The Destiny of the Nations

by Alice A Bailey

  The seventh ray disciple works consciously by means of certain laws, which are the laws governing form and its relation to spirit or life. In A Treatise On Cosmic Fire, I gave you the three major laws of the solar system and the seven subsidiary laws through which these three express themselves; I gave you also indications as to the laws which govern group work. You must remember that disciples upon different rays will wield these laws according to the quality of their ray impulses (I am handicapped here for words which are appropriate), interpreting them in terms of their specific life obligation or dharma and producing the desired results through the medium of differing ray techniques, conforming always, however, to the inevitability of the results wrought by the energies which they have released to play upon forces under the laws of their being. The sixth ray disciple, working with the laws of nature and of the soul, will qualify his results and produce his creative forms upon the astral plane; he has consequently to learn frequently to work through a seventh ray personality for several lives (either before or after achieving discipleship) before he will be able to bring through on to the physical plane his dream and his vision. The seventh ray disciple has no such problem. By his knowledge of ritual (which is the ancient codified means whereby the attractive and expressive nature of the energies to be employed are organised and related), by his understanding of the “Words of Power” (which he discovers by experiment) and by using the potency of sound, the disciple of the future will work and build the new world with its culture and civilisation. A curious [131] indication of the effect of the seventh ray magical work upon the mass consciousness is the growing use of slogans and of “catch phrases” (is that not the term used?) which are employed to bring about results and to sweep human beings into certain forms of mass action. This is the embryonic use of the Words of Power, and from a study of their tonal values, their numerological indications and their inherent potency, men will eventually arrive at vast magical achievements and creations, producing group activity and the appearance of certain forms of expression upon the outer plane. After all, scientific formulas have reduced the most intricate and abstruse discoveries to a few signs and symbols. The next step is to embody these signs and symbols into a word or words, thus imparting to them what is esoterically called “the power of embodiment.” If I might express it this way, the ancient statement that “God spoke and the world were made” simply means that God’s formula for creation was reduced to a great Word which He sounded forth and the inevitable results followed. Something of this process on a tiny human scale will be seen happening in the coming age. At present, what I have said above may sound fanciful and fantastic to the average student.

  It will be obvious to you that seventh ray disciples wield much power and for this reason the emphasis in all teaching given is laid upon purity of motive. In the past, the emphasis has been laid upon purity of body in the case of the sixth ray disciples. As was inevitable, they have carried the idea to a fanatical extent, and have stressed celibacy, asceticism and stringent rules of physical life, oft making sinful that which is natural. This has been a necessary stage in their development for it was essential that the physical plane should become a greater factor in their consciousness and that their attention should be turned from the realm of [132] abstraction (which is their line of least resistance) and focussed upon physical living, for, again, energy follows thought. Thus their attitude to life could become more practical and the necessary integration take place. Disciples in the new age will lay the emphasis upon the mental principle, because it conditions thought and speech. All magical work is based upon the energy of thought and of the spoken word (the expression of the two magical centres referred to above) and purity in the realm of the mind and motive is regarded consequently as a basic essential.

  The seventh ray influence is that which will produce in a peculiar and unexpected sense the Western School of Occultism just as the sixth ray impulse has produced the Eastern School of Occultism — the latter bringing the light down on to the astral plane and the new incoming influence carrying it down on to the physical. The Eastern teaching affected Christianity and indicated and determined the lines of its development and Christianity is definitely a bridging religion. The roles will eventually be reversed and the shift of the “light in the East” will be over Europe and America. This will inevitably bring about the needed and desired synthesis of the mystical way and the occult path. It will lead later to the formulation of the higher way; of this it is useless to speak at this time for you would not comprehend. None of the foundational and ancient Rules of the Road will ever be abrogated or discarded. Just as men used to travel on the ancient highways on foot, conforming to the requirement of their time and age, and today travel by rail or automobile (arriving at the same destination) so the same road will be followed, the same goal achieved but there may be different procedures, varying safeguards and changed protective measure. The rules may vary from time to time in order to provide easier indication [133] and adequate protection. The training of the disciple in the future will differ in detail from that of the past but the basic rules remain authoritative.

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

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

  The divine principle with which the seventh ray humanity will be mainly concerned is that of life as it expresses itself through the medium of the etheric body. It is for this reason that we find a growing interest in the nature of vitality; the function of the glands is being studied and before long their major function as vitality generators will be noted. Esoterically, they are regarded as externalisations upon the physical plane of force centres in the etheric body and their aliveness or their lack of activity are indicative of the [134] condition of those centres. The shift of the world interest is also into the realm of economics which is definitely the realm of life sustenance. Much is, therefore, bound to happen in all these spheres of interest, and once the etheric body becomes an established scientific fact and the centres — major and minor — are recognised as the foci of all energy as it expresses itself through the human body upon the physical plane, we shall see a great revolution take place in medicine, in diet and in the handling of daily life activity. This will produce great changes in the mode of work and labour and above everything else in the leisure activities of the race.

  This thought brings to our attention the three methods of activity as employed by all the ray workers and which differ for each ray. Those which will eventually control the seventh ray types will gradually bring about changed attitudes to life and very different methods of daily living. These three are:

  1. Group activity for the scientific relation of substance and energy.

  2. The stimulation of etheric forms through rightly directed force.

  3. The correct distribution, through scientific study, of vital energy.

  We are entering a scientific age, but it will be a science which passes out of the impasse which it has now reached and which — having penetrated as it has into the realm of the intangible — will begin
to work far more subjectively than heretofore. It will recognise the existence of senses which are super-sensory and which are extensions of the five physical senses, and this will be forced upon science because of the multitude of reliable people who will possess them and who [135] can work and live in the worlds of the tangible and the intangible simultaneously. The mass of reputable testimony will be incontrovertible. The moment that the subjective world of causes is proven to exist (and this will come through the indisputable evidence of man‘s extended senses) science will enter a new era; its focus of attention will change; the possibilities of discovery will be immense and materialism (as that word is now understood) will vanish. Even the word “materialism” will become obsolete and men in the future will be amused at the limited vision of our modern world and wonder why we thought and felt as we did.

  I would have you bear in mind in connection with the five rays which we have seen are influencing or beginning to influence humanity at this time (the first, second, third, sixth and seventh rays) that their effect varies according to the ray type or ray quality of the individual concerned and according to his position upon the ladder of evolution. Such points are often forgotten. If a man is, for instance, upon the second Ray of Love-Wisdom, it may be expected that the influence of that ray and of the sixth (which is along the second ray line of power) will be easily effective and will necessarily constitute the line of least resistance. This situation may, therefore, produce undue sensitivity and an unbalanced unfoldment of characteristics. It is our characteristics which influence our conduct and our reactions to circumstance. It will mean also that the influence of the first, third and seventh rays will be fundamentally unsettling and will call out resistance or — at the very least — an attitude of non-receptivity. In the world today, the rays which are along the line of energy which is that of the first Ray of Will or Power (including the third and the seventh) are in the ratio of three to two (as regards present manifestation) and, [136] therefore, we can look for a fuller expression of the first ray attributes and happenings than would otherwise be the case. This will be particularly so because the sixth ray is fast going out of manifestation. All the above constitutes a piece of information which is of small value at this time. Its implications will become increasingly apparent as time goes on and I am, therefore, including them in my teaching.

  INITIATION IN THE AQUARIAN AGE

  I have hinted at the orientation which has been or will be carried out in connection with the three major world centres; I have also hinted at the relation of certain of the major initiations to these centres. These hints constitute a new line of thought. In this connection there are one or two points which I would like to develop in connection with this, so as to make the entire subject considerably clearer than it is at present. I would like also to relate these centres to the rays which are now in manifestation (either coming in, passing out or in full expression). Speaking with brevity, we could say that:

  The first initiation is closely related to the planetary centre which is humanity itself. It will produce, when over, an increased stimulation of the intellect as it expresses itself as ordered activity upon the physical plane. It is also closely connected with the Third Ray of Active Intelligence. This third ray has been in objective manifestation since 1425 A.D. and will remain in incarnation throughout the Aquarian Age. Its cycles are the longest of any of the ray cycles. However, within these major cycles there are periods of intensified activity which are like the beat or pulsation of the heart and these periods last approximately three thousand years. They are, when out of incarnation, called [137] “cycles of withdrawal but not of abstraction.” They are three thousand years also in incarnation. One of these three thousand year periods of expression is now here and we can look for much development of the intellectual faculty and a marked increase of creative work during this time. This particular cycle of expression marks a climaxing point in the larger cycle. During the coming age, the intelligence of the race and its active development will assume real proportions and this with much speed.

  The intensification of the life of the human centre will proceed apace and this is the reason why so many people (as I have earlier hinted) will take the first initiation. Students are apt to forget that the first initiation can be described, in reality as:

  a. The grounding or externalisation of the Christ principle in humanity as a whole and upon the physical plane.

  b. The flowering of the intelligence so that the initiate can work powerfully upon the mental plane and humanity itself be lifted up and aided throughout every part thereby.

  c. The coming into activity of the throat centre and (because the third ray is closely connected with the first ray) the first faint orientation of spiritual man towards Shamballa can take place, becoming more and more intensified and pronounced at the time of the third initiation. I would like here to point out the numerical correspondences:

  1. The third great world centre — humanity.

  2. The activity of the third ray — active intellect.

  3. The third initiation which marks the consummation of the 1st, just as the 4th initiation marks the consummation of the second, and the fifth of the third. [138]

  4. The third major centre — the throat centre.

  5. The third race — the Aryan, as it expresses the first strictly human race, the Lemurian.

  6. The third plane — the physical, the reflection of the third highest plane, the atmic.

  7. The third periodical vehicle — the personality.

  8. The third divine aspect — intelligence.

  9. The third grade of divine messenger — Hercules.

  10. The sustaining Life, the third or outer Sun — the physical sun.

  These are a few of the correspondences which it is helpful for us to bear in mind in so far as they reveal divine quality, spiritual intent and universal objectives.

  During the Aquarian age and during one third of its expression, that is, during the first decanate, esoterically considered, the vitalising of the human centre (spiritually considered) and in relation to the Plan and the steady growth of widespread creative activity, both in the individual and the race, will be increasingly seen. This will be due to the work and influence of Saturn, which is governed by the third ray. This planet is the planet of opportunity, of discipleship and of testing and the race can look for an increasing expression of Saturnian activity as that great divine Life continues His beneficent task.

  The second initiation is closely related to the Hierarchy as a planetary centre and to the activity of the second ray. This initiation will produce in the initiate a growing sense of relationships, of a basic unity with all that breathes, and a recognition of the One Life which will lead eventually to that state of expressed brotherhood which it is the goal of the Aquarian Age to bring into being. This major centre, the Hierarchy, brings to bear upon humanity the focussed [139] life of love and it is this basic love which the second decanate of Aquarius — governed as it is by Mercury — will bring into manifestation. Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods (that is, of the Hierarchy of souls), carries always the message of love and sets up an unbreakable inter-relation between the two great planetary centres, that of the Hierarchy and that of Humanity.

  You have again in this connection certain fundamental numerical correspondences, which are based upon the coming into activity of an awakened heart centre in the race. This is the second major centre in the individual and is situated above the diaphragm, and through it the Hierarchy can reach the whole of humanity and the subhuman kingdoms likewise.

  1. The second planetary centre — the Hierarchy.

  2. The activity of the second ray — love-wisdom.

  3. The second initiation, which relates the solar plexus to the heart, humanity to the Hierarchy and the personality and the egoic rays to the second, which is ever basically in manifestation.

  4. The second ray centre — the heart centre.

  5. The second race (the Atlantean) as it climaxes i
n the fourth, the next race.

  6. The second plane — the astral plane. This is the reflection of the second highest plane.

  7. The second periodical vehicle — the soul.

  8. The second divine aspect — love-wisdom.

  9. The second type or grade of Messenger — Christ. Buddha.

  10. The sustaining Life, the second or subjective Sun — heart of sun. [140]

  To all these is related the sixth ray as allied to or subsidiary to the second.

  In this world cycle it might be said that the emphasis of all spiritual power is placed in the Hierarchy which is, at present, the divine intermediary, interpreting the will of God, which is the purpose of Shamballa. It transmits or steps down the divine energy so that safe application to Humanity becomes possible. It will be apparent, therefore, why in the second decanate of Aquarius the Hierarchy can, as the representative of Shamballa and with the aid of Mercury, bring into physical manifestation the coming Avatar. This becomes possible when the work of the first decanate is accomplished and when Shamballa has released and definitely re-oriented the energies of the third great centre, that of Humanity. This release and readjustment leads to creative expression and renewed spiritual life. Planetary alignment can take place and this is a planned objective for which the Hierarchy is preparing and for which the Avatar Himself is preparing at Shamballa.