THE PRESENT AGE AND THE FUTURE - Part 3

1. By an increased rate of vibration of the etheric atoms, caused by the coming in of the ceremonial ray.  This must not be pictured as a sudden and violent change.  From the standpoint of the human student the rate of increase is apparently so slow and gradual as to be inappreciable.  Nevertheless, the stimulation exists, and in the course of centuries will be recognized.

2. By the play of certain astral forces on the etheric body that leads to slow but definite changes in the internal structure of the atom, the coming into consciousness of another of the spirillae and a general tightening up of the whole cosmos of the atom.

3. By the use on the inner planes by the Mahachohan of one of the powerful talismans of the seventh ray.

The spirit of the earth, it might be noted, is of slow and gradual arousing.  He is on the involutionary arc and passes on to the evolutionary in some dim and distant future.  Therefore, he will not carry us with him.  He but serves our purpose now, offering us a home within his body, yet remaining dissociated from us.  The devas of the ethers from this very stimulation are consequently hastening forward in evolution and approximating also nearer to their ideal.

In all I have said anent the etheric body of men, anent the planet, anent the spirit of the earth, the crux of the whole situation lies in the fact that the five rays at this time have the seventh ray as their predominating ray.  The seventh ray is the ray that controls the etheric and the devas of the ethers.  It controls the seventh sub-plane of all planes but it dominates at this time the seventh sub-plane of the physical plane.  Being in the fourth [374] round also, when a ray comes into definite incarnation, it not only controls on planes of the same number but has a special influence on the fourth sub-plane.  Note how this works at this time in the three worlds:

1. The fourth ether, the lowest of the ethers, is to be the next physical plane of consciousness.  Etheric matter is even now becoming visible to some, and will be entirely visible at the end of this century to many.

2. The fourth sub-plane of the astral holds the majority of men when they pass over and consequently much work on the greatest number can therefore be accomplished.

3. The fourth mental sub-plane is the plane of devachan.