Initiation in the Aquarian Age
[Part 1 of 2 here]
We will now consider the trend of the times and seasons as far as the rays are concerned:
- • RAY I – This ray is still out of physical manifestation but is beginning to have a definite effect upon the mental plane; there it influences the minds of disciples everywhere and lays the stage for the appearance of a certain group of disciples from Shamballa. Two thousand years from today, the influence of this ray will be felt powerfully upon the physical plane. One hundred years hence its potency will be noted upon the astral plane.
- • RAY II – This ray is always in subjective manifestation and very potent because it is the ray of our solar system and particularly so at this time as the Hierarchy is approaching closer to humanity in preparation for the “crisis of love,” and an imminent major planetary initiation. At this time, however, the second ray is becoming objective in its influence upon the physical plane. It will become increasingly so for the next two thousand two hundred years when it will gradually withdraw into the background.
- • RAY III – This ray will remain in objective incarnation from the point of view of humanity for a very long time – so long a time that it is needless for us to anticipate its waning influence. That planetary center which is Humanity itself still needs the intensified application of these forces so as to stimulate even the “lowest of the sons of men.”
- • RAY IV – This ray, as you know, begins to come into incarnation early in the next century and – in collaboration with the developing Saturnian influence – will lead many on to the path of discipleship. When the peculiar energy to which we give the somewhat unsatisfactory name of “harmony through conflict” and the forces of that planet which stage opportunity for the aspirant are working in combination and an ordained synthesis, we can then look for a very rapid adjustment in human affairs, particularly in connection with the Path. This fourth ray is, in the last analysis, the ray which teaches the art of living in order to produce a synthesis of beauty. There is no beauty without unity, without embodied idealism and the resultant symmetrical unfoldment. This ray is not the ray of art, as it is often claimed, but is the energy which brings about the beauty of those living forms which embody the ideas and the ideals which are seeking immediate expression. Many people claim to be on the fourth ray because they dream of the artistic expressive life. As I have told you before, creative art expresses itself upon all the rays.
- • RAY V – This ray has been in manifestation for nearly seventy years. It will pass out (by special and unique arrangement) in another fifty years, thus breaking into its own normal cycle, because it is deemed that the needed special impulse has been adequate and that the impetus given to the human “spirit of discovery” has served its purpose. Any further intensification of the mental processes just now (except through the general pervasive effect of the third ray) might prove disastrous. The ray cycles are usually set and determined, but, in collaboration with each other and because of the imminent spiritual Crisis of Approach, the Lord of the Fifth Ray and the Lord of the World have decided temporarily to withdraw this type of force. It will take about fifty years to do this.
- • RAY VI – This ray has been passing out of manifestation for quite some time now, as you know, and will do so with increasing rapidity.
- • RAY VII – This ray is coming into effective expression now; there is little need for me to add here anything further to the mass of information which I have given you in this treatise and in my other books.
One small point of interest but one of no especial moment to you is that the Lords of the Rays, through Their planetary Representatives, constitute a body of directing Forces in collaboration with the Lord of the World at Shamballa. Their capacity is advisory and directive but not authoritative. This may be regarded by some of you as the most interesting piece of information in this book. If this is your attitude, then it only indicates your unpreparedness for true esoteric teaching. Students need a greater sense of the real governing values and a sense of spiritual proportion. Planetary facts and solar facts (under which heading the above item of information might well be placed) can stimulate your imagination and widen your horizon; for aspirants and disciples, that is the major value. All information and happenings which are connected with Shamballa are always exciting to the neophyte who is apt to forget that he must make his contact with the more familiar Hierarchy before true and related perception is his.
I would have you study the tabulation which I gave you in Initiation, Human and Solar, and which you will find in the appendix to the first volume of A Treatise on the Seven Rays. I insert it here for the benefit of those who have no copy of the first volume of the Treatise, and whose attention should be turned again from the magnitude of the Macrocosm to the responsibility of the microcosm.
| Discipleship and the Rays | |||||
| Ray I | Force | Energy | Action | The Occultist. | |
| Ray II | Consciousness | Expansion | Initiation | The true Psychic. | |
| Ray III | Adaptation | Development | Evolution | The Magician. | |
| Ray IV | Vibration | Response | Expression | The Artist. | |
| Ray V | Mentation | Knowledge | Science | The Scientist. | |
| Ray VI | Devotion | Abstraction | Idealism | The Devotee. | |
| Ray VII | Incantation | Magic | Ritual | The Ritualist. | |
In the Aquarian Age, as a result of the existing combination of ray influences, humanity enters into an expansion of consciousness which will reveal to him group relations instead of his individual and self-centered personal relations. I would remind you that Aquarius is to be found in the upper half of the zodiacal circle and is exactly opposite to Leo which is found in the lower half. Leo is the sign of individual unfoldment and of the self as self-assertive. This highly individualized sign consummates in Aquarius wherein the individual finds full expression through the medium of the group, passing from service to himself and expression of himself as a personality to service of the group and a growing expression of the Hierarchy to which he steadily draws closer. To this end, the ray influences will increasingly and steadily be directed. Humanity has reached a stage where the sense of individuality is rapidly emerging. In every field of human expression, men and women are becoming definitely self-assertive. The Old Commentary refers symbolically to this in the following words:
“The Lion begins to roar. He rushes forth and, in his urge to live, he wields destruction. And then again he roars and – rushing to the stream of life – drinks deep. Then, having drunk, the magic of the waters works. He stands transformed. The Lion disappears and he who bears the water pot stands forth and starts upon his mission.”
Those with vision can see this happening upon every side today. The water-carrier (another name for the world server) is starting upon his self-appointed task. Hence the anchoring upon earth of the New Group of World Servers, whose representatives are found in every land and in every great city. This, I would remind you, has taken place without exception in every land and they work on all the different rays; they express many points of view; their field of service is widely differing and their techniques so diverse that in some cases comprehension is not easy to the smaller minded person. But, they all carry the pitcher containing the water of life upon their shoulder, reverting to the language of symbolism, and they all emit the light in some degree throughout their environment.To you, who live and work in this interim period and in this cycle of transition, with all its resultant outer chaos and upheaval, is given the task of expressing steadfastness, service and sacrifice. Those are the three words which I give you. I have no spectacular information to give you, as has sometimes been the case. Too much of this engrossing and novel information can lead to deep-seated insensitiveness. You need to absorb and to act upon the information you already have, before there is evoked from you that basic demand for further light which necessitates response from those of us who work within the limits of the Hierarchy. For that demand, we patiently wait.
