COMPILATION ON THE SEVEN RAYS FROM AAB, HPB,

H. ROERICH AND OTHERS:

My Star: One of Seven
Letters Of Helena Roerich II, 18 June 1936. It is said in
The Secret Doctrine: "The [human monads] 'triads' born
under the same... Planet, or rather the radiations of one
and the same [of the Seven] Planetary Spirits (DhyaniBuddhas or Archangels) are, in all their after lives and
rebirths, sister, or 'twin-souls,' on this Earth...." "The
star under which a human Entity [monad] is born, says
the Occult teaching, will remain forever its star,
throughout the whole cycle of its incarnations in one
Manvantara. But this is not his astrological star. The
latter is concerned and connected with the personality,
the former with the INDIVIDUALITY. The 'Angel' [or the
Ruler] of that Star, or the Dhyani-Buddha will be either
the guiding or simply the presiding 'Angel,' so to say, in
every new rebirth of the monad, which is part of his own
essence, through his vehicle, man may remain for ever
ignorant of this fact. The adepts have each their DhyaniBuddha, their elder 'twin soul,' and they know it, calling
it 'Father-Soul,' and Father -Fire.' It is only at the last and
supreme initiation, however, that they learn it when
placed face to face with the bright 'Image.'"
------------------------It is to be observed that the number eighteen is
constantly recurring in the Mahbhrata, seeing that it
contains eighteen Parvs, the contending armies were
divided into eighteen army corps, the battle raged

eighteen days, and the book is called by a name which

means eighteen. This number is mysteriously connected
with Arjuna. I have been describing him as man, but
even Parabrahm manifests itself as a Logos in more
ways than one. Krshna may be the Logos, but only one
particular form of it. The number eighteen is to
represent this particular form. Krshna is the Logos that
overshadows the human Ego and his gift of his sister in
marriage to Arjuna typifies the union between the light
of the Logos and the human monad. It is worthy of note
that Arjuna did not want Krshna to fight for him, but only
to act as his charioteer and to be his friend and
counsellor. From this it will be perceived that the human
soul must fight its own battle, assisted, when once the
human being begins to tread the true Path, by his own
Logos.(T.S.Row, Esoteric Writings, pp.100-101)
When the seven rays we have spoken of proceed from
the logos, they are separate and subsequently comingle in the formation of all beings. When an individual
begins his course of evolution, these rays are equally
balanced in him, none preponderating more than
another. In course of time the man's actions, his karma,
cause him to come particularly under the influence of
one or other of the rays. Up this ray he must make his
further progress, till he has succeeded in merging his
life in the life of the Logos, - the grand fountain-head of
light and power.
When this mergence takes place, the man does not
suffer loss of individuality; rather he enjoys an almost
infinite extension of individuality. Each of the seven
classes of logoi has its own peculiar consciousness,
and knows that this is so; that is to say, each Logos
recognises its own light; but each logos also

participates in the life of all the other classes of logoi;

that is to say, the peculiar quality of their life is
represented in it also; so that an individuality, in
merging in a particular logos, is not cut off from the
consciousness of the other logoi, but shares in, and
experiences, their consciousness also
.
We have said that the tma is represented on every
plane, and the logos is related to the tma on each of
the planes. It is however useless to attempt to
understand the relation between the tma, on any plane,
and the logos. This relation must be known, however,
after the last initiation, when man will thoroughly
understand his spiritual nature.
After the last initiation, the adept thoroughly
comprehends the relation of tma with the logos, and
the method of merging himself in the logos, by which he
obtains immortality: but it is a mistake to suppose that
the life of the logos rises up within the man at the last
initiation, or that its light enters into him. He
understands his spiritual nature, and sees the way to
the logos; but it may take him several incarnations after
the last initiation before he can merge in the logos. This
philosophy recognises two paths, both having the same
end, a glorified immortality.
The one is the steady natural path of progress through
moral effort, and practise of the virtues. A natural,
coherent, and sure growth of the soul is the result, a
position of firm equilibrium is reached and maintained,
which cannot be overthrown or shaken by any
unexpected assault. It is the normal method followed by
the vast mass of humanity, and this is the course
Sankarchrya recommended to all his Sannyasis and

successors. The other road is the precipitous path of

occultism, through a series of initiations. Only a few
specially organised and peculiar natures are fit for this
path. (T.Subba Row, Ibid)
Seven rays emerging from the Logos are separate and
subsequently co-mingle in the formation of all beings.
When the individual begins his course of evolution,
these rays are equally balanced in him. In the course of
man's actions, his karma causes him to come under the
particular influence of a Ray. He must make progress
under this ray till he merges his life in the life of the
Logos- the grand fountain-head of light and power.
Even as the merger takes place, man will not lose his
individuality; he enjoys an almost infinite extension of
individuality. Even as an individual merges with a
particular Logos, the touch or contact with the other
Logoi will not die down. He shares in and experiences
their consciousness also.
We cannot possibly understand the relationship of Atma
on any plane with the Logos. This relationship will be
known only after the last initiation is taken. Then he will
thoroughly understand his spiritual nature, sees the way
to the Logos but it may take him several incarnations
after the last initiation before he can merge in the Logos.
(T.S. Row, Ibid)
--------------At the fourth initiation, the initiate is brought into the
Presence of that aspect of Himself which is called "His
Father in Heaven." He is brought face to face with his
own Monad, that pure spiritual essence on the highest
plane but one, which is to his Ego or higher self what
that Ego is to the personality or lower self.

This Monad has expressed itself on the mental plane

through the Ego in a triple fashion, but now all aspects
of the mind, as we understand it, are lacking. The solar
angel hitherto contacted has withdrawn himself, and the
form through which he functioned (the egoic or causal
body) has gone, and naught is left but love-wisdom and
that dynamic will which is the prime characteristic of
Spirit. The lower self has served the purposes of the
Ego, and has been discarded; the Ego likewise has
served the purposes of the Monad, and is no longer
required, and the initiate stands free of both, fully
liberated and able to contact the Monad, as earlier he
learned to contact the Ego. For the remainder of his
appearances in the three worlds he is governed only by
will and purpose, self-initiated, and creates his body of
manifestation, and thus controls (within karmic limits)
his own times and seasons. The karma here referred to
is planetary karma, and not personal.
At this fourth initiation he contacts the love aspect of
the Monad, and at the fifth the will aspect, and thus
completes his contacts, responds to all necessary
vibrations, and is master on the five planes of human
evolution.
Further, it is at the third, the fourth, and the fifth
initiations that he becomes aware also of that
"Presence" which enfolds even that spiritual Entity, his
own Monad. [118] He sees his Monad as one with the
Planetary Logos. Through the channel of his own
Monad he sees the self-same aspects (which that Monad
embodies) on a wider scale, and the Planetary Logos,
Who ensouls all the Monads on His ray, is thus revealed.
This truth is well-nigh impossible to express in words,
and concerns the relation of the electrical point of fire,

which is the Monad, to the five-pointed star, which

reveals the Presence of the Planetary Logos to the
initiate. This is practically incomprehensible to the
average man for whom this book is written.
At the sixth initiation, the initiate, functioning
consciously as the love-aspect of the Monad, is brought
(via his "Father") into a still vaster recognition, and
becomes aware of that Star which encloses his
planetary star, just as that star has earlier been seen as
enclosing his own tiny "Spark." He thus makes his
conscious contact with the solar Logos, and realises
within himself the Oneness of all life and manifestation.
This recognition is extended at the seventh initiation, so
that two aspects of the One life become realities to the
emancipated Buddha. (Alice Bailey, Initisation Human
and Solar)
--------------Qualities of the Seven Rays:
The characteristics of every object are acquired,
manifesting or latent...In time and space all
characteristics have relative values. The goal is one;
the origin is one, but owing to the differing rates of
vibration of the seven great breaths or streams of divine
energy, every life borne forth upon them differs and is
distinctive. The stage of development of the seven
Lords of the Rays is not equal. The unfoldment of the
life of the various planetary Logoi, or of the seven
Spirits before the Throne of God, is not uniform and the
atoms in Their bodies, or the monads who constitute
Their vehicles are therefore not uniform in unfoldment.

This is a vast subject and cannot be more than touched

upon here. Students will find it of interest to search for
information given in the different presentations of the
one truth anent the great Lives in whom we "live, and
move and have our being." They can be studied under
the following names:
1. The seven Rays,
2. The seven Spirits before the Throne,
3. The seven planetary Logoi,
4. The seven great Lords,
5. The seven Aeons,
6. The seven Emanations,
7. The seven Prajapatis,
and other less known terms, and much light will be
forthcoming. (Alice Bailey, The Light of the Soul, p.268)
The Seven Rays:
Ray 1. Will, evoking divine purpose.
Ray 2. Love, expressing divine quality.
Ray 3. Intellect, as the reflector of the Intuition.
Ray 4. Conflict, producing harmony.

Ray 5. Knowledge or science, leading to radiance.

Ray 6. Idealism, establishing the divine pattern.
Ray 7. Ritual or organisation, manifesting Deity. (Alice
Bailey, Esoteric Psychology II, p. 101 )
I would remind you that all ideas stream into the
planetary consciousness along the channel of the seven
rays. Thus, the Hierarchy is wide open, in any case, to
the seven major groups of ideas which are the IDEA of
God for any specific point in time, expressed in seven
major waysall of them equally right and serving the
sevenfold need of humanity. Each of these seven
formulations of God's Idea has its specific contribution
to make; each of them is a true idea which has its part to
play in human or planetary service; and each of them is
so interrelated with the other six expressions of the
same divine Idea, working out as ideals upon the mental
plane, that there can be no narrowing down to one idea
with its ramifications as happens among men. There is,
at least, sensitivity to seven groups of ideas and their
resultant ideals andif it were no more than thatthe
Hierarchy is so far fluid and pliable. But it is far more
than just this, for, to the members of the Hierarchy, the
idea and its effects are not only interpreted in terms of
human thoughtforms and human idealism, but they are
also to be contacted and studied in their relation to the
Mind of God Himself and to the planetary kingdoms.
These ideas come from and they emanate from the
buddhic plane, which is seldom open to the
consciousness of the average disciple and certainly is
not open to the contact of the average idealist. I would
here remind you that few idealists are personally in

touch with the idea which has given birth to the

idealism. They are only in touch with the human
interpretation of the idea, as formulated by some
disciple or intuitivea very different thing. (Alice Bailey,
Glamour A World Problem, p.131)
All the Lords of the rays create a body of expression,
and thus the seven planets have come into being.
These are their major expressions.
The Sun (Veiling Vulcan - an "etheric" planet)
Jupiter
Saturn
Mercury
Venus
Mars
The Moon [veiling Uranus]
The energies of these seven Lives however are not
confined to their planetary expressions, but sweep
around the confines of the solar system just as the life
impulses of a human beinghis vital forces, his desire
impulses, and his mental energiessweep throughout
his body, bringing the various organs into activity and
enabling him to carry out his intent, to live his life, and
to fulfill the objective for which he created his body of
manifestation. (Alice Bailey, Esoteric Psychology I, p.62)
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 objectivesrealised 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 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:
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.
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 initiationthe 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. 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. (Alice
Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, pp.603-607)
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.
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.

(Esoteric Astrology)
Ray 1 Will or Power; Initiating Cause;
Liberation through destruction of
hindrance; Cosmic Purpose.
Ray 2 Love and Wisdom; Attractive Force;
Inclusive principle; Cosmic Plan.
Ray 3 Activity and Intelligence; Diversity in
action; Cosmic Action.
Ray 4 Harmony arrived at through conflict;
Adjustment.
Ray 5 Concrete Knowledge; Creator of Facts;
Cosmic Detail.
Ray 6 Aspiration or Devotion; The Urge to
Transcend; Incentive to effort;
Enthusiasm.
Ray 7 Ritualized Order; Orchestration of
forms; Rhythmic activity.
http://www.sevenray.org/uploads/2/9/0/8/29083311/anlntrotoab
esoterastrology.pdf

-------------The Seven Rays: Relevance and Application in Therapy

By Bala Jaison, Ph.D.
http://www.sevenray.org/uploads/2/9/0/8/29083311/sevenraysrel
evandappl.pdf
----------------------T. Subba Row on The Dhyan Chohans (Seven Rays):
"The Logoi are now creating the Cosmos. they have abopted a
particular plan, but that plan may be improved upon in future
periods. They have even now all sorts of systems - systems with
single suns, systems with binary suns, and so on. Parabrahman
has existed eternally. It always manifests as Seven Rays, but Its
potentialities have never been exhausted.
The main principles of Occultism are as eternal as the Cosmos.
Space is infinite, solar systems are infinite, We have in our
solar system one sun with a particular constitution, but nature
is trying all sorts of experiments in different places. Time is
endless. But combine infinity of space with infinity of time!
There is always more to explore in the Universe!
...All this infinity is in one aspect of space, and there are other
aspects which are quite as varied as this one...There are
conditions of Parabrahman in which time and space do not
exist. One human unit is infinitely more complicated than
Parabrahman - the latter one may understand!
All the forms of Vak are Vaikhari to the Logos. In one sense the
first Logos [the 1st emanation of Parabrahman] is outside
space, because it IS space. There are alweays seven kinds of

Logoi, working together, otherwise you cannot have a solar

system."
(T. Subba Row, Esoteric Writings, 2nd Ed., p.576)
"The Dhyan Chohans are referred to by a variety of names in
the Hindu sacred writings. The Dhyan Chohan when
incarnating himself as a man, at the first appearance of
humanity on our planet, is referred to as Manu Swayambha
(the self-existent) who begets the seven Rishis uncorporeally,
they being known as his 7 manasaputras the children of
manas or mind and who, therefore, represent the 5th
principle of the planet. These are referred to as 7 x 7 in Occult
treatises; and it is they again, who are appointed, we are
taught, to hold in trust for the nascent human race the sacred
Wisdom-Religion.
These Rishis beget, i. e., take under their charge, the seven
Pitris, the first evolved men on this planet, and ancestors of all
the human family. This is one aspect of the thing. As the
offspring of Aditi or the " Measureless," the Infinite
( Prakriti ) the Dhyan Chohans are known as the Adityas, who
are said to be twelve in number, with reference to the different
grades among them. These Dhyan Chohans, as the guardian
spirits of this world, are known also as Dikpalas ( the keepers
of the different points
of the compass ), a name under which, it will be found, they are
constantly referred to in the earlier Buddhist writings.
As agents of destruction of our system, when it comes to its
proper termination, they are the twelve Rudras ( " burning
with anger," erroneously translated as " Howlers " by Max
Miiller ), who reduce everything back to its undifferentiated

state. Mr. Maitland represents Mr, Sinnett to have said that the
Dhyan Chohans perish like everything else. But, as has been
shown before, no entity that has once reached Paranirvana can
be said to perish ; though the state of existence known as the
Dhyan Chohanic, no doubt, merges into, or assimilates itself
with, the state of Absolute Consciousness for the time being, as
the hour of the Mahapralaya strikes, but to be propelled again
into existence at the dawn of the following Manvantara.
This, by no means, shows that the entities, who existed as
Dhyan Chohans, perish, any more than the water converted
into steam perishes. The Dhyan Chohans are, in fact, the gods
mentioned allegorically in our Paranas. These exalted beings,
in common with all the other classes of the Devi ( god )
kingdom are of two types one consisting of those who have
been men, and the other of those who will be men at some
future period. It is distinctly mentioned in our books that those
who are now gods lived once on this earth as men. The Dhyan
Chohans are the Elohim of the Western Kabalists." (T. Subba
Row, Esoteric Writings, 2nd Ed., pp.443-36)
About T. Subba Row:
Great Esotericists of the Past
Tallapragada Subba Row
http://www.esotericquarterly.com///EQ0803/EQ080312End.pdf

"There are certain phases of teaching and knowledge

which I have given to the world which are relatively new
new to the modern esotericist and occult student

though not new to disciples and initiates. It might be

useful here if I mentioned one or two of these new
aspects of the fundamental Truth which have been given
by me to the public. If these new phases of the teaching
have been later given to the public by other occult
groups, it will have been because the information was
gained by those who have read the books put out by
A.A.B. for me or who are directly and consciously in
touch with my Ashram.
An instance of this is that book by C. W. Leadbeater on
"The Masters and the Path" which was published later
than my book, Initiation, Human and Solar. If the dates
of any given teaching are compared with that given by
me, it will appear to be of a later date than mine. I say
this with no possible interest in any controversy among
occult groups or the interested public, but as a simple
statement of fact and as a protection to this particular
work of the Hierarchy. I would remind you that the
instructions given by me as, for instance, those in A
Treatise on White Magic and A Treatise on the Seven
Rays were given sequentially over a period of years,
antedating the publishing of the books...
The Teaching on the Seven Rays. The fact of the seven
rays was well known to the heads of the Theosophical
Society, was mentioned very abstractly and vaguely in
The Secret Doctrine, and formed in an elementary form
some of the teaching given in the Esoteric Section; the
names of the rays were given, and some information as
to their qualities, and the Masters on the rays, was
imparted but not much else. I have given out much
information upon the subject and have endeavoured to

show the importance of this teaching from the

psychological angle, because the new psychology is in
the making. If esoteric teaching is eventually to be
public in its presentation, it will be given out along the
lines of psychology because esoteric teaching in its
fullest and deepest sense concerns the consciousness
aspect of man and God." (Rays and Initiation, pp.25152)
--------------------It might be of value to students to point out that
frequently when a student is under the impression or
belief that the kundalini fire has been aroused in him, all
that has really happened is that the energy of the sacral
centre (i.e. the sex centre) is being transmuted and
raised to the throat, or that the energy of the solar
plexus centre is being raised to the heart. Aspirants do,
however, love to play with the idea that they have
succeeded in arousing the kundalini fire. Many
advanced occultists have mistaken the raising of the
sacral fire or of the solar plexus force to a position
above the diaphragm for the "lifting of the kundalini"
and have therefore regarded themselves or others as
initiates. Their sincerity has been very real and their
mistake an easy one to make. [303] C. W. Leadbeater
frequently made this mistake, yet of his sincerity and of
his point of attainment there is no question. EPII p.303

Seven Rays Background:

T. Subba Row
( He talks about the "Chaldaen System")

Kabbalah and The Seven Rays:

"The higher three [Sefiroth] can be seen as
corresponding to HPBs three logoi and the lower seven
[Sefiroth] to her seven rays".

Teachings of the Temple:

THE SEVEN RAYS OF EVOLUTION LESSON 45
"All Matter and Substance is septenary, and each of its
states is graduated in seven degrees of density, and
each state reflects the qualities and potencies of some
one of the seven major divisions or Rays of the Infinite.
If must be fully understood that there is no higher or
lower, no graduated scale of place or position in the
manifestations (vehicles) of these great powers we term
Rays, in order to distinguish them from lesser entities,
but who are so far beyond finite conception it is almost
useless to refer to them as entities. They are equal in
power, though each controls a separate degree or
division of that power, a different grade of substance
and force. The three higher of the seven minor divisions
or states noted above, are the planes or states of
individual perfection. " Teachings of the Temple

A Group Soul may be represented by a Seven-Pointed

Star, seven
times seven, or forty-nine.

"GOD Himself is a Group Soul, including every thing and

every creature. He sends out seven Rays of Himself,
corresponding to the seven Colors, and all elementals,
minerals, plants, animals, men and Angels must belong to one
or another of those seven great universal rays, on which all
outer manifestation rests. A great Angel, or a Great Master, is
an entity of Universal Consciousness, made up of myriads of
souls, the same as our purely human body is made up of
millions of conscious lesser
lives which we call cells, each one an independent entity, yet all
together making the complete organism." (Francia LaDue,
Teachings of the Temple )

To illustrate the action of the Seven Principles on their various

planes of action, let us imagine a Central Spiritual Sun as the
higher
triad of Atma, Buddhi and Manas, unmanifest, yet reflecting
itself in
Space as a second sun. Then imagine this reflected Sun, the
second
Sun, as emanating seven great creative energies as Rays of
Light.
Then picture each one of those rays of Light as breaking into
seven
colors, each color manifesting the energies of the Rays of Light.
Then
picture each one of the seven Color Rays as breaking into seven
secondary colors or shades of color, mingling and
intermingling with
each other. This makes forty-nine colors which, in turn, would
correspond to the physical plane and all things existing therein.
The
seven Rays of Color relate to the Manasic Plane, the Plane of

all souls;
the Second Sunthe reflected Sunto the Spiritual Plane. This
is the
plane of manifestation for all incarnating Egos, whether in or
out of
manifestation on the physical plane. TOT II
The beauty and glory and power of the Star is only that
of Love, Will and Wisdom, or Aspiration, Devotion and
Illumination in your individual auras. My Children, you
are also a star of glowing light and beauty. When you
give out your brightest flashes, you do so only through
the exercise of these three powers. Losing the uplifting
and expansive force, the light flame is down, flickers,
almost goes out, and the outreaching energy and force
through which you touch other lives and bless and help
humanity is lost. See to it, my children, that your light
flashes high; that the three colors flame steadily upward
forming the Point which sends out straight into the
Darkness the direct creative power of spiritual force and
energy potent on all planes" (Hilarion, Teachings of the
Temple) .
KABBALAH:
The ten Sephirot are a step-by-step process illuminating
the Divine plan as it unfolds itself in Creation. They are
fully found in the Medieval Kabbalah texts, such as the
central work in Kabbalah, the Zohar. The Hebrew
etymology of their names in Kabbalah is understood to
refer to the nuanced aspects of meaning of each
Sephirah. This direct connection between spiritual and
physical creations and their Hebrew names, reflects the
theology in Kabbalah that Creation is formed from the

metaphorical speech of God, as in the first chapter of

Genesis. Kabbalah expounds on the terms of the
Sephirot. In the first complete systemisation of
Kabbalah, in the 16th-century rational synthesis of
Moshe Cordovero (Cordoveran Kabbalah), the Sephirot
are listed from highest to lowest:[5]
Sephirah:
Above-consciousness
1 Keter - "Crown"
Conscious intellect
2 Chokhmah - "Wisdom"
3 Binah - "Understanding"
Conscious emotions (Primary emotions:)
4 Chesed - "Kindness"
5 Gevurah - "Severity"
6 Tiferet - "Beauty"
(Secondary emotions:)
7 Netzach - "Eternity"
8 Hod - "Splendour"
9 Yesod - "Foundation"
(Vessel to bring action:)
10 Malkuth - "Kingship"
In the subsequent 16th-century transcendent
Kabbalistic scheme of Isaac Luria (Lurianic Kabbalah),
the Sephirot are usually listed slightly differently, by
taking out Keter and adding in Daat, as Daat is seen as
the conscious manifestation of the unconscious Keter.
This difference of opinion reflects earlier Medieval
debate on whether Keter can be identified with the Ohr
Ein Sof (Infinite light) itself, or as the first revealed

Sephirah. Isaac Luria includes Keter in the list only in

relation to the inner light of the Sephirot. In his usual list
of the Sephirot as formed attributes (vessels), Keter is
considered too lofty to include:[6]
Sephirah:
Conscious Intellect
1 Chokhmah- "Wisdom"
2 Binah - "Understanding"
3 Daat - "Knowledge"
Conscious emotions

(Primary emotions:)

4 Chesed - "Kindness"
5 Gevurah - "Severity"
6 Tiferet - "Beauty"
(Secondary emotions:)
7 Netzach - "Eternity"
8 Hod- "Glory"
9 Yesod - "Foundation"
(Vessel to bring action:)
10 Malkuth - "Kingship"
Keter - "Crown": Divine Will to create/Infinite Light of the
Creator/the Hebrew name of God "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh-I
Am that I Am"
Chochmah - "Wisdom": First unbounded flash of an idea
before it takes on limitations/male light/Divine
Reality/first revelation/creation from nothingness

Binah - "Understanding": the infinite flash of Chochmah

brought into the vessel of understanding to give it grasp
of breadth and depth/feminine vessel that gives birth to
the emotions/reason/understanding brings teshuva
return to God
Daat - "Knowledge": Central state of unity of the 10
Sephirot, also called the Tree of Life
Chesed - "Kindness": Loving grace of free giving/love of
God/inspiring vision
Gevurah - "Severity":
Strength/judgment/intention/withholding/awe of God
Tiferet - "Beauty": Symmetry/balance between Chesed
and Gevurah in compassion
Netzach - "Victory"
Hod - "Splendor": Withdrawal/Surrender/sincerity
Yesod - "Foundation": Connecting to the task to
accomplish/wholly remembering/coherent knowledge
Malchut - "Kingship": Female vessel for the pregnant
nurturing of the male lights of the emotional sephirot
into action/becomes the Keter Will source for any
subsequent lower level in
Creation/accomplishment/realization of the Divine Plan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot
Ray 1: Courage, trustworthiness, strength

Ray 4: Courage, devotion, generosity (or cowardice and selfcenteredness)

Ray 6: Loyalty
Ray 7: Strength, perseverance, courage, courtesy.
----------------------------------Kabbalah and The Seven Rays: by John Francis Nash
"The higher three [Sefiroth] can be seen as
corresponding to HPBs three logoi and the lower seven
[Sefiroth] to her seven rays".
The Sefiroth Revisited:
Kabbalistic teachers are unanimous in asserting that the
divine light of the Ain Sof manifests through ten sefiroth
together with an 11th unnumbered, quasi-sefirah,
Daath. The sefiroth express notions of number,
language, sound and light. As Moses Cordovero
explained, they can be viewed both as expressions of
the divine light and as the forms into which the light
flows. Kether, Chokmah and Binah can be associated
with the first, second and third aspects of Deityor in
terminology adopted by some Theosophical writers the
first, second and third Logoi.Correspondingly, the lower
seven sefiroth: Chesed through Malkuth, represent the
septenary manifestation of Deity below the level of the
upper triplicity. They can be related to the seven rays
mentioned in Theosophical literature and discussed in
much greater detail in the writings of Alice Bailey.

It would be convenient to assign the rays to the sefiroth

in numerical order, but the result is not satisfying. Some
of the associations would work; for example, the fifth
ray matches well with Hod, the sixth ray with Yesod, and
the seventh ray with Malkuth. However, the first and
second rays need to be reversed: the first ray with
Geburah and the second ray with Chesed. The fourth ray
would be a better match with Tifareth, and the third ray
with Netzach. These tentative associations are shown in
Table 1. The Lower Sefiroth and Seven Rays
(tentative correspondences)
Sefirah

Ray

4 Chesed

2 Love-Wisdom

5 Geburah

1 Will or Power

6 Tifareth

4 Harmony through Conflict

7 Netzach

3 Active Intelligence

8 Hod

5 Concrete Science

9 Yesod

6 Devotion or Idealism

10 Malkuth

7 Ceremonial Order

Many writers have associated the chakras with the

seven levels in the Tree of Life: the root chakra with

Malkuth, the sacral ..

Alice Bailey makes several references to the nine
sefiroth: that is the nine sefiroth above Malkuth. In A
Treatise on Cosmic Fire she explains them as triple
manifestations of each of the three aspects of the Solar
Logos; in other words they form a trinity of trinities. She
notes that the nine sefiroth are the vehicles through
which the nine Lipikas who are the sumtotal of the
agents for the Law [of Karma]. Lipikas are said to be
spiritual beings charged with recording every event or
thought in the phenomenal universe. This is an
interesting inversion of conventional Kabbalistic belief:
instead of the sefiroth revealing the nature of God, they
encapsulate the
unfolding drama of an already manifest reality.
http://www.uriel.com/kabbalah/handout
%20files/Segment%207.pdf
------------------The Kabbalah was entirely lost in the thirteenth
century
The Chaldean Kabbalah, moreover, the Book of
Numbers, agrees perfectly with the eastern
arrangement, and disagrees with the present orthodox
Kabbalah in its diagrams. Now, look here: I had a
rabbi who had the real Book of Numbers and there is
another; I have only seen two in my life, and I dont think
there exist more. He had fragments of the Chaldean
Kabbalah. With that, when I came to take notes (I had
large books), when I came to compare with the

Rosenroth translation, I saw they had changed it in the

most wonderful way. the Kabbalah was entirely lost in
the thirteenth century Moses de Leon, who is
accused of forgery (which is perfect nonsense), took all
he could find. What did he do? He had, as so many links
were missing, and so many things were lost, to go to the
eastern Christians, and to the Chaldean Gnostics to ask
them to help, since they had their own Kabbalah. And
the result is, you find more of Christian eternity the
Virgin Mary, Joseph, etc. than the wisdom of the old
[Hebrew initiates]. That is the result. Now, in the
Chaldean Kabbalah, in the Book of Numbers, you have
the wisdom of the Hebrew initiates, but you have not got
it in this [i.e. the modern, popular, and accepted
versions of the Kabbalah]; they have been so interfering
with it, that Mr Isaac Myer may say what he likes, and Mr
Mathers also; I say there is more flapdoodle than truth.
H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine Commentaries
p.512
NOTE: Christian Knorr von Rosenroth a Christian
Kabbalist who lived 1631-1689 and made a translation
into Latin of the Hebrew texts Kabbala Denudata.
Moses de Leon a Spanish rabbi and Kabbalist who
lived 1250-1305 and published the Zohar, which was
attributed to the 2nd century A.D. rabbi Shimon bar
Yohai. Isaac Myer an American who lived 1836-1902
and published the book Qabbalah in 1888. S.L.
Mathers translated three of Rosenroths Latin
translations of the Kabbala Denudata into English in
1887.
See Also: THE EASTERN GUPTA VIDY AND THE
KABALAH by HPB

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v14/p
h_054.htm
----------------------

For, the true meaning of the compound name of

Jehovahof which, unvoweled, you can make almost
anythingis: men and women, or humanity composed
of its two sexes. From the first chapter to the end of the
fourth chapter of Genesis every name is a permutation
of another name, and every personage is at the same
time somebody else. A Kabalist traces Jehovah from
the Adam of earth to Seth, the third sonor rather race
of Adam.* Thus Seth is Jehovah male; and Enos,
being a permutation of Cain and Abel, is Jehovah male
and female, or our mankind. The Hindu Brahm-Virj,
Virj-Manu, and Manu-Vaivasvata, with his daughter and
wife, Vch, present the greatest analogy with these
personagesfor anyone who will take the trouble of
studying the subject in both the Bible and the Puranas.
It is said of Brahm that he created himself as Manu,
and that he was born of, and was identical with, his
original self, while he constituted the female portion
ata-rupa (hundred-formed). In this Hindu Eve, the
mother of all living beings, Brahma created Viraj, who
is himself, but on a lower scale, as Cain is Jehovah on
an inferior scale: both are the first males of the Third
Race. The same idea is illustrated in the Hebrew name of
God ( ). Read from right to left Yd () is the father.
He () the mother, Vau () the son, and He ( ),
repeated at the end of the word, is generation, the act of
birth, materiality. This is surely a sufficient reason why
the God of the Jews and Christians should be personal,

as much as the male Brahm, Vishnu, or iva of the

orthodox, exoteric Hindu.
Thus the term of Yhvh alonenow accepted as the
name of One living [male] Godwill yield, if seriously
studied, not only the whole mystery of Being (in the
Biblical sense), but also that of the Occult Theogony,
from the highest divine Being, the third in order, down to
man. As shown by the best Hebraists:
The verbal or Hayah, or E-y-e, means to be, to exist,
while or Hayah, or E-y-e, means to live, as motion of
existence.
Hence Eve stands as the evolution and the neverceasing becoming of Nature. Now if we take the
almost untranslatable Sanskrit word Sat, which means
the quintessence of absolute immutable Being, or Benessas it has been rendered by an able Hindu
Occultistwe shall find no equivalent for it in any
language; but it may be regarded as most closely
resembling Ain, or Ain-Soph, Boundless Being.
Then the term Hyh, to be, as passive, changeless,
yet manifested existence may perhaps be rendered by
the Sanskrit Jvtman, universal life or soul, in its
secondary or cosmic meaning; while Hyh, to live,
as motion of existence, is simply Prana, the everchanging life in its objective sense.
It is at the head of this third category that the Occultist
finds Jehovahthe Mother, Binah, and the Father,
Arelim. This is made plain in the Zohar, when the

emanation and evolution of the Sephirth are explained:

First, Ain-Soph, then Shekhinah, the Garment or Veil of
Infinite Light, then Sephrah or the Kadmon, and, thus
making the fourth, the spiritual Substance sent forth
from the Infinite Light. This Sephrah is called the
Crown, Kether, and has besides, six other namesin all
seven. These names are: 1. Kether; 2. the Aged; 3. the
Primordial Point; 4. the White Head; 5. the Long Face; 6.
the Inscrutable Height; and 7. Eheyeh (I am).* This
Septenary Sephrah is said to contain in itself the nine
Sephirth. But before showing how she brought them
forth, let us read an explanation about the Sephirth in
the Talmud, which gives it as an archaic tradition, or
Kabalah.
There are three groups (or orders) of Sephrth: 1. The
Sephrth called divine attributes (the Triad in the Holy
Quaternary); 2. the sidereal (personal) Sephrth; 3. the
metaphysical Sephrth, or a periphrasis of Jehovah,
who are the first three Sephirth (Kether, Hokmah and
Bnh), the rest of the seven being the personal Seven
Spirits of the Presence (also of the planets, therefore).
Speaking of these, the angels are meant, though not
because they are seven, but because they represent the
seven Sephirth which contain in them the universality
of the Angels.
This shows (a) that, when the first four Sephrth are
separated, as a Triad-QuaternarySephrah being its
synthesisthere remain only seven Sephiroth, as there
are seven Rishis; these become ten when the
Quaternary, or the first divine Cube, is scattered into
units; and (b) that while Jehovah might have been
viewed as the Deity, if he be included in the three divine

groups or orders of the Sephiroth, the collective Elohim,

or the quaternary indivisible Kether, once that he
becomes a male God, he is no more than one of the
Builders of the lower groupa Jewish Brahma.*
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v14/p
h_054.htm
--------------------Precisely as in God there are Three Persons, so in man
there is the Triple Spirit which manifests itself as what
the Indian philosophers thousands of years ago called
in Sanskrit atma, buddhi, manasspirit, intuition and
intelligenceexactly as the Three Aspects of the Trinity
manifest Themselves as the Father, the Son and the
Holy Ghost. Therefore man is not a mere reflection of
God, but actually in some mysterious way an expression
of Him; and each of those principles (Diagram 21) in the
man is, in a way which we cannot yet hope to
understand, part of a corresponding Principle or Person
of the Deity. Leadbeater
"In Volume II, Anthropogenesis, Blavatsky underlines
the very ancient origin of the teaching on the rays.
Already in the most ancient Hindu text, the Rig Veda, we
find
references to the Rays Here we find, in a text thousands
of years old, a symbolic enunciation of the esoteric
tradition. According to ... the oldest and best preserved
gospel of the Gnostic, Pistis Sophia ... the human entity
is the septenary ray from the One The seven centres
of Energyare in truth the Sephiroth of the Kabalists,
the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Christian

system (Vol. II, p. 604). They are indeed the seven

spirits of God, the seven powers before the throne of
Christian theology.
Blavatsky also quotes from the Hermetic Philosophy:
Nature produced seven men in accordance with the
seven natures of the Seven Spirits, and she adds,
naturegives birth to the seven notesthe septenary
scale of the creative Forces ... all born from the one
white ray, of LIGHTitself generated in DARKNESS
(Vol. II, pp. 491-492). On page 636 of Volume II, Blavatsky
concludes that this septenary classification has all the
requisites of a scientific classification. It has seven
distinct principles, which correspond to seven distinct
states of Prajna or consciousness. It bridges the gulf
between the objective [substance, matter] and
subjective [psyche, consciousness]the seven
principles are allied to seven states of matter, and the
seven forms of force [the seven rays].
It is important to note that while Blavatsky repeatedly
mentions the seven rays throughout the two volumes of
The Secret Doctrine, at no point does she elaborate on
their specific qualities. She only gives their Sanskrit
names (Vol. I, p. 515), but without indicating their
meaning in the English language...Following the
theosophical tradition of H. P. Blavatsky, the subject of
the seven rays as they apply to human beings was
elaborated in the early 20th century by theosophical
writers, primarily Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater.
Thus, in the Science of the Sacraments
[ http://www.anandgholap.net/Science_Of_SacramentsCWL.htm ] , published in 1920, Leadbeater suggests
developing within oneself the qualities of each of the
seven rays, and dedicating to service whatever one

possesses of these qualities. He offers a specific

affirmation for each of the seven rays, and lists their
respective qualities as follows: (1) strength, (2) wisdom,
(3) adaptability, (4) beauty and harmony, (5) science, (6)
devotion, and (7) ordered service...
It was left, however, to the Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul to
give us through Alice Bailey an amazing wealth of
information on the seven rays and their application to
the human condition."
http://makara.us/04mdr/01writing/01tg/tapestry1.pdf

Early Hints
Although detailed knowledge of the seven rays has only
recently become available, hints of their existence can
be found in ancient tradition, writings and scripture....
Several references to the rays can be found in The
Secret Doctrine. Some of the basic concepts were
shown to have roots in Indian religious literature
extending back to
the Vedas. However, Blavatsky explained that parts of
the Secret Doctrine were either dictated or inspired by
the mahatmas, or masters...[in her Esoteric Instructions
she writes the following:

Further, each of the Primordial Seven, the first Seven Rays

forming the Manifested Logos, is again sevenfold. Thus, as the
seven colors of the solar spectrum correspond to the seven

Rays, or Hierarchies, so each of these latter has again its seven

divisions corresponding to the same series of colors. But in this
case one color, viz: that which characterizes the particular
Hierarchy as a whole, is predominant and more intense than
the others.
These Hierarchies can only be symbolized as concentric circles
of prismatic colors; each Hierarchy being represented by a
series of seven concentric circles, each circle representing one
of the prismatic colors in their natural order. But in each of
these wheels one circle will be brighter and more vivid in
color than the rest and the wheel will have a surrounding Aura
(a fringe, as the physicists call it) of that color. This color will
be the characteristic color of that Hierarchy as a whole. Each
of these Hierarchies furnishes the essence (the soul) and is the
Builder of one of the seven kingdoms of Nature, which are
the three elemental kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable, the
animal, and the kingdom of spiritual man.
Moreover, each Hierarchy furnishes the Aura of one of the
seven principles in man with its specific color. Further, as each
of these Hierarchies is the Ruler of one of the Sacred Planets, it
will easily be understood how Astrology came into existence,
and that real Astrology has a strictly scientific basis. Thus the
Linga-Sarira is derived from the Violet sub-ray of the Violet
Hierarchy; the Higher Manas is similarly derived from the
Indigo sub-ray of the Indigo Hierarchy, and so on. Every man
being born under a certain planet, there will always be a
predominance of that planets color in him, because that
principle will rule in him which has its origin in the
Hierarchy in question. There will also be a certain amount of
the color derived from the other planets present in his Aura,
but that of the ruling planet will be strongest...The student will
understand that the Orders and Hierarchies are here named

after their corresponding colors, so as to avoid using numerals,

which would be confusing in connection with the human
principles, as the latter have no proper numbers of their own.
The real occult names of these Hierarchies [Rays] cannot now
be given.
(H.P. Blavatsky, ES Instruction II, BCW Vol XII, pp.567-69)
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v12/y1890_
054.htm
---------------------So far as is known the Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul
Djual Khool or Djwal Kul, as his name was
variously spelled at that timefirst visited the
headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adyar,
India, in the fall of 1883. Described as the Master
Kuthumis chief chela, he came to Adyar with his
superior.Later he paid a number of visits by himself. The
Tibetan came into contact with Helena Blavatsky at
Adyar and elsewhere; however their relationship seems
to have been strained. Failing in health, but determined
to complete her Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky left India for
the last time in March 1885. Former Anglican clergyman
Charles Webster Leadbeater (18541934) had arrived in
Adyar three months earlier. In September 1885 he began
an intensive program of esoteric training, the first 42
days under the supervision of the Master Kuthumi, and
a further year mainly under the direction of the Master
Djual Khool, Who with great patience directed and
tested Mr. Leadbeaters effortsFor the rest of his life
Mr. Leadbeater was a great clairvoyant. During the same
period the Tibetan Master is reported to have met with
Leadbeater, A. J.Cooper-Oakley, and a Hindu brother.
In addition to other teachings, the Tibetan gave them

fragmentary information on the seven rays, which was

summarized in a table eventually reproduced in two
books published in 1925.
The information is presented here in Table 2. The
Tibetan is reported to have said: I cannot tell you any
more than that, for I am bound by certain pledges; but if
your intuition can make out more I will tell you whether
you are right. Leadbeater conceded that much of it
was incomprehensible [but] even that little fragmentary
information was of very great value to us.
Table 2. The Seven Rays:
Fragmentary Information,
18841886
Ray &
Characteristic Magic
1 Fohat-Shechinah
2 Wisdom Raja Yoga (Human
Mind)
3 Akasha Astrology (Natural
Magnetic Forces
4 Birth of Horus Hatha Yoga (Physical
Development)
5 Fire Alchemy (Material

Substances)
6 Incarnation of
Deity
Bhakti (Devotion)
7 Ceremonial Magic
(The Seven Rays: A Case Study in the Dissemination of
Esoteric Knowledge by John Nash)
http://www.uriel.com/articles_etc/EQ%20files/EQ030107Nash.pdf
creative Hosts, and the latter the seven men or primitive
human groups. (Vol. II, p.
605). Here we find, in a text thousands of years old, a
symbolic enunciation of the
esoteric tradition, namely the correspondence between
the seven rays, the seven fields
of consciousness, and the seven groups of souls of
humanity.
Blavatsky points out that this teaching continues down
through the JudeoChristian
In the late 19th century, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
introduced the notion of the Seven
Rays in the two volumes of her famous work, The Secret
Doctrine, originally published
in 1888. She made several references to the seven rays
and gave hints as to their
correspondences. For instance, in her introduction, she
states that the secret doctrine
gives a clue to the seven-fold nature of man, for each
principle is correlated to a plane
... and the human principles are, on every plane,

correlated to seven-fold occult forces

those of the higher planes being of tremendous power
(Vol. I, p. xxxv). On page 80 of
Volume I, Cosmogenesis, she asserts that the
emanation of the primordial ray ...
contains in itself the other seven procreative rays or
powers. She informs us on page
120 that on the Seven Rays hang the Seven Worlds of
Being. Truly so, since these are
the Seven Lights, whose reflections are the human
immortal Monadsthe Atman or
the irradiating Spirit of every creature of the human
family. And on page 290 she
affirms ... there are Seven Forces in Man and in all
Nature .... the Seven Principal
Forces, called rays... On page 573 she mentions the
rays again ... the Primeval Seven
Rays. Humanity, occultism teaches us, is divided into
seven distinct groups and their
subdivisions, mental, spiritual, and physical.
In Volume II, Anthropogenesis, Blavatsky underlines the
very ancient origin of the
teaching on the rays. Already in the most ancient Hindu
text, the Rig Veda, we find
references to the rays. For instance: The seven wise
ones ... fashion seven paths ... The
paths are primarily beams of light ... leading to wisdom.
They are, in short, the Seven
Rays. Blavatsky explains that, although entirely
allegorical, the Rig-Veda hymns are
none the less suggestive. The seven rays of Surya (the
Sun) are made therein parallel to

the Seven Worlds ... to the seven rivers of heaven and

earth, the former being the seven
creative Hosts, and the latter the seven men or primitive
human groups. (Vol. II, p.
605). Here we find, in a text thousands of years old, a
symbolic enunciation of the
esoteric tradition. According to ... the oldest and best
preserved gospel of the Gnostic,
Pistis Sophia ... the human entity is the septenary ray
from the One The seven centres
of Energyare in truth the Sephiroth of the Kabalists,
the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost
in the Christian system (Vol. II, p. 604). They are indeed
the seven spirits of God, the
seven powers before the throne of Christian theology.
Blavatsky also quotes from the Hermetic Philosophy:
Nature produced seven men in
accordance with the seven natures of the Seven
Spirits, and she adds, naturegives
birth to the seven notesthe septenary scale of the
creative Forces ... all born from the
one white ray, of LIGHTitself generated in
DARKNESS (Vol. II, pp. 491-492). On
page 636 of Volume II, Blavatsky concludes that this
septenary classification has all the
requisites of a scientific classification. It has seven
distinct principles, which correspond
to seven distinct states of Prajna or consciousness. It
bridges the gulf between the
objective [substance, matter] and subjective [psyche,
consciousness]the seven principles
are allied to seven states of matter, and the seven forms
of force [the seven rays].

It is important to note that while Blavatsky repeatedly

mentions the seven rays
throughout the two volumes of The Secret Doctrine, at
no point does she elaborate on
their specific qualities. She only gives their Sanskrit
names (Vol. I, p. 515), but without
indicating their meaning in the English language.
Indeed, in her extensiveTheosophical
Glossary (Blavatsky, 1892) which followed the 1888
publication of The Secret Doctrine,
we find no entry on the Seven Rays.
It is only in Volume III, published five years later in 1897,
that we are given the following
definition: RAYS, SEVEN:Theos.Seven Aspects of
Divine Consciousness.
Since some controversy arose about the inclusion of
this work as Volume III of The Secret Doctrine, it is now
published separately under the title, The Esoteric
Writings of Helena Petrovna
BlavatskyA Synthesis of Science, Philosophy and
Religion. The above definition which
appeared in the Glossary (1980 ed., p. 484), emphasizes
the point that the rays are
essentially qualities of consciousness. In integral
psychology terms, they are indeed
psychological energies.
Following the theosophical tradition of H. P. Blavatsky,
the subject of the seven rays as
they apply to human beings was elaborated in the early
20th century by theosophical
writers, primarily Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater.

Thus, in the Science of the

Sacraments, published in 1920, Leadbeater suggests
developing within oneself the
qualities of each of the seven rays, and dedicating to
service whatever one possesses of
these qualities. He offers a specific affirmation for each
of the seven rays, and lists their
respective qualities as follows: (1) strength, (2) wisdom,
(3) adaptability, (4) beauty and
harmony, (5) science, (6) devotion, and (7) ordered
service...
.
Michael Robbins is well aware of this fundamental
relationship between consciousness
and substance, for he specifies throughout his work
different levels of expression of the
same ray depending upon the evolutionary level of the
individual energy system. This
relationship is formulated in a basic equation of integral
psychology, namely C = f(v),
which indicates that the quality of consciousness is a
function of the vibratory frequency
of the substance of the field. The higher the vibratory
frequency of the substance the
consciousness uses to express, the greater the quality
of consciousness expressing
through that field. We see here the importance of the
purification of the energy fields
as vehicles of consciousness. But the reverse is also
true. By invoking and receiving
energies of consciousness of a higher quality from
transpersonal levels, we can in turn
affect the vibratory quality of the substance of our
personality fields and contribute to

their evolution, thus perfecting our instrument of

expression.
To proceed with our historical survey, the year 1925 saw
the publication of several
books with teachings on the seven rays. Following the
theosophical tradition, C. W.
Leadbeater in The Masters and the Path imparts
information on the graded series of
initiations into higher states of consciousness until one
becomes a Master of Wisdom.
This term corresponds to the Arhats and Bodhisattvas
of the Buddhist tradition, and to
the Jivanmukta or Mahatma, i.e., the liberated souls or
great spirits of the Hindu
tradition. Leadbeater describes the relationship of the
seven rays to the activities of these
Masters.
In this connection, Leadbeater reports meeting the
Master Djwhal Khul in person. His
face is distinctly Tibetan in character, with high cheek
bones, and is somewhat rugged
in appearance, showing signs of age (p. 43).
Leadbeater also mentions that the Master
Djwhal Khul gave us a great deal of teaching (p. 263)
and shared some preliminary
information on the seven rays, including a table of ray
characteristics reproduced on
page 264. Leadbeater concludes on page 265: ... the
information that has as yet reached
us about the rays is fragmentary. It is not only not a full
account of the subject, but it
is not even a perfect outline, for we were plainly told that
there were huge gaps in the

description given to us which could not possibly be

filled up till much later. So far as we
know very little has hitherto been written on this subject

Leadbeater adds the following note at the bottom of the

same page 265: While the first
edition of this book was passing through the press an
important work on the subject
appearedThe Seven Rays, by professor Ernest Wood.
The material which it gives is
illuminative and is presented from quite a new angle. I
concur with Leadbeater, for to
my knowledge Ernest Woods work, published in 1925,
is the first book specifically
devoted to an exposition of the seven rays, with
particular emphasis on the personal
characteristics of individuals expressing the qualities of
a particular ray. As such, it is a
milestone in the theosophical literature.
It was left, however, to the Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul to
give us through Alice Bailey
an amazing wealth of information on the seven rays and
their application to the human
condition.
http://makara.us/04mdr/01writing/01tg/tapestry1.pdf
------------------The Seven Pointed Star:
The seven-pointed star on his breast signifies spiritual
skills. There is no exact mathematical formula for
constructing a seven pointed star, therefore, it can only

be drawn by trial and error we are back to experience

and skills, required to manage karma. In this respect,
the seven-pointed star represents the seven churches,
seven angels, seven thunders, seven seals, seven
plagues (karma), and the seven heads of the beast
(adversity) mentioned in the Revelation.
http://godchild.buzz/godchild/archangelmichael/#comment-202
-----------------------Since man is looked upon in occultism as being a
microcosm, a minute repetition of the Macrocosm, there
must be modes of connecting him with cosmic forces.
There are 12 letters in this mantra, when it is written with
AUM and not OM, and it is probable that these [Page 62]
12 letters in some way link him up with the Zodiac.
Again, AUM may be taken as the higher Triad, and Mani
Padme as the lower quarternary. Taken as representing
the Principles, the mantra probably works out thus:
O tma,
M Buddhi,
MA Higher Manas,
NI Antahkarana,
PA Lower Manas,
DME Astral,
HUM Physical shell.
H. P. B. wrote:
The seven meanings and the seven results depend
upon the intonation which is given to the whole formula
and to each of its syllables; and even the numerical
value of the letters is added to or diminished according
as such or another rhythm is made use of. Let the
student remember that number underlies form, and

number guides sound. Number lies at the root of the

manifested Universe: numbers and harmonious
proportions guide the first differentiations of
homogeneous substance into heterogeneous elements ;
and number and numbers set limits to the formative
hand of Nature. [Page 63]
Know the corresponding numbers of the fundamental
principle of every element and its sub-elements, learn
their interaction and behaviour on the occult side of
manifesting nature, and the law of correspondences will
lead you to the discovery of the greatest mysteries of
macrocosmic life. . . .
Thus the mystic sentence, ' Om Mani Padme Hum,'
when rightly understood, instead of being composed of
the almost meaningless words, 'Oh the Jewel in the
Lotus', contains a reference to this indissoluble union
between Man and the Universe, rendered in seven
different ways and having the capability of seven
different applications to as many planes of thought and
action.
From whatever aspect we examine it, it means: ' I am
that I am '; ' I am in thee and thou art in me.' In this
conjunction and close union the good and pure man
becomes a God. . . .
The formula, ' Om Mani Padme Hum,' has been chosen
as an illustration on account of its almost infinite
potency in the mouth [Page 64] of an Adept, and of its
potentiality when pronounced by any man. . . . Each of
us has within himself the Jewel in the Lotus, call it
Padmapani, Krishna, Buddha, Christ, or by whatever
name we may give to our Divine Self.

(The Secret Doctrine, Vol. III.) [Page 65]

--------------1.
Entity : Solar Logos
Psychical Force Centres: Heavenly Men
Physical Manifestation : Deva Builders
Physical Manifestation : A solar system
2.
Entity : Planetary Logos
Psychical Force Centres: Human group units
Physical Manifestation : Deva Builders
Physical Manifestation : A Scheme...p.438 TCF
------------Love-Wisdom
Seven Heavenly Men
Seven schemes
Seven Rays

Seven types of
deva and human monads
-----------------Our solar system is negatively polarised as regards
the sun Sirius, which influences our entire system
psychically via the three synthesising schemes
Uranus, Neptune, Saturnthe latter, Saturn, being the
focal point for the transmission of cosmic manas to the
entire seven schemes (TCF 378)
The four schemes which form the logoic Quaternary
will merge into their synthesising scheme, that of
Saturn, while Venus and Mercury will merge into Uranus
and Neptune. No importance need be attached to the
sequence of these names. The dual fact is all that is
necessary to grasp. (TCF 405-406)
Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn will, therefore, have
absorbed the essence of manifestation and (in
connection with the solar Logos) they correspond to the
three permanent atoms in the causal body of a man. We
say correspond for the analogy is not in detail. Uranus
and Neptune are reflections of the logoic astral and
mental permanent atoms. Saturn is in fact the
correspondence to the logoic physical permanent
atom. (TCF 406)
In due course of time another merging in the scheme
will eventuate and then Uranus (the chain of that name
in our scheme) will flash into objectivity. (TCF 414)

In the central list of schemes the middle and lower

group of Agnishvattas are active. In the others the
higher group and middle group hold sway as these
planets are the most occult and sacred in manifestation,
and are concerned only with egos who are on the Path,
and who are therefore group-active. In connection with
Uranus, Neptune and Saturn, this might be expected as
they are the synthesising planetary schemes, and
provide conditions suitable only for the very advanced
stages. They are the reaping planets. (TCF 777)
The three major planetary schemes (Uranus, Neptune,
and Saturn) have not, as yet, received their fullest
stimulation, and will not do so until the energy of the
sacred seven has been transferred to Them. (TCF 793)
The absorbing Triangles. This term is applied to the
evolutionary schools found located in the three major
planets of our systemUranus, Neptune and Saturn
and to those found in the three major chains, and three
major globes in a planetary scheme. The Rulers of
these planets, chains and globes are called the Divine
Examiners, and Their work concerns the human
kingdom specifically and entirely. (TCF 1176-1177)
76. Certain Relationships Concerning Uranus:
Elemental group ... animal kingdom ... Sattvic ... Solar
Logos ... Uranus. Father aspect. (TCF 1138)
77. Uranus as [is] the home of fire electric. (TCF
1154; EA 672)

78. [Uranus is] the planet of the violet force. (TCF

1177-1178; EA 693)
79. Uranusone of the Absorbing Triangles:
The absorbing Triangles. This term is applied to the
evolutionary schools found located in the three major
planets of our systemUranus, Neptune and Saturn
and to those found in the three major chains, and three
major globes in a planetary scheme. The Rulers of
these planets, chains and globes are called the Divine
Examiners, and Their work concerns the human
kingdom specifically and entirely. (TCF 1176-1177)
----------------------------------Regarding Uranus, HPB also says:
Among the three secret orbs or Star Angels, Uranus ...
was not included. (SD I 629; EA 672)
Uranus was unknown to the ancients and they were
forced to reckon the sun amongst the planets.... Uranus
is a modern name but one thing is certain, the ancients
had a mystery planet which they never named. This 7th
planet was not the sun but the hidden divine
Hierophant. (SD III 330; EA 672)
-------------------------------------The moon is a dead form; it has no emanation at all.
That is why the moon is spoken of in the ancient
teaching as veiling either Vulcan or Uranus. This hint

or inference has always been here and astrologers

would do well to experiment with this suggestion I have
made anent the moon and (instead of working with the
moon) let them work with Vulcan when dealing with the
undeveloped or average man and with Uranus when
considering the highly developed man. They would find
some interesting and convincing results eventuate. (EA
14)
Uranus embodies the energy of the seventh ray and its
work is analogous to that of Mercury, for the seventh ray
is the ray which relates spirit and matter and brings
together electric fire and fire by friction, thus producing
manifestation. (EA 100)

I would here call your attention to the fact that in

connection with the Moon, as it is related here to one of
the Creative Hierarchies, you have in the Moon itself the
exoteric influences of the ordinary mode of procedure
upon the wheel of life, and in the planet which it veils
and hides (in this case the planet Uranus) you have the
esoteric energy which brings this Hierarchy to
subjective realisation. (EA 139)
:
Uranus is the esoteric ruler and is of supreme
importance in this sign for the seventh ray works
through this planet and is the embodiment of the
principle of concretion and the materialising of that
which is in need of objective manifestation, through the
bringing together of spirit and matter. (EA 246)

UranusConduit for the Central Spiritual Sun:

the central, spiritual Sun pours its influences
through Uranus (EA 296)
This is one of the reasons why the Moon is spoken of
so often as veiling Uranus. The Moon is frequently used
as a blind when Uranus is meant. Today the Moon is a
dead world and the reason is that the Uranian urge
became so strong in that far distant time when there
were living forms upon the Moon that it led to the
complete and final evacuation of the Moon and the
transfer of its life to our planet. Such a transfer is not
necessary today as the consciousness of humanity is
such that the needed changes can be brought about
without such a drastic procedure. It is, however, this
Uranian influence which lies behind the present shift of
populations throughout Europe and Great Britain and
which is responsible for the steady movement of
peoples from East to West, from Asia to Europe in the
earlier history of that continent and from Europe to the
Western hemisphere in more modern times. (EA 446)
Uranus7th rayorganization or directed
manifestation. (EA 308)
UranusOccultism and Group Relations:
Uranus, the planet of occultism, and that which
governs group relations, organizations and the eleventh
House. (EA 538)
Uranus (7th)The School of Magic of the tenth order. It

is sometimes called the planet of the violet force, and

its graduates wield the power of cosmic etheric prana.
(EA 693)
-------------------------Man derives his Spiritual Soul (Buddhi) from the
essence of the Mnasaputras, the Sons of Wisdom, who
are the Divine Beings (or Angels) ruling and presiding
over the planet Mercury. p.545 EI II BCW XII
Mercury and Venus, Sun and Moon, constitutes the Kabalistic Guardian
Angels of the Four Corners of the Earth. It is the same in the Eastern
esoteric philosophy, which, however, adds that the Sun is not a planet, but
the central star of our system, and the Moon a dead planet, from which all
the principles are gone, both being substitutes, the one for an invisible
intra-Mercurial planet, and the other for a planet which seems to have now
altogether disappeared from view. These are the Four Mahrjas of The
Secret Doctrine,* the Four Holy Ones connected with Karma and
Humanity, Kosmos and Man, in all their aspects. They are: the Sun, or its
substitute Michael; Moon, or substitute Gabriel; Mercury, Raphael; and
Venus, Uriel. It need hardly be said here again that the planetary bodies
themselves, being only physical symbols, are not often referred to in the
Esoteric System, but, as a rule, their cosmic, psychic, physical and
spiritual forces are symbolized under these names. In short, it is the seven
physical planets, which are the lower Sephrth of the Kabala and our triple
physical Sun whose reflection only we see, which is symbolized, or rather
personified, by the Upper Triad, or Sephirothal Crown.

PLANETS
DAYS
COLORS

METALS PARTS OF BODY

Saturn Saturday Lead

System Black* (Green)

Right Ear, Knees and Bony

Jupiter Thursday
Tin Left Ear, Thighs, Feet and
Arterial System
Purple (light Blue)

Mars
Tuesday Iron Forehead and Nose, the Sexfunctions and Muscular System Red
Sun (veiling Vulcan) Sunday Gold
Heart and Vital Centers Orange

Right Eye,

Venus Friday Copper Chin and Cheeks, Neck and

Reins, and the Venous System Yellow (Indigo)
Mercury Wednesday Quick-silver Mouth, Hands,
Abdominal Viscera and Nervous System Dove or
Cream (Yellow)
Moon
(veiling ?) Monday Silver
Breasts, Left Eye,
the Fluidic System, Saliva Lymph, etc.
White||
(Violet)

* Esoterically, green, there being no black in the

prismatic ray.
Esoterically, light blue. As a pigment, purple is a
compound of red and blue and in Eastern Occultism
blue is the spiritual essence of the color purple, while
red is its material basis. In reality, Occultism makes
Jupiter blue because he is the son of Saturn, which is
green, and light blue as a prismatic color contains a
great deal of green. Again, the Auric Body will contain
much of the color of the Lower Manas if the man is a
material sensualist, just as it will contain much of the
darker hue if the Higher Manas has preponderance over
the Lower.
Esoterically, the Sun cannot correspond with the eye,
nose, or any other organ, since, as explained, it is no

planet, but a central star. It was adopted as a planet by

the post-Christian Astrologers, who had never been
initiated. Moreover, the true color of the Sun is blue, and
it appears yellow only owing to the effect of the
absorption of vapors (chiefly metallic) by its
atmosphere. All is My on our Earth.
Esoterically, indigo or dark blue, which is the
complement of yellow in the prism. Yellow is a simple or
primitive color. Manas being dual in its nature, as is its
sidereal symbol, the planet Venus, which is both the
morning and evening star, the difference between the
higher and the lower principles of Manas, whose
essence is derived from the Hierarchy ruling Venus, is
denoted by the dark blue and green. Green, the Lower
Manas, resembles the color of the solar spectrum which
appears between the yellow and dark blue, the Higher
Spiritual Manas. Indigo is the intensified color of the
heaven or sky, to denote the upward tendency of Manas
towards Buddhi, or the heavenly Spiritual Soul.
Esoterically, yellow, because the color of the Sun is
orange, and Mercury now stands next to the Sun, in
distance, as it does in color. The planet for which the
Sun is a substitute was still nearer the Sun than Mercury
now is, and was one of the most secret and highest
Planets. It is said to have become invisible at the close
of the Third Race.
|| Esoterically, violet, because perhaps violet is the color
assumed by a ray of sunlight when transmitted through
a very thin plate of silver, and also because the Moon
shines upon the Earth with light borrowed from the Sun,
as the human body shines with qualifications borrowed
from its doublethe arial man. As the astral shadow

starts the series of principles in man, on the terrestrial

plane, up to the lower, animal Manas, so the violet ray
starts the series of prismatic colors from its end up to
green, both being, the one as a principle and the other
as a color, the most refrangible of all the principles and
colors. Besides which there is the same great occult
mystery attached to all these correspondences, both
celestial and terrestrial bodies, colors, and sounds. In
clearer words there exists the same law of relation
between the Moon and the Earth, the astral and the
living body of man, as between the violet end of the
prismatic spectrum and the indigo and the blue. But of
this more anon.
------------------

(Confirmation of ESOTERIC colors: See Daigram II

Esoteric Instruction I pp. 532-3. Here she says
Atman corresponds to NO planet or color, for it
"proceeds from the Spiritual Sun" and therefore
"includes them all." Thus, I postulate that it may
be represented by White, which includes all
colors).
To close the subject, Prna, the life-principle, can, in sober
truth, have no number, as it pervades every other principle, or
the human total. Each number of the seven would thus be
naturally applicable to Prna-Jva exoterically as it is to the
Auric Body esoterically. P. 547
tman, or Jiva, the One Life, which permeates the
Monadic Trio. (One in three and three in One.)
2. Auric Envelope; because the substratum of the Aura
around man is the universally diffused primordial and

pure kasa, the first film on the boundless and

shoreless expanse of Jva, the immutable Root of all.
Prna, the Breath of Life, the same as Nephesh. At the
death of a living being, Prna re-becomes Jva.* p. 607
-------------

Mr. Sinnett was distinctly told in the letters he received from

one of the Gurus that he could not be taught the real Esoteric
Doctrine given out only to the pledged Disciples of the Inner
Circle. Therefore, it would perhaps simplify matters if each
student would add to the exoteric enumeration of the order in
Plate I the secret one as given in Diagram II. But even that
would require special study...P.546

[There is one piece of advice to be given to beginners

who cannot help going into crowdsone which may
appear superstitious but which in the absence of occult
knowledge will be found efficacious. As well known to
good astrologers, the days of the week are not in the
order of those planets whose names they bear. The fact
is that the ancient Hindus and Egyptians divided the day
into four parts, each day being under the protection (as
ascertained by practical magic) of a planet; and every
day, as correctly asserted by Dion Cassius, received the
name of the planet which ruled and protected its first
portion. Let the student protect himself from the
Powers of the Air (Elementals) which throng public
places, by wearing either a ring containing some jewel
of the color of the presiding planet, or else of the metal
sacred to it. But the best protection is a clear
conscience and a firm desire of benefiting Humanity.]

p.535 BCW XII

7th, AURIC EGG, colored Blue.
6th, BUDDHI, colored Yellow.
5th, MANAS { The UPPER, represented as a triangle with
its apex pointing upwards, colored Indigo-Blue.The
LOWER, represented by a triangle with its apex pointing
downwards, colored Green.
4th, KAMA, represented as a five-pointed star, with the
horns of evil upwards, embracing the LOWER MANAS,
colored Blood-Red.
3rd, LINGA-SARIRA, colored Violet as the vehicle of
PRANA (Orange), and partaking of KAMA (Red) and
occasionally of the AURIC ENVELOPE (Blue).
2nd, PRANA, Life, colored Orange, the hue of the
ascetics robes.
1st, STHULA-RRA, the Physical Body of Man,
represented by the mayavic contour of the large fivepointed star within the AURIC EGG.*
In the preceding Instruction, the correspondences between
Colors, Sounds and Principles were given; and those who
have read the second volume of The Secret Doctrine will
remember that these seven principles are derived from the
seven great Hierarchies of Angels or Dhyni-Chohans, which
are, in their turn, associated with Colors and Sounds, and form
collectively the Manifested Logos.
In the eternal music of the spheres we find the perfect scale
corresponding to the colors, and in the number, determined by
the vibrations of color and sound, which underlies every form
and guides every sound, we find the summing-up of the

Manifested Universe.
We may illustrate these correspondences by showing the
relation of color and sound to the geometrical figures which, as
explained in The Secret Doctrine,* express the progressive
stages in the manifestation of Kosmos.
But the student will certainly be liable to confusion, if, in
studying the Diagrams, he does not remember two things: (1)
That, our plane being a plane of reflection, and therefore
illusionary, the various notations are reversed and must be
counted from below upwards. The musical scale begins from
below upwards, commencing with the deep

* Vol. I, pp. 4 et seq.; Vol II, pp. 36 et seq.

Page 562
Do and ending with the far more acute Si. (2) That Kma-Rpa
(corresponding to Do in the musical scale), containing as it does
all potentialities of matter, is necessarily the starting-point on
our plane. Further, it commences the notation on every plane, as
corresponding to the matter of that plane. Again, the student
must also remember that these notes have to be arranged in a
circle, thus showing how Fa is the middle note of Nature. In
short, musical notes, or Sounds, Colors and Numbers proceed
from one to seven, and not from seven to one as erroneously
shown in the spectrum of the prismatic colors, in which red is
counted first: a fact which necessitated my putting the
principles and the days of the week at random in Diagram II. The
musical scale and Colors, according to the scale of vibrations,
proceed from the world of gross matter to that of spirit thus:

PRINCIPLES

COLORS

NOTES

NUMBERS

Chhy, [Etheric]

Violet

Si

Higher Manas

Indigo

La

Auric Envelope

Blue

Sol

Lower Manas

Green

Fa

Buddhi

Yellow

Prna, or Life-Principle

Mi
Orange

Kma-Rpa ["Astral" or emotional] Red

5
Re
Do

6
7

Here again the student is asked to dismiss from his mind any
correspondence between principles and numbers, for reasons
already given. The esoteric enumeration cannot be made to
correspond with the conventional exoteric. The one is the reality,
the other classified according to illusive appearances. The
human principles, as given in Esoteric Buddhism, were
tabulated for beginners, so as not to confuse their minds.
( Blavatsky Collected Writings XII, pp.562 )
---------------A faint violet, mist-like form represents the Astral ["Etheric" in
DK's work] Man with an oviform bluish circle, over which radiate
in ceaseless vibrations the prismatic colors. That color is
predominant, of which the corresponding principle is the most
active generally, or at the particular moment when the
clairvoyant perceives it. Such man appears during his waking
states; and it is by the predominance of this or that color, and by
the intensity of its vibrations, that a clairvoyant, if he is
acquainted with correspondences, can judge of the inner state
or character of a person, for the latter is an open book to every
practical Occultist.

In the trance state the Aura changes entirely, the seven prismatic
colors being no longer discernible. In sleep also they are not all
at home. For those which belong to the spiritual elements in
the man, viz.: Yellow, Buddhi; Indigo, Higher Manas; and the
Blue of the Auric Envelope will be either hardly discernible, or
altogether missing. The Spiritual Man is free during sleep, and
though his physical memory may not become aware of it, lives,
robed in his highest essence, in realms on other planes, in
realms which are the land of reality, called dreams on our plane
of illusion.
A good clairvoyant moreover, if he had an opportunity of seeing
a Yogi in the trance state and a mesmerized subject, side by
side, would learn an important lesson in Occultism. He would
learn to know the difference between self-induced trance and a
hypnotic state resulting from extraneous influence. In the Yogi,
the principles of the lower Quaternary disappear entirely.
Neither Red, Green, Red-Violet nor the Auric Blue of the Body
are to be seen; nothing but hardly perceptible vibrations of the
golden-hued Prna principle and a violet flame streaked with
gold rushing upwards from the head, in the region where the
Third Eye rests, and culminating in a point. If the student
remembers that the true Violet, or the extreme end of the
spectrum, is no compound color of Red and Blue, but a
homogeneous color with vibrations seven times more rapid than
those of the extreme Red,* and that the golden hue is the
essence of the three yellow hues from Orange-Red to YellowOrange and Yellow, he will understand the reason why: he lives
in his own Auric Body, now become the vehicle of BuddhiManas.
On the other hand, in a subject in an artificially produced
hypnotic or mesmeric trance, an effect of unconscious when not
of conscious Black Magic, unless produced by a high Adept, the
whole set of the principles will be present, with the Higher
Manas paralysed, Buddhi severed from it through that paralysis,
and the red-violet Astral Body entirely subjected to the Lower
Manas and Kma-Rpa (the green and red animal monsters in
us).

One who comprehends well the above explanations will readily

see how important it is for every student, whether he is striving
for practical occult powers or only for the purely psychic and
spiritual gifts of clairvoyance and metaphysical knowledge, to
master thoroughly the right correspondences between the
human or nature principles, and those of Kosmos. BCW XII,
p.566

Not only Adepts and advanced Chelas, but also the lower order
of psychics, such as clairvoyants and psychometrists, can
perceive a psychic Aura of various colors around every
individual, corresponding to the temperament of the person
within it. In other words the mysterious records within the Auric
Egg are not the heirloom of trained Adepts alone, but sometimes
also of natural psychics. Every human passion, every thought
and quality, is indicated in the Aura by corresponding colors and
shades of color, and certain of these are sensed and felt rather
than perceived. The best of such psychics, as shown by Galton,
can also perceive colors produced by the vibrations of musical
instruments, every note suggesting a different color. As a string
vibrates and gives forth an audible note, so the nerves of the
human body vibrate and thrill in correspondence with various
emotions under the general impulse of the circulating vitality of
Prna, thus producing undulations in the psychic Aura of the
person which results in chromatic effects. BCW XII, p.621
PRINCIPLES
Chhy, [Etheric]

COLORS
Violet

NOTES

NUMBERS

Si

Higher Manas

Indigo

La

Auric Envelope

Blue

Sol

Lower Manas

Green

Fa

Buddhi

Yellow

Prna, or Life-Principle

Mi
Orange

Kma-Rpa ["Astral" or emotional] Red

5
Re
Do

6
7

Here again the student is asked to dismiss from his mind any
correspondence between principles and numbers, for reasons
already given. The esoteric enumeration cannot be made to
correspond with the conventional exoteric. The one is the reality,
the other classified according to illusive appearances. The
human principles, as given in Esoteric Buddhism, were
tabulated for beginners, so as not to confuse their minds.
( Blavatsky Collected Writings XII, pp.562 )

"Our seven Chakras are all situated in

the head, and it is these Master Chakras
which govern and rule the seven (for
there are seven) principal plexuses in the
body, and the forty-two minor ones to
which Physiology refuses that name. The
fact that no microscope can detect such
centres on the objective plane goes for
nothing; no microscope has ever yet
detected, nor ever will, the difference
between the motor and sensory
nerve-tubes, the conductors of all our
bodily and psychic sensations; and yet
physiological logic alone would show

that such difference exists.

And if the term plexus, in this
application, does not represent to the
Western mind the idea conveyed by the
term of the anatomist, then call them
Chakras or Padmas, or the Wheels, the
Lotus Hearts and Petals. Remember that
Physiology, imperfect as it is, shows
septenary groups all over the exterior
and interior of the body; the seven head
orifices, the seven organs at the base
of the brain, the seven plexuses (the
pharyngeal, laryngeal, cavernous,
cardiac, epigastric, prostatic, and the
sacral plexus), etc., etc." BCW XII p.620
I would here seek to put your mind at rest on the point
as to whether the colours enumerated by me conflict
with those enumerated by H. P. B. You will not find they
[207] do, but both of us use blinds, and both of us use
the same blinds as those who have eyes can see. A
blind is not a blind when recognised, and I offer not the
key. One or two hints however I may give:
Complementary colours may be spoken of in occult
books in terms of each other. Red may be called green

and orange may be called blue. The key to the accurate

interpretation of the term employed lies in the point of
attainment of the unit under discussion. If speaking of
the Ego one term may be used; if of the Personality,
another; whilst the Monad or higher auric sphere may be
described synthetically or in terms of the monadic ray.
The colours of higher or lower mind are at times spoken
of in terms of the plane and not in terms of the ray
involved.
Blue-indigo, being cosmically related, and not simply
analogous, may be used interchangeably for purposes
of blinding. Let me illustrate:
The Lords of the Flame, in their work in connection with
this planet, may be spoken of in terms of four colours:
a. Indigo, as They are in the line of the Bodhisattva in
connection with the Love or Wisdom Ray. The Lord of
the World is a direct reflection of the second Aspect.
b. Blue, because of its alliance with indigo and its
relationship to the auric egg; just as the Solar Logos is
spoken of as the "Blue Logos" (literally indigo), so the
colour of the perfected man, and of the auric envelope
through which he manifests, will be predominantly blue.
c. Orange, which is the complementary to blue and
which has direct connection with man as an intelligence.
He is the custodian of the fifth principle [208] of manas
in its relation to the totality of the personality.
d. Yellow, being the complement of indigo, and also the
colour of buddhi, and on the direct line of the second

Aspect.
I give the above illustration to demonstrate to you the
great complexity involved by the use of blinds, yet also
to show you that for those who have the seeing eye
even the choice of these blinds is not arbitrary, but
subject to rule and law.
It is therefore obvious to you why it is so often
emphasised that in dealing with esoteric matters lower
manas helps not. Only he who has the higher vision in
process of development can hope to attain any measure
of accurate discrimination. Just as the green of the
activity of Nature forms the basis of the love aspect, or
the indigo vibration of this love system, so will it be
found upon the mental plane. More may not be said, but
food for thought lies here. Orange also holds the secret
for the Sons of Mind, and in the study of flame (which
even exoterically blends all the colours) comes
illumination (Letters on Occult Meditation)
The Esoteric and Exoteric colours.
Today our subject is the second one in our letter on the
use of colour and deals with the law of correspondences
[224] and of colour......The esoteric meaning of the
exoteric colours is not yet wholly imparted, as I have
already told you. Some of these meanings have been
given out by H.P.B. but their significance has not been
sufficiently apprehended. One hint I give for your wise
consideration. Some of the information given in The
Secret Doctrine anent colour and sound concerns the
first solar system and some concerns a portion of the
second solar system.

The distinction has naturally not been apprehended, but

as a key fact for studying in the newer school, the
revelation will be great. In this statement as to the
esoteric significance of the colours I would have you
now tabulate (even though it can be found in The Secret
Doctrine), in order to form the basis of such later
communications as I may seek to impart.
Exoteric

Esoteric
Purple

Blue

Yellow

Indigo

Cream
White

Yellow
Violet

Only four as yet can be communicated, but if rightly

understood they hold the key to the present fourth
round, and to its history. This being the fourth chain
and the fourth round you will note therefore how in the
number four lies the history of the present. Especially
would I urge you who are the teachers and students of
the coming generation to ponder upon the significance
of white being esoterically violet. It has special
application now in the coming in of the violet ray, the
seventh ray being one of the three major rays in this
round; it wields power in ratio to the four, on the four
and under the four.
The esoteric colours of the exoteric red, green and
orange may not yet be imparted to the general public,
[225] though students and accepted chelas, whose

discrimination can be trusted, can attain the necessary

knowledge with effort.
I would here like to point out certain other
considerations which can be best dealt with by a brief
consideration of the law of analogy and
correspondence. We might therefore consider the
following points:
a. Wherein the microcosm and the macrocosm
correspond.
b. The basic correspondences.
c. Colour in the microcosm and in the macrocosm.
...in the right apprehension of the law lies the ability to
think esoterically, and wrest the inner meaning out of
the external happenings. AAB, Letters on Occult
Meditation
-------------------Esoteric Astrology:
In our study of the interlocking system of energies, in so far as
they affect and condition a human being, the theme of the Three
Crosses is of profound and practical interest, especially as they
provide those points of crisis wherein a man steps off the
ordinary path of evolution and treads the path of discipleship or
- after the third initiation mounts a third Cross. It will underlie
our thought and all that I have to say. A steady recollection of
the twelve basic [85] energies (five major and seven minor which
are in reality, and apart from astral reversion due to the Great
Illusion, seven major and five minor) will be of value. These work
out into human expression via the Lords of the twelve signs and
the twelve planetary Rulers. These twelve basic energies
emanate from the seven stars of the Great Bear (transmitted

through seven stars of the Little Bear); two of them come from
Sirius and three from the Pleiades.
This set-up (if I may use such an unorthodox term) will be the
condition of the major solar sphere of influence at the end of the
Great Age of Brahma, as it is esoterically called. In the "interim
or interlude of evolution" (which is the inadequate translation of
an occult phrase given to a world cycle in the Masters' Archives)
these energies are stepped down into forces and are literally
sixteen all told - from the angle of manifestation, I would remind
you - and make literally: 7 + 7 + 2 = 16 = 7. In these numbers the
mystery of our evolutionary process lies hid. Always, however,
the emphasis must be laid upon the Rays of Energy and Quality
as they pour through the zodiacal constellations and the
planets. The new astrology therefore is necessarily based upon
an understanding of the rays. AAB, Esoteric Astrology
----------------The sacred planets are, as you know, seven in number:
Vulcan
Mercury
Venus
Jupiter
Saturn
Neptune
Uranus (AAB, EA p.507)
------------------"I would here remind you that the Moon is usually regarded as
"veiling" or "hiding" some planet and of these there are three
which the Moon may be veiling. Here the intuition of the
astrologer and of the esoteric student must be called out. These
planets are Vulcan, Neptune or Uranus." (Esoteric Astrology,
p.220)
The sacred planets according to HPB:

The seven sacred planets of the ancients are: Saturn, Jupiter,

Mars, Venus, Mercury, and the Sun and Moon.1 The Sun and
Moon are not, of course, planets in the usual sense of the term,
but from a geocentric perspective all these seven bodies appear
to revolve around the Earth. Theosophy explains that the Sun
and Moon are really substitutes for two hidden planets, one
between Mercury and the Sun, and the other near the Moon...
"The seven planets are not limited to this number because the
ancients knew of no others, but simply because they were the
primitive or primordial houses of the seven Logoi. There may be
nine and ninety-nine other planets discovered this does not
alter the fact of these seven alone being sacred."4
Like other writers, HPB says that earlier cultures did in fact
know of more planets:
"even with the Sun and the Moon thrown out of the calculation,
the ancients seem to have known of seven planets. How many
more are known to us, so far, if we throw out the Earth and
Moon? Seven, and no more: Seven primary or principal planets,
the rest planetoids rather than planets".5
HPB says that the seven sacred planets were the heavenly
bodies in direct astral and psychic communication with the
Earth, its Guides, and Watchers morally and physically; the
visible orbs furnishing our Humanity with its outward and
inward characteristics, and their Regents or Rectors with our
Monads and spiritual faculties. The sacred planets did not
include Uranus or Neptune, not only because they were
unknown under these names to the ancient Sages, but because,
they, as all other planets, however many there may be, are the
gods and guardians of other septenary chains of globes within
our systems.1

The seven sacred planets are usually listed as: Saturn, Jupiter,
Mars, Venus, Mercury, Sun, Moon. The Sun is a substitute for a
planet between Mercury and the Sun, at present invisible but
suspected by some 19th century astronomers, who called it
Vulcan.2 The Moon is a substitute for a planet (Lilith) sometimes
seen near the moon by those who have eyes to see .3 In one
place HPB omits Mars from the list of sacred planets: Saturn,
Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus, the four exoteric planets, and the
three others, which must remain unnamed.4 G. de Purucker
explains: Like the sun and the moon which are substitutes for
two secret planets, Mars to a certain extent is in the same
category.5
There are really 12 sacred planets, just as there are 12 globes of
a planetary chain. These include the seven commonly referred
to, plus the Earth and four other invisible planetary chains.6
Each globe of our planetary chain is the child of, and in a sense
built, controlled, and guided by, one in particular, but all in
general, of the 12 sacred planets. Our own globe D, for example,
was especially built by, and is especially guided by, Saturn,
assisted by our Moon. The reference here is to the ensouling
divinities of the sacred planets rather than their material
bodies.7 Each round and each root-race are likewise under the
particular governance of one of the sacred planets.8

Planetary and zodiacal correspondences of the 12 globes of our

planetary chain.9
The seven or twelve planets are sacred because they are the
transmitters to the globes of our planetary chain of the twelve
primal spiritual and other forces emanating as minor logoi from
the supreme logos of our Sun. Each logos is the rector or genius
of one of the sacred planets and uses that planet as its principal
house or nerve centre. The main substance of a planetary chain
comes from itself through its laya-centre, but it draws into itself

other energies and atoms flowing from its family of sacred

planets, which are closely attuned to it karmically. The life-flow
from the sacred planets provides us with our seven elements
and principles.10 http://davidpratt.info/sacredpl.htm#ne39
------------------------All the Lords of the rays create a body of expression, and thus
the seven planets have come into being. These are their major
expressions.
The Sun (Veiling Vulcan - an "etheric" planet)
Jupiter
Saturn
Mercury
Venus
Mars
The Moon [veiling Uranus?]
The energies of these seven Lives however are not confined to
their planetary expressions, but sweep around the confines of
the solar system just as the life impulses of a human beinghis
vital forces, his desire impulses, and his mental energies
sweep throughout his body, bringing the various organs into
activity and enabling him to carry out his intent, to live his life,
and to fulfill the objective for which he created his body of
manifestation. (Alice Bailey, Esoteric Psychology I, p.62)
----------------------The Sun and the Moon will not veil other planets anymore in the
future:
It is only in the present cycle that the Sun and Moon "veil"
certain planets and are the exoteric symbols for certain esoteric
forces. As evolution proceeds, the planets will not be veiled.
Their influences will not be so remote. At present the
mechanism of the majority of the human family is not tuned to
the reception of the rays from Vulcan, Uranus or Neptune whilst
Pluto at present only evokes response from groups or from
those disciples who are enough evolved rightly to respond. The

three veiled planetsVulcan, Uranus and Neptune are all sacred

planets, embodying first, seventh and sixth ray energies. Vulcan
is never an exoteric ruler and only comes into real activity when
a man is on the Path, whilst Uranus and Neptune are rulers of
the eleventh and twelfth houses, and govern Aquarius and
Pisces. The implications will be clear to you (EA 509).
-----------------Esoterically speaking, the planets which are the expression of
the three major rays are:
Ray I....... Uranus.
Ray II...... Neptune.
Ray III..... Saturn.
A study of this will make it apparent why Saturn is ever the
stabiliser. In this present cycle, the two rays of Power and Love
are directing their energies to Vulcan and Jupiter, whilst Saturn's
attention is turned towards our planet, the Earth.
Thus we have the ten rays of perfection, the vehicles of
manifestation of what H.P.B. calls, "the imperfect Gods," the
planetary Logoi. See A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, where this is
elaborated. ( Esoteric Psychology I, p. 421)
At the end of Bailey's 'Esoteric Psychology I', among her
"Tabulations" ("REFERENCES TO THE SECRET DOCTRINE" on
p.419) we find:
Ray 1...... Will or Power Planet: Sun, substituting for the veiled
planet Vulcan.
Ray 7.......Ceremonial Magic Planet: The Moon. She is the
mother of form.

So, DK does not give out which planet (veiled by the Moon)
embodies the 7th Ray, nor again does HPB, though it is clear
from HPB that it is NOT Uranus (though of course Uranus
transmits Ray 7, among others, to the Earth). In this same
section DK (I assume) writes:
"Esoterically speaking, the planets which are the expression of
the three major rays are:
Ray I....... Uranus.
Ray II...... Neptune.
Ray III..... Saturn.
A study of this will make it apparent why Saturn is ever the
stabiliser. In this present cycle, the two rays of Power and Love
are directing their energies to Vulcan and Jupiter, whilst Saturn's
attention is turned towards our planet, the Earth.
Thus we have the ten rays of perfection, the vehicles of
manifestation of what H.P.B. calls, "the imperfect Gods," the
planetary Logoi. See A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, where this is
elaborated." ( Esoteric Psychology I, p. 421)

----------These Spirits are called primarios principes. But what these

first Principles are in reality is not explained. In the first
centuries of Christianity the Church would not do so; and in this
one she knows of them no more than her faithful lay sons do.
She has lost the secret.
The question concerning the definite adoption of names for

these angels, de Mirville tells ushas given rise to

controversies that have lasted for centuries. To this day these
seven names are a mystery.
Yet they are found in certain missals and in the secret
documents at the Vatican, along with the astrological names
known to many. But as the Kabalists, and among others Bishop
Adalbert, have used some of them, the Church will not accept
these titles, though she worships the creatures. The usual
names accepted are MIKAEL, the quis ut Deus, the like unto
God; GABRIEL, the strength (or power) of God; RAPHAEL, or
divine virtue; URIEL, Gods light and fire; SAALTIEL, the
speech of God; JEHUDIEL, the praise of God and
BARACHIEL, the blessing of God. These seven are
absolutely canonical, but they are not the true mystery names
the magical POTENCIES. And even among the substitutes, as
just shown, Uriel has been greatly compromised and the three
last enumerated are pronounced suspicious. Nevertheless,
though nameless, they are still worshipped. Nor is it true to say
that no trace of these three namesso suspiciousis
anywhere found in the Bible, for they are mentioned in certain of
the old Hebrew scrolls.
One of them is named in Chapter xvi of Genesisthe angel who
appears to Hagar; and all the three appear as the Lord (the
Elohim) to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, as the three men
who announced to Sarai the birth of Isaac (Genesis, xviii).
Jehudiel, moreover, is distinctly named in Chapter xxiii of
Exodus, as the angel in whom was the name (praise in the
original) of God (Vide verse 21). It is through their divine
attributes, which have led to the formation of the names, that
these archangels may be identified by an easy esoteric method
of transmutation with the Chaldean great gods and even with the
Seven Manus and the Seven Rishis of India.* They are the Seven
Sabian Gods, and the Seven Seats (Thrones) and Virtues of the
Kabalists; and now they have become with the Catholics, their
Seven Eyes of the Lord, and the Seven Thrones, instead of
Seats. Both Kabalists and Heathen must feel quite flattered

to thus see their Devas and Rishis become the Ministers

Plenipotentiary of the Christian God...
We are accused of mistaking stars for angels. The charge is
acquiring such a wide notoriety that we are forced to answer it
very seriously. It is impossible that we should try to dissimulate
it without failing in frankness and courage, since this pretended
mistake is repeated incessantly in the Scriptures as in our
theology. We shall examine. . . . this opinion hitherto so
accredited, today discredited, and which attributes rightly to our
SEVEN PRINCIPAL SPIRITS the ruler-ship, not of the seven
known planets, with which we are reproached, but of the seven
PRINCIPAL planets *which is quite a different thing.
And the author hastens to cite the authority of Babinet, the
astronomer, who sought to prove in an able article of the Revue
des Deux Mondes (May, 1855), that in reality besides the earth
we had only SEVEN big planets.
The seven principal planets is another confession to the
acceptance of a purely occult tenet. Every planet according to
the esoteric doctrine is in its composition a Septenary like man,
in its principles. That is to say, the visible planet is the physical
body of the sidereal being, the Atma or Spirit of which is the
Angel, or Rishi, or Dhyan-Chohan, or Deva, or whatever we call
it. This belief as the occultists will see (read in Esoteric
Buddhism about the constitution of the planets) is thoroughly
occult. It is a tenet of the Secret Doctrineminus its idolatrous
elementpure and simple. As taught in the Church and her
rituals, however, and especially, as practised, it is ASTROLATRY
as pure and as simple.
--------* He who knows anything of the Purnas and their allegories,
knows that the Rishis therein as well as the Manus are Sons of
God, of Brahm, and themselves gods; that they become men
and then, as Saptarishi, they turn into stars and constellations.
Finally that they are first 7, then 10, then 14, and finally 21. The
occult meaning is evident

* These principal planets are the mystery planets of the pagan

Initiates, but travestied by dogma and priestcraft.
[The subject of the Seven Mystery Names and their correlations
was discussed at considerable length by Jakob Bonggren, one
of the most serious students in the early days of the Movement.
His essay may be found in Lucifer, Vol. IV, July, 1889, pp. 404407, where it is followed by a comprehensive article from the
pen of Sepharial (Walter R. Old), on pp. 407-415.Compiler.]
STAR ANGEL WORSHIP IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Blavatsky Collected Writings volume 10 Page 13
------------------------Further, each of the Primordial Seven, the first Seven Rays forming the
Manifested Logos, is again sevenfold. Thus, as the seven colors of the
solar spectrum correspond to the seven Rays, or Hierarchies, so each of
these latter has again its seven divisions corresponding to the same
series of colors. But in this case one color, viz: that which characterizes
the particular Hierarchy as a whole, is predominant and more intense
than the others.
These Hierarchies can only be symbolized as concentric circles of
prismatic colors; each Hierarchy being represented by a series of seven
concentric circles, each circle representing one of the prismatic colors in
their natural order. But in each of these wheels one circle will be
brighter and more vivid in color than the rest and the wheel will have a
surrounding Aura (a fringe, as the physicists call it) of that color. This
color will be the characteristic color of that Hierarchy as a whole. Each of
these Hierarchies furnishes the essence (the soul) and is the Builder of
one of the seven kingdoms of Nature, which are the three elemental
kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, and the kingdom of
spiritual man.
Moreover, each Hierarchy furnishes the Aura of one of the seven
principles in man with its specific color. Further, as each of these
Hierarchies is the Ruler of one of the Sacred Planets, it will easily be
understood how Astrology came into existence, and that real Astrology has
a strictly scientific basis. Thus the Linga-Sarira is derived from the Violet
sub-ray of the Violet Hierarchy; the Higher Manas is similarly derived

from the Indigo sub-ray of the Indigo Hierarchy, and so on. Every man
being born under a certain planet, there will always be a predominance of
that planets color in him, because that principle will rule in him which
has its origin in the Hierarchy in question. There will also be a certain
amount of the color derived from the other planets present in his Aura, but
that of the ruling planet will be strongest...The student will understand
that the Orders and Hierarchies are here named after their corresponding
colors, so as to avoid using numerals, which would be confusing in
connection with the human principles, as the latter have no proper
numbers of their own. The real occult names of these Hierarchies cannot
now be given.
(H.P. Blavatsky, ES Instruction II, BCW Vol XII, pp.567-69)
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v12/y1890_054.htm
---------------------These Spirits are called primarios principes. But what these
first Principles are in reality is not explained. In the first
centuries of Christianity the Church would not do so; and in this
one she knows of them no more than her faithful lay sons do.
She has lost the secret.
The question concerning the definite adoption of names for
these angels, de Mirville tells ushas given rise to
controversies that have lasted for centuries. To this day these
seven names are a mystery.
Yet they are found in certain missals and in the secret
documents at the Vatican, along with the astrological names
known to many. But as the Kabalists, and among others Bishop
Adalbert, have used some of them, the Church will not accept
these titles, though she worships the creatures. The usual
names accepted are MIKAEL, the quis ut Deus, the like unto
God; GABRIEL, the strength (or power) of God; RAPHAEL, or
divine virtue; URIEL, Gods light and fire; SAALTIEL, the
speech of God; JEHUDIEL, the praise of God and
BARACHIEL, the blessing of God. These seven are
absolutely canonical, but they are not the true mystery names
the magical POTENCIES. And even among the substitutes, as

just shown, Uriel has been greatly compromised and the three
last enumerated are pronounced suspicious. Nevertheless,
though nameless, they are still worshipped. Nor is it true to say
that no trace of these three namesso suspiciousis
anywhere found in the Bible, for they are mentioned in certain of
the old Hebrew scrolls.
One of them is named in Chapter xvi of Genesisthe angel who
appears to Hagar; and all the three appear as the Lord (the
Elohim) to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, as the three men
who announced to Sarai the birth of Isaac (Genesis, xviii).
Jehudiel, moreover, is distinctly named in Chapter xxiii of
Exodus, as the angel in whom was the name (praise in the
original) of God (Vide verse 21). It is through their divine
attributes, which have led to the formation of the names, that
these archangels may be identified by an easy esoteric method
of transmutation with the Chaldean great gods and even with
the Seven Manus and the Seven Rishis of India.* They are the
Seven Sabian Gods, and the Seven Seats (Thrones) and Virtues
of the Kabalists; and now they have become with the Catholics,
their Seven Eyes of the Lord, and the Seven Thrones,
instead of Seats. Both Kabalists and Heathen must feel
quite flattered to thus see their Devas and Rishis become the
Ministers Plenipotentiary of the Christian God...
We are accused of mistaking stars for angels. The charge is
acquiring such a wide notoriety that we are forced to answer it
very seriously. It is impossible that we should try to dissimulate
it without failing in frankness and courage, since this pretended
mistake is repeated incessantly in the Scriptures as in our
theology. We shall examine. . . . this opinion hitherto so
accredited, today discredited, and which attributes rightly to our
SEVEN PRINCIPAL SPIRITS the ruler-ship, not of the seven
known planets, with which we are reproached, but of the seven
PRINCIPAL planets *which is quite a different thing.
And the author hastens to cite the authority of Babinet, the
astronomer, who sought to prove in an able article of the Revue

des Deux Mondes (May, 1855), that in reality besides the earth
we had only SEVEN big planets.
The seven principal planets is another confession to the
acceptance of a purely occult tenet. Every planet according to
the esoteric doctrine is in its composition a Septenary like man,
in its principles. That is to say, the visible planet is the physical
body of the sidereal being, the Atma or Spirit of which is the
Angel, or Rishi, or Dhyan-Chohan, or Deva, or whatever we call
it. This belief as the occultists will see (read in Esoteric
Buddhism about the constitution of the planets) is thoroughly
occult. It is a tenet of the Secret Doctrineminus its idolatrous
elementpure and simple. As taught in the Church and her
rituals, however, and especially, as practised, it is ASTROLATRY
as pure and as simple.
--------* He who knows anything of the Purnas and their allegories,
knows that the Rishis therein as well as the Manus are Sons of
God, of Brahm, and themselves gods; that they become men
and then, as Saptarishi, they turn into stars and constellations.
Finally that they are first 7, then 10, then 14, and finally 21. The
occult meaning is evident
* These principal planets are the mystery planets of the pagan
Initiates, but travestied by dogma and priestcraft.
[The subject of the Seven Mystery Names and their correlations
was discussed at considerable length by Jakob Bonggren, one
of the most serious students in the early days of the Movement.
His essay may be found in Lucifer, Vol. IV, July, 1889, pp. 404407, where it is followed by a comprehensive article from the
pen of Sepharial (Walter R. Old), on pp. 407-415.Compiler.]
STAR ANGEL WORSHIP IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Blavatsky Collected Writings volume 10 Page 13
------------------------Q. What is the difference between an Elemental and a DhyanChohan or Dhyani-Buddha?
A. The difference is very great. Elementals are attached only to
the four terrestrial Elements and only to the two lower kingdoms

of naturethe mineral and the vegetablein which they

inmetalize and inherbalize, so to speak. The Hindu term Deva
may be applied to them, but not that of Dhyan-Chohan. The
former have a kind of Kosmic intelligence; but the latter are
endowed with a supersensuous intellect, each of its kind. As to
the Dhyani-Buddhas, they belong to the highest Divine (or
omniscient) Intelligences, answering best, perhaps, to the
Roman Catholic Archangels.
-----------------------Q. And what is the Aksa proper?
A. The Aksa is the eternal divine consciousness which cannot
differentiate, have qualities, or act; action belongs to that which
is reflected or mirrored from it. The unconditioned and infinite
can have no relation with the finite and conditioned. The Astral
Light is the Middle Heaven of the Gnostics, in which is Sophia
Achamoth, the mother of the seven builders or Spirits of the
Earth, which are not necessarily good, and among which the
Gnostics placed Jehovah, whom they called Ildabaoth. (Sophia
Achamoth must not be confounded with the divine Sophia.) We
may compare the Aksa and the Astral Light, with regard to
these prototypes, to the germ in the acorn. The latter, besides
containing in itself the astral form of the future oak, conceals
the germ from which grows a tree containing millions of forms.
These forms are contained in the acorn potentially, yet the
development of each particular acorn depends upon extraneous
circumstances, physical forces, etc.
Q. But how does this account for the endless varieties of the
Vegetable Kindom?
A. The different variations of plants, etc., are the broken rays of
one Ray. As the ray passes through the seven planes, it is
broken on every plane into thousands and millions of rays down
to the world of forms, every ray breaking into an intelligence on

its own plane. So that we see every plant has an intelligence, or

its own purpose of life, so to speak, and its own free will, to a
degree. This is how, I, at any rate, understand it. A plant can be
receptive or non-receptive, though every plant without an
exception feels and has a consciousness of its own. But
besides the latter, every plantfrom the gigantic tree down to
the minutest fern or blade of grasshas, Occultism teaches us,
an Elemental entity of which it is the outward clothing on this
plane. Hence, the Kabalists and the mediaeval Rosicrucians are
always found talking of Elementals. According to them,
everything possessed an Elemental sprite.
Q. What is the difference between an Elemental and a DhyanChohan or Dhyani-Buddha?
A. The difference is very great. Elementals are attached only to
the four terrestrial Elements and only to the two lower kingdoms
of naturethe mineral and the vegetablein which they
inmetalize and inherbalize, so to speak. The Hindu term Deva
may be applied to them, but not that of Dhyan-Chohan. The
former have a kind of Kosmic intelligence; but the latter are
endowed with a supersensuous intellect, each of its kind. As to
the Dhyani-Buddhas, they belong to the highest Divine (or
omniscient) Intelligences, answering best, perhaps, to the
Roman Catholic Archangels
Blavatsky Collected Writings volume 10 Page 298
----------------------

BLAVATSKY ON THE SEVEN RAYS, Aaeons, etc.

Further, each of the Primordial Seven, the first Seven Rays

forming the Manifested Logos, is again sevenfold. Thus, as the
seven colors of the solar spectrum correspond to the seven
Rays, or Hierarchies, so each of these latter has again its seven
divisions corresponding to the same series of colors. But in this
case one color, viz: that which characterizes the particular

Hierarchy as a whole, is predominant and more intense than

the others.
These Hierarchies can only be symbolized as concentric circles
of prismatic colors; each Hierarchy being represented by a
series of seven concentric circles, each circle representing one
of the prismatic colors in their natural order. But in each of
these wheels one circle will be brighter and more vivid in
color than the rest and the wheel will have a surrounding Aura
(a fringe, as the physicists call it) of that color. This color will
be the characteristic color of that Hierarchy as a whole. Each
of these Hierarchies furnishes the essence (the soul) and is the
Builder of one of the seven kingdoms of Nature, which are
the three elemental kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable, the
animal, and the kingdom of spiritual man.
Moreover, each Hierarchy furnishes the Aura of one of the
seven principles in man with its specific color. Further, as each
of these Hierarchies is the Ruler of one of the Sacred Planets, it
will easily be understood how Astrology came into existence,
and that real Astrology has a strictly scientific basis. Thus the
Linga-Sarira is derived from the Violet sub-ray of the Violet
Hierarchy; the Higher Manas is similarly derived from the
Indigo sub-ray of the Indigo Hierarchy, and so on. Every man
being born under a certain planet, there will always be a
predominance of that planets color in him, because that
principle will rule in him which has its origin in the
Hierarchy in question. There will also be a certain amount of
the color derived from the other planets present in his Aura,
but that of the ruling planet will be strongest...The student will
understand that the Orders and Hierarchies are here named
after their corresponding colors, so as to avoid using numerals,
which would be confusing in connection with the human
principles, as the latter have no proper numbers of their own.

The real occult names of these Hierarchies cannot now be

given.
(H.P. Blavatsky, ES Instruction II, BCW Vol XII, pp.567-69)
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v12/y1890_
054.htm
------------------Q. Is there any consciousness, or conscious being, to
cognize and make a division of time at the first flutter of
manifestation? In his Notes on the Bhagavad-Gita, Mr.
Subba Row, in speaking of the First Logos, seems to
imply both consciousness and intelligence.
A. But he did not explain which Logos was referred to,
and I believe he spoke in general. In the Esoteric
Philosophy the First is the unmanifested, and the
Second the manifested Logos. Iswara stands for that
Second, and Nryana for the unmanifested Logos.
Subba Row is an Adwaitee and a learned Vedantin, and
explained from his standpoint. We do so from ours. In
The Secret Doctrine, that from which the manifested
Logos is born is translated by the Eternal MotherFather; while in the Vishnu-Purna it is described as
the Egg of the World, surrounded by seven skins, layers
or zones. It is in this Golden Egg that Brahm, the male,
is born and that Brahm is in reality the Second Logos
or even the Third, according to the enumeration
adopted; for a certainty he is not the First or highest, the
point which is everywhere and nowhere. Mahat, in the
Esoteric interpretations, is in reality the Third Logos or
the Synthesis of the Seven creative rays, the Seven
Logoi. Out of the seven so-called Creations, Mahat is the

third, for it is the Universal and Intelligent Soul, Divine

Ideation, combining the ideal plans and prototypes of all
things in the manifested objective as well as subjective
world. In the Snkhya and Purnic doctrines Mahat is
the first product of Pradhna, informed by Kshetraj,
Spirit-Substance. In Esoteric philosophy Kshetraj is
the name given to our informing EGOS.
Q. Is it then the first manifestation in our objective
universe?
A. It is the first Principle in it, made sensible or
perceptible to divine though not human senses. But if
we proceed from the Unknowable, we will find it to be
the third, and corresponding to Manas, or rather BuddhiManas.
-------------------------------------Q. Is Fohat one of the three, Father, Mother and Son?
A. Fohat is a generic term and used in many senses. He
is the light (Daiviprakriti) of all the three logoithe
personified symbols of the three spiritual stages of
Evolution. Fohat is the aggregate of all the spiritual
creative ideations above, and of all the electro-dynamic
and creative forces below, in Heaven and on Earth.
There seems to be great confusion and
misunderstanding concerning the First and Second
Logos. The first is the already present yet still
unmanifested potentiality in the bosom of FatherMother; the Second is the abstract collectivity of

creators called Demiurgi by the Greeks or the Builders

of the Universe. The third logos is the ultimate
differentiation of the Second and the individualization of
Cosmic Forces, of which Fohat is the chief; for Fohat is
the synthesis of the Seven Creative Rays or Dhyan
Chohans which proceed from the third Logos.
--------------------------Q. With reference to sloka (6), where it speaks of the
Seven Lords, since confusion is apt to arise as to the
correct application of the terms, what is the distinction
between Dhyan-Chohans, Planetary Spirits, Builders
and Dhyani-Buddhas?
A. As an additional two volumes of The Secret Doctrine
would be required to explain all the Hierarchies;
therefore, much relating to them has been omitted from
the Stanzas and Commentaries. A short definition may,
however, be tried. Dhyan-Chohan is a generic term for
all Devas, or celestial beings. A Planetary Spirit is a
Ruler of a planet, a kind of finite or personal god. There
is a marked difference, however, between the Rulers of
the Sacred Planets and the Rulers of a small chain of
worlds like our own. It is no serious objection to say that
the earth has, nevertheless, six invisible companions
and four different planes, as every other planet, for the
difference between them is vital in many a point. Say
what one may, our Earth was never numbered among
the seven sacred planets of the ancients, though in
exoteric, popular astrology it stood as a substitute for a
secret planet now lost to astronomy, yet well known to
initiated specialists. Nor were the Sun or the Moon in
that number, though accepted in our day by modern

astrology; for the Sun is a Central Star, and the Moon a

dead planet.
Q. Were none of the six globes of the terrene chain
numbered among the sacred planets?
A. None. The latter were all planets on our plane, and
some of them have been discovered later.
Q. Can you tell us something of the planets for which
the Sun and the Moon were substitutes?
A. There is no secret in it, though our modern
astrologers are ignorant of these planets. One is an
intra-mercurial planet, which is supposed to have been
discovered, and named by anticipation Vulcan, and the
other a planet with a retrograde motion, sometimes
visible at a certain hour of night and apparently near the
moon. The occult influence of this planet is transmitted
by the moon.
Q. What is it that made these planets sacred or secret?
A. Their occult influences, as far as I know
Q. Then do the Planetary Spirits of the Seven Sacred
Planets belong to another hierarchy than to that of the
earth?

A. Evidently; since the terrestrial spirit of the earth is not

of a very high grade. It must be remembered that the
planetary spirit has nothing to do with the spiritual man,
but with things of matter and cosmic beings. The gods
and rulers of our Earth are cosmic Rulers; that is to say,
they form into shape and fashion cosmic matter, for
which they were called Cosmocratores. They never had
any concern with spirit; the Dhyani-Buddhas, belonging
to quite a different hierarchy, are especially concerned
with the latter.
Q. These seven Planetary Spirits have therefore nothing
really to do with the earth except incidentally?
A. On the contrary, the Planetarywho are not the
Dhyani-Buddhashave everything to do with the earth,
physically and morally. It is they who rule its destinies
and the fate of men. They are Karmic agencies.
Q. Have they anything to do with the fifth principlethe
higher Manas?
A. No: they have no concern with the three higher
principles; they have, however, something to do with the
fourth. To recapitulate, therefore; the term DhyanChohan is a generic name for all celestial beings. The
Dhyani-Buddhas are concerned with the human
higher triad in a mysterious way that need not be
explained here. The Builders are a class called, as I
already explained, Cosmocratores, or the invisible but
intelligent Masons, who fashion matter according to the

ideal plan ready for them in that which we call Divine

and Cosmic ideation. They were called by the early
Masons the Grand Architect of the Universe
collectively: but now the modern Masons make of their
G. A. O. T. U. a personal and singular Deity.
Q. Are they not also Planetary Spirits?
A. In a sense they areas the Earth is also a Planet
but of a lower order.
Q. Do they act under the guidance of the Terrestrial
Planetary Spirit?
A. I have just said that they were collectively that Spirit
themselves. I wish you to understand that they are not
an Entity, a kind of a personal God, but Forces of nature
acting under one immutable Law, on the nature of which
it is certainly useless for us to speculate.
Q. But are there not Builders of Universes, and Builders
of Systems, as there are Builders of our earth?
A. Assuredly there are.
Q. Then the terrestrial Builders are a Planetary Spirit
like the rest of them, only inferior in kind?
A. I would certainly say so.

Q. Are they inferior according to the size of the planet or

inferior in quality?
A. The latter, as we are taught. You see the ancients
lacked our modern, and especially theological, conceit,
which makes of this little speck of mud of ours
something ineffably grander than any of the stars and
planets known to us. If, for instance, Esoteric
Philosophy teaches that the Spirit (collectively again)
of Jupiter is far superior to the Terrestrial Spirit, it is not
because Jupiter is so many times larger than our earth,
but because its substance and texture are so much finer
than, and superior to, that of the earth. And it is in
proportion to this quality that the Hierarchies of
respective Planetary Builders reflect and act upon the
ideations they find planned for them in the Universal
Consciousness, the real great Architect of the Universe.
(Blavatsky Collected Writings Vol. X )
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v10/y
1889_006.htm
--------------------Q. And what is the Aksa proper?
A. The Aksa is the eternal divine consciousness which cannot
differentiate, have qualities, or act; action belongs to that which
is reflected or mirrored from it. The unconditioned and infinite
can have no relation with the finite and conditioned. The Astral
Light is the Middle Heaven of the Gnostics, in which is Sophia
Achamoth, the mother of the seven builders or Spirits of the
Earth, which are not necessarily good, and among which the

Gnostics placed Jehovah, whom they called Ildabaoth. (Sophia

Achamoth must not be confounded with the divine Sophia.) We
may compare the Aksa and the Astral Light, with regard to
these prototypes, to the germ in the acorn. The latter, besides
containing in itself the astral form of the future oak, conceals the
germ from which grows a tree containing millions of forms.
These forms are contained in the acorn potentially, yet the
development of each particular acorn depends upon extraneous
circumstances, physical forces, etc.
Q. But how does this account for the endless varieties of the
Vegetable Kindom?
A. The different variations of plants, etc., are the broken rays of
one Ray. As the ray passes through the seven planes, it is
broken on every plane into thousands and millions of rays down
to the world of forms, every ray breaking into an intelligence on
its own plane. So that we see every plant has an intelligence, or
its own purpose of life, so to speak, and its own free will, to a
degree. This is how, I, at any rate, understand it. A plant can be
receptive or non-receptive, though every plant without an
exception feels and has a consciousness of its own. But besides
the latter, every plantfrom the gigantic tree down to the
minutest fern or blade of grasshas, Occultism teaches us, an
Elemental entity of which it is the outward clothing on this plane.
Hence, the Kabalists and the mediaeval Rosicrucians are always
found talking of Elementals. According to them, everything
possessed an Elemental sprite.

Q. What is the difference between an Elemental and a

Dhyan-Chohan or Dhyani-Buddha?
A. The difference is very great. Elementals are attached
only to the four terrestrial Elements and only to the two
lower kingdoms of naturethe mineral and the

vegetablein which they inmetalize and inherbalize, so

to speak. The Hindu term Deva may be applied to them,
but not that of Dhyan-Chohan. The former have a kind of
Kosmic intelligence; but the latter are endowed with a
supersensuous intellect, each of its kind. As to the
Dhyani-Buddhas, they belong to the highest Divine (or
omniscient) Intelligences, answering best, perhaps, to
the Roman Catholic Archangels
Blavatsky Collected Writings volume 10 Page 298
----------------------These Spirits are called primarios principes. But what
these first Principles are in reality is not explained. In
the first centuries of Christianity the Church would not
do so; and in this one she knows of them no more than
her faithful lay sons do. She has lost the secret. The
question concerning the definite adoption of names for
these angels, de Mirville tells ushas given rise to
controversies that have lasted for centuries. To this day
these seven names are a mystery.
Yet they are found in certain missals and in the secret
documents at the Vatican, along with the astrological
names known to many. But as the Kabalists, and among
others Bishop Adalbert, have used some of them, the
Church will not accept these titles, though she worships
the creatures. The usual names accepted are MIKAEL,
the quis ut Deus, the like unto God; GABRIEL, the
strength (or power) of God; RAPHAEL, or divine
virtue; URIEL, Gods light and fire; SAALTIEL, the
speech of God; JEHUDIEL, the praise of God and
BARACHIEL, the blessing of God. These seven are

absolutely canonical, but they are not the true mystery

namesthe magical POTENCIES. And even among the
substitutes, as just shown, Uriel has been greatly
compromised and the three last enumerated are
pronounced suspicious. Nevertheless, though
nameless, they are still worshipped. Nor is it true to say
that no trace of these three namesso suspiciousis
anywhere found in the Bible, for they are mentioned in
certain of the old Hebrew scrolls.
One of them is named in Chapter xvi of Genesisthe
angel who appears to Hagar; and all the three appear as
the Lord (the Elohim) to Abraham in the plains of
Mamre, as the three men who announced to Sarai the
birth of Isaac (Genesis, xviii). Jehudiel, moreover, is
distinctly named in Chapter xxiii of Exodus, as the angel
in whom was the name (praise in the original) of God
(Vide verse 21). It is through their divine attributes,
which have led to the formation of the names, that these
archangels may be identified by an easy esoteric
method of transmutation with the Chaldean great gods
and even with the Seven Manus and the Seven Rishis of
India.* They are the Seven Sabian Gods, and the Seven
Seats (Thrones) and Virtues of the Kabalists; and now
they have become with the Catholics, their Seven Eyes
of the Lord, and the Seven Thrones, instead of
Seats. Both Kabalists and Heathen must feel quite
flattered to thus see their Devas and Rishis become the
Ministers Plenipotentiary of the Christian God...
We are accused of mistaking stars for angels. The
charge is acquiring such a wide notoriety that we are
forced to answer it very seriously. It is impossible that

we should try to dissimulate it without failing in

frankness and courage, since this pretended mistake is
repeated incessantly in the Scriptures as in our
theology. We shall examine. . . . this opinion hitherto so
accredited, today discredited, and which attributes
rightly to our SEVEN PRINCIPAL SPIRITS the ruler-ship,
not of the seven known planets, with which we are
reproached, but of the seven PRINCIPAL planets *
which is quite a different thing.
And the author hastens to cite the authority of Babinet,
the astronomer, who sought to prove in an able article of
the Revue des Deux Mondes (May, 1855), that in reality
besides the earth we had only SEVEN big planets. The
seven principal planets is another confession to the
acceptance of a purely occult tenet. Every planet
according to the esoteric doctrine is in its composition a
Septenary like man, in its principles. That is to say, the
visible planet is the physical body of the sidereal being,
the Atma or Spirit of which is the Angel, or Rishi, or
Dhyan-Chohan, or Deva, or whatever we call it. This
belief as the occultists will see (read in Esoteric
Buddhism about the constitution of the planets) is
thoroughly occult. It is a tenet of the Secret Doctrine
minus its idolatrous elementpure and simple. As
taught in the Church and her rituals, however, and
especially, as practised, it is ASTROLATRY as pure and
as simple.
--------* He who knows anything of the Purnas and their
allegories, knows that the Rishis therein as well as the
Manus are Sons of God, of Brahm, and themselves
gods; that they become men and then, as Saptarishi,

they turn into stars and constellations. Finally that they

are first 7, then 10, then 14, and finally 21. The occult
meaning is evident
* These principal planets are the mystery planets of
the pagan Initiates, but travestied by dogma and
priestcraft.
[The subject of the Seven Mystery Names and their
correlations was discussed at considerable length by
Jakob Bonggren, one of the most serious students in
the early days of the Movement. His essay may be found
in Lucifer, Vol. IV, July, 1889, pp. 404-407, where it is
followed by a comprehensive article from the pen of
Sepharial (Walter R. Old), on pp. 407-415.Compiler.]
( STAR ANGEL WORSHIP IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH Blavatsky Collected Writings volume 10 Page
13
)
------------------------The characteristics of every object are acquired, manifesting or
latent...In time and space all characteristics have relative values.
The goal is one; the origin is one, but owing to the differing rates
of vibration of the seven great breaths or streams of divine
energy, every life borne forth upon them differs and is
distinctive. The stage of development of the seven Lords of the
Rays is not equal. The unfoldment of the life of the various
planetary Logoi, or of the seven Spirits before the Throne of
God, is not uniform and the atoms in Their bodies, or the
monads who constitute Their vehicles are therefore not uniform
in unfoldment.
This is a vast subject and cannot be more than touched upon
here. Students will find it of interest to search for information

given in the different presentations of the one truth anent the

great Lives in whom we "live, and move and have our being."
They can be studied under the following names:
1. The seven Rays,
2. The seven Spirits before the Throne,
3. The seven planetary Logoi,
4. The seven great Lords,
5. The seven Aeons,
6. The seven Emanations,
7. The seven Prajapatis,
and other less known terms, and much light will be forthcoming.
In the characteristic form (taking into consideration its specific
point in development, and its lack of development) is revealed to
the knower:
a. The sum total of acquirement. That which the past has given.
This is the total chord which the soul of that object is as yet
capable of sounding.
b. The particular range of qualities out of that total acquisition
which the life is manifesting through any specific form. This is
the present note in the acquired chord which the soul of the
object has chosen to sound.
c. That which is latent and possible. This knowledge will be
dual, revealing first, the latent possibilities to be unfolded
through the medium of the form contemplated, and secondly,
the latent possibilities capable of unfoldment in the present
world cycle through various forms. This covers future
developments. This will give the yogi the completed chord when
the great evolutionary cycle has run its course. LOS

Qualities of the Seven Rays:

The characteristics of every object are acquired, manifesting or
latent...In time and space all characteristics have relative values.
The goal is one; the origin is one, but owing to the differing rates
of vibration of the seven great breaths or streams of divine
energy, every life borne forth upon them differs and is
distinctive. The stage of development of the seven Lords of the
Rays is not equal. The unfoldment of the life of the various
planetary Logoi, or of the seven Spirits before the Throne of
God, is not uniform and the atoms in Their bodies, or the
monads who constitute Their vehicles are therefore not uniform
in unfoldment.
This is a vast subject and cannot be more than touched upon
here. Students will find it of interest to search for information
given in the different presentations of the one truth anent the
great Lives in whom we "live, and move and have our being."
They can be studied under the following names:
1. The seven Rays,
2. The seven Spirits before the Throne,
3. The seven planetary Logoi,
4. The seven great Lords,
5. The seven Aeons,
6. The seven Emanations,
7. The seven Prajapatis,
and other less known terms, and much light will be forthcoming.
(Alice Bailey, The Light of the Soul, p.268)

The Seven Rays:

Ray 1. Will, evoking divine purpose.
Ray 2. Love, expressing divine quality.
Ray 3. Intellect, as the reflector of the Intuition.
Ray 4. Conflict, producing harmony.
Ray 5. Knowledge or science, leading to radiance.
Ray 6. Idealism, establishing the divine pattern.
Ray 7. Ritual or organisation, manifesting Deity. (Alice Bailey,
Esoteric Psychology II, p. 101 )

I would remind you that all ideas stream into the planetary
consciousness along the channel of the seven rays. Thus, the Hierarchy
is wide open, in any case, to the seven major groups of ideas which are
the IDEA of God for any specific point in time, expressed in seven major
waysall of them equally right and serving the sevenfold need of
humanity. Each of these seven formulations of God's Idea has its
specific contribution to make; each of them is a true idea which has its
part to play in human or planetary service; and each of them is so
interrelated with the other six expressions of the same divine Idea,
working out as ideals upon the mental plane, that there can be no
narrowing down to one idea with its ramifications as happens among
men. There is, at least, sensitivity to seven groups of ideas and their

resultant ideals andif it were no more than thatthe Hierarchy is so

far fluid and pliable. But it is far more than just this, for, to the
members of the Hierarchy, the idea and its effects are not only
interpreted in terms of human thoughtforms and human idealism, but
they are also to be contacted and studied in their relation to the Mind of
God Himself and to the planetary kingdoms. These ideas come from and
they emanate from the buddhic plane, which is seldom open to the
consciousness of the average disciple and certainly is not open to the
contact of the average idealist. I would here remind you that few
idealists are personally in touch with the idea which has given birth to
the idealism. They are only in touch with the human interpretation of
the idea, as formulated by some disciple or intuitivea very different
thing. (Alice Bailey, Glamour A World Problem, p.131)
All the Lords of the rays create a body of expression, and thus the seven
planets have come into being. These are their major expressions.
The Sun (Veiling Vulcan - an "etheric" planet)
Jupiter
Saturn
Mercury
Venus
Mars
The Moon [veiling Uranus]
The energies of these seven Lives however are not confined to their
planetary expressions, but sweep around the confines of the solar system
just as the life impulses of a human beinghis vital forces, his desire

impulses, and his mental energiessweep throughout his body, bringing

the various organs into activity and enabling him to carry out his intent,
to live his life, and to fulfill the objective for which he created his body
of manifestation. (Alice Bailey, Esoteric Psychology I, p.62)

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 objectivesrealised 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 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 monadsoul-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 "outgoing" (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:
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.
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 initiationthe 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. 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. (Alice Bailey, Esoteric
Astrology, pp.603-607)
--------------------------------''This Entity, Whom we call the Solar Logos, is in no sense the same as
the personal God of the Christian, who is no more nor less than man
himself, expanded into a being of awful power, and subject to the virtues
and vices of man himself. The solar Logos is more than man, for He is
the sumtotal of all the evolutions within the entire solar system,
including the human, which is an evolution standing at a middle point in
relation to the other evolutions...A Solar Logos, the Grand Man of the
Heavens, is equally spheroidal in shape. His ring-pass-not comprises the
entire circumference of the solar system, and all that is included within
the sphere of influence of the Sun. The Sun holds a position analogous to
the nucleus of life at the centre of the atom. This sphere comprises
within its periphery the seven planetary chains with the synthesising
three, making the ten of logoic manifestation. The Sun is the physical
body of the solar Logos, His body of manifestation, and His life sweeps
cycling through the seven (planetary) schemes..He manifests through
the Sun and the seven sacred planets, each of whom embodies one of His
seven principles, just as He in His totality embodies one of the principles
of a greater cosmic Entity...Cosmically considered, the Son is developing
the principle of a greater cosmic Being, that principle which we call
love-wisdom. That is the fundamental characteristic He has to develop
during His life cycle. Each Heavenly Man, therefore, embodies
predominantly a subsidiary principle of the fundamental one. In like
manner He Himself has six subsidiary principles, as has the Son.'' (Alice
A. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire)
The three manifested Persons of the logoic Triad seek full development
by means of each other. The will to be, of the Mahadeva aspect, seeks,
with the aid of the intelligence of Brahma, to develop love-wisdom, or
the Son aspect, the Vishnu aspect. In the microcosmic system, the
reflection of the threefold Logos, the man is endeavoring through the

three vehicles to attain the same development on his own plane. On

higher planes the Heavenly Men (through atma-buddhi-manas) aim at a
similar progression. These two, the Heavenly Men plus the units in
Their bodies, which are composed of deva and human monads form, in
their totality, the Grand Heavenly Man. When man achieves, then the
Heavenly Men likewise achieve; when They reach Their full growth and
knowledge, and are self-conscious on all planes, then the Son achieves,
and the solar system (His body of manifestation and experience) has
served its purpose. The Son is liberated. Extend the idea of this
threefold development of consciousness to the Logos in a still larger
cycle (to that of the three solar systems of which this is the middle one)
and we have repeated on cosmic levels in connection with the Logos, the
process of the development of man in the three worlds...
If these stated aims are carefully considered, it will be seen how each has
its place within the plan, and how evolution is but a term used to express
the gradual development in time and space of the inherent capacity of a
human being, of a Heavenly Man, and of the Grand Man of the
Heavens. The place and position of one and all to each other must be
borne in mind, for no one can develop without the other. What,
therefore, have we?
a. The Son, the Grand Man of the Heavens. He manifests through the
Sun and the seven sacred planets, each of whom embodies one of His
seven principles, just as He in His totality embodies one of the principles
of a greater cosmic Entity.
b. A Heavenly Man. He manifests through a planet, and embodies one of
the principles of the Son, the Logos. He Himself is likewise developing
through seven principles, which are the source of His essential unity
with all other Heavenly Men. Cosmically considered, the Son is
developing the principle of a greater cosmic Being, that principle which
we call love-wisdom. That is the fundamental characteristic He has to
develop during His life cycle. Each Heavenly Man, therefore, embodies
predominantly a subsidiary principle of the fundamental one. In like
manner He Himself has six subsidiary principles, as has the Son.

c. A Human Being, Man. He manifests on the physical plane through

form, and has also seven principles; in each life cycle he works at their
development. He likewise has His primary coloring, dependent upon the
fundamental principle embodied by the Heavenly Man, Who is his
originating source...
(Alice Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire)

The chains of any planetary scheme are frequently

called by the names of the seven sacred planets, making
the study of the Law of Correspondences easier;
similarly, the globes of any chain are called by planetary
names, as is the case here. There are planetary
schemes called Mars and Mercury.
------------Five is the symbol of a planetary Logos S. D., II, 618.

The Seven Planetary Logoi.S. D., I, 358, 365.

Footnotes from 'A Treatise on Cosmic Fire' on the Seven
Rays :
In the Secret Doctrine the Heavenly Men are spoken of
as:
1. Agents of creation. They are the totality of
manifestation.S. D., I, 470.
2. They are pre-cosmic.S. D., I, 470.
3. They are the sumtotal of solar and lunar entities.S.
D., I, 152, 470. Compare II, 374.
4. They are the seven Biblical Archangels.
They are the seven Forces or creative Powers.
They are the seven Spirits before the Throne.
They are the seven Spirits of the Planets.S. D., I, 472,
153.

5. In Their totality They are the Secret Unpronounceable

Name.S. D., I, 473.
6. They are the collective Dhyan Chohans.S. D., I, 477.
7. They are the seven Kumaras. The seven Rishis.S.
D., I, 493. III, 196, 327.
8. They are the Sons of Light.S. D., I, 521, 522.
9. They are the Hierarchy of creative Powers.S. D., I,
233.
10. They are the veiled synthesis.S. D., I, 362.
11. They are our own planetary deities.S. D., I, 153.
12. They are all men, the product of other worlds.S. D.,
I, 132.
13. They are closely connected with the seven stars of
the Great Bear.S. D., I, 488. S. D., II 332. II, 579, 668.
S. D., III, 195.
14. They are symbolised by circles.S. D., II, 582.
15. They are collectively the fallen Angels.S. D., II, 284,
541.
[cxvi] 14: The Sons of Mind: are known by various
terms, such as:"The Manasaputras, the Prajapatis, the
Kumaras, the Primordial Seven, the Rudras, the
Heavenly Men, the Rishis, the Spirits before the Throne.

The Seven Planetary Logoi.S. D., I, 358, 365

-------------------------------------

REFERENCES TO THE SECRET DOCTRINE

Ray 1...... Will or Power
Planet
Sun, substituting for the veiled planet Vulcan.

Day
Sunday.
Exoteric Colour
Orange. S.D.III. p. 478.
Esoteric Colour
Red.
Human Principle
Prana or life-vitality.
Divine Principle
The One Life. Spirit. This is regarded as a principle only
when our seven planes are seen as the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane.
Element
The Akasha. "It is written."
Instrument of Sensation
The Light of Kundalini.
Bodily location
Vital airs in the skull.

Plane governed
The logoic plane. Divine Purpose or Will.
Metal
Gold.
Sense
A synthetic sense, embracing all.

Esoterically. this power is viewed as the life principle

seated in the heart.

Ray II..........Love-Wisdom
Planet
Jupiter.
Day
Thursday.
Exoteric Colour
Indigo with a tinge of purple.
Esoteric Colour

Light blue. S.D.III. p. 461.

Human Principle
The auric envelope.
Divine Principle
Love.
Element
Ether. "It is spoken." The Word.
Instrument of Sensation
Ears. Speech. The Word.
Bodily location
The heart.
Plane
The Monadic.
Sense
Hearing.

Esoterically, this power is the consciousness or soul

principle, seated in the head.

[419]

Ray III..........Active Intelligence or Adaptability

Planet
Saturn.
Day
Saturday.
Exoteric Colour
Black.
Esoteric Colour
Green.
Human Principle
Lower mind.
Divine Principle
Universal mind.
Element
Fire. "Fire by friction."
Sensation

Nervous system. "It is known."

Bodily location
Centres up spine.
Plane
The atmic, or plane of spiritual will.
Sense
Touch.

Esoterically, this principle of creative mind is seen as

seated in the throat.

Ray IV...... Intuition, Harmony, Beauty, Art

Planet
Mercury.
Day
Wednesday.
Exoteric Colour
Cream.

Esoteric Colour
Yellow.
Divine Principle
Buddhi. Intuition. Pure reason.
Human Principle
Understanding. Vision. Spiritual perception.
Element
Air. "Thus is Unity produced."
Instrument of Sensation
Eyes. Right eye particularly.
Plane
The Buddhic or Intuitional plane.
Sense
Sight.

Esoterically, this is the pure reason, seated in the ajna

centre, between the eyes. Functioning when the
personality reaches a high stage of co-ordination.

Ray V...... Concrete Knowledge of Science

Planet
Venus. The Lords of mind came from Venus.
Day
Friday.
Esoteric Colour
Yellow.
Esoteric Colour
Indigo.
Human Principle
Higher mind.
Divine Principle
Higher knowledge. "God saw that it was good."

[420]
Element
Flame.

Instrument of Sensation
Astral body.
Plane
Lower mental plane.
Sense
Consciousness as response to knowledge.
Bodily location
Brain.

Esoterically, this principle of sentiency is seated in the

solar plexus.

Ray VI.....Abstract Idealism, Devotion

Planet
Mars.
Day
Tuesday.
Exoteric Colour

Red.
Esoteric Colour
Silvery Rose.
Human Principle
Kama-manas. Desire.
Divine Principle
Desire for form.
Element
Water. "I long for habitation."
Instrument of Sensation
Tongue. Organs of speech.
Plane
Astral or emotional Plane. Desire plane.
Sense
Taste.

Esoterically, this principle of desire is seated in the

sacral centre, with a higher reflection in the throat.

Ray VII...... Ceremonial Order or Magic

Planet
The Moon. She is the mother of form.
Day
Monday.
Exoteric Colour
White.
Esoteric Colour
Violet.
Human Principle
Etheric force or prana.
Divine Principle
Energy.
Element
Earth. "I manifest."
Instrument of Sensation

Nose.
Plane
Physical plane, etheric levels.
Sense
Smell.

Esoterically, this principle of vitality or prana is seated in

the centre at the base of the spine.
Note:Esoterically speaking, the planets which are the
expression of the three major rays are:
Ray I....... Uranus.
Ray II...... Neptune.
Ray III..... Saturn.
[421]
A study of this will make it apparent why Saturn is ever
the stabiliser. In this present cycle, the two rays of
Power and Love are directing their energies to Vulcan
and Jupiter, whilst Saturn's attention is turned towards
our planet, the Earth.
Thus we have the ten rays of perfection, the vehicles of
manifestation of what H.P.B. calls, "the imperfect Gods,"
the planetary Logoi. See A Treatise on Cosmic Fire,

where this is elaborated. Use the Index

--------------------------------A Heavenly Man contains within Himself three major
principleswill, love-wisdom, intelligence, and their
manifestation through the seven principles so often
discussed in our occult literature. These make the ten of
His ultimate perfection, for the seven are resolved into
the three, and the three into the one. TCF p.252
The solar Logos contains within Himself the three major
principles or aspects, and their differentiation into seven
principles. These make the ten of His ultimate perfection
and are eventually synthesised into the one perfected
principle of love-wisdom. This ultimate principle is His
primary coloring. Each principle is embodied in one of
the schemes, and is being worked out through one of
the Heavenly Men. Only four principles are as yet
manifested to any extent, for the evolution of the Logos
parallels that of the Heavenly Men. TCF p.257
--------------------------The Sons of Light called after their planets and often
identified with them Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus
and presumably, the Sun and Moon are our heavenly
Parents, or Father synthetically. They were in ancient times
considered as the heavenly bodies in direct astral and psychic
communication with our earth, its guides and watchers,
morally and physically; their visible orbs furnishing our
humanity with its outward and inward characteristics, their
Regents or Rectores with our Monads and spiritual faculties.
As seven distinct rays radiate from the Central Spiritual Sun,

so all the adepts and Dhyan Chohans are divisible into seven
classes, each of which is guided, controlled and overshadowed
by one of the seven forms or manifestations of the Divine
Wisdom.
The latter, supreme Wisdom, has been identified during all
times with the Dragon. Astronomically the constellation of
Draco was at one time in the very centre of the heavens, so
extensive that it was called the Great Dragon. Its body spread
over seven signs of the Zodiac. When in earlier annals of the
Fifth human race the great pyramid of Egypt was a fane of
initiation, Draco was the pole-star, a symbol of the Guide,
Guru and direction, the lode-star, the guiding sidereal divinity.
The hierophant or Master of Wisdom who brought the
neophyte into his spiritual rebirth was also the Star. These
Elder Brothers of mankind are called by Hermes Trismegistus
a colony of the Gods settled upon this earth in order that man
may not remain destitute of a higher nature. They are the
incarnations of the highest Seven. The Ah-Hi, says H. P.
Blavatsky, have long ago become planetary, solar, lunar and,
finally, reincarnating Egos. They are the collective hosts of
spiritual beings. They become men as their own
transformations. The creators of the world are born on earth
again and again.
When mortals become sufficiently spiritualized, there will be
no more need to force them into a correct comprehension of the
ancient Wisdom. Man will know then that there never was yet
a great World-Reformer whose name has passed to our
generation, who (a) was not a direct emanation of the LOGOS
(under whatever name known to us), i.e., an essential
incarnation of one of the Seven of the divine Spirit who is
seven-fold, and (b) who had not appeared before, during past

Cycles. Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Manu, Tot-Hermes first

appeared on earth as one of the seven powers of the LOGOS,
individualized as a God. Then mixing with matter, they had
reappeared in turn as great Sages and instructors who taught
the Fifth race, after having instructed the two preceding races.
In ancient symbolism it was always the SUN (the spiritual,
not the visible), who was supposed to send forth the chief
Saviours and Avatars. The Manus and Rishis are also
planetary gods, for they are said to have appeared at the
beginning of the human races to watch over their evolution,
and to have incarnated and descended on earth subsequently
to teach mankind.
Humanity is divided into seven distinct groups and their
subdivisions, mental, spiritual and physical. Hence the seven
chief planets, the spheres of the indwelling spirits, under each
of which is born one of the human groups which is guided and
influenced thereby. The whole of antiquity believed with good
reason that the human and all the races were intimately
connected with the planets and these with the Zodiacal signs.
The whole of the worlds history is recorded in the latter. At
one time the neophyte in Egypt was taught the mystery of the
signs of the Zodiac in a circle dance representing the course of
the planets as to this day, the dance of Krishna and the Gopis
is celebrated in Rajputana. After this dance the neophyte
received a cross, the Tau, becoming an Astronomos or healer.
The cycle of initiations represented in miniature the great
series of Cosmic signs of the sidereal year. As the heavenly
bodies at the close of the sidereal year (of 25,868 years) return
to the same relative positions they occupied at the outset, so at
the close of the Cycle of Initiations the inner man had regained
the pristine state of divine purity and knowledge with which he
set out on the cycle of terrestrial incarnations.

The Zodiac was known in India and Egypt for incalculable

ages. The knowledge of the sages and magi of these countries,
with regard to the occult influence of the stars and heavenly
bodies on our earth, was far greater than professional
astronomy can ever hope to reach. Modern wisdom is satisfied
with astronomical computations and prophecies based upon
unerring mathematical laws. Ancient Wisdom added to the
cold shell of astronomy the vivifying element of its soul and
spirit ASTROLOGY.
The chief features of ones life are always in accordance with
the Constellation under which one is born; that is, in accord
with the character of its animating principle, the deity
presiding over the Constellation whether we call it Archangel
or Dhyan Chohan. The units of humanity all proceed from the
same source, the central SUN and its shadow, the visible sun.
Every effort of the will to purify and unite with the Self-God
breaks one of the lower rays; the spiritual entity of man is
drawn ever higher, from ray to ray, until he is again
reabsorbed into the one and highest beam of the Parent-Sun.
The latter is the true center of every man, as of Cosmos; each
can receive influence from that center, as each man is or is to
be connected with some particular one of these Adepts. Our
destiny is written in the stars. There is a true present day
Astrology recoverable by those members of the Theosophical
Movement who fulfill the moral requirements to repossess the
Great Mystery.
The spirit of the foregoing is epitomized thus: The hierarchy
of Creative Powers is divided into seven (or 4 and 3) esoteric,
within twelve great Orders, recorded in the twelve signs of the
Zodiac; the seven of the manifesting scale being connected,

moreover, with the Seven Planets. All this is subdivided into

numberless groups of divine Spiritual, semi-spiritual, and
ethereal Beings. The teachings of the Zodiac are the work of
the Sages who come at the beginning of the great human cycle
and give to man, when he begins his toilsome ascent up the
road of spiritual development, those great symbols and ideas of
an astronomical character which will last through all the
cycles. These include the innate ideas impacted in the
imperishable centre of mans nature. Some notion of the
antiquity of zodiacal lore may be gathered from this memento
of occult records from an age unknown to history. On the
plan of the Zodiac in the upper Ocean or the heavens, a certain
realm on earth, an inland sea, was consecrated and called the
Abyss of learning. Twelve centres in the shape of twelve small
islands representing the Zodiacal signs two of which
remained for ages mystery signs were the abodes of twelve
Hierophants, or Masters of Wisdom. This sea of knowledge or
learning remained for ages there, where now stretches the Gobi
desert. It existed until the last glacial period, when a local
cataclysm, which swept the waters of this sea south and west
and so formed the great desolate desert, left only a certain
oasis, with a lake and one island in the midst of it, as a relic of
the Zodiacal ring on earth.
( The Zodiac and Ourselves )
http://blavatskytheosophy.com/the-zodiac-and-ourselves/
----------------------------

A Group Soul may be represented by a SevenPointed Star, seven

times seven, or forty-nine.
"GOD Himself is a Group Soul, including every

thing and every creature. He sends out seven Rays

of Himself, corresponding to the seven Colors, and
all elementals, minerals, plants, animals, men and
Angels must belong to one or another of those
seven great universal rays, on which all outer
manifestation rests. A great Angel, or a Great
Master, is an entity of Universal Consciousness,
made up of myriads of souls, the same as our
purely human body is made up of millions of
conscious lesser
lives which we call cells, each one an independent
entity, yet all together making the complete
organism." (Francia LaDue, Teachings of the
Temple )
Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto are part of our solar
system in so far as they revolve around the Sun, but
are described as captures or intrusions into it.
Uranus is a member of the universal solar system,
but does not belong to our solar system, even
though as a true planet it is closely linked with our
sun both in origin and destiny. ...
Neptune, on the other hand, is not by right of
origin in this solar manvantara a member of either
our solar system or the universal solar system. ... It
has been captured in the same sense as some of the

planets have captured moons.39

Neptune was originally a captured comet, and it
strongly influences the solar system as a whole
because its capture changed the solar systems
polarity. It is an outside influence, though strictly
karmic. Unlike the true planets of our solar system,
it has no direct connection with the 12 houses of
our zodiac.40
GdeP also says that Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto
belong to a solar system of their own, although
equally with our solar system belonging to the
universal solar system. It can happen in the
economy and interacting relations of the cosmic
Egg of Brahma that certain planets of one solar
system can intrude into visibility for the inhabitants
of another solar system, because both belong to the
one universal solar system; and when two such
solar systems approach each other as regards
position and evolutionary place on the cosmic
planes, they are thus partially visible each to each
because of similarity of vibrations.41
39. FSO 324-5; FEP 520.
40. FSO 324-5; ET 192-3; FEP 522-3; Dia 1:370-2,
2:81.

41. FSO 129fn.

http://davidpratt.info/sacredpl.htm#ne39
Another possibility is that the Moon itself may have
natural satellites orbiting it, but, despite several
searches, none have been found. Scientists believe
that due to the Moons uneven gravity field any
lunar satellite will crash into it after a few years or
possibly a decade. Like Jupiter, the Moon might
have Trojan satellites, i.e. secondary satellites in the
lunar orbit, travelling 60 ahead of or behind the
Moon (these locations being gravitationally stable).
Since the late 1950s, evidence for clouds of dust
particles (visible as faint patches of light) in these
positions has been detected. In 1990 they were
found to be a few degrees in apparent diameter, and
to wander up to 10 away from the Trojan point.
They are very hard to detect and to distinguish from
the zodiacal light, in particular the gegenschein.4
Waltemaths observations generated interest in
Lilith among astrologers. In 1918 an astrologer
calling himself Sepharial (his real name was Walter
Gornold, a one-time theosophist and pupil of H.P.
Blavatsky5) named this moon Lilith, after Adams
first demonic wife in Hebrew mythology. Like

Waltemath, he considered it to be so black and

nonreflective that it was invisible most of the time,
and that it only became visible when crossing the
solar disk or in opposition to the Sun. He
constructed an ephemeris of Lilith (i.e. its celestial
coordinates), based on Waltemaths research. He
considered Lilith to have about the same mass as
the Moon, but scientists object that any such
satellite, even if not directly visible, would reveal its
presence by perturbing the Earths motion. One of
Sepharials followers concluded that it was probably
just a dust cloud of varying density.
Sepharials Lilith is still used by some astrologers
when casting horoscopes. In fact, in modern
astrology the name Lilith is given to four different
astronomical entities:6
--------------Mars/Mercury controversy
In 1882 A.P. Sinnett asked mahatma KH the
following question:
What other planets of those known to ordinary
science, besides Mercury, belong to our system of
worlds?
Are the more spiritual planets (A, B & Y, Z)
visible bodies in the sky or are all those known to

astronomy of the more material sort?1

As HPB later said, to this vague and indefinite
question KH gave an equally vague and
incomplete reply:
Mars and four other planets of which astronomy
knows yet nothing. Neither A, B, nor Y, Z, are
known; nor can they be seen through physical
means however perfected.2
Sinnett misinterpreted this to mean that the physical
planets Mars and Mercury were globes C and E of
the Earth planetary chain a view he expressed in
an article in The Theosophist and in his book
Esoteric Buddhism and subsequently defended in
The Path.3
HPB refers to this great mistake in The Secret
Doctrine, when correcting the gratuitous
speculations ... sometimes indulged in by the
European lay-chelas.
It was asked: What planets, of those known to
ordinary science, besides Mercury, belong to our
system of worlds? Now if by System of Worlds our
terrestrial chain or string was intended in the
mind of the querist, instead of the Solar System of

Worlds, as it should have been, then of course the

answer was likely to be misunderstood. For the
reply was: Mars, etc., and four other planets of
which astronomy knows nothing. Neither A, B, nor
YZ are known nor can they be seen through
physical means however perfected. This is plain:
(a) Astronomy as yet knows nothing in reality of the
planets, neither the ancient ones, nor those
discovered in modern times. (b) No companion
planets from A to Z, i.e., no upper globes of any
chain in the Solar System, can be seen. [With the
exception of course of all the planets which come
fourth in number, as our earth, the moon, etc., etc.
HPB] As to Mars, Mercury, and the four other
planets, they bear a relation to Earth of which no
master or high Occultist will ever speak, much less
explain the nature.
... neither Mars nor Mercury belong to our chain.
They are, along with the other planets, septenary
Units in the great host of chains of our system,
and all are as visible as their upper globes are
invisible.4
HPB then quotes another letter from KH:
Our Globe, as taught from the first, is at the bottom
of the arc of descent, where the matter of our
perceptions exhibits itself in its grossest form. ...

Hence it only stands to reason that the globes which

overshadow our Earth must be on different and
superior planes. In short, as Globes, they are in COADUNITION but not IN CONSUBSTANTIALITY
WITH OUR EARTH and thus pertain to quite
another state of consciousness.5
Instead of learning from his mistake, Sinnett chose
to take offence at HPBs scandalous remarks. He
was convinced that HPB was wrong and he was
right.6 His error regarding Mars and Mercury was
later endorsed by Annie Besant and C.W.
Leadbeater, based on their clairvoyant
investigations.7 Yet it appears to have been KH
himself who was responsible for the corrections
presented in the SD; in August 1888 he wrote to
H.S. Olcott:
Be assured that what she [HPB] has not annotated
from scientific and other works, we have given or
suggested to her. Every mistake or erroneous
notion, corrected and explained by her from the
works of other theosophists was corrected by me, or
under my instruction.8

It was left to GdeP to shed further light on

KHs reply to Sinnett. He points out that our

system of worlds can refer to our universal

solar system (i.e. all the solar systems
revolving around the same raja-sun as our
own9), our planetary chain, our group of
seven sacred planets, and to this mysterygroup Earth, Mercury, Mars, and four
other secret planets. KHs generalized reply
refers in particular to this latter group,
because Sinnett had just been questioning KH
on a certain aspect of the teachings which
could not be fully explained without giving
out the doctrine concerning this mysterygroup.10
GdeP explains that many planetary chains in our
solar system and universal solar system have no
globes on our own plane of perception. All the
countless planetary chains, visible and invisible, are
divided into families of seven (or twelve), whose
members are closely related karmically.11 Referring
to our own sacred planets, he writes:
[The] seven sacred planets are profoundly
instrumental in building our planetary chain; but
the earth also itself is one of another group or series
of seven planets, which build or cooperate in

building the planetary chain of certain other ones

of our planets ...12
Earth, Mercury, Mars, and the four secret planets
are a septenary group whose function is to act in
building another planetary chain.13
Our own planetary chain helps to build and guide
one of the other planetary chains in particular but
all the other planetary chains of our solar system in
general. Mars, for example, is built by its particular
group of seven or twelve planetary chains, itself
being the eighth of its ogdoad, and our Earth chain
is one of these.14 Not all of the seven sacred planets
of any of the planets in our solar system would
necessary be our own sacred planets.15
Referring to the twelve sacred planets, GdeP writes:
We thus have the seven planetary chains, two of
which are invisible, respectively Vulcan and the
sacred planet named in connection with the moon;
and there are four other invisible planetary chains
mentioned in The Mahatma Letters (p. 176) under
the mere letters A, B, and Y, Z. These four, with
the seven enumerated, make eleven, to which we
may add the solar chain, forming the full number of
twelve. These planetary chains are those which

especially recognize our sun as their ruler, and

therefore they form the main members of its
kingdom.16
GdePs inclusion of the solar chain in the preceding
quotation may be a blind, since KH includes the
Earth in the mystery group of planets that include
A, B, Y, and Z. This is supported by GdePs
statement that the fields of action of the spiritual
monad are our solar system, particularly the seven
sacred planets and our earth as well as four other
secret planetary chains.17 He also writes:
There are only twelve sacred planets for us in the
solar system. The sun is our common Chief. [T]his
is the secret why Jesus had twelve disciples while he
himself was the thirteenth or teacher.18
Notes to section 3
1. ML2 148, MLC 307.
2. ML2 176, MLC 331.
3. Fragments of occult truth, no. VII, The
Theosophist, April 1883, pp. 161-4 (p. 162); A.P.
Sinnett, Esoteric Buddhism (1883), 5th ed., 1885,

Wizards Bookshelf, 1973, 136; A.P. Sinnett,

Esoteric teaching, The Path, September 1893, pp.
166-71.
4. SD 1:163-4, also 152-3. Note that HPB does not
quote KHs words altogether accurately: she adds
etc., omits yet, and paraphrases and interprets
his words rather freely. Sinnett accused her of
garbling KHs reply. GdeP comments: You see,
then, that there is much behind all this, much that
does not appear on the surface. Like KH, HPB
could not tell the whole truth, because pledged to
secrecy. What she says is true, but hints at
something more; it was a blind, and yet was
absolutely responsive and truthful, as far as it went
(FEP 540).
5. SD 1:166. In other words, the various globes are
composed of different grades of energy-substance,
but are karmically bound together as a unitary
group (coadunated) (SOP 92; Dia 2:252).
6. The last letter that Sinnett received directly from
KH dates from the end of 1885 (ML2 488 (#145),
MLC 453). From 1887 until his death in 1921,
Sinnett used a number of clairvoyants in a
successful (in his opinion!) effort to remain in
touch with KH and other masters. KH allegedly

told him to say nothing of these contacts to others,

including HPB. He also assured Sinnett that his
views on Mars and Mercury were perfectly correct.
(See: Autobiography of Alfred Percy Sinnett,
Theosophical History Centre, 1986, 39-41; Virginia
Hanson, Masters and Men, TPH, 1980, 304-10;
Theosophical History, Oct 1986, 205-7, Apr 1987,
51-2.)
Through medium Robert King, Sinnett learned
from a discarnate entity claiming to be Laplace that
Mars was still inhabited by members of the Earths
humanity, most of them being laggards, living in
ignoble, degraded conditions; the animals on Mars
consisted solely of reptilians, inhabiting the canals
or elongated seas (Leslie Price, A Martian problem
solved?, Theosophical History, Oct 2006, 5-11).
7. Arthur E. Powell, The Solar System, TPH, 1930,
3, 11-14. See also Margaret Thomas, Theosophy
versus Neo-Theosophy, Isis Books, 1990, 56-7.
Neotheosophy also claims that Neptune, Pluto,
and another planet beyond Pluto are likewise three
physical globes belonging to the same planetary
chain (The Solar System, 13).
See ML2 (Appendix, 489-93) for statements by
Sinnett and Besant on the Mars/Mercury dispute
and comments by A. Trevor Barker.
Barker and W.Q. Judge objected that since there

is a correspondence between the globes of a

planetary chain and the human principles, there
cannot be three physical globes since we do not
have three physical bodies (Echoes 1:348-50, 4757). This argument is weak, however, because while
there is a certain analogy between globes and
principles, every globe has its own seven principles
(FEP 210, 472; Dia 2:256; ET 855-6fn). When on
globe E we will, at certain periods, be able to see
globe C (FSO 247; SOP 93), but that does not mean
that we will have two visible bodies.
8. LMW 1:47. See also: Echoes 1:321-9; ISD, last 6
pages.
9. FSO 129-32, 324. A universal solar system is

a particular group of solar systems closely

resembling a vast chain of suns, of which only
one sun, our own, is visible to us on this
cosmic plane. Not only are all the other suns of
our universal solar system invisible, but
likewise their respective planetary chains,
because our vision is limited by our karmic
development to this particular sub-subplane of
a cosmic plane (FSO 132).
10. FEP 539; also 520-1, 529-31 (in relation to FEP

529 (1st ed., 459) see FSO 652).

11. FSO 317-8.
12. FEP 532.
13. FEP 587.
14. FSO 324.
15. FEP 350.
16. FSO 320.
As regards the asteroid belt between Mars and
Jupiter, most of the asteroids are fragments of an
exploded or broken up planet, while others are
captures. The prevailing scientific belief is that no
planet could ever have formed between Mars and
Jupiter, but some scientists disagree (Tom Van
Flandern, The exploded planet hypothesis 2000,
http://metaresearch.org). The planet concerned is
currently on the descending arc, coming out of the
more ethereal and therefore invisible realms on to
this physical plane. In several million years, it will
be visible as a comet, slowly settling into an
elliptical orbit around the Sun, in the ring now
occupied by the asteroids. As it materializes into a
planet, it will gather up most of the asteroids.

Similarly, before our Earth began its first round, it

settled into an orbit around the Sun (somewhat
farther from it than at present), which was then
occupied by vast numbers of asteroids (FSO 337-8).
The planet between Mars and Jupiter could be one
of the four additional sacred planets.
17. FSO 635.
18. SOP 618.
-------------------------------HPB on Moon veiling Uranus: "That is way I
thought it was so, but I am not sure "
Mr. A. Keightley: The first question is in connection
with loka 6, stanza 1 (reads passage from The
Secret Doctrine.) Now, with reference to the Seven
Lords, question 1 runs: Since confusion is apt to
arise in the correct application of the terms, will you
please distinguish between Dhyni-Chohans
Planteary Spirits, Builders, and Dhyni-Buddhas?
Mme. Blavatsky: Yes; but you know, really, it will
take a volume if you want to know all the

hierarchies and every distinct class of angels among

the Dhyni-Chohans, Dhyni-Buddhas, the
Builders, etc. Now, Dhyni-Chohan is a generic
name for all Devas, or celestial beings. They are
one and all called Dhyni-Chohans. Now, a
Planetary Spirit is the ruler of a planet, a kind of
personal God, but finite; that is the difference you
see. A Planetary Spirit is the one that has to rule
and watch over each globe of a chain, or every
planet, and there is some difference between those
over the great sacred planets, and those over small
chains like ours, because the earth has never been
one of the sacred planetsnever. It was simply
taken as a substitute, like the moon and the sun,
because the sun is the central star. And the moon
has never been a planet. It is dead long ago.
Mr. A. Keightley: But does the earth belong to a
chain which belongs to the train of one of the
sacred planets?
Mme. Blavatsky: Oh no, not at all. The earth has its
own chain. There are six companions which are not
seen, which are on three different planes.

Mr. Kingsland: Are none of those other six, one of

the sacred planets?
Mme. Blavatsky: No, sir, not one, and it is not
feasible.
Mr. Kingsland: Then how are we to distinguish
between them?
Mme. Blavatsky: The seven sacred of antiquity were
the planets which astrologers take now, minus the
sun and the moon, which are substitutes.
The Chairman {T. B. Harbottle}: And plus two that
we do not know.
Mme. Blavatsky: Yes, of which one is an intraMercurial planet, which they are trying to find and
cannot. They wanted to call it Vulcan, or to give it a
name before it was found out; they think they have
found it, but they are not sure. Some say there are
several, others one, but they do not know. When
they find out they will know that it is one of the

secret planets. And the other one is what I cannot

explain. It was as the substitute of this planet that
the moon was taken, and it was seen at a certain
hour of the night just as though it was near the
moon, but it was not; it is this planet which was not
known at all. I think sometimes they do not give the
name, but as to my astronomical ideas, I would not
trust them.
The Chairman: Its not Herschel 1 [Uranus] is it?
Mme. Blavatsky: I thought it was at one time, and
yesterday evening I was thinking a good deal about
it, but I AM NOT SURE [capitals by me - P.C.] . If I
were to see, or if it were possible to have a
planisphere of the heavens to see at certain hours of
the night, as astronomers must have it, I would
have recognized it; but if it is not Herschel, I could
not tell you.
The Chairman: But the modern astrologers say
about Herschel that it is a planet which has an
almost unexpected and what we should call an
occult influence upon things; and they, having
recently discovered Herschel, assign exactly the sort

of attributes to Herschel in astrology that one

should expect of the secret planet.
Mme. Blavatsky: That is way I thought it was so,
but I am not sure and I cannot tell you until I have
seen the planispheres. But as far as the name is
concerned, you cannot go by the Sanskrit in order
to know what is the name. I do not know well
enough beyond this, that it is an occult planet,
which is seen at a certain hour of the night, directly,
as though near the moon.
Mr. Kingsland: Every night?
Mme. Blavatsky: I am not sure whether it is every
night. I know it was so, and that it had a sacred day,
also.
Mr. Gardner: It moves very slowly.
Mme. Blavatsky: And, mind you, the motion is
retrograde. I do believe it is Herschel; but I would
not swear to it.

Mr. B. Keightley: If you do away with the moon as

one of the astrological planets, you would have to
attach to one of the others the influence which is a
present ascribed to the moon and the question is,
whether that can be done.
Mme. Blavatsky: What is said is this, that the
influence of this secret planet passes through the
moon, i.e., the occult influence of this secret planet;
but whether it passes so that it comes in a direct
line, or how, I cannot explain. That is for your
mathematicians to know better than I can.
The Chairman: Then if that were so, you would
find the influence of Herschel would be very strong
indeed when it was in conjunction with the moon,
as the astrologers call it.
Mr. Kingsland: Are these seven planets all on the
same plane as ourselves?
Mme. Blavatsky: Certainly.

Mr. Kingsland: Then I presume there is a separate

plane belonging to each of those.
Mme. Blavatsky: Yes, you find it in The Secret
Doctrine.
Mr. A. Keightley: Are there minor chains belonging
to these sacred planets? You say the earth has never
been one of the sacred planets, and it has a chain.
Mme. Blavatsky: It has a chain and many others
have chains, which have not been discovered, but
will be discovered just as much as the earths.
Mr. Kingsland: What makes the others sacred or
secret?
Mme. Blavatsky: I suppose because they have
occult influences
--------------

HPB on Colors and Planets:

Mme. Blavatsky: Occult astrology says that, just as
you explain it, but that colors having, each of them,
a particular tendency or a faculty of impressing one
way or the other what ray that individual will be, so
are his passions or desires affected. It is the color of
the ray that impresses. For instance, if such a color
comes Saturn or Venus, if he happens to be born
under this planet, then certainly every time that a
certain color [ray?]by passing through this astral
[i.e. etheric] plane that you have been talking about,
and passing through other certain things
assumes a certain color, this color it is which affects
the individual mentally, and psychically, and
spiritually, and all kinds of ways. Is it like that?
Mr. Old: Yes. Of course, we know that we
individually are impervious to certain colors. Thus
some people show an instinctive liking for this
color, and a distinct hatred for the other; at any
rate, they feel a psychic influence arising from the
presence of these colors.
A Lady: What do color-blind people feel, a psychic
influence?

Mme. Blavatsky: No. It happens to be a color which

is of a planet which is perfectly contrary to theirs.
Mr. Old: They would feel it on a psychic plane.
Mr. B. Keightley: All that color-blind means is that
there is something wrong with the physically
registering apparatus. A man cannot be occultly
color-blind.
Mme. Blavatsky: This is the keynote of Occultism,
to know the true relation of sounds, colors, and
numbers. There so many. There {are] seven rays but
what are they? They have got seventy-seven
thousand times seven, all kinds of combinations; it
takes a lifetime to learn them, and you cannot do it
by registering all these in your physical memory. It
is a perfect impossibility. You have to use your
intuition, and your psychic memory, the memory of
your ego, of the astral [etheric]. You have to register
it on your astral form [etheric body]. (Blavatsky
Collected Writings Vol. X, Transactions of the
Blavatsky Lodge )

------------------------------

From this standpoint, when we speak of sound we at once imply both

color and number; or, whenever we speak of color we imply sound and
the vibrational number which manifests it; and equally so, whenever we
speak of number, had we the eyes to see it and the ears to hear it, we
should see the color as well as hear the sound corresponding to such
number or vibrational frequency. It is to this that Pythagoras alluded
when he spoke of the majestic harmony of the spheres.

Now as every atom in every object of nature, animate or

inanimate, sings its own keynote and produces its own sound
and has its own color and number, so every man, flower, tree,
and every celestial body, is a play and interplay of sounds both
loud and faint, interblending in a marvelous symphony, as well
as being a beautiful intermingling of flashing and scintillating
color. For instance, the auric egg of a man, because of the
continuous activities of the pranic auras, is not only a mass of
coruscating colors, but equally is a living organ producing
harmonies of sound when the emotions, thoughts, and feelings
are on a high plane, and horrible discord when they are
characterized by hatred and other low passions.
For many decades astronomers have been intrigued by the
varying shades of color which the vast stellar host presents;
some stars are bluish, others are yellowish, still others reddish.
The scientific idea is that the colors of the stars represent
different ages in their evolutionary development. Be that as it
may, and viewing the matter from another angle, it would be
wrong to say that all blue stars are more spiritual than all red
stars, merely because red is given as the color of kma, and blue

or indigo-blue as the color of the higher manas. For there is a

spiritual red as well as a material red, and a spiritual blue as
well as a material blue. Indeed, there are strong occult reasons
for saying that for certain stars a reddish color would signify a
more spiritual condition than the bright electric blue of certain
others. The greater the intensity of vibration of light or
radiation, the lower or more material in the scale that light is;
and as the color of blue in our own octave of visible radiation is
produced by a much higher frequency than is red, it is obvious
that blue could signify a more material condition than the less
intense vibration of red.
H.P.B. has stated that the true color of the Sun is blue*
because its vital aura is blue. It is the real sun in the same sense
as the vital aura of a human being is the real man; nevertheless
the real man, the essential core, is the spiritual source of his
merely vital aura. It would not be correct to say that the suns
vital aura is the interior sun; it is merely one of the coats or
layers of its auric egg, and by no means one of the most
interior. The blue force spoken of is the suns vital aura
intermingled, to some extent, with intellectual and spiritual
energy, which flows forth from the sun continuously and in all
directions. The sun is constantly pouring forth this blue energy
in simply inestimable volume.
Other suns have other colors, which are the expressions of
their complex swabhvas. Likewise, could we hear the sounds
which the various celestial bodies make as their natural
expression, we would realize that each sun, each star, each
planetoid, has its own characteristic keynote. Our scientists
already are able to hear certain stars, that is, to transform the
light coming from a particular luminary into sound.
Curiously enough, when the moons rays lighted upon the
photoelectric cell used in these experiments, they sent forth

moaning sounds, as of the tolling of great bells; but when the

light from the bright star Arcturus flashed, it gave forth
brilliant, scintillating sounds. If we could know the scheme of
the correspondence of colors and sounds and numbers, we
would be able to judge of the qualities of a sun or a star: for
instance, dark blue would signify an intellectual sun; yellow, a
buddhi sun.
The difficulty in attempting to determine what specific ray or
class any particular sun may belong by its color, is that our
atmosphere affects colors very greatly as well as other things
that come to us from the celestial bodies. The airy atmosphere
surrounding our earth is a remarkable changer and a solvent
to a certain extent. Our atmosphere is a transmuter as well as a
transmitter. It deforms and actually changes the lightand
therefore the soundthat comes to us from the planetary and
solar bodies. Spectroscopic observation is by no means so
reliable as has hitherto been supposed.
All the different colors of the solar spectrum originate in the
sun and are represented on our earth in the form of light, in
the form of forcesforces in the sun, every color of which is
the outflow of a distinct swabhva or individual energy, or solar
logos. The sun is the vehicle of a divinity; whatever flows forth
from it is rooted in the divine. There are seven (or twelve) solar
forces or element-principles, and therefore seven (or twelve)
swabhvas making up the grand swabhva of the sun. From
these solar individualities, powers, forces, minor logoi, flow
streams of substance-energy, combined in the light which we
receive as daylight, white light. Pass this solar beam through a
prism, and it will be broken up into its component colors.
These seven rays of the spectrum are seven auric flows of
vitality from the solar heart, and these swabhavic energies
combine to make light as we perceive it. Not one of the colors

in essence is superior to any of the others. But on the plane of

material existence, and having in view the work which each of
the effluvia from the sun does on this scale of matter, we are
bound to make distinctions and say that atman is colorless,
buddhi is yellow, kama is red, and so forth. Yet all are divine in
origin. G. duPurucker (H.P. Blavatsky, ES Instruction II,
BCW Vol XII, pp.567-79)
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v12/y1890_
054.htm
----------------------CW Leadbeater:
"In censing each candle, the Priest should think of the Ray
with which it is associated, offering worship to God along that
particular line, and the people also should have in mind the
same thought as far as they are able. This means what is really
a kind of double thoughta resolve to try to develop within
oneself the quality specially belonging to that Ray, and at the
same time to dedicate to God's service whatever one possesses
of that quality. For our present purpose the characteristics of
the Rays, and the aspirations that we should offer, may be
expressed as follows:

Strength

"I will be strong, brave, persevering in His service."

Wisdom

" I will attain that intuitional wisdom which can be developed

only through perfect love."

Adaptability or Tact

"I will try to gain the power of saying and doing just the right
thing at the right momentof meeting each man on his own
ground, in order to help him more efficiently."

Beauty and Harmony

"So far as I can, I will bring beauty and harmony into my life
and surroundings that they may be more worthy of Him; I will
learn to see beauty in all Nature, that so I may server Him
better."

Science (detailed knowledge)

"I will gain knowledge and accuracy, that I may devote to them
to His work."

Devotion

"I will unfold within myself the mighty power of devotion, that
through it I may bring others to Him."

Ordered Service (ceremonial which invokes angelic

help)"
http://www.anandgholap.net/Science_Of_SacramentsCWL.htm
-----------------------

THE SEVEN TYPES

689.
The seven great types or rays do not correspond to the planes,
for each type is to be found upon all the planes. One may symbolize the
planes as horizontal, as they are usually represented in Theosophical
diagrams; and then if we proceed to draw seven vertical columns
cutting across the seven planes at right angles, those columns will
symbolize the types. This will cut up our diagram into forty-nine square,
and in reality each of these forty-nine has also forty-nine subdivisions in
the same manner, because each plane has seven sub-planes, and each
type has seven sub-types, which are produced by the influence upon it of
each of the other types in turn. A diagram which clearly explains this
may be found in The Secret Doctrine, Vol. iii. p. 483.
690.
There are seven great types of men, coming out from the seven
great Planetary LOGOI. Each of us belongs to one of these, but each has
also a sub-ray from one of the other types.
691.
If a man belongs to the blue or devotional type, and has the
wisdom ray as his sub-type, he will be wise in his devotion; but if his
sub-ray be also devotional, he may be blindly devoted having no
discrimination, and therefore unable to see any blemish in the object of
his worship.
692.
Yet though each of us, as has been said, has come out through
one or other of the seven Planetary LOGOI, it does not at all follow that
he will return through the same LOGOS. Each of the great root-races
will produce as its flower and result what is called in the sacred books a
Heavenly Man, one mighty Being who actually includes within Himself
all those members of the root-race who have made themselves worthy of
such inclusion-- includes them precisely as our physical body includes
millions of cells. True, we have all of us incarnated in other root-races,
but we belong to that root-race in which we finally succeed in attaining
adeptship, and it will be of the Heavenly Man which represents that
race that we shall form a part.
693.
For each root-race there is a Manu and a Bodhisattva, and
these are respectively the brain and the heart of the Heavenly Man of

the root-race. We who work in the Theosophical Society are most of us

following along one or other of these two lines, and so we shall find
ourselves grouped round one or other of those centres in that glorious
future. But in the Heavenly Man, as in the man on earth, there are seven
centres, and each of these centres is represented by an official of the
Occult Hierarchy. Some men will be drawn to one of these centres, and
some to another, so that there is the fullest possibility of development for
all possible types and dispositions.
694.
These Heaven-born Men so formed are the true inhabitants of
the solar system, the mind-born sons of the Planetary LOGOI, destined
themselves to be the Planetary LOGOI of the future, and of them we
shall be living, conscious component parts; and yet at the same time
each of us will have the fullest liberty and the highest possible activity.
Incomprehensible, of course, to our present power of thought, but
utterly true, nevertheless. Well for us if we can attain our level and take
our part along with the great Masters who are the leaders of our
Society. If that be too high for us at present, there will be other
opportunities in the future-- others, and yet others, stretching away in
endless vistas. Yet those of us who are earnest students in this Society
have now a glorious opportunity, of which we should do well to take the
fullest advantage; for if we lose it who knows how many lives of hard
work it will take us to earn such another? Soon the Teacher of angels
and men will show Himself upon earth once more; happy are we in that
we are allowed to help (even though it be ever so little) to prepare the
way for His coming; happier yet will be those of us who shall see Him
face to face, who will be privileged to work under Him in the service of
humanity when that day of the Lord shall dawn! CW Leadbeater
--------------------------------------If we turn to examine the colouring produced by the different parts of
the Creed, we shall find that the first paragraph is chiefly white, with
touches of gold and the first-Ray silvery electric blue; all these are
colours usually connected with the first Ray, and are, therefore, what
one might expect in this part of the Creed, which refers to the Ruling
Power, God the Father.
The dominant colour of the second paragraph is blue, but there are

many other coloursrose, lilac and green being noticeable. At the

opening words: "And in one Lord Jesus Christ," there is a wonderful
flash of rose and the peculiar light sky-blue of the Christ, after which it
is mainly yellow till the words: "Who for us men and for our salvation."
This yellow, however, should not be confused with that limpid stream of
effulgent yellow light which, on the higher mental level, runs all through
the Creed with ever-swelling volume, as it gathers itself up for the
glorious outpouring at the climax. The yellow evoked by this particular
part seems to come from a different source and to be separate from the
main stream. With the phrase last quoted, the colour changes to blue
and lilac. The genuflection at this point serves not only to impress the
moment more vividly on the minds of the congregation, but is a
dramatic representation of the truthmerely another means of
expressing it, parallel to the method of speaking it. Thus here we have
this fact commemorated or symbolized in two ways, and so receive a
double down-pouring. This is the principle behind all ceremonial, which
combines action with speech.
At the words: "And was made man," there comes a wonderful pink
with an opalescent white light which seems to be a glow from the
buddhic golden-yellow inspiration of hope. "And was crucified" makes
a heavy blue and green, but still we see the glowing yellow of hope
mingled with a higher green. As we repeat: "and ascended into heaven,"
we have some more splendid amaranth; after this, it grows yellow again.
With the words: "And He shall come again," a lovely rosy hue, as of
gratitude, suffuses the whole.
Just as the first and second paragraphs were respectively white and blue
as to their underlying colours, so this last paragraph is largely the
wonderful red of the Holy Ghosta sort of roseate crimson, with much
cerise and touches of a strong Martian red in it. All these colours of the
higher planes are very hard to express in terms of physical pigments, as
they are so much more living than anything we know down here; they
are always scintillating and flashing with a hundred changing
coruscations which produce a composite effect.
At the mention of the word "Father" in the clause: "Who proceedeth
from the Father and the Son," there is a flash of the first-Ray white fire

with its touch of silver and blue; and at the word "Son" a lovely rose
and blue. At the second reference to the Father and the Son in the
clause: "Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped," we
see flashes of the same colours. The dominant red shades off into green
at the mention of the Holy Catholic Church. The fine orange of
confidence, confidence in the Way, the Path of Initiation, which is
typified by baptism, and the blue of devotion, of thanksgiving, are both
visible during the reference to the "Baptism for the remission of sins".
The two final phrases: "the resurrection of the dead and the life of the
world to come," make a splendid blaze of blue and goldthe fine blue
of pure devotional praise and the blazing gold of the joy and hope, the
unbounded, enthusiastic life of the buddhic plane. This buddhic gold is a
wonderful colour, which from a higher lever seems mingled with the
rose of perfect love and understanding. As on the buddhic plane all is
united in oneness, so this special quality of the buddhic plane is many
qualities united in one, and it may come down and show itself in
different individuals in varying colours, according to which
interpretation of it the person is best able to make, or according to the
particular side of it which at the moment happens to be expressing itself
through him; that is to say, according to which of the nobler feelings he
may be experiencing. This gold of the buddhic bliss, or ecstasy, may
therefore represent many things which on the lower levels appear to be
quite distinct.
The wonderful lambent yellowthat underlying stream of colour which
appears to take its rise in the higher mental level, and runs all through
the Creedpours itself out towards the end in a magnificent burst, as it
is mingled with the lightning-flashes of a power that comes from the
vivification of the reflections of the Monad. In the case of a Bishop, this
blazes on to his crosier which is already very active and in strong
sympathetic vibration with the Angel of the Eucharistand is there
magnified and sent out with colossal force and wonderful brilliance, as
it adds itself to and strengthens the higher mental stream of yellow. This
enthusiasm, still rushing out during the following Minor Benediction,
makes an effective link between the celebrant and people.
http://www.anandgholap.net/Science_Of_Sacraments-CWL.htm
----------

-------------Let us examine the colours of the different outpourings. It is not

asserted that these are the colours of the Rays, for it would require a
very competent clairvoyant to arrive at these with any certainty. The
difficulties in the way are great, for various reasons. It seems likely that
each Ray has a fundamental colour which can be attributed to it, but
this is overlaid by many others. There is perhaps some arrangement by
which they correspond with the colours of the spectrum, and they
probably modify their colours accordingly to the needs of the world at
the moment, which depend on cyclic changes.
There are many other considerations each of which has its effect; it is
like the adjustment of a many-ringer letter-lock; if we once understood
the Wordthe regulating Principlewe should probably find it clear
enough, but from our present position, not know that Word, and seeing
only the involved immensity of the number of possible considerations, it
merely raises bewilderment. However, we can give the colours
outpoured at the censing without touching the question of the absolute
colours of the Rays.
With the first triple swing to the central cross and picture, we have a
fine outflow of white which spreads itself all over the Altar. It also
stimulates the jewels in the Altar-stone to vigorous activity, so that they
share in this white outpouring. It may be only the diamond, the firstRay jewel, which emits this colour, but I am inclined to think it is the
result of the combined colours of all the Rays, which, like the colours of
the spectrum, may all be subsumed into pure white. This is of a different
nature from the dazzling and intensely positive first-Ray blaze; this is
just simple whiteness which does not strike out like lightning, but pours
out like milk, and glows with a sweet softness which is yet very firm. I
believe it was with the intention of imitation this that the instructions
were given that on the Altar should be spread a "fair linen cloth". The
next three swings induce a similar outrush of blue, from the Christ; and
the last set brings down the crimson of the Holy Spirit. The swing to the
first-Ray candle brings down a great jet of power which rushes straight
down the candle and out on to the Altar, spreading out in the shape of
the letter V. At the same time it sets up great activity in the first-Ray
jewel of the Altar-stone, which pours matter of the same colour all over

the Altar. The stream from the candle runs strongly for a few moments,
and then the colour is covered over by the whiteness of the "fair linen
cloth". Still, however, a certain amount remains visible through this
white material, but it looks as though what filtered through were of a
high octave of colour, it is so delicate and refined.
The colours which come down each of the candles have several layers to
them. the first Ray has a thin pencil of intensely bright gold, which is
surrounded by the wonderful and shining silvery electric blue, which is
so often seen in connection with this Ray. The surface of this outpouring
is covered with silver sparkles, which it is continually shooting off with a
hissing noise. Many are given off with what almost approaches a
crackling sound, as the stream reaches the edge of the Altar and falls
down the Altar like an orphrey, stained with these wonderful colours as
they glow beneath the whiteness of the Altar covering. All the
outpourings from the other five candlesticks run in a manner precisely
similar to this, except that their colours are different, and from their
relative positions, their V-shaped paths also differ slightly.
The next swing of the censer is towards the fourth-Ray candles. This has
its core of a curious indescribable colour which approaches most nearly
to a sort of translucent magenta pinka strong colour, but with a very
delicate shell tint. The pink itself shades off by imperceptible degrees
into an opalescent aqua-toned aura. The body of the power is a splendid
mingling of dark blue and green like a peacock's breast; and on the
surface we see the same colour as at the heart, except that there are only
flecks of the magenta and much more of the opalescent effect. The
contrast of the magenta, seen against the dark ever-changing rush of
mingling deep blues and greens seems to make this curious cloud-like
halo of opalescence look almost like a beautiful sthetic grey, but when
one looks closely, one sees that there are many soft colours in it which
gleam out as the ever-restless stream throws them more to the surface,
and that the greyishness is only the result of the contrast between the
strong almost metallic sheen of the darker colours, and the gentle aura
of this odd pink. Possibly some of the colours of this Ray's power are
due to its long association with Egypt. They may also have to do with its
position as the central or balancing position between the two sets of
three on either side of it. It is thought by some that, whereas in the three
fold cycle of evolution the first three Rays characterize the first part of

the cycle, and the fifth, sixth and seventh Rays its last part, the fourth
Ray dominates the whole of the middle cycle. I am far from convinced of
this, but if it were so, it would account for the many colours and curious
blends in this outpouring, as it would have to suit itself to many more
periods than the other Rays.
The next candle to be censed is that of the fifth Ray, which produces a
down-pouring with a centre of a rich apricot redthere is orange in it
and Martian redand a surrounding body of a beautiful and singularly
pure yellow. On the surface we have tiny flecks of the central colour, the
apricot.
The two swings round the side consolidate the protective wall which the
whole of this censing is building round the Altar, and the next three
swings draw a further rush of power from the candlesnaturally in the
reverse order this timewhich we have just been censing. This part of
the censing is specially intended to make a further impression of each of
the Ray powers where they have coloured the Altar as they rushed over
the edge to make their orphreys down the front.
The celebrant now censes the candles on the Gospel side of the Altar,
beginning with that nearest the centre, that of the seventh Ray. This
down-pouring is silver in the middle, a specially gleaming, living silver
which differs from the first-Ray silver in that the latter looks more like
the actual metal surrounded by white fire; while the former is more like
a stream of mercury which seems to exhale other tints as though it
reflected them. This has a more human and a softer feeling than the
first-Ray power which is so intensely positivestrong as a line of
lightning. Around this core, the seventh-Ray outpouring is a marvellous
transparent amethysta regal colour which makes the heart sing and
speaks of the splendour of sunsets shining into stormy tropic seas; but
the dark blue of those restless waters at or after dusk, is also there, and
the flash of moonlit wavelets is suggested by the myriad flecks of silver
which, as with the first-Ray influence, dance off its surface.
The next, the third-Ray candle emits a fine sky blue and emerald, which
suggest the colours of certain blue and green opalslike shallow sea

water over a sandy bottom when the sun shines through it.
The last candle is the channel for the sixth-Ray force, which in the
centre is pure Martian redvery strong and fierythe colour that
inspires martyrs. The main volume of the outpouring, that which
surrounds this central jet, is the most lovely rosy crimsonthe
tenderest and purest carnation shadereally quite indescribable.
Perhaps the nearest one can come to it in physical colours is seen in
certain very fine rockets; but even this is the poorest and most faded
reproduction of the pure beauty of this higher colour. The Martian red
shows itself again in surface flecks.
Fireworks provide the nearest likeness on the physical plane to astral
colours; but even these cannot give a true idea of what seems almost a
paradoxical mixture of the utmost vigour and intensity of colour with
the most transparently diaphanous and intensity of colour with the most
transparently diaphanous and delicate pearly effects. These combine
with an ever-changing, ever-restless and glistening sheen to produce an
appearance of life which suggests that the colours are the expressions of
a living entity, whose moods are never the same from moment to
moment.
The next part of the censing is like that which was done on the Epistle
side of the Altar; and then follow six circular swingsthree on each side
along the bottom part of the Altar frontal. These draw down the
power represented by the particular candle in from of which each swing
is made, and so intensify the Altar orphreys.
With each outrush from the candles, the corresponding Ray jewel has
sent a flood of the same power over the whole Altar, which, though it has
disappeared under the white covering, yet definitely leaves its
magnetism. Each outrush from the various candles quickly spreads
itself till it touches the paths of its two neighbouring outpourings; so
that practically the whole of the top of the Altar is covered by these
colours, which (unlike those that come from the more general and
diffuse effect of the Altar-stone jewels) do not altogether vanish beneath
the white covering, but remain to glimmer through it like twinkling

stars between wind-tossed palm leaves. Similarly, the front of the Altar
is left all covered with these bands of half hidden colours which still
seem living beneath the luminous white.
Thus, for the clairvoyant, the censing is a very beautiful ceremony, the
Altar being alive with these amazingly vivid colours, and each candle
like a small sun of the huefor not only are the candles like pipes for
the down-rush, but they themselves, around the flames and the places
where the Ray jewels are set in them, are fairly bursting with radiations
of light and glory, making a real fire or Altar lights.
The Sermon
If there be a sermon it follows here. Before beginning it, the preacher
should turn towards the Altar and, making the sign of the cross over
himself, intone the ancient words of powerthe invocation: "In the
Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," to which all
the people should respond "Amen". After concluding what he has to
say, he should again turn towards the Altar, and, signing himself once
more, should intone the ascription: "And now to God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, Three Persons in One God, be
ascribed all honour, praise, majesty and dominion, now and for
evermore." And the people should respond as before. The sermon is in
no way a necessary part of the Service, and its insertion or omission is
left entirely to the discretion of the Priest. It should in no case occupy
more than fifteen minutes in delivery.
---------------------Credo (Liberal Catholic Church)
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the alone-born Son of God, begotten of
His Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, Very God of
Very God, begotten, not made, being of one Substance with the Father,

by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven and was incarnated of the Holy Ghost and the
Virgin Mary, and was made man. And was crucified also for us, under
Pontius Pilate He suffered, and was buried. And the third day He rose
again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven, and sitteth
on the right hand of the Father. And He shall come again with glory to
judge both the quick and the dead: Whose Kingdom shall have no end.
And we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who
proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the
Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets.
And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We
acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the
resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The recitation or singing of the Creed plays a specially important part
in the work of the eucharistic Celebrationa part whose importance
increases with the intellectual capacity of the congregation. For just as
an outpouring of astral matter has been evoked by the great ascriptions
of praise, and the lower mental matter has been added by the
consideration of the Epistle and Gospel, so now is a higher effort to be
aroused by the more abstract thought involved in the endeavour to
grasp the great truths put before us in the Creed. The forces of the
emotional and mental bodies have already been enlisted; at this point
whatever may be developed in each man of the far higher causal vehicle
is also brought into play. The extent to which that can be done depends
upon how far the man comprehends the real inner meaning of the words
which he uses; the conceptions involved are so magnificent and farreaching that it is only by patient study and gradual assimilation that
man can hope to make them part of himself...
During the recitation of the Creed, as at the Gloria Patri and the
doxologies of all hymns, it has been from the earliest days of the Church
the universal custom to turn towards the Altar, which usually means (or
ought to mean) turning towards the east. This custom of facing towards
the rising sun, the fountain of light, is pre-Christian, and is inherited
from the ancient sun-worship. In our Services it means always a special
endeavour to pour force outward and upwarda direct ascription of

glory to God, in which the whole congregation joins, and a recognition

of Christ as the true Grand Orient, the Sun of Righteousness, who rises
in the east to enlighten, employ and instruct the world.
We now come to the Creed, the last great act in this part of the
ceremony; and here we should make definite use of our causal and other
faculties. The triad of Atma, Buddhi and Manas comes in, in its capacity
as a reflection of the Monad. In order to understand this touch with the
Monad, we must realize that the Creed is not just what it appears to be
a statement of narrow dogmabut that it is a magnificent allegory, a
wonderful symbol of the entire life-process of the universethe primal
outflow of the creative Life and its final assumption into the bosom of
the Father when it has been perfected by experience. (I am here
speaking of it as though it has a beginning and an end; this is only true
for a single part of it, when we look at that part from the point of view
of an act taking place in time; but to do this is misleading, unless we
realize that really the process is eternal and outside of time.) This whole
continuous cycle is the Life of God, and is, therefore, completely existent
in Him; but as each Monad is an exact projection of Himis made in
His Imagetherefore all this exists in its entirety in every one of these
divine Sparks of the Celestial Flame; so that each one of us has this
archetype of all creation in his highest and truest self, which is, because
of this, a complete and self-sufficient entity, containing all things within
itself.
There would be no mystery in this, if we could realize the perfect unity
which exists between the Monad and Goda hypostatic union which
makes one consciousness and not a dualityone Life, not two. Thus this
spirit in man has all things in himself, because he is so absolutely at one
with Him who is all things. This is how it is that, by reciting the Creed
and so making this symbol of the cycle of all things, we put ourselves
into touch with the nearest epitome, or representative of this, which is
for each of us his own Monad. Thus we are here employing not only our
personalities and Egos; the whole of our being is taking a part in
Christ's service and so is being renewed, or, to some extent,
reconstructed after the Pattern of the Perfect Manperfect, that is, for
this evolution, which has as its goal the union of the bodies and soul with
the Spirit of one who has become an Adept. Later, when we offer
"ourselves, our souls and bodies," it is in this capacity, as reconstructed

after this pattern of perfectionfor each man the pattern being his own
spirit or monadwhich reconstruction is achieved by this epiphany of
the highest in us.
----------------------THE MASTER DJWAL KUL' S TABLE
886.
It is necessary at this point, if we are to understand at all this
part of the work of the Masters, to digress a little and say something of
what is meant by the Seven Rays. This is a matter of considerable
difficulty. Long ago we received some information, very incomplete
certainly, but still very valuable, about these Rays. I remember well the
occasion on which it was given to us. Mr. Cooper-Oakley and I and a
Hindu brother were sitting talking on the roof at Adyar in the very early
days, when there was only the one headquarters house and twenty-nine
acres of half-jungle behind it; and there came to us suddenly the Master
Djwal Kul, who was at that time the chief pupil of the Master Kuthumi.
He gave us a great deal of teaching in those days, and was always very
kind and patient, and while He sat and talked to us that day this
question of the Rays came up. Mr. Cooper-Oakley in his characteristic
way said: Oh, please, Master, will you tell us all about the Rays?
887.
There was a twinkle in our Teacher' s eye as He said: Well, I
cannot tell you all about them until you have reached a very high
Initiation. Will you have what I can tell you, which will be partial and
inevitably misleading, or will you wait until you can be told the whole
thing? Not unnaturally we thought that half a loaf was better than no
bread, so we said we would take what we could get. We noted down the
very interesting information that He gave, but much of it was
incomprehensible to us, as He had foretold. He said: I cannot tell you
any more than that, for I am bound by certain pledges; but if your
intuition can make out more I will tell you whether you are right. Even
that little fragmentary information was of very great value to us.
888.
The following Diagram 3 is the table of Rays and their
characteristics which He then gave to us:

889.
It was explained that the religion written opposite each Ray is
not to be taken as necessarily a perfect exposition of it, but is simply
that which now remains on earth as a relic of the last occasion on which
that Ray exercised dominant influence on the world. The Magic of the
First Ray and the characteristics of the Seventh were not given, we may
imagine the first to be kriyashakti and the second to be co-operation
with the Deva kingdom. The meaning of the Birth of Horus could not be
explained, but one of the characteristics of the Fourth Ray was stated to
be the use of the forces of action and interaction-- the male and female
forces of nature, as it were. Whenever phallicism occurs in the various
religions, it is always due to a materialization and misconception of
some of the secrets connected with this Ray. The true development of
the Seventh Ray would be communication with and instruction from the
higher Devas.
RAY
CHARACTERISTIC OF RAY
CHARACTERISTIC MAGIC
LAST RELIGION
I
Fohat-Shechinah
...
Brahmanical
II

Wisdom
Raja Yoga (Human Mind)
Buddhism
III
Akasha
Astrology (Natural Magnetic Forces)
Chaldaean
IV
Birth of Horus
Hatha Yoga (Physical Development)
Egyptian
V
Fire
Alchemy (Material Substances)
Zoroastrian

VI
Incarnation of Deity
Bhakti (Devotion)
Christianity (Kabala, etc.)
VII
...
Ceremonial Magic
Elemental Worship
890.

DIAGRAM 3

891.
After what I have said above it should be clear that the
information that has as yet reached us about the Rays is fragmentary. It
is not only not a full account of the subject, but it is not even a perfect
outline, for we were plainly told that there were huge gaps in the
description given to us, which could not possibly be filled up till much
later. So far as we know, very little has hitherto been written on this
subject, and that little so guardedly expressed as not to be at all readily
intelligible, and occult teachers are markedly reticent when questioned
about it.
892.
While the first edition of this book was passing through the
press an important work on the subject appeared-- The Seven Rays , by
Professor Ernest Wood. The material which it gives is illuminative and
is presented from quite a new angle.

893.

THE SEVENFOLD DIVISION

894.
The essential thing to understand is that there is a certain
sevenfold division of everything that exists in the manifested world,
whether of life or matter. All life which exists in our chain of worlds
passes through and belongs to one or other of Seven Rays, each having
seven subdivisions. In the universe there are forty-nine such Rays,
making, in sets of seven, the Seven Great Cosmic Rays, flowing from or
through the Seven Great Logoi. In our chain of worlds, however, and
perhaps in our solar system, only one of these Great Cosmic Rays is
operating, and its subdivisions are our seven Rays. It must not of course
be supposed that our solar system is the only manifestation of that
particular Logos, since each of the Seven Great Logoi may have millions
of systems dependent on it. As I have explained in The Inner Life:
895.
The whole of our solar system is a manifestation of its Logos,
and every particle in it is definitely part of His vehicles. All the physical
matter of the solar system taken as a totality constitutes His physical
body; all the astral matter within it constitutes His astral body; all the
mental matter, His mental body, and so on. Entirely above and beyond
His system He has a far wider and greater existence of His own, but that
does not in the least affect the truth of the statement which we have just
made.
896.
This Solar Logos contains within Himself Seven Planetary
Logoi, who are as it were centres of force within Him, channels through
which His force pours out. Yet at the same time there is a sense in which
they may be said to constitute Him. The matter which we have just
described as composing His vehicles also composes theirs, for there is no
particle of matter anywhere in the system which is not part of one or
other of them. All this is true of every plane; but let us for a moment
take the astral plane as an example, because its matter is fluid enough to
answer the purposes of our inquiry, and at the same time it is near
enough to the physical to be not entirely beyond the limits of our
physical comprehension.
897.

Every particle of the astral matter of the system is part of the

astral body of the Solar Logos, but it is also part of the astral body of
one or other of the Seven Planetary Logoi. Remember that this includes
the astral matter of which your astral body and mine are composed. We
have no particle which is exclusively our own. In every astral body there
are particles belonging to each one of the Seven Planetary Logoi, but the
proportions vary infinitely. The bodies of those Monads which originally
came forth through a Planetary Logos will continue all through their
evolution to have more of the particles of that Planetary Logos than of
any other, and in this way people may be distinguished as primarily
belonging to one or other of the Seven Great Powers.
898.

THE SEVEN SPIRITS

899.
In Christian terms these seven great Beings are found in the
vision of St. John the Evangelist, who said: And there were seven
lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the Seven Spirits of
God. (Rev. iv, 5.) Those are the Mystical Seven, the great Planetary
Logoi, who are life-centres in the very Logos Himself. Those are the true
Heads of our Rays-- the Heads for the whole solar system, not for our
world only. Out through one or other of that mighty Seven every one of
us must have come, some through one, some through another.
900.
They are the Seven Sublime Lords of The Secret Doctrine , the
Primordial Seven, the Creative Powers, the Incorporeal Intelligences,
the Dhyan Chohans, the Angels of the Presence. But remember that this
last title is used in two quite different senses, which must not be
confused. At every Celebration of the Holy Eucharist among our
Christian brethren there appears an Angel of the Presence, who is in
truth a thought-form of the Lord Christ, a vehicle of His consciousness,
and so is rightly called a manifestation of His Presence; but these Seven
Great Ones receive the title for a very different reason-- because They
stand ever in the very presence of the Logos Himself, representing there
the Rays of which They are the Heads-- representing us therefore, since
in every one of us is part of the Divine Life of every one of Them.
901.
For though each of us belongs fundamentally to one Ray-- the
channel through which he, as a Monad, flowed forth from the Eternal

into Time-- yet has he within himself something of all the Rays; there is
in him no ounce of force, no grain of matter, which is not actually part
of one or other of these wondrous Beings; he is literally compacted of
Their very substance-- not of one, but of all, though always one
predominates. Therefore, no slightest movement of any of these great
Star Angels can occur without affecting to some extent every one of us,
because we are bone of Their bone, flesh of Their flesh, Spirit of Their
Spirit; and this great fact is the real basis of the often misunderstood
science of Astrology.
902.
We all stand always in the presence of the Solar Logos, for in
His system there is no place where He is not, and all that is, is part of
Him. But in a very special sense these Seven Spirits are part of Him,
manifestations of Him, almost qualities of His-- centres in Him through
which His Power flows out. We may see a hint of this in the names
assigned to them by the Jews. The first of them is always Michael, your
Prince, as he is called; and this name means The Strength of God, or,
as it is sometimes interpreted, He who is like God in strength. El, in
Hebrew, means God; we find it in Beth-El, which is The House of
God; and Elohim is the word used for God in the very first verse of
the Bible. This word El occurs as a termination in the name of each of
the Seven Spirits. Gabriel means The Omniscience of God, and He is
sometimes called God' s Hero. He is connected with the planet Mercury,
as Michael is with Mars. Raphael signifies The Healing Power of God,
and He is associated with the Sun, which is the great health-giver for us
on the physical plane. Uriel is The Light or Fire of God; Zadkiel is
The Benevolence of God, and is connected with the planet Jupiter.
The other Archangels are usually given as Chamuel and Jophiel, but I
do not at present recollect their meanings or their planets.
903.
St. Denys speaks of these Seven Spirits as the Builders, and
also calls them the Co-operators of God. St. Augustine says that they
have possession of the Divine Thought, or the Prototype, and St.
Thomas Aquinas wrote that God is the primary and these Angels are the
secondary cause of all visible effects. Everything is done by the Logos,
but through the mediation of these Planetary Spirits. Science will tell
you that the planets are fortuitous aggregations of matter, condensations
from the mass of the nebula, and so no doubt they are; but why at those
particular points? Because behind each there is a Living Intelligence to

choose the points so that they will balance one another. Truly
whatsoever exists is the outcome of natural forces working under cosmic
laws; but do not forget that behind every force is always its
administrator, an Intelligence directing and managing. In thus
describing Them I have used the Christian terminology, but the same
Beings can be found under different names in every great Religion.
904.

THE SEVEN TYPES OF BEINGS

905.
When, then, that primordial matter or spirit, which in the
future was to become ourselves, first emerged from undifferentiated
infinity, it issued through seven channels, as water might flow from a
cistern through seven pipes, each of which, containing its peculiar
colouring matter, would so tinge the water that passed through it that it
would for ever after be distinguishable from the water of the other
pipes. Through all the successive kingdoms, the elemental, the mineral,
the vegetable, the animal, the Rays are always distinct one from another,
as they are also distinct in man, though in the lower kingdoms the
influence of the Ray naturally acts in a somewhat different manner.
Since in them there is no individualization, it is obvious that the whole
of one species of animals, for example, must be on the same Ray; so that
the different kinds of animals in the world might be arranged in seven
parallel columns according to the Rays to which they belong, and since
an animal can individualize only through association with man, at the
head of each of these Rays stands some class of domestic animal through
which alone individualization on that particular Ray takes place. The
elephant, dog, cat, horse and monkey are examples of such classes, so it
is clear that the impulse of the Universal Life which is now animating,
let us say, a dog, can never animate a horse or a cat, but will continue to
manifest through the same species until individualization takes place.
906.
Researches have not yet been made as to the particular
animals and vegetables which stand on each Ray, but I had reason a few
years ago to investigate the precious stones, and found that each Ray
had its own representatives, through which the force of the Ray works
more readily than through any other. I print here the table that appears
in The Science of the Sacraments, in which is shown the jewel at the
head of each Ray, and others which stand on the same Ray and

therefore hold the same kind of force, though less strongly.

RAY
JEWEL AT THE HEAD OF RAY
SUBSTITUTES
1
Diamond .....
Rock Crystal.
2
Sapphire .....
Lapis Lazuli, Turquoise, Sodalite.
3
Emerald .....
Aquamarine, Jade, Malachite.
4
Jasper .....

Chalcedony, Agate, Serpentine.

5
Topaz .....
Citrine, Steatite.
6
Ruby .....
Tourmaline, Garnet, Cornelian, Carbuncle.
7
Amethyst .....
Porphyry, Violane.
907.

DIAGRAM

From all that I have said above it follows that these seven types
are visible among men, and that every one of us must belong to one or
other of the Rays. Fundamental differences of this sort in the human
race have always been recognized; a century ago men were described as
of the lymphatic or the sanguine temperament, the vital or the
phlegmatic, and astrologers classify us under the names of the planets,
as Jupiter men, Mars men, Venus or Saturn men, and so on. I take it
that these are only different methods of stating the basic differences of
disposition due to the channel through which we happen to have come
forth, or rather, through which it was ordained that we should come
forth.
908.

909.
It is, however, by no means an easy matter to discover to what
Ray an ordinary man belongs, for he has become very much involved in
matter and has generated a great variety of karma, some portion of
which may be of a kind that dominates and obscures his essential type,
even perhaps through the whole of an incarnation; but the man who is
approaching the Path ought to be showing in himself a definite driving
impulse or leading power, which has the character of the Ray to which
he belongs, and tends to lead him into the kind of work or service which
distinguishes that Ray; and it will also bring him to the feet of one of the
Masters upon it, so that he becomes enrolled, as it were, in the College
of which the Chohan of the Ray may be regarded as the Principal.
910.

MAGIC AND HEALING POWERS

911.
It may help a little towards the comprehension of these
differences of type if I give one or two examples of the methods likely to
be employed, judging from the table that I have printed above, by
persons on the different Rays when they want to use magic to produce a
given result. The First Ray man would attain his object by sheer force of
resistless will, without condescending to employ anything in the nature
of means at all; he of the Second Ray would also work by force of will,
but with the full comprehension of the various possible methods, and
the conscious direction of his will into the channel of the most suitable
one; to the Third Ray man it would come most naturally to use the
forces of the mental plane, noticing very carefully the exact time when
the influences were most favourable to his success; the Fourth Ray man
would employ for the same purpose the finer physical forces of the
ether, while his Fifth Ray brother would be more likely to set in motion
the currents of what used to be called the astral light; the devotee of the
Sixth Ray would achieve his result by the strength of his earnest faith in
his particular Deity and in the efficacy of prayer to Him, while the
Seventh Ray man would use elaborate ceremonial magic, and probably
invoke the assistance of non-human spirits if possible.
912.
Again, in attempting the cure of disease, the First Ray would
simply draw health and strength from the great fountain of Universal
Life; the Second would thoroughly comprehend the nature of the

malady and know precisely how to exercise his will-power upon it to the
best advantage; the Third would invoke the Great Planetary Spirits,
and choose a moment when astrological influences were beneficent for
the application of his remedies; the Fourth would trust chiefly to
physical means such as massage; the Fifth would employ drugs; the
Sixth faith-healing; and the Seventh mantras or magical invocations. In
all the above cases the operator is of course free to use any of the
different powers mentioned, but would probably find the most effective
instrument in his hands to be that which is typical of his own Ray.
913.

THE CHOHANS OF THE RAYS

914.
In the members of the Adept Brotherhood the distinctions of
Rays are much more clearly marked than in others, and are visible in
the aura; the Ray to which an Adept belongs decidedly affects not only
His appearance, but also the work that He has to do. We may perhaps
best see what are the distinctive characters of the Rays by observing the
work of the five Chohans of Rays Three to Seven, and of the two
Chohans who stand at Their level on the First and Second Rays, and
carry on work of the same grade in the service of the Greater Ones who
are their directing Heads. In the Seven Heads of the Rays in the
Hierarchy we have a reflection of the Seven Spirits before the Throne.
Masters and the Path
---------------------------ON THE HIDDEN DEITY, ITS SYMBOLS AND GLYPHS.
THE Logos or Creative deity, the "Word made Flesh," of every
religion, has to be traced to its ultimate source and Essence. In
India, it is a Proteus of 1,008 divine names and aspects in each
of its personal transformations, from Brahma-Purusha down
through the Seven divine Rishis and ten semi-divine Prajapati
(also Rishis) to the divine-human Avatars. The same puzzling
problem of the "One in many" and the multitude in One, is found
in other Pantheons, in the Egyptian, the Greek and the ChaldeoJudaic, the latter having made confusion still more confused by
presenting its Gods as euhemerizations, in the shapes of

Patriarchs. The latter are now accepted by those who reject

Romulus as a myth, and are represented as living and historical
Entities. Verbum satis sapienti.
In the Zohar, En-Soph is also the ONE, and the infinite Unity.
This was known to the very few learned Fathers of the Church,
who were aware that Jehovah was but a third rate potency and
no "highest" God. But while complaining bitterly of the Gnostics
and saying . . . "our Heretics hold . . . that PROPATOR is known
but to the Only begotten Son* (who is Brahma among the rest)
that is to the mind" (nous), Irenaeus never mentioned that the
Jews did the same in their real secret books. Valentinus, "the
profoundest doctor of the Gnosis," held that "there was a
perfect AION who existed before Bythos, or Buthon (the first
father of unfathomable nature, which is the second Logos)
called Propator." It is thus AION, who springs as a Ray from AinSoph (who does not create), and AION, who creates, or through
whom, rather, everything is created, or evolves.
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* As Mulaprakriti is known only to Iswar, the LOGOS, as he is
called now by Mr. T. Subba Row, of Madras. (See his
Bhagavadgita Lectures.)
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 350 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
For, as the Basilidians taught, "there was a supreme god,
Abraxas, by whom was created mind" (Mahat, in Sanskrit, Nous
in Greek). "From Mind proceeded the word, Logos, from the
word, Providence (Divine Light, rather), then from it Virtue and
Wisdom in Principalities, Powers, Angels, etc., etc." By these
(Angels) the 365 AEons were created. "Amongst the lowest,
indeed, and those who made this world, he (Basilides) sets last
of all the God of the Jews, whom he denies to be God (and very
rightly), affirming he is one of the angels" (Ibid.). Here, then, we
find the same system as in the Puranas, wherein the
Incomprehensible drops a seed, which becomes the golden egg,
from which Brahma is produced. Brahma produces Mahat, etc.,
etc. True Esoteric philosophy, however, speaks neither of

"creation" nor of "evolution" in the sense the exoteric religions

do. All these personified Powers are not evolutions from one
another, but so many aspects of the one and sole manifestation
of the ABSOLUTE all. The same system as the gnostic prevails
in the Sephirothal aspects of Ain-Soph, yet, as these aspects are
in Space and Time, a certain order is maintained in their
successive appearances.
Therefore, it becomes impossible not to take notice of the great
changes that the Zohar has undergone under the handling of
generations of Christian Mystics. For, even in the metaphysics
of the Talmud, the "lower Face" (or "Lesser Countenance"), the
microprosopus, in fact, could never be placed on the plane of
the same abstract ideal as the Higher, or "Greater Countenance,"
macroprosopus. The latter is, in the Chaldean Kabala, a pure
abstraction; the Word or LOGOS, or DABAR (in Hebrew), which
Word, though it becomes in fact a plural number, or "Words" -D(a)B(a)RIM, when it reflects itself, or falls into the aspect of a
Host (of angels, or Sephiroth, "numbers") is still collectively
ONE, and on the ideal plane a nought -- 0, a "No-thing." IT is
without form or being, "with no likeness with anything else."
(Franck, "Die Kabbala," p. 126.) And even Philo calls the Creator,
the Logos who stands next God, "the SECOND GOD," and "the
second God who is his (Highest God's) WISDOM" (Philo. Quaest.
et Solut). Deity is not God. It is NOTHING, and DARKNESS. It is
nameless, and therefore called Ain-Soph -- "the word Ayin
meaning nothing." See Franck "Die Kabbala," p. 153. See also
Section XII., "Theogony of the Creative Gods." The "Highest
God" (the unmanifested LOGOS) is its Son.
Nor are most of the gnostic systems, which come down to us
mutilated by the Church Fathers, anything better than the
distorted shells of the original speculations. Nor were they open
to the public or reader, at any time; i.e., had their hidden
meaning or esotericism been revealed, it would have been no
more an esoteric teaching, and this could never be. Alone
Marcus (the chief of the Marcosians, 2nd century), who taught
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 351 THE GNOSTIC IDEA.

that deity had to be viewed under the symbol of four syllables,

gave out more of the esoteric truths than any other Gnostic. But
even he was never well understood. For it is only on the surface
or dead letter of his Revelation that it appears that God is a
quaternary, to wit: "the Ineffable, the Silence, the Father, and
Truth," -- in reality it is quite erroneous, and divulges only one
more esoteric riddle. This teaching of Marcus was that of the
early Kabalists and ours. For he makes of Deity, the number 30
in 4 syllables, which, translated esoterically, means a Triad or
Triangle, and a Quaternary or a square, in all seven, which, on
the lower plane made the seven divine or secret letters of which
the God-name is composed. This requires demonstration. In his
"Revelation," speaking of divine mysteries expressed by means
of letters and numbers, Marcus narrates how the "Supreme
Tetrad came down unto me (him) from the region which cannot
be seen nor named, in a female form, because the world would
have been unable to bear her appearing under a male figure,"
and revealed to him "the generation of the universe, untold
before to either gods or men."
This first sentence already contains a double meaning. Why
should a female figure be more easily borne or listened to by the
world than a male figure? On the very face of it this appears
nonsensical. Withal it is quite simple and clear to one who is
acquainted with the mystery-language. Esoteric Philosophy, or
the Secret Wisdom, was symbolized by a female form, while a
male figure stood for the Unveiled mystery. Hence, the world not
being ready to receive, could not bear it, and the Revelation of
Marcus had to be given allegorically. Then he writes:
"When first the Inconceivable, the Beingless and Sexless (the
Kabalistic Ain-Soph) began to be in labour (i.e., when the hour of
manifesting Itself had struck) and desired that Its Ineffable
should be born (the first LOGOS, or AEon, or Aion), and its
invisible should be clothed with form, its mouth opened and
uttered the word like unto itself. This word (logos) manifested
itself in the form of the Invisible One. The uttering of the
(ineffable) name (through the word) came to pass in this manner.
He (the Supreme Logos) uttered the first word of his name,
which is a syllable of four letters. Then the second syllable was

added, also of four letters. Then the third, composed of ten

letters; and after this the fourth, which contains twelve letters.
The whole name consists thus of thirty letters and of four
syllables. Each letter has its own accent and way of writing, but
neither understands nor ever beholds that form of the whole
Name, -- no; not even the power of the letter that stands next to
Itself (to the Beingless and the Inconceivable.)* All these sounds
when united are the collective Beingless,
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* Iswara, or the Logos, cannot see Parabrahmam, but only
Mulaprakriti, says the lecturer, in the Four Lectures on
Bhagavatgita. (See Theosophist, Feb., 1887.)
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 352 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
unbegotten AEon, and these are the Angels that are ever
beholding the face of the Father* (the Logos, the "second God,"
who stands next God, "the Inconceivable," according to Philo).
This is as plain as ancient esoteric secrecy would make it. It is
as Kabalistic, but less veiled than the Zohar in which the mystic
names or attributes are also four syllabled, twelve, forty-two,
and even seventy-two syllabled words! The Tetrad shows to
Marcus the TRUTH in the shape of a naked woman, and letters
every limb of that figure, calling her head [[omega]], her neck
[[psi]], shoulders and hands [[gamma]], and [[chi]], etc., etc. In
this Sephira is easily recognised, the Crown (Kether) or head
being numbered one; the brain or Chochmah, 2; the heart, or
Intelligence (Binah), 3; and the other seven Sephiroth
representing the limbs of the body. The Sephirothal Tree is the
Universe, and Adam Kadmon represents it in the West as
Brahma represents it in India.
Throughout, the 10 Sephiroth are represented as divided into the
three higher, or the spiritual Triad, and the lower Septenary. The
true Esoteric meaning of the sacred number seven is cleverly
veiled in the Zohar; yet was betrayed by the double way of
writing "in the beginning" or Be-resheeth, and Be-raishath, the

latter the "Higher, or Upper Wisdom." As shown by Mr.

Macgregor Mathers in his Kabbalah (p. 47), and in the Qabbalah
of Mr. T. Myer (p. 233), both of these Kabalists being supported
by the best ancient authorities, these words have a dual and
secret meaning. Braisheeth bara Elohim means that the six, over
which stands the seventh Sephiroth, belong to the lower
material class, or, as the author says: "Seven . . . . are applied to
the Lower Creation, and three to the spiritual man, the Heavenly
Prototypic or first Adam."
When the Theosophists and Occultists say that God is no
BEING, for IT is nothing, No-Thing, they are more reverential and
religiously respectful to the Deity than those who call God a HE,
and thus make of Him a gigantic MALE.
He who studies the Kabala will soon find the same idea in the
ultimate thought of its authors, the earlier and great Hebrew
Initiates, who got this secret Wisdom at Babylonia from the
Chaldean Hierophants, while Moses got his in Egypt. The Zohar
cannot well be judged by its after translations in Latin and other
tongues, as all those ideas were, of course, softened and made
to fit in with the views and policy of its Christian arrangers; but
in truth its ideas are identical with those of all other religious
systems. The various Cosmogonies show that the Archaic
Universal Soul was held by every nation as the "Mind" of the
Demiurgic Creator; and that it
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* The "Seven Angels of the Face," with the Christians.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 353 THE EGYPTIAN VERSION.
was called the "Mother," Sophia with the Gnostics (or the female
Wisdom), the Sephira with the Jews, Saraswati or Vach, with the
Hindus, the Holy Ghost being a female Principle.
Hence, born from it, the Kurios or Logos was, with the Greeks,
the "God, mind" (nous). "Now Koros (Kurios) signifies the pure
and unmixed nature of intellect -- wisdom," says Plato in

"Cratylus"; and Kurios is Mercury, the Divine Wisdom, and

"mercury is the Sol" (Sun) ("Arnobius" vi., xii.), from whom ThotHermes received this divine Wisdom. While, then, the Logoi of
all countries and religions are correlative (in their sexual
aspects) with the female Soul of the World or the "Great Deep;"
the deity, from which these two in one have their being, is ever
concealed and called the "Hidden One," connected only
indirectly with Creation,* as it can act only through the Dual
Force emanating from the Eternal Essence.
Even AEsculapius, called the "Saviour of all," is identical,
according to ancient classics, with Phta, the Egyptian Creative
Intellect (or Divine Wisdom), and with Apollo, Baal, Adonis and
Hercules (see Dunlap's "Mystery of Adonis," pp. 23 and 95); and
Phta is, in one of its aspects, the "Anima Mundi," the Universal
Soul of Plato, the "Divine Spirit" of the Egyptians, the "Holy
Ghost" of the early Christians and Gnostics, and the Akasa of
the Hindus, and even, in its lower aspect, the Astral Light. For
Phta was originally the "God of the Dead," he in whose bosom
they were received, hence the Limbus of the Greek Christians, or
the Astral Light. It is far later that Phta was classed with the Sungods, his name signifying "he who opens," as he is shown to be
the first to unveil the face of the dead mummy, to call the soul to
life in his bosom. (See Maspero's "Bulaq Museum.") KNEPH, the
Eternal Unrevealed, is represented by the snake-emblem of
eternity encircling a water-urn, with its head hovering over the
"waters" which it incubates with its breath -- another form of one
and the same idea of "Darkness," its ray moving on the waters,
&c. As "Logos-Soul," this permutation is called Phta; as LogosCreator, he becomes Imhot-pou, his son, "the god of the
handsome face."
In their primitive characters these two were the first Cosmic
Duad, Noot, "space or Sky," and Noo, "the primordial Waters,"
the Androgyne Unity, above whom was the Concealed BREATH
of Kneph. And all of them had the aquatic animals and plants
sacred to them, the ibis, the swan, the goose, the crocodile, and
the lotus.
Returning to the Kabalistic deity, this Concealed Unity is then =

[[to pan]] = [[apeiros]], Endless, Boundless, non-Existent, so

[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* We use the term as one accepted and sanctioned by use, and
therefore more comprehensible to the reader.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 354 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
long as the Absolute is within Oulom,* the boundless and
termless time, as such, En-Soph cannot be the Creator or even
the modeller of the Universe, nor can he be Aur (light). Therefore
En-Soph is also Darkness. The immutably Infinite and the
absolutely Boundless can neither will, think, nor act. To do this it
has to become finite, and it does so, by its ray penetrating into
the mundane egg -- infinite space -- and emanating from it as a
finite god. All this is left to the ray latent in the one. When the
period arrives, the absolute will expands naturally the force
within it, according to the Law of which it is the inner and
ultimate Essence. The Hebrews did not adopt the egg as a
symbol, but they substituted for it the "Duplex heavens," for,
translated correctly, the sentence "God made the heavens and
the earth" would read: -- "In and out of his own essence as a
womb (the mundane egg), God created the two heavens." But
the Christians have chosen as the symbol of their Holy Ghost,
the dove.
"Whosoever acquaints himself with the Mercaba and the
lahgash (secret speech or incantation), will learn the secret of
secrets." Lahgash is nearly identical in meaning with Vach, the
hidden power of the Mantras.
When the active period has arrived, from within the eternal
essence of Ain-Soph, comes forth Sephira, the active Power,
called the Primordial Point, and the Crown, Kether. It is only
through her that the "Un-bounded Wisdom" could give a
concrete form to the abstract Thought. Two sides of the upper
triangle by which the ineffable Essence and the universe -- its
manifested body -- are symbolized, the right side and the base
are composed of unbroken lines; the third, the left side, is

dotted. It is through the latter that emerges Sephira. Spreading

in every direction, she finally encompasses the whole triangle. In
this emanation the triple triad is formed. From the invisible Dew
falling from the higher Uni-triad (thus leaving 7 sephiroths only),
the "Head" Sephira creates primeval waters, i.e., Chaos takes
shape. It is the first stage towards the solidification of spirit
which through various modifications will produce earth. "It
requires earth and water to make a living soul," says Moses. It
requires the image of an aquatic bird to connect it with water,
the female element of procreation with the egg and the bird that
fecundates it.
When Sephira emerges like an active power from within the
latent Deity, she is female; when she assumes the office of a
creator, she becomes a male; hence, she is androgyne. She is
the "Father and
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* With the ancient Jews, as shown by Le Clerc, the word Oulom
meant only a time whose beginning or end is not known. The
term "eternity," properly speaking, did not exist in the Hebrew
tongue with the meaning, for instance, applied by the Vedantins
to Parabrahm.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 355 INTERNATIONAL CORRELATION OF GODS.
Mother Aditi," of the Hindu Cosmogony and of the Secret
Doctrine. If the oldest Hebrew scrolls had been preserved, the
modern Jehovah-worshipper would have found that many and
uncomely were the symbols of the creative god. The frog in the
moon, typical of his generative character, was the most frequent.
All the birds and animals now held "unclean" in the Bible had
been the symbols of the Deity in days of old. It was because they
were too sacred that a mask of uncleanness was placed over
them, in order to preserve them from destruction. The brazen
serpent was not a bit more poetical than the goose or swan, if
symbols are to be accepted a la lettre.
In the words of the Zohar: "The Indivisible Point, which has no

limit and cannot be comprehended because of its purity and

brightness, expanded from without, forming a brightness that
served the indivisible Point as a veil;" yet the latter also "could
not be viewed in consequence of its immeasurable light. It too
expanded from without, and this expansion was its garment.
Thus through a constant upheaving (motion) finally the world
originated" (Zohar I. 20a). The Spiritual substance sent forth by
the Infinite Light is the first Sephira or Shekinah: Sephira
exoterically contains all the other nine Sephiroths in her.
Esoterically she contains but two,* Chochmah or Wisdom, "a
masculine, active potency whose divine name is Jah ()," and
BINAH, a feminine passive potency, Intelligence, represented by
the divine name Jehovah (); which two potencies form, with
Sephira the third, the Jewish trinity or the Crown, KETHER.
These two Sephiroths called Father, Abba, and Mother Amona,
are the duad or the double-sexed logos from which issued the
other seven Sephiroths. (See Zohar.) This first Jewish triad
(Sephira, Chochmah, and Binah) is the Hindu Trimurti.* However
veiled, even in the Zohar, and more still in the exoteric Pantheon
of India, every particular connected with one is reproduced in
the other. The Prajapati are the Sephiroths. Ten with Brahma
they dwindle to seven, when the Trimurti, and the Kabalistic
triad, are separated from the rest. The seven Builders (Creators)
become the seven Prajapati, or the seven Rishis, in the same
order as the Sephiroths become the Creators; then the
Patriarchs, etc. In both Secret Systems, the One Universal
Essence is incomprehensible and inactive in its absoluteness,
and can be connected with the building of the Universe only in
an indirect way. In both, the primeval Malefemale or
androgynous Principle, and their ten and seven Emanations
(Brahma-Viraj and Aditi-Vach on the one part and the ElohimJehovah, or Adam-Adami (Adam Kadmon) and Sephira Eve on
the
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* In the Indian Pantheon the double-sexed Logos is Brahma, the
Creator, whose seven "mind born" sons are the primeval Rishis
-- the "Builders."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 356 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

other), with their Prajapati and Sephiroths, represent in their
totality, first of all the Archetypal man, the Proto-logos; and only
in their secondary aspect do they become Cosmic powers, and
astronomical or sidereal bodies. If Aditi is the mother of the
gods, Deva-Matri, Eve is the mother of all living; they are the
Sakti or generative power in their female aspect of the "Heavenly
man," and they are all compound Creators. Says a "Gupta
Vidya" Sutra: "In the beginning, a ray issuing from Paramarthika
(the one and only true existence), it became manifested in
Vyavaharika (conventional existence) which was used as a
Vahan to descend into the Universal Mother, and to cause her to
expand (swell, brih)." And in the Zohar it is stated: "The Infinite
Unity, formless and without similitude, after the form of the
heavenly man was created, used it. The Unknown Light*
(Darkness) used the (heavenly form) as a chariot through which
to descend, and wished to be called by this form, which is the
sacred name Jehovah."
As the Zohar says: "In the beginning was the Will of the King,
prior to any other existence. . . . It (the Will) sketched the forms
of all things that had been concealed but now came into view.
And there went forth as a sealed secret from the head of Ain
Soph, a nebulous spark of matter, without shape or form. . . . Life
is drawn from below, and from above the source renews itself,
the sea is always full and spreads its waters everywhere." Thus
the deity is compared to a shoreless sea, to water which is "the
fountain of life" (Zohar iii., 290). "The seventh palace, the
fountain of life, is the first in the order from above" (ii. 261).
Hence the Kabalistic tenet on the lips of the very Kabalistic
Solomon, who says in Proverbs ix., 1: "Wisdom hath builded her
house; it hath hewn out its seven pillars."
Whence then, all this identity of ideas, if there was no primeval
UNIVERSAL Revelation? The few points shown are like a few
straws in a hayrick, in comparison to that which will be shown
as the work proceeds. If we turn to that most hazy of all
Cosmogonies -- the Chinese, even there the same idea is found.
Tsi-tsai (the Self-Existent) is the unknown Darkness, the root of

the Wuliang-sheu (Boundless Age), Amitabhe, and Tien (heaven)

come later on. The "great Extreme" of Confucius gives the same
idea, his "straws" notwithstanding. The latter are a source of
great amusement to the missionaries. These laugh at every
"heathen" religion, despise and hate that of their
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* Says Rabbi Simeon: "Ah, companions, companions, man as an
emanation was both man and woman, as well on the side of the
'Father' as on the side of the 'Mother.' And this is the sense of
the words: 'And Elohim spoke; Let there be Light, and it was
Light' . . . and this is the two-fold man." ("Auszuge aus dem
Sohar," p. 13, 15.) Light, then, in Genesis stood for the
Androgyne Ray or "Heavenly Man."
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 357 ORNITHOLOGICAL SYMBOLS.
brother Christians of other denominations, and yet one and all
accept a la lettre their own Genesis. If we turn to Chaldea we find
in it Anu, the concealed deity, the One, whose name, moreover,
shows it to be of Sanskrit origin. Anu, which means in Sanskrit
"atom," aniyamsam aniyasam (smallest of the small), is a name
of Parabrahm in the Vedantic philosophy; Parabrahm being
described as smaller than the smallest atom, and greater than
the greatest sphere or universe: "Anagraniyam and
Mahatorvavat." This is what George Smith gives as the first
verses of the Akkadian Genesis as found in the Cuneiform Texts
on the "Lateras Coctiles." There also, we find Anu the passive
deity or En-Soph, Bel, the Creator, the Spirit of God (Sephira)
moving on the face of the waters, hence water itself, and Hea,
the Universal Soul or wisdom of the three combined.
The first eight verses read thus:
1. When above, were not raised the heavens;
2. And below on the earth a plant had not grown up.
3. The abyss had not broken its boundaries.
4. The chaos (or water) Tiamat (the sea) was the producing
mother of the whole of them. (This is the Cosmical Aditi and

Sephira.)
5. Those waters at the beginning were ordained but -6. A tree had not grown, a flower had not unfolded.
7. When the gods had not sprung up, any one of them.
8. A plant had not grown, and order did not exist.
This was the chaotic or ante-genetic period -- the double Swan
and the Dark Swan, which becomes white, when Light is
created.*
The symbol chosen for the majestic ideal of the Universal
Principle will seem little calculated to answer its sacred
character. A goose, or even a swan, may appear unfit, no doubt,
to represent the grandeur of the Spirit. Nevertheless, it must
have had some deep occult meaning, since it figures not only in
every cosmogony and world religion, but even was chosen by
the mediaeval Christians, the Crusaders, as the vehicle of the
Holy Ghost supposed to lead the army to Palestine, to wrench
the Tomb of the Saviour from the hands of the Saracen. If we are
to credit Professor Draper's statement in his "Intellectual
Development of Europe," the Crusaders, led on by Peter the
Hermit, were preceded, at the head of the army, by the Holy
Ghost under the shape of a white gander in company of a goat.
The Egyptian God of Time, Seb, carries a goose on his head.
Jupiter assumes the form of a swan and Brahma also, because
the root of all this is that mystery of mysteries -- the MUNDANE
EGG. (See preceding ).
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* The Seven Swans that are believed to land from Heaven into
Lake Mansarovara, are in the popular fancy the Seven Rishis of
the Great Bear, who assume that form to visit the locality where
the Vedas were written.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 358 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
One has to learn the reason of a symbol before one depreciates
it. The dual element of Air and Water is that of the ibis, swan,
goose and pelican, of crocodiles and frogs, lotus flowers and

water lilies, &c.; and the result is the choice of the most
unseemly symbols among the modern as much as the ancient
mystics. Pan, the great god of nature, was generally figured in
connection with aquatic birds, geese especially, and so were
other gods. If, later on, with the gradual degeneration of religion,
the gods to whom geese were sacred, became Priapic deities, it
does not stand to reason that water fowls were made sacred to
Pan and other Phallic deities as some scoffers even of antiquity
would have it (see Petronii Satyrica, cxxxvi.); but that the
abstract and divine power of procreative nature had become
grossly anthropomorphized. Nor does the Swan of Leda show
"Priapic doings and her enjoyment thereof," as Mr. Hargrave
Jennings chastely expresses it -- for the myth is but another
version of the same philosophical idea of cosmogony. Swans
are frequently found associated with Apollo, as they are the
emblems of water and fire (sun-light also), before the separation
of the Elements.
Our modern symbologists might profit by some remarks made
by a well-known writer, Mrs. Lydia Maria Child. "From time
immemorial an emblem has been worshipped in Hindostan as
the type of creation, or the origin of life. . . . Siva or the
Mahadeva being not only the reproducer of human forms, but
also the fructifying principle, the generative power that pervades
the Universe. The maternal emblem is likewise a religious type.
This reverence for the production of life, introduced into the
worship of Osiris the sexual emblems. Is it strange that they
regarded with reverence the great mystery of human birth? Were
they impure thus to regard it? Or are we impure that do not so
regard it? But no clean and thoughtful mind could so regard
them. . . . We have travelled far, and unclean have been the
paths, since those old Anchorites first spoke of God and the
soul in the solemn depths of their first sanctuaries. Let us not
smile at their mode of tracing the infinite and the
incomprehensible Cause throughout all the mysteries of nature,
lest by so doing we cast the shadow of our own grossness on
their patriarchal simplicity." ("Progress of Religious Ideas," Vol.
1, p. 17, et seq.)
--------------

Rabbi Nathan says that 7 good qualities avail at the Judgment;

wisdom, righteousness, good opinions, mercy, truth, grace, and
peace. Seven epithets are applied to the Earth in the Hebrew
tongue; Aretz, Adamah, Arequa, Gia, Tziah, Yabeshah, Cheled or
Thebel. The mystical River Sambatyon flowed all the week, but
was still on the 7th day, says Rashi. Hershon, Talmudic
Miscellany, 154.
The 7 Catholic Deadly Sins are Pride, covetousness, lust, anger,
gluttony, envy and sloth.
The 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah xi. v. 2, are Wisdom,
Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge,
p. 83
[paragraph continues] Piety and Fear of the Lord; these are
seven of the Kabalistic Sephiroth.
Seven is the token of Union between God, who is Triune, and
Man, who is Quaternary. W. F. Shaw.
The Holy Ghost is said to impart a 7-fold gift; 7 Lamps burn
before the Throne of God.
The Council of Arles declared that 1 Bishops ought to take part
in the Ordination of a Bishop.
--------------------------------------------------THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF THE UNIVERSE AND MAN

Part II
Seventh: The Sthula Sharira, or physical body which is not,
strictly speaking, a principle.
When the fiery livesthe elementalsare withdrawn by the

disintegration of the physical form, there is nothing visible left. It is

but a temporary vehicle through which the interior forces of life may
play at the will of the Ego informing it, in order that the experience so
gained may aid in the development of a Spiritual Body. Without a
Spiritual Body, the Ego could have no individuality, and this is the
only reason behind reincarnation; otherwise it would be impossible for
the Ego to gain the knowledge and experience requisite for eternal life
in form in order to become, in its turn, the ruler of races and worlds.
Consequently, while it is the least important from one point of view,
the physical body is of incalculable importance from another, and
some knowledge of physiology is very important in the case of a
student if he is to understand thoroughly the principles above
enumerated, as the physical body is a microcosm of a macrocosma
little universe in a greater universe. [TT2@11]
It must be understood that all life in manifestation is the result of
Motion and Vibration, or the Great Breath. In the realm of the Real,
there is only one Life and that is Atma, or Spirit. Matter, Force and
Consciousness is Spirit in motion and vibration.
Desire is back of all will to createthe Universal Will as well as
the will of man. Whether the creation is an angel, an atom, a form of
gross matter or a universe, the principle of Desire has moved Will to
action in its creation. In man, Lower Mind operates primarily in the
centers of the brain and secondarily through corresponding centers in
lives which animate each molecule and cell of the body. In animals,
Lower Mind controls the instincts. In plants, it is the urge upward
towards the sun. In metals, it is the impulse towards crystallization,
and in all other degrees of matter it is the impulse towards Form.
It is written that the sons of Mind,the Manasa Putraare "the
Angels who fell from Heaven"; that is, the spirits who descended from
their perfect state in order to incarnate in the mindless men of the
Third Root Race and thus raise that Race from its animal state into
that of the human.
Whether it be literally or only figuratively true that
those angels are the mentalities of the human race today, as well as in
the preceding races, it is interesting to consider the differences in the
mentality of the men of one race and those of another from that

standpoint. For it is also written that such differences are due to the
fact that some of the Orders of the Manasa Putra incarnated in one
cycle, and other Orders in other cycles of the Third Root Race, thus
making it a question of age. Modern science imputes such differences
to the size of the brain and the amount of grey matter therein. Both
may be right. It is clear that Heredity atone does not account for the
vast differences in the mentalities of the savage, or [TT2@12] even of
the average man, and that of the great leaders of spiritual and material
thought.
In considering the principles and their corelations as bodies, it
would be a mistake to imagine them as separate forms of geometric
construction independent of each other. If we take two glasses of pure
water and pour into each one three chemicals which gradually change
the color of the water of one glass from yellow to blue and then to
green, and of the other from yellow to red and then to orange and then
pour the water from both glasses together, we have a correspondence
to the creation of a physical body and the planes of ifs constituent ions,
atoms, molecules, cells, etc.
Then if, by some chemical process, each one of the colors of the primary
and secondary rays resulting from the
whole mixture could be withdrawn, one from the other, at
intermediary periods of time, we would have a correspondence to the
separation of the Seven Principles or colors at death and disintegration.
The pure water would not be changed by the withdrawal of the colors.
That water would correspond to the first manifested vehicle of the Ego.
The lower principles are withdrawn gradually at the death of the
physical; the Ego having gained all necessary experience by other
means throughout a cycle of many incarnations.
This illustration is by no means perfect and is only intended to
illustrate the universality of the principles and their formlessness apart
form the forms created by motion and vibration within the Ocean of
Lifethe menstruum of all formthe Akasha, to use a Sanscrit term.
By discerning with the eye of intuition the world of outer nature,
we may understand by analogy the deepest spiritual truths of life. Seek,
for instance, the seven principles in the most common objects around
us. Take a tree or plant. Here we note seven main divisions, Root,
Trunk, Branches, Leaves, Blossom, Fruit and Seed. From the Seed

[TT2@13] the cycle is again repeated. The Rootthe First Principle

corresponds to Atma which is the root of all things and pervades all
things. The Trunk corresponds to the second, or Buddhic Principle,
the first emanation of the Root. The Trunk is Universal.
All life currents up or down must pass through it, and so it is with the
Buddhic
Principle. The Branches are the Third, or the Principle of Manas or
Higher Mind, a direct emanation from the Trunk. In the Third
Principle, represented by the Branches, the first differentiation (from
the Trunk) appears. The Spiritual Selfthe Three represented by Atma,
Buddhi, Manas is now ready to fall or materialize into the Four, which
is the Plane of Matter. The Fourth Principle is dual and corresponds to
the leaf of the tree or plant and is represented in the Seven Principles
by the Kamaic Principles. The two aspects of which are called Kama
Manas, or Lower Mind whose color is Green, and Kama Rupa, or the
body of Desires and Passions whose color is Red. The Leaf with these
two ensouling principles corresponds to the personality which buds
forth on the tree of life and fans in ifs season. Myriad personalities are
thus budded forth on the Great Tree and fall in time, but each one has
added something to the Tree of Life. By its living, something has been
added to the Divine Trunk of Being.
The Fifth Principle, or Prana, is the life Principle and pervades all
these other principles. It is an aspect of Atma whose essence is in the
Root but differentiated as Prana throughout the whole Tree. The
functioning of the Leaves, the Kamic Principle, helps to organize the
Sixth, or Astral Body, which seeks to express the glory of the inner
life externally in Form, Color, Fragrance and Beauty. As the Sixth, or
Astral Body, matures or condenses, the Seventh, the Fruit or physical
Body, is made manifest. This Fruit contains the Seed, which is the
doorway through which Atma may again involve ITSELF in the world
of matter, in terms of the Seven Principles. [TT2@14]
Until the Fourth Principle, or Plane, represented by the Leaf, is
evolved, the forces are downward, but once the Fourth is passed the
ascent begins. The Astral, Physical Body and the Seed, is the attempt
of the Higher Self to manifest Itselfthe Trinityon the Plane of
Matter, and this is attained potentially in the Seed, which to the plant
or tree is as synthetic as Atma is in the Universal Being.

This is working out the sevenfold correspondence on the plane of

an outer organism, that is, the outer body of a tree or plant. It should
be born in mind that every tree and plant has also its definite
principles, Astral Body and so on up to Atma, existing on inner planes,
but as yet intangible to the five senses of man.
To illustrate the action of the Seven Principles on their various
planes of action, let us imagine a Central Spiritual Sun as the higher
triad of Atma, Buddhi and Manas, unmanifest, yet reflecting itself in
Space as a second sun. Then imagine this reflected Sun, the second
Sun, as emanating seven great creative energies as Rays of Light.
Then picture each one of those rays of Light as breaking into seven
colors, each color manifesting the energies of the Rays of Light. Then
picture each one of the seven Color Rays as breaking into seven
secondary colors or shades of color, mingling and intermingling with
each other. This makes forty-nine colors which, in turn, would
correspond to the physical plane and all things existing therein.
The seven Rays of Color relate to the Manasic Plane, the Plane of all
souls;
the Second Sunthe reflected Sunto the Spiritual Plane. This is the
plane of manifestation for all incarnating Egos, whether in or out of
manifestation on the physical plane.
We must understand that no one separate state of matter or energy
contributes a plane of action. The manifestations of lifethe
incarnating Egos and their creations in formare themselves the four
planes or states of substance and force. [TT2@15]
Consciousness itselfSpiritthe higher triad of the seven
principles, represented by the First Sun, is moved to action in four
states or planes.
All states of matter and energy penetrate and
interpenetrate each other. Consequently, man is at all times alive on
four planes even when only conscious of life on the physical plane. As
his consciousnesshis soulawakens more and more, he becomes
conscious of all these planes, and thus correlation of consciousness is
one of the great aims of the Occult Student. Teachings of the Temple II

A Group Soul may be represented by a SevenPointed Star, seven

times seven, or forty-nine.
"GOD Himself is a Group Soul, including every
thing and every creature. He sends out seven Rays
of Himself, corresponding to the seven Colors, and
all elementals, minerals, plants, animals, men and
Angels must belong to one or another of those
seven great universal rays, on which all outer
manifestation rests. A great Angel, or a Great
Master, is an entity of Universal Consciousness,
made up of myriads of souls, the same as our
purely human body is made up of millions of
conscious lesser
lives which we call cells, each one an independent
entity, yet all together making the complete
organism." (Francia LaDue, Teachings of the
Temple )

RAY 7: Asha, Rta & Natural Hierarchy..In the Vedic religion,

Rta (Sanskrit Rtam "that which is properly joined; order, rule;
truth") is the principle of natural order which regulates and
coordinates the operation of the universe and everything within
it. HPB

----------------David reigle on T. Subba Row (see pp.32-40)

http://www.easterntradition.org/confusing%20esoteric%20with
%20exoteric.pdf
MADAME BLAVATSKY, BUDDHISM AND TIBET
by Leslie Price http://blavatskyarchives.com/price.pdf
----------------------------------------All these stages are governed by two things:
a. Similarity of vibration.
b. Karma,
and all are involved in the ability of tie man to develop group
consciousness.
On the planes of the higher mind, on the second subplane you
have a reflection of what can be seen on the highest planes of
our solar system. What have you there? The seven Heavenly
Men are there to be found, each of Whom is composed (from the
standpoint of form) of group souls,those group souls being
made up of the individual human and angel units of
consciousness. On the second subplane of the mental plane
you have the groups belonging to the Masters, if so I may
express it. These groups are animated and vitalised from the
atomic subplane where the Masters (when manifesting for the
helping of the sons of men) have Their habitat, [ii]* just as the
Heavenly Men have Their originating source and the cause of
Their life on the atomic plane of the solar system, that which we
call the plane of adi, or the first plane. These groups are formed
around a Master, are enclosed within His aura, and are a part of
His consciousness. They include people whose egoic ray is the
same as His, or whose monadic ray is the same.
[267]

This means that two types of people are concerned:

1. Those who are preparing for the first and second initiations,
taken upon the ray of the Ego, and
2. Those who are preparing for the two next initiations, which
are taken upon the ray of the Monad. You have here a cause of
the transference of people from one ray to another. It is only an
apparent transference, even though it entails passing into the
group of a different Master. This takes place after the second
initiation...
Again and again would I reiterate the apparently simple truth,
that only similarity of vibration will draw a man to the higher
group to which he may belong, to the Master Who represents to
him the Lord of His Ray, to the World Teacher Who administers
to him the mysteries, to the One Initiator Who effects the final
liberation, and to the centre within the Heavenly Man in Whose
Body he finds a place. It is the working out of the Law of
Attraction and Repulsion on all the planes that gathers the life
divine out of the mineral kingdom, out of the vegetable and
animal kingdoms, that draws the latent Deity from out of the
limitations of the human kingdom, and affiliates the man [269]
with his divine group. The same law effects his liberation from
subtler forms that likewise bind, and blends him back into his
animating source, the Lord of the Ray in Whose Body his Monad
may be found. Therefore the work of the probationer is to attune
his vibration to that of his Master, to purify his three lower
bodies so that they form no hindrance to that contact, and so to
dominate his lower mind that it is no longer a barrier to the
downflow of light from the threefold Spirit. Thus he is permitted
to touch that Triad and the group on the subplane of the higher
mental to which heby right and karma-belongs. All this is
brought about by meditation, and there is no other means for
achieving these aims. LOM
----------------------

466.

THE PLANETARY CHAINS

467.
Our solar system at the present moment
contains ten chains, each consisting of seven globes,
and these are evolving side by side, though at different
stages. Seven of them are represented upon the
physical level by one or more globes, but the three
others exist only on higher levels. The number of globes
on the physical plane which a chain has at any given
time depends upon the stage of its evolution. The
globes of each chain present us with a small cycle of
evolution descending into denser matter and then
ascending out of it, and in an exactly analogous manner
the successive incarnations of a chain also descend
into denser matter and then ascend out of it. Our own
chain is at the present moment at its lowest level of
materiality, so that of its seven planets three are on the
physical plane, two on the astral and two on the lower
mental.
468.
We usually employ the letters of the alphabet to
denote these globes in their order; so we should
represent the present condition of affairs by saying that
globes A and G are on the lower mental plane; globes B
and F on the astral, and globes C, D, and E upon the
physical level, C and E being smaller than D. It will be
observed that in travelling round the chain the life-wave
is steadily involving itself more and more in matter as it
descends from A to D, but is rising again and casting off
successive veils of matter as it passes from D to G.
469.
This is the condition of affairs during the fourth
and most material incarnation of each chain. But in the
third and fifth incarnations each chain has its first and
seventh planets on the higher mental, its second and
sixth on the lower mental, its third and fifth on the astral,
and only one planet, the fourth, on the physical plane.

The second and sixth incarnations of each chain are one

stage higher; their fourth planet is upon the astral plane,
while the third and fifth are upon the lower mental, the
second and sixth upon the higher mental and the first
and seventh at the buddhic level. The first and seventh
incarnations of a chain are one stage higher still, in that
their lowest planets are on the lower mental plane and
their first and seventh planets at the stage which we call
nirvanic.
470.
It is not easy for us to attach any meaning to
the idea of a planet upon planes so exalted as the
nirvanic or buddhic, and we are perhaps scarcely
justified in using the term. All that we mean is that there
is a certain location in space where the evolution of
certain groups of monads is taking place through
agencies which work on those exalted levels.
471.
Each of these seventy planets may be regarded
as having a definite location in space and as revolving
round, or in some way depending upon, our sun. Of
these seventy planets only twelve are physical, and
even of those twelve one is not yet recognised by
science and two others have only lately been
discovered.
472.
The existence of Vulcan was accepted by some
astronomers a century ago, but as it cannot now be
found, the scientific men of the present day hold that the
earlier observations were incorrect. No astronomer had
dreamt of the two planets beyond the orbit of Neptune at
the time when they were first mentioned in Theosophical
writings, but now their existence is admitted in
consequence of the deflections which they have
produced in certain cometary orbits.

473.
Madame Blavatsky says that Neptune is not in
our solar system, but there can be no question that it
revolves round our sun. Madame Blavatsky therefore
must have been speaking in some occult or symbolical
sense when she used those words. From the occult
point of view also, the Neptunian chain is clearly part of
our system, being one of the ten chains which compose
it; so we are unable at the moment to attach any
meaning to Madame Blavatsky' s statement. That does
not in the least imply that it is really meaningless or
inaccurate.
474.
We have frequently found that passages in her
writings, which we had been for a long time compelled
to put aside as incomprehensible and apparently
contrary to known facts, had nevertheless a definite
meaning and a certain sense in which they were true,
though these were discoverable only when (by
penetrating to higher planes) fresh aspects of the
subject were brought into view. No doubt in due time
this will prove to be the case with this enigmatical
statement about Neptune.
475.
Besides those on the seventy planets of which
we have spoken, there are other evolutions taking place,
every inch of place being utilised. Even in the koilon
itself there may be an evolution going on of which we
know nothing and can imagine nothing. We know as yet
so little of this marvellous system to which we belong;
all this teaching of Theosophy which has so changed
our lives is but the lifting of a tiny corner of the veil. All
space is filled with life, and there are even lower orders
than that of the physical plane. It sometimes happens
that a human being comes into touch with that lower

evolution, but that is always undesirable. Yet it would be

a great mistake to speak of the inhabitants of this lower
world as wicked. Certainly that evolution brings harm to
us if we become entangled with it, but that is because it
is not meant for us.
476.
Of the seven chains that have physical planets,
taking them in order, beginning with the nearest to the
sun and working outwards, we have first Vulcan, with
only one physical planet, which is small and must be
very hot. The Vulcan chain is in its third incarnation, but
we are given to understand that its scheme of evolution
is not destined to bring the entities concerned with it to
as high a level as will be ultimately attained by the
inhabitants of our own planet.
477.
Mercury is the next planet, and belongs to the
earth-chain.
478.
Venus is the only physical planet of the chain of
which it is a part. It is in the seventh round of its fifth
incarnation, and it represents the most advanced degree
of evolution yet attained by humanity in this solar
system. Being so far advanced, it has been to able to
afford assistance to other and less developed
evolutions; from it, as we know, descended the Lords of
the Flame, who gave so great a stimulus to the progress
of humanity in the middle of our third root-race.
479.
It is a remarkable fact that the astronomers of a
hundred and fifty years ago recorded several
observations of a satellite of Venus, whereas now it is
quite certain that no such orb exists. The usual
supposition is that those earlier astronomers erred. But
this is scarcely likely in view of the number and

character of the witnesses, and also their repeated

observations. It was seen by astronomers as well known
as Cassini and Short, in 1761, and that not once but
many times, and with different telescopes. It was
observed by Scheuten during the whole of its transit
along with Venus in the same year; it was seen four
times by Montaigne, and again in 1764 by Rdkier,
Horrebow and Montbaron. It was estimated to have a
diameter of about two thousand miles. It is surely more
probable that all these astronomers were right in their
observations, for we are told that in our seventh round
the moon will disintegrate and we shall be left without a
satellite. It may be only a coincidence that Venus is in its
seventh round, but it is a curious one.
480.
The next planets are our Earth and Mars, and
these two, along with Mercury, are the three physical
planets of a chain which is in its fourth incarnation. Our
Earth is the lowest and most material of the series-planet D, while Mars is our planet C and Mercury our
planet E. A good many of the more advanced members
of our present humanity were not upon the planet Mars
when the life-wave last swept over it, as will be
explained later; but the great bulk of the human race has
certainly passed through a series of incarnations on that
planet, and we have left behind us many traces of our
occupation, of which the present inhabitants are
abundantly availing themselves. When our present
occupancy of the earth ends for a time, we shall all pass
on to the somewhat less material life of the planet
Mercury, where the average level of consciousness may
be somewhat more extended than it is here, since
ordinary humanity will then possess what is now called
etheric sight. There are no grounds whatever, so far as I
know, for the statement made by a recent writer that the

real names of Mercury and Venus have been

interchanged. Indeed, we know a great deal about these
planets which makes the idea inconceivable.
481.
Next come the asteroids-- material which will
make a world some time; but we do not count them now.
482.
The giant of the solar system, Jupiter, has a
chain of its own. It is in an early stage of its evolution,
being very much too hot for life, such as we know, to
exist on its surface; but its satellites are inhabited. Its
surface has seas of molten metals, and similar
conditions exist on all the outside giant planets. It has a
density about that of water, if you take the whole mass;
but what we see is really the outside of a mass of cloud
thousands of miles in depth-- so we get a false estimate
of the actual size of the planet itself. The Jupiter scheme
is at present in the second round of its third incarnation.
We are told that this system will eventually raise its
humanity to an extremely high level.
483.
Next we come to Saturn, with its wonderful
system of rings and satellites. It is the only physical
planet of its chain. It also is in an early round of its third
incarnation, and we understand that the development
connected with it is slower than most of the others, but
that it will ultimately reach exalted levels.
484.
As to the schemes to which the outer planets
Uranus and Neptune belong, we have but little
information, though we know that the latter is in its
fourth incarnation, because of the fact that to it belong
also the two other physical planets whose orbits lie
outside its own. The conditions existing on all these
gigantic outer members of the solar systems must be

altogether so entirely different from those on the small

inner planets that it is practically impossible to form any
idea of the sort of life which must be lived by their
inhabitants, even in the future when the globes have
cooled down (Inner Life II)
--------------------------18: T. Subba Rao says on page 20, of Esoteric Writings:
"As a general rule, whenever seven entities are
mentioned in the ancient occult science of India in any
connection whatsoever, you must suppose that those
seven entities came into existence from three primary
entities and that these three entities again are evolved
out of a single entity or monad. To take a familiar
example, the seven coloured rays in the solar ray are
evolved out of three primary coloured rays; and the
three primary colours co-exist with the four secondary
colours in the solar ray. Similarly the three primary
entities which brought man into existence co-exist in
him with the four secondary entities which arose from
different combinations of the three primary entities."
In Christian terminology these are the three Persons of
the Trinity, and the seven Spirits which are before the
Throne. Compare "Our God is a consuming fire." Heb:
12.29.
[xix] 19: "I have already said in speaking of this Logos,
that it was quite possible that it was the Logos that
appeared in the shape of the first Dhyan Chohan, or
planetary Spirit, when the evolution of man was
recommenced after the last period of inactivity on this
planet, as stated in Mr. Sinnett's book, Esoteric
Buddhism, and after having set the evolutionary current

in motion, retired to the spiritual plane congenial to its

own nature, and has been watching since over the
interests of humanity, and now and then appearing in
connection with a human individuality for the good of
mankind. Or you may look upon the Logos represented
by Krishna as one belonging to the same class as the
Logos which so appeared. In speaking of himself
Krishna says, (chap. x, verse 6):
"The seven great Rishis, the four preceding Manus,
partaking of my nature were born from my mind: from
them sprang, was (born) the human race and the world."
He speaks of the sapta Rishis and of the Manus as his
manasaputras, or mind-born sons, which they would be
if he was the so-called Prajapati, who appeared on this
planet and commenced the work of evolution."--The
Theosophist, Vol. VIII, p. 443. TCF after 1283 footnotes
------------------

Background to the Seven Ray Teaching: See

comments in:
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malink/631431690321021/
Like the Tibetan, Alan Leo held that the divine creative
process requires a ternary or
triplicity to get rolling,44 which triplicity he
characterized as the Rays of Divine
Will, Wisdom, and Activity, with the third or Activity Ray
comprehending within itself the four minor
rays of aspect,45 precisely as the Tibetan would say in A
Treatise on Cosmic Fire...
Leo followed the Theosophical model of the solar

system
and held that though indeed the solar system is
constituted of the Solar Logos as the central
life manifesting through seven energy centers,
each energy center is made of just one planetary
chain (or seven globes).56 Elsewhere Leo
referred to seven individual planets as being
the centers of the Solar Logos,57 which notion
falls even shorter of the Tibetans later formulation58
that schemes fulfill this function, but it
remains consistent with the central and important
contention that the Solar Being functions
through seven energy centers...
At any rate, Alan Leo certainly knew of and
embraced the teaching on the seven emanations
of Deity, acknowledging specifically the
seven rays when he wrote, seven great
raysare constantly streaming through the
seven planetary spheres of influence.68 These
seven rays Leo identified with what he understood
by the term Planetary Spirits or Logoi,69
though his Logoi manifested through fewer
globes than did those of the later teaching.
In a way, Leo also recognized the Lords of the
Rays, explaining [it is] not the physical
planets themselves that affect mankind, but the
supreme Intelligences who use the planetary
bodies as their physical vehicles.70 These
supreme Intelligences filled a specific role in
Leos esoteric model of the solar system, one
that will be familiar to the mindful student of
the esoteric astrological doctrine. It is the
same role imputed to the Planetary Logoi by

the Tibetan throughout A Treatise on Cosmic

Fire; for Leo asserted that the planetary intelligences
carry out the will of the Solar Logos,71
just as the Tibetan repeatedly stated it is
the function of the Planetary Logoi to do.
Further, it was Leos contention that each
planet is charged with mastering the evolution
of one of the seven principles,72 which is exactly
what the Tibetan said about the schemes.
Thus, though in Leos mind it was individual
planets that represented the Supreme Intelligences,
the Ray Lords, or Planetary Logoi, it
was the schemes which fulfilled that role in the
more fully developed system ultimately revealed
through Bailey. In any case, the important point is that in
both
Leo and Bailey, the Seven Supreme Intelligences
represent the rays, have as their duties the
working out of the Will of the Solar Logos,
and provide the ground for perfecting of one of
the seven principles. These essential notions
are found in both Leo and Bailey.
Leo wrote of the individuality (his word for
soul), Through the agency of [the] Seven
Divine Rays man creates his causal body, colored
primarily by its Father in Heaven, (or
Monad) and from which a ray is cast into the
physical body at birth to be the personality.77
That Leo was aware not only of soul or egoic
rays but also of groups of souls constituted on
the basis of ray affinity is a certainty as well,
for Leo penned, at the head of the group of
individuals belonging to each ray there stands

a Master.78 Bailey students would say that

at the head of the souls on each ray stands a
Master of that ray vibration,
but the idea is remarkably
the same, minor
variations in terminology
notwithstanding. The Role of Alan Leo and Sepharial in
the
Development of Esoteric Astrology (Part I)
Temple Richmond
----------------

SOUND AND COLOR

All the mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual faculties,
are influenced by the Occult properties of the scale of
causes which emanate from the Hierarchies of the
Spiritual Rulers of the planets, and not by the planets
themselves. This scale, as given in Diagram II, leads the
student to perceive in the following order: (1) colour; (2)
sound; (3) the sound materializes into the spirit of the
metals, i.e., the metallic Elementals; (4) these materialize
again into the physical metals; (5) then the harmonial
and vibratory radiant essence passes into the plants,
giving them colour and smell, both of which
properties depend upon the rate of vibration of this
energy per unit of time; (6) from plants it passes into the
animals; (7) and finally culminates in the principles of
man.
Thus we see the Divine Essence of our Progenitors in
Heaven circling through seven stages; Spirit becoming
Matter, and Matter returning to Spirit. As there is sound

in Nature which is inaudible, so there is colour which is

invisible, but which can be heard. The creative force, at
work in its incessant task of transformation, produces
colour, sound and numbers, in the shape of rates of
vibration which compound and dissociate the atoms
and molecules. Though invisible and inaudible to us in
detail, yet the synthesis of the whole becomes audible
to us on the material plane. It is that which the Chinese
call the Great Tone, or Kung. It is, even by scientific
confession, the actual tonic of Nature, held by
musicians to be the middle Fa on the keyboard of a
piano. We hear it distinctly in the voice of Nature, in the
roaring of the ocean, in the sound of the foliage of a
great forest, in the distant roar of a great city, in the
wind, the tempest and the storm; in short, in everything
in Nature which has a voice or produces sound. HPB ES
Instructions
A Heavenly Man contains within Himself three major
principleswill, love-wisdom, intelligence, and their
manifestation through the seven principles so often
discussed in our occult literature. These make the ten of
His ultimate perfection, for the seven are resolved into
the three, and the three into the one. TCF p.252
The solar Logos contains within Himself the three major
principles or aspects, and their differentiation into seven
principles. These make the ten of His ultimate perfection
and are eventually synthesised into the one perfected
principle of love-wisdom. This ultimate principle is His
primary coloring. Each principle is embodied in one of
the schemes, and is being worked out through one of
the Heavenly Men. Only four principles are as yet
manifested to any extent, for the evolution of the Logos

parallels that of the Heavenly Men. TCF p.257

-------------------The Ego, the reflection of the Monad, is in itself a
triplicity, as is all else in nature, and reflects the three
aspects of divinity, just as the Monad reflects on a
higher plane the three aspectswill, love-wisdom, and
active intelligenceof the Deity. Therefore:
At the first initiation the initiate becomes aware of the
third, or lowest, aspect of the Ego, that of active
intelligence. He is brought face to face with that
manifestation of the great solar angel (Pitri) who is
himself, the real self. He [115] knows now past all
disturbance that that manifestation of intelligence is that
eternal Entity who has for ages past been demonstrating
its powers on the physical plane through his successive
incarnations.
At the second initiation this great Presence is seen as a
duality, and another aspect shines forth before him. He
becomes aware that this radiant Life, Who is identified
with himself, is not only intelligence in action but also is
love-wisdom in origin. He merges his consciousness
with this Life, and becomes one with it so that on the
physical plane, through the medium of that personal
self, that Life is seen as intelligent love expressing itself.
At the third initiation the Ego stands before the initiate
as a perfected triplicity. Not only is the Self known to be
intelligent, active love, but it is revealed also as a
fundamental will or purpose, with which the man
immediately identifies himself, and knows that the three
worlds hold for him in the future naught, but only serve
as a sphere for active service, wrought out in love

towards the accomplishment of a purpose which has

been hid during the ages in the heart of the Self. That
purpose, being now revealed, can be intelligently cooperated with, and thus matured...
At the fourth initiation, the initiate is brought into the
Presence of that aspect of Himself which is called "His
Father in Heaven." He is brought face to face with his
own Monad, that pure spiritual essence on the highest
plane but one, which is to his Ego or higher self what
that Ego is to the personality or lower self.
This Monad has expressed itself on the mental plane
through the Ego in a triple fashion, but now all aspects
of the mind, as we understand it, are lacking. The solar
angel hitherto contacted has withdrawn himself, and the
form through which he functioned (the egoic or causal
body) has gone, and naught is left but love-wisdom and
that dynamic will which is the prime characteristic of
Spirit. The lower self has served the purposes of the
Ego, and has been discarded; the Ego likewise has
served the purposes of the Monad, and is no longer
required, and the initiate stands free of both, fully
liberated and able to contact the Monad, as earlier he
learned to contact the Ego. For the remainder of his
appearances in the three worlds he is governed only by
will and purpose, self-initiated, and creates his body of
manifestation, and thus controls (within karmic limits)
his own times and seasons. The karma here referred to
is planetary karma, and not personal.
At this fourth initiation he contacts the love aspect of
the Monad, and at the fifth the will aspect, and thus
completes his contacts, responds to all necessary
vibrations, and is master on the five planes of human

evolution.
Further, it is at the third, the fourth, and the fifth
initiations that he becomes aware also of that
"Presence" which enfolds even that spiritual Entity, his
own Monad. [118] He sees his Monad as one with the
Planetary Logos. Through the channel of his own
Monad he sees the self-same aspects (which that Monad
embodies) on a wider scale, and the Planetary Logos,
Who ensouls all the Monads on His ray, is thus revealed.
This truth is well-nigh impossible to express in words,
and concerns the relation of the electrical point of fire,
which is the Monad, to the five-pointed star, which
reveals the Presence of the Planetary Logos to the
initiate. This is practically incomprehensible to the
average man for whom this book is written.
At the sixth initiation, the initiate, functioning
consciously as the love-aspect of the Monad, is brought
(via his "Father") into a still vaster recognition, and
becomes aware of that Star which encloses his
planetary star, just as that star has earlier been seen as
enclosing his own tiny "Spark." He thus makes his
conscious contact with the solar Logos, and realises
within himself the Oneness of all life and manifestation.
This recognition is extended at the seventh initiation, so
that two aspects of the One life become realities to the
emancipated Buddha. Initiation, Human & Solar

...the student should bear in mind the

interesting significance of the fact that

he, on the physical plane, is a

functioning personality, with known and
realised characteristics, and yet withal,
that he is a subjective Life, who [136]
uses that personality as a medium of
expression, and whothrough the
agency of the physical, emotional, and
mental bodies which comprise the
threefold lower manmakes his
contacts with the physical plane and
thus develops. The same general idea of
development must be now extended to
the higher Self, the Ego on its own plane.
This Ego is a great solar angel, who is
the medium of expression for the Monad
or pure spirit, just as is the personality
for the Ego on the lower level. From the
point of view of man in the three worlds,
this Ego, or Solar Lord, is eternal; he
persists throughout the entire cycle of
incarnations, just as the personality
persists during the tiny physical life
cycle. Nevertheless, this period of
existence is only relatively permanent,

and the day dawns when the life which

expresses itself through the medium of
the Ego, the Thinker, the Solar Lord or
Manasadeva, seeks to loose itself from
even this limitation, and to return to the
source from which it originally
emanated.
The life then, which manifested as a solar angel, and
which, through inherent energy, held together through
long ages the form egoic, withdraws itself gradually, and
the form slowly dissipates; the lesser lives of which it
has been constituted, return to the general fount of deva
substance, plus the increased consciousness and
activity which is theirs through the experience of being
built into a form, and utilised by a still higher aspect of
existence. Similarly, in the case of the personality, when
the life egoic withdraws, the threefold lower self
dissipates; the little lives which form the body of what
has been called the lunar self (in contradistinction to the
solar self, being but its reflection) are absorbed into the
general reservoir of deva substance of a lower vibration
to that which composed the body egoic. Similarly, also,
their evolution has been furthered through [137] having
been built into a form for the use of the higher Self.
Through the application of the Rod of Initiation, the work
of separating the spiritual self from the higher self is
furthered, and the imprisoned life gradually escapes,
whilst the causal body is slowly absorbed or dissipated.
This has led to the expression, sometimes used in

occult books, of "the cracking of the causal body" at

each initiation, and to the idea of the inner central fire
gradually breaking through and destroying the confining
walls, and also of the destruction of the Temple of
Solomon through the withdrawal of the Shekinah. All
these phrases are symbolic wordings, and are attempts
to convey to the mind of man fundamental truth from
different angles.
By the time the fourth initiation has been reached, the
work of destruction is accomplished, the solar angel
returns to his own place, having performed his function,
and the solar lives seek their point of emanation. The
life within the form mounts up then in triumph to the
bosom of its "Father in Heaven," just as the life within
the physical body at the moment of death seeks its
source, the Ego, and this likewise in four stages:
1. By the withdrawal from the dense physical body.
2. By the withdrawal from the etheric body.
3. By a later vacating of the astral body.
4. A final leaving of the mental body.
Another way of emphasising the same truth is to regard
the egoic body as a centre of force, a wheel of energy, or
a lotus, and to picture it as a lotus with nine petals,
hiding within these petals a central unit of three petals;
these in their turn secrete the central life, or the "jewel in
the lotus." As evolution proceeds, these three circles of
three petals gradually unfold, having a simultaneous
effect on one or [138] other of the central three. These
three circles are called respectively the petals of

Sacrifice, Love, and Knowledge. At initiation the Rod is

applied to the petals in a scientific manner, and
regulated according to ray and tendency. This brings
about the opening of the central bud, the revelation of
the jewel, the withdrawal of that jewel from the casket
which has so long shielded it, and its transference to
"the crown," as it is occultly called, meaning its return
to the Monad whence it came. Initiation, Human & Solar
...the first three initiations are taken upon the ray of the
Ego, and link a man up with the great White Lodge; the
last two are taken upon the ray of the monad, and have a
definite effect upon the path for service that will be
chosen later by the adept. Initiation, Human & Solar,
p.181
At the third initiation there is revealed to the initiate the
purpose of the subray of the ray to which he belongs,
that upon which his Ego finds itself. All egoic units are
upon some subray of the monadic ray. This knowledge
is conferred upon the initiate so as to enable him
eventually to find for himself (along the line of least
resistance) the ray of his Monad. This subray bears
upon its stream of energy many groups of Egos, and the
initiate is therefore made aware not only of his egoic
group and its intelligent purpose, but of many other
groups, similarly composed. Their united energy is
working towards a clearly defined goal. Ibid, p. 121
Under the regime of the Ego, the ray upon which the ego
can be found holds sway. This ray is simply a direct
reflection of the monad, and is dependent upon that
aspect of the spiritual triad which for the man is at any
particular time the line of least resistance. By that we

must understand that sometimes the ray will have for its
centre of force the atmic aspect, sometimes the
buddhic, and at other times the manasic aspect. Though
the triad is threefold, yet its egoic outposts (if one may
so express it) will be either definitely atmic, or
predominantly buddhic or manasic. Here again I would
draw attention to the fact that this triple demonstration
can be seen under three forms, making in all a ninefold
choice of rays for the Ego:
Atmic aspect.
1. atmic-atmic
2. atmic-buddhic
3. atmic-manasic.
Buddhic aspect.
1. buddhic-atmic
2. buddhic-buddhic
3. buddhic-manasic.
Manasic aspect.
1. manasic-atmic
2. manasic-buddhic
3. manasic-manasic
This literally means that the three major rays can each

be subdivided (in connection with the Ego) into three

divisions. This fact is also little appreciated. TCF 177
Each planetary Logos pours forth His influence in
different rounds, planes, chains, globes, races, and
subraces according to their numerical relationship to
the scheme of which He is the vitalising Life.
Temporarily, and as the cycle progresses, these forms
become receptive and negative, and are thus responsive
to the positive influence of the planetary Logos.
One further point I would make, and as it is of an
esoteric and occult nature, it can be but hinted at. At the
fourth Initiation, the force of the Logos of the fourth Ray
is a vital factor in the initiation. It is through the
application of the Rod of Initiation that His Life energy is
applied to the initiate, or the electrical force that
emanates from Him is geometrically circulated through
certain centres, producing the necessitated stimulation.
At the fifth Initiation similarly the force of the third
Logos may be felt, and at the sixth that of the second
Logos, while at the seventh the dynamic fire of the first
Logos circulates through the body of the Chohan.
It might be tabulated thus:
1. The magical force of the seventh Logos is felt at the
first Initiation.
2. The aggressive fire of the sixth Logos is felt at the
second Initiation.
3. The illuminating light of the fifth Logos is felt at the
third Initiation.

4. The harmonising life of the fourth Logos is felt at the

fourth Initiation.
5. The blending power of the third Logos is felt at the
fifth Initiation.
6. The unifying heat of the second Logos is felt at the
sixth Initiation.
7. The dynamic electricity of the first Logos is felt at the
seventh Initiation. TCF p.433
Cosmic, or extra-systemic rays, impinge upon or
circulate via centres found on the second cosmic ether,
but which, at the present stage of objectivity, become
systemically visible in the fourth cosmic ether, the
buddhic.
One permanent cosmic Ray is the ray of our Logos
Himself, and the subrays of this ray permeate His entire
system. Six other cosmic Rays, animating other
systems, influence ours, finding their reflections in the
subrays of our logoic Ray. To these six cosmic
influences our Heavenly Men respond. They absorb the
influence, being centres in the body logoic, pass it
through Their schemes, circulate it through Their own
centres (chains), and transmit it on to other schemes,
coloring it with Their Own peculiar shade and qualifying
it by Their own peculiar tone or note.
The whole system of ray influence, or radiatory warmth,
considered both physically and psychically, is one of an
intricate circulation and interaction. The radiation or
vibration passes in ordered cycles from its originating

source, the One Ray, or systemic Logos, to the different

centres in His body. Viewed from the physical
standpoint this ray force is the energising factor in
matter. Viewed from the psychical point of view it is the
qualitative faculty. From scheme to scheme, from chain
to chain, and from globe to globe, his force or quality
passes and circulates...TCF

We enumerated the colours yesterday

and in a certain order. I seek again to
enumerate them thus, only this time
reminding you that the one Ray of which
all the others are but sub-rays, might be
regarded as a circle of sevenfold light.
Too apt is the student to picture seven
bands, striking down athwart the five
lower planes till they contact the earth
plane and are absorbed into dense
matter. Not so is it in fact.
The seven colours may be regarded as a
band of seven colours circling and
continuously shifting and moving
through the planes back to their
originating source......
These seven bands of colour emanate

from the synthetic Ray. The indigo subray of the indigo Ray forms the path of
least resistance from the heart of
densest matter back again to the source.
The bands of colour form a circulating
ring which, moving at different rates of
vibration, passes through all the planes,
circling down and up again.
What I seek to bring out specially here is
that these seven bands do not all move
at the same rate, and herein lies hid the
key to the complexity of the matter.
Some move at a swifter rate of vibration
than do some of the others. Henceas
they carry their corresponding monads
with themyou have here the answer to
the question as to why some egos seem
to make more rapid progress than do
some others. Letters on Occult
Meditation, pp.211-212
Different rays come in bearing units coloured by that
ray. Other rays pass out carrying with them units of a
different basic hue. In the period of transition the

blending of colour 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 colours, and their constant action and interaction
upon each other, will come a steady, general levelling
up, and an approximation in vibration. You will see,
therefore, how synthesis is achieved at the end of a
greater maha-manvantara. The three rays absorb the
seven and lead eventually to a merging in the synthetic
ray. LOM, p.234
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. LOM
...each Heavenly Man holds the position of a centre in
the body of a solar Logos; therefore, the Logos of a
scheme will embody some outstanding characteristic.
The ten schemes are the seven, and the synthesising
threenot the seven and a lower three. The lower
centres were vital in the last solar system (from the
esoteric standpoint), and are not counted in this; they
were synthesised and absorbed during the obscuration
process of System I.
Secondly, ...each Heavenly Man is consequently the

embodiment of a particular kind of electrical force which

flows through His scheme as man's force flows through
some one of the etheric centres in his body. Each
scheme, as each human centre, will
a. Vibrate to some one key.
b. Have its own colouring.
c. Resemble, when seen from the higher planes, a vast
lotus.
d. Possess, according to its vibratory capacity, a definite
number of petals.
e. Be connected in geometrical formation with certain
other centres of Heavenly Men, making systemic
triangles. [cxxxiv]32
f. Be characterised by different stages of activity
according to the initiation towards which the Logos may
be working. Thus, at one period one centre or Heavenly
Man may be the subject of logoic attention, and of
specialised stimulation, and at another period a totally
different scheme may be the object of vitalisation. For
some time the Logos has turned His attention to the
Earth Scheme and to Saturn, whilst Uranus is receiving
[358] stimulation. Much is therefore accentuated, and
increased evolutionary development is the consequence
of this divine attention. TCF
First, through passing the interim between egoic cycles
of physical incarnation on the particular globe of their
scheme, which numerically coincides with the particular

other scheme whose influence is desired, either from

deliberate choice or karmically necessitated. Each
globe in a chain is occultly linked with the chain of its
own number, and with the scheme of a similar number.
For instance: Globe 2, Chain 2, and scheme 2 during
round 2 are specially linked and vitalised, and are the
focal point of peculiar attention on the part of the Logos
of that scheme. Similarly (again in illustration) globe 2,
chain 2 during round 2 in any scheme such as the fifth,
for instance, are aligned or connected esoterically with
the second scheme. This gives opportunity for the units
in the body of any Logos to come under the influence of
another Logos, and within his vibratory radiation.
Second, through a direct transference of the units in
incarnation in any scheme (during an interlude) to some
globe in another scheme where they are subjected to
the stimulation and vibration peculiar to that scheme.
These two methods are the most usual. This
transference will seem mysteriously impossible unless
the student is careful to realise that it is the transference
of the individualised lives and not the transference of
the forms which they occupy. The whole matter is
psychic, and based on the unity of the anima mundi. It
is only possible at those periods when two Heavenly
Men are mutually finding each otherunder the Law of
Attractionand thus swinging into the magnetic radius
of each other.
Third, through a conscious passage of the initiate, [366]
through initiation, from one scheme to another. This is
frequently done, and hints of it have been given by
different writers and thinkers, though several have
confused the globes of their own chain with the scheme
of the same number, or have mistaken another chain

within the scheme for another scheme.

Fourth, the fourth method of transference of
consciousness, and the bringing of the life units under
the focal power of a Lord of a Ray, can be brought about through
knowledge of certain mantrams and formulae. On this we may not
enlarge as these mantrams are esoteric and the use of them is fraught
with much danger to the uninitiated. TCF