Reflections on: The Incoming Seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order and Ritual

Reflections on the Incoming Seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order and Ritual
from The Destiny of the Nations, by Alice Bailey

…the seventh ray is spoken of as governing the mineral kingdom and also as manifesting through its mediumship that significant soul characteristic and quality which we call radiation. That word effectively describes the result of soul stimulation upon and within every form. The life of the soul eventually radiates beyond the form and this radiation produces definite and calculated effects.
(p.123)

One of the inevitable effects of seventh ray energy will be to relate and weld into a closer synthesis the four kingdoms in nature. This must be done as preparatory to the long fore-ordained work of humanity which is to be the distributing agency for spiritual energy to the three subhuman kingdoms. This is the major task of service which the fourth kingdom, through its incarnating souls, has undertaken. The radiation from the fourth kingdom will some day be so potent and far-reaching that its effects will permeate down into the very depths of the created phenomenal world, even into the mineral kingdom. Then we shall see the results to which the great initiate, Paul, refers when he speaks of the whole creation waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God. That manifestation is that of radiating glory and power and love.
(p.124)

One of the major characteristics of the seventh ray disciple is his intense practicality. He works upon the physical plane with a constant and steady objective in order to bring about results which will be effective in determining the forms of the coming culture and civilisation; towards the end of the seventh ray cycle he will work equally hard to perpetuate what he has brought about. He wields force in order to build the forms which will meet his requirements and does this more scientifically than do disciples on other rays…. [The] failure to work intelligently, and I would like to add, lovingly with substance and so bring it into right relation with the dense outer form that has made the last two thousand years produce so disastrously a mismanaged world and which has brought the population of the planet into its present serious condition.
(p.126-7)

The keynote, governing the development of the sixth ray disciple, was expressed for him in the words of Christ when He said: “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men.” The emphasis of all sixth ray [The Ray of Devotion and Idealism] work is Attraction and Repulsion— hence division and cleavage, producing eventually a realisation of the necessity for a consciously undertaken synthesis and integration, mentally motivated and produced. The history of Christianity (which is the history of Europe) will stand illumined if the Law of Attraction and Repulsion is studied in connection with its eventful past. The use and misuse of this law and its constant interpretations in terms of material desire, personal ambitions, and territorial control produced the many schisms and cleavages and will account for much that happened. Under the seventh ray influence, these cleavages will end and synthesis will eventually take place.
(p.133)

The keynote of the seventh ray disciple is “Radiatory Activity.” Hence the emergence in world thought of certain new ideas—mental radiation or telepathy, the radiatory use of heat, the discovery of radium. All this connotes seventh ray activity.

The divine principle with which the seventh ray humanity will be mainly concerned is that of life as it expresses itself through the medium of the etheric body. It is for this reason that we find a growing interest in the nature of vitality; the function of the glands is being studied and before long their major function as vitality generators will be noted. Esoterically, they are regarded as externalisations upon the physical plane of force centres in the etheric body and their aliveness or their lack of activity are indicative of the condition of those centres. The shift of the world interest is also into the realm of economics which is definitely the realm of life sustenance. Much is, therefore, bound to happen in all these spheres of interest, and once the etheric body becomes an established scientific fact and the centres—major and minor—are recognised as the foci of all energy as it expresses itself through the human body upon the physical plane, we shall see a great revolution take place in medicine, in diet and in the handling of daily life activity. This will produce great changes in the mode of work and labour and above everything else in the leisure activities of the race.
(p.133-4)

We are entering a scientific age, but it will be a science which passes out of the impasse which it has now reached and which—having penetrated as it has into the realm of the intangible—will begin to work far more subjectively than heretofore. It will recognise the existence of senses which are super-sensory and which are extensions of the five physical senses…. The moment that the subjective world of causes is proven to exist (and this will come through the indisputable evidence of man’s extended senses) science will enter a new era; its focus of attention will change; the possibilities of discovery will be immense and materialism (as that word is now understood) will vanish. Even the word “materialism” will become obsolete and men in the future will be amused at the limited vision of our modern world and wonder why we thought and felt as we did.
(p.134-5)