Letters on Occult Meditation

by Alice A Bailey

  Certain colours belong more exclusively to the human Hierarchy, others to the deva. In their ultimate blending and intermingling comes eventual perfection....

  August 29th, 1920.

  1 - Enumeration of the Colours.

  Tonight we must continue our study on colour and take up our first point.

  In doing this I will make certain comments and give you certain data, impressing upon you nevertheless again the fact that I use the exoteric terms, and that the discussion [211] is but for suggestive purposes. The very use of the word “Colour” shews the intention, for, as you know, the definition of the word conveys the idea of concealment. Colour is therefore “that which does conceal.” It is simply the objective medium by means of which the inner force transmits itself; it is the reflection upon matter of the type of influence that is emanating from the Logos, and which has penetrated to the densest part of His solar system. We recognise it as colour. The adept knows it as differentiated force, and the initiate of the higher degrees knows it as ultimate light, undifferentiated and undivided.

  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 sub-ray 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. Hence—as they carry their corresponding monads with them—you have here [212] the answer to the question as to why some egos seem to make more rapid progress than do some others.

  These coloured rings do not follow a straight unimpeded course, but interweave in a most curious manner, blending with each other, absorbing each other in stated cycles, and grouping themselves in groups of threes or fives, yet ever moving onwards. This is the real foundation to the diamond pattern upon the back of the serpent of wisdom. Three major lines of colour should be portrayed as forming the lattice work on the serpent's skin, with the four other colours interweaving. Some day some student of colour and of the Divine Wisdom should compile a large chart of the seven planes, and superimposed upon those planes should be placed a seven-coloured serpent of wisdom. If correctly drawn to scale some interesting geometrical patterns will be found as the circles cut across the planes, and some impression will be conveyed occularly of the complexity of the matter of the seven rays......

  Certain brief statements seem to be in place:—

  The true indigo is the blue of the vault of heaven on a moonless night. It is the culmination, and at the attainment by all of synthesis, the solar night will supervene. Hence the colour corresponds to what the sky nightly proclaims. Indigo absorbs.

  Green is the basis of the activity of Nature. It was the synthetic colour for system 1, and is the foundation for the present manifested system. The note of Nature is green, and each time a man reviews the robe in which the earth is clad he is contacting some of the force that reached its consummation in system 1. Green stimulates and heals.

  I seek to call your attention here to the fact that it is not yet permissible to give out the esoteric significance of [213] these colours, nor exact information as to their order and application. The dangers are too great, for in the right understanding of the laws of colour and in the knowledge (for instance) of which colour stands for a particular ray lies the power the adept wields.

  Comments on the colours.

  Certain colours are known and it might be well if we here enumerated them. The synthetic ray is indigo, or a deep hue. It is the Ray of Love and Wisdom, the great fundamental ray of this present solar system, and is one of the cosmic rays. This cosmic ray divides itself, for purposes of manifestation, into seven sub-rays, as follows:

  1. Indigo...............and a colour not disclosed.

  2. Indigo-indigo...The second sub-ray of Love and Wisdom. It finds its great expression on the second monadic plane, and its major manifestation in the monads of love.

  3. Indigo-green.......The third sub-ray, the third major Ray of Activity or Adaptability. It is the basic ray of the second system. It is the great ray for the deva evolution.

  4. Indigo-yellow...............The Harmony Ray.

  5. Indigo-orange..The Ray of Concrete Knowledge.

  6. Indigo...and a colour not disclosed. The Ray of Devotion.

  7. Indigo-violet.....The Ray of Ceremonial Order.

  Now you will note that I do not name the two colours, indigo-red and indigo-blue, nor do I apportion them to [214] certain rays or planes. It is not that it is not possible to do so, but it is the withholding of this information that creates the puzzle. Certain things you must always remember in dealing with these colours:

  That I have given their exoteric names and application, and that of all I have given only two correspond with their esoteric application,—indigo and green. The Synthetic Ray and the Activity Ray are at this stage the only two of which you can be absolutely assured. One is the goal of endeavour, and the other is the foundation colour of Nature.

  That the other five colours with which our fivefold evolution is concerned, change, intermingle, blend, and are not esoterically understood in the same sense as you might imagine from the use of the words, red, yellow, orange, blue and violet. Esoterically they scarcely resemble their names, and the names themselves are intended to blind and mislead.

  That each of these three colours and the other two are only understood as yet through four of their lesser sub-rays. This is the fourth round and only four sub-rays of these colours have as yet been glimpsed. By remembering these three points undue emphasis will not be laid upon apparent information, and the student will wisely reserve his opinion.

  Yellow is another of the colours that have come to us from system 1. The blending of blue and of yellow in that system had much to do with the production of activity. Yellow harmonises, it marks completion and fruition. Note how in autumn, when the processes of Nature have run their course and the cycle is complete, the yellow of the autumn is spread upon the landscape. Note also that when the sun pours unimpeded down the yellow of the harvest is also to be seen. So it is in the [215] life of the spirit. When the fourth plane of harmony or of buddhi is achieved, then is consummation. When the work of the personality is completed, and when the sun of the microcosm, the Ego, pours unimpeded down into the personal life, then comes fruition and harvest. The at-one-ment, or the harmonising has been made, and the goal has been reached. Blue and yellow blended result in green, and the synthetic blue or indigo (the love and wisdom aspect) dominates when the plane of harmony is reached. It leads then to the third plane of atma whereon the green of activity predominates......

  August 31st, 1920.

  In continuing our study of colour and meditation, and our particular division in that study, I would—for your encouragement—point out that the part that falls to you is the reception and publication of these letters and of the imparted data, whereas the responsibility for that data rests with me. Even if you understand them not, and even if it seems to you that some of the data may be contradictory, I would suggest for your consideration that in the esoteric interpretation lies hid half the mystery, and the other half is concealed by the fact that all interpretation depends upon the standpoint of the interpreter, and the plane whereon his consciousness is working. The
value of what I impart now consists in this:—that in the study of colour (which is one form of the study of vibration) comes the ability to understand personal vibration, to attune that vibration to the egoic one, and to synchronise it later with that of the Master. One of the main methods of effecting this synchronisation is meditation. When the intelligence grasps the scientific facts anent this subject, then comes the utilisation of these facts for the advancement of vibration, and the wise development of the colours necessitated. [216]

  We dealt in my last letter with the four colours—blue, indigo, green, and yellow,—and in this primary grouping lies much of interest. We now come to a different group of colours, and one that falls naturally together, orange, red, and violet.

  Orange. This colour is for our purpose the colour of the mental plane, the colour that marks burning; it is the symbol of flame, and curiously enough the colour that epitomises separation. But I would have you note that the occult orange is not exactly the colour that you understand by the term. Exoteric orange is a blend of yellow and red; esoteric orange is a purer yellow, and the red scarcely is seen at all. This orange comes in as a vibration set up by a cosmic ray, for you have to remember that this fifth ray (just as the fifth plane and the fifth principle) is closely allied to the cosmic ray of the intelligence, or to that activity aspect that found its great expression in the first solar system. The synthetic ray of that time was the green ray, and it found one of its closest alliances in the ray of orange, or mind or intelligence demonstrating through form. You get a correspondence in this solar system in the synthetic Ray of Love and Wisdom, and its close relationship to the fourth Ray of Harmony. It finds a demonstration in the triangle formed by their interaction, as follows: [217]

  FIRST SOLAR SYSTEM

  Green Ray

  Third sub-ray Fifth sub-ray

  Activity Manas, mind

  Green-green Green-orange

  Third Aspect

  Activity or Intelligence

  SECOND SOLAR SYSTEM

  Indigo Ray

  Second sub-ray Fourth sub-ray

  Love and Wisdom Harmony

  Indigo-indigo Indigo-yellow

  Second Aspect

  Love and Wisdom

  [218] In the activity system you have the third aspect of universal mind or activity, demonstrating through the orange of the concrete sub-ray......adaptability through form—form which perfectly expresses that latent activity. Similarly in the second system of love, you have the love aspect demonstrating through the yellow of the ray of harmony or beauty—love expressing itself perfectly through unity, harmony or beauty. Note here the fact that I again use terms that are dependent for their correctness upon their exoteric or esoteric interpretation.

  Therefore to return to what I earlier said, this orange comes in as a vibration set up by the earlier cosmic ray of activity in the earlier solar system; the force of orange (which is scientific apprehension by the intelligence) comes in to perfect the link between spirit and form, between life and the vehicles through which it is seeking expression.

  1.Life Aspect 2. Form Aspect 3. Intelligence Aspect

  Spirit Matter Mind

  Consciousness Vehicle Vitality

  Self Not-Self Relation between

  Ray Ray Ray

  2. Love and Wisdom 1. Power or Will 3. Activity or Adaptability

  4. Harmony 7. Ceremonial Law 5. Concrete Knowledge

  6. Devotion 5. Concrete Knowledge

  We might apportion the great basic colours between the various terms that we use to express the totality of the manifested universe:

  [219] This is but one of the ways in which the rays may be apportioned and considered as influences having direct effect upon the evolving life, or upon the form in which it evolves by means of that third factor, the intelligence. These three divisions make the three points of a cosmic triangle:—

  and the current of the rays playing macrocosmically between the three has its microcosmic correspondence in the fire of kundalini (awakened through meditation) playing in accurate geometrical form between the three major centres:—

  All the seven rays interact between the life, the form and the inner mind, and are in their essence themselves those three. They are life, they are form, they are intelligence, and their totality is the manifested universe. All seven at different times play on the different aspects. [220]

  The most important interaction exists between:—

  a. The Love-Wisdom Ray and the Harmony Ray, as it does between the monadic plane and the buddhic.

  b. The Power Ray and that of Ceremonial Law, just as it does between the first and the seventh planes.

  c. The Activity or Adaptability Ray and that of Concrete Knowledge or Science, just as it does between the third plane of atma and the fifth plane of mind. Green and orange were allied in the first solar system, and continue their alliance here. I have opened up for all true students vast realms of thought.

  In the relationship between indigo, blue and yellow lies hid a secret.

  In the relationship between green, orange and red another is revealed.

  In the relationship between blue, red, and violet lies still another mystery.

  The student, who, by using his intuition, apprehends these three mysteries has found the key to the greater cycle and holds the key to evolutionary development. Remember, therefore, when studying the microcosm that the same relationship will be found, and will open the portal to the “Kingdom of God within.”

  Red is for all apparent purposes one of the most difficult colours to consider. It ranks as undesirable. Why? Because it has been considered as the colour of kama, or evil desire, and the picture of the dark and lurid reds in the emotional body of the undeveloped man rises ever to one's vision. Yet—at some distant time—red will be the basis of a solar system, and in the perfect merging of red, green and blue will come eventually the completed [221] work of the Logos and the consummation of the pure white light.

  The activity system was green.

  The love system is blue.

  The power system will be red.

  The result of merging red, blue, and green is—as you know—white, and the Logos will then have esoterically “washed His robes and made them white in the blood,” just as the microcosm, in a lesser sense, does in process of evolution.

  Violet. In a curious way the violet Ray of Ceremonial Law or Order is a synthetic ray when manifested in the three worlds. Just as the synthetic Ray of Love and Wisdom is the synthesis of all the life forces, so in the three worlds the seventh ray synthesises all that has to do with form. On the first plane, life in its purest, highest, undifferentiated synthetic aspect; on the seventh plane, form in its densest, grossest, most differentiated aspect; one is summed up in the synthetic Ray of Love, whilst the other is worked upon by the seventh.

  A synthesis too is found in the fact that through the medium of violet the deva and human kingdoms can find a place of contact. Esoterically violet is white. In the blending of these two kingdoms the seven Heavenly Men attain perfection and completeness, and are esoterically considered to be white, the synonym of perfection.

  Another point of synthesis is the fact that through the dominance of this seventh ray comes a point of merging between the dense physical and the etheric bodies. This is of paramount importance in the macrocosm, and to the student of meditation. It is necessary to effect this merging and alignment before the transmission of the teaching to the dense physical brain can in any way be [222] considered accurate. It has a close bearing upon the alignment of the centres.

  I have sought in the above remarks solely to indicate lines of thought which, if followed closely, may lead to surprising results. By the study of colours and the planes, by the study of colour and its effect and relationship to the life side, and by the study of the form side of the mind, will come much of value to the student of meditation, provided always he does three things:

  1. That he seeks to find the esoteric colours and their right app
lication to the planes and centres, to the bodies through which he manifests, and to the bodies through which the Logos manifests (the seven sacred planets); to the rounds and to the races, and to the cycles of his own individual life. When he can do this he holds in his hands the key to all knowledge.

  2. That he endeavours to make practical application of all indicated truth to his personal life of service in the three worlds, and that he tries to conform in his methods of work to the methods demonstrated by the Logos through the seven rays or influences. By this I mean that, through meditation, he brings his life systematically and in ordered occult cycles under those seven great influences, and so produces an ordered beauty in his manifestation of the Ego.

  3. That he remembers ever that perfection, as we know it, is only partial and not real, and that even perfection itself—as grasped by the mind of man, is but illusion, and that only the next logoic manifestation will reveal the ultimate glory in view. As long as there is differentiated colour there is imperfection. Remember, colour as we know it is the realisation by the man using a fifth root-race body in the fourth round on the fourth chain, of a vibration that contacts the human eye. What then will [223] colour be as visioned by a man of the seventh round in a seventh root-race body? Even then a whole range of colours of wondrous beauty will be outside and beyond his comprehension. The reason being that only two great aspects of logoic life are being thoroughly demonstrated and the third will be but partially revealed, waiting for the still greater “Day be with us” to flash forth in perfect radiance. This word “radiance” has an occult meaning worthy of your consideration.