Seven Ray Types employed as Distinctive Methods in Service.
As time goes on this will be proved decidedly, and each ray worker and server will be found to render his service along peculiar and specific lines. These indicate for him the line of least resistance and, consequently, of the greatest efficiency. These methods and techniques will constitute the inner structure of the coming Science of Service, and they will be discovered through the admission of the Ray hypothesis and an observation of the methods employed by these clearly isolated Ray types and groups. These differing ways of service, all of them, work in conformity with the Plan, and together produce a synthetic whole. The ray or rays in manifestation at any one time will determine the general trend of the world service, and those servers whose egoic ray is in incarnation, and who are endeavoring to work with right activity, will find their work facilitated if they understand that the trend of affairs is with them and that they are following the line of least resistance at that period. They will work with greater facility than will the disciples and aspirants whose egoic ray is out of manifestation. This recognition will lead to a careful study of times and seasons, thus there will be no waste effort, and real advantage can be taken of the qualifications and aptitudes of the servers available. All will be in conformity with the Plan. A consideration of the rays in or out of manifestation, and a recognition of the disciples and servers available on the physical plane at any one time, is part of the work of the Masters in the Hierarchy.
The emergence of the New Group of World Servers today is an indication that there are enough egoic ray types in physical manifestation, and that a sufficient number of personalities are responding to soul contact, so that a group can be formed that can be definitely impressed as a group. This is the first time that such a situation has been possible. Up till this century, individuals could be impressed, here and there, in different parts of the world, and at widely separated times and periods. But today a group can respond and their numbers are relatively so great that there can be formed upon the planet a group composed of a number of persons of such radiatory activity that their auras can meet and contact each other. Thus one group – subjective and objective – can be functioning.
There are today enough centers of light, scattered all over the world, and enough disciples and aspirants, that the little beams or threads of light (speaking symbolically) which radiate from each of them, can meet and interlace, and form a network of light in the world. This constitutes the magnetic aura of the New Group of World Servers. Each individual in the group is sensitive to the Plan, either through his own personal knowledge through contact with his soul, or because his intuition tells him that what the Group, which attracts him, accepts as its immediate work is for him true and right, and with it all that is highest and best in him can cooperate. Each individual in that Group will work in his own particular surroundings according to his ray and type. That again will be colored by his race and nation. But the work is the better carried forward as the units in the Group meet the need in their own peculiar environment, in the manner that is, for them, the simplest and best way, belonging as they do by habit and training in that particular setting. This should be remembered.
The seven ray types will work in the following ways, which I am stating very briefly for to do more than that might limit the expression of those who do not know enough to be discriminating as to their characteristics, and might unduly qualify and color the experience of those servers who recognize (as some already do) their ray. They might, with entirely good intention, seek to force the ray qualities of their souls into dominance before the personality ray is adequately known or controlled. Other servers frequently confuse the two rays and deem their soul ray to be of a particular type, whereas it is only their personality ray to which they predominantly conform, and by which they are pre-eminently governed. Is it not possible for us to observe here the care with which the Teachers of these truths and the custodians of the coming revelation, must proceed? They have to guard the aspirants from premature knowledge, which they might theoretically grasp but which they are not yet ready practically to apply.
Ray I
Servers on this ray, if they are trained disciples, work through what might be called the imposition of the Will of God upon the minds of men. This they do through the powerful impact of ideas upon the minds of men, and the emphasis of the governing principles which must be assimilated by humanity. These ideas, when grasped by the aspirant bring about two developments. First, they initiate a period of destruction and of a breaking up of that which is old and hindering, and this is later followed by the clear shining forth of the new idea and its subsequent grasping by the minds of intelligent humanity. These ideas embody great principles, and constitute the New Age ideas. These servers, therefore, work as God’s destroying angels, destroying the old forms, but nevertheless, behind it all lies the impetus of love.
With the average aspirant, however, who is on the first ray, the activity is not so intelligent. He grasps the idea that is needed by the race, but he will seek to impose it primarily as his idea, something which he has seen and grasped and which impatiently he seeks to impose upon his fellow men for their good, as he sees it. He inevitably destroys as fast as he builds, and finally destroys himself. Many worthy aspirants and disciples in training for service at this time work in this sad way.
Some of the Masters of the Wisdom and Their groups of disciples are actively engaged at this time in an endeavor to impose certain basic and needed ideas upon the races of men, and much of Their work is being prepared for by a group of Destroying Disciples, and also by a group of Enunciating Disciples, for these two types of work carry forward their task as a unit. The idea to be dominant in the future is proclaimed in writing and by the voice, by one Group. The Group of Destroyers takes it up, and proceed to break up the old forms of truth so as to make room and way for the new emerging idea.
Ray II
Servers on this ray ponder, meditate upon and assimilate the new ideas associated with the Plan, and by the power of their attractive love, they gather together those who are at that point in their evolution where they can respond to the measure and rhythm of that Plan. They can select, and train those who can “carry” the idea deeper into the mass of humanity. We should not forget that the work of the Hierarchy at this time, and the task of the New Group of World Servers is primarily associated with ideas. The disciples and servers on the second Ray are “busy building habitations for those dynamic entities whose function it has ever been to charge the thoughts of men and so to usher in that new and better age which will permit the fostering of the souls of men.” So runs the Old Commentary, if I thus modernize its ancient wording. By magnetic, attractive, sympathetic understanding, and the wise use of slow action, based on love, do the servers on this ray work. Today their power is becoming dominant.
Ray III
The servers on this ray have a special function at this time in stimulating the intellect of humanity, sharpening it and inspiring it. They work, manipulating ideas so as to make them more easy of comprehension by the mass of intelligent men and women who are to be found in the world at this time and whose intuition is not yet awakened. It is to be noted how the work of the true servers is largely with the new ideas and not with the business of organization and of criticism (for these two go hand in hand). Ideas are taken by the third ray aspirant, as they emerge from the elevated consciousness of Those for whom the first ray works and are rendered attractive by the second ray worker (attractive in the esoteric sense) and adapted to the immediate need and rendered vocal by the force of the intellectual third ray types. In this lies a hint for many of the third ray personalities to be found working in various fields of service at this time.
Ray IV
This ray is not in incarnation at the time and therefore few fourth ray egos are available in world service. There are, however, many fourth ray personalities and they can learn much by the study of the work of the New Group of World Servers. The major task of the fourth ray aspirant is to harmonize the new ideas with the old, so that there can be no dangerous gap or break. They are those who bring about a “righteous compromise”, and adapt the new and the old so that the true pattern is preserved. They are engaged with the bridging process, for they are the true intuitives and have a capacity for the art of synthesis so that their work most definitely can help in bringing forward a true presentation of the divine picture.
Ray V
The servers on this ray are coming rapidly into prominence. They are those who investigate the form in order to find its hidden idea, its motivating power, and to this end they work with ideas, proving them either true or false. They gather into their ranks those whose personalities are on this ray and train them in the art of scientific investigation. From the sensed spiritual ideas, lying behind the form side of manifestation, from the many discoveries in the ways of God with man and nature, from the inventions (which are but materialized ideas) and from the witness to the Plan which law portrays, they are preparing that new world in which men will work and live a more deeply conscious, spiritual life. Disciples working along these lines in every country today are more active than at any other time in human history. They are, knowingly and unknowingly, leading men into the world of meaning, and their discoveries will eventually end the present era of unemployment, and their inventions and improvements, added to the steadily growing idea of group interdependence (which is the major message of the New Group of World Servers) will eventually ameliorate human conditions so that an era of peace and leisure can supervene. You will note that I do not say “will supervene”, for not even the Christ Himself can predict exactly the time limit within which changes can eventuate, nor the reaction of humanity to any given point of revelation.
Ray VI
The effect of the activity of this ray, during the past two thousand years, has been to train humanity in the art of recognizing ideals, which are the blue prints of ideas. The main work of the disciples on this ray is to capitalize on the developed tendency of humanity to recognize ideas, and – avoiding the rocks of fanaticism, and the dangerous shoals of superficial desire – train the world thinkers so ardently to desire the good, the true and the beautiful, that the idea which should materialize in some form on earth can shift from the plane of the mind and clothe itself in some form on earth. These disciples and servers work consciously with the desire element in man; they work scientifically with its correct evocation. Their technique is scientific because it is based upon a right understanding of the human material with which they have to work.
Some people have to be galvanized into activity by an idea. With these the first ray disciple can be effective. Others can be reached more easily by an ideal, and will then subordinate their personal lives and wishes to that ideal. With these the sixth ray disciple works with facility, and this he should endeavor to do, teaching men to recognize the truth, holding steadily before them the ideal, restraining them from a too energetic and fanatical display of interest, in the need for the long pull. The sixth ray, it should be remembered, when it constitutes the personality ray of a man or a group, can be far more destructive than the first ray, for there is not so much wisdom to be found, and, as it works through desire of some kind, it is following the line of least resistance for the masses, and can therefore the more easily produce physical plane effects. Sixth ray people need handling with care, for they are too one-pointed and too full of personal desire, and the tide of evolution has been with this type for a very long time. But the sixth ray method of evoking desire for the materializing of an ideal is indispensable, and, fortunately, there are many aspirants and disciples on this ray available today.
Ray VII
This ray provides at this time an active and necessary grouping of disciples who are eager to aid the Plan. Their work lies naturally on the physical plane. They can organize the evoked ideal which will embody as much of the idea of God as the period and humanity can evidence and produce in form upon the earth. Their work is potent and necessary and calls for much skill in action. This is the ray that is coming into power. None of these ray participants in the hierarchical crusade today can really work without each other, and no group can carry on alone. The difference between the methods of the old age and that of the new can be seen expressed in the idea of leadership by one and leadership by a group. It is the difference between the imposition of an individual’s response to an idea upon his fellow men and the reaction of a group to an idea, producing group idealism and focalizing it into definite form, carrying forward the emergence of the idea without the dominance of any one individual. This is the major task today of the seventh ray disciple, and to this end he must bend every energy. He must speak those Words of Power which are a group word, and embody the group aspiration in an organized movement, which, it will be noted is quite distinct from an organization. A striking instance of the use of such a Word of Power being enunciated by a group has lately been given in the Great Invocation which has been used with marked effect. It should continue to be used, for it is the inaugurating mantram of the incoming seventh ray. This is the first time such a mantram has been brought to the attention of humanity.
All these rays work today for the carrying out of a specific group idea of seven Masters Who, through Their picked and chosen servers, are actively participating in the work which is the initiatory work of the seventh ray. It is also linked up with the incoming Aquarian influence. The Masters, with their large group of disciples, functioning on all the five planes of human unfoldment, have studied minutely Their accepted disciples, the disciples under supervision and not yet accepted, and the aspirants of the world. They have selected a number of them to weld together into a group upon the outer physical plane. The basis of this selection is:
- Sensitivity to the Aquarian influence.
- Willingness to work in a group as an integral part of the group, and having no idea of personal ambition or any wish to be a leader. Where the desire to be a leader exists, that disciple is automatically (though only temporarily) disqualified for this particular endeavor. He can still do good work, but it will be secondary work, and more closely affiliated with the old age than with the work of the New Group of World Servers.
- A dedication that holds nothing back that can rightly be given.
- A harmlessness which, though not yet perfected, exists as an ideal towards which the aspirant is constantly striving.
In this work many can have a part. The Law of Service has been thus outlined in an endeavor to make one of the most esoteric influences in the solar system somewhat clearer in our minds. I call you to service, but would remind you that the service discussed here will only be possible when we have a clearer vision of the goal of meditation, and learn to preserve, during the day, the attitude of inner spiritual orientation. As we learn to obliterate and efface out of our consciousness ourselves as the central figure in our life drama, then and then only can we measure up to our real potentialities as servers of the Plan.
