.

[83]

Ray 

Energy  

Technique     

Quality

Source

1...

Power or Will........

Grasping..........

Dynamic Purpose...

Dynamically electrified forms.

2...

Love-Wisdom........

Attracting..........

Love.......................

Magnetically electrified forms.

3...

Intelligent Activity...

Selecting..........

Intellect..................

Diffusively electrified forms.

4...

Beauty or Art.........

At-one-ing........

Unification..............

Harmonising electrified forms.

5...

Science.................

Differentiating...

Discrimination........

Crystallising electrified forms.

6...

Idealism.................

Responding......

Sensitivity...............

Fluidic electrified forms.

7...

Organisation..........

Coordinating.....

Appearance............

Physical electrified forms.

 

That there is such a thing as electricity, that it probably accounts for all that can be seen, sensed and known, and that the entire universe is a manifestation of electrical power,—all this may be stated and is, today, coming to be recognised.  But when that has been said, the mystery remains, and will not be revealed, even in partial measure, until the middle of the next century.  Then revelation may be possible, as there will be more initiates in the world, and inner vision and inner hearing will be more generally recognised and present.  When man arrives at a better understanding of the etheric body and its seven force centres (which are all related to the seven rays, and in their expression show the seven characteristics and techniques which are here tabulated anent the rays) then some further light can intelligibly be thrown upon the nature of the seven types of electrical phenomena which we call the seven rays.

On the Path of Return and in connection with the process of detachment, which marks the progress of the soul towards release and the ending of the period of appropriation, certain passages in A Treatise on White Magic give clearly the intended [84] technique.  They are as follows, and are found on pages 288 and 289.

Ray One:—"Let the Forces come together.  Let them mount to the High Place, and from that lofty eminence, let the soul look out upon a world destroyed.  Then let the word go forth:  'I still persist!' "

Ray Two:—"Let all the life be drawn to the Centre, and enter thus into the heart of Love Divine.  Then from that point of sentient Life, let the soul realise the consciousness of God.  Let the word go forth, reverberating through the silence:  'Naught is but Me!' "

Ray Three:—"Let the army of the Lord, responsive to the word cease their activities.  Let knowledge end in wisdom.  Let the point vibrating become the point quiescent, and in all lines gather into One.  Let the soul realise the One in Many, and let the word go forth in perfect understanding:  'I am the Worker and the Work, the One that Is.' "

Ray Four:—"Let the outer glory pass away and the beauty of the inner Light reveal the One.  Let dissonance give place to harmony, and from the centre of the hidden Light, let the soul speak:  Let the word roll forth:  'Beauty and glory veil Me not.  I stand revealed.  I am.' "

Ray Five:—"Let the three forms of energy electric pass upward to the Place of Power.  Let the forces of the head and heart and all the nether aspects blend.  Then let the soul look out upon an inner world of light divine.  Let the word triumphant go forth:  'I mastered energy for I am energy Itself.  The Master and the mastered are but One.' "

Ray Six:—"Let all desire cease.  Let aspiration end.  The search is over.  Let the soul realise that it has reached the goal, and from that gateway to eternal Life and cosmic Peace, let the word sound:  'I am the seeker and the sought.  I rest!' "

Ray Seven:—"Let the builders cease their work.  The Temple is completed.  Let the soul enter into its heritage and from the Holy Place command all work to end.  Then in the silence subsequent, let him chant forth the Word: .The creative [85] work is over.  l, the Creator, Am.  Naught else remains but Me.' "