3. The Keynotes of the Seven Rays and the Will Aspect.
The keynotes of these seven Rays are, therefore, as they constitute the revelation of seven Great Beings:
Initiation. Unification. Evolution. Harmonisation. Action. Causation. Expression.
These are the keynotes for humanity at its present point of evolutionary development; as these seven energies play upon the human consciousness in an effort to produce and evoke the Will aspect in advanced man they produce:
Initiation. Vision. Education. Intuition. Liberation. Idealism. Organisation.
A close study of these seven major rays and seven minor keynotes will reveal these truths and their promise. At the close of the Aquarian Age, these keynotes will vary somewhat because the recognition of the Will (leading to understanding cooperation) will produce major changes in human polarisation and human objectives—realised objectives.
Let us now see how these basic ray energies will work out in man's planetary and zodiacal relationships and why certain constellations and planets are related to certain rays and transmit into the centre which we call humanity definite and specific influences. These produce certain tendencies in humanity, evoke certain attitudes of the will, and lead consequently to certain unavoidable events as well as to definite and determined forms of Being.
As we proceed with our consideration of Tabulation X, there are certain fundamental ideas which must be carefully borne in mind. Let me list them for your helping:
1. We are dealing with the effect of the seven ray energies, as they pour forth from one or other of the seven stars of the Great Bear into our solar system. These energies [603] are the life-quality of the seven great Beings Who are the Prototypes of the planetary Logoi of the sacred planets, seven in number. These latter are Their reflections in time and space, as the soul is the reflector of the Monad where human beings are concerned.
2. The seven rays express themselves, each through three of the zodiacal constellations. The analogy (but not the correspondence) is that these three constellations are to the life of one of these ray Beings what the three aspects of monad-soul-body are to a man. Again, it is only analogy. Forget not that analogy and correspondence are not the same. In the first case there is resemblance but not in detail. In the second, there is practically identical expression, usually on a lower level.
3. These seven great Beings express Themselves in our solar system as the custodians or the exponents of the Will aspect of Deity. Their effect, therefore, is ever to convey into our solar system and eventually into our planetary life, the energy of the Will, in its planmaking, form-building nature. Esoteric books and esoteric teaching have necessarily laid the emphasis upon consciousness as it expresses quality. That is as it should be. But behind all quality lies That of which the quality is the expression and behind that is to be found the dynamic "out-going" (if I might so express it) which is the motivation of both the quality or consciousness and the life or appearance, the precipitation of will and quality.
4. The nature of the will is as yet undefinable for only the Monad responds to its impact, and only after the third initiation does man somewhat grasp the nature of the will. All that is possible to understand in this brief summation is the effect of the will as it makes its presence [604] felt and the result of its expression, emphasised through the three constellations.
5. The constellations in groups of three transmit the seven influences of the seven rays to our planet, via the Sun, and the relationships which I am here indicating are only those in connection with our Earth. They do not apply in relation to others of the planets in our solar system, where the configuration of the relationship is different. This is dependent upon the nature of the etheric web through which all transmission of energies takes place. The lines of approach might be indicated as follows:
DIAGRAM ONE, DIAGRAM TWO
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6. This diamond shaped formation of the inter-related energies is the prototypal pattern which lies behind the etheric network and is its final, conditioning influence as far as our Earth is concerned. It is hinted at in the reference to the "diamond soul" of which the Buddha is an exponent. This is necessarily a deep mystery but the correlation is interesting and guaranteeing.
7. These seven ray energies, expressing the divine prototypal will in seven forms, are as follows:
Ray I.—The will to initiate.
Ray II.—The will to unify.
Ray III.—The will to evolve.
Ray IV.—The will to harmonise or relate.
Ray V.—The will to act.
Ray VI.—The will to cause.
Ray VII.—The will to express.
When their full creative work is completed, there will emerge a "something else or other" for which we have no name but which will be the seed of the next solar system. This third solar system will express the divine will, as this is slowly developed through the experiment and experience of the divine love.
8. These seven ray aspects of the will, which are the goal of the higher initiations and which embody that which the Masters Themselves are struggling to understand, is that which flowers in the Monad when souls have reached perfected expression through humanity. They express themselves where humanity is concerned as:
Ray I.—That which incites to and produces initiation.
Ray II.—That which is the cause of vision or the power to see.
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Ray III.—That which develops sensory perception into knowledge, knowledge into wisdom and wisdom into omniscience.
Ray IV.—That which is the illumined will, the basis of buddhi or the intuition.
Ray V.—That which is the cosmic seed of liberation. This is an aspect of destruction.
Ray VI.—That which is the cause of the thoughtform building faculty, related to the creative urge.
Ray VII.—That which can be called the principle of order.
9. Just as desire has produced this "son of necessity," our solar system, there lies behind all the energies of the Heart of God and all the forces which have produced the manifested universe that which is the result of divine need. It is neither the cosmic correspondence of brain or mind or focussed intention, as you might surmise. It is that synthetic something which produces cohesion and results in fruition or synthesis as the effect or final result of manifestation.
It is well-nigh impossible for me to make this any clearer because I am speaking of some of the final aspects and effects of the highest initiations. I only touch upon them because they consummate and climax this study of divine psychology as it manifests through God and through man. I am simply giving faint and inadequate indications of that which emerges in the human consciousness after the third initiation—the point at which personality or form life is transcended and the Monad becomes the object of the desired attainment; its spiritual pressure is then increasingly felt. It is, therefore, only possible to point to distant goals. [607] We can, however, gain some dim, human interpretations of divine goals by relating these rays and their transmitting constellations to our Earth and by noting how this triangular relationship can work out on our planet. Individual apprehension will be dependent upon the point of development and only the higher initiates will understand the real implications of my remarks.
You have to remember, therefore, as you study these most deeply esoteric relations that we approach them from two angles—the only angles which are as yet possible to the finite mind of man:
1. The relation of the three constellations to the rays which are each expressing the quality of the Life of an Informing Entity—the Being Who is expressing Identity through one or other of the seven stars of the Great Bear, Ursa Major, as we probably ought to call this constellation.
2. The three aspects of the will which the three constellations are expressing and to which human beings will consciously respond after the third initiation. These three aspects are:
a. The will which conditions and initiates.
b. The will which brings fulfilment.
c. The will which conquers death.
Before entering into a closer analysis of our subject, I would remind you that we are in reality dealing with universals, symbolised for us in the huge aggregate of constellations with which our theme is concerned:
1. The seven stars of the Great Bear or Ursa Major are involved in an intricate relation with Ursa Minor and the Pleiades. With this we shall not deal. This major [608] triplicity of constellations has a peculiar relation to that Great Being to Whom I have at times referred as the One About Whom Naught Can Be Said. All that can be hinted at is that these three galaxies of stars are the three aspects of that Indescribable, Absolute Monad, the Ineffable Cause of the seven solar systems—of which ours is one.
2. The twelve constellations of the zodiac, each with its own inter-relations, peculiar to its own integral Life, form—each of them—part of a triangle of energies. Each of these triangles is a unit in itself but in conjunction with the other triangles forms part of that major quaternary which is the cosmic analogy of the quaternary of the One Life—soul and the dual psychic nature, called in some of the esoteric books kama-manas, plus the vital nature. These four are the expression of the One Ineffable Cause.
3. Our solar system (of supreme unimportance) is yet a part of the sevenfold appearance of that same Essential Cause. As you know, from a study of The Secret Doctrine, our solar system is a tiny reflection or replica of the 1, the 3, the 7, the 12. Because of that innate, inherent correspondence, it has within itself the capacity to respond to the energies emanating from this fountainhead of light and will. More than this I may not say, because the entire theme is too vast for human thinking, with its limitations of consciousness and its inadequacy of language. But even a dim perception of that vast aggregation of intelligent Forces and this immense concatenation of stupendous, divine "Intentions" will serve to bring into clearer light, the realisation that our solar system (and consequently our planet) is a part of this vast whole, kept alive by its "grace," [609] fused by its will, and preserved by its "Intention." Because these Forces are, we are; because They persist, we persist; because They move in form, in space, in time, we do the same.